The Pentagon failed to prepare Army units for the cultural difficulties of training local forces in Africa, leading to units reverting to their old tactics, according to a declassified inspector general’s report, a potential blow to efforts to train US-aligned forces in North Africa.

Failure to properly instruct advisers, which stemmed from poor oversight of American units deployed to the region and a lack of cultural preparation, could contribute to African countries being less ready to wage the terror fight, the findings indicate, as the Pentagon puts a top priority on containing potential spillover from the Libya conflict and the spread of Islamic State elements in North Africa.

“The RAF [regionally-aligned forces] has not been consistently prepared for its deployments to Africa, which has degraded the effectiveness of the RAF’s missions,” the report stated. “Security cooperation is a key element of USAFRICOM’s theater campaign plan … therefore, ineffective RAF training could disrupt or delay the execution of USAFRICOM’s strategy for the continent,” referring to the Pentagon’s top command in Africa.  

The regionally-aligned forces, known by the acronym RAF, is an Army-led effort to develop units that were tailored to the individual needs of theaters of war like Africa, dividing an assigned group over more than a dozen countries. US Africa Command has said the units perform “a significant share” of building up militaries on the continent.