“We are not winning” counterterror war in Sahel, U.S. military leader in Africa says

Pentagon makes cuts in Africa
The general’s recommendation to no longer decrease U.S. troop numbers in West Africa comes after the Pentagon ordered a 10 percent cut to U.S. defense personnel in Africa, effective over the next few years. The shift supported the administration’s new focus away from counterterrorism toward strategic competition with China and Russia, and the first U.S. military cuts on the continent pulled between 100-200 from West Africa.

U.S. military officials have not revealed where future troop cuts will hit.

Terrorist threats plaguing the Sahel have continued to spread. While the exercise participants took on a simulated threat, officers from Burkina Faso periodically left the training exercise to check in on troops carrying out a combat mission.

Niger and Mali are fighting al-Qaida-linked militants, and Chad is combating a militant push from the expansion of Islamic State and Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria.

But as of early Thursday, Hicks said he had not received a request for additional funding, troops or equipment during this month’s military exercise.

“Nobody’s asked me for anything since I’ve been here,” Hicks told VOA, adding that African partners have shown great appreciation for current U.S. support.

Col. Nathan Prussian, commander of the Army’s 3rd Special Forces Group, told VOA that partners in the region have sought better equipment and help with logistics and coordinating operations.

“No partner has come to me and said, ‘I need you to be on the ground with me on every operation I do,’” Prussian said.

Military exercises
Flintlock 2019 includes about 2,000 troops from more than 30 African and Western countries. The exercise focuses not just on tactical skills, such as shooting or formations, but also on military operational skills.

Army Col. Max Krupp, the Special Operations Command Africa senior mentor, is serving as an adviser at the command headquarters in Camp Zagre on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. Commandoes there collected intelligence and battle updates from several military outposts in Burkina Faso and one outpost in Mauritania as part of a simulated operation.

Krupp told VOA that the U.S. has seen “a lot of tactical success” stem from the exercise in the last couple of years, “but that (success) alone will not turn the tide of violent extremist organizations in the region.”

“Special operations forces may be able to shoot, communicate and move in the areas in which they are assigned, but without the ability to command and control them and understand the benefit and how it ties into the larger picture, our energies are best focused at the higher operational and strategic level,” he said.

Carla Babb is VOA’s Pentagon correspondent. This article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA)