{"id":61858,"date":"2020-02-13T11:10:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T03:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61858"},"modified":"2020-02-13T11:10:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T03:10:46","slug":"us-military-begins-adjusting-presence-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61858","title":{"rendered":"US military begins adjusting presence in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/US-military-begins-adjusting-presence-in-Africa-2.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/US-military-begins-adjusting-presence-in-Africa-2.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The United States announced<br>an initial plan for adjusting its military presence in Africa amid concerns<br>the country will reduce forces fighting radical jihadists on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first change will see part of one infantry unit, around 800 troops,<br>replaced with a similar number of military trainers and advisors to support<br>local forces in \u201cspotlight African countries,\u201d Defense Department officials<br>said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe message I\u2019m relaying to my (African) partners is we are not walking<br>away,\u201d US Army Africa commander Major General Roger Cloutier told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are still engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move is the first resulting from a sweeping Pentagon review of the<br>presence of US forces around the world in an effort to better align that<br>presence with US defense priorities \u2014 which list China and Russia as the<br>principle threats to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That could mean reducing US deployments meant to confront Islamic militant threats, including in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the Pentagon is also wary of leaving a vacuum in certain areas, like in<br>Africa, for the Chinese and Russians to fill, which could give them<br>strategically valuable footholds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States has about 6,000 military personnel throughout Africa,<br>including 800 in West Africa, 500 Special Forces in Somalia and an<br>unspecified number at an air base in Niger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US depends especially on French and various African partner forces in<br>West Africa in field operations, but the US strategy has moved to mostly<br>seeking to \u201ccontain\u201d the extremist groups rather than degrade them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe terrorist threat in Africa remains persistent and, in many places, is<br>growing,\u201d said the Pentagon\u2019s inspector general in a recent report on US<br>counterterrorism operations in Africa. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The United States announcedan initial plan for adjusting its military presence in Africa amid concernsthe country will reduce forces fighting radical jihadists on the continent. The first change will see part of one infantry unit, around 800 troops,replaced with a similar number of military trainers and advisors to supportlocal forces [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61858"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}