Understaffed AFRICOM Cutting Hundreds More Troops by Tara Copp – Military Times
U.S. Africa Command has begun cutting up to 10 percent of its forces from the continent in response to U.S. security challenges elsewhere, the top U.S. commander for Africa told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.
There are approximately 6,000 U.S. troops and 1,000 DoD civilians or contractors based throughout Africa, who are primarily tasked with training and exercising with partner African forces.
U.S. Africa Command has been chronically under resourced, despite a host of terror groups on the continent, including Islamic State, which U.S. forces have increased their efforts against, particularly in Somalia and Libya. Security gaps in Africa were highlighted during the 2012 fatal attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and again during the failed 2017 raid in Niger.
But AFRICOM will not be growing. Instead it has been tasked to cut its forces in order to shift resources to prepare for potential future conflicts against Russia or China…