In addition, sporadic fighting has increased in Ghana’s north, which borders the more tumultuous nation of Burkina Faso and the Sahel, a region where local offshoots of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have been operating.

Akufo-Addo called terrorism a “poison” that was spreading across West Africa, making the region unstable.

“We’re spending a lot of sleepless nights trying to make sure we’re protected here,” he told the vice-president as the two gathered in a conference room at the palace, their delegations seated on opposite sides of a long table.

Akufo-Addo called for solidarity as countries like Ghana work to get their economies “back on track”. He also expressed concern that private American investors tend to overlook the nation.

“We want to be able to change that dynamic,” he said.

Harris will announce US$139 million in US assistance for Ghana, according to her office. Some of that money will require congressional approval, which could prove difficult amid sharp partisan differences over the federal budget. The Treasury Department also plans to dispatch an adviser to Accra to help manage the country’s burdensome debt.

Other programmes are intended to reduce child labour, improve weather forecasting, support local musicians and defend against disease outbreaks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently visited Niger, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso, to announce more assistance for the region.

“We’ve seen countries find themselves weaker, poorer, more insecure, less independent as a result of the association with Wagner,” he said.

Although China’s influence in Africa has been a leading concern for US foreign policy, Russia’s own attempts to make inroads has alarmed Washington as well. Some countries have long-standing ties dating back to the Soviet era.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, has made multiple trips to the continent in an effort to show that the West has failed to isolate Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

“The Russians are continuing to make the first move in Africa, and the US is continuing to play catch-up,” said Samuel Ramani, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defence and security think tank.

“It’s really unclear how Russia will really be able to expand its influence in the long term,” he added. “But in the short term, they’re creating goodwill for themselves.”

Mucahid Durmaz, a senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk intelligence company, said that Moscow’s overall investments in Africa “are very modest” compared with Washington’s but adds that it has been able to leverage anti-Western sentiment in some areas of the continent.

“The Ukraine war has boosted Africa’s importance in international politics and increased geopolitical jostling among global powers for the support of its governments and nations,” he said.

US officials have steered clear of framing their approach in terms of global rivalries, something that could swiftly sour Africans who are wary of being caught in the middle.

“They remain cautious about becoming collateral damage to geopolitical competition by repeating the same mistakes of the Cold War era,” Durmaz said.