Latest news with #Langley
CTV News
5 days ago
- CTV News
‘My babies were all in there': Victim of B.C. barn arson mourning dozens of animals
The owner of a barn that was destroyed by fire in Langley last week is mourning the loss of her livestock. Ever since her father died, Kelly Eaglestone has been in charge of the family's farm. 'I lost my entire family to different illnesses,' said Eaglestone, fighting back tears. 'And I inherited the farm.' As an animal lover, caring for the dozens of horses, cows, pigs, sheep, rabbits, chickens and guinea fowl on the property – located in Langley Township, in B.C.'s Lower Mainland – was a dream job. It was also one the single mother hoped to pass onto her own children one day. That came crashing down last week, during a terrible crime that left Eaglestone both devastated and heartbroken. She told CTV News she was running for help after being assaulted by a former farmhand at the property when her barn was set ablaze. 'My neighbour pulled over on the side of the road and I was telling them what was going on,' Eaglestone said. 'Then I just turned around and all I saw was black smoke.' She returned to see the barn engulfed in flames, with most of her livestock inside. 'I was screaming, hysterical because my babies were all in there, like my animals,' she said. Kelly Eaglestone Kelly Eaglestone is seen on her Langley Township farm, which was destroyed in an alleged arson. (GoFundMe) Firefighters tried to save as many livestock as they could, but Eaglestone said she lost most of them – more than 100 living creatures in total. Only a few dozen survived, mostly sheep and chickens. The family's two housecats, Lily and Oliver, are also missing, though Eaglestone and her children are holding out hope they might have survived. 'I'm hoping they just, you know, ran away, but it's been a week and I still can't find them,' she said. Eaglestone told CTV News property was insured, but it's unclear how much help she will ultimately receive. In the meantime, Eagelstone is being forced to sell off her remaining livestock, as she has no place to keep them. 'I have to abandon my animals,' she said, getting overcome with emotion again. 'All I had left.' Longtime family friend Adam Boyd has also set up a GoFundMe to support Eaglestone and her children, which had raised just over $5,700 as of Sunday afternoon. 'We're just grateful for the love and support she's gotten so far,' he said. GoFundMe A screenshot of the fundraiser set up to support Kelly Eaglestone and her children after the family's farm was destroyed. (GoFundMe) Boyd, who grew up on another farm down the road, called the fire 'probably the most devastating thing that's ever happened' in the area. Langley RCMP said Christopher Gerald William England was arrested in connection with the fire, and has since been charged with several crimes, including arson damaging property, assault with a weapon, assault, causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal, mischief, and obstructing police.
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Victim of barn arson loses livestock
The owner of a barn that was destroyed by fire in Langley last week is mourning the loss of her livestock.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump's Africa strategy may become a double-edged sword
With US President Donald Trump on a cost-cutting warpath since starting his second term, aid to Africa has been slashed and now defence spending is in his sights - but could these approaches cost more in the long run? The phrase his administration presses on Europe to assume more of the costs of its own defence is "burden sharing". This is the challenge that Washington is now throwing down to African armies too - and they are far less comfortably resourced to take it on. Moreover, having paid dearly in lives and money, in the struggle to hold back the spreading reach of jihadist armed groups across the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin and Somalia over recent years, they could be forgiven for feeling that they already carry much of the burden - and for the sake not just of their own continent but the wider international community too. Benin, which has lost more than 80 soldiers in jihadist attacks since the start of the year, is just one example. "The epicentre of terrorism on the globe" is how the Sahel was described a few days ago by Gen Michael Langley, who as head of US Africa Command (Africom) oversees the American military presence south of the Sahara. In briefings and interviews over the past few weeks, he has graphically outlined the threat that jihadist groups will present if their push southward towards the Gulf of Guinea succeeds. "One of the terrorists' new objectives is gaining access to West African coasts. If they secure access to the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking and arms trading. This not only puts African nations at risk but also raises the chance of threats reaching US shores." Gen Langley has admitted that the current upsurge in militant attacks is "deeply concerning". Yet he has also repeatedly hammered home a core message: the US is minded to rein back its own sub-Saharan military operations, leaving local armies to take on more of the defence burden. Some 6,500 personnel are currently deployed in Africa by the US military and a 2019 list published by Africom mentioned 13 "enduring" American bases across the continent and a further 17 more temporary facilities. But some of these installations, including the purpose-built drone base at Agadez in Niger, have already been shut down, in particular after military juntas seized power in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020. And it now looks as if the once-ambitious American operational footprint will be pruned back quite a lot more. Perhaps we will see more air power deployed from offshore to hit militant targets - Gen Langley says there have been 25 strikes in Somalia this year, double the 2024 total - but a much thinner permanent on-the-ground military presence. "Some things that we used to do, we may not do anymore," he recently told a conference in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, that brought together chiefs of defence staff and other senior officers from 37 countries. "Our aim is not to serve as a permanent crutch, but to achieve US security objectives that overlap with our partners. We should be able to help African nations build the self-reliance they need to independently confront