Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, left, and Marine Gen. Michael Langley, commander U.S. Africa Command, testify Tuesday, June 10, 2025, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
The top U.S. general for Africa endorsed keeping the military headquarters overseeing U.S. forces and operations in Africa and Europe separate, especially as Africa faces a growing terrorism threat and increased Chinese influence.
Marine Gen. Michael Langley told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the U.S. military should not cede its influence across Africa even as it pushes African partner nations to shoulder more of the financial burden for their own security under President Donald Trump’s America-first policies. Langley has led U.S. Africa Command since 2022 and is slated to retire from the military in the summer.
“AFRICOM needs to remain as an overall command,” Langley said of the headquarters established in 2007 to improve U.S. military efforts in Africa, which previously had been under three different commands. “Africa is a nexus theater for the great-power competition [with China and Russia] and then [there are] also a number of violent extremist organizations that are encroaching upon the continent [that are a] threat to our homeland, and … a threat for our overall national security and protection our national interests.”
Reports emerged in February that Trump’s administration was weighing absorbing AFRICOM into U.S. European Command, which are both headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Langley and Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, who commands EUCOM, said this year that a restructuring to merge the two commands would be difficult, though they did not take a position on the topic at that time.
The issue drew criticism from Capitol Hill, including from the Republican lawmakers who lead the Senate and House Armed Services committees.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, asked Langley on Tuesday whether AFRICOM should remain separate from EUCOM, eventually drawing a “yes” from the Marine.
“I fully agree with you,” Rogers said. “I made it very clear publicly that I will vigorously oppose any effort to consolidate AFRICOM into the EUCOM. We need to be putting more resources in AFRICOM to combat what China and Russia and Iran are doing rather than looking at taking away attention and resources.”
A growing Chinese presence on the continent should show U.S. leaders why maintaining AFRICOM is important, Langley said.
Africa is a fast-growing continent that is expected to house 25% of the world’s population by 2050, according to Langley. It boasts massive stocks of natural resources, including rare earth elements critical to electronics, and last year it accounted for 11 of the world’s 20 fastest-growing economies, he said.
Access to those resources and economies has driven the Chinese to increase their spending in Africa significantly. Russia also seeks to increase its influence in Africa, especially as it seeks access to warm water ports, Langley said.
He told lawmakers that he was concerned any place that the United States pulls back its military or its diplomatic missions, the Chinese or Russians quickly step in to expand their own influence. China’s military, he added, is outspending AFRICOM about 100-to-1 in African countries.
But Langley said he was also concerned a growing terrorism threat in West Africa and parts of East Africa could eventually lead to threats on the continental United States.
The United States has lost influence in much of the Sahel region, where military coups in recent years led to the end of formal military ties. Last year, the Pentagon was forced to withdraw all its troops from Niger, including from a key drone base from where it was operating much of its counterterrorism surveillance.
Terrorist groups in that region aligned with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have grown in size and influence in ungoverned areas of the Sahel, Langley said. Those groups do not have the capability to attack the United States but do seek to do so in the future.
“Without a persistent presence in the Sahel, we are limited in the ability to monitor the expanding influence of terrorist organizations in the region,” Langley wrote in his written testimony. “Our assessment indicates that, if left unchecked, these organizations will continue to grow, and their threat to regional stability, as well as to U.S. national security interests, will only intensify.”
In Africa’s east, Langley has increased operations against terrorist groups in Somalia, which also harbor intentions on attacking Americans. Those efforts have included a wave of some 37 strikes on al-Shabab and ISIS-Somalia militants, mostly in the Golis Mountains in northeastern Somalia. U.S. officials estimate the ISIS group has grown in recent months from about 500 fighters — many former al-Shabab militants that split from that group — to some 1,500, including many foreign fighters. Al-Shabab, meanwhile, has remained the largest terrorist group in Africa, boasting up to 12,000 fighters aimed at overthrowing Somalia’s government and attacking the United States and other western countries.
The increased strikes on those groups since January, Langley told lawmakers, have forced them to pause some of the terrorist activity.
The strikes are “reinstituting deterrence in a kinetic way, and they are yielding to it to the point that they are considering moving to seek refuge elsewhere,” Langley said. “This is the warrior ethos and lethality we’ve posed in the Golis Mountains against a foe that has the capability of attacking our homeland. I think this movement to increase our lethal effects on them is causing [them] to pause.”
The general said he was also concerned about signs that al-Shabab has been working with Iran-backed Houthi rebels across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen, who have spent recent months attacking American warships in the Red Sea before a recent ceasefire between the two sides.
Langley said he was concerned the two terrorist groups working together could bring trouble to American forces in the region, especially the roughly 3,000 troops and U.S. civilians stationed in Djibouti, which is in range of Houthi weapons supplied by Iran.
Officials have worried the Houthis could supply al-Shabab with Iranian weapons, but Langley said he was also concerned al-Shabab could grant the Houthis access to operate from Somalian soil.
“If [the Houthis] establish a foothold in East Africa, the threat to global trade and shipping would increase significantly, bringing a highly capable, belligerent actor into a region already struggling against ISIS and al-Shabab,” Langley wrote in his testimony.
