TAN TAN, Morocco — Senior military officials from the US and its top African allies watched intently as dust and flames erupted from swaths of the Sahara desert hit by tank and artillery fire. They looked up as pilots flew F-16s in formation. And they listened intently as Moroccan and American personnel explained how they would prepare the shores to defend the Atlantic coast in the event of a possible invasion.
The practice scenario was among those discussed during African lionthe largest annual joint US military exercise on the continent, which concluded Friday in Morocco.
Over the past two weeks, some 8,100 military forces from nearly three dozen have been maneuvering across Tunisia, Ghana, Senegal and Morocco as part of this year’s war games as militaries face new challenges in increasingly volatile regions.
Generals from the United States and Morocco, who hosted the finale of the two-week event, celebrated Africa Lion’s 20-year anniversary and how partnerships between US and African militaries have expanded since they began.
“This exercise has grown over the years since 2004, not only in the number of multinational service members we train with, but also in the scope of the training, which has expanded into more than just security,” said Maj. Gen. Michael Langley. , head of the United States Africa Command.
But despite the spectacle of live-fire demonstrations and praise for the collaborations of Langley and Colonel Fouad Gourani of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces, parts of Africa are becoming much more dangerous.
The United Nations earlier this year labeled Africa a “global epicenter of terrorism.” Deaths linked to extremist groups have risen dramatically in the Sahel, the region stretching from Mauritania to Chad.
As of 2020, military officers disillusioned with their governments’ records of containing violence have overthrown democratically elected governments in Yes, Burkina Faso and Niger and began to distance themselves from the Western powers.
From 2021 to 2024, militants killed more than 17,000 people in the three countries, according to data from the Armed Conflict Data Project.
The United States is holding fast to its strategy of pairing arms assistance and intelligence sharing with initiatives designed to strengthen the civilian population and strengthen institutions.
But it faces new competition. Decades after the end of colonialism, Africa has once again been absorbed into Great Power battles, with Western influence decreasing and countries that receive more economic and military support from Chinese companies and Russian contractors.
In Africa Lion, the US military presented part of what it offers to countries facing instability within and just beyond their borders. In addition to tanks and bombers, joint exercises included field hospital operations and practice, medical evacuations and humanitarian aid.
The exercise emphasized a “whole of government” approach to addressing the root causes of instability, ranging from climate change to displacement, rather than focusing solely on military might.
“It’s important that we’re not just associated with knocking down doors,” said Col. Kelly Togiola, a surgeon who helped set up a field hospital with Moroccan doctors as part of the exercise. “In times of crisis, these relationships matter.”
This strategy differs from that offered by Africa Corps, the Russian state-sponsored progeny private military company Wagnerwhose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin he died last year. However, it has come under scrutiny since military personnel with a history of participating in training exercises have risen to positions of power following the overthrow of democratically elected leaders in countries such as Guinea and Niger.
Cameron Hudson, an Africa specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that no matter how much the US military expands its efforts, its continued focus on counterterrorism will continue to empower military leaders across West Africa.
“The nature of security assistance is that it is much more visible, influenced and manipulated by the sick recipient,” Hudson said. “When we come with education and games, we reinforce within societies these power dynamics that in the long run are not conducive to the consolidation of urban democratic governance.”
Despite training exercises like Africa Lion, US military leaders have struggled to extend their partnerships in places they have long characterized as strategically critical. Countries like Niger and Chad — who participated in Africa Lion — have embraced Russian trainers and paramilitaries and pushed for the withdrawal of US troops.
US military officials note their assessment of the threat posed by “malign” Russian and Chinese influence, but say they can work in countries receiving aid from geopolitical rivals.
The juggling act of limiting Russian influence while opposing the overthrow of democratically elected leaders has not worked everywhere, especially as the US military often binds how countries can implement the training and weapons provided.
US law makes governments deposed in military coups ineligible for large portions of aid, despite the military’s talk of equal partnership and non-intervention.
Rachid El Houdaigui, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, said the growing youth population in west African countries wanted to forge new political identities and was distrustful of the West after years of insecurity.
“African states consider variety favorable. It allows them to choose and gives them a lot of possibilities,” he said of countries in the Sahel that have opened their doors to Russian and Chinese aid.
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Associated Press writer Arushi Gupta contributed from Los Angeles.