 |
 |
|
|
| DEPARTMENTS | |||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
| YOU CAN!... | |||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
| MORE ABOUT HUNGER NOTES |
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|||
|
Obama and US military engagement in Africa
Daniel Volman
(April 23, 2010) When Barack Obama took office as president
of the United States in January 2009, it was widely expected
that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the
militarised and unilateral national security policy toward
Africa that had been pursued by the Bush administration.
But, after a little more than one year in office, it is
clear that the Obama administration is essentially following
the same policy that has guided US military involvement in
Africa for more than a decade. Indeed, it appears that
President Obama is determined to expand and intensify US
military engagement throughout Africa.
Thus, in its budget request for the State Department for the
2010 financial year, the Obama administration proposed
significant increases in funding for US arms sales and
military training programs for African countries, as well as
for regional programs on the continent, and is expected to
propose further increases in its budget request for the 2011
financial year.
The 2010 budget proposed to increase foreign military
funding spending for Africa by more than 300 per cent, from
just over US$8.2 million to more than US$25.5 million, with
additional increases in funding for North African countries.
Major recipients included Chad, the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco,
Nigeria and South Africa.
The 2010 budget request for the International Military
Education and Training program proposed to increase funding
for African countries from just under US$14 million to more
than US$16 million, with additional increases for North
African countries. Major recipients slated for increases
include Algeria, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Liberia,
Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South
Africa and Uganda.
The 2010 State Department budget request also proposed
increased funding for several other security assistance
programs in Africa, including the African Contingency
Operations and Training Assistance program (which is slated
to receive US$96.8 million), the International Narcotics
Control and Law Enforcement programs in Algeria, Cape Verde,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Sudan and Uganda, anti-terrorism assistance programs in
Kenya and South Africa, and the Africa regional programme.
The same is true for funding in the Defense Department
budget for the operations of the new Africa Command
(AFRICOM) which became fully operational in October 2008 and
the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA)
forces, which have been stationed at the US military base in
Djibouti since 2002. The Obama administration requested
US$278 million to cover the cost of AFRICOM operations and
Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism
Partnership operations at the AFRICOM headquarters in
Stuttgart, Germany. The administration also requested US$60
million to fund CJTF-HOA operations in 2010 and US$249
million to pay for the operation of the 500-acre base at
Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, along with US$41.8 million for
major base improvement construction projects. And the
administration is now considering the creation of a
1,000-man Marine intervention force based in Europe to
provide AFRICOM with the capability to intervene in Africa.
The continuity with Bush administration policy is especially
evident in several key regions. In Somalia, for example, the
Obama administration has provided some US$20 million worth
of arms to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and
initiated a major effort to provide training to TFG troops
at the CJTF-HOA base in Djibouti and in Europe. Furthermore,
President Obama has continued the program initiated by the
Bush administration to assassinate alleged al-Qaeda leaders
in Somalia and, in August 2009, he authorized an attack by
US Special Forces units that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan,
who was accused to being involved in the bombing of the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by al-Qaeda in August 1998.
In the Sahel, the Obama administration has also sought
increased funding for the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism
Program (US$20 million in 2010) and begun a special security
assistance program for Mali to provide the country with some
US$5 million of all-terrain vehicles and communications
equipment. Administration officials have justified this
escalating military involvement in the Trans-Saharan region
by arguing that the increasing involvement of al-Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb in criminal activity (including
kidnapping for ransom and drug-trafficking) constitutes a
growing threat to US interests in this resource-rich area.
In Nigeria, which supplies approximately 10 per cent of US
oil imports, the Obama administration has decided to expand
US military support to Nigerian military forces, despite
concerns about security in the Niger Delta, Islamic
extremism in northern Nigeria and the countryâs fragile
democratic institutions. Thus, during her visit to Nigeria
in August 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised
that the administration would consider any request by the
Nigerian government for military support to enhance its
capacity to repress armed militants in the Niger Delta
region. The failure of the Nigerian government to implement
major elements of its amnesty program in this vital
oil-producing area has recently led to a resumption of
violent incidents and attacks on oil installations in the
Niger Delta.
In Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, the Obama
administration is increasing security assistance to Uganda,
Rwanda, the Kenya, Ethiopia and other countries in the
region, and has conducted major training exercises both in
Uganda and in Djibouti for the new East African Standby
Force (EASF). The EASF is a battalion-sized force authorised
by the African Union for independent African peacekeeping
operations and other missions, but it remains dependent upon
external support â especially from the United States â and
is not expected to be able to operate on its own for many
years to come. And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
Obama administration has just authorised the deployment of
US Special Forces troops to train an infantry battalion at a
base at Kisangani that was recently rehabilitated by the
United States. The Obama administration has chosen to engage
in this training program despite the continuing involvement
of Congolese troops in gross human rights violations
(including the rape and murder of civilians) and in the
illegal exploitation of the countryâs mineral resources.
This growing US military engagement in Africa reflects the
Obama administrationâs genuine concerns about the threat
posed by Islamic extremism and by instability in key
resource-producing regions, and its desire to help resolve
conflicts throughout the continent. However, all these
measures increase the militarization of Africa and tie the
United States even more closely to unstable, repressive and
undemocratic regimes. Furthermore, despite President Obamaâs
rhetorical commitment to an approach that combines military
and non-military activities, the administration lacks a
comprehensive and effective plan to address the underlying
issues â the lack of democracy and economic development â
that lead to extremism, instability and conflict in Africa.
This is chiefly because the Obama administration lacks the
diplomatic and economic means to address these issues. The
State Department and the Agency for International
Development have been systematically starved of funding and
other resources for years and simply lack the capacity to
engage in Africa in the manner that would make such an
effort possible. It will take many years and substantial
increases in funding to build this capacity. And the Obama
administrationâs food security program â its one major new
initiative for Africa â is highly problematic since it
relies on the use of expensive petroleum-based fertilizers,
the mechanization of agricultural production and the use of
genetically-modified seeds.
In the meantime, President Obama has decided that he has no
choice except to rely primarily on military instruments and
to hope that this can protect US interests in Africa, at
least in the short term, despite the risk that this military
engagement will exacerbate existing threats. The Obama
administration would be well advised to curtail its military
engagement in Africa and devote its attention to developing
the capacity for diplomatic and economic efforts to address
Africaâs underlying problems (as Joint Chief of Staff
Admiral Michael Mullen argued in a recent speech) and to
working with the European Union, China and other
stakeholders on a cooperative engagement with Africa that
will not further undermine African security and jeopardize
Americaâs long-term interests.
Daniel Volman is
the director of the
African Security Research Project
in Washington DC and a member of the board of directors of
the
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars.
He is a specialist on US military policy in Africa and
African security issues and has been conducting research and
writing on these issues for more than 30 years. This article
was originally published in Africa Report, no. 22 (AprilâMay
2010), pp. 23â4, under the title 'Obama should rethink US
military expansion' and then republished in Pambazuka News
where it may be viewed at
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63866/em>