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Morocco World
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Independence & Interdependence
The Moroccan–American Treaty of Peace and Friendship (The Treaty of Marrakesh) was negotiated and signed in 1786, establishing diplomatic and commercial relations between the United States and Morocco. Unbeknownst to many Americans at the time (the population of the U.S. was just over three million), the treaty represented the first formal diplomatic treaty between the U.S. and any African or Muslim nation. It remains in force today, 239 years later. The treaty, negotiated by American diplomat Thomas Barclay and his Moroccan counterpart Tahir Fannish in Marrakesh, was conceived by visionary leaders guiding a new and untested republic across the Atlantic as well as a Moroccan sultan, Mohammed III (Mohammed ben Abdallah), who is often credited with forging the modern Moroccan state. History often finds larger meaning for seemingly modest events. This is likely the case for the enduring Morocco-United States relationship. In December 1789, President George Washington, having only been in office for several months, wrote to Mohammad III to acknowledge the sultan's August 1788 diplomatic letter to the US and to explain the delayed response from the newly formed nation. Washington thanked the Sultan for his nation's friendship and for his proactive diplomatic steps that '… make a deep impression on the United States and confirm their respect for and attachment to Your Imperial Majesty.' Over the next 230-plus years, the two nations would find themselves at the center of critical global events—a world war, recurring regional conflicts, the upheaval of the Arab Spring, a global health pandemic and a post-Cold War order that presents ongoing challenges to a global superpower like the United States and new opportunites for a regional power like Morocco. The 239-year relationship endures in ways large and small, from American Peace Corps volunteers teaching English in dar shababs to Moroccan financiers in New York and Moroccan actors in Hollywood. The $7 billion annual trade relationship includes citrus and automotive exports to the U.S. and animal feed and aerospace exports to Morocco. Security & Soft Power On security, the relationship is quite iconic. During the Roosevelt-Churchill summit in Casablanca in January 1943, US General George Patton made this entry in his diary about a car ride he shared with Sultan Mohammad V following a summit dinner held in the sultan's honor: 'I rode with Sultan and Grand Vizier to house of latter. On way Sultan said, 'Truly your President is a very great man and a great friend of myself and of my people'.' In 2025, the security relationship finds meaning across several domains, from combatting transnational drug trafficking to the 2020 Abraham Accords. The yearly African Lion military exercises held in southern Morocco have created a template for Maghreb regional security, and they represent U.S. Africa Command's largest regional annual exercise. For over a decade, Morocco has also established itself as a critical regional security partner to Europe. Following the November 2015 ISIS-inspired terror attacks on several public venues in Paris, French security services utilized critical Moroccan intelligence information to locate key members of the responsible terror cell. A week after the attacks, French President Francois Hollande received King Mohammed VI in Paris in part to thank him for Rabat's critical help. Late last year, four French nationals who were employees of the French Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) were freed from detention in Burkina Faso thanks to discreet intervention by Mohammad VI. The London School of Economics recently noted the approach of Morocco's OCP Group (the nation's phosphate enterprise) within Africa and how it differs markedly from previous models of foreign economic investment that were heavy on sales and light on cooperative knowledge sharing. The result is new agro-business investments, customized fertilisers and sustainable agriculture practices as the continent grows hotter and soil challenges mount. As America celebrates its independence this week, the global uncertainties of 2025 are perhaps more perplexing than those that existed in 1786 when the Treaty of Peace and Friendship was negotiated. That year, the U.S. Constitution had yet to be written and the newly formed United States possessed not a single naval ship, having disbanded the navy following the end of the Revolutionary War. The future had yet to arrive. For both nations, tumultuous and uncertain times demanded visionary leaders like Mohammed III, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. For Morocco and the United States, the benefits of an enduring friendship are, thankfully, still accruing. Tags: Morocco and US relationsUS and Morocco relations
Mint
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Mint
The coup leader who's become an anti-Western hero in Africa and beyond
