Africom: The Most Unwelcome U.S. Intervention in Africa
Dawit Andebrhan, Nov 4, 2008
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One of the main topics that have been making world headlines is the formation of the United States Africa Command (Africom). The Command was launched on October 1. However, despite a 19-month effort to win African acceptance, the headquarters of Africom remains in Stuttgart, Germany.
Major political states and regional blocs of the continent rejected the formation of the Command. History tells us that African states hardly agreed on any major issue except in rejecting the formation of the most unwanted American military command, the Africom.
The only base for U.S. operations in the continent is Camp Lemonier in Djibouti that existed since 2002, when the Bush administration put greater emphasis on the Horn of Africa, claiming that…. “Islamic terrorists” were utilizing neighboring Somalia as an area of operation (Abayomi Azikiwe: Editor, Pan-African News Wire). This provides the United States strategic control of the maritime zone through which a quarter of the world's oil production passes. The Djibouti base is also in close proximity to the Sudanese oil pipeline.
Prior to the creation of Africom, the U.S. military command structure in Africa was divided among three other regions: the Central Command, which was responsible for Eritrea, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya; the European Command, which covered other states on the continent; and the pacific Command, with responsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles and the Indian Ocean area.
According to political analysts of the continent, U.S. has attempted to cover its imperialist objectives and to promote Africom as another assistance program to that end. Some believe that the number one priority of Africom was the so-called war on terrorism. An article published on BBC’s web site stated that the U.S. has no faith in those states it has funded to work toward eradicating the purported influence of al-Qaeda and other organizations that are targeted as a threat to imperialist interests. America has launched a number of airborne attacks on suspected al-Qaeda personnel in Somalia without success, of course.
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