Mark P. Fancher The anticipated reduction of US troops in Africa will be matched by an increase in killer drones. War is romantic only when it is limited to the confines of a sanitized imagination. Movies that portray heroic soldiers vanquishing demonic enemy combatants or rescuing fallen comrades may whip up jingoistic war fever, but…
Category: AFRICOM
Shutting Down AFRICOM and the New Scramble for Africa
Netfa Freeman Black Alliance for Peace Campaign The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has launched U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM, a campaign designed to end the U.S. invasion and occupation of Africa. The US must cease its military occupation of Africans at home and abroad, and abandon its attempt to rule the world…
Pentagon Stands by Cameroon — Despite Forensic Analysis Showing Its Soldiers Executed Women and Children
Nick Turse The women were slapped and shoved down a dusty road. They were blindfolded and forced to the ground. Then they, and two young children, were gunned down — 22 shots from assault rifles fired at close range — by men in military uniforms. In July, The Intercept was the first media outlet to…
US Military’s Worst-Case Scenario in Africa
Nick Turse What keeps U.S. Africa Command chief Gen. Thomas Waldhauser up at night? That remains unknown, but the analysts under his command are worried about terrorist organizations like the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram combining forces and destabilizing large swaths of the African continent. Planning documents issued in October 2017 and classified by…
US Military Presence in Africa: All Over the Continent and Still Expanding
Arkady Savitsky Around 200,000 US troops are stationed in 177 countries throughout the world. Those forces utilize several hundred military installations. Africa is no exemption. On August 2, Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier took command of US Army Africa, promising to “hit the ground running.” The US is not waging any wars in Africa but it has a significant…
The Niger Delta in Nigeria: Another Example of Africa on Fire
A-APRP The Niger Delta is a region in the West African country of Nigeria that is known mostly for its vast oil reserves. Like most of Africa, not much more is known about the Niger Delta by most people in the world, particularly those in the West. Equally obscured is the reality that also like…
US Drone Base in Niger Will Cost More Than $280 Million by 2024
Nick Turse Air Force engineers and members of the 31st Expeditionary Red Horse squadron work on a landing strip on Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, April 12, 2018. A US drone base in a remote part of West Africa has garnered attention for its $100 million construction price tag. But according to new projections from…
The Legacy of Infinite War: Special Ops, Generational Struggle, and the Cooperstown of Commandos
Nick Turse Raids by U.S. commandos in Afghanistan. (I could be talking about 2001 or 2018.) A U.S. drone strike in Yemen. (I could be talking about 2002 or 2018.) Missions by Green Berets in Iraq. (I could be talking about 2003 or 2018.) While so much about the War on Terror turned Global War…
Cameroon Is a Close US Ally and Its Soldiers Carried Out a Shocking Execution of Women and Children
Nick Turse A soldier walks alone down a dirt road with an automatic rifle strapped to his back. It’s an innocuous beginning to a disturbing video. Moments later, a group of soldiers and civilians follows. Another man – dressed in military fatigues and wearing aviator sunglasses — repeatedly strikes a woman who clutches the hand…
US Secret Wars in Africa Rage on, Despite Talk of Downsizing
Nick Turse Last October, four U.S. soldiers – including two commandos – were killed in an ambush in Niger. Since then, talk of U.S. special operations in Africa has centered on missions being curtailed and troop levels cut. Press accounts have suggested that the number of special operators on the front lines has been reduced,…
Commandos Sans Frontières: The Global Growth of US Special Operations Forces
Nick Turse Early last month, at a tiny military post near the tumbledown town of Jamaame in Somalia, small arms fire began to ring out as mortar shells crashed down. When the attack was over, one Somali soldier had been wounded — and had that been the extent of the casualties, you undoubtedly would never…
Pentagon Drone Bases in Niger Expand Imperial War of Terror
Rebecca Gordon They are like the camel’s nose, lifting a corner of the tent. Don’t be fooled, though. It won’t take long until the whole animal is sitting inside, sipping your tea and eating your sweets. In countries around the world — in the Middle East, Asia Minor, Central Asia, Africa, even the Philippines —…
