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Obama and US military engagement in Africa 23/04/2010

Daniel Volman
2010-04-22, Issue 478
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63866

US ArmyUpon replacing George W. Bush as US president, hopes were high 
that Barack Obama would oversee sweeping change in relation to US 
military policy. But, writes Daniel Volman, far from seeing a reversal, 
such policy has in fact intensified, entirely at the expense of more 
progressive diplomatic and economically-based approaches.

When Barack Obama took office as president of the United States in 
January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, 
or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral national security policy 
toward Africa that had been pursued by the Bush administration. But, 
after a little more than one year in office, it is clear that the Obama 
administration is essentially following the same policy that has guided 
US military involvement in Africa for more than a decade. Indeed, it 
appears that President Obama is determined to expand and intensify US 
military engagement throughout Africa.

Thus, in its budget request for the State Department for the 2010 
financial year, the Obama administration proposed significant increases 
in funding for US arms sales and military training programmes for 
African countries, as well as for regional programmes on the continent, 
and is expected to propose further increases in its budget request for 
the 2011 financial year.

The 2010 budget proposed to increase foreign military funding spending 
for Africa by more than 300 per cent, from just over US$8.2 million to 
more than US$25.5 million, with additional increases in funding for 
North African countries. Major recipients included Chad, the Democratic 
Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, 
Nigeria and South Africa.

The 2010 budget request for the International Military Education and 
Training programme proposed to increase funding for African countries 
from just under US$14 million to more than US$16 million, with 
additional increases for North African countries. Major recipients 
slated for increases include Algeria, Chad, the Democratic Republic of 
Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, 
Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

The 2010 State Department budget request also proposed increased funding 
for several other security assistance programmes in Africa, including 
the African Contingency Operations and Training Assistance programme 
(which is slated to receive US$96.8 million), the International 
Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement programmes in Algeria, Cape Verde, 
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, 
Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan and 
Uganda, anti-terrorism assistance programmes in Kenya and South Africa, 
and the Africa regional programme.

The same is true for funding in the Defense Department budget for the 
operations of the new Africa Command (AFRICOM) which became fully 
operational in October 2008 and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of 
Africa (CJTF-HOA) forces, which have been stationed at the US military 
base in Djibouti since 2002. The Obama administration requested US$278 
million to cover the cost of AFRICOM operations and Operation Enduring 
Freedom-Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership operations at the 
AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The administration also 
requested US$60 million to fund CJTF-HOA operations in 2010 and US$249 
million to pay for the operation of the 500-acre base at Camp Lemonier 
in Djibouti, along with US$41.8 million for major base improvement 
construction projects. And the administration is now considering the 
creation of a 1,000-man Marine intervention force based in Europe to 
provide AFRICOM with the capability to intervene in Africa.

The continuity with Bush administration policy is especially evident in 
several key regions. In Somalia, for example, the Obama administration 
has provided some US$20 million worth of arms to the Transitional 
Federal Government (TFG) and initiated a major effort to provide 
training to TFG troops at the CJTF-HOA base in Djibouti and in Europe. 
Furthermore, President Obama has continued the programme initiated by 
the Bush administration to assassinate alleged al-Qaeda leaders in 
Somalia and, in August 2009, he authorised an attack by US Special 
Forces units that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was accused to 
being involved in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 
by al-Qaeda in August 1998.

In the Sahel, the Obama administration has also sought increased funding 
for the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Program (US$20 million in 2010) 
and begun a special security assistance programme for Mali to provide 
the country with some US$5 million of all-terrain vehicles and 
communications equipment. Administration officials have justified this 
escalating military involvement in the Trans-Saharan region by arguing 
that the increasing involvement of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in 
criminal activity (including kidnapping for ransom and drug-trafficking) 
constitutes a growing threat to US interests in this resource-rich area.

In Nigeria, which supplies approximately 10 per cent of US oil imports, 
the Obama administration has decided to expand US military support to 
Nigerian military forces, despite concerns about security in the Niger 
Delta, Islamic extremism in northern Nigeria and the country’s fragile 
democratic institutions. Thus, during her visit to Nigeria in August 
2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised that the 
administration would consider any request by the Nigerian government for 
military support to enhance its capacity to repress armed militants in 
the