Trump Aid Cuts Stir Fears of Reduced Military Support in Africa “We’re really worried they will remove the assistance, just like any other country at the moment,” said Major-General Abou Issa, chief of army staff for Benin’s defense forces. The US has supplied the tiny West African nation with training, helicopters and intelligence in a bid to prevent Islamist fighters from the Sahel region from threatening shipping routes off the Gulf of Guinea. Without that aid, the fight to secure the country’s north would be “tough,” Issa said. US ConcernsEven US officials voiced concerns. “I am grieving over programs that I’ve been very proud of,” US Ambassador to Ghana Virginia E. Palmer told reporters at the conference, adding that aid may still continue under a different guise under Trump. Still, “we’re not doing the democracy and governance programs that I’d like to see,” she said. Asked whether the annual gathering, now in its 13th year, would even exist in a year’s time, US military leaders offered only tepid assurances. The conference’s programming offered little hint of the changes afoot in US foreign policy. One session focused on countering disinformation in Africa, although Trump is in the process of dismantling many of the institutions traditionally associated with those efforts, ranging from the US-funded Voice of America broadcaster to the US Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy. “The US is already failing to keep its leadership role under Donald Trump,” said Silas Jonathan, a disinformation researcher at the Center for Journalism, Innovation and Development in Nigeria, who spoke on the panel. He warned that extremist groups such as Boko Haram or adversaries such as Russia could seek to take advantage of the “vacuum.” Major Mohammed Fazul, the deputy commander of Comoros’ land forces in the strategically important Indian Ocean region, said he was due to travel to Florida in July for officer leadership training, but has been told by his US counterparts that there may now be no funding for the program. Advantage ChinaOthers have already been engaged by US rivals such as China. First Lieutenant Quaresma Veloso Jenk, an aide to a general from São Tomé and Príncipe, attended a two-month training course in China in 2019 and still wears a badge in Mandarin on his shoulder. “China really wants to take advantage of the military space in Africa,” he said, adding that “there is still military cooperation between São Tomé and the United States, although it is not very strong.” “He has a place in our hearts,” Mutkut said. Issa, the general from Benin, also said that cooperating with the US is his country’s top priority – above any potential competitor. “Every country in the world longs for military cooperation with the US,” he said. Still, Benin needs the flow of US military training and intelligence-sharing for its fight in the country’s unstable north to succeed. “The most difficult thing now is that we have agreements with the US,” Issa said. “If they remove it, then they will reduce the credibility of the US, both in Benin and across Africa.” © 2025 Peter Martin |