No extra United States combat troops will be stationed in Africa as a result of plans to create a US military command for the continent, defence officials said on Wednesday.
The new headquarters will have a strong focus on helping African nations train their security forces and will include more US government civilians than other regional command centres, the officials told reporters at the Pentagon.
President George Bush announced on Tuesday he had given approval for the new command, Africom, which will be based initially in Stuttgart, Germany, but later move to an African location yet to be determined.
The creation of the new headquarters reflects increasing US strategic interest in Africa. Washington is concerned that African nations with weak governments offer a haven for Islamist militants and is attracted by the continent’s natural resources.
”We think that this is the time for the United States to think about how it’s organised on the continent as Africa starts to grow in significance,” Deputy Undersecretary of Defence Ryan Henry said.
Currently, the only long-term base for US forces in Africa is Camp Lemonier in the East African nation of Djibouti, where about 1 700 US troops are stationed.
Henry said the number of staff at the headquarters would probably be at the lower end of a range between 700 and 1 300 but there were no plans to base more combat troops in Africa.
”We do not see any increase in stationing of forces,” he said.
”We do see the opportunity to work more with host nations but those would be cooperative endeavors and they would … be done on a rotational basis, some measured in weeks, perhaps some measured in months.”
The US military assigns responsibility for parts of the world to regional commands, such as Central Command, which handles the Middle East and Horn of Africa.
Responsibility for Africa is now split between Central Command, European Command and Pacific Command. Under the new plan, every country in Africa would fall under Africa Command except Egypt, which would remain in Central Command’s area.
Officials said Egypt was slated to remain in Central Command because it played a major role in the Middle East.
Army Lientenant General Walter Sharp said the headquarters would include officials from the State Department, the US Agency for International Development and other departments to improve coordination of US government efforts in Africa.
”It’s a new command that really is trying to integrate all elements of our power to be able to help the countries within Africa,” said Sharp, director of the US military’s joint chiefs of staff.
Bush has ordered the new command to be up and running by September 2008 but Sharp said it should have some initial operating capacity by later this year. – Reuters