The revision of the Biden government comes at a time when rising waves of terrorism and violence are seizing the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, stretching from Senegal to Sudan, and threatening to spread. The Islamic State in Libya has been actively seeking new recruits traveling north from West African countries, including Senegal and Chad.
Armed groups attacked bridges, military convoys and government buildings. The threat pushes south of the Sahel into areas previously untouched by extremist violence, including Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and Ghana, where the Pentagon has a logistical center.
Security has deteriorated to the point where the Pentagon’s Africa command told the Department of Defense’s inspector general last year that he was abandoning a strategy to weaken Islamic militants at the moment, and rather the threat. try to limit.
“Security continues to decline in the Sahel as instability spreads and threatens coastal Africa,” Colin Kahl, the nominee for the Pentagon’s leading policy officer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in writing to questions before a trial. last week. “We can not ignore that ongoing conflict in Africa will continue to generate threats to US personnel, partners and the interests of violent extremist organizations.”
The Pentagon’s Africa Command operates MQ-9 Reaper drones from Niamey, Niger’s capital, 800 km southwest of Dirkou; and from a $ 110 million drone base in Agadez, Niger, 350 miles west of Dirkou. The military has carried out drone strikes against militants from Qaeda and the Islamic State in Libya, but since September 2019 none.
Some security analysts question why the United States needs both military and CIA drone operations in the same general area to combat insurgents in Libya and the Sahel. In addition, France, which has about 5,100 troops in the Sahel region, launched its own Reaper drone attacks from Niamey against insurgents in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
A recent report by the International Crisis Group concluded that the military first strategy of France and its allies, including the United States, had failed. The research and advocacy organization, which focuses on conflict zones, noted in its report that the focus on local peacekeeping efforts could achieve more.