{"id":62094,"date":"2020-03-10T18:16:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/10\/efforts-to-combat-violent-extremist-groups-in-sahel-region-are-not-getting-the-job-done-says-africom-leader\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:20:33","slug":"efforts-to-combat-violent-extremist-groups-in-sahel-region-are-not-getting-the-job-done-says-africom-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2020\/03\/10\/efforts-to-combat-violent-extremist-groups-in-sahel-region-are-not-getting-the-job-done-says-africom-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Efforts to combat violent extremist groups in Sahel region are \u2018not getting the job done,\u2019 says AFRICOM leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. and international efforts to combat violent extremist organization in West Africa<\/a> aren\u2019t working, according to U.S. Africa Command commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite French-led efforts in the Sahel region to combat groups including Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, AFRICOM says violent extremist activity in West Africa has increased 250 percent since 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Western and international and African efforts there are not getting the job done,\u201d Townsend told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. \u201cISIS and al-Qaida are on the march in West Africa. They\u2019re having success, and international efforts are not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do believe that if ISIS can carve out a new caliphate, or al-Qaida can, they will attempt to do it in West Africa,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Townsend credited violent extremist groups\u2019<\/a> gains to African partners\u2019 lack of capacity or capability to tackle such issues, coupled with uncoordinated and insufficient assistance from Western and international allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose efforts might actually be sufficient if they were better coordinated,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he said French and other European allies recognize that this is a problem and are working to mitigate it, he argued European states have the bandwidth to \u2014 and should \u2014 step up their work in the region before the U.S. ramps up efforts there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because Townsend anticipates threats stemming from West Africa will impact Europe before the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think left unchecked, this become a threat beyond the region,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flintlock
A U.S. Army Special Forces instructor train Senegalese and Mauritanian soldiers to conduct a casualty evacuation in Atar, Mauritania, Feb. 24, 2020. Flintlock is U.S. Africa Command’s premier and largest annual Special Operations Forces exercise. (Pfc. Clara Soria-Hernandez\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

U.S. troops in West Africa are primarily responsible for supporting counterterrorism operations carried out by the more than 4,500 French troops stationed in the region. U.S. troops step in and provide logistics support, airlift, intelligence sharing, among other things to U.S. allies in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But terrorist activity<\/a> in the Sahel region of Africa has dramatically risen recently, according to the United Nations Special Representative and Head of the UN office for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas. In January, he said more than 4,000 deaths related to terrorist attacks were reported in 2019 in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger<\/a>. That number equals five times the number of deaths reported in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Burkina Faso alone, more than 500,000 people became displaced due to the violence between January 2019 and January 2020, most recent estimates from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom a broad security standpoint, the Sahel is a tinderbox of terrorist activity and where violent extremist organizations look to use the space to recruit, adapt and evolve,\u201d AFRICOM spokesman Air Force Col. Chris Karns told Military Times in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the future is uncertain, the need for partnerships and readiness in complex environments will remain a constant, especially in an era of great power competition,\u201d Karns said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flintlock
Senegalese and Mauritanian soldiers wait for the end of a vehicle interdiction drill, building off intelligence gathered in pursuit of malign actors as part of the Flintlock 20 scenario, near Atar, Mauritania, Feb. 26, 2020. Flintlock is U.S. Africa Command’s premier and largest annual Special Operations Forces exercise. (Pfc. Clara Soria-Hernandez\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Defense has approximately 6,000 personnel on the entire African continent. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is currently conducting a review of all the combatant commands to examine whether troop adjustments around the world are necessary \u2014 a move that comes as the Pentagon is eyeing threats from near-peer adversaries Russia and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in January that the Pentagon will not completely pull<\/a> all U.S. troops from the African continent, it remains unclear whether a drawdown will occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFRICOM\u2019s future footprint<\/a> on the continent may be up in the air, but the command currently has adequate resources to conduct the mission it\u2019s been assigned, Townsend said. The exception though is resources for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, he said AFRICOM troops are the \u201cmost thinly resourced of any I have ever encountered\u201d due to the U.S. role supporting international partners, and noted that fewer resources would further limit AFRICOM\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree if we have less resources we will be able to do less,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI do believe that if ISIS can carve out a new caliphate, or al-Qaida can, they will attempt to do it in West Africa,\u201d U.S. Africa Command commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":98596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,89,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3305],"class_list":["post-62094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"Z4SZMS5NAZA5ZIKXOCX3CHD7IA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2020\/03\/10\/efforts-to-combat-violent-extremist-groups-in-sahel-region-are-not-getting-the-job-done-says-africom-leader\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\nEfforts to combat violent extremist groups in Sahel region are \u2018not getting the job done,\u2019 says AFRICOM leader - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cI do believe that if ISIS can carve out a new caliphate, or al-Qaida can, they will attempt to do it in West Africa,\u201d U.S. Africa Command commander Army Gen. 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