U.S. Won’t Take All Troops Out of Africa, Pentagon’s Chief Says

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The U.S. has no plans to pull all troops out of Africa even as it looks at how to adjust forces for strategic priorities led by competition with China and Russia, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.

“We are not going to totally withdraw forces from Africa,” Esper said at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, seeking to allay growing concerns on the continent that a review he’s ordered will result in an American withdrawal. “Economy of force does not mean complete withdrawal from any continent.”

Esper started with Africa in what he says will be a region-by-region assessment of whether troops are deployed in keeping with the Defense Department’s new strategy that makes countering threats from Russia and China the top priority.

Even as the U.S. reviews its force posture, though, the threat from Islamic militant groups persists across Africa. An al-Shabab raid this month on a military base in Kenya killed three Americans and destroyed six aircraft. Islamist militants killed 39 people this week in Burkina Faso.

The U.S. review has raised concerns among allies that the Trump administration may abandon the continent as it tilts toward countering China in the Indo-Pacific region. France’s defense minister, Florence Parly, warned on Tuesday that “terror will thrive” in the Sahel region of Africa without U.S. support.

In the Sahel — the arid band on the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert that stretches through some of Africa’s poorest and least-governed countries — terrorists are launching attacks against government forces. U.S. officials have pointed to the Sahel as one of the biggest concerns in their counterterrorism campaign.

General Stephen Townsend, head of U.S. Africa Command, said on Thursday that the U.S. would have to coordinate with the French and other European allies on any change in the American troop posture in the region to prevent radical terrorist groups — and China and Russia — from capitalizing on a drawdown.

The terrorist threat in Africa “is very serious” and “on the advance,” Townsend told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“As we see the violent extremists advancing, if we were to withdraw support from the French precipitously, then that would not go in a good direction,” he said. “What we have to do is we’ve got to synchronize our support and the removal of support, if we decide to do that, with the arrival of European support.”

Africa has emerged as a new area of great-power competition between the U.S. and China and Russia. Both are expanding their military and economic presence as they pursue access to energy, rare earths and political influence.

China and Russia view Africa as a “critical” battlefield “to fulfill their global ambitions and challenge the United States,” Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe said during the hearing with Townsend. “This is particularly evident in Africa.”

Source: Bloomberg Business News