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Questions Arise About U.S. Military's West Africa Plan

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By TODD PITMAN, The Associated Press

Published: November 7, 2007

DAKAR, Senegal - Just a few years ago, the U.S. military was rarely seen in the oil-rich waters of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea. This year, it plans to be there every day.

The strategic importance of Africa and its natural resources is rising, and the Defense Department last month created a unified U.S. military command for the continent, Africom.

The first American mission to Africa since that move began Monday when a Navy amphibious ship, the USS Fort McHenry, arrived in Senegal's capital to begin a half-year training exercise for African naval forces around the Gulf of Guinea.

For American commanders, Africom means consolidating responsibility for a continent previously split among three other regional commands, each of which viewed Africa as a secondary interest.

However, Africom's creation has provoked so much skepticism on the continent that one of the most basic questions, where it will be located, is unresolved.

Some Africans are concerned the new command could draw the continent deeper into the global war on terrorism.

Others wonder whether it is meant to protect America's competitive stake in African oil and other resources increasingly sought by rising powers such as China and India. The continent has surpassed the Persian Gulf as the leading supplier of oil to the United States.

"Africans have a feeling Africom represents something more than what is being sold to them," said Wafula Okumu, an analyst at South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. "If it was packaged a different way and better explained, maybe it could be a success."

U.S. officials concede America's strategic interests come first, but Africom's deputy for military operations, Vice Adm. Robert T. Moeller, said the command will allow the United States "to do more with our African partners when it makes sense to do so and where it's in their interest to do so."

There is a misconception that Africom is part of "a U.S. effort to militarize Africa, and that's definitely not the case," Moeller said.

The U.S. military is well-entrenched in Africa, spending about $250 million a year on military assistance programs, said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Since 2002, about 1,800 American military personnel have been stationed in Djibouti as part of efforts to stifle terrorist networks in the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia. Money is also being poured into the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative, which has focused on training armies in western and northern African nations from Algeria to Nigeria.

Moeller said Africom will bring no new U.S. military bases to the continent and no substantial changes in America's military role. Its aim is to help Africans with military training and support peacekeeping and aid operations crucial to stability and the prevention of conflict, he said.

Regional powers including Libya, Nigeria and South Africa have expressed deep reservations, partly because they think Africom could undermine their influence, analysts said. So far, only Liberia has publicly stated a willingness to host Africom, though even critics such as Nigeria welcome the continuation of the U.S. training programs.

Led by Gen. William E. "Kip" Ward, Africom is expected to be fully operational within a year.

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