Three years ago, Ibrahim Traoré was a junior army officer in Burkina Faso's armed forces. Today, he has emerged as a surprising anti-Western hero preaching self-reliance and resilience with fans across Africa and beyond. Since toppling the West African country's previous military leader in 2022 and making himself president, Traoré has won the kind of glowing admiration from people across the continent that has eluded African leaders since the days of antiapartheid icon Nelson Mandela and the generation that led the independence struggles. 'Many Africans are disillusioned with the West," said Ayotunde Abiodun, an analyst with SBM Intelligence, a Nigeria-based geopolitical research consulting firm. Traoré, he said, has become the anti-imperialist face of that sentiment. Russia has tried to court him, seeing him as a way to accelerate the decline of France's influence across the arid countries of the Sahel, the wide band of land bordering the southern reaches of the Sahara. But Traoré has his own agenda of reviving the Pan-African movements of the past. Whether he succeeds in putting Burkina Faso on a stronger footing and pushing back a long-running Islamist insurgency could influence what happens elsewhere across the region. The 37-year-old appears to be genuinely popular as people across the region tire of a generation of aging leaders widely seen as corrupt and beholden to the West. In April, thousands of Burkina Faso citizens poured into the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital city, in solidarity with Traoré after an alleged counter-counter-coup failed to oust him from office. The protesters were also incensed by comments by Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, accusing Traoré of misusing the country's gold reserves. Traoré partisans saw Langley's comments as a pretext for Western intervention, and members of the African diaspora held solidarity marches to show their support for him. In London, Traoré supporters held banners that read, 'Hands off African resources, Hands off Ibrahim Traoré." In Jamaica, demonstrations took place outside the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, and on the north coast in Montego Bay, where protesters sang, played drums and hailed Traoré as a 'Black liberator." Motorized rickshaws, a common mode of transport among working people, display photos of the beret-wearing Traoré in Nairobi, a city on the opposite side of the continent. Part of Traoré's appeal comes from how he styles himself after his countryman and Pan-Africanist leader Thomas Sankara. Often called 'Africa's Che Guevara," Sankara renamed the Republic of the Upper Volta as Burkina Faso, or 'land of the upright people," and set about making the country more self-sufficient before he was assassinated in 1987. In taking a leaf out of his book, Traoré has revived interest in Sankara and his pan-Africanism. Last month, a newspaper published by the Nation of Islam, the Black religious and political movement of Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, featured side-by-side photos of Traoré and Sankara on its front page. Traoré primarily came to power on a promise to improve security, however. As a captain, he ousted Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had himself overthrown a civilian government eight months earlier. Both Traoré and Damiba had justified their actions by accusing their predecessors of failing to quell dual insurgencies by Islamists affiliated with al Qaeda and Islamic State. Traoré has since surfed a wave of public discontent with France, the former colonial power, whose continued involvement in the political and economic lives of its former West African colonies created resentment, according to analysts. In a popular move, Traoré expelled French troops, who had also been unable to tame the insurgencies. U.S. Green Berets, who had arrived to train local commandos shortly before the coup, suspended military aid after the putsch. Donning the populist mantle, Traoré renegotiated international gold-mining contracts to guarantee the government a greater share of the revenue. He distributed tractors and cheap fertilizer to farmers and built factories, such as a tomato-processing plant and the country's first gold refinery—efforts to keep value-added businesses at home. A survey by Afrobarometer, a Ghana-based pollster, found last year that a majority of Burkina Faso's people supported military rule as the best way to combat corrupt civilian elites. The survey showed that across the continent, more than half of Africans were willing to tolerate military intervention in politics if 'elected leaders abuse power for their own ends." Two-thirds, however, rejected military rule as the default system of government. Analysts say Traoré has gained strong support from the country's rural poor by placing land under state control, nullifying previous land allocations that favored agribusinesses and recognizing customary rights of rural communities. Supporters see the measures as an attempt to undo decades of land policies that favored