Djibouti (HAN) March 15, 2014 – Camp lemonier – The general at the head of Africom said Wednesday that the Pentagon did not plan to remove the military command of the United States to Africa despite the prospect of further US Military cuts; armed Forces are in a period of financial restraint: a new fiscal reality.
“We will look into it later, but for now, the United States believes that having a command center in its own right for Africa improves the effectiveness of our military support to the State Department” said Gen. David Rodriguez during a press conference.
Since its inception in 2007, Africom, whose command is based in Stuttgart, Germany, has continued to expand its role in Africa, focusing on the fight against armed Islamist groups and training of allied troops in the region.
“We’ve always had interests in Africa. What is new since the last five years is that we are more directly involved, coordinated “than in the past, said Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at the conference.
AFRICOM has an annual budget of $ 296 million which does not cover expenses Lemmonier Camp in Djibouti, a key U.S. bases on the continent.
Over the past decade, the U.S. military has developed a logistics network across East Africa in particular, with secured ports and airports strategic access.
Rather than intervening directly in the field against groups linked to Al-Qaeda in Somalia and Mali, the U.S. military tends to prefer to focus on intelligence operations and training of allied troops in the region.
There are however a few weeks, Americans have launched view major operations in Yemen and Southern Somalia. In the first raid in Southern Somalia, a suspected member of Al-Shabaab, Abu Anas al-Libi, long sought by the United States had been Killed. In Somalia, the Americans had not yet failed to stop an Islamist militant Al-Shebab.
Nur Kafi’s Column on the Eye of the Horn of African Affairs; Can be Reach at han@geeskaafrika.com
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