Rab’s World

Africom [The United States African Command] is one of six, regional Unified Combatant Commands of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. AfriCom became fully autonomous and operational today, October 1, 2008. It was established a year before that as a sub-command of the US European Command. US President George W. Bush announced the command’s creation on February 6, 2007. It is responsible for U.S. military operations in and military relations with 53 African nations excluding Egypt; which is lumped with U.S. Central Command.

Previously, Africa was divided between three US military commands. The Central Command (Centcom) had responsibility for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya. The European Command (Eucom) was responsible for the rest of the countries on the African mainland and the Pacific Command (Pacom), was responsible for Madagascar, the Seychelles and Indian Ocean area.

General William Ward will be the first commander of Africom.

A Black face for a loving race!

The creation of this US military command has been brewing contention amongst African governments and ordinary people of the continent.

The new command has been received with scepticism on the continent, with critics saying it reflects US concerns on tackling Islamic extremism, securing oil supplies and countering Chinese influence in Africa. African nations argue that Africom will militarize US-Africa relations, stoke radical movements in some countries and further embroil Africa in Washington’s “global war on terrorism.”

US officials have said Africom does not signal a new grab for Africa, but there are considerable doubts among Africa’s 53 countries.

Many feel little consultation took place about the role of Africom and half a dozen African counties have shunned approaches from the Pentagon proposing that they might house the command’s headquarters.

Realizing this and the fears of African citizens; Liberia has been the only country to offer the USA a place to host it’s command on the African Continent. “Thanks.. but no thanks”; stated an senior military official on Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s (President of Liberia) gesture. Africom will remain in Stuttgart, Germany growing to approximately 1, 300 military employees under its umbrella soon. It is noted that African-American billionaire; Robert Johnson wrote a controversial letter to the Washington Post advocating that the new AFRICOM Military Command be based in Liberia. The US military will eventually need a major forward operations base on the continent. The only established base is Camp Lemonier in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, where about 1,800 US troops are stationed.

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