Along the Volta, African Commandos Train to Battle Terrorists by Land and Sea
Along the Volta, African Commandos Train to Battle Terrorists by Land and Sea
(8 months later)
SOGAKOPE, Ghana — Troops clad in black jumped out of motorboats near a riverside resort and made their way along a wood-slat fence to their objective: a building where terrorists had seized a high-level government official.
SOGAKOPE, Ghana — Troops clad in black jumped out of motorboats near a riverside resort and made their way along a wood-slat fence to their objective: a building where terrorists had seized a high-level government official.
Shots rang out and the troops returned fire. They soon emerged from the one-story structure with the freed hostage, who was wearing a bloodstained white robe. An ambulance drove up, and the man was strapped to a gurney and taken away.
Shots rang out and the troops returned fire. They soon emerged from the one-story structure with the freed hostage, who was wearing a bloodstained white robe. An ambulance drove up, and the man was strapped to a gurney and taken away.
The scene along the Volta River in Ghana ended in success for the military forces. But on this day, the shots that were fired were blanks, the hostage was pretend and the rescuers, 31 soldiers and sailors, soon lined up for applause from a U.S. Navy admiral and a coterie of commandos from more than a dozen nations as the largest annual special operations exercise in Africa came to an end.
The scene along the Volta River in Ghana ended in success for the military forces. But on this day, the shots that were fired were blanks, the hostage was pretend and the rescuers, 31 soldiers and sailors, soon lined up for applause from a U.S. Navy admiral and a coterie of commandos from more than a dozen nations as the largest annual special operations exercise in Africa came to an end.
The two-week U.S.-led event, called Flintlock and held in Ghana and Ivory Coast this year, had focused exclusively on land-based operations since it began in 2005. But the waterborne mission included this time — at a location about a dozen miles upriver from the coast — reflects rising concern about security in the Gulf of Guinea, where pirates and other armed groups have exploited the inability of many West African nations to protect international waters, U.S. and Ghanaian officials said.
The two-week U.S.-led event, called Flintlock and held in Ghana and Ivory Coast this year, had focused exclusively on land-based operations since it began in 2005. But the waterborne mission included this time — at a location about a dozen miles upriver from the coast — reflects rising concern about security in the Gulf of Guinea, where pirates and other armed groups have exploited the inability of many West African nations to protect international waters, U.S. and Ghanaian officials said.
“The Gulf of Guinea is like the Wild, Wild West of illicit activity, especially the drug trade,” Gen. Michael E. Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in a meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, after Flintlock had ended. “We’ve had a number of countries that come together to focus on illicit activity across the gulf, and the drug trade is one of them, smuggling is another and transiting citizens as well across that region.”
“The Gulf of Guinea is like the Wild, Wild West of illicit activity, especially the drug trade,” Gen. Michael E. Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in a meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, after Flintlock had ended. “We’ve had a number of countries that come together to focus on illicit activity across the gulf, and the drug trade is one of them, smuggling is another and transiting citizens as well across that region.”
When President George W. Bush announced the creation of U.S. Africa Command in 2007, he said he hoped it would help “bring peace and security to the people of Africa” and promote humanitarian efforts as well as democracy and economic growth on the continent.
Almost 16 years later, though, the addition of naval operations to the exercise — specifically the boarding and seizure of hostile vessels — shows that Africa Command’s list of tasks has only grown longer and more complicated. And Flintlock, which involved 700 soldiers from 10 countries in 2005, included 1,300 from 29 nations this year.
The United States and its allies in the region say Flintlock and similar events will help build a bulwark against terrorist groups that have swept south from Mali in recent years, spread across the Sahel and now threaten the coastal states of West Africa.
France, a former colonial power in some of the nations involved, deployed forces to battle Islamist terrorist groups the region years ago. But that mission, which numbered 5,000 soldiers at its height, has largely been terminated. In January, the government of Burkina Faso asked French troops there to leave as relations between the countries deteriorated.
This part of West Africa has experienced profound upheaval since the last full-scale Flintlock took place in 2020. (It was canceled in 2021 because of Covid-19 and scaled down in 2022.)
In Burkina Faso, which borders Ghana to the north, the military seized power from the democratically elected president in January 2022 and the leader of that coup was deposed by other military factions in October. In the 18 months prior, there were coups in Guinea and Mali, and to the east in Chad and Sudan as well.
