Updated

The U.S. military has increased funding and is paying more attention to Africa out of a growing concern about persistent terrorist threats from splintered al-Qaida (al-KAH'-ee-duh) groups across the continent.

Already this year, the Pentagon has poured more than $82 million into counterterrorism assistance for six African countries, with more than half of that going to Uganda, and much of the rest going to Kenya (KEN'-yuh), Burundi (boo-ROON'-dee) and Djibouti (jih-BOO'-tee) — all key allies in the fight against al-Shabab militants in Somalia.

The State Department's latest report on terrorism says the assistance may be starting to show some results in Somalia. But across Africa, the number of terrorist incidents increased by about 11.5 percent last year, including in Nigeria.