Creating a military command on African soil was a key project for the Bush Administration, but Africans did not want it. However, fundamentally what Africans rejected was a camouflaged endeavor to control oil and mineral routes, a direct economic confrontation with China, and the transportation to their continent of a war on terror that, with each day, becomes more of a veritable business venture. Even under Obama, the push for this project continues in a more measured way.
The United State’s major military defeat in Africa over the last decade took place on January 1, 2009. That day, the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and Henrietta Fore (administrator of USAID and member of the elite Aspen Institute), were in Stuttgart to celebrate the launch of a unified Command of U.S. military forces stationed in Africa, or AFRICOM. Stuttgart, the headquarters of EUCOM, is the command of U.S. military forces in Europe, Africa, and the North Atlantic! Was this a defeat? Yes, because the United States wanted to set up their AFRICOM baby on African soil. The reality was that almost all the countries that were surveyed or consulted refused to receive the American soldiers on their territory, for reasons relating to their sovereignty and their security. From South Africa to Nigeria, from Algeria to Morocco, bypassing Libya, the Bush Administration encountered set-back after set-back, and through it all suffered the criticisms of Democrats and Republicans. Worn out, they selected Stuttgart as Central Command for U.S. forces in Africa. General William Ward, the highest ranking African-American in the United States military, veteran of the war in the Balkans, formerly charged with coordinating security between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, ultimately failed to get “his” command in the land of his ancestors!
Africa will thus continue to fall under the three U.S. Geographic Combatant Commands, which the United States has established worldwide: Central Command (CENTCOM), which supervises 27 countries, 7 being African, the Pacific Command (PACOM) covering Madagascar and a part of Eastern Africa, and the European Command (EUCOM), which is the largest of the bunch, covering 91 states, 42 of which are African.
By planning to put into place an operating military structure unique to Africa, the United States, according to Robert Gates, is trying to get out of “an outdated arrangement left over from the Cold War”, which no longer addresses the “demands” of a new worldwide geopolitical configuration that is, according to American experts, marked by an internationalist campaign of terrorism without borders. The expression of this imperative need to set up a long-lasting presence on the continent signifies America’s recognition of the prime strategic “value” that Africa can claim from the perspective of a (progressively) spreading “global war on terror,” launched on September 11, 2001. It has been a long time since ex-President George W. Bush proudly claimed that Africa was not a strategic priority for the United States!
In February 2006, the American plan for Africa took form. AFRICOM, according to Bush, “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.”
The Geopolitics of Oil and Minerals
Why AFRICOM in Africa? Fundamentally, as recognized by most experts, for strategic and economic reasons; the idea is suspected to come from the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), an Israeli-American think tank. AFRICOM, which geo-politicos consider a “quadrant of Africa”, seems to be the opening credits for a pre-planned take-over of the continent, its natural resources, and its raw materials. This undertaking would be impossible without controlling the vast axes of routes on land and at sea. On these grounds, the United States has an adversary in Europe; but China, whose activism is supported by critical development requirements, is especially disconcerting. China’s agenda of patient and deep penetration of the continent is beginning to bear fruit. Today, the Chinese empire trades with mastodons like Sudan, Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, and Angola, and also with Zimbabwe, Mali, Senegal, and more.
Africa currently possesses at least 10% of the world’s oil reserves, an estimate that does not even take into consideration the most recent off-shore discoveries in Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Angola, Sudan, both of the Congos, Cameroon, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Mauritania, and so on. The quantitative data, even if under-valuated, still ranks the continent (all countries together) in fourth place among the world’s largest producers of black gold, with the Middle East way out in front as first place, followed by North America (United States and Canada) and a portion of the former Soviet territories (especially Russia and Kazakhstan). These data put the African continent in second place regarding the value of its reserves in relation to their annual production.[1] If Africa fulfills 15 percent of U.S. hydrocarbon needs (including gas), the National Intelligence Policy (NIP) has indicated in its prospectus that this dependence will reach around 25% by 2020, with a large amount coming from the Gulf of Guinea (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and other nearby countries). Importantly, this part of the continent has been elevated to a “vital interest zone” by and for the United States since the early 2000s. The creation of a small U.S. military base in Sao Tome and Principe was announced in 2003 by President Bush himself; the U.S. also seeks to “secure” access to and exploit the region’s hydrocarbon, according to an evaluation made by the Higher Military Education Centre for Study and Research (French CEREM).[2]
U.S. Soldiers on French “Territory”
America is also present on the Horn of Africa, where it has made an unquestionable return after it was forced to leave by the formerly pro-Soviet regimes in Ethiopia and Somalia, among others. It was only after the deadly attacks against its embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998, and especially after the September 11 attacks, that the Bush Administration considered it urgent to get a foothold in this strategic region midway between Africa and Arabia. That is how Djibouti, which hosts the largest French military base in the world and a maritime connection between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, concurrently became a second home for Americans with the October 2002 creation of the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, an organization against “jihadist terrorism”. The former French territory of Afars and Issas is currently an instrument of preventative security at the service of the pro-American regimes that have since been established in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In addition to the possible use of 1200 km of Eritrean coastline on the Red Sea and the strategic Yemeni island of Socotra, the United States has negotiated and obtained access to the port of Assab, the port and new airport in Massawa, and “unrestricted access” to Eritrean airspace.[3] Uncle Sam’s unprecedented investment in this region destabilized by war and ethno-political disorder comes with a policy of neutralizing so-called terrorist groups like the “Shabab” and the “Islamic Courts” in Somalia, where the Ethiopian army engages in a repressive sub-contract with the American intendancy, and also with the pacification of the deplorable company kept by Addis-Ababa and Asmara, two of Washington’s allies that are engaged in a never-ending conflict over land.
