"This year’s Summit Challenge is being held at the Regional Tactical Training Center in Thies, Senegal, from December 2 through 6, 2019," the release said on Monday. "The training center, which was funded, constructed, and equipped through the Department of State’s Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program, is ATA’s first regional training facility in West Africa."

In this year’s exercise, Special Program for Embassy Augmentation and Response (SPEAR) teams from Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Tunisia, and South Sudan will participate in the event, the release said.

Senegal, which has no designated SPEAR team, will participate with a team from the National Police, the release added.

Annual SPEAR sessions for selected law enforcement officers in participating host nations provides training to respond to emergencies involving US diplomatic facilities and personnel, according to the release.