Pentagon to Withdraw Hundreds of Troops From Africa

Military wants to focus on China ad Russia

Pentagon officials say that they intend to withdraw several hundred troops from the various deployments across Africa over the next several years, as part of the Pentagon’s shift to focus on Russia and China.

Exact figures are not disclosed yet, but the Pentagon said it would be “about 10 percent” of the troops in Africa, and that is 7,200 per reports. The Pentagon has been known to lie about how many troops they have in Africa, however, so this is a base estimate.

This is the latest in a series of announcements over the past year from the Pentagon, about an intention to “shift” the military’s focus out of Africa and toward areas immediately around China and Russia.

Talking up their need to send more troops to those areas has been a major goal, focusing on getting more funding annually from Congress to prepare to fight two major wars at once.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.