U.S. Special Forces launch counter-terrorism drills with African armies

Proteo

01/03/2023 18:24

By Cooper Inveen
       DABOYA, Ghana, March 1 (Reuters) - The United States
began its annual counter-terrorism training program for African
forces in Ghana on Wednesday, aiming to strengthen border
defences in the fight against Islamist insurgents who are
spreading south into new territories. 
    The program, known as Flintlock, started at a military base
in the dusty northern town of Daboya where U.S. and European
trainers drilled soldiers from across Africa on first aid and
firing drills in the baking heat.
    "Flintlock intends to strengthen the ability of key partner
nations in the region to counter violent extremist
organizations, collaborate across borders, and provide security
for their people," U.S. Africa Command said in a statement. 
    The training comes at a critical time for West Africa, where
groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda continue to carry
out routine attacks on civilians and the military despite costly
interventions from international forces. 
    What began as a Mali-based insurgency in 2012 has since
ballooned into a regional network of competing Islamist groups
that operate across large areas of landlocked Niger and Burkina
Faso and which in recent years have spread into coastal
countries including Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast. 
    The violence has killed thousands and displaced millions. 
    So far Ghana, whose rural north borders Burkina Faso, has
been spared the violence, but security experts say organised
crime is rife, and poor, remote communities could be vulnerable
to recruitment, as they have been in neighbouring countries. 
    Daboya itself is less than 100 miles (160 km) from Burkina
Faso.
    "Partners should take advantage of this window, because
counter-terrorism efforts in West Africa have been largely
ineffective once the overt phase of the insurgency (e.g. local
recruitment) is underway," said Aneliese Bernard, director of
Strategic Stabilization Advisors, a U.S.-based risk advisory
group. 
    Efforts at cross border coordination in West Africa have
been complicated by military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and
Guinea since 2020 that led to some temporary sanctions and
border closures. 
    Frictions with juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso led France to
withdraw thousands of troops from those countries over the past
year, in what some analysts said could be a boost to Islamist
groups.  
    

 (Writing and additional reporting by Edward McAllister, Editing
by William Maclean)
 ((edward.mcallister@tr.com; +221 77 569 1704;))