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| - The State Department announced Sunday it had nominated J. Peter Pham, the envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, as the first US special envoy for the Sahel crisis. Pham's nomination comes amid fears that the jihadist threat in the region is spreading. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "is pleased to appoint @DrJPPham as the first-ever U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa to maximize US diplomatic efforts in support of security and stability in the Sahel," tweeted department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. Prior to serving as the envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, Pham was a vice president at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank, where he ran the Africa Center. He thanked Pompeo and US President Donald Trump on Twitter, saying he was "grateful" for the "honor." Pham added he looked forward to working with "regional & international partners on the security and humanitarian challenges" in the region. Presented as an ardent proponent of a strong relationship between the US and Africa, Pham, a scholar and frequent writer on African affairs, in a provocative 2012 article proposed that the DRC be allowed to split into smaller states. It was time to put an end to peace deals "with shelf lives barely longer than the news cycle," he wrote. Thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers have died and more than one million people have been displaced in a jihadist conflict that erupted in 2012 in northern Mali and has spread to its neighbors. During a recent trip to Africa, Pompeo said the US favored a "collective" approach with its allies when deciding on troop numbers deployed in Africa against jihadist insurgents. France has deployed 5,100 soldiers in Operation Barkhane to roll back jihadists and has repeatedly told the United States that the situation is urgent. The Pentagon nonetheless is looking at cutting African operations as part of a refocus against China and Russia, prompting French warnings that the United States move would hamper international efforts against extremism. sdu/cyj/to/mdl
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