The United States appears to have taken up residency in this strategic zone for an indeterminate period of time, except in the case of a hard blow. And for this reason, their intelligence is convinced that “bearded” Somalis are an outgrowth of Al-Qaeda. When visiting the region in December 2003, Donald Rumsfeld, the ex-Secretary of Defense, set the tone for the future American presence. “We need to be where the action is and there is no question [that] this part of the world is an area where there’s action. The … number of terrorists for example just across the water in Yemen and in the southern part of Saudi Arabia … are serious problems. So this is a good location from the standpoint of what a reasonable person can expect for the coming period of years.”[4] Barricaded in Djibouti’s Camp Lemonier, whose yearly rent costs American tax payers around 20 billion CFA Francs (roughly U.S. $42 million), U.S. soldiers hope they won’t have to bear the brunt of another massacre like the one in Mogadishu in 1992 under Clinton.
Facing the Persian Gulf, Americans directly provide “the strategic control of the maritime route that carries one quarter of the world’s oil production.” This allows them to dominate “the eastern end of the broad oil band that goes across Africa and is considered vital to their strategic interests, a band that goes from the Higleig-Port Sudan pipeline (1600 km) in the south east to the Chad-Cameroon pipeline (100 km) and from the Gulf of Guinea in the west.” In their pursuit of control of black gold circuits, the United States has also set up operations in Uganda where they “are able to control the South Sudan, where there are the bulk of Sudanese crude oil reserves.”[5]
The Sahel, a Gray Area
The “softer” quadrant of the African continent is in the Maghreb. Even though Algeria refused to accommodate Africom’s headquarters, it nevertheless engaged in intense military cooperation with the United States. This is related to a shared fight against militants of the former Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), whose “criminal waste” would have gone to intensifying the region’s new “plague”: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI). According to various military sources, the cooperation of the two countries has resulted in the establishment of a common information center called Alliance Base, an agreement to create and train elite units within the People’s Liberation Army (APL), and the intermittent presence of U.S. troops in southern Algeria, toward the Iherir oasis, about 220 km from the Libyan border. The existence of this military base was never officially recognized by Algiers.
Even though relations with Algeria appear stable—especially following a visit in January from Major General Ronald Ladnier, commander of US Air Forces Africa—it is in Morocco, which Congress has referred to as “Africa’s most credible country”, where U.S. strategists hope to establish their African command. The Sharif Kingdom, which has a solid infrastructure—in contrast to Liberia, which Washington has snubbed—serves as a traditional ally in Washington and has for many years. Americans have set their sights on the southern locale of Tan Tan, at the far edge of the Western Sahara — in vain! This place is especially well chosen because it would provide a coherent extension to the US military presence, thanks to the Ben Jarir airbase, near Marrakech, while facilitating the surveillance of the Sahelian-Sahara Zone.
This is why the Sahel is important to America decision makers. Since 2004, the U.S. has convinced Mauritania, Chad, Niger, and even Algeria to participate in a program of military cooperation to block terrorism at their borders and in so doing has created in the Sahel a declared buffer zone between sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb, a genuine partnership for a war that they themselves financed.
A Healthy Balance
The vulnerability of the Sahel is on the agenda: the surprise cancellation of the Dakar rally after the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania; the November 5th airplane crash of a Boeing jet “chartered” by narcotics traffickers who took care to burn their wares; the abduction of several European hostages who have still not been released; the November 26th kidnapping in Menaka, Mali, of a French innkeeper, Pierre Camatte, who became the object of unofficial bargaining between Bamako, unidentified intermediaries, Paris, and the ransom holders; and constant Tuareg claims against Mali and Niger, all in a no man’s land that appears limitless…Americans hate gray areas!
However, a report from the International Crisis Group (ICG) reveals that “there are enough indications, from a security perspective, to justify caution and greater Western involvement [that does not follow a] misconceived and heavy handed approach,” because the region is “not a hotbed of terrorist activity.”[6] The ICG thinks that the United States needs to promote a “healthy balance” between military and civil programs by helping the concerned states to recover the entirety of their territories.
[1] Source cited by original author: Christian d’Alayer, “Il était une fois le pétrole africain”, Jeune Afrique, December 2002.
[2] Source cited by original author: Centre d’études et de recherche de l’enseignement supérieur militaire (Cerems), Enjeux pétroliers en Afrique, Septembre 2005.
[3] Source cited by original author: Tanguye Struye de Swielande, Centre d’Etudes des Crises et Conflits Internationaux (Cecri), Bruxelles.
[4] Source: Transcript of Secretary Rumsfeld Town Hall Meeting At Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, December 11, 2002.
[5] Source cited by original author: René Naba, Africom et Eufor : sous couvert de grands principes et de sigles abscons, le quadrillage en douceur de l’Afrique, Paris, March 2008.
[6] Source cited by original author (quote amended by translator): International Crisis Group, Islamist terrorism in the Sahel: Fact or Fiction, March 31, 2005.
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