BANGUI, Central African Republic — The Pentagon is poised to significantly scale back a decade-long mission to capture or kill Joseph Kony, one of Africa’s most notorious warlords, in a sign that the United States and its African allies no longer see him as a regional threat.

Mr. Kony and his violent guerrilla group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, gained worldwide attention after the social media video “Kony 2012” was viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube. The L.R.A. is notorious for its use of child soldiers but has also carried out massacres, sexual violence, mutilations, pillage and abductions.

The Pentagon’s Africa Command now wants to shift from a counterinsurgency operation against the guerrilla group to building African defense institutions and a more narrow pursuit of Mr. Kony, whose fighting force has dwindled to about 100 soldiers from a peak of 3,000. That change could free up perhaps dozens of the approximately 150 United States troops now assigned to the effort, allowing them to undertake other Special Operations missions.

A decision on renewing the mission for six more months is scheduled for April, but the Trump administration, even before taking office, signaled its desire for change in a series of questions from its transition team to the State Department.