corporate investors over smallholder farmers, said Burkina Faso analyst Luc Damiba. The new land policies have also gained him favor from young people, who have cheered his promise of land and agricultural training. Analysts say sections of Burkina Faso's urban, educated classes, including academics, journalists and civil‑society activists, worry that Traoré doesn't intend to return the country to elected civilian government. Traoré has postponed elections scheduled for last year until 2029, saying voting will take place when the military has wrestled enough territory from jihadists to allow all citizens to vote. Like the African liberation leaders of the 1960s, Traoré has cozied up to Moscow. Last month, he attended a Moscow parade celebrating the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany. Russia has launched an influence operation in Burkina Faso involving pro-Moscow local radio stations as well as sports and musical events, says the nonprofit African Digital Democracy Observatory. Paid content lauding Traoré also began to appear across pro-Russian social-media platforms after he seized power, according to a 2023 report by the Paris-based watchdog All Eyes on Wagner. 'Allowing Burkinabé to sleep peacefully and live without hunger. These are his ambitions. This man deserves the greatest respect," read a caption on one Traoré portrait. The posts were disseminated widely across the continent by the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary force active in Africa, the watchdog said, though only a fifth of Burkina Faso's population has internet access and only 12% use social media, limiting the domestic influence of online campaigns. Russia has a clear interest in getting on Traoré's good side. Hobbled by Western sanctions, it needs gold to shore up its struggling economy and has expanded its presence around West Africa through resource‑for‑security pacts, providing military trainers, mercenary units and media campaigns in exchange for mining rights. Burkina Faso, a major gold producer, struck a deal with the Russian company Nordgold, which took an 85% stake in a gold-mining project. The government, which retained 15% of the ownership, expects the project to contribute $101 million to its coffers over an eight-year span. However, unlike in countries like Mali or the Central African Republic, where Moscow's mercenaries play a key role in protecting local regimes, Traoré has been reluctant to accept Russian boots on the ground. A 400-strong contingent of Russian mercenaries, who arrived in Ouagadougou with much fanfare last year, departed within three months, according to current and former French and Burkinabé officials. 'Traoré feels the army is the guarantor to preserve his country's sovereignty," said a former minister in the Burkina Faso government. 'Russian mercenaries are not his cup of tea." Traoré's Achilles' heel, however, may be the very issue he used to sell his power grab: security. Violence has gotten worse since the military seized power. More than 17,000 people have been killed in insurgent violence since the takeover—more than triple the death toll from the final three years of civilian rule, according to an analysis by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, part of the Pentagon's National Defense University. The center analyzed data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit monitoring service. In August, jihadists massacred hundreds of villagers in Barsalogho, a remote town in north-central Burkina Faso. Rights groups report that the Burkina Faso military has committed extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions during Traoré's time in power, and has used an emergency law to forcibly conscript civilians, including critics and activists, to quell dissent. Burkina Faso officials didn't respond to requests for comment. 'There's a possibility for this symbolism and popular legitimacy that he enjoys right now to erode if there's no improvement in the security situation and economic condition of the Burkina Faso people between now and then," said Abiodun, the Nigeria-based analyst. Write to Caroline Kimeu at and Benoit Faucon at
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - How to avoid Africa's next water war
In 2023, Gen. Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command, warned that African countries face new destabilizing challenges, including 'climate change [that] is increasing desertification.' One year earlier, Morocco, a close U.S. ally on the northwestern edge of the Sahara Desert, had already started taking bold steps to get ahead of the negative effects of climate change. In particular, it began building a series of dams to better manage its increasingly precarious water resources. Scheduled for completion between 2026 and 2029, the dams will lessen the impact of more frequent and more violent floods, and they will allow Morocco to adapt to longer and more acute droughts. However, while the dams proactively mitigate the risks climate change poses to Morocco's domestic stability, they