Africa Command to “Double Down” in Africa

“What we can do,” the commander of the U.S. Africa Command, Marine General Michael Langley, declared to the House Armed Services Committee on March 21, 2023, “is double down on what we’re doing…in the military sense.” In his annual appearance before the Senate and House Armed Services Committee hearing on the FY 2025 budget request for Africom and other military operations in Africa, Langley emphasized the role of Africa in the global military competition with Russia and China, and described how he intends to respond to the growing challenge throughout the continent from “violent extremist organizations” (VEOs, the official U.S. designation for Islamic armed groups).

“Africom’s campaign revolves around central themes of ensuring strategic access, countering threats to the homeland and U.S. interests, preparing for and responding to crises, and lastly, bolstering our allies and partners,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Africa is big, and so are its challenges,” Langley said in his prepared statement.

There is high potential for strategic-level national security threats to grow this year. Africa’s critical minerals and maritime shipping lanes become more important to America’s technological and energy independence every day. Coups in West Africa have distracted local security from fighting VEOs, giving branches of al-Qaeda and ISIS room to expand, modernize, and reconstitute capabilities to threaten the U.S. homeland. 

He warned, “if we fail in Africa, our strategic competitors will move in.” And, he emphasized, “recent history shows that Moscow and Beijing jump in to fill the void when American engagement wanes or disappears, and we cannot afford to do that.”

Langley described the activities of the Russian Federation as “very destabilizing…they want to change the rules-based international order and they want to reshape the world economic order as well, just doing it through socio-economic coercion and also dependence.”

He went on to say that

I’ll just give an operational viewpoint please so far as because this is a question of strategic access at the global great power level…it’s essential that we double down with the authorities that we do have after imposition of 7008 [legislative ban on military cooperation with governments established by a military coup], but I could just take a regional view on that. We do need to engage with other countries to increase their partnership and capacity. We need more, take the disinformation campaign, we need to hit it front and center. Because Russia does have a passing game, not they have a ground game as well with the Russia Corps and being involved in Mali.

Explaining the budget request for FY 2025, Langley warned that “for access and influence, I’d say that a number of countries are at the tipping point of actually being captured by the Russian Federation.” And so

we need to be able to maintain access and influence across the Maghreb from Morocco all the way to Libya. The PRC and Russia are also remaining exploitative where possible and coercive when necessary. They want that ground. They want power projection capabilities. So, for the most part, the rest of the continent is also for mining concessions, whether it be gold or rare earth minerals. Both of them have long-range plan, but I think at the accelerated pace, the Russian Federation is really trying to take over Central Africa as well as the Sahel.

Turning to China, Langley declared that “China’s trying to replicate what we do that’s working on the continent of Africa.” And “they’re trying to do it in the socio-economic coercion causes of a Belt and Road initiative…They also have some aspirations for basing as well.” He stated that the Red Sea and the Gulf of Arabia were

very much a strategic sea lines of communication. So, I am very much interested in what the thinly-veiled reason or purpose that China’s entrenchment into Djibouti as far as their purpose in being there…I think it’s for power projection or anti-access or denial purposes…they [China] have their naval escort task force floating around and doing naval diplomacy. I need more ships so we can engage.

Langley also spoke at length about the role of Africom in counter-terrorism operations in Africa and to prevent attacks against the United States. In the Sahel and west Africa, according to him, “our operational approach would be to deter threats holistically and the greatest state is being able to protect a homeland. All those violent extremist organizations, whether we’re talking about ISIS Sahel, ISIS West Africa, JNN, or any other faction, Boko Harum is still alive as well.”

Referring to the recent expulsion of U.S. troops from Niger, where the United States constructed a drone base, he stated, “we need to be able to do indications and warnings. We need to be able to monitor and respond. And that’s where we need you know long-endurance ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance], so the impacts would be great if we lose our posture.” When asked about alternative sites for drone operations, Langley responded, “Congressman, we’re exploring that now and I’ll talk more in the closed session about it, because it’s in the diplomatic realm right now.”

On February 15, 2024, Molly McPhee, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, attended a ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, to sign a security pact with that country under which the United States will construct five military bases to provide training to the elite Danab Brigade for counter-terrorism operations after the withdrawal of African Union forces. The deal aligns the United States, Somalia, Eritrea, and Egypt, against Ethiopia, which signed a security pact with the self-declared state of Somaliland to establish a naval base and port on the Somali coast in exchange for a promise that Ethiopia would recognize Somaliland as an independent state. Although Langley did not mention the rising tensions in the Horn of Africa at the hearings, the looming threat of war in the region is certainly a matter of great concern to him.

Langley stated that in Sudan,

I know we’re engaged whole of government with the State Department going in Jeddah and trying to get those parties together to solve it, but it hasn’t worked. We’re still keeping engagements globally where other leaders are going, but I’ll just tell you especially the RSF, Hemedi, his forces are backed by some I just say egregious members of the globe that are pushing for their own great power competition goals in that country for access and I’m talking about the Russian Federation. They would love a warm-water port. They’d love to have the port there in Sudan as their own. That’s against our global campaign plans.

So, according to General Langley, the United States will “double down” on its strategy of using military force to maintain access to vital resources, counter Russia and China, and defeat Islamic armed groups.