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Table of Contents

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Blinken's Trip to Africa:  America's Impotence in the Post-Hegemonic World

(4 February 2024)

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Upcoming articles planned on the civil war in Sudan and why African homophobia is still the real Western import

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The Minerva Research Initiative:

The Military-University-Industry Complex Targets Africa

(15 January 2024)

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US Scholar/Activists on Africa Issue Gaza Statement and Chart New Course:

The Revival of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (9 January 2024)

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Biden Responds to the Collapse of US Counterterrorism Strategy in Niger 

(2 January 2024) 

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​Collapse of US Counterterrorism Strategy in the Sahel (13 October 2023)

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U.S. Defense Austin's Trip to Africa:  Can the U.S. Military Hold the Line in Africa?

(4 October 2023)

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Figure I:  Selected Islamist Armed Groups in Africa:  Key Areas of Activity (Congressional Research Service, as of 2021) coming

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Upcoming Article on "Africa and the New Geopolitics of World Conflict"

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Figure II:  Map of US, French, and Russian (Wagner Group) Personnel Deployments in Africa (as of 1 December 2023) coming

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U.S. Military Commander Reveals African Secrets (1 April 2023)

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Biden's FY 2024 Budget Plan for Africa:  Send More Guns (1 April 2023)

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Table One: Country Data: FY 2022 Security Assistance Actual Spending, FY 2023 Request, and FY 2024 Request

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Nigeria:  Biden Faces Nigeria Crisis (10 March 2023)

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Statement on Senegal

 

By the African Security Research Project

 

Senegal was never the stable democracy portrayed in western media.  But its governments did have a moderately good track record on respecting civil rights and the rule of law.  Senegalese President Sall’s actions are destroying Senegal’s democratic institutions and establishing a self-anointed and unelected government which is not accountable to its own citizens.  The US government should take every possible measure to exert pressure on President Sall to conduct timely, free, fair, and legitimate elections in which all legally-qualified candidates are permitted to participate.

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Blinken's Trip to Africa:  America’s Impotence in the Post-Hegemonic World

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By Daniel Volman*

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*Daniel Volman is the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC (www.africansecurity.org) and a specialist on US national security policy toward Africa and African security issues.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to four African countries—Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Angola—on January 21-26, 2024, demonstrates just how worried US policymakers are about recent developments in Africa.   Despite the demands on his time from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Secretary Blinken obviously knows he has to pay attention to Africa.  He and the Biden administration face six overlapping, simultaneous crises in different part of Africa:  the Sahel, Nigeria, Sudan, The Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia), The Great Lakes Region (DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda), and Northern Mozambique.

 

Washington is looking to make a deal with the putschists in Niger to maintain the US drone base at Agadez in northern Niger; this is Blinken’s highest priority.  Washington is also anxious to deal with the deteriorating situation in Nigeria; this is Blinken’s other major priority.  And Washington is competing with China for political, economic, and diplomatic influence in Africa, which is why Blinken will highlight the Lobito Corridor project in Angola, which shows that the US can succeed in the competition with China for economic influence and prestige.

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Blinken is right to emphasize that US is doing better on investment and trade these days, while China is doing far worse than generally portrayed.  Chinese President Xi has been severely disappointed by the “Belt and Road” strategy, and has directed his government to abandon many current projects in Africa and to cut back on future Chinese plans for investment Africa.  At the same time, the success of the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and other American economic initiatives in Africa—however limited that success might be—shows that the US can compete with China on its own terms.

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But the trip also demonstrates—by the omission of any significant initiatives other than pledging $45 million in weaponry and other military assistance to the remaining members of ECOWAS—that the Biden administration is incapable of responding to the challenges it confronts in Africa, at least for the time being.  It also shows that while Biden may still be committed to making a trip to Africa during his term in office, that can only happen if he wins a second term this coming November.  So Blinken has to go to Africa instead, even though it distracts him from missions in what the US considers more important parts of the world.

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It surely is no coincidence that on 25 January, the publication Semfor revealed that Judd Devermont will leave his post as Senior Director for African Affairs in the US National Security Council by mid-February 2024.  Mr. Devermont took office in October 2021 pledging that he would promote a less militaristic US policy toward Africa.  He has concluded, it appears, that his efforts have failed and that remaining in office is a pointless waste of his time.

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And on 1 February 2024, the Governor of Zamfara state announced the creation of a vigilante force, following a similar action taken by the Governor of Katsina state in October 2024.  Even Nigerian state governors have so little confidence in the government’s ability to protect the population that they have resorted to arming civilians so they can protect themselves.  That same day, a coalition of 40 civil society groups petitioned Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, expressing concern at the deteriorating security situation and calling upon him to take “actionable steps” to reduce the violence and end human rights abuses by government security forces.  Blinken has his work cut out for him in Nigeria, and throughout the rest of the continent, at least until November 2024.

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The Minerva Research Initiative:

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The Military-University-Industry Complex Targets Africa

 

By Daniel Volman*

 

*Daniel Volman is the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC (www.africansecurity.org) and a specialist on US national security policy toward Africa and African security issues.

 

 

The Pentagon launched the Minerva Research Initiative in 2008 as a “DoD-sponsored, university-based social science research initiative that focuses on areas of strategic importance to the US national security policy.”  It is intended “to identify and support basic social science research issues in need of attention and to integrate those research insights into the policy-making environment.”  Each spring, the DoD announces three-year grants (which can be extended up to five years.

