United States seeks to re-establish ties with countries in Sahel region

By Rédaction Africanews with agencies

After years of sidelining the Sahel’s military rulers, the United States is moving to engage more with countries in the region.

Top military officials warned a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, that extremist groups had expanded their operational capacity.

“Today, the epicentre of global terrorism is in Africa. ISIS leadership is African. Al-Qaeda’s economic engine is in Africa. Both of these groups share the will and intent to strike our homeland,” said General Dagvin Anderson, Commander of the United States Africa Command.

Referring to militant advances in West Africa, including a recent attack near Mali’s capital, he said the “capture of a capital city would provide al-Qaeda with all the trappings of a nation-state to sponsor global terrorism”.

“In West Africa, al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM has demonstrated increased capacity to control key terrain in the Sahel, most notably by strangling fuel supplies around population centres.”

Anderson, who has led Africom since last year, also praised growing military cooperation between the US and Nigeria, a key Washington partner in the region.

Earlier this year, he announced expanded military collaboration with the West African country following US airstrikes on an Islamic State-affiliated group in December last year.

“In the last few months, [Nigeria] opened up with a very positive engagement with intel sharing and ability to go after and target some of these terrorist threats,” said Anderson.

In recent months, however, Nigeria’s military has repeatedly been accused of killing civilians in airstrikes targeting militants.

The latest reported strike took place in Tumfa on Sunday, with Amnesty International’s Nigeria office saying at least 100 civilians, including children, were killed.

Abuja’s military has denied targeting civilians.

At Thursday’s Senate hearing, Anderson noted that a 75 per cent reduction in Africom’s “regional posture” across Africa, coupled with a reduction in regional allies, has led to an “intelligence black hole” for the command.

“Africom’s lack of expeditionary capabilities and diminished force posture compromise our crisis response. In a crisis, we can always surge assets, but you cannot surge trust,” he said.

“We would like to re-establish some pragmatic relationships in the Sahel, where ISIS also has a stronghold, where they are currently holding an American hostage.”

States in the region have been fighting jihadist groups for more than a decade with limited success.

Some analysts, however, suggest Washington’s plans to restore cooperation is as much about security as it is about gaining access to the region’s minerals.