Summary:

On 29 April 2024, the US Department of Defense’s Africa Command launched the annual multi-lateral training exercise, African Lion 2024, with events in Tunisia that mark the 20th running of the exercise. 

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The African Lion 2024 exercises will involve 8,000 military personnel from 27 countries and continue through the end of May. The exercises will include live-fire training, medical evacuations, explosive ordinance disposal, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear response training. 

African Lion 2024 comes shortly after a senior military representative from NATO visited senior military and defense officials in Tunisia.  

Additionally, the exercises commence under the shadow of the US’s planned withdrawal of troops from Chad and Niger in the Sahel where existing US military partnerships have withered under growing disenchantment with Western influence alongside active Russian diplomatic and military pressure. In early May, US defense official confirmed that Russian troops had begun to occupy the same base in Niger at which US troops were still posted. 

Outlook: 

The US-led exercises happen to align with a strategically significant realignment of influence in the Sahel and North Africa. African regimes have become impatient with both French and American partnerships as frustration with domestic economic and security challenges grow. 

As US troops conduct exercises in Tunisia and other African states, the US will coordinate withdrawals from strategic military outposts in Niger as well as from operational partnerships in Chad. At the same time, Russia is making inroads in the Sahel as well as in North Africa in Algeria and Libya. 

While African Lion 2024 is a pre-scheduled annual exercise, this year’s event carries more weight as the US looks to shore up existing partnerships and potentially incentivize partners that have proved more fleeting in recent months. However, Russia’s willingness to adapt more readily to the demands of African leaders, including the provision of weapons and troops, will be difficult for the US to compete with. 

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