The Pentagon says that US troops are in Africa \u201csupport African partners, alongside allies like France, with the goal of increasing the African nations\u2019 own security capabilities and stabilize the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

NPR says,<\/p>\n

In almost all of the missions, the Americans are there to advise, assist and train African militaries\u2014and not to take part in combat. The operations tend to be small; they are carried out largely below the radar, and most are focused on a specific aim: rolling back Islamist extremism\u2026Still, those supporting roles can often take US forces into the field with their African partners, as was the case in Niger\u2026It\u2019s hard to say it\u2019s not a combat mission when there\u2019s the potential for conflict and combat as they accompany African troops.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Africa is an enduring interest for the United States,” said the commander of AFRICOM in a statement. \u00a0“Small, but wise investments in the capability, legitimacy, and accountability of African defense institutions offer disproportionate benefits to Africa, our allies, and the United States, and importantly, enable African solutions to African problems.”<\/p>\n

It’s hard to decipher what the first part of that crypto-statement actually means–and\u00a0 the obfuscation is probably intentional. But the part about enabling “African solutions to African problems?” That sounds eerily, worryingly, and dangerously familiar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, many of us learned that the US has troops stationed in Niger and in other African nations. The news came as a surprise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1383,384,1100,1940,265],"tags":[1560,934,3138],"yoast_head":"\n