 

In his announcement of grants on 24 February 2022, Dr. Bindu Nair, the then Director, Basic Research Office in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, stated that “the knowledge and methodologies generated from Minerva awardees have improved DoD’s ability to define sources of present and future conflict with an eye toward better understanding the political trajectories of key regions of the world.”

                                                                         

In FY 2021, the Minerva Research Initiative announced $28.7 million in grants to 17 university-based faculty teams to support research in social and behavioral science.  Grants awarded for 2022-2024 include projects on the national security implications of climate change, US relations with Russia and China, and the impact of climate change on the Sahel.  Dr. Leonardo Villalon of the University of Florida received a grant as principal investigator for a project on “Social and Institutional Determinants of Vulnerability and Resilience to Climate Hazards in the African Sahel.”

 

In his announcement of grants on 26 May 2023, Dr. David Montgomery, director of social sciences in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, stated that “leveraging the strengths of the nation’s academic research institutions helps DoD define sources of present and future conflicts, with an eye toward better understanding the social and political trajectories of key regions of the world.”

 

In FY 2022, MRI announced $18 million in grants to 11 university-based faculty teams.  Grants awarded for 2023-2025 include projects on the internet, the national security implications of climate change, US relations with Russia and China, and the impact of climate change on social and political stability in Africa.  Dr. Arun Agrawal of the University of Michigan received a grant as principal investigator for a project on “Advancing Social Science Research on Demographic Shifts, Climate Change, and Political and Social Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa.  And Dr. Kathy Baylis of the University of California, Santa Barbara, as principal investigator for a project on “The Climate-Food-Urbanizations Nexus and the Precursors of Instability in Africa.”

 

As has been the case since the inception of the Minerva Research Initiative program, one of the principal interests of the Pentagon is projects which it hopes will help it respond to the impact of climate change on stability.  In addition to oonducting humanitarian relief operations—which have always relied heavily on the military and are certain to increase in the future—they are convinced that the “multiplier effect” of climate change will also increase the demand for military intervention in crisis areas.  It is not surprising, therefore, to see grants to projects for Africa and specific projects for the Sahel.

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US Scholar/Activists on Africa Issue Gaza Statement and Chart New Course:

 

The Revival of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars 

 

By Daniel Volman*

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*Daniel Volman is the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC (www.africansecurity.org) and a specialist on US national security policy toward Africa and African security issues.

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9 January 2024

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On 1 December 2023, members of the Association Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) met in San Francisco at the African Studies Association annual meeting, with co-chairs Teresa Barnes and Tim Scarnecchia, to revive the organization. 

 

Founded in 1977, the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (www.associationofconcernedafricascholars.org) is an organization of scholars and students of Africa dedicated to formulating alternative scholarly analysis of U.S. government policy, mobilizing support in the United States on critical current issues related to Africa, developing communication and action networks among scholars in the United States and Africa, and collaborating with other organizations that share its concerns.

 

ACAS is a coordinate organization of the African Studies Association (United States).  ACAS was founded in 1977 by scholars who sought to organize scholarly analysis and action to work toward “moving U.S. policy toward Africa in directions more sympathetic to African interests.,” according to the organization’s statement in the first ACAS newsletter (https://africanactivist.msu.edu/recordFiles/210-849-23414/ACASBulletin3-78opt.pdf)

 

ACAS has a rich history of political activism and policy review. ACAS members now work on a range of issues, including working with the Advocacy Network for Africa (AdNA) seeking temporary suspension of US pharmaceutical patent rights on COVID vaccines so that the more than 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers in Africa and the global south can produce vaccines for local needs; the growing presence of the US Africom Combatant Command ( Africom) across the continent as the Global War on Terror continues to escalate in Africa; the increase in Department of Defense and intelligence funding in U.S. higher education for African language, NSF, Boren Fellowships, and other educational programs; food sovereignty and land grabs; the politics of trade, debt, and development; the implications for Africa of US interests in African oil, strategic minerals, and genetic wealth; the need for greater US support for HIV, malaria, and other health programs in Africa; and the continuing issues of women’s rights across the continent: “green energy” and the impact of cobalt mining in the DRC; UN and humanitarian relief funding; and illicit financial flows from Africa.  Its interdisciplinary approach supports rethinking conventional interpretations of social and economic policy, globalization, development strategies, media representations, and nation building.

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Since the meeting, ACAS has updated, improved, and expanded its website (www.associationofconcernedafricascholars.org).  On 19 December, ACAS posted a Statement by African Studies Scholars on Israel’s Attacks on Gaza, which was debated at the meeting and finalized on 15 December 2023.  On 27 December, a new issue of the Bulletin of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars, ACAS Bulletin no. 90, edited by Daniel Volman, was posted.  It includes two articles by the editor on the Sahel, a review of recent books on cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and articles by Alex de Waal and Rahmane Idrissa on the civil war in Sudan.

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Biden Responds to the Collapse of US Counterterrorism Strategy in Niger

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By Daniel Volman*

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*Daniel Volman is the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC (www.africansecurity.org), and a specialist on US security policy toward Africa and African security issues.

