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With extremist violence surging across a wide swath of Africa, U.S. lawmakers from both political parties are trying to head off a Trump administration proposal to cut American military forces on the continent.

In a rare display of bipartisanship, lawmakers have peppered Defense Secretary Mark Esper with letters in recent weeks urging him to reconsider what they fear will be a sharp cut in the 6,000 commandos, trainers and other U.S. defense personnel in Africa. Republican lawmakers with close White House ties plan to appeal to President Trump in the hope he will order a course reversal.

Mr. Esper is reorienting U.S. military power toward competition with China and Russia after nearly two decades of war against insurgents on Iraqi, Afghan and other battlefields. His department is conducting a review of American forces world-wide, starting with Africa, where the U.S. has already cut forces by 300 since 2018.

The largest American contingent is in the Horn of Africa, where the U.S. and its European and African allies have been conducting a 13-year campaign against al-Shabaab, al Qaeda’s arm in Somalia. Another troop concentration is in the Sahel, the semiarid belt south of the Sahara where West African countries are fighting a desperate, uphill battle against Islamist militants reinforced by jihadists seasoned in Syria and Iraq.

“The civilized world has to try to hold things together,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R., Texas), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

The relatively small American presence on the African continent generally goes unnoticed in the U.S. except when news breaks of combat casualties. Al-Shabaab fighters killed three Americans at a base in Kenya earlier this month . A special-operations soldier died at a Somali outpost in 2018. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in an Islamic State ambush in Niger in 2017.

Mr. Esper told reporters Thursday that he hadn’t decided about further cuts, and that in no scenario would all American forces be pulled out. A decision, once expected as early as the end of last year, now likely won’t happen until March, a U.S. official familiar with the internal discussions said.

The U.S. official said one reason for the delay is the pressure campaign from Capitol Hill and France, which has long colonial ties to West Africa and provides the leading Western military force in the region.

Mr. Esper said he may refigure missions in Africa toward countering China and Russia, and less toward fighting terrorism.

The Pentagon could also rotate troops into the Sahel for shorter missions, the U.S. official said, or keep them at the ready on ships off the African coast.

During a news conference earlier this week, Mr. Esper signaled he would like European countries to fill gaps left by the Americans. “That could offset whatever changes we make as we consider next steps in Africa,” he said.

The visiting French defense minister, Florence Parly, standing at his side, made no secret of her country’s concerns. France has some 4,500 troops conducting combat operations against militants in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. But the French depend heavily on the U.S. for aerial surveillance, airlift and refueling.

“U.S. support is critical to our operations,” Ms. Parly said. “Its reduction would severely limit our effectiveness against terrorists.”

The U.S. recently began drone operations from a new base in Agadez, Niger. U.S. officials won’t say if the airfield is among the potential cuts.

U.S. military commanders themselves have been circumspect about resisting the proposed cuts, both worried that force reductions would embolden terror groups and wary about stepping on the toes of the Pentagon’s civilian leadership.

Gen. Stephen Townsend, head of U.S. Africa Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the relatively small American presence on the continent helps African governments fend off attacks by al Qaeda, Islamic State, al-Shabaab and other militant groups, while countering aggressive efforts by China and Russia to gain influence.

“What U.S. Africa Command accomplishes with a few people and a few dollars, on a continent three-and-a-half times the size of the continental United States, is a bargain for the American taxpayer and low-cost insurance for America in that region,” Gen. Townsend testified.

The prospect of a U.S. pullback has set off alarm bells in Africa, as well.

“What is the rationale behind this troop reduction?” asked Abdallah Wafy, Niger’s ambassador to the U.S. “We don’t have any clue what’s going on.”

For the moment, lawmakers say they hope their pressure campaign will forestall the need for legislation to force the administration to maintain troop levels. But, as a model for potential action, a House aide pointed to a provision in the most recent defense authorization law that prohibits the administration from using funds to reduce American forces in South Korea below a threshold level.

“There is broad opposition to the idea that we would dramatically reduce our footprint in Africa,” said Rep. Anthony Brown (D., Md.), vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.