U.S. Africa Command says that there are approximately 6,000 Department of Defense personnel in Africa, but those numbers could go down following a review the Pentagon is executing to reexamine U.S. troop presence in multiple areas of operations.
With the furling of a flag, top U.S. military leaders marked the “end of major combat operations against ISIS in Iraq” and a change to the U.S.-led coalition’s mission in the country.
The U.S. pledged up to $60 million Monday to help a 5,000-soldier African force get going on fighting extremists in western Africa’s vast Sahel region, but Washington remains cool to putting U.N. resources into the nearly $500 million-a-year effort as Sahel countries look to the world body for financing.
The U.S. mission in Niger is by far the largest in West Africa and the incident that left four U.S. soldiers dead is calling into question whether U.S. officials have been transparent with the public about the full scope.