Terrorism is probably the most serious threat to security and stability in West Africa, particularly in the Sahel-Saharan strip. In this Global War on Terror, development in US policy toward Africa has reinforced the need for indigenous SOF. In fact, instead of "nation building" with large, traditional military formations, civilian policy-makers are increasingly opting for a combination of air power, special operators, intelligence agents, indigenous armed groups and contractors, often leveraging relationships with allies and enabling partner militaries to take more active roles: "African solutions to African problems." In light of these aforementioned factors and given the low GDP of these nations and their difficulty in financing needed operations and capabilities, the West African nations need to join their efforts in order to find a way to achieve a unified action response to transnational threats in conjunction with the U.S Special Operations Command Africa and its western partners through their respective special operations forces.

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