African countries have watched with mounting angst as President Donald Trump has taken a hatchet to foreign aid and slapped tariffs on some of the world’s poorest nations. Now they’re concerned that U.S. military cooperation that’s aided the fight against terrorists and rebellions may be next.
"We’re really worried they will remove the assistance, just like any other country at the moment,” said Maj. Gen. Abou Issa, chief of army staff for Benin’s defense forces.
The U.S. has supplied the tiny West African nation with training, helicopters and intelligence in a bid to prevent Islamist fighters from the Sahel region from threatening shipping routes off the Gulf of Guinea. Without that aid, the fight to secure the country’s north would be "tough,” Issa said.
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