The commander of U.S. Africa Command told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday that Russia is using the African continent as Vladimir Putin’s “purse” to bankroll the Ukraine war, while a decade of American military drawdowns has left the United States functionally blind across the region.
Gen. Dagvin Anderson testified that U.S. troop reductions in Africa have reached 75% over the past ten years. Combined with allied withdrawals, he said Washington now faces an “intelligence black hole” across a continent that hosts active ISIS leadership, expanding al Qaeda networks, and an increasingly aggressive Russian and Chinese footprint.
“With a 75% reduction in our regional posture over the past decade, compounded by the drawdown of our allies, we struggle with an intelligence black hole,” Anderson told lawmakers.
“You cannot surge trust,” he added, warning that reduced U.S. presence has damaged relationships and crisis response capabilities that take years to build.
Anderson described Africa as the current “epicenter of global terrorism.” ISIS leadership, he said, is now concentrated on the continent. Al Qaeda’s economic engine runs through Africa. Both organizations, he testified, “share the will and intent to strike our homeland.”
“The capture of a capital city would provide al Qaeda with all the trappings of a nation state,” Anderson warned the committee.
On Russia, Anderson was direct. Moscow’s Africa Corps, the Kremlin successor to the Wagner Group, has moved into security vacuums across Mali and Niger left behind after Western and French forces pulled out. Russia has framed this expansion as anti-terrorism partnership. Anderson framed it differently.
“Africa also serves as Putin’s purse, where Russia exploits instability to extract resources, including human lives, to fuel his war machine,” Anderson said.
Lawmakers also pressed the general on Russian recruitment of African nationals to fight in Ukraine. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) cited reports of as many as 1,000 Kenyans lured through Russian-linked networks that promised jobs before shipping recruits to the front lines.
“It is disturbing how many Africans from across the continent are being recruited by Russia to fight in Ukraine,” Anderson said.
