US treads carefully in Africa

DIFFA, Niger

Across Africa, affiliates of Al Qaida and other Islamist militants are proving resilient and in some cases expanding their influence, from Nigeria to Libya to Somalia, Western and African counterterrorism officials say.

So it is not surprising that the authorities in this poor West African desert nation, which has emerged as a staunch ally of France and the United States in the fight against Islamist militancy, are nervously watching Boko Haram, a sect in neighbouring Nigeria suspected of killing well over 400 civilians in the last five weeks alone, including children watching a soccer match over the weekend.

The group’s fighters have made a habit of quietly slipping across the border into Niger to rest, rearm and refit, officials say — a pipeline the nation is eager to shut down with the Pentagon’s help. But instead of launching American air strikes or commando raids on militants, the latest joint mission between the nations involves something else entirely: American boxes of donated vitamins, prenatal medicines and mosquito netting to combat malaria.

With more than a decade of land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drawing to an end, the American military’s involvement in Niger illustrates how the Pentagon is trying to juggle two competing missions in Africa: contain the spread of Islamist militancy without having to pour a lot of soldiers or money into the region. Threats continue on the continent, but budgets are tightening at home, and the appetite to send large American armies to foreign conflicts is small. So, the Obama administration is focusing on training and advising African troops to deal with their own security threats, or providing help to European allies that have historical ties and forces in the region.

American officials and their partners call it enabling, a way of shifting from being a major combatant in war zones to a supporting role to local and other international forces. In Central African Republic, American transport planes recently ferried 1,700 peacekeepers from Burundi and Rwanda to the strife-torn nation, but refrained from putting US boots on the ground.

The United States is flying unarmed reconnaissance drones from a base here in Niger to support French and African troops in Mali, but conspicuously stayed out of the war there, even after the conflict helped spur a terrorist attack in Algeria in which Americans were taken hostage.

As part of a three-week exercise, Army Green Berets from Fort Carson, Colorado, and instructors from other Western countries have trained African troops in Niger to conduct combat patrols and to foil terrorist ambushes.

American officials point out that they will intervene directly when vital interests are at stake. In South Sudan, American soldiers and Marines positioned in the region after the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, rushed to help evacuate dozens of Americans from the embassy there last December. Commando raids last year in Libya (successful) and Somalia (failed) show the US will not farm out its top counterterrorism missions, officials say.

But the weaknesses of the Pentagon’s strategy to outsource its security needs in stretches of Africa are also on display in Niger, where the government of President Mahamadou Issoufou is struggling to stem a flow of extremists across the country’s lightly defended borders with Mali, Nigeria and Libya. Even with Western aid, Niger’s top officials say the challenge is daunting.

“Niger is suffering the collateral fallout of the Libyan and Malian crises,” Niger’s foreign minister, Mohammad Bazoum, told a security conference in Niger last month.

In the past two years, the United States has spent $33 million (Dh121 million) to build Niger’s counterterrorism abilities, providing equipment such as radios, water and fuel trucks, spare parts, helmets, body armour, uniforms and GPS devices.

Some American lawmakers say the administration’s level of involvement makes sense, but argue direct American military engagement may have to increase if threats in the region rise. “It’s a balancing act,” said Representative Frank A. LoBiondo, a New Jersey Republican on the Intelligence Committee. “Many of these countries consider the US a partner and strong ally, but they have serious concerns about what our footprint looks like.”

— New York Times

News Service