The United States is competing with Russia, China, and terror groups across the continent of Africa in the information domain, but limited resources are posing hurdles American diplomats and service members need to overcome.
U.S. Africa Command Commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson testified before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, highlighting that the continent has become not just the “epicenter of global terrorism,” but also an increasingly important nexus for security and strategic competition.
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“With a 75% reduction in our regional posture over the past decade, compounded by the drawdown of our allies, we struggle with an intelligence black hole,” Anderson said, adding that AFRICOM gets “less than one-tenth of one percent of the department’s budget.”
The U.S. is not the only Western country to reduce its footprint on the continent, which has also had an effect. The French and others withdrew from countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in recent years, and this has allowed for terror groups like Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al Qaeda affiliate, to gain a foothold in the Sahel region. JNIM targeted cities in Mali, like Kayes and Nioro du Sahel, before seeking to take control of Bamako, the capital, and doing so would give them the chance to secure “the resources and trappings of a nation state,” Anderson said in his written testimony.
ISIS-West Africa and ISIS-Sahel are also attempting to construct their own caliphate by exploiting weak governments or ungoverned areas in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin.
The U.S. has sought to strengthen relationships with African nations’ governments that are in alignment with the Trump administration. It has worked with Nigeria to combat its terror threat, including a recent series of joint operations killing 175 ISIS members, including Abu-Bilal al Minuki, whom Anderson called “the most active and impactful terrorist in the world.”
Russia has sought to exploit instability in Africa to extract natural resources, which has helped the country evade sanctions and sustain its strained economy. Anderson said in his written testimony that Russia has made more than $2.5 billion since 2022 from extracting gold in the Sahel and Central African Republic.
Russia is also tapping into the continent to assist in its manpower issues, by luring downtrodden young men under the guise of professional opportunities, only to force them into the military, some of whom were sent into the Ukraine war. Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Botswana, and Mali have all acknowledged men getting falsely recruited into the Russian Army, according to the New York Times.
More than 1,000 Kenyans have traveled to Russia to fight in the war, the Kenyan government said in February.
“It’s not been clear that they were recruited to go to Ukraine, often using other reasons to recruit them, whether for work or for other jobs, not necessarily articulating the fact that they end up on the front lines in Ukraine,” Anderson told lawmakers. “So one of those things that we have done to help counter that is just implement the truth by being able to inform other partners of what’s happening has been very powerful.”
AFRICA IS ‘EPICENTER OF GLOBAL TERRORISM’ THAT REQUIRES ‘SUSTAINED PRESSURE’
Similarly, China has sought to exert control of critical minerals and strategic infrastructure, including in the maritime domain.
Anderson noted in his written testimony that Beijing “dominates 90 percent of battery-grade graphite processing, a resource critical for electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and advanced military technologies like 5th and 6th generation fighter jets. This near-monopoly creates a structural vulnerability for the U.S. Defense Industrial Base.”
He also explained to lawmakers that the strategic competitions between the U.S. and Russia and China in Africa is not simply a military one, because Russia, China, and terror groups thrive on instability and weak governance, and if the U.S. can use diplomacy to encourage investment and development, it will lead to more security.
In addition to the reduction in force presence, the Trump administration initially shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, reduced its efforts on the continent, and reopened a new office within the State Department.