​

 

For two months after the coup in Niger on 26 July 2023, the Biden administration refrained from calling or chose not to call it a “coup” because that would have triggered American legislation that would have required it to suspend security cooperation and most other forms of assistance to the junta.  It hoped that by maintaining relations with the junta, it could make a deal with them to permit 1,100 US troops to remain at two Nigerien military bases (at Niamey and the drone operation facility constructed by the United States at a cost of some $110 million at Agadez).

 

On 10 October 2023, after two months of frustration, the Biden administration declared that there had been a coup and the legislation took effect.  To date, the junta has not taken any action regarding the presence of US troops.  Some US personnel have been withdrawn from Niger and the remaining troops have been consolidated in Agadez.  They continue to conduct drone surveillance and reconnaissance flights, but only to monitor threats to their own security, which means they are no longer conduction useful counterterrorism operations in the Sahel.

 

However, the Biden administration has not given up on its strategy of relying on military force to create security, build democratic institutions, and establish political stability in the Sahel and other parts of Africa.  Instead, it has decided to doubled down on this strategy by escalating or expanding US military operations in Africa and strengthening US security relationships or cooperation with political leaders and military officers in Nigeria (current chair of ECOWAS), Ghana, Senegal, Chad, and other key African partners or proxies.  And it keeps trying to reach an agreement with the junta that will allow it to keep American troops based in the country and to resume military cooperation with Niger.

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At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “Instability in the Sahel and West Africa: Implications for U.S. Policy,” on 24 October 2023, Phee declared that there’s also a significant risk that violent extremist organizations might expand their influence or capabilities in the region.  “The coups that have occurred recently in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and now Niger,” she said, “illustrate the democratic regression that threatens not only the people of the Sahel but their neighbors and our partners in coastal west Africa.”

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In the case of Niger, Phee testified, “we are working with the regional organization ECOWAS.  The African Union and Africa’s regional economic commissions are essential partners in advancing democracy and peace.  That is why – although we promptly paused the majority of U.S. assistance for Niger after the coup – we delayed at the request of our African partners the formal assessment that the outcome constituted a coup while they sought to restore President Bazoum to office.  Acting Deputy Toria Nuland traveled to Niamey in August to try and convince the generals to restore constitutional order.  I later traveled to west Africa to consult on how to engage a quick and credible restoration of democratic rule.  Secretary Blinken met with ECOWAS Foreign Ministers at the recent UN General Assembly to propose a phased approach to resuming U.S. assistance based on concrete actions to return the country to democratic rule.”

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On 3 December 2023, Kathleen FitzGibbon, the newly-appointed US Ambassador handed her credentials to the foreign ministry in Niamey, Niger.  Ms. FitzGibbon formerly served as Division Chief, West and Southern Africa, and then as Director of the Office of Africa Analysis, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, at the State Department in Washington, DC.

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On 4 December 2023, the US Special Operations Command Africa began a weeklong conference on counterterrorism in Africa, called “Silent Warrior ’23” and held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.  The conference involved military officers from more than twenty African countries and over a dozen other nations with interests on the continent.  According to a story on the conference in Stars and Stripes, “at the top of the agenda were deep dives into the major extremist threats in Africa: al-Shabab in Somalia, affiliates of ISIS and al-Qaida in the Sahel, and ISIS in Mozambique.”  In his opening statement to the conference, General Michael Langley, commander of Africom, didn’t directly address the situation in Niger, according to the story; but he alluded to it when he stressed the need for militaries to respect civilian authority.  “Good governance is a key to countering violent extremist organizations,” General Langley said.  “Yes, we’ve had some challenges across the continent . . . We know that civilian government, they’re the boss.  We [the military] execute the missions.”

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On 5 December 2023, Celeste Wallander, the US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, testified before the Africa subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at a hearing on “The Sahel in Crisis:  Examining U.S. Policy Options.”  According to Ms. Wallander, “In the short and medium term, we will support African-led counterterrorism operations to disrupt the most acute threats, with a particular emphasis on those targeting U.S. interests.  In the long term, we will emphasize bilateral security assistance to African defense and security forces in order to build their own homegrown capacity to counter these threats without extensive external assistance.” 

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She noted that military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have resulted in restrictions on military cooperation, led to increased attacks by jihadists, and opened the way for greater Russian influence and military involvement.  “Violent extremist organizations thrive in areas of instability and seek to leverage that instability for their own ends, as evidenced by the attacks we’ve seen in Niger since the coup,” she said. 

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“Given this elevated threat environment, the Department of Defense is committed to working with our interagency partners to continue to monitor and disrupt the violent extremist organization threats, while constructively engaging with regional states to restore productive, democratic governance in those countries,” Wallander said.  “In doing so, we are consistently working to strike a balance between offering the practical assistance that our African partners need to face emerging threats, while reinforcing our professional values to help them build strong, resilient institutions that will reinforce not only their physical security, but their democratic stability.”

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The Pentagon’s requirement “to monitor indications and warnings of violent extremist organization activity in the Sahel has not changed,” she insisted.  “For the last ten years, our posture in Niger has proven critical to this effort.  Moving forward, we have worked side by side with the Department of State and other interagency partners to define conditions for restoring our activities and operations in Niger.  Nigerian officials must quickly and credibly transition back to democratically elected, civilian led government.”

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Testifying at the same hearing, Molly Phee noted the threat that violent extremist violence posed to the countries of coastal west Africa, “including Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo.”