are catalysts for broader regional destabilization. One of the dams, and its projected 35 billion cubic feet reservoir, is only 19 miles from Morocco's border with Algeria. The watershed filling the reservoir flows southeasterly, not further into Morocco but away from it and across the border into nearby Algeria. While the dam will safeguard Moroccan communities' water supplies, it will cut off water for more than 300,000 Algerians just on the other side of the border. Waters from the Oued Guir and the Oued Zousfana Rivers flow east out of Morocco's craggy Atlas Mountains and form the transboundary Oued Saoura watershed. The Saoura watershed is the primary water source for Algeria's Bechar and Tindouf provinces. Combined, these two semi-arid provinces are bigger than the United Kingdom or Italy. Bechar and Tindouf depend on Saoura water for drinking, agriculture and industry. Bechar, an Algerian city only 37 miles from the Moroccan border, is not some scrappy Saharan outpost, but a well-developed regional hub. The eponymous seasonal Oued Bechar flows through town, its banks brimming with palm trees. A brand new university with faculties in medicine, biology, physics, political science and other disciplines caters to 15,000 students. Fountains burble and splash in shaded campus courtyards. There is a state-of-the-art oncology hospital. Nearly all (98 percent) of Bechar's 35,000 households have running water. They also all have electricity, gas and internet access. Morocco's dams blocking the Saoura watershed threaten all of this. In April, the University of Bechar hosted a conference on water resource management and equitable usage. Water resource specialists and geopolitical experts from other Algerian universities and around the world presented studies about the calamitous effects that Morocco's dams will have on Algerian communities and case studies of other successfully resolved cross-border water crises. The burgeoning dam dispute between Morocco and Algeria is hardly unique: Climate change is exacerbating water conflicts around the world. In many instances, like disputes about water usage on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers between Turkey and Iraq, or between Ethiopia and Egypt on the Nile, or more recently between India and Pakistan on the Indus River, opposing parties pursue a negotiated solution for equitable cross-border water sharing. Negotiations are typically protracted, taking years, and they are often fraught, but guided by the United Nations' 1992 Water Convention, which obliges countries with cross-border water resources to 'use transboundary waters in a reasonable and equitable way,' negotiations aim at a mutually acceptable compromise. Algeria and Morocco are a long way from any compromise. Morocco is unilaterally pursuing a water resource management strategy that will negatively impact Algeria, accelerate desertification in the Sahara and potentially internally displace hundreds of thousands of Algerians. But because there are no diplomatic ties between Algeria and Morocco, there are no formal channels to negotiate equitable transboundary water usage. Bechar, however, is not just home to a palm-lined river, a shiny cancer center and a university bustling with students. It is also home to Algeria's 3rd Military Region. The military base stretches for miles on the city's southwestern side, including an airfield, a hospital, barracks, a school and even a playground and a pool. In May, Algeria's Army chief of staff, the country's highest-ranked uniformed officer, oversaw a live fire military exercise with 3rd Military Region forces, showcasing tanks, drones, mobile rocket systems, fighter jets, attack helicopters, shoulder-launched missiles and a mock ground assault. All within 30 miles of the Moroccan border and 60 miles from Morocco's dams. With a 2025 defense budget estimated to be $25 billion, Algeria has the largest defense budget in Africa and almost double that of Morocco. For Algeria, the dams' disruption of the Saoura watershed is a violation of Algeria's sovereignty. Langley, who just visited Morocco in May at the conclusion of the U.S. African Lion joint military exercise, is no doubt correct: Countries need to take steps to counter climate change's destabilizing effects. But countries also need to ensure that the preventative measures they take accommodate broader contexts so that they do not become drivers of the very instability that they are trying to counter. This is the case of Morocco's dams: They are solving for potential instability in Morocco while simultaneously increasing its likelihood in Algeria. The U.S. has exceptionally good relations with Morocco. Morocco is a major non-NATO ally, the highest ally status a country can have with the U.S. outside the NATO framework. It is one of only four Arab countries to have a free trade agreement with the U.S. and is a signatory to the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations with Israel. The U.S. should use its considerable influence with Morocco to encourage it to reach an agreement with Algeria for the cooperative and equitable management of their shared transboundary water resources under the U.N. Water Convention, lest Algeria feels compelled to secure its national interest and its citizens' wellbeing through other means. Geoff D. Porter, Ph.D., is the president of North Africa Risk Consulting, a nonresident fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, and a professor at Fordham University. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
