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Africom: maybe next time
African countries refuse to let in new us military command.
Base to remain in Germany
peacereporter
Matteo Fagotto
04. March 2008
President George W. Bush is wrapping up a week-long tour of five
African countries. But not even the success of the US president's
visit is enough to get Africa to change its mind about Africom.
Created last October, the new US military command has decided to
keep its base in Stuttgart, Germany because of the resistance of
African nations to the initiative. African leaders have expressed
reservations over the current US role in the world and the real
aim of their mission. So there will be no new US base in Africa
for now. Washington has chalked up the disagreement to a simple
lack of communication.
| General William
Ward at the head of Africom. With Libya, Nigeria, and
South Africa leading the way, African governments have listed
three main reasons for their opposition to Africom on the
continent: they don't want the war against terror imported to
Africa, they want to maintain strategic control of petroleum
resources, and they don't want the US meddling in the internal
affairs of African countries. Thus far only Liberia has
offered to host the general command whose principle objective,
according to the US, would be to train African forces for
peacekeeping missions and rapid response to humanitarian
disasters. But African countries are suspicious of US claims
that their intentions are entirely altruistic. They fear the
US wants greater control of African oil reserves since
according to projections twenty-five percent of American oil
imports in 2014 will com from the Gulf of Guinea. |
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The US may also have an eye on
competition with China, which has taken the place of the US and
Europe in recent years in trade accords on the continent. Africom
would also bring the continent into the global war on terror,
which has left sub-Saharan Africa relatively untouched with the
exception of the attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in
the late nineties and little else.
Military operations in Africa fell under three separate commands
up until last October when Africom brought all African states
together under a single command. Washington has been aware of
African mistrust for some time. As a result the US hasn't pushed
its agenda and decided to let the general command stay in
Stuttgart for the time being. Military leaders are hoping that
African countries will change their position once they see Africom
in full operation. The US claims that their mission will focus on
economic development and democratization of the continent,
humanitarian aid and troop training, while not denying their
interest in controlling the flow of crude oil to the US and
clamping down on terrorism. According to General William Ward,
head of Africom, the current resistance is due to a
misunderstanding, the result of poor communication that led
Africom officials to get the wrong message.
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US President
George Bush and Ghanaian President John Kufuor. African
nations have shown an unusual degree of unity and focus in
their opposition though there may also be other factors in
play, namely the desire of so-called "heavyweight" states (mainly
Nigeria and South Africa) to maintain the sphere of influence
they have created for themselves with painstaking effort. The
arrival on the scene of a superpower with military commands
and local bases (though these exist already at Camp Lemonier
in Djibouti) might very well throw a wrench in their plans. |
African leaders have also expressed
concern over the image that America has made for itself over the
past eight years. American intervention in the Middle East has
created no small amount of confusion in Africa even if African
countries have on the whole been far less critical than Europeans
of the outgoing American president. The success of Bush's current
visit to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ghana is clear proof. The
president has offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid while
pointing to economic development and disease prevention
initiatives undertaken in the past few years. Bush has studiously
avoided areas of crisis and focused exclusively on so-called
success stories. Perhaps Ghanaian Foreign Minister Akwasi
Osei-Adjei said it best in a recent statement that confirmed the
alliance between his country and the US, but stressed that
American troops are not welcome since "Ghana values its
sovereignty".
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