WASHINGTON - The U.S. is planning to base military drones along the West African coast in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin in a bid to stop the spread of al Qaeda and Islamic State, writes Michael Phillips in the Wall Street Journal citing American and African officials.
The three relatively stable countries are now threatened by Islamist militants surging south from the Sahel in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
In the ongoing negotiations, the U.S. proposes basing drones at Ghana’s Air Force Base Tamale, three Ivory Coast airfields, and in Parakou town in Benin, far enough from the Burkina Faso border to provide a buffer from militant ground attacks.
