US Africa Command Retreats To Coastal West Africa To ‘Double Down’ On Counter-Terrorism – OpEd

According to Marine General Michael Langley, Commander of the US Africa Command (US Africom), appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on 21 March 2024, in the Sahel and west Africa, “our operational approach would be to deter threats holistically and the greatest state is being able to protect a homeland.  All those violent extremist organizations, whether we’re talking about ISIS Sahel, ISIS West Africa, JNN, or any other faction, Boko Harum is still alive as well.”  

Referring to the recent expulsion of US troops from Niger, where the US constructed a $110 million drone base, he stated “we need to be able to do indications and warnings.  We need to be able to monitor and respond.  And that’s where we need you know long-endurance ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance], so the impacts would be great if we lose our posture.”  When asked about alternative sites for drone operations, Langley responded, “Congressman, we’re exploring that now and I’ll talk more in the closed session about it, because it’s in the diplomatic realm right now.”

The United States could continue ISR operations in the Sahel, using far more expensive drones with the fuel capacity to travel hundreds of miles and “loiter” over the Sahel, but the Pentagon knows that would be a waste of money, resources, and time.  The whole point of the US drone operation at the Nigerian base at Adadez was to provide intelligence to local African military forces and French troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.  But these African military forces have staged military coups and are no longer eligible for US security assistance; they have expelled French troops; they have closed down the US drone operation in Niger; and they have hired the Russian mercenaries of Africa Corps, formerly the Wagner Group.  So, to whom would the US give the intelligence?

Instead, the US Africa Command is retreating to coastal west Africa.  On 4 January 2024, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Washington is now “seeking to base military drones along the West African coast” and “is holding preliminary talks to allow American unarmed reconnaissance drones to use airfields in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin.”  According to the report, retired US Air Force Major General Mark Hicks, a former commander of US Special Operations forces in Africa, said that “the Niger coup has forced our hand,” and “there’s really not much option other than to fall back and operate out of the coastal West African states.”  

Moreover, said a senior US military official, “coastal West African countries that used to be insulated no longer are” and, according to the Wall Street Journal, “the effort to build up American forces in the coastal states suggests Washington believes Mali and Burkina Faso are so inundated with Islamist militants that they are beyond the reach of Western help, and that it fears Niger, which until a July coup was the staunchest American ally in the region, is now unreliable.”  So, according to US and African military officers, the US has proposed basing drones at the Ghanaian Air Force base at Tamale, the airfield at Parakou in Benin, and three airfields in Cote d’Ivoire.

“What we can do,” General Michael Langley, told the House Armed Services Committee on 21 March 2023, “is double down on what we’re doing whole of government in the military sense.”  In his annual appearance before the Senate and House Armed Services Committee hearing on the FY 2025 budget request for Africom and other military operations in Africa, General Langley emphasized the role of Africa in the global military competition with Russia and China, and described how he intends to respond to the growing challenge from “violent extremist organizations” (VEOs, the official US designation for Islamic armed groups) throughout the continent.

In a recent interview with the Voice of America, Major General Kenneth Ekman, who served as US Africom’s director of strategy, plans, and programs before focusing solely on west Africa, said that “what you’re talking about is that layer of forces, most of which came from Niger, that we reposition around the Sahel.  If our presence in Niger allowed us to go inside out, relative to the Sahelian based VEO (violent extremist organizations) threat, we now have to revert to going outside in.  Countries like Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ghana, Benini, Chad, our access to them and the degree to which they want to partner with us will influence how we go outside in.  We’re at a different phase with each of those countries.  What I mean is, each partner has their own unique security concerns.  They also have their own respective tolerance and willingness to abide the presence of U.S. forces.”

“So, in some cases, we moved some forces well prior to the Niger coup, because that’s where the threat was going. We were invited early on, and whether it was a small SOF (special operations forces) team or an ISR (intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance) platform, we moved them months ago. The larger question is, and it’s a policy question, where, and if we establish significant presence of forces, probably on a partner base, serving alongside them, doing everything from command and control to projecting things like ISR and personnel recovery, to sustaining them and to medically treating them. That is something where we’re not there yet, and no agreements have been made.”

“There are some cases where, for now, we’re definitely not (establishing a significant force presence). So that’s true in Nigeria. We have a very clear message from them.  Likewise in Ghana.  The ones where things are still kind of under consideration, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, those were, what we want to do is, within the partners’ needs, support their partner-led, U.S.-enabled counter VEO ops.”

So, what strategy will the next American administration pursue?   If Kamala Harris wins the election, she is almost certain to follow the current plan to regroup in coastal west Africa and expand counter-terrorism operations in the region.  Although President Donald Trump decided to pull 700 US troops from Somalia (mostly Special Operations forces engaged in training Somali troops) and to end US air strikes on al-Shabaab insurgents in that country, it should be remembered that he didn’t take these steps until 4 December 2020, after he was defeated for re-election by Joseph Biden.  During Trump’s term in office, he escalated US combat operations in Somalia and there is no reason to think that he won’t do the same thing in west Africa if he wins a second term in office.