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On 6 December 2023, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, met with Nigerian Minister of Defense Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Ghanaian Minister of Foreign Affairs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey in New York City, New York to discuss UN peacekeeping operations in Mali and Sudan, and the coup in Niger.  On 7 December 2023, she gave an interview to Thomas Naadi of BBC News in Accra, Ghana.  When he asked her if the US was “now recognizing the military junta in Niger as the legitimate authority?” she said “Look, what we’re trying to do is get to a solution that will shorten the transition back to civilian government.  So, we’re engaging with this military [in Niger] to put pressure on them and to urge that they return to a civilian government.  We’re also working closely with our regional partners.  We’re working with ECOWAS.”  And, she went on to announce “we’re working to find new ways of providing support, new ways of providing training and equipment to governments on this continent, and particularly in this region.”

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On that same day, 7 December 2023, US President Joe Biden issued a Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President pro tempore of the Senate regarding the War Powers Report, to inform them about deployments of US military forces equipped for combat, including operations in Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti, in the East Africa Region, and in Niger and other countries in the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel Region.  The administration, Biden stated, “continues to work with partners around the globe, with a particular focus on the United States Central and Africa Commands’ areas of responsibility.  In this context, the United States has deployed forces to conduct counterterrorism operations and to advise, assist, and accompany security forces of select foreign partners on counterterrorism operations.” 

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In the East Africa Region, he reported, “United States Armed Forces continue to counter the terrorist threat posed by ISIS and al-Shabaab, an associated force of al-Qa’ida.  Since the last periodic report, United States Armed Forces have conducted a number of airstrikes in Somalia against al-Shabaab in defense of our Somali partner forces.  United States Armed Forces remain prepared to conduct airstrikes in Somalia against ISIS and al-Shabaab terrorists.  United States military personnel conduct periodic engagements in Somalia to train, advise, and assist regional forces, including Somali and African Union Transition Mission in Somalia forces, in connection with counterterrorism operations.  United States military personnel are deployed to Kenya to support counterterrorism operations in East Africa.  United States military personnel continue to partner with the Government of Djibouti, which has permitted use of Djiboutian territory for basing of United States Armed Forces.  United States military personnel remain deployed to Djibouti, including for purposes of staging for counterterrorism and counter-piracy operations in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and to provide contingency support for embassy security augmentation in East Africa, as necessary.”

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And in the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel Region, he reported, “United States military personnel in the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel Region continue to conduct airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations and to provide support to African and European partners conducting counterterrorism operations in the region, including by advising, assisting, and accompanying these partner forces.  Approximately 648 United States military personnel remain deployed to Niger.” 

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In fact, according to Africom, force levels are holding steady at about 1,000 American military personnel in Niger.  This includes both uniformed service members and military-affiliated civilians.

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On 8 December 2023, Molly Phee, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, traveled to Nigeria to meet with regional leaders at the ECOWAS Heads of State Summit on 10 December 2023 and to consult with them on Niger and the Sahel.  Then, on 12 December 2023, Ms. Phee traveled to Niger for discussions with Nigerien officials, including Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine.  And, on 13 December 2023, she announced that the US was ready to resume security cooperation with the junta if it met certain conditions. 

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Ms. Phee said she had met with the top ministers in Niger’s ruling military council—the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP)—and encouraged them to announce a timeline for a swift transition back to civilian rule.  The junta must announce “a deadline for a rapid and credible transition” leading to “a democratically elected government,” she told a press conference in Niamey.  And “we have confirmed that we are ready to resume our cooperation if the CNSP takes the steps I have outlined.”  “I encourage the CNSP to respond positively to the ECOWAS offer for negotiation; the United States supports the resolutions of the regional organization.”  ECOWAS offered to ease sanctions if the junta agrees to a notably “short transition.”

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“In our discussions,” she told a press conference in Niamey, “I confirmed the intent of the United States to resume security and development cooperation in phases, reciprocally as the CNSP takes action.”  She went on to say that “I have made it clear to the CNSP that we want to be a good partner again, but the CNSP has to be a good partner to the United States.”  And she said she urged the junta to respond positively to an offer for high-level negotiations with ECOWAS, which announced on 10 December 2023 that it would ease sanctions on Niger if talks with the military leaders went well. 

Following his meeting with Ms. Phee, Prime Minister Mahaman Lamine Zeine said on 13 December 2023 that “If the Americans want to say here with their forces, they should tell us what they want to do.” 

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When the United States declared that a coup had taken place in Niger, it seemed almost certain that the junta would expel US troops, just as they had expelled French troops earlier.  It is now clear, however, that the junta is interested in negotiating a deal with the Biden administration.  It remains to be seen what conditions Washington will insist on and what concessions it will make to the Nigerien junta in order to start conducting counterterrorism operations in Niger again.

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On 4 January 2024, however, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Washington is now “seeking to base military drones along the West African coast” and “is holding preliminary talks to allow American unarmed reconnaissance drones to use airfields in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin.”  According to the report, retired US Air Force Major General Mark Hicks, a former commander of US Special Operations forces in Africa said that “the Niger coup has forced our hand,” and “there’s really not much option other than to fall back and operate out of the coastal West African states.” 

