The U.S. military is pivoting from its long-standing focus on governance and development in Africa, instead urging fragile allies to take greater responsibility for their own security. At\u00a0African Lion 2025, the continent\u2019s largest joint military exercise, Gen. Michael Langley, AFRICOM\u2019s top commander, stressed the need for \u201cindependent operations\u201d and \u201cburden sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While over 40 nations drilled combat tactics and drone warfare, the traditional U.S. message promoting a \u201cwhole-of-government\u201d approach has faded. The shift echoes a Trump-era push to prioritize homeland defense and reduce foreign military footprints, even as extremist threats grow.<\/p>\n
With insurgencies gaining ground and Africa now considered the \u201cepicenter\u201d of al-Qaida and Islamic State activity, many local forces remain under-equipped. Langley admitted Somalia\u2019s army still struggles despite years of U.S. support.<\/p>\n
Analysts warn that scaling back Western engagement, especially in volatile regions like the Sahel, risks allowing extremists to thrive amid weak governance and poor infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. military is pivoting from its long-standing focus on governance and development in Africa, instead urging fragile allies to take greater responsibility for their own security. At\u00a0African Lion 2025, the continent\u2019s largest joint military exercise, Gen. Michael Langley, AFRICOM\u2019s top commander, stressed the need for \u201cindependent operations\u201d and \u201cburden sharing.\u201d While over 40 nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Africa News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,1129],"tags":[3978],"class_list":["post-16379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-security","tag-u-s-africa-command-africom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}