While the entire world was watching the deployment and actions of the United States in the middle East and Afghanistan, the Americans quietly and quietly increased their military presence in Africa, and for almost 20 years their armed forces have been conducting operations in different parts of the continent. For these actions, the Americans need military infrastructure, and it is actively being built and improved, and the Pentagon regularly finances it.

AFRICOM plans

In December 2019, US defense Secretary mark Esper announced plans to reduce or even completely withdraw the us military from West Africa. Some publications regarded this statement as the withdrawal of the United States from the “black continent”. However, this is not true: the South African publication Mail&Guardian, referring to the documents received by the us armed forces African command (AFRICOM), told about an ambitious long-term project to deploy a network of military bases and strong points throughout Africa. For example, between 2021 and 2025, $ 300 million is planned to be spent on the construction and equipping of the camp Lemonnier military base in Djibouti.

The us military itself is also talking about maintaining and expanding its presence. At a special briefing on February 20, dedicated to the summit of the African land forces, the commander of the us army in Africa, major General Roger clothier, said that the us withdrawal from Africa is not planned. On the contrary: in 2020, more than 300 joint activities with the armed forces of African countries are planned — and their number is only growing every year. In the same vein, the head of the special operations forces command in Africa, Brigadier General Dagwin Anderson, said that the presence on the continent is necessary to deter China and Russia.

Active military bazes in Africa

Formally, the US has only one major military base in Africa — camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, which the us armed forces have used since 2001. This even allows individuals to claim a small American presence on the continent.

In fact, half of Africa is covered by American bases and strong points. Some of them are operated continuously and are so-called “forward operating bases”, while others are used as transfer points and “jump bases”. There are up to 7,000 American soldiers on the continent, most of them concentrated in West Africa and the horn of Africa region.

USA MILITARY BASES IN THE HORN OF AFRICA

NEW USA MILITARY DOCTRINE-CONTINUOUS OMNIPRESENCE

In Somalia, the Americans have strongholds throughout the country, including in the Autonomous entities of Puntland in the North and Jubaland in the South. The objects are used, for the most part, by special operations forces. In 2018, six us military bases were planned to be built in Somalia.

The United States also has facilities in neighboring Kenya, including the camp Simba base near Manda Bay, which is used in conjunction with Kenyan security forces. It was attacked by al-Shabab militants on January 23, killing three American soldiers and civilian workers, as well as destroying several aircraft.

We should also mention Uganda, a country that does not border on Somalia. The capital, Entebbe, is home to several turboprop spy planes used for espionage missions.

West and North Africa

BATTLE FOR AFRICA: WHY DID THE WEST KILL GADDAFI??

In West Africa-traditionally considered a French zone of influence-the Americans have advanced operating bases and transshipment points in almost all countries. There are two American facilities in Niger, and while the air base in the capital Niamey is operated jointly with a number of countries, the base in Agadez, which was commissioned in 2019, was paid for and built only by Americans. It cost $ 100 million, and UAVs based on it are involved in operations against al-Qaeda and ISIL militants in the Greater Sahara. Facilities in Niger are also used by the US special operations command, which operates in the country: there is a known case of a clash with ISIL militants in 2017, the victims of which were four American “green berets”.

There are American facilities in neighboring Chad. In the area of the capital n’djamena, there is a strong point where up to several hundred soldiers are stationed. Their tasks include training the Chadian security forces.

In other countries of the region — Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, and Ghana-small contingents are based, providing the work of reconnaissance aircraft and UAVS. These same transfer points and “bounce bases” are used as secret prisons by the CIA and local security agencies. A typical example is the base near the Cameroonian town of Salak, where more than 60 people were held and tortured. According to human rights organizations, despite the lack of direct evidence of the involvement of American personnel in torture, at least it seems strange that this regularly happens at American facilities in Africa.

USA MILITARY BASES IN WEST AND NORTH AFRICA

It is worth paying special attention to North Africa

According to the materials provided at the briefing by the scientific adviser of AFRICOM, Peter E. Teil, in 2018, there were two American facilities in Misrata and Tripoli on the territory of Libya. Both were located in territories controlled by the government of national accord (GNA) of Libya, known for its odious leaders, terrorist groups, and businesses based on migrants, smuggling, and drug trafficking. It is not known for sure whether they are operating at the moment, but the very fact of the location of American strongholds in these territories already raises certain questions.