terrorism and insurgencies." In the bluntness of his language Gen Langley reflects the stark change of outlook and policy that has come from January's change of power at the White House. "We have set our priorities now - protecting the homeland." What matters to the no-longer-so-new Trump II administration, the general made clear in a Pentagon publication last week, is fighting terrorists - particularly those who might attack the US. Other priorities are countering the spread of Chinese military influence across Africa and protecting freedom of maritime navigation through key trade choke points such as the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. In some respects, the focus on training and capacity building that Gen Langley now expounds is not so very different from the approach of previous American administrations, Republican as well as Democrat. He lauds the National Guard State Partnership Program, through which individual US states have been helping to build the capacity of government security forces across Africa and other parts of the world - for the past three decades. France too is pursuing this approach, with the closure of bases in Chad and Senegal, while those in Ivory Coast and Gabon have been handed over to their governments, with only small French training teams left behind to work alongside African colleagues. However, in other respects, the Trump administration's Africa strategy represents a drastic shrinkage in outlook and - critics might argue - a conscious retreat from addressing the factors that drive instability, conflict and terrorism, particularly in the Sahel, which is among the poorest regions on the planet. For under President Joe Biden the US looked far beyond the military realm alone in its efforts to counter the both the growing reach of jihadist groups and other sources of violence. And Gen Langley, as Africom chief, was an articulate exponent of this much broader thinking. Only last year, in an interview with the Associated Press news agency, he outlined what he described as a "whole of government" response to the proliferation of conflict, stressing the importance of good governance and action to tackle the fragilities of African states and the impacts of desertification, crop failure and environmental change. This approach openly recognised that recruitment by armed groups and the spread of violence is fuelled not only by jihadist ideology, but also by a host of social and economic factors, including the stresses now afflicting farming and pastoralist livelihoods. Gen Langley himself does not seem to have abandoned this analysis, recently noting how Ivory Coast had countered the jihadist threat to its northern border areas by complementing security force deployments with development projects. He could equally have pointed to the success of a similar approach pursued by the president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, before he was deposed in the July 2023 coup. But of course, these days Africom must operate within the context of a US foreign policy radically reshaped under Trump. There are even rumours that it could be downgraded to become a subsidiary of the US command in Europe and Gen Langley suggests African governments should tell Washington what they thought of this idea. Already the separate Africa unit at the radically slimmed down National Security Council at the White House is reportedly being wound up and integrated into the Middle East-North Africa section. Its director, Gen Jami Shawley, an Africa specialist appointed to the role only in March, has now been assigned to more general strategic functions. Addressing Congress this week, Gen Langley warned about China's and Russia's African ambitions: Beijing's agility at capitalising on the US's absence and Moscow's ability to seize military opportunities created by chaos and instability. Given these concerns, some might wonder if the general is discreetly signally his doubts about a slimmed down Africa strategy. Meanwhile, under the "efficiency drive" led, until recently, by tech billionaire Elon Musk, the American government's main international development agencies, USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, have been effectively shut down. The spine of the new US economic engagement with Africa is now private sector trade and investment. But business generally needs to operate in a stable and secure context - which Africa's most fragile and violence-prone regions cannot offer. And in winding up the American development agencies, the Trump administration has stepped aside from funding the rural projects and social programmes that sought to address land and water pressures and lack of economic opportunity, the key drivers of conflict - and the jihadist groups' recruitment of frustrated rural young people. For the fragile regions that are the main sources of jihadist violence the US response is reduced to the purely military, and now it is seeking to shift even most of that on to the shoulders of African states that already struggle to respond adequately to a plethora of challenges and responsibilities. Paul Melly is a consulting fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House in London. The region with more 'terror deaths' than rest of world combined Freed captive tells BBC of life in West African jihadist base Why Trump is on the warpath in Somalia 'My wife fears sex, I fear death' - impacts of the USAID freeze Trump's tariffs could be death knell for US-Africa trade pact Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Focus on Africa This Is Africa
Business Insider
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
US Africa Command set to welcome new leader as Trump replaces Langley
