US Marines Take Over Training Of African Armies In Sahara
uploaded 21 Jun 2004DAKAR, Senegal -U.S. Marines have taken over the training of African armies on the Sahara's edge, drilling the African troops in how to patrol and attack militants with the aim of keeping terrorists from infiltrating the wide- open desert.
U.S. officials credit the fledgling cross-continent program - called the Pan- Sahel Initiative - with helping in a dramatic, little-noticed pursuit of suspected terrorists across three Saharan nations earlier this year.
The Marines are training soldiers in the West African nation of Chad this month and will move later this summer to neighboring Niger, U.S. officials said. Earlier this year, U.S. special operations forces trained soldiers in Mali and Mauritania.
The program is part of a U.S. effort to keep violent extremist groups from making inroads in the Sahara and the arid land abutting it, called the Sahel.
"It's all about denying safe havens to terrorist groups," Maj. Kris Stillings, a Marine operations officer in the program, said from Germany, site of the U.S. miltary's European Command.
The small groups of African soldiers trained "become these nations' counterterrorism force -the backbone force," he said.
The U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, credited the Pan- Sahel Initiative with helping foster the cross-border cooperation involved in the hunt.
U.S. officials say Washington has invested more than US$8 million in the program. Expanding the program through US$25 to US$30 million in funding for the military -and possibly adding more African nations -is possible, although not yet approved.
In Chad, the program started with the basics -handing out canteens and camouflage uniforms to poorly equipped fighters.
About 30 Marines are helping a company-size group of roughly 200 Chadian men, training them in the basics of setting up checkpoints, going on patrol and launching attacks.
Once trained, the men will pass the tactics on to their peers.
It can seem "these vast areas are ungoverned," Stillings said. "To say that one company will effectively be able to do that -it seems far-fetched, but it's a starting point."
Source: AP