Not only the bases

THE FOREIGN POLICY DOCTRINE OF THE UNITED STATES: CONTROL OVER RESOURCES

The activities of the US armed forces in Africa are not limited to special operations — joint exercises of the security forces of African countries and the us army are regularly held in the region. Military specialists participate in training activities for the personnel of the armies of African countries. The us military is also present in countries where the US does not have forward operating bases or transshipment points, working there as military advisers.

AFRICOM plans

In December 2019, US defense Secretary mark Esper announced plans to reduce or even completely withdraw the us military from West Africa. Some publications regarded this statement as the withdrawal of the United States from the “black continent”. However, this is not true: the South African publication Mail&Guardian, referring to the documents received by the us armed forces African command (AFRICOM), told about an ambitious long-term project to deploy a network of military bases and strong points throughout Africa. For example, between 2021 and 2025, $ 300 million is planned to be spent on the construction and equipping of the camp Lemonnier military base in Djibouti.

USA SPENDING ON MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE IN AFRICA FROM 2021 TO 2025

The us military itself is also talking about maintaining and expanding its presence. At a special briefing on February 20, dedicated to the summit of the African land forces, the commander of the us army in Africa, major General Roger clothier, said that the us withdrawal from Africa is not planned. On the contrary: in 2020, more than 300 joint activities with the armed forces of African countries are planned — and their number is only growing every year. In the same vein, the head of the special operations forces command in Africa, Brigadier General Dagwin Anderson, said that the presence on the continent is necessary to deter China and Russia.

Conclusion

Two important conclusions can be drawn from this. On the one hand, statements about the us withdrawal from Africa are strikingly similar to talk about the withdrawal of Americans from Syria or Iraq, when they try to present simple relocation and rotation as an escape from the region. US activity in the region is unlikely to come to naught in the near future: both politicians and military personnel talk about the need to confront China and (to a lesser extent) Of Russia.

AFRICAN COUNTRIES, WHICH ARE THE OBJECTS OF ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES

On the other hand, it is clearly visible that the US has an extensive network of forward operating bases and transshipment points in Africa, which allows the us army to maintain high armed activity on the continent.

The post HOW THE USА IS BUILDING MILITARY BASES ACROSS THE AFRICAN CONTINENT first appeared on Global Policy.

The world’s pantry of resources could get out of control of the West

Against the background of many other African and middle Eastern autocrats, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi could safely be considered a very moderate and civilized secular leader. To compare him with those who came to replace him, is like comparing a Professor of Oxford with podajnikiem, a criminal, a drug addict. Nevertheless, the West, in order to throw it off, went to a military intervention contrary to international law, even though it quite expectedly led to a monstrous lawlessness in North Africa and the storming of Europe’s borders by crowds of migrants. Americans are not so touched by these consequences (except for the murder of their diplomats in Benghazi), but the Europeans also got into this adventure. What for?

Their motives and revealed the other day a cousin of Muammar Gaddafi, Ahmed Gaddafi al-Dam:

Quote: the West saw Gaddafi leading the struggle for the liberation of the entire African continent and the expulsion of colonial countries from Africa. He wanted to achieve the unity of African countries, to turn the continent into the United States of Africa.

Ahmed Gaddafi al-Dam: according to a relative of the deceased Libyan leader, the Western elites were concerned, in particular, the initiative of Gaddafi to create a single African currency. Gaddafi’s ideas first on the creation and then on the development of the African Union forced politicians and businessmen from Europe and America to look at the head of the Jamahiriya as a threat.

THE ANGLO-SAXONS AGAINST THE PLANET

But what were they afraid of? Recently, Gaddafi did not threaten Europe, but, on the contrary, restrained the flow of migrants rushing into it, although he demanded money from Europeans to strengthen border protection. So why should Europeans or Americans care about what is happening “far away” on another continent? The fact is that in Africa, as in some other regions of the “third world”, the financial well-being of the “Golden billion”, Western civilization, is being forged.

Quote: the Liberation, unification and education of Africans is fraught with the fact that they can begin to ask for the full with Western corporations exporting abroad for a song of their national wealth.

Africa ranks first in the world in reserves of gold, diamonds, platinum, manganese, bauxite, chromium, vanadium, cobalt; the second – uranium, copper, beryllium, antimony. There are also huge deposits of mercury, iron, titanium, Nickel, tin, tungsten.

Congo is home to 80% of the world’s tantalite deposits required for mobile phones. African oil and gas deposits have not yet been realistically assessed. Experts do not exclude the presence of undiscovered reserves of “black gold” in southern Sudan, comparable to those held by Saudi Arabia. In addition, Africa is a major supplier of agricultural products to the markets of Western countries at bargain prices.

