President Trump’s top diplomat in Africa, Troy Fitrell, will retire from the State Department next month, and Jonathan Pratt, the Bureau of African Affairs deputy assistant secretary, will take his place.
“After a long and distinguished career, the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs Senior Bureau Official Ambassador Troy Fitrell is retiring in mid-July as planned,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill in an emailed statement on Thursday.
“The Bureau of African Affairs Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jonathan Pratt will step into the Senior Bureau Official role after Ambassador Fitrell’s departure,” the spokesperson added.
Fitrell, a foreign service official, previously worked as the United States ambassador to Guinea. He has served in various State Department posts across Africa, including serving as the director of the Office of Western African Affairs and Southern African Affairs. He was also the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassies in Ethiopia and Mauritius.
Fitrell has been the head of the State Department’s African bureau since the assistant secretary, a Senate-confirmed position, has not yet been chosen.
Fitrell, who has been a diplomat for more than three decades, previously said that the Trump administration is changing the U.S. approach to Africa from “one rooted primarily in development assistance to a strategy that prioritizes robust commercial engagement.”
The administration sees trade as a way to counter Chinese and Russian influence on the continent.
Semafor first reported on Fitrell’s forthcoming exit.
Pratt, who will succeed Fitrell, previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Djibouti from 2021 to 2023. He also had other assignments within the State Department, working in places such as Pakistan, Sudan and Angola.
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