The U.S. is looking to West African countries to counter regional terrorist threats after American forces were told to leave Niger and Chad, the commander of U.S. military forces in Africa said.
“We’re in talks with Cote d’Ivoire and in talks with Ghana and Benin as well as we start to reset and recalibrate some of our assets,” the commander of U.S. Africa Command, Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, said at a press conference Thursday, adding that diplomatic consultations are underway “to decide what level of capacity — what do they need to be able to successfully counter terrorism.”
In August, the U.S. completed its full withdrawal of forces from two bases in Niger. In April, the U.S. withdrew a majority of its forces from Chad.
Now, the U.S. is assessing security cooperation with countries across the Sahel “whether we’re talking about the new alliance or coalition of the Alliance of Sahelian States of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali,” Langley said. As those talks continue, the State Department “will dictate what depth and breadth” of what the relationship with new African partners will be, he added.
The U.S. military’s exit from Niger and Chad was prompted by calls from the nations’ military junta leaders. Experts have emphasized that the move was the result of growing anti-Western sentiment. On Thursday, Langley described the U.S. military’s Africa strategy as African “partner led” and “U.S. enabled.”
As part of discussions over where to reposition U.S. forces and military assets, Langley said the considerations are focused on the ability to respond to crises — whether it be providing humanitarian assistance, like the floods in Libya or responding to conflict, like pulling American citizens out of Sudan when the civil war erupted.
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“I don’t define things as far as bases,” he said. “There are some contingency locations that we do have across the continent to respond to crisis.”
Over the last few months, Langley has gone on a listening tour of West Africa to hear about the threats posed by terrorist groups such as JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) and ISIS-West Africa, ISIS-Sahel, AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), in countries across the Sahel region like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The U.S. is also “contributing” to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s efforts along with Kenya to combat al-Shabaab in East Africa.
Regional terrorist groups in the Sahel are now “metastasizing and moving towards the northern borders of the coastal West Africa states of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin,” Langley said. “I went on a campaign of learning and a listening tour to see how we can partner with them to address these shared challenges, because all these constructs, all these violent extremist organizations do have aspirations of attacking the United States homeland as well.”
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