United States Africa Command

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United States Africa Command
The Emblem of the United States Africa Command.
Active	Authorized: February 6, 2007 Activation: September 30, 2008
Country	United States
Type	Unified Combatant Command
Headquarters	Kelley Barracks, in Stuttgart, Germany
Commanders
Combatant Commander	General William E. Ward, USA
Deputy for Military Operations	Vice Admiral Robert T. Moeller, USN
Deputy for Civil-Military Activities	Mary Carlin Yates, State Department

The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM) is a new Unified Combatant Command of the United States Department of Defense, to be responsible for U.S. military operations in and military relations with 53 African nations - an area of responsibility covering all of Africa except Egypt. Africa Command was established October 1, 2007 as a temporary sub-unified command of U.S. European Command, but will be fully autonomous and operational by September 30, 2008.

In June 2007 Ryan Henry, Principal Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy, remarked that the latest plans envisage "a distributed command" that would be "networked" across several countries rather than a single combatant command headquarters. In February 2008 a spokesman for AFRICOM, Vince Crawley, told the Associated Press that its "headquarters will be in Stuttgart for the foreseeable future".^[1]

[edit] Geopolitical background (2001-2006)

Prior to the creation of AFRICOM, three Unified Commands had divided responsibility for U.S. military operations in Africa. The Center for Contemporary Conflict of the United States Navy notes that U.S. policy towards Africa, at least in the medium-term, looks to be largely defined by international terrorism, the increasing importance of African oil to American energy needs, and the dramatic expansion and improvement of Sino-African relations since the turn of the century.^[2]

A U.S. military officer wrote the first public article calling for the formation of an African Command published in November 2000.^[3] A January 2002 report from the African Oil Policy Initiative Group played a role in getting discussions about such a command started within the U.S. national security community, though their specific recommendation was to create a subcommand for the Gulf of Guinea.^[4] The AOPIG report emphasised that the U.S. intelligence community has estimated that the United States will buy 25 percent of its oil from Africa by 2015. In general, areas of increasing interest to the United States in Africa include the Sahara/Sahel region,^[5] over which Joint Task Force Aztec Silence is conducting anti-terrorist operations (known as Operation Enduring Freedom - Trans Sahara), the Horn of Africa, where Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa is located in Djibouti (conducting operations which have been called Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa), and the Gulf of Guinea, whose oil resources are expected to gain in importance.

The U.S. Congress has approved US$500 million for the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) over six years to support countries involved in counterterrorism against alleged threats of Al Qaeda operating in African countries, primarily Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, and Morocco.^[6] This program builds upon the former Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), which concluded in December 2004^[7] and focused on weapon and drug trafficking, as well as counterterrorism.^[8] Previous U.S. military activities in sub-Saharan Africa have included Special Forces associated Joint Combined Exchange Training.

As a result of the 2004 global posture review, the Pentagon began implementing a number of Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs) and Forward Operating Sites (FOSs) across the African continent, through USEUCOM. These locations, along with Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, would form the basis of AFRICOM facilities on the continent.

[edit] Creation of AFRICOM (2006-2008)

[edit] Authorization

In mid 2006, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld formed a planning team to advise on requirements for establishing a new Unified Command for the African continent. In early December, he made a recommendation to President George W. Bush, who authorized the new command on the same day Rumsfeld left office.^[9] The creation of USAFRICOM was reported in December 2006 by the Mideast edition of Stars and Stripes. According to then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen, President George W. Bush had made the decision on December 15, 2006 to establish the new command.^[10] Previous speculation on the new command included a Time magazine August 24, 2006 story claiming General William E. Ward might be appointed as its first commander. However, General Ward told Aviation Week reporters in early January 2007 final approval had not yet been given.^[11]

