US Adds Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to the Fight against North African Terror Groups : Regional Analysis - North Africa

On 16 February, word was leaked by a US Department of Defense official that US President Barack Obama was budgeting US$ 200 million to fight Islamic insurgents in West and North Africa. The news preceded the actual presentation of the Pentagon's 2017 defence budget request, in which the US armed forces are allotted US$ 7.5 billion for activities worldwide.Which African countries would benefit from the military and intelligence spending was not immediately apparent. However,the targets of the spending can be safely assumed - Boko Haram, based in Nigeria, and the Islamic State (ISIS), most active in Libya.