Deadly Ambush & New Sahel Force
- Don Juice
- Nov 20, 2017
- 2 min read
As you know by now there was a deadly ambush in Niger that killed 4 green berets, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Sgt. La David Johnson and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright. The attack put a spotlight on U.S. engagement in Niger and the wider region in Africa. According to current reports, 12 green berets accompanied Nigerien forces on a recon mission in a village called Tongo Tongo and ended up sleeping there. While on their return to the base they encountered massive resistance from 50 ISIS fighters equipped with small arms and RPGs which led to the casualties. The big story of this was Sgt. La David Johnson who was found separated from the group with his hands tied behind his back and his head smashed leading some to believe he was captured and executed. This information about Niger came as no surprise to me because I was previously aware of us being there and knew we were there on advising missions for years. Our presence in the region was due to Niger being a part of the annual Flintlock joint military exercises which started in 2005 and includes other African nations. Right now there is a regional African force called the Sahel g5 which encompasses 5 Sahel nations including Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Chad supported by French forces to tackle the insecurity and growing Islamic threat in the Sahel. If we can effectively fund this force, we can see these countries jointly fight against the terrorist in the area without the need for greater western assistance and can hopefully garner success like the joint African force that took on Boko Haram reducing their threat.
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