On February 6, 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced to the Senate Armed Services Committee that President George W. Bush had given authority to create the new African Command.^[12] On February 26, 2007 U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, the director of the AFRICOM transition team as Executive Director, arrived in Stugggart Germany to begin creating the logistical framework for the command.^[13][14] On September 28th the U.S. Senate confirmed General William E. "Kip" Ward as AFRICOM's first commander and AFRICOM officially became operational when the organization reached its "initial operating capability" (IOC) on October 1, 2007.^[15]

[edit] Selecting a headquarters

The 1,300 person command will be headquartered at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany for the foreseeable future and a further administrative presence on the continent will only occur via "full diplomatic consultation and agreement with potential host nations".^[16]

On May 4, 2008, the Stars and Stripes reported that the Command will not build a new headquarters on the African continent.

The Economist reported in June 2007 that African countries were competing to host the headquarters because it would bring money for the recipient country.^[17] The Economist said '... Africans know that the superpower's military investment will bring money and jobs'.^[18] However, this has proven to be largely inaccurate due to unanticipated resistance by African nations. These efforts forced the U.S. to declare in February 2008 that Africa Command would be headquartered in Stuttgart for the "foreseeable future". Nigeria, South Africa and Botswana have explicitly opposed the establishment of a headquarters in Africa while other nations have expressed deep reservations about its creation, "claiming it could signal an unwanted expansion of American military influence or turn Africa into another battleground in the global war on terror."^{[19] [20] [21]} Of all the African nations, only Liberia has publicly expressed a willingness to host AFRICOM's headquarters.

On February 18, 2008 General Ward told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute in London that "Our programs are the focus. ... To the degree that some portion of that staff headquarters being on the continent at some point in time will be a positive factor in helping us better deliver programs, and determining where that is, we will then work with a potential host nation and see if that could be done."^[22] General Ward told the BBC the same day in an interview, "[S]ince my time as being appointed as the commander, it has always been our notion that the presence of the headquarters on the continent would come as a result of how we see it facilitating the delivery of our programs and where that might occur. Right now, there are no definite plans to take the headquarters or a portion of it to any particular location on the continent," Ward said.."^[23]

The Sudan Tribune considers it likely that Ethiopia, considered to be one of the US' strongest allies in the region, will house USAFRICOM's headquarters.^[24] (The reason is the collocation of AFRICOM with the African Union's developing peace and security apparatus). Prime Minister Menes Zelawi stated in early November that Ethiopia would be willing to work together closely with USAFRICOM.^[25] This was further reinforced when a U.S. Air Force official said on December 5, 2007, that Addis Ababa was likely to be the headquarters.^[26]

In general, U.S. Unified Combatant Commands have an HQ of their own in one location, subordinate service component HQs, sometimes one or two co-located with the main HQ or sometimes spread widely, and a wide range of operating locations, main bases, forward detachments, etc. USAFRICOM initially appears to be considering something slightly different; spreading the actually COCOM HQ over several locations, rather than having the COCOM HQ in one place and the putative 'U.S. Army Forces, Africa', its air component, and 'U.S. Naval Forces, Africa' in one to four separate locations. AFRICOM will not have the traditional J-type staff divisions, instead having outreach, plans and programs, knowledge development, operations and logistics, and resources branches.^[27] The United States Air Force component of the command has now been confirmed to be the Seventeenth Air Force, as Commander USAFE speculated in October 2007.^[28] Seventeenth Air Force will be established at Sembach Air Base, Germany, on 1 October 2008.

President Bush has denied that the United States was contemplating the construction of new bases on the African continent.^[29] In that speech, Bush derided reports to the contrary as "baloney". Differing views on the subject result from different ideas of what a 'base' is; US plans include no large installations such as Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, but rather a network of facilities - the so-called 'cooperative security locations,' etc, mentioned above, at which temporary activities will be conducted. Of course, there is at least one effectively permanent, large US base on the continent already, Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, but unlike U.S. European Command or U.S. Pacific Command, no further permanent troop relocations to the continent are planned.