 

Moreover, said a senior US military official, “coastal West African countries that used to be insulated no longer are” and, according to the report, “suggest Washington believes Mali and Burkina Faso are so inundated with Islamist militants that they are beyond the reach of Western help, and that it fears Niger, which until a July coup was the staunchest American ally in the region, is now unreliable.”  So, according to US and African military officers, the US has proposed basing drones at the Ghanaian Air Force base at Tamale, the airfield at Parakou in Benin, and three airfields in Cote d’Ivoire.

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Posted on AllAfrica.Com on 14 October 2023

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Collapse of US Counterterrorism Strategy in the Sahel

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By Daniel Volman

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For two months after the coup in Niger in August, 2023, the Biden administration refused to declare that a “coup” had taken place.  They did this because using the word would activate US laws requiring the cut off of all security cooperation, development assistance, and economic support. 

 

They also hoped that they could make a deal with the junta to keep1,100 US troops at two bases in Niger and continue running counterterrorism operations throughout the Sahel using drones.  They finally concluded that it would not be possible to reach an agreement with the junta and on, 10 October 2023, the Biden administration declared that a coup had taken place. 

 

It is highly almost certain that the junta will respond by ending US counterterrorism operations launched from its territory and will expel US troops, just as it has expelled French troops.  At least this is what officers of the US Africa Command (Africom) think.  According to General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces in Europe and Africa, “the US is actively considering new host nations,” and “There are several locations I’ll say that we’re looking at, but nothing’s firmed up.  We have talked to some countries about it.”

 

Africom operations in the Sahel depend on the use of sophisticated air bases in the immediate area for intelligence-gathering, surveillance, and support for Nigerian military operations.  The US spent $110 million modernizing the Nigerian air base at Agadez (where all US military personnel have now been relocated) for these operations. 

 

If the US is forced to end operations at the base it modernized at Agadez and to withdraw US troops from Niger, they may be able to relocate to another country.  But it’s hard to see how the US can continue to pursue its counterterrorism strategy in the Sahel without a base in the immediate area.

 

During his visit to Kenya on 25 September 2023, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that Washington would “evaluate any future steps that would prioritize both our diplomatic and security goals” in the Sahel.  The Biden administration now has to do more than just “evaluate” its military operations in the Sahel; it has to bring them to an end.

 

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Posted on AllAfrica.Com on  3 October 2023

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U.S. Defense Secretary Austin’s Trip to Africa:

Can the U.S. Military Hold the Line in Africa?

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By Daniel Volman

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On 25 September 2023, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin addressed reporters in Nairobi, Kenya.  He was in the country during his first official visit to Africa for meetings with African leaders, including Kenyan President William Ruto and Cabinet Secretary of Defense Aden Duale. Speaking about the ongoing crisis in Niger, he said “While we give diplomacy a chance, we will also evaluate any future steps that would prioritize both our diplomatic and security goals.”  He declared that Washington had “not made any significant change to our force postures and . . . we really want to see a diplomatic solution, a peaceful end” to the ongoing crisis in Niger.

 

Earlier, during a meeting in Washington with President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique on 22 September 2023, Secretary Austin noted that “across the continent, we’ve seen autocrats undermine free and fair elections and blocked [sic] peaceful transitions of power.  When generals overturn the will of the people, and put their own ambitions above the rule of law, security suffers, and democracy dies.”  He went on to say that “As a Biden administration strategy for sub-Saharan Africa notes, effective, legitimate, and accountable militaries and other security forces are essential to support open, democratic, and resilient societies and to counter destabilizing threats.  Or to put it more bluntly, militaries exist to defend their people and not to defy them.  And Africa needs militaries that serve their citizens and not the other way around.”

 

And on 27 September 2023, in remarks Austin made in Luanda, Angola, he observed that “other countries may see African countries as proxies or even pawns,” but the United States wants “to move forward together, through growing partnerships rooted in mutual cooperation and mutual respect.”  Thus, “our outstanding U.S. Africa Command, led by General Michael Langley, provides a range of support to our partners in Africa, and that includes professional military education, capacity-building, counterterrorism, logistics and much, much more.” 

 

But, he insisted, “we also take a broader view of security.  You know, it’s always easier to stamp out an ember than it is to put out a blaze, so we’re doubling down on conflict prevention, especially through the U.S. strategy to prevent conflict and to promote stability.  We’re working with seven African partners to find creative ways to prevent conflict before it starts and to invest in locally-led solutions to buttress lasting peace.”  He declared that “the United States will never take your partnership for granted.  The people of Africa deserve to chart their own sovereign paths.  And so we aren’t asking African countries to choose any side other than their own.”

 

Secretary Austin’s trip to Djibouti, Kenya, and Angola followed the wake of the coup in Niger and the expulsion of French counter-insurgency troops.  In the aftermath of the coup, American military personnel stationed in Niamey, the capital of Niger, were moved to Base 101, the base near Agadez modernized by the Americans at an estimated cost of $110 million to serve as a base for intelligence and surveillance operations using drones and to support counter-insurgency operations by Nigerian soldiers.

 

In addition to in the Sahel, the Biden administration faces serious and escalating crises elsewhere in Africa:  The continuing security crisis in Nigeria; Sudan’s civil war; ethnic violence in the Ethiopian provinces of Tigray and Amhara; and the deteriorating security situation in Somalia.

