U.S. wants strategy before aid to Africa force

Multinational Sahel group fighting extremists

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The United States strongly supports an African military force to combat extremist militants in the Sahel region, but needs to see a strategy for the operation before it considers funding, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and the U.S. Africa commander said.

Washington is wary, however, of the 193-member United Nations funding the force — to be made up of troops from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania — according to Ambassador Nikki Haley and General Thomas Waldhauser.

The United States funds more than a quarter of the $7.3 billion U.N. peacekeeping budget.

Haley said Washington wanted to know “what the strategy would be, how they see this playing out, what’s involved in it before we ever commit to U.N.-assessed funding.”

“Show us something, we’re open to it, we’re not saying no, but what we’re saying right now (is) there literally has been no information that has been given that gives us comfort that they know exactly how this is going to play out,” Haley told reporters on Friday.

The rise of jihadist groups — some linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State — in the arid Sahel has alarmed Western powers like France, which has deployed thousands of troops to the region in response.

The United States has also been targeting Islamic State in Libya and al-Shabab in Somalia.

But U.S. involvement in counterterrorism operations in Africa has been under the spotlight since four U.S. Special Forces troops were killed in an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger.

“In Africa with all the challenges of the youth bulge, poverty, the lack of governance, wide open spaces, these are areas where violent extremist organizations, like ISIS or like al-Qaida, thrive,” said Waldhauser, who oversees U.S. troops deployed in Africa.

The African counterterrorism force, known as the G5 Sahel, plans to launch its first joint operations soon.