How to avoid Africa's next water war
In 2023, Gen. Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command, warned that African countries face new destabilizing challenges, including 'climate change [that] is increasing desertification.' One year earlier, Morocco, a close U.S. ally on the northwestern edge of the Sahara Desert, had already started taking bold steps to get ahead of the negative effects of climate change. In particular, it began building a series of dams to better manage its increasingly precarious water resources. Scheduled for completion between 2026 and 2029, the dams will lessen the impact of more frequent and more violent floods, and they will allow Morocco to adapt to longer and more acute droughts. However, while the dams proactively mitigate the risks climate change poses to Morocco's domestic stability, they are catalysts for broader regional destabilization. One of the dams, and its projected 35 billion cubic feet reservoir, is only 19 miles from Morocco's border with Algeria. The watershed filling the reservoir flows southeasterly, not further into Morocco but away from it and across the border into nearby Algeria. While the dam will safeguard Moroccan communities' water supplies, it will cut off water for more than 300,000 Algerians just on the other side of the border. Waters from the Oued Guir and the Oued Zousfana Rivers flow east out of Morocco's craggy Atlas Mountains and form the transboundary Oued Saoura watershed. The Saoura watershed is the primary water source for Algeria's Bechar and Tindouf provinces. Combined, these two semi-arid provinces are bigger than the United Kingdom or Italy. Bechar and Tindouf depend on Saoura water for drinking, agriculture and industry. Bechar, an Algerian city only 37 miles from the Moroccan border, is not some scrappy Saharan outpost, but a well-developed regional hub. The eponymous seasonal Oued Bechar flows through town, its banks brimming with palm trees. A brand new university with faculties in medicine, biology, physics, political science and other disciplines caters to 15,000 students. Fountains burble and splash in shaded campus courtyards. There is a state-of-the-art oncology hospital. Nearly all (98 percent) of Bechar's 35,000 households have running water. They also all have electricity, gas and internet access. Morocco's dams blocking the Saoura watershed threaten all of this. In April, the University of Bechar hosted a conference on water resource management and equitable usage. Water resource specialists and geopolitical experts from other Algerian universities and around the world presented studies about the calamitous effects that Morocco's dams will have on Algerian communities and case studies of other successfully resolved cross-border water crises. The burgeoning dam dispute between Morocco and Algeria is hardly unique: Climate change is exacerbating water conflicts around the world. In many instances, like disputes about water usage on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers between Turkey and Iraq, or between Ethiopia and Egypt on the Nile, or more recently between India and Pakistan on the Indus River, opposing parties pursue a negotiated solution for equitable cross-border water sharing. Negotiations are typically protracted, taking years, and they are often fraught, but guided by the United Nations' 1992 Water Convention, which obliges countries with cross-border water resources to 'use transboundary waters in a reasonable and equitable way,' negotiations aim at a mutually acceptable compromise. Algeria and Morocco are a long way from any compromise. Morocco is unilaterally pursuing a water resource management strategy that will negatively impact Algeria, accelerate desertification in the Sahara and potentially internally displace hundreds of thousands of Algerians. But because there are no diplomatic ties between Algeria and Morocco, there are no formal channels to negotiate equitable transboundary water usage. Bechar, however, is not just home to a palm-lined river, a shiny cancer center and a university bustling with students. It is also home to Algeria's 3rd Military Region. The military base stretches for miles on the city's southwestern side, including an airfield, a hospital, barracks, a school and even a playground and a pool. In May, Algeria's Army chief of staff, the country's highest-ranked uniformed officer, oversaw a live fire military exercise with 3rd Military Region forces, showcasing tanks, drones, mobile rocket systems, fighter jets, attack helicopters, shoulder-launched