Training programmes signal deepening US ties with West Africa

A remote outpost on the southern edge of the Sahara has become a proving ground for a growing effort by the US government to engage with the militaries of West Africa.

In early September a team from the US Army's 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, North Carolina, arrived there to provide a five-week course of instruction to a group of Malian soldiers. These soldiers - troops of the 512th CIM (a motorised infantry company) - patrol the country's 5th Military Region: a vast territory that covers the northern deserts of Mali and borders Algeria and Mauritania.

Since 2003, the US military has increased its military-to-military ties with Mali. Around two or three times a year, a special forces team deploys to the outpost for three to six weeks of intensive instruction. The training began under the rubric of the Pan-Sahel Initiative: a border security and counterterrorism programme started in 2003.

The programme has continued under the rubric of the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP): a more ambitious programme that has a budget of approximately USD100 million per year.

These training programmes are meant to cement military partnerships in a region that has been the subject of increased focus within the Pentagon. The US government launched the Pan-Sahel Initiative to boost assistance to four West African countries: Mali, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. In 2005, the Pan-Sahel Initiative was 're-branded' and expanded as the TSCTP: a programme led by the US Department of State that aims to make the region inhospitable to transnational terrorist groups and al-Qaeda affiliates such as the Algerian al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM (previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC).

Image: Malian soldiers observe a reaction-to-contact drill as part of the TSCTP training initiative (N Hodge/Jane's) 286 of 695 words