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The United States currently has no Senate-confirmed ambassador in 34 African countries, including Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Sudan, according to official records released by the US Department of State.
A document titled “Ambassadorial Assignments Overseas”, published April 8 by the Office of Presidential Appointments, lists 117 nations worldwide with vacant ambassador positions. Africa accounts for nearly one-third of those gaps.
No US envoy in key African nations
The vacant posts across Africa include Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Togo.
The document shows “Vacant” in the name column for each of these countries, with no confirmed appointee.
Confirmed envoys in only 11 African nations
By contrast, only 11 African countries currently have a confirmed US ambassador.
These include Burkina Faso, where Joann M. Lockard serves; Congo (Brazzaville), where David Perdue serves; Djibouti, where Nicholas Merrick serves; Equatorial Guinea, where David R. Gilmour serves; Ethiopia, where Ervin Jose Massinga serves; Madagascar, where David Perdue also serves as ambassador to both Congo and Madagascar; Mali, where Rachna Sachdeva Korhonen serves; Morocco, where Richard Buchan III serves; Namibia, where John Giordano serves; South Africa, where Leo Brent Bozell III serves; South Sudan, where Michael J. Adler serves; and Uganda, where William W. Popp serves.
The large number of vacancies follows diplomatic changes reported in December 2025, when President Donald Trump’s administration recalled nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and senior embassy positions worldwide.
According to a Guardian report citing the Associated Press, the move affected mission chiefs in at least 29 countries, including 15 in Africa.
