The Biden government review comes at a time when rising waves of terrorism and violence have taken hold in the Sahel region of Africa, a vast sub-Saharan thicket that stretches from Senegal to Sudan and is threatening to spread. The Islamic State in Libya has been actively looking for new recruits traveling to the north of West African countries, including Senegal and Chad.
Armed groups attacked bridges, military convoys and government buildings. The threat is pushing southern Sahel to areas previously untouched by extremist violence, including Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and Ghana, where the Pentagon has a logistics center.
Security worsened to the point that the Pentagon Command in Africa told the Defense Department’s inspector general last year that it had abandoned a strategy to weaken Islamic militants for the time being, and was instead primarily trying to contain the threat.
“Security continues to deteriorate in the Sahel as instability spreads and threatens the West African coast,” Colin Kahl, Biden’s nominee to be the Pentagon’s top policy officer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in written responses to questions before the last week’s hearing. “We cannot ignore that the persistent conflict in Africa will continue to generate threats to US personnel, partners and the interests of violent extremist organizations.”
The Pentagon Africa Command operates MQ-9 Reaper drones from Niamey, the capital of Niger, 800 miles southwest of Dirkou; and a $ 110 million drone base in Agadez, Niger, 350 miles west of Dirkou. The military has carried out drone strikes against Qaeda and Islamic State militants in Libya, but none since September 2019.
Some security analysts question why the United States needs military operations and CIA drones in the same neighborhood to fight insurgents in Libya and the Sahel. In addition, France, which has about 5,100 soldiers in the Sahel region, has started conducting its own Reaper drones from Niamey against insurgents in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
A recent report by the International Crisis Group concluded that the priority military strategy of France and its allies, including the United States, had failed. The research and defense organization, which focuses on conflict zones, noted in its report that focusing on local peacemaking efforts could achieve more.