missiles and a mock ground assault. All within 30 miles of the Moroccan border and 60 miles from Morocco's dams. With a 2025 defense budget estimated to be $25 billion, Algeria has the largest defense budget in Africa and almost double that of Morocco. For Algeria, the dams' disruption of the Saoura watershed is a violation of Algeria's sovereignty. Langley, who just visited Morocco in May at the conclusion of the U.S. African Lion joint military exercise, is no doubt correct: Countries need to take steps to counter climate change's destabilizing effects. But countries also need to ensure that the preventative measures they take accommodate broader contexts so that they do not become drivers of the very instability that they are trying to counter. This is the case of Morocco's dams: They are solving for potential instability in Morocco while simultaneously increasing its likelihood in Algeria. The U.S. has exceptionally good relations with Morocco. Morocco is a major non-NATO ally, the highest ally status a country can have with the U.S. outside the NATO framework. It is one of only four Arab countries to have a free trade agreement with the U.S. and is a signatory to the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations with Israel. The U.S. should use its considerable influence with Morocco to encourage it to reach an agreement with Algeria for the cooperative and equitable management of their shared transboundary water resources under the U.N. Water Convention, lest Algeria feels compelled to secure its national interest and its citizens' wellbeing through other means. Geoff D. Porter, Ph.D., is the president of North Africa Risk Consulting, a nonresident fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, and a professor at Fordham University.
The Intercept
08-06-2025
- Politics
- The Intercept
Top U.S. General in Africa Paints Grim Picture of U.S. Military Failures in Africa
President George W. Bush created a new command to oversee all military operations in Africa 18 years ago. U.S. Africa Command was meant to help 'bring peace and security to the people of Africa.' The Trump administration now has AFRICOM on the chopping block as part of its sweeping reorganization of the military. According to the general leading the command, its mission is far from accomplished. Gen. Michael Langley, the head of AFRICOM, offered a grim assessment of security on the African continent during a recent press conference. The West African Sahel, he said last Friday, was now the 'epicenter of terrorism' and the gravest terrorist threats to the U.S. homeland were 'unfortunately right here on the African continent.' The embattled four-star general — who noted his days were numbered as AFRICOM's chief — was speaking from a conference of African defense chiefs in Kenya, where he had been imploring ministers and heads of state to help save his faltering command. 'I said: 'OK, if we're that important to [you], you need to communicate that,'' he explained, asking them to have their U.S. ambassadors make entreaties on behalf of AFRICOM. Current and former defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide candid assessments, were divided on whether Langley deserves a measure of blame for the dire straits the command finds itself in. One former defense official spoke highly of Langley, calling him 'an effective and transformational leader' who 'rapidly grew into the job and developed strong, fruitful relationships with members of Congress.' A current official, however, said almost the opposite, calling the four-star general a 'marble mouth' who did a poor job of making a case for his command, 'fumbled' relations with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and diminished AFRICOM's standing with legislators. Asked by messaging app if the latter assessment was accurate, a former Africa Command official sent a laughing emoji and replied 'no comment' followed by 'but yes.' (The official said he could be quoted as such.) Before 2008, when the command began operations, U.S. military activities in Africa were handled by other combatant commands. AFRICOM's creation reflected rising U.S. national security interests on the continent and a desire for a single command to oversee a proliferation of post-9/11 counterterrorism activities, predominantly in the West African Sahel and Somalia. Since U.S. Africa Command began operations, the number of U.S. military personnel on the African continent — as well as programs, operations, exercises, bases, low-profile Special Operations missions, deployments of commandos, drones strikes, and almost every other military activity — has jumped exponentially. AFRICOM 'disrupts and neutralizes transnational threats' in order to 'promote regional security, stability and prosperity,' according to its mission statement. That hasn't come to pass. Throughout all of Africa, the State Department counted 23 deaths from terrorist violence in 2002 and 2003, the first years of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the Sahel and Somalia. By 2010, two years after AFRICOM began operations, fatalities from attacks by militant Islamists had already spiked to 2,674, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. The situation only continued to deteriorate. There were an estimated 18,900 fatalities linked to militant Islamist violence in Africa last year, with 79 percent of those coming from the Sahel and Somalia, according to a recent analysis by the Africa Center. This constitutes a jump of more than 82,000 percent since the U.S. launched its post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts on the continent. 