article: These Western countries - and their allies - want Africa to do more to promote stability so that extremists can be effectively denied room to operate. The repeated need for Western intervention in African conflicts has raised questions about the continent's efforts to achieve stability. ''There is a sense of frustration," said Comfort Ero, Africa director at the International Crisis Group (ICG). "Some African leaders would tell privately tell you that there is a sense of embarrassment.'' In Mali, the French militarily intervened in January to prevent militants from taking over the country. Libya has descended into chaos and is now thought to be home to many radical Islamist groups. Now, French intervention has also become necessary in the Central African Republic (CAR) following a takeover by mainly Muslim rebels which has led to clashes with the Christian community. After years of talk about establishing a robust military force to intervene in African conflicts, lack of political will is holding back progress. "Up to a certain extent, the Africans have become prisoners of their own rhetoric - [that] African problems need African solutions," said Roland Marchal, a senior research fellow specialising in Africa at Sciences-Po in Paris. A number of African countries prefer interventions such as those seen in Mali and the CAR because they are a good way to get military funding, he added. But Ms Ero cautions against any assumption that Africa must alone address crises that have international impact. "While there is a desire and more willingness to see an African response, the continent still requires a significant amount of international assistance," she told the BBC. She added that the challenge today is to provide a careful assessment of what the African Union can, realistically, achieve in trying to provide peace and security responses in the continent. The US and France see some obligation in being part of the fight against terrorists in Africa. After all, al-Qaeda attacked US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Militants thought to be affiliated to al-Qaeda in West Africa continue to kidnap French nationals, and threaten French business interests in the region. In February this year, the US deployed 100 troops to Niger to assist French forces in neighbouring Mali in their hunt for al-Qaeda-linked militants. Their mission is to focus on "intelligence sharing", an official said. According to media reports, the US now flies surveillance drones from Niger, tracking militants across a hostile desert region that is home to unstable states sharing porous borders. Although their joint counter-insurgency operations with a number of African countries are seen as crucial, questions remain over the sustainability of international intervention. In the absence of a robust African force, France has had to step in a number of times to intervene in local conflicts. In situations where an African force has intervened, they have often faced financial bottlenecks. In Somalia, an African Union (AU) mission - backed by the UN - has managed to beat back Islamist militant group al-Shabab. But the force's effectiveness is hindered by a lack of helicopters and other logistics. Hawa
summary: Although often seen as rivals in global politics, the US and France are working together to prevent parts of Africa from falling into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked fighters.