US Takes Training Role in Africa as Threats Grow and Budgets Shrink by Eric Schmitt, New York Times
Across Africa, affiliates of Al Qaeda and other Islamist militants are proving resilient and in some cases expanding their influence, from Nigeria to Libya to Somalia, Western and African counterterrorism officials say.
So it is not surprising that the authorities in this poor West African desert nation, which has emerged as a staunch ally of France and the United States in the fight against Islamist militancy, are nervously watching Boko Haram, a sect in neighboring Nigeria suspected of killing well over 400 civilians in the last five weeks alone, including children watching a soccer match over the weekend…
With more than a decade of land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drawing to an end, the American military’s involvement in Niger illustrates how the Pentagon is trying to juggle two competing missions in Africa: contain the spread of Islamist militancy without having to pour a lot of soldiers or money into the region…