Jump to navigation

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).

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2025
https://www.africa-confidential.com

Prepared for Free Article on 06/12/2025 at 11:28. Authorized users may download, save, and print articles for their own use, but may not further disseminate these articles in their electronic form without express written permission from Africa Confidential / Asempa Limited. Contact subscriptions@africa-confidential.com.

Related Articles

Battle rages around the capital

Al Shabaab’s massive offensive in February may have failed, but the news isn’t uniformly positive for Mogadishu

Al Shabaab is still fighting a massive offensive it launched on 19 February to take over Middle Shabelle, the area where the federal government in Mogadishu has had...

Ruto revels in the western embrace

Washington offers military deals and pushes hefty investments as Kenya's President is feted in the US capital

Investment deals worth billions of dollars may have been secured, but geopolitics was the main agenda item during President William Ruto's four-day state visit to the United States...

The bust and after

Finance ministers and central bank governors are holding an African summit in Washington next week to map a way out of the crisis

As the international financial crisis intensified last year, some African governments thought they could avoid the worst by strengthening their trade and investment ties with Asia. Denial has...


Stories by country

Footer Map