At one time, the Europeans took on the Black continent everything they saw fit without demand. Africa was almost entirely in the colonial possession of great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Spain.

However, when after the end of the Second world war, largely under Soviet influence, the inhabitants of the Black continent declared their rights and won their freedom, had to act thinner. Yesterday’s owners of colonies turned into military-political partners and investors. But the essence remains the same-shameless robbery. And that local suddenly decided not to interfere with the white gentlemen to Rob them, Western governments and corporations provoke in Africa, civil and interstate wars, bloody coups.

Quote: the civil war in the Congo alone has claimed up to 10 million lives, becoming the bloodiest conflict in the world since the end of the Second world war. While locals are fighting out in full an illegal export tantalite for Cobatt (USA), H. C. Starck (Germany), Ningxia (China).

Wars regularly break out in the newly created southern Sudan. It is simply very important for Western countries not to allow China to conduct an oil pipeline to the Indian ocean. While the people of the Congo died from enemy bullets and machetes and died of hunger, the dictator of the country Mobutu CECE SECO, who ruled with the support of Europeans (in particular, the French and Belgians), accumulated about 5 billion dollars in accounts in the Swiss Bank.

Monopoly of the West in Africa trying to break China and India

French NGOs are also lobbying Paris ‘ interests in the former colonies. Where they work, coups are being actively carried out.

When and it does not help, in the course are the troops. The agreements of France with the puppet regimes in the sphere of defense allowed to control the troops of supposedly sovereign countries and to create French military bases in côte d’ivoire, Gabon, Chad, Senegal.

After the next use of military force by the French in Africa, a group of Cameroonian politicians issued the following statement on the Internet: according to the appeal of Ivorian politicians:

Quote: “a new colonial war is beginning in côte d’ivoire. The country is playing a tragedy conceived by Nicolas Sarkozy and the so-called world community. This is a real criminal offence, the implementation of a long-conceived plan for the new colonization of Africa. They need our precious wood again, our coffee, our cocoa, our uranium, our oil.”

Of the approximately 17,000 French troops stationed outside France, almost 10,000 are in Africa. The USA is a partner and at the same time a competitor of France in Africa. In 2008, a separate African command of the American army was established. French and American oil companies compete for jobs in Gabon, Congo and Angola.

However, in recent years, the Americans and the French on the Black continent began to become cramped. Pro – visionary and active Chinese strengthen their presence in Africa: they give Africans huge loans on favorable terms, which are then spent on Chinese goods, invest, creating jobs for their own compatriots, allocate huge grants for the training of African youth-both at home and in China.

GEOPOLITICAL BATTLE IN “BLACK AFRICA”

India is competing with China and Western countries at the same time. New Delhi’s policy is less aggressive and therefore less conspicuous, but that does not make it any less effective.

According to experts, Africa has experienced more than 100 coups d’état, more than ten cases of genocide and episodes of mass terror in the last half – century alone, with the help of external forces. In order for someone in Europe to crunch a croissant in the morning and admire the smoothly trimmed lawn in front of a house bought on credit, millions of people are killed on the Black continent.

“Burden of the white man” on The black continent

At one time, Africa was significantly ahead of barbaric Europe in its civilizational development. Even in the Middle ages there were huge prosperous States, with cities that outnumbered most of the European capitals. However, the bloodthirstiness of the European and middle Eastern conquerors, coupled with the active promotion of the slave trade, did their dirty work. The once-powerful States become powerless colonies (and neo – colony), critically lags behind in science and technology from the metropolis.

Attempts by Africans to relieve oppression and develop on their own usually ended in tears. For example, Patrice Lumumba was killed, dismembered and dissolved in acid for an attempt to rid the Congo of neocolonial dependence on the initiative of the British special services.

However, as the growing influence of Libya in the world was growing and the chances for the liberation of Africa. Gaddafi was a powerful leader, and Libya – a rich country that can afford major projects.

Quote: the Implementation of the idea of a single African Union with a single currency and led by secular Libya could lead to the fact that Europeans and Americans would have to pay a fair price for all that they take out of Africa, and this would immediately affect the quality of life in the West.

On such they could not go. Gaddafi was brutally murdered, and Africa was politically set back decades.

Western leaders are not averse to turning Russia and the entire post-Soviet space into A black continent, but they are too tough to do it. Russians have a vested interest in ensuring that the distribution of benefits in the world is as fair as possible and at prices that correspond to reality. The lack of the ability to parasitize on someone or something will be a real disaster for the West.

The post THE BATTLE FOR AFRICA: WHY THE WEST KILLED GADDAFI? first appeared on Global Policy.