'The Sahel — that's where we consider the epicenter of terrorism — Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are confronted with this each and every day; they're in crisis. The terrorist networks affiliated with ISIS and al-Qaeda are thriving, particularly in Burkina Faso,' said Langley. During his tenure, the U.S. was largely kicked out of the region, forced to abandon key nodes of its archipelago of West African bases and many secret wars across the Sahel that were largely unknown to members of Congress as they played out. Langley noted that, since the U.S. left Niger in September of last year, AFRICOM has observed a rise in violence across the Sahel. He neglected to mention that terrorism increased exponentially during the years of heaviest U.S. military involvement, leading to instability and disenchantment with the U.S. He also failed to note, despite having been previously grilled about it during congressional testimony, that the military juntas that booted the U.S. from West Africa were made up of U.S.-supported officers who overthrew the governments the U.S. trained them to protect. As violence spiraled in the region over the past decades, at least 15 officers who benefited from U.S. security assistance were key leaders in 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel during the war on terror — including the three nations Langley emphasized: Burkina Faso (in 2014, 2015, and twice in 2022), Mali (in 2012, 2020, and 2021), and Niger (in 2023). At least five leaders of the 2023 coup d'état in the latter country, for example, received American assistance. U.S. war in Somalia which has ramped up since President Donald Trump retook office, also got top billing. The U.S. 'is actively pursuing and eliminating jihadists,' said the AFRICOM chief. 'And at the request of the Somali Government, this year alone AFRICOM has conducted over 25 airstrikes — double the number of strikes that we did last year.' The U.S. military is approaching its 23rd year of operations in Somalia. In the fall of 2002, the U.S. military established Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa to conduct operations in support of the global war on terror in the region, and U.S. Special Operations forces were dispatched to Somalia. They were followed by conventional forces, helicopters, surveillance aircraft, outposts, and drones. By 2007, the Pentagon recognized that there were fundamental flaws with U.S. military operations in the Horn of Africa, and Somalia became another post-9/11 stalemate, which AFRICOM inherited the next year. U.S. airstrikes in Somalia have skyrocketed when Trump is in office. From 2007 to 2017, under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the U.S. military carried out 43 declared airstrikes in Somalia. During Trump's first term, AFRICOM conducted more than 200 air attacks against members of al-Shabab and the Islamic State. By the end of his first term, Trump was ready to call it quits on the sputtering conflict in Somalia, ordering almost all U.S. troops out of the country in late 2020. But President Joe Biden reversed the withdrawal, allowing the conflict to grind on — and now escalate under Trump. The Biden administration conducted 39 declared strikes in Somalia over four years. The U.S. has already carried out 33 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, according to AFRICOM public affairs. At this pace, AFRICOM is poised to equal or exceed the highest number of strikes there in the command's history, 63 in 2019. Despite almost a quarter-century of conflict and billions of taxpayer dollars, Somalia has joined the ranks of signature forever-war failures. While fatalities from Islamist attacks dropped in Somalia last year, they were still 72 percent higher than 2020, according to the Africa Center. AFRICOM told The Intercept that the country's main militant group, al-Shabab, is now 'the largest al Qaida network in the world.' (Langley called them 'entrenched, wealthy, and large.') The command called ISIS-Somalia 'a growing threat in East Africa' and said its numbers had tripled from 500 to an estimated 1,500 in the last 18 months. The U.S. recently conducted the 'largest airstrike in the history of the world' from an aircraft carrier on Somalia, according to Adm. James Kilby, the Navy's acting chief of naval operations. That strike, by 16 F/A-18 Super Hornets, unleashed around 125,000 pounds of munitions. Those 60 tons of bombs killed just 14 ISIS members, according to AFRICOM. At that rate, it would take roughly 13,000,000 pounds of bombs to wipe out ISIS-Somalia and about 107,000,000 pounds to eliminate al-Shabab, firepower roughly equivalent to four of the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Troubles loom elsewhere on the continent as well. 