{"id":4456,"date":"2026-02-07T02:58:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/africom-reveals-plans-for-military-exercises-in-africa"},"modified":"2026-02-07T03:22:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:22:35","slug":"africom-reveals-plans-for-military-exercises-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/africom-reveals-plans-for-military-exercises-in-africa","title":{"rendered":"AFRICOM Reveals Plans for Military Exercises in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>The commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), Dagvin Anderson, announced at a press conference that the command will conduct the \u201cAfrican Lion\u201d exercises in Morocco in May 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson said: \u201cOur largest exercises, \u2018African Lion,\u2019 will be held in Morocco. And we plan to conduct them in May.\u201d He added that Morocco was chosen to host the drills because it was the first country to recognize U.S. independence in 1777.<\/p>\n<p>Nineteen African countries, six European countries, and a number of countries from South America and the Middle East will take part in \u201cAfrican Lion.\u201d The exercises focus on countering cross-border threats, foremost among them terrorism and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>A series of naval \u201cCutlass Express\u201d exercises will also be held in Mozambique, with the participation of fourteen African countries, five European countries, and two countries from the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n<p>Other exercises will be held in Kenya with five African countries and three European countries participating, in addition to further phases in Tanzania and Djibouti. U.S. Africa Command\u2019s Sergeant Major Garik Banfield added that \u201cFlintlock\u201d exercises will be conducted in Co\u0302te d\u2019Ivoire, with an additional phase in Libya.<\/p>\n<p>These exercises will involve 26 African countries, 15 European countries, two Indo-Pacific countries, and one South American country. Last December, AFRICOM announced that \u201cFlintlock 26\u201d would be held in the spring of 2026 near the Libyan city of Sirte.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. The commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), Dagvin Anderson, announced at a press conference that the command will conduct the \u201cAfrican Lion\u201d exercises in Morocco in May 2026. Anderson said: \u201cOur largest exercises, \u2018African Lion,\u2019 will be held in Morocco. And we plan to conduct them in May.\u201d He added that Morocco was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AFRICOM Reveals Plans for Military Exercises in Africa - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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