The U.S. strategy on the continent of Africa is firmly rooted in a whole-of-government approach that emphasizes listening to allies and partners, said Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley in a recent interview. 

Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said that while there is a security aspect to almost every challenge in Africa, anything his command does has to be in concert with diplomats and development experts at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.  

It must also be done in consultation with nations on the continent. “They will decide how to address their challenges, and their way ahead to be able to leverage their opportunities,” the general said. “Those efforts must be African-led, and we’ll see what we can do to help them achieve shared objectives and shared goals for stability.” 

Africa is a huge and diverse continent, and strategy must be flexible to embrace all the differences. The countries of West Africa each saw the use of a whole-of-government approach, but each with different nuances, Langley said. They worked “to address some of the instabilities in some previously ungoverned regions, and working with civil society, [and] working with the local governance to be able to increase growth in the economy, reducing violence or conflict, or building resilience to changing weather patterns,” he said. 

A number of the West African countries saw that with violent extremist organizations, the most enduring solution would be interdicting them from happening in the first place, the general said.  

An example comes from the nomadic Fulani people who — for centuries — have moved herds to pastures. But with the burgeoning populations of Africa, this movement stokes conflict with the farmers who own the land. “The Fulani herds are stressed, but also the farmers crop yields are reduced,” Langley said. “Climate change plays a part in this, and scarcity breeds conflict.  

“USAID and the development programs in these local communities came up with a solution of vaccinating herds and trying new methods of farming that are resistant to some of the effects of climate change,” he continued. “Those are positive programs that reduce conflict. That’s the solution. That’s the intervention.” 

The challenges in Africa are complex and may require years to address. Patience is often in short supply, and this may contribute to pressures on governments. “That’s what you have around these coup d’etat countries,” the general said. 

The militaries in those countries saw the military age youth in these regions “taking and accepting this false ideology of Islamic extremists and becoming jihadists and causing instability and preying upon the rest of the populations in these areas,” Langley said. In countries where there have been recent coup d’etats, the militaries thought the sitting government was not doing enough, so they assumed the governmental role. 

“Those are the ill effects of those layered threats that galvanizes instability across time and exacerbates the growth of those on the other side of these organizations that stokes even more instability across that region,” the general said. “We have seen modicums of success right in the Lake Chad region.” 

In that area, USAID helped build some stabilization programs, which allowed the governments to go into those areas and stop the recruitment into jihadist organizations, Langley said. The governments also funded education programs and provided economic infusions that helped stabilize the region. “How do we integrate our activities and investments together with the lead of that country, to be able to do stabilization operations?” the general said. 

He is seeing this process work in Somalia. In Somalia, the leaders have the will to build a credible stabilization force, Langley said. African nations are helping train the Somali military and they are achieving results.” The people have started believing in the federal government of Somalia and their local governance,” he said.” This reinforces success. There’s that proof of principle and proof of concepts that the people believe in.” 

So, after the liberation of a particular Somali area from al-Shabaab, the government works quickly to bring in services for the local governance and the local leadership being accountable for stabilization efforts, the general said. “That model works, but it does take time to get full buy-in by the community,” he said.  

People everywhere are impatient, and people want to see this process work faster. “When it’s not working fast enough, that’s an opportunity for malign activities through the information space,” he said. Misinformation and disinformation are problems, Langley said.  

“It’s an opportunity for malign actors to scapegoat,” he said. “These actors stoke instability and disbelief in the sitting government.” 

“You have to have security in order for the economy to improve,” Langley said. “That’s a conundrum. So, it’s a continuous investment in helping these countries lead their way out of it.” 

Countries like Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and even Ghana have to deal with this. “They all call it something different, but they are all together,” said Langley. “But each one, it’s subtly different too. It’s not all about kinetics. It’s not all about building up your own your military. These countries understand that.” 

And again, this takes time. “Part of the attraction of a country like China or Russia is the fact that they can do something quick,” Langley said. He also added that they can bring in a lot of money and Russian mercenaries. 

Across Africa, China and Russia are “exploitative where possible and coercive as necessary,” the general said.  

They have proved this in Central Africa Republic, Libya, Mali and Burkina Faso. They have so far been unsuccessful in replicating the U.S. security construct offered to countries that want to build institutional capacity in their militaries. “[China and Russia] want to replicate what we do in international military education and training,” he said. “They want to replicate what we do as far as our security cooperation initiatives, whether it be materials or equipment, or how they try to do advise and assist.” 

Langley recently participated in the first African chiefs of defense conference on the continent of Africa in Botswana. It was a chance for almost 40 chiefs of defense “to share ideas, address challenges and talk about possibilities of working together, especially in regional constructs,” Langley said. “What we did is encouraged everyone to lay out the challenges across the African continent on the table, … and they started putting some things out on the table that were kind of uncomfortable, but they still wanted to talk about it and start solution sets on their own with input from other regions. They were discussing their regional challenges, or even their country challenges, and getting them to address the issues together for an African solution.” 

“That exchange of ideas [in] Botswana was very beneficial for everybody there,” he continued. “It was not just terrorism — we did talk about disinformation. We talked protecting networks and other domains. We talked about the opportunity to go forward that would enhance their security and … as chiefs of defense, how they fold into civilian-led governments and give their best military advice to address the challenges in society.” 

The United States has interests throughout Africa, and how the nation pursues and protects these interests varies across the continent. The one constant, Langley said, is the approach is partner-centric. “We don’t want it to be misunderstood of our overall intentions,” he said. “This is all about goodwill. This is all about us, wanting to see our African partners make it, because the future is bright for this continent, and it’s going to be an investment over time, in deepening our partnerships and building partnership and capacity. It’s going to take a unity of effort.” 

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