Established in 2008, Africa Command is a legacy of the post-9/11 wars whose end is overdue. U.S. military activities under Africa Command’s purview — primarily train-and-assist missions in support of regional counter-terrorism—have run their course. They have failed to improve partner military capacity and are not needed to counter groups like al-Shabaab that pose little threat to U.S. security.
The Trump administration should curtail U.S. deployments to Africa, retaining a small presence in Djibouti, and dismantle Africa Command once U.S. regional operations end. Remaining intelligence and surveillance activities and crisis response in Africa should be transitioned to Central Command, which already has geographic and substantive ties to the Africa region. The Djibouti base, for instance, lies just adjacent to Central Command’s area of responsibility. In addition, the security challenges that plague the African continent are similar and often connected to those that confront Central Command’s leadership. Most importantly, the move would end definitively the U.S. “Global War on Terror” in Africa.
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