COTW: AFRICOM Spells Adventure

This graphic [full size here]encapsulates the extent of unrest and resources in sub-saharan Africa. The region, the operational responsibility of AFRICOM, is rife with insurgent activity some of which is sponsored by Al-Qaeda or its offshoots. The social discontent fueling the conflicts extends back to colonial days when Europeans drew boundaries deliberately intended to weaken tribal or ethnic affinities and make native populations more tractable to centralized colonial administration. The Tuareg uprising in Mali is but one example. The colonial "scramble for Africa" is long gone but the region still interests neo-colonial powers because it contains much natural wealth including oil, gas, gold and uranium.

LeMonde: decouverte un cache des armes

So far the French expedition in Mali has met little resistance. Militants apparently knew they could not defeat a Malian army whose backbone is stiffened by professional French troops including Legionnaires, recognized as among the best counterinsurgency forces in the world. In a captured document allegedly left behind in Timbuktu by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) a senior commander says a foreign intervention would force it to "rear bases" since it would exceed "our military and financial and structural capabilities for the time being". But the war in Mali is far from over.  A significant counter-attack against Malian troops took place in the northern city of Gao last month as well as suicide bombings, and there are reports of transborder cooperation with the Nigerian rebel group Boko Haram. As outside forces continue to secure population centers the rebels will increasingly turn to asymmetrical warfare. Mali is a tragically weak state undermined by alliances between the political elite, smugglers, and drug dealers. The Tuareq disaffection extends into the army where armed clashes occurred between pro- and anti-coup factions in the capital of Bamako. Malian troops are also using the intervention as a means to exact revenge on Tuareg and Arab populations in the north. French troops are unlikely to withdraw soon in the face of a deteriorating security situation.

[credit: Franklin Spinney @ Counterpunch]

Pilatus P-12 @ Cannon AFB, NM

American enthusiasm for involvement in Africa cooled after the infamous 1993 "Blackhawk down" incident in Mogadishu, but increasing terrorist activity in northern Africa has caused the Pentagon it to increase its presence on the continent. The NATO supported overthrow of Libya's Muammar Qaddafi has triggered a migration of African islamist fighters and their weapons back to countries with unsettled ethnic conflicts. The US presence has been in the form of civilian contractors who blend in more easily than lumbering soldiers in camouflage fatigues toting bulging rucksacks. This phase of simply spying on activity of interest [graphic above] is ending. In October of last year B.O'Drama sent in one hundred special forces to hunt for the deranged Joseph Kony, a Ugandan rebel. The search for him and his "Lord's Resistence Army" from the air extends back until at least 2009 under the code name, "Tusker Sand". AFRICOM's surveillance operation against AQIM is coded, "Creek Sand" and operates in Mali from a base in Ouagadougou, Burkino Faso. Little is publicly known about these operations since AFRICOM maintains secrecy about them. Last year Congress appropriated $50million for DOD to expand and enhance its efforts to bring Kony down, and it has also given military aid to Niger and Burkino Faso. About a dozen air bases have been established in Africa since 2007 [map below]. Up until this year the surveillance was conducted by manned aircraft using mostly Pilatus PC-12 turboprops [photo], innocuous looking civilian aircraft flying out of existing airport facilities. In February, 2013 B.O'Drama announced the US will be building a drone base in Niger.

[credit: Washington Post, full size here]

The new drone base is located for now in the capital of Niamey and about one hundred personnel have already been sent there to begin preparations. The US says that the drones are for unarmed surveillance, but an unconfirmed report says that a "mystery air strike" took place in June 2012which killed seven AQIM fighters traveling in a northern Mali vehicle convoy. Many pundits consider America's next war to be against Iran, but Africa looks to be the more likely battlefield in America's longest war.