now we have seen very high temperatures in some parts of west africa, particularly in senegal. 4647 degrees. generally speaking, it is hot but not unusually, so the winds are showing themselves p picky up in the sahara, but there's rain coming for the nose and stretching crossed to the horn of africa. ah, breaking down the headlines to expose in the powers attempting to silence reporting . what did you do? what did you investigate? why didn't you ask the question? there are many during that said fencer, it will have a chilling effect on subsequent stories. the listening post doesn't cover the news . it covers the way the news is covered to suppress moderate. and in some cases amplify the content you see on your part of the listing own and which is in the u. s. secretary of state has been visiting leisure,

promising support and aid. what does it mean for the rivalry between world powers? where does it leave the challenges facing the so how region this is inside story. with hello and welcome to the show. i am, sam, is a van antony blink and has become the 1st sitting u. s. secretary of state to visit near the trip. part of president joe biden's pledge to engage more with the african continent. washington seizure, as it's closest ally in a region that's facing wide spread, political instability and violence. it's neighbors, molly, and begin a faster. i've had several military coups in the past 2 years. those states have also asked french troops to leave their territory, while u. s. personnel remained in asia. meanwhile,

russia through its wagner group mercenaries, and china have increased their influence in the region. anthony blinkin says, washington wants to help nisha. today announced nearly a 150000000 dollars in new you mandatory assistance to help me needs and western central africa on the cell created by regional and civility. that assistance will support the prison shelter, central health care, emergency food, safe drinking water, sanitation, hygiene services. and we'll also support donald refugees and asylum seekers. evacuated to new jersey. and i have to say the generosity on the share of its people to so many refugees. so many displaced persons is remarkable. we're committed to continuing to invest in the resilience of democracies to a wide range of threats and challenges from corruption to this information. and we continue to support a free and independent press. as we have done in the share for decades,

people in asia faced many challenges including poverty, security, and the effects of climate change. most of the west african nation is in the sahara desert, which is being hit hard by severe weather systems. 4.3000000 people require human fat, humanitarian assistance. a 5th of a population of 26000000 don't have enough to wheat. new jaz struggling economy depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for 40 percent of g d p. and the jeris faced the tax by armed groups which have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. ah, let's bring in our guests into the show now in the army. we have my man, sally, a journalist and analyst in washington, dc. daniel eyes and go research fellow at the african center for strategic studies at the national defense university and in boucher, kabir adam,

a managing director at beacon, consulting and enterprise security risk management and intelligence solutions provider in nigeria and the sal region one. welcome to or if i could start with could be a, what do you think prompted this visit by the u. s. secretary of state. and thank you very much a night or 2 to be here for the diplomatic relationship between the jar and the united states has been one, but it has been quite stable and given the statements by like agree, lincoln for he, i'm to 5, the different transition that took place in the jar in 2001 now to forgive because of that difficult transition can only be understood if one looks at the neighboring state to new job places like molly chart as an example and, and more recently with where the same cycle. but thought the outcome

was built huge blues to democratic candidate within the country to, to that extent, new job in of the concrete managed social economy can political challenges, kabir your firm on that? who's in places like molly and so on. exactly as well as the is the ability to assure economy condition in those locations of given rise to so apart from the instability within government of the state. the fact that the, the people i feel, you know, the president of government is not good at that should be in this case on the job. we haven't seen that level of harmony and out the grievances reach an extent way. threatened the ability of the government. second point is of course

the fact that new jar has provided, quote unquote fav haven't or different security challenges that have affected residents of the hell. so from nigeria where as an example in not and you have a widget security challenge, a terrorism challenge. and that has made several people to move on to now find refuge in the job to molly and to what you know of all of that. it's having an impact on, on the job. and so that kind of thing that may have prompted. all right, let me just give you that. and then if i could, if i could bring the man into the discussion while the u. s. agenda for the secretary of state's visit includes aid it surely the u. s. interests go beyond simply coming to the area because there is, there's a country that needs help with security, needs help with dealing with some of the issues that kabir mentioned, of this placement of people, right? the u. s. has economic interests and security and military interests in this area