'One of the terrorists' new objectives is gaining access to West Africa coasts. If they secure access to the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking, and arms trading,' Langley warned, not mentioning that U.S. counterterrorism failures in the Sahel led directly to increased attacks on Gulf of Guinea nations. Togo — which sits due south of Burkina Faso — saw a 45 percent increase in terrorist fatalities in 2024, according to the Africa Center. Langley also referenced trouble in Africa's most populous nation. 'We're observing a rise in attacks by violent extremist organizations, not only in Niger but across the Sahel to include Nigeria,' Langley warned. He offered a somewhat garbled plan of action in response: 'The scale and brutality of some of these incidents are really troubling. So we're monitoring this closely and these events, and offering of sharing intel with the Nigerian and also regional partners in that area remains constant. We are committed to supporting one of the most capable militaries in the region, in Nigeria.' U.S. support to the Nigerian military has been immense, and Nigerian people have suffered for it — something else that Langley left unsaid. Between 2000 and 2022, alone, the U.S. provided, facilitated, or approved more than $2 billion in security aid to the country. In those same years, hundreds of Nigerian airstrikes killed thousands of Nigerians. A 2017 attack on a displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria, killed more than 160 civilians, many of them children. A subsequent Intercept investigation revealed that the attack was referred to as an instance of 'U.S.-Nigerian operations' in a formerly secret U.S. military document. A 2023 Reuters analysis of data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based armed violence monitoring group, found that more than 2,600 people were killed in 248 airstrikes outside the most active war zones in Nigeria during the previous five years. That same year, an investigation by Nigeria's Premium Times called out the government for 'a systemic propaganda scheme to keep the atrocities of its troops under wraps.' In his conference call with reporters, held as part of the 2025 African Chiefs of Defense Conference, Langley took only written, vetted questions, allowing him to skirt uncomfortable subjects. AFRICOM failed to provide answers to follow-up questions from The Intercept. During the call, Langley offered a farewell and a pledge. 'This will likely be my last, final Chiefs of Defense Conference as the AFRICOM commander. A nomination for my successor is expected soon,' Langley told The Intercept and others. 'But no matter who holds this position, the AFRICOM mission remains constant. AFRICOM will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with African partners into the future.' Langley's pleas at the conference suggested less certainty. For years, AFRICOM — and Langley in particular — has been paying lip service to a preference for 'African solutions for African challenges' or as Langley put it last week: 'It's about empowering African nations to solve African problems, not just through handouts but through trusted cooperation.' But he has seemed less than enamored with African solutions that include severing ties with the United States. In April, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he accused Burkina Faso's leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, of misusing the country's gold reserves 'to protect the junta regime.' Langley partially walked back those comments last week and appeared to seek reconciliation. 'We all respect their sovereignty,' he said. 'So the U.S. seeks opportunities to collaborate with Burkina Faso on counterterrorism challenges.' For more than two decades, the U.S. was content to pour billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into failed counterterrorism policies as deaths mounted across the continent. Today, the dangers of terrorism loom far larger, and the U.S. finds itself shunned by former partners. 'I've been charged by the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to mitigate threats to the U.S. homeland posed by terrorist organizations,' said Langley. 'It's about the mutual goal of keeping our homeland safe, and it's about long-term capacity, not dependence.' The current Pentagon official said that Langley had used up what good will he once had. 'I don't think many will be sad to see him go,' he told The Intercept. Langley's tenure may not have sown the seeds of AFRICOM's dissolution, he said, but if the command is ultimately folded into European Command — as some have proposed — he likely helped to hasten it. 'He's been part of this problem,' the official said. 'Maybe him leaving could be one solution.'
