Senegal is a strategic ally of Washington to fight terrorism in Africa

In the context of
deepening the African-American partnership, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is
conducting a multi-purpose visit to the continent, which began on February 15,
2020 in the western region raging with terrorist and sectarian conflicts,
particularly Senegal, where he stayed for two days, heading towards Angola and
Ethiopia.
Pompeo stressed, during
his meeting with his Senegalese counterpart, Amadou Ba, that his country is
counting on Senegal as a key ally in its battle against terrorist groups in the
region, pointing to Washington's readiness to help the West African country
develop its military forces and raise their combat efficiency.
For his part, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal praised Washington's role in training
and development the intelligence forces and logistical support in order to
combat terrorism and prevent drug trafficking to the country, stressing that
his country still needs the United States to help it confront extremism and
problems of security instability, calling Pompeo to take all the necessary
measures to strengthen the role of the United Nations peacekeepers,
particularly in Mali, because of the dangerous borders they pose with them.
Moreover, Amado
expressed his hope that Washington will continue to support his country and the
African Sahel region in general because of its spread of terrorism, weapons and
dangerous elements that affect the development process in the region.
During the visit,
Pompeo and his Senegalese counterpart signed a partnership agreement worth 550
billion CFA francs, to develop security, health and education fields, and to
confront security and cross-border terrorism problems, along with signing 5
contracts with US companies to develop the country's infrastructure.
Accordingly, it is
clear that Washington adopted a strategy more related to West Africa, through
which it chose to make Senegal the first African destination for its foreign
minister, but the American military obligations towards the country were not
recent.
In May 2016, the two
countries signed a security agreement that includes Dakar providing facilities
to the forces American forces to spread inside it in the event of crises in its
main areas of concentration in the region, in addition to enhancing combat
cooperation between the two camps to prevent infiltration of elements from the
financial borders to Senegal, as it hosts Flintlock exercises organized by
Washington for the anti-terrorist forces in West Africa, as well as joint
meetings and forums.
In light of the
foregoing, Washington appears to rely on Senegal as a partner and not only as a
country in need of assistance, given that it has less rates of terrorist operations,
compared to western African neighboring countries, according to the
international terrorism index issued by the Institute for Economy and Peace,
issued by the Institute of Economy and Peace, Senegal ranks 93 in terms of
Deaths from terrorist operations despite the progress of Nigeria, Mali and
other Western countries.
Although Mali and
Senegal share common borders, the country has maintained a declining
arrangement in terms of its vulnerability to terrorism compared to Mali, which
ranks 13th on the same index, and accordingly Washington considers it a model
of security and progress in the region that allows it to rely on it in its
participation in the wars of the West and securing its interests The coast.
For his part, the
researcher in the affairs of terrorist movements at the Al-Ahram Center for
Political and Strategic Studies, Ali Bakr, thoughts that the weak geographical
borders between the countries of the African continent and the decline in the
efficiency of the security services cause an increase in extremism and the
supply of weapons in the region.
"Bakr" said
in a statement to the reference that the Sahel region is growing in influence
by ISIS to compete with the old presence of Al Qaeda, and due to the sharing of
borders between Mali and Senegal, the latter is affected by the ongoing
operations and attacks, so it is a good station for managing the war against
terrorism in the region.