to that it's seeking by this visit re let into this visit, you know, done plenty like in the us, pretty public. i think such visit has doubled the significance in which you know that the america, the u. s. is playing a cure on, you know, in terms of defense and the security issues in the country measure. now, it is an opportunity because it's the 1st time that nija receive and you know, very important from america in this particular times in this way it is. i think it ought unity for me just to discuss, walk in order to come about or what is going fights in total,

him fighting, but the tree kidnapping, etc, etc. all right, let me bring in daniel, now is there an element of competition between world powers going on here as well? when you look at the backdrop of what happened in the last few months and years, france withdrawing from molly ending operations a beginning, faster, increasing military involvement by russia's wagner group. and molly and accusations at the same, at least of that in the quino, fafsa is the u. s. trying to play a bit of catch up here. well, thank you for the question and for the invitation today to speak with you. i think that is a little too superficial to frame. this is simply an effort to combat, you know, increasing chinese or russian influence. you know, the u. s. has been consistently engaged in africa and in this a hell in the share for decades. and it remains committed to building strategic partnerships on the continent. and i think new jersey has really emerged as

a very strong partner. that's particularly the case in terms of counter terrorism as, as we've heard from the other panelists already, you know that the security situation in this a hell is really deteriorated, almost exponentially, around new share or something like 40 percent of all violent activity for militant islam as groups in the entire continent of africa is taking place in this a hell, and that's largely been driven by the political instability and miss governance that has been occurring. and molly, in burkina faso as we've already heard. and so i think the secretary blinking visit to new share is a, is a signal. it's saying that, you know, yes there's, there's been some pushback in places like malia and in burkina faso to a western intervention. but the united states is here to strengthen this partnership. it remains an ally and recognizes that in the share there, it continues to be trajectory toward democratization. despite these security

pressures, despite the humanitarian challenges, despite the socio economic challenges that need their faces, it has been able to maintain constitutional order. it's been able to promote citizen engagement in the political realm and civilian rule. it's been able to professionalize it's military in the context of this ongoing counterinsurgency campaign. and so i think that the united states is the united states as there to show that its foreign policy is a continued commitment to forming partnership, strengthening partnerships with african countries where it sees its interests and values are aligned. and i think that that's something that russia and china haven't been able to offer as consistently as the united states. and in fact, if you're to look at the, the involvement of the russian wagner group as mercenary power military unit. and

molly, it's quite clear that since wagner group has been engaged in molly, that the situation has gotten significantly worse. we estimate at the africa center for strategic studies that 4 out of every 5 people killed by the wagner group are actually molly and civilians. is really think it would hear from some of those countries they would point to think back of us, of course, and say, just look at the outcome of the us military involvement in some parts of the world . iraq, of course, an invasion not backed by any un security council resolutions. how ended enough ghana, stan, that the u. s. military roles sometimes doesn't end in an improvement of the security or democratic institution situation in a country either? sure, i think that that's, that's, it's fair to try and pose it. i like that. i think though that you're talking about apples and oranges. united states isn't intervening in the same kind of capacity. and this to hell. in fact, it's, there is

a supporting partner to the new jerry and government and, and it's in that role that it's trying to in force or reinforce the counter insurgency efforts of new share. you know, political will and legitimate government or key ingredients to any effective counter insurgency campaign. and that's why that's why i think the new sharing government has been identified as such a crucial partner in the counter terrorism operations that are taking place in this a hell. i think that, you know, obviously there's still still some ingredients missing. you know, there's been a struggle to sustain a security presence in areas that have been retaken from milton as miss groups holding that territory and beginning to grow legitimate governance in those areas. providing services to civilians that are facing this threat as been a major challenge. and i think that's exactly what secretary blinking is there to try and figure out strategically with the new sharing government. how can the