“From a country standpoint, we see the terrorist activity in Burkina Faso — which is sitting on top of us — as very significant,” said Col. William Nortey, the director of operations for the Ghanaian Army. “Very large swaths of land in the country are being controlled by the terrorist armed groups, so that puts us under a strain.”
Most of the groups are affiliated with the Islamic State or Al Qaeda, he said.
Ghanaian Army officers in Accra, the capital, pegged the rise in terrorist activity to the 2011 overthrow of Muammar el-Qaddafi and the disintegration of the Libyan state that followed, which allowed arms to reach Mali and fall into the hands of Islamist groups. Those groups have flourished across Sahel states like Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.
Some African governments have turned to Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group for help in dealing with terrorists within their borders. That has opened those countries up to exploitation by Russia, which has sought mining rights for various natural resources in return, Ghanaian and U.S. officials said.
But those countries may have entertained Russian support out of desperation and are not necessarily beyond saving, Colonel Nortey said.
“We should be thinking about how to engage them back into the democratic process rather than just washing our hands,” he said, adding that military exercises such as Flintlock are one way to continue that engagement.
To show that troops are not the only solution to terrorism, U.S. special operations planners added sessions on the rule of law to the training.
The week of academic instruction included sessions on the law of armed conflict, which covered concepts like proportional use of force and the protection of civilians, in addition to more traditional topics in previous years on the rules of engagement at the tactical level, such as when deadly force can be used.
But perhaps even more significant, prosecutors and judges from the host nations were invited this year to help the participants see their broader role in counterterrorist actions.
In training for missions, the soldiers would step aside once any shooting stopped, allowing civilian or military police to process the scene and collect evidence that could be used in prosecuting suspected terrorists in court.
That training was evident at the resort on the Volta.
Within five minutes of the first shots, law enforcement officers in white coveralls were running crime scene tape across the front of the building where the hostage was found.
Small units of military special operation troops teamed with civilian law enforcement officers may be the future of counterterrorism in this part of Africa. Previous efforts, U.S. and Ghanaian officials said, revolved around using battalions of roughly 500 to 800 soldiers, but such large and static groups of government troops had proved vulnerable to terrorist groups.
Finding enough troops who can make it through the arduous training courses typical of special military units, and building them into cohesive teams, is a common challenge for Western and African nations.
“We’re still in the formative stages,” said Col. Richard Mensah, the leader of Ghana’s special forces. “The fallout rate is so high, so we’re still molding them and we hope by 2025 to get to some level — we’re still training.”
Most countries in the region are in the same phase of development for building special forces, he said.
The groups have been paired with mentors from NATO countries in yearslong relationships. During Flintlock, the Ghanaian naval forces were matched with commandos from the Netherlands; Nigerian troops were mentored by British forces; and Ivorians worked with Italians. American soldiers from the Texas National Guard helped mentor their African counterparts at the joint headquarters in Accra.
The U.S.-led exercise spread troops across five sites — four in Ghana and a forested area at a special forces camp in Ivory Coast.
Naval training earlier in the final week had a rough start as a small boat capsized in the river, injuring one Ghanaian sailor. A Spanish Navy frigate pulled out of a planned vessel boarding exercise soon after, leaving the African commandos with only a civilian ferry to practice taking down instead.
In the exercise’s finale, the hostage rescue force — a group of small teams from different African countries — moved somewhat hesitatingly at times as it approached its objective and one soldier fired blindly over a fence toward where the hostage was held. But with more training, the troops are expected to form elite strike forces.
Teams like theirs will be the ones fighting terrorists, as the U.S. military mission in the western coastal part of the continent does not involve any “kinetic” actions like commando raids, airstrikes or artillery fire, according to Rear Adm. Milton J. Sands III, the commander of U.S. special operations forces in Africa.
The United States maintains “a small footprint” of special operations troops in Africa, the admiral said, comparing it to the contingent of U.S. forces currently in Syria. Although he declined to give the precise number of U.S. special operations forces in Africa, roughly 900 U.S. troops are believed to be in Syria.
“This is very much us in support and partnered shoulder to shoulder with our African partners in the region,” Admiral Sands said in Accra after Flintlock was over. “We are here, we care about Africa and ultimately our goal is a safe, secure and stable African continent.”
