The United States plans to create a training center for African drone operators in Morocco. This initiative was announced by General Christopher Donahue, commander of American forces in Europe and Africa, according to American media.
The first phase of this project should begin during the 2026 edition of the Africa Lion exercise. A training module dedicated to drones will be offered to around fifteen participants, the general said during the summit of African land forces, which was held last week in Rome.
“This is about developing a sustainable and sustainable capacity which, once its effectiveness is proven, can be deployed in other regions of Africa,” Donahue said.
The general also stressed that this center aims to provide African actors with a space to identify the most pressing security challenges, while mobilizing various resources and innovations to address them.
This system will offer “a different approach to training each other, learning from each other and sharing information in order to solve a problem. This is what we are going to put in place in Morocco,” he added.
As a reminder, General Dagvin Anderson, current head of AFRICOM, had already announced last August, during his hearing in the Senate for his nomination, that Morocco is called upon to play a key role in the new configuration of American command in Africa.
American media had also mentioned the possibility for the United States to create an independent military command dedicated to operations in Africa, following the approval by the Senate of a new manager for AFRICOM. In this context, Morocco was mentioned as a potential site to host the future headquarters.
This dynamic is part of strengthened strategic cooperation between Rabat and Washington. Since June 2004, the kingdom has benefited from the status of a major ally of the United States outside NATO.