united states be a partner in that process in such a way that's effective? all right, let me bring can be back into the discussion and asked this when we're talking now about the security challenges facing measure them multi are they, i mean, on the one hand, as the, the arm struggle going on with on groups. there's also the transition to democracy after the history of military rule, right? how key is u. s. support and the u. s. role for that sort of for those security challenges? i think a quite, quite critical one. what we've been already is massive us military support for several military base. and then there's also a grown base that is run by the u. s. all in the jar. and the provision of military equipment for, for the guttering of intelligence at well for

a pretty not good at the one of the key element when i think we're probably one of the best not made or more difficult to, to the kind of strategic relationship with us and yeah, how i could be, i mean, jump in. and despite that we've seen violence increase in the share in 20. 22 is the increasing militarization of the approach towards dealing with some of these on groups. is it really working? so we need to approach discipline to begin to know grievance if the internal extremely them and her or them within the job. and then the external one. if you look at the land 5 of major and it's very much the border of the fact that those borders be shared with countries like libya and example. and then the other countries like guinea and money, where we all, we have the type of security challenges discussed earlier. but the type of border

security management that is required, certainly one that is not in existence at the moment. and that type of strategic conversation is not being huh. and it is why some of the criticisms that have been level again would be us, as well as the media and government is that the relationship is not one of the strategic interest. but in the geron strategic interest, it's not been projected and to that extent, a lot of questions. i've been much over the current status of the g 5 initiated but well at new jersey involvement in more modernized now right joint talk for a 3 a year. now haven't present to military information like the type of just mentioned. and certainly if i constantly been libya that i have also generated and created a security challenge. but the entire region,

i did not being addressed, you know, to the extent that it would reduce absolutely. and supporters of russia and china are quite often quite quick to point out that comes as the result of western intervention there is they see that libya scenario. i saw daniel put your hand up a moment ago. i'm going to give you a chance to come back in on what they were saying. yes, and i just like to jump in on this point that the situation in here is deteriorated as you, as you said. it's it's, it's true that the situation in 2022 and ensure is, has deteriorated it by, by our analysis of the african center for strategic studies. there's been a 43 percent increase in violence events attributed to militant as miss groups. but on the other hand, fatalities were cut in half and so the leaf ality of those events has diminished. and, and at the same time, if you look at the region as a whole,

of roughly 90 percent of all violent events by noted as long as groups taking place in burkina, faso and molly, so the proportion of violence that's happening in the share is diminishing. so i think that i wanted to make these points because the new sharing government is doing a very good job. despite cascading threats and increasing pressure on it, security forces. and so it's, it's a bit unfair to frame it. as you know, all of these efforts are failing. you know, what we, what we are unable to measure is how bad the situation would be in the share if there were not the counter insurgency efforts taking place. and what we can look at hypothetically, as if the situation were to be increasingly militarized. save, for example, like the way the molly and hunter has tried to pursue its 20212022 counterinsurgency with the wagner backed mercenaries. then you can see that actually violence would get significantly worse. and here's where i think the new jury and government as

really stand out is a standout. it's tried to work with a population centric approach to its counter insurgency, campaign building legitimacy with its government providing greater services to the communities that are faced under threat. and following up with some of these less militarized approaches. and after doing that, it can start to build support within the local communities and start to cut off revenue flows from milton. isn't this groups here? this is a, a step by step strategy for how to counter militant as most groups, and on average around the world in a counterinsurgency, it takes roughly 6 years for effective, legitimate governments to be successful in a counter insurgency campaign. and so i think we have to keep the sort of long term perspective here in view. and the new hearing government really has stepped up to that challenge. unfortunately, they can't control what the neighboring governments do, particularly when you have military that step in and topple their civilian government. and so you've got for kina foss on molly that are destabilizing the

