The United States is pulling around 700 counter-terrorism troops from their current 7,200 troops from dozens of African countries. This decision comes straight from the department of defense. The overall plan from the Pentagon is to shift away focus and sharing of intelligence from Western African countries to deal with threats in China and Russia. An anonymous US official stated that Kenya, Cameroon and Mali would have the majority of their troops pulled over the next 3 years. Military Officials have stated that the plan to remove troops has nothing to do with the Niger attack that led to four American troops dying. The plan comes from Donald Trump’s new defense strategy that will allow the United States to take unneeded resources in order to compete with nations world wide in maintaining a global superpower. On november 14th a bipartisan congressional panel said that the efforts for counter-insurgency have weakened the Military capabilities globally and prevented the United States from focusing its energy on global competitors. The United States is depending on setting up and training permanent african establishments into protecting themselves, other than relying on the US for support, in order to suppress insurgency in those countries, mainly from Islamic extremist. The movement of military out of Africa will not be 100 percent. Countries with high Terrorism issues such as Somalia and Djibouti will still contain roughly the same number of troops and places like Libya may actually gain more troops. The system now being put in place will only cover the most essential parts.
