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Vol. 77/No. 1      January 14, 2013

 
US Army assigns brigade to
expand operations in Africa
UN authorizes military action in northern Mali
  
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
The Pentagon has assigned an Army brigade to send groups of soldiers into as many as 35 African countries in 2013 to train allied militaries and “give the U.S. a ready and trained force to dispatch to Africa if crises requiring the U.S. military emerge,” reported Associated Press. The first-of-its-kind brigade assignment is part of a renewed effort by Washington to strengthen its influence throughout the continent that began with the establishment of the U.S. Africa Command in 2007.

Among the countries mentioned by AP are Libya, Sudan, Algeria, Niger, Kenya, and Uganda. “Already the U.S. military has plans for nearly 100 different exercises, training programs and other activities across the widely diverse continent,” the news agency notes. The brigade has some surveillance and armed aerial drones at its disposal.

While the stated focus is on training, the U.S. forces could conduct military operations upon approval from the secretary of defense.

Teams from the Army’s 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division deployed to each country could range from a few to a company of about 200, or in certain cases a battalion of about 800, notes AP. Army brigades are made up of roughly 3,500 troops.

Since 2007, Washington has been conducting surveillance over wide swaths of Africa from about a dozen air bases set up on the continent, an unnamed former senior U.S. commander told the Washington Post last June.

Most have been operating out of secluded hangars at African military bases or civilian airports. A key hub is based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where the U.S. Joint Special Operations Air Detachment operates out of the city’s airport. In East Africa, U.S. armed drones conduct strikes targeting Islamist group al-Shabab in Somalia from air bases in Djibouti, southern Ethiopia, and the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles.

In October 2011 the Barack Obama administration sent 100 special operations troops to four countries in Central Africa—Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—as part of a military action targeting the Lord’s Resistance Army, a group of armed bandits operating in the region.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Dec. 19 to authorize military action against Islamist groups in northern Mali. The Economic Community of West African States has agreed to send 3,300 troops, most of which are expected to come from Nigeria, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana, reported Codewit World News. Military operations are expected to begin next fall, U.N. official Herve Ladsous told the media.

A coup in March ousted Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré. At the same time key cities were seized in the north by two opposing forces: Tuareg rebels, who demand a secular independent state, and Islamist groups wanting to impose Sharia law. Months later Islamists pushed out the Tuareg group.

The European Union plans to send military trainers to Bamako, Mali’s capital, over the next few months, and Washington is planning to provide extensive support for the operation.

While asserting no U.S. ground troops would enter Mali, Amanda Dory, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for Africa, “would not rule out the possibility of the Pentagon contributing U.S. warplanes to transport African troops or provide them with aerial cover,” reported the Post.

On Dec. 28, the U.S. Air Force evacuated the U.S. ambassador and about 40 other U.S. personnel from Bangui, Central African Republic, as renewed fighting threatened to topple the government there. U.S. special forces, however, will remain. The French government increased its troop presence there from 420 to 600.
 
 
Related articles:
Expanding US military presence, alliances in Asia aimed at China  
 
 
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