VOA标准英语2013--Obama to Visit Senegal Amid Growing Sahel Terror Threat

（单词翻译）

Obama to Visit Senegal Amid Growing Sahel Terror Threat

France blitzed into Mali in January with air strikes and 4,000 ground troops to push back a southern offensive by al-Qaida affiliates¹ still active in the Sahel-Sahara region.

There are no indications that the U.S. will get involved in the region anytime soon despite last year's attack on U.S. Consulate² in Benghazi, Libya, last year and a seizure³ of a natural gas facility in Algeria by militants⁴ earlier this year. 

President Barack Obama said in May that America will not be opening new fronts in the war on terror.

“And while we are vigilant⁵ for signs that these groups may pose a transnational threat, most are focused on operating in the countries and regions where they are based. And that means we'll face more localized threats like what we saw in Benghazi, or the BP oil facility in Algeria, in which local operatives - perhaps in loose affiliation⁶ with regional networks - launch periodic attacks against Western diplomats⁷, companies, and other soft targets, or resort to kidnapping and other criminal enterprises to fund their operations,” said Obama.

U.S. military engagement in Africa seems to focus training missions like one conducted Senegal earlier this year..

It was also American training that is thought to have helped a local army captain overthrow⁸ Mali's government in March 2012. The U.S. had poured millions of dollars into Mali's army to help it fight terrorists who took over the north of the country after the coup⁹.

International Crisis Group West Africa director, Gilles Yabi, says training African troops is a good idea but the crisis in Mali offers some lessons.

"You can't just train a core nucleus¹⁰ of soldiers within the armed forces to be very competent in counter-terrorism, while not addressing the fact that the army as a whole is dysfunctional," he said.

Coordinated¹¹ double suicide attacks in northern Niger that killed at least 26 people in May have been some of the worst regional fallout incidents from the French-led intervention¹² in Mali. Countries in the region are bracing¹³ for more.

Retired¹⁴ Senegalese military police colonel and former defense¹⁵ attache to Mali, Djibril Ba point to other challenges.

"The Sahel-Sahara zone is very vast and not very populated," said he. "It is difficult to operate and fight in the desert. Security forces must depend on locals who are infiltrated¹⁶ by militants. There are lots of potential sanctuaries¹⁷ for militants. Locals need to be patriotic¹⁸ enough to  help us identify them, track them and arrest them. This is not conventional warfare¹⁹ and our security forces need to be trained how to do it."

This year, the U.S. opened its second drone base in Africa, at the heart of the Sahel, in Niger.

Yabi says aerial surveillance is useful but countries in the region cannot rely on American drones.

"Drones are expensive and the country that owns them will ultimately use them for its interests," he said. "Drones should not be a substitute for countries in the region learning to work together to control their borders and work with local communities who are really the best source of surveillance and information."

The U.S. State Department is now offering a total of $23 million in rewards for information leading to the capture of Nigerian extremist leader Abubakar Shekau and four other top militants in the region.