The United States has warned that West Africa’s worsening security landscape poses “a very high concern,” a senior official said at a conference in Ivory Coast.
Jacob Helberg, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, said Washington’s priority is trade rather than development aid, reflecting a shift towards economic resilience in a region battered by instability.
He stressed that US policymakers are focused on how violence affects regional economic security, which they see as essential for attracting long-term private investment.
Several top US officials have recently toured Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to encourage American companies to engage in the Sahel, where military juntas confront entrenched jihadist insurgencies.
“The security needs of the region are obviously a very high concern,” Helberg said, noting that investors will only commit if their ventures can be reliably protected.
Helberg was in Abidjan for President Alassane Ouattara’s inauguration when early reports of an attempted coup in Benin surfaced, though he declined to comment as the situation remained unclear.
Violence across the Sahel has surged dramatically, with AFP analysis of ACLED data showing jihadist attacks rising from about 1,900 in 2019 to more than 5,500 in 2024, and 3,800 recorded before October 2025.
The conflict now spans territory twice the size of Spain and has claimed nearly 77,000 lives, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian and security crisis.
Development assistance to Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso was sharply curtailed under former president Joe Biden following their successive military coups between 2020 and 2023.
Helberg said diplomatic talks with the three juntas are continuing, but he cautioned that it is too early to predict how negotiations over future cooperation and aid might evolve.