US considers pulling troops from West Africa
AFP
December 24, 2019
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is looking into reducing or even withdrawing US troops from West Africa, part of a worldwide redeployment of military forces, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
There are between 6,000 and 7,000 US troops in Africa, mainly in West Africa but also in places like Somalia.
The US presence includes military trainers as well as a recently built $110 million drone base in Niger, the Times said.
A withdrawal would also end US support for French military efforts in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in their war along with local troops against Al-Qaeda and Islamic State group jihadists.
The Pentagon supports them by providing intelligence, logistical support and aerial refueling at an annual cost to the Pentagon of some $45 million a year, the Times said.
France has had a major military presence in Mali since 2013, when it launched an intervention against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists who had overrun the country's north.
France then launched a regional counter-terrorism operation and prodded five countries -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger -- to set up their own joint force.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is studying a global redeployment of US forces with a decreased emphasis on anti-terrorism operations and a stronger emphasis on confronting China and Russia, the newspaper said.
No decision on the matter was likely before January, it added.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment when contacted by AFP.
President Donald Trump has often promised to halt the US's "endless wars."
He has already ordered a significant reduction of US troops deployed in Syria, and is on track to do the same in Afghanistan.
Some 13,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan.
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Stuck In A Bloody Counter-Terror Quagmire, France Calls For Help In West Africa
By Alasdair Lane
Forbes
November 27, 2019
On Monday night, France’s counter-terror stalemate in the Sahel struck a new low. Manoeuvring to engage militants on the ground, an attack helicopter collided mid-air with a troop transport craft. Thirteen French personnel perished—the heaviest toll of a single incident in a generation. The tragedy is, for many, emblematic of France’s faltering West African mission, which, six years in, looks no closer to success.
When President François Hollande deployed troops to the Sahel in 2013, his intentions were two-fold: deliver France’s one-time colonial territories from extremism, while denying Islamists a fresh African foothold that could threaten Europe. Initially, everything went to plan. Pounded by French aircraft, fighters aligned with Islamic State and al-Qaeda were driven from their urban strongholds in northern Mali.
But victory was short lived. Having regrouped in the region’s sprawling rural hinterland, militants launched a bloody insurgent campaign—one that has grown ever fiercer in recent years. Unable to stem the surging civilian death toll, Paris’s military presence has become deeply unpopular among locals. French flags were once waved in welcome; now they are burned in protest.
Local security forces have borne the brunt of the bloodshed. Since September, at least 100 Malian troops have been killed. In a single attack last month, 53 lost their lives. French casualties are small in comparison, but no less significant: 41 are believed to have died since Operation Barkhane—the mission’s official designation—commenced.
Monday’s air accident marked a historic low for France's armed forces. Not since 1983, when 58 Beirut-based paratroopers perished in a bombing, has the nation suffered so costly a military catastrophe. Now more than ever, France's desperate isolation in the region is clear to see. The UN runs a peacekeeping mission adjacent to Barkhane—code-named MINUSMA—but Paris’s 4,500 strong force represents the single largest international commitment in West Africa.
It is not a sustainable situation, says President Emmanuel Macron. The conflict has degenerated into a complex counter-terror fight, compounded by rampant criminality, civil unrest, and the arrival of battle-hardened recruits from IS’s collapse in the Middle East. Policing such a vast, turbulent area is simply beyond one nation, experts believe.
“The rise in strength of the jihadists is a reality we can no longer deny,” wrote Bruno Clément-Bollée, a former defence coordinator at the French foreign ministry, in Le Monde recently. “We seem to have no idea how to get out of the quagmire.”
It is a sentiment shared by many European leaders, who were quick to issue their condolences on Monday. Warm words mean little to the French—muscular, material support is what they need. Brussels might claim this commitment has already been fulfilled: over €250 million in EU funding has been pledged to train Malian forces, with troops from 22 member states involved in the programme.
France also receives logistical support from the U.K., Spain, Estonia, and Denmark. But no other nation has spilled blood in the pursuit of a peace they all benefit from, say Paris lawmakers. Should security diminish further in the Sahel, Europe “will have two swords of Damocles over its head: terrorism and kidnappings, but also illegal immigrants since many are travelling through these regions,” warned France’s armed forces minister Florence Parly in June.
Her government—which spends some €690 million a year on Operation Barkhane—wants to see EU allies bolster France’s flagging counter-insurgency efforts with their own special forces. This is Europe’s destiny, Macron believes: concerted military action, plugging the gaps of Trumpian America’s international withdrawal.
But Monday’s disaster will have done little to strengthen his pitch—no government is keen on body bags. Besides, the Sahel’s chronic instability cannot be solved by brute force alone. The rule of law, functioning health and education systems, economic development: these are how you achieve real peace.
A fresh, multi-faceted approach is therefore needed. But that’s never an easy sell. Sadly, until the Sahel’s militant extremism crashes onto European streets, little is likely to change.
4 comments:
Trump is right to withdraw troops from these corrupt shithole countries. As is stands now, most operations can be done from the U.S. with drones. Most drone operations are handled out of Nellis AFB in Nevada. The countries mentioned are swimming in U.S. money. Let them take care of themselves or steal from other countries.
My first response is fuck the French and fuck West Africa. After due consideration, that is also my second response.
Bob, I know from your previous comments that you have a deep dislike, if not hatred, for the French. I think your personal prejudice has blinded you to the fact that the French have been a contributing member of the coalition fighting against our common Islamist enemies, and in Africa they have been doing it almost alone.
Very true Howie. However I don't hate them, I merely don't respect them. They are pissed at us because we had to save their ass in WW I, rescue their ass in WW II, and even with our help they couldn't hold on to their colonies in SE Asia. They were also very happy at one time to let Islamic terrorists move thru their country as long as they left them alone. They are a bunch of parochial asswipes who make shitty cars and overpriced mediocre food. Fuck, even DePardieux left and became a citizen of Russia because their tax structure is so fucked. 250 years ago they were hot shit. Right up until 1914 they thought they still were and then found out they weren't any more and they are pissed at us because they are not. Now they are scared because in 30 years their traditional native population will be overwhelmed by immigrants and first-generation citizens who do not think of themselves as French of as Muslims who happen to live in France. Maybe Notre Dame will be rebuilt just in time to be turned into the largest falafel stand on the planet. It would also be nice if they believed in using soap instead of perfume.
Other than these minor short-comings they are fine people who still build shitty cars.
And perhaps I should care about west Africa, but I don't. Except maybe Liberia. Maybe. I guess I am just not woke enough.
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