The cuts represent the Pentagon’s shift from counter terror to great power competition with China and Russia.

The US Africa Command says the cuts to the 7 200 American troops on the continent will amount to less that ten percent.

Operations in Somalia, Libya and Djibouti – where the US has its only permanent military base in Africa – will remain the same.

But in West Africa, the tactical assistance to forces fighting violent extremist organizations  will be replaced with personnel providing advisory, assistance, liaison and intelligence sharing.

A deadly ambush that saw US soldiers killed in Niger last year has got the American public asking why they were in the first place.  

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