situation for, for the larger region can be or if i could not, this question, the country faces serious challenges as well when it comes to climate change. right . and 40 percent of the country's g d p comes from agriculture. how much real attention and focus it, our authorities even able to give the challenge of climate change that lead this. this are some of the criticisms that have been leveled against the visit by antoinette blinking. and then of course, in the bilateral relationship between the jar and the us climate change, most of the country started receiving end of climate change, including the job and such engagement. $11.00 would have taught, this is one of the element that would be the cost of the need to enhance the

capacity of the countries to manage the consequences of climate change. unfortunately, not much has been done in that regard and it is a function of but, and then as well as the capacity of the institution, then government to appreciate the fact and the consequences of climate change and how that is tied into several challenges. including the challenge that we're discussing as well as economy challenge with just talked about briefly. if that is not brought to the forefront of conversations. then thirdly, the kind of attention that you would get would be where it is at the moment. and that means there is no immediate book for, you know, innovation for introducing climate change adaptation measures. and so it's not a lot of what you need. well, let's see if we can bring daniel and again, the u. s. has vital interest in this area beyond simply security, right?

yes, of course. as i, as i noted, you know, the united states has been a long time partner and new share and security right now is the most pressing concern. i think you mean that's what we're hearing from my colleagues today. ready security is the most pressing challenge in the share. it affects all of these other challenges that we're raising to, you know, you can point to, to climate change climate change. you know, as it affects local communities, as it affects the dynamics between pastoralists and farmers. it contributes to growing tensions and inter communal violence and all of this can spill over into a security challenge. the same, the same is true for economics for looking at the socio economic conditions in here . they're very challenging as well. as you know the, the allegation is the truth,

is that the u. s. news, your 1st came, shall we say to the attention of the us public some 20 years ago. ready allegations about uranium, how much of a focus is there on vital economic interests for the u. s. from this region in terms of energy in terms of vital resources. you know, i'm not particularly aware of any american companies involved in the uranium sector and the share it is a major export of the country. surely, there are other sectors that have been developing in terms of, i think, petroleum there, you know, the west africa in general has a significant gold deposits. and so certainly there are, you know, economic interests. i think that what we're seeing though, from the american side is a genuine interest in partnership. and this comes directly out of the african

leaders summit. and what the demand signals were from african governments towards american foreign policy. they wanted increased engagement at high levels like that of secretary secretary state blinking. and so, you know, you can, i can't speak to what the specific, you know, quantifiable interests are in the share for, for the united states. but i can speak to the fact that a stable west africa is writ large in the economic interests of the united states. and i think that new share has been identified as a crucial partner for stabilizing the region. particularly at this moment it's something of a critical juncture for west africa in it's fight against militant islam. this insecurity, this is bleeding into increased criminality. it's bleeding and to increased enter

communal conflict across the region. and we're starting to see some of west african coastal countries be affected by this violence. and so identifying these error as a, as a partner that's engaged in a stabilizing process, a democratization process. and effective counter insurgency campaigns, despite the enormous challenges that it's government or facing for, i think, is exactly what the united states damning to do with foreign power, right. let me bring career in for find the one that's got a growing population could be is how talking about stabilization is the government in a race against time to try and meet the needs of a growing and young population in order to provide that kind of stability that it seeks and definitely so suddenly that is a common trend that runs across most countries into hell, including joe. and i think that is one of the things that civil society

organizations i wished that had been at the forefront of conversation between the 2 countries under the auspices of the african group opportunity. uh, what kind of support measures would be put in place for me. joe, and it's a population to benefit from opportunities that on a book, a specially skill acquisition that would provide you to that thought me be recruited by some of the groups that are behind the security challenge of the new job. as long as that, if not, don't, then suddenly it would look like the cycle in security and the trend, but it's driving through the region. would also eventually probably affect the job . or i will leave it. i'm going to thank our guests so much for their contributions to the show, kabir daniel and my man. and thank you for watching. you can see the show again any

time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com for further discussion had i was on facebook page. facebook dot com forward slash ha. inside story. can also join the conversation on twitter handle. there is at a j inside story from a sam is a dan and the entire team here allow his goodbye. ah ah.

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