 

The United States is not in retreat in Africa; Washington is committed to holding the line against violent extremist organizations and global rivals: Russia and China.  The key role that Africa plays in America’s struggle to assert and maintain its global hegemony means that Washington will stay on the same course it has pursued for years.  But the question remains: can the US military hold the line in Africa, and should it keep pursuing a strategy that relies on the use of military power and that has proven both futile and counterproductive for the United States.

 

The United States has been promising for years to treat African countries as partners, and has disavowed any desire to make them choose between the United States and its global rivals.  And it insists that democratic government, the protection of human rights and international law, military respect for civilian rule, and a better life for the people are its goals in Africa.  But Africans have heard this all before.  The Biden administration has to do more than just “evaluate” its military operations in Africa; it has to bring them to an end.

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nsert new section here

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Upcoming Article On :

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“Africa and the New Geopolitics of World Conflict”

 The increasing military involvement of the US, France, China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and other new external actors in Africa

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Posted on AllAfrica.Com on 3 April 2023

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U.S. Military Commander Reveals African Secrets

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By Daniel Volman

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Four-star Marine General Michael Langley, the new commander of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), revealed two astounding secrets about U.S. military operations in Africa on 16 March 2023, when he appeared at the Senate Armed Services Committee annual hearing on the Africom budget request. 

 

In his testimony, Langley disclosed that Africom has established a forward headquarters in Africa (in addition to its main headquarters in Stuttgart, German).  When asked if Africom might follow the example of Central Command (which has its main headquarters in Tampa, Florida, but which has established a forward headquarters in Qatar), he replied that “I can talk about that in closed session, because we do have something established to that contract.”

 

General Langley also publicly and directly contradicted the repeated assertions by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and many other American officials that Washington did not want to make African countries choose between the United States and its Sino-Russian rivals.  Washington’s actual view, he explained, was that “they make choices, and they make the wrong choices in siding with—going with either PRC or Russia for especially lethal aid.”

 

As Langley explained, this means that Washington should make it easier and faster for African governments to get American military equipment.  African governments “come and they ask and said, hey General Langley, we don’t want your boots on the ground, we want your equipment.”  But the U.S. arms sales program, “it’s moving too slow, Senator, just moving too slow and they make the wrong decisions.”

 

So African governments will be judged by the company they keep—the United States or Russia and China—and will be treated accordingly.  Making the “wrong choices” or the “wrong decisions” will have consequences.

 

For additional information and data, see “Biden’s FY 2024 Budget Plan for Africa:  Send More Guns” below:

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Posted on AllAfrica.Com on 3 April 2023

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Biden's FY 2024 Budget Plan for Africa:  Send More Guns

 

By Daniel Volman

 

On 9 March 2023, President Biden released his security assistance budget request for Africa for FY 2024, the first new budget request he has submitted since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The age of American supremacism (in which the United States led an international coalition of allies that sought to dictate global geopolitical relations in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War at the 1980s) has come to an end with a bang and a new age of multi-polar great power struggle to establish a new global geopolitical order has begun.  The new security assistance budget request provides us with some clear indications of what place Africa holds in the Biden administration’s vision of a new world order.

 

U.S. security interests in Africa have evolved significantly since the Bush administration created Africom (the military command with responsibility for managing U.S. military operations and programs in Africa) in 2008.  From the beginning, however, the new command was focused on three missions:  protecting U.S. access to African strategic raw materials (particularly oil and rare earth metals) and African military facilities, countering Chinese and Russian economic expansion and military presence on the continent, and backing counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations by its African allies. 

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Although Theresa Whelan, the Deputy Director of Defense for African Affairs (who directed the creation of Africom) tried to deceive the U.S. Congress about the purpose of the new command, the truth was revealed by officers of the U.S. Logistics Command, who quoted a briefing that she gave to a European Command conference in 2004 in which she stated quite clearly that Africom’s mission was to “prevent establishment of/disrupt/destroy terrorist groups, stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, perform evacuations of U.S. citizens in danger, assure access to strategic resources, lines of communication and refueling/forward sites” for the deployment of American troops throughout the continent.  And in a presentation by Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, the first deputy commander of Africom, at a Defense Department conference held at Fort McNair on 18 February 2008, he specifically cited “oil disruption,” “terrorism,” and the “growing influence” of China as the principal challenges to U.S. interests in Africa.

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Although Theresa Whelan, the Deputy Director of Defense for African Affairs (who directed the creation of Africom) tried to deceive the U.S. Congress about the purpose of the new command, the truth was revealed by officers of the U.S. Logistics Command, who quoted a briefing that she gave to a European Command conference in 2004 in which she stated quite clearly that Africom’s mission was to “prevent establishment of/disrupt/destroy terrorist groups, stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, perform evacuations of U.S. citizens in danger, assure access to strategic resources, lines of communication and refueling/forward sites” for the deployment of American troops throughout the continent.  And in a presentation by Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, the first deputy commander of Africom, at a Defense Department conference held at Fort McNair on 18 February 2008, he specifically cited “oil disruption,” “terrorism,” and the “growing influence” of China as the principal challenges to U.S. interests in Africa.

