Africa has become the “epicenter of global terrorism,” and it will take “sustained pressure” to address the threats, U.S. Africa Command leader Gen. Dagvin Anderson told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Anderson’s testimony in front of the House Armed Services Committee coincided with a series of recent joint U.S.-Nigerian operations targeting Islamic State fighters. The Nigerian military said on Tuesday that the joint strikes had killed 175 ISIS members, including Abu Bilal al Minuki, whom Anderson called “the most active and impactful terrorist in the world.”
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His death “disrupts ISIS operations around the world, but only sustained pressure and multi-dimensional approach with the support of partners united by mutual security interests can address this complex problem,” Anderson explained.
“The Nigerians have been instrumental throughout the last several months, developing the target, helping us with the intelligence, and providing support in order to do that. So, it could not have been done by our own forces that we needed to do that in conjunction with them,” Anderson said. “We are investing a significant amount of effort in order to build those relationships and build that credibility. The operation over the weekend built a lot of that credibility of what the U.S. can bring, and that those unique capabilities can be brought to bear in conjunction with our partners.”
U.S. Africa Command is a “willing and capable” partner for countries in the region, like Nigeria, but there are other parts of the continent where they have less visibility, and terror groups hold territory.
The U.S. military has reduced its presence in the region 75% over the past decade, while U.S. allies have also drawn down their presence as well, which risks “being blind to the gathering dangers and threats of the region,” Anderson said.
AFRICOM gets “less than one-tenth of one percent of the department’s budget,” Anderson said, adding, “We must maximize every taxpayer dollar to deliver an outsized return on investment.”
In Anderson’s written testimony, he said groups like ISIS-West Africa and ISIS-Sahel are attempting to “establish a caliphate by exploiting weak governance and ungoverned spaces in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin” while “Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al Qaeda affiliate, operates in the Sahel, using violence and local grievance to expand its influence and destabilize governments in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.”
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Some key investments Anderson would like to see include increased expeditionary capabilities, such as an afloat forward staging base, expeditionary intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, as well as continued support for small teams of special operations operators who can deploy to specific locations.
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He also noted that outside the military realm, terrorism can often grow from instability, while encouraging development and investment on the continent will lead to stability and ultimately, security.
The U.S. also has to contend with Russia and China for partnerships in Africa. Beijing sees Africa ”as their second continent and critical to their economic and military future,” Anderson wrote, while Russia “exploits instability to advance its objectives.” Russia has also sought to trick countless African men to travel to Russia with the promise of opportunities, only for them to be forced into the military to fight Ukraine.
