The US general responsible for Africa has warned of the spread of terrorist groups in the Sahel. General Stephen Townsend told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten that he was alarmed, especially when he looked at Mali and Burkina Faso. “It really reminds me of the early years of the war against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.”
The commander of US troops in Africa said that offshoots of the terrorist militia IS or Al-Qaeda were rapidly destabilizing larger and larger areas of the western Sahel. The region stretches south of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
The problems that arise in the Sahel would come first to Europe, then to America, Townsend said. “If we don’t provide enough help there, it will soon be too late.” He appealed to Germany to get more involved. The headquarters of the US Africa Command (Africom) is in Stuttgart.
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