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Washington asks for African views on Africom’s future

PREVIEW

The US is considering merging Africom into its Europe command as its commitment to the continent wavers

African leaders should make their positions on the future of the United States’ military command in Africa known in the coming months, Africom commander General Michael Langley told journalists in Nairobi ahead of a conference of African defence chiefs in the Kenyan capital on 27 May.

President Donald Trump’s administration has mooted merging Africom with the US military command in Europe in a cost-cutting measure that would also be seen as a sign of Washington’s diminishing interest in Africa (AC Vol 66 No 6, Battle rages around the capital).

Alongside Europe’s, the US military presence in the Sahel has largely disappeared following the military coups across the region. Washington’s base in Niger was closed last year at the behest of the junta, leaving the US camp in Djibouti to run Africom (AC Vol 65 No 7, General Tiani swaps the US for Russia). Langley said in Nairobi that the US had maintained some intelligence sharing with Sahelian juntas and was looking for ‘other ways to continue to stay engaged’.

Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden agreed a military deal with Kenyan President William Ruto that designated Kenya as a major non-NATO ally, and opened talks with several West African states on military cooperation. Trump appears to be far more ambivalent, though an operation against Al Shabaab Islamist militants in Somalia was the first military mission of his second term (AC Vol 65 No 12, Ruto revels in the western embrace).

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