Inside an enormous U.S. navy train in Africa to counter terrorism and Russia and China’s rising affect

Tamale, Ghana — On a dusty airport tarmac within the northern Ghanaian metropolis of Tamale, navy particular operatives from throughout Africa transfer stealthily. Photographs ring out as they converge on the airport and apprehend armed militants holding it hostage. 

It isn’t an actual assault, however simply one of many workout routines of “Flintlock,” the U.S. navy’s premier counterterrorism coaching occasion in Africa, which is now in its twentieth 12 months.

Particular ops groups from the U.S. navy’s Africa Command, together with NATO allies, are conducting drills alongside troopers from international locations together with Ghana, Ivory Coast, Chad, Mauritania, Nigeria, Libya and Morocco.

Within the train CBS Information witnessed, the elite forces had been rescuing hostages from a simulated assault on an airport. It is a very actual state of affairs within the huge North African area often called the Sahel, which is taken into account the epicenter of the worldwide struggle towards ISIS and al Qaeda franchises.

The Sahel stretches from Mauritania within the west by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all the way in which to Eritrea and Djibouti on Africa’s east coast, and it’s dwelling to the quickest rising and most threatening terror teams on this planet.

Ghana is likely one of the few international locations within the area that has managed to dodge the speedy rise of violent extremism — blocking any potential incursions earlier than they attain its borders.

Gen. Frank Tei of the Ghana Armed Forces informed CBS Information that was important, as a result of “when you permit terrorist actions in a specific nation to fester and blossom, then that place can develop into a base from which plenty of different terrorist actions can unfold throughout the globe.”

That is precisely what the U.S. fears and is attempting to assist stop.

The deputy AFRICOM commander, Lt. Gen. John Brennan, informed CBS Information that the Flintlock train isn’t solely about coaching African forces to defend themselves and fight terrorism, nevertheless.

“We provide issues which are significant in the long run — sharing democratic values, instilling rule of legislation,” he mentioned.

However that hasn’t labored out so effectively over the previous decade. There have been 11 coups within the Sahel alone over that interval, and not less than 14 leaders of these armed authorities overthrows had been skilled at Flintlock.

Brennan informed CBS Information the navy tracks these leaders, and whereas there are strict guidelines of engagement with any nation during which the federal government has been toppled by a navy junta, “the hope is that you just hold contact with the navy companions and then you definately pull them away from military-led governments, which by no means final.”

So how can the U.S. guarantee the talents taught at occasions like Flintlock are usually not later weaponized and used to subvert democracy?  

Brennan is fast to level out that executing a coup is a political maneuver, not a navy one. 

“We train them the way to defend their forces in fight after which conduct profitable counterterrorism operations. That has nothing to do with overthrowing a authorities. It is simply a number of the individuals we have skilled are navy and so they’re concerned in a number of the coups,” he mentioned. “However historical past has proven … democracy finally ends up prevailing in plenty of international locations.”

Flintlock has expanded to incorporate maritime coaching — together with rappelling onto a transferring warship hijacked by armed militants. American forces, together with Italian and Dutch troopers, put African troops by their paces on a frigate off the Ghanaian coast. 

This facet of the workout routines is more and more necessary, provided that the Sahel area runs all the way in which to the Purple Sea, the place the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been launching assaults focusing on worldwide transport and U.S. naval vessels.

The annual Flintlock coaching operation — hosted this 12 months by Ghana — couldn’t have come at a extra essential time for the U.S. navy, as American affect is arguably in deep decline throughout the huge African continent.

The U.S. is up towards stiff competitors. China provides Africa’s nationwide leaders commerce agreements and Russia provides navy assist, and all with only a few strings connected. Washington, in the meantime, has been booted off one key entrance line within the struggle towards terrorism, after the greater than 1,000 troops AFRICOM had stationed in Niger had been ordered to go away the nation by September following a coup there final 12 months.

The U.S. has two navy bases in Niger, together with a drone command middle within the metropolis of Agadez that value greater than $110 million to arrange.

Russia rapidly stepped in to use the facility vacuum created by the coup. Mercenaries from the previous Wagner Group, now referred to as Africa Corps and run by the Russian authorities, arrived in Niger in April.

In a state of affairs that was not way back unimaginable, the Russian and American forces now occupy opp­osite sides of the identical sprawling air base.

That has despatched alarm bells ringing in Washington, and U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Virginia Palmer harassed to CBS Information that African nations ought to perceive that Russia’s provide of safety forces doesn’t come fully with out strings connected.

“It is necessary that our African companions perceive that what the Russians are providing is, perhaps regime safety — it is definitely not nationwide safety,” Palmer mentioned.

She mentioned African international locations do pay for the companies provided by Moscow, and at a price that “is awfully excessive.”­­

Niger is wealthy in uranium, which can be utilized to make nuclear weapons. What Russia gives is navy muscle in trade for mineral wealth, however not like the U.S., the deal comes with no probably difficult human rights questions being requested.

“However time will inform that that call might be not an excellent one,” the ambassador mentioned. “So, you do not feed your children ice cream for dinner each night time as a result of they need it, proper? You feed them greens, you feed them spinach, issues which are good for them … on the spot gratification might be not a recipe for achievement.”

U.S. legislation restricts the availability of navy assist to armed forces believed to be responsible of human rights abuses, however many leaders on the continent accuse Washington of getting double requirements — saying the U.S. withholds assist from some African nations whereas giving Israel billions of {dollars} regardless of world condemnation of its actions within the struggle in Gaza.

It is a cost that Brennan disputes.

“I do not assume there is a double customary,” he informed CBS Information. “I can let you know our values and the individuals we do associate with — even after coups — we’re nonetheless capable of affect them.”

African international locations argue that it’s not simply coaching they want, however assets and fashionable navy gear in the event that they hope to counter rising extremism.

Brennan harassed that the U.S. carries with it the load of your complete NATO alliance, not like its opponents, however he conceded that Washington should “be capable to useful resource our companions appropriately, and actually broaden the connection with them … to assist make Africa affluent, free and a associate of selection.”

With Flintlock, the U.S. guarantees long-term funding within the African continent. However that long-view safety technique is competing for African partnerships amid a fast-growing terror menace, on a battlefield crowded with malign actors.