 

New Africom Commander Testifies to Congress

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While the relative ranking of these priorities has shifted over the years since then, they remain Africom’s core missions.  In his March 2023 testimony before the Senate and House Armed Services Committee hearings on the budget request, the newly appointed commander of Africom, Marine General Michael Langley was questioned primarily about Chinese and Russian activities on the continent.  “The aspirations of China is threefold,” Langley asserted, “one from a geopolitical—they’re trying to change the international norms and they’re using some African countries within the U.N. construct whether it be the General Assembly or the Security Council trying to affect votes to change those international norms and international system writ large.”  Then, “there is a geopolitical operation and their aspiration for military bases on the continent of Africa.”  And, “the last piece, Senator, is geo-economic—our future—our future economy is dependent upon a number of rare earth minerals, and also some are clean energy technologies depend upon the rare earth minerals.  About 30 to 40 percent of those minerals are on the continent of Africa, that—that’s forward thinking by the PRC.”

 

Langley claimed that China is trying to get military bases on the west coast of Africa.  “They do have other aspirations, and in closed session, Ranking Member, I know that I can be able to lay that out, where in West Africa is their next military base aspiration.”  If they do establish a base, “it would change the whole calculus of the geostrategic global campaign plans of protecting the homeland.  It would shorten their, if they—they build any capacity on the West Coast, geostrategically it would put them at an advantage.”  He went on to declare that “we can’t let them have a base on the West Cost because it would change the dynamics.”

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And when asked if he thought it was “vital that we keep China from taking over that—that port [Capetown] there in South Africa?”, Langley replied “Absolutely so—sir, because as we look at the Cape of Good Hope and look at how much transit that our commerce goes across, and it’s also—it can also be a power projection point as well, so we can ill afford, from a geostrategic position allow either the PRC or even Russia to use that as a platform.”

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General Langley also publicly and directly contradicted the repeated assertions by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and many other American officials that Washington did not want to make African countries choose between the United States and its Sino-Russian rivals.  As he put it, “they make choices, and they make the wrong choices in siding with—going with either PRC or Russia for especially lethal aid.”

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According Langley, this means that Washington should make it easier and quicker for African governments to get American military equipment.  African governments “come and they ask and said, hey General Langley, we don’t want your boots on the ground, we want your equipment.”  But the U.S. arms sales program, “it’s moving too slow, Senator, just moving too slow and they make the wrong decisions.”

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And finally, Langley revealed that Africom has established a forward headquarters in Africa (in addition to its main headquarters in Stuttgart, German).  When asked if Africom might follow the example of Central Command (which has its main headquarters in Tampa, Florida, but which has established a forward headquarters in Qatar), he replied that “I can talk about that in closed session, because we do have something established to that contract.”

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Biden's FY 2024 Budget Plan for Africa

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Now that the Biden administration has released its FY 2024 security assistance budget request for Africa, what does it tell us about the administration’s intentions and objectives?

 

• International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement Program (INCLE)

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INCLE funding for Africa will remain almost unchanged at 59.1 million for

Regional programs in East Africa, West Africa, and the Sahel as well as bilateral programs in Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, and other countries.  Africa also likely to receive substantial funding through the Countering People’s Republic of China Malign Influence Fund ($70.0 million), the Prevention and Stabilization Fund ($15.5 million), and the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ($66.0 million).

 

• Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining, and Related Programs (NADR)

 

The Biden administration proposes a modest increase in NADR funding for Africa from through a variety of programs.  The most important is the Antiterrorism Assistance program, which will increase to $274 million for Bureau of Counterterrorism (CTF) programs throughout the world, including programs in Kenya, Somalia, Tunisia, and other African countries.  In addition, African countries are likely to a significant proportion of the $55.0 million requested for the Terrorist Interdiction Program/Personal Identification, Secure Comparison, and Evaluation System (TIP/PISCES), as well as some of the $237.1 million requested for the Conventional Weapons Destruction program (CWD) to secure and combat the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons, including Man Portable Air Defense Systems in the Sahel-Maghrib region and “countering the PRC’s malign influence in Africa and Asia through high-visibility, high-impact demining efforts.”

 

• Peacekeeping Operations (PKO)

 

The Biden administration intends to maintain funding for Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) at nearly its current level.  The administration is requesting $260.0 for regional and bilateral programs to enhance the ability of African partners to conduct counterterrorism operations in East Africa (specifically in Somalia and South Sudan), sustain counterterrorism operations in East Africa and West Africa, conduct maritime security operations, and strengthen land and maritime borders.  It is also asking for $33.4 million for the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership in the Maghrib and “across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin countries (including potentially the littoral West African countries of Ghana, Benin, and Togo).”

 

It is also requesting $52.5 million in regional PKO funds to pay for a variety of programs, including the African Maritime Security Initiative, African Regional Counterterrorism program, the Countering Strategic Competitors program, and the Partnership for Regional East African Counterterrorism.

 

In addition, African countries are likely to receive some of the funding requested for the Prevention and Stabilization Fund ($5.0 million) “to bolster the capacity of partner governments to conduct counter-terrorism operations,” the Global Peace Operations Initiative ($71.0 million) “by reinforcing partner country capacity to generate, train, deploy, and sustain peacekeepers,” the Global Defense Reform Program ($18.0 million) “to enhance the ability of these countries to provide for their own defense in an effective, transparent, and accountable way.”

 

• International Military Education and Training Program (IMET)

 

The Biden administration plans to boost spending on for the International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs for African countries (under which African military officers receive professional military training at home and at military facilities in the United States) to $38.6 million.  Major recipients include Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and South Africa.  The request specifically identifies Djibouti, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal as “priority recipients.”

