The U.S. military is seeking to empower its African allies to “take control of their own futures” regarding their security and the intensifying fight against terrorism and growing Chinese influence.
The Trump administration, in line with decisions made by the previous administration, has called for the Department of Defense to pull back its physical presence on the continent in favor of President Donald Trump’s priorities of defending the homeland and shifting its focus to the Pacific region.
“African nations are not waiting to be saved. They’re stepping up to take control of their own futures,” said Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command. “Now, we must recognize that direct U.S. assistance must adapt to an updated strategy aligned with national defense priorities. Our goal is not to do more for Africa. It’s to help Africa do more for itself.”
“We are leaning into empowerment over dependency,” he told reporters on Thursday. “We’re talking to our partners about greater burden sharing as resources are evaluated and rebalanced. It’s imperative that global partners contribute to regional and global stability. Africa is no exception.”
Langley was in Nairobi, Kenya, last week for the annual African Chiefs of Defense Conference, at which 37 African countries were represented, and he called the conversations he had with African military leaders “powerful.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed a change to AFRICOM’s “strategic approach” to “mitigate threats to the homeland posed by terrorist organizations, the most dangerous of which are based in Africa,” he added.
The Marine Corps general said the Sahel region of Africa, specifically Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, is the “epicenter of terrorism on the globe” and called it “the flash point of prolonged conflict and growing instability.”
Terrorist groups with ties to the Islamic State and al Qaeda are “thriving there,” and one of their key objectives is to gain access to the west coast of Africa, where they could “diversify their revenue streams and evolve their tactics, more easily exporting terrorism to American shores,” he said.
U.S. partners that are near those destabilized countries, such as Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin, “are relentlessly fighting along their northern borders to keep these threats at bay.”
Another concern for the United States regarding Africa is Chinese influence, and Beijing has sought to capitalize on the U.S.’s pullback from the region.
China is “trying to replicate what we do,” he said. “So, yes, they’re stepping it up and trying to replicate every type of thing, whether it be advise-and-assist type of training to specialized military domains or anything putting on exercises.”
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For over a decade, China has sought to strengthen its foreign relationships by agreeing to fund infrastructure projects in other countries. The country’s strategy, coined the Belt and Road Initiative, largely involves gaining access to whatever it wants at the expense of the nation that makes the agreement.
“Their model prioritizes access to resources, not long-term stability,” Langley added. “In contrast, the United States is shifting towards a trade-focused foreign policy, and we know that security and trade are inextricably linked.”
