THE US wants to reduce its military presence in Africa, Washington’s top military officer said, as France hosts Sahel leaders as it seeks to bolster the fight against jihadists in the region.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, Gen Mark Milley, said resources ‘could be reduced and then shifted, either to increase readiness of the force in the continental US or shifted to’ the Pacific.
As he flew in for talks with Nato counterparts in Brussels, Milley said defence secretary Mark Esper, had not made up his mind what changes to make.
‘We’re developing options for the secretary to consider, and we are developing those options in co-ordination with our allies and partners,’ he said.
The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s call last week for Nato to do more in the Middle East and comes just as French President Emmanuel Macron met his counterparts from Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.
Sahel partners
France and its five Sahel partners agreed on Monday to step up military co-operation to combat the jihadist insurgency, leaders said after a summit in Pau, southwest France.
The Sahel countries also said they hoped Washington would maintain its ‘crucial support’ in combating the Islamist extremists.
After 13 French soldiers were killed in a helicopter collision in Mali in December, Macron also won public support from the Sahel leaders for France’s 4,500-strong military presence, after local demonstrations against it.
Macron told reporters Monday evening that France would send another 220 soldiers to the Sahel.
He also said a US military withdrawal from West Africa would be a problem for France, but he was confident he could convince President Donald Trump that the fight against Islamist militants was vital.
The US wants to reduce the number of its troops deployed across Africa over the next few years to focus more on responding to the threats posed by Russia and China. Washington has about 7,000 special forces on rotation in Africa carrying out joint operations with national forces against jihadists, particularly in Somalia.
Another 2,000 soldiers are conducting training missions in some 40 African countries and taking part in co-operative operations, in particular with France’s Operation Barkhane in Mali, to which they provide mainly logistical assistance. One option would be to close a drone base in Agadez, northern Niger, which gives the US a major surveillance platform in the Sahel but has been estimated to cost nearly $100 million.
Milley said no decisions had been made yet and insisted Washington was not pulling out of Africa completely. ‘Economy of forces does not mean zero,’ h
e said.
French officials are nevertheless alarmed, with a presidency source saying the US has made ‘irreplaceable’ contributions to Sahel operations — particularly in surveillance and air-to-air refuelling.
‘We would not be able to get these from other partners, especially when it comes to intelligence,’ the presidency official said.
Nato military chief
s will use this week’s meeting to debate the future of the alliance’s training mission in Iraq, suspended over security fears after the US killed top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad.
The Iraqi parliament voted on January 5 to oust foreign forces, including some 5,200 American troops, who have helped local troops b
eat back the Islamic State group, angering Trump and throwing international operations there in doubt.
‘I can’t guarantee anything about the future and I don’t make the policy decisions,’ Milley said. ‘I can just say what our current policy is and what our current plans are. And my current guidance from the secretary of defence and the president is that we will stay in Iraq.’