 

• Foreign Military Financing Program (FMF)

 

The budget request for FMF funding (through which the United States provides loans and grants to African governments for the purchases of U.S.-made military equipment) includes another $6 million for Djibouti in FY 2024 “to help bolster the bilateral relationship with Djibouti and counter malign [Chinese] influences in the region—a top U.S. national security priority.”

 

The request also calls for another $10 million in FMF for Morocco and $45 million for Tunisia. The Biden administration says the Tunisian armed forces “remain on the front lines of the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups and the instability emanating from Libya, and serve as an important apolitical institution in Tunisian society.”  This appears to be an attempt to demonstrate America’s concern about the deterioration of democratic institutions in that country.

 

In addition, African countries will receive some of the $50.0 million in FMF funding that is being requested for the Countering People’s Republic of China Fund.  The money will be used “as seed money to incentivize partners to commit national funds to modernizing their militaries and divesting from PRC provided equipment.”  This is intended to “reduce opportunities for the PRC to coerce and exert influence over [U.S.] partners.”  And the budget includes $113.0 million to fund a new global FMF line called “Emerging Global Priorities” to “address emergent foreign policy priorities in the age of heightened  strategic competition” with China and Russia.  It will be used, in part, “to support regional stability in Africa and NATO’s southern flank, especially if Tunisia shows signs of a return to democratic governance.”

 

• Foreign Military Sales Program (FMS)

 

The delivery of 12 A-29 Super Tucano counterinsurgency aircraft to Nigeria through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program was completed in July and October 2021, not long after the inauguration of President Biden.  The sale to the Nigerian Air Force (which cost Nigeria $593 million), completed an arms deal initiated by the Obama administration and continued by the Trump administration.  The planes are armed with twin machine guns, and can carry up to 1,550 kilograms of additional weaponry, including air-to-air missiles, bombs, rocket pods, and gun pods.   And on April 14, 2022, the State Department announced that the Biden administration will proceed with the sale of twelve Bell Helicopter AH-1Z helicopter gunships to Nigeria, armed with 20mm machine guns and guided missiles.  The deal (worth $997 million) was initiated by the Trump administration in January 2021, before the inauguration of President Biden. 

 

U.S. Congress Questions Biden’s Policy

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In December 2022, Reuters published two reports on its investigation of major human rights violations by the Nigerian military.  In the first, it reported that Nigerian security forces have murdered thousands of children captured during military operations against jihadi insurgents.  Babies, infants, and young children were executed because they were believed to be child soldiers or the children of insurgents.  In the second, it reported that since at least 2013, the Nigerian military had conducted a secret, systematic, and illegal abortion program that ended at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls.  Many of them had been kidnapped and raped by jihadi insurgents.

 

In reaction, US Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to request a review of US security assistance to Nigeria.  Risch also called for the State Department to examine the potential use of American sanctions against Nigeria for its violence against women and children.  “I look forward to hearing more about the Department’s planned response to the serious and abhorrent allegations levied against a long-standing beneficiary of U.S. security assistance and cooperation which, if deemed credible, have done irreparable harms to a generation of Nigerian citizens and to US credibility in the region,” Risch said in his letter to Blinken.

 

In February 2023, two members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representatives Sara Jacobs (D-California) and Chris Smith (R-New Jersey), sent a letter to President Biden calling upon him to cancel the sale and review US security assistance and cooperation programs in Nigeria.  As they pointed out, “the assistance we have provided has done little to stem the conflict—in fact, insecurity has worsened from the abuses committed by Nigerian forces.” 

 

Therefore, they concluded, “we believe continuing to move forward with the nearly $1 billion arms sale would be highly inappropriate and we urge the Administration to rescind it.  Given the recent reporting of Nigeria’s previously unknown mass forced abortion program—which allegedly ended at least 10,000 pregnancies—and the targeting of potentially thousands of children, we also urge a review of security assistance and cooperation programs in Nigeria.”

 

And Even More Guns!

 

On 27 March 2024, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris announced that even more American weapons would be sent to Africa.  She traveled to Accra, Ghana, and held a joint news conference with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.  She revealed that the Biden administration would give $100 million worth of new military support over the next ten years to Ghana, Benin, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo, in addition to the aid in its budget request for these countries.  The bulk of the money—at least 86 million—will be delivered over the next three years, according to the Biden administration, and doesn’t require congressional approval.

 

Although it is impossible to calculate a precise figure, it is clear that security assistance programs administered by the State Department will spend approximately $600 million on programs in Africa in FY 2024 under the administration’s budget proposal.  At the same time, the Defense Department budget request includes approximately $750 in spending on Africom, including the costs to operate the U.S. military base established in Djibouti, conduct Drug Interdiction and Counter-Drug operations, and provide equipment and training to African military and internal security forces.  The Defense Department also spends large amounts of money each year to dispatch ships to make calls at

A

African ports, to conduct annual training exercises like the annual “Flintlock” exercises in West Africa and the annual “African Lion” exercises in North Africa and the Sahel, to send teams of Special Forces instructors to conduct training in African countries, to conduct drone attack and surveillance operations, and to send excess/surplus defense equipment to African recipients.  But it is only possible to provide a rough estimate of these expenditures.  Taken altogether, the United States government spends at least $1.5 billion on African

security programs every year, and probably as much as $2 billion.

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