[edit] Scope of proposed operations

Military of the United States Portal

The focus of USAFRICOM's missions will be diplomatic, economic and humanitarian aid, aimed at prevention of conflict, rather than at military intervention, according to Theresa Whelan, Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs.^[30] This is, to an extent, a misnomer. All United States combatant commands have the same responsibilities in general; to plan, direct and execute U.S. military operations in their assigned area of responsibility. AFRICOM is only different in that the situation on the continent, U.S. officials believe, would be better served by the military, in many cases, playing a secondary role to other efforts. Steven Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies agrees that the new command holds potential well beyond military oversight. Rather, its mission could be defined by an interagency mix, focusing the efforts of intelligence, diplomatic, health and aid experts.^[9]

[edit] Official goals

The White House stated that:

"[AFRICOM] will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa. Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, and economic growth in Africa."^[31]

The U.S. Department of State stated of AFRICOM that:

"The U.S. military’s new command center for Africa, Africa Command (AFRICOM), will play a supportive role as Africans continue to build democratic institutions and establish good governance across the continent. AFRICOM’S foremost mission is to help Africans achieve their own security, and to support African leadership efforts."^[32]

[edit] Proposed geographic scope

February 2007 Draft Map of the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) showing its creation from parts of USEUCOM, USCENTCOM and USPACOM. (Click to see enlarged image)

The territory of the command would consist of all of the African continent except for Egypt, which would remain under the direct responsibility of USCENTCOM, as it so closely relates to the Middle East.^[30] USAFRICOM will also consist of the following island groups;

• Cape Verde
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Equatorial Guinea islands
• Comoros
• Madagascar
• Mauritius
• Seychelles^[33][13]

Most of Africa will be transferred from USEUCOM with the Horn of Africa and Sudan transferred from USCENTCOM and the islands of Madagascar and Mauritius transferred from USPACOM.

[edit] Controversy

Since the February 2007 announcement of AFRICOM's creation, there have been numerous reports on growing African resistance to the new U.S. military command. In August 2007, Dr. Wafula Okumu, a research fellow at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, testified before congress about the growing resistance and hostility on the African continent. She quoted a State Department official as saying, "We’ve got a big image problem down there. Public opinion is really against getting into bed with the U.S. They just don’t trust the U.S." ^[34] In October, the Nigerian newspaper This Day reported a Nigerian Foreign Ministry statement that "stationing U.S. combat troops on African soil is counter-productive, unnecessary and impinges on the sovereignty of states." ^[35] The have been no reports of U.S. combat troops being permanently stationed there^{[citation needed]} and Nigeria had previously welcomed the opportunity to host temporary U.S. deployments to train Nigerian soldiers through operations as 'Operation Focus Relief.'^[36] The Nigerian military has used the same terms 'infringement on Nigerian sovereignty,' when US military training programmes have tried to enforce the Leahy Amendment, which bars U.S. military training to personnel not vetted for human-rights abuses.^[37]

Civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, and activists in Africa and the United States are organizing and speaking out against AFRICOM. These group have formed a coalition opposing the creation of AFRICOM, ResistAFRICOM. ^[38]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Military history of Africa Portal

• ResistAFRICOM website
• Africa Command's official web site and March 2008 posture statement
• Advanced Questions for General William E. "Kip" Ward, U.S. Army Nominee for Commander, U.S. Africa CommandPDF (165 KiB), U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services testimony.
• U.S. Africa Command: A New Strategic Paradigm?PDF (1.03 MiB) by Sean McFate in Military Review, January-February 2008
• Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) GlobalSecurity.org
• Africa’s Security Challenges and Rising Strategic Significance, Strategic Insights, January 2007
• AFRICOM public briefPDF (652 KiB), United States Department of Defense, 2 February 2007
• "Blood Oil" by Sebastian Junger in Vanity Fair, February 2007 (accessed 28/1/2007)
• "Africa Command: 'Follow the oil'" in World War 4 Report, February, 16 2007
• The Americans Have Landed, Esquire, June 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
• Does Africa need Africom?

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