President Donald Trump has initiated a leadership transition at the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) as Marine General Michael Langley's two-year term nears its conclusion. President Donald Trump has initiated a leadership change at the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). Marine General Michael Langley, the outgoing commander, will be succeeded by Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson. The transition in AFRICOM leadership reflects ongoing U.S. efforts to maintain security cooperation in Africa. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced the appointment of Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson as the next commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), which oversees American military operations and partnerships across most of the African continent. Anderson, who currently serves as Director of Joint Force Development for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, will succeed Marine General Michael Langley, whose two-year term is drawing to a close.. General Langley made history in 2022 as the first Black four-star general in the U.S. Marine Corps and the first African American to lead AFRICOM. The new appointment signals President Donald Trump's intention to preserve the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) as an independent combatant command amid ongoing debates in Washington over its relevance and future. With Africa's rising geopolitical significance, marked by increasing Chinese, Russian, and Middle Eastern influence, maintaining AFRICOM's autonomy is seen by many analysts as a clear assertion of U.S. commitment to security and diplomatic engagement across the continent. AFRICOM's Sahel struggles under Langley AFRICOM plays a critical role in overseeing U.S. military operations and partnerships across Africa, with a central focus on counterterrorism, strategic military training, and support for regional stability. However, in recent times, the command has found itself at the center of renewed scrutiny and geopolitical controversy, particularly regarding its position on the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a coalition of West African nations including Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso that have shifted toward military-led governance and distanced themselves from traditional Western alliances. Although Langley had maintained that its mission is not to dictate political transitions but to counter the growing threat of terrorism, particularly in the Sahel, his recent remarks have drawn international attention for their candid tone. Speaking at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this year, Langley directly linked the surge in terrorist activity in the Sahel to external actors exploiting regional instability. He warned that ' terrorist groups are financing operations through illicit gold trade, ' singling out Burkina Faso as a key flashpoint where extremist groups have gained control of mines and routes vital to the black-market gold economy. ' Burkina Faso has lost significant state control in many of its northern regions, ' Langley said, ' and violent extremist organizations are profiting from gold trafficking, which helps them expand influence and buy weapons. ' He emphasized that such developments undermine regional stability and pose long-term threats to both African and U.S. security interests. These comments were interpreted by some African observers as a thinly veiled critique of the military regimes in the AES bloc, many of which have expelled Western forces, including French troops, and invited Russian or regional military support instead. As AFRICOM prepares for a change in leadership, Langley's warnings about terrorist financing and the consequences of political isolation in the Sahel remain urgent reminders of the complex security dynamics the next commander will inherit.
Morocco World
12-06-2025
- Business
- Morocco World
AFRICOM Chief Rules Out Move to Morocco, Citing Budgetary Reasons
Rabat – General Michael Langley, the head of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), said this week that the idea of relocating the command's headquarters from Germany to Morocco is not under consideration, primarily due to budgetary reasons. Langley made the remarks in response to a question from Congressman Abe Hamadeh before the US House Military Affairs Committee. 'I know you have a lot of positive things to say about Morocco, and I do as well, as they were the first country to recognize the United States' independence, and it seems like their alliance is increasing with us,' the congressman said. He then asked whether the US command seeks to relocate its headquarters from Germany to Morocco. In response, Langley stressed that the operational benefit of moving to Morocco would not outweigh the financial cost. 'The benefit operationally of us being able to operate from Stuttgard headquarters onto it does not benefit in an amount the cost of moving to headquarters would be a big dent for our budget,' the AFRICOM chief said. He added that it is more advantageous for AFRICOM to consider the overall cost. 'We would not benefit from moving our headquarters onto the African continent,' Langley stated. He concluded his remarks by stressing the importance of Morocco as a 'great partner,' noting that what the North African country does in exporting security is tremendous. In May, Morocco hosted the 21st edition of the African Lion military exercise, the largest in Africa. The event brought together military representatives from the US and several other countries, taking part in military exercises against security threats, including terrorism. US officials have consistently described Morocco as a strategic ally in countering security threats across the region and beyond. In March, Langley emphasized the importance of Morocco as a strategic partner, noting that African armies are viewing Rabat as a model. 'Morocco is a reference in defense and stability,' he said, expressing confidence that the partnership between the two countries will continue to grow and contribute to the continent's stability and security. Throughout the years, the US remained the largest exporter of arms to Morocco with 69% of the global imports, followed by France and Israel. In light of these close military ties, several lobbyists have been campaigning against Morocco, which has been hosting the maneuver for 21 years now. Former republican senator James Inhofe was among the most staunch supporters of Polisario in Washington, continuously maneuvering against Morocco. 'I have pushed [the Pentagon] to look at alternative locations for the annual African Lion military exercise that's been hosted in Morocco previously,' news website Defense News recently quoted Inhofe as saying at a hearing in 2022. 'I'm pleased that [Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin] is in agreement with me on this issue.' Nonetheless, AFRICOM officials have long defended Morocco's hosting of the exercise, acknowledging that it will be difficult to find an African country able to replicate what Morocco has been able to do over the years as the host of the African Lion. Tags: AFRICOMrelations between the US and Morocco
