Maximilian Forte's List: U.S. Military

• there have been two significant developments which may define the relationship between the US and Africa for decades to come
• The first is a legacy of the Bush administration - a brand new military command for Africa - called Africom.
• The second is the election of Barack Obama, a man with African roots, as US president.
• Africom was a consequence of the so-called war on terror. In Somalia, Rageh explores how this war created the very threat – a violent Jihadi movement – it claimed to be fighting, and what this meant for Somalia's future.
• US involvement with governments in the Sahel, a region rich in mineral resources. Africom troops are providing arms, military support and training in response to a perceived extremist threat.
• But critics say, the threat is internal dissent and US policy risks creating, as in Somalia, the real issue.

• The Delta region of West Africa provides Africom's biggest dilemma. Rich in oil resources, the region is vital to US future energy needs.

   

  Africom offers military training to local governments here – including Cameroonian troops involved in the brutal suppression of their own people.
• In October 2008, the US formally launched Africom, a new military command for Africa.
• the genesis of Africom – the critical combination of the Bush administration's neo-con world view, the increasing panic about access to natural resources and the launch of the so-called war on terror.
• One of the new programmes involves training forces in Rwanda, the army of a government that was previously accused of undermining democracy.
• Africom provided logistical and intelligence support to the Ugandan army (UPDF) in 2008, in operations against rebel forces, thus embroiling itself indirectly in an African war.
• The UPDF is strongly associated with Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president, who changed the country's constitution to extend his term of office indefinitely.
• In July 2009, Obama promoted sustainable democracy, good governance and peaceful resolution of conflict fo the African continent.

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