Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz is calling for accountability from the Pentagon following a string of coups in Africa by mutinous soldiers that had previously been trained or funded by the United States.
In an interview with The Intercept, Gaetz said his proposed amendment to the 2024 national defense spending bill would collect data on military members who take part in coups and require the Pentagon to submit that information to Congress. The move comes as African countries have experienced two coups in just two months – Niger in July and Gabon on Wednesday.
“The Department of Defense, up until this point, has not kept data regarding the people they train who participate in coups to overthrow democratically elected — or any — governments,” Gaetz told the outlet. “And that’s why in this National Defense Authorization Act … I have legislation that demands a collection of that data and a report to Congress about those outcomes.”
The House Armed Services Committee has already approved Gaetz’s legislation, but its fate will ultimately be decided after legislators return to the Capitol in September. Under the amendment, the Pentagon would be required to disclose each instance of a U.S. “trained or equipped” person who “subsequently engaged in a coup, insurrection, or action to overthrow a democratically-elected government, or attempted any such action” since January 2000.
A spokesperson for the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) told The Intercept in 2022 that they don’t “actively track” people after they receive U.S. training and make no record of how many coups have involved them.
“If the true desired end state was really to strengthen national borders and national capabilities, we would definitely follow who broke bad,” Gaetz said. “But that isn’t the desired end state. Just being there is the desired end state — which is a betrayal of our national interest.”
The State Department tracks data on U.S. trainees but would not provide any information to the outlet on the number who went on to attempt to overthrow their governments.
According to data analyzed by The Intercept, 15 military officers who were involved in 12 coups in West Africa and the Sahel region “benefitted from U.S. security assistance” during the War on Terror, including in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Five U.S.-trained coup leaders in Niger ultimately went on to appoint five governors who were also previously trained by the U.S., the outlet reports.
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“Literally as this story was being published, there was another African coup, led by people the US trained,” Gaetz posted to X on Wednesday, referring to a coup in Gabon. “Our Africa Strategy is a hot mess,” he added. In another post, Gaetz said he opposed using “American taxpayer funds for training the people who execute destabilizing coups in Africa.”
Gaetz placed some of the blame on the Biden administration, saying that under Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s “abysmal tenure,” seven coups have taken place in Africa – all of which, Gaetz says, were “connected to people trained by US Taxpayer funds.”
“Wanna know where we can cut spending? How about we spend less training people who overthrow elected governments?” the Florida congressman said.