A member of Canada's Special Operations Forces mentors officers from Niger during the Flintlock military exercise near Jacqueville, Ivory Coast, in 2023.Cheick Sylla/The Globe and Mail
After more than a decade of involvement, Canada’s special forces are dropping out of a U.S.-sponsored military exercise in Africa, with Ottawa saying it needs to reconsider where to deploy its resources.
The decision to stop participating in the annual Flintlock exercise, a key Pentagon priority in Africa, could be a sign that the Department of National Defence is stretched thin, with a growing list of commitments in Europe, Asia and the Arctic, defence analyst David Perry said.
The counterterrorism exercise began this week with opening ceremonies in Ivory Coast and Libya, where an estimated 1,500 troops from more than 30 countries are taking part as trainers or trainees. The manoeuvres are aimed at helping African armies respond better to threats from terrorists and violent extremist groups.
Canada has participated in Flintlock for 14 years, usually by deploying a contingent of officers from the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, known as CANSOFCOM, to help train their African counterparts.
In 2023, for example, CANSOFCOM sent about 20 members to the Flintlock exercise at Jacqueville, in Ivory Coast, where they focused on mentoring troops from Niger.
But none will join the exercise this year. “CANSOFCOM can confirm we will no longer participate in Ex FLINTLOCK,” said Lieutenant-Commander Christine Hurov, a spokesperson for the special operations command, in an e-mailed response to questions from The Globe and Mail.
“As part of our mandate, CANSOFCOM must constantly evaluate where our resources are allocated,” she said.
“Our participation in FLINTLOCK had been reducing over the years, leading to the recent decision to reallocate these resources to better support Government of Canada priorities.”
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The exercise is officially described as African-led, but the Pentagon has always been the main financier and organizer. The counterterrorism manoeuvres have become increasingly crucial to the U.S. strategy in Africa in recent years, especially as Islamist militant groups have become deadlier and more ambitious in the Sahel region of West Africa, where Islamic State and al-Qaeda have affiliates.
The U.S. Department of War, in a document released in January, said its top priority in Africa is to “prevent Islamic terrorists from using regional safe havens to strike the U.S. homeland.”
The Libyan phase of Flintlock is also vital to U.S. priorities. The Pentagon has described this year’s exercise as “a historic moment” because it includes troops from both of the two main factions in Libya’s divided military.
Washington sees the exercise as an opportunity to begin uniting Libya’s rival factions, boosting U.S. influence and reducing Russian power in the country. The Libyan phase is being held near the city of Sirte, located between the eastern and western bases of the two factions.
But despite U.S. enthusiasm for the exercise, Canada decided it should reallocate its resources to other priorities. The decision may be linked to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s emphasis on diversifying Canada’s trade and defence links, which has included a host of new security-related agreements with European and Asian countries, Mr. Perry said.
“You can only be in so many places at one time,” said Mr. Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute think tank, in an interview with The Globe.
“The pace and breadth of what Mr. Carney has done, which I think is the right thing to do, I really think is challenging our defence system to be able to follow through on so many new lines of effort,” he said.
“We might be running into a bit of a limit on how much new co-operative activity we can do at the same time without having to make trade-offs.”
Canada’s special operations forces usually have a key role in the Arctic, where the Carney government is now placing greater focus, Mr. Perry noted.
“It might just increasingly be much more difficult to find 20 people to send to Flintlock, because they’re looking to send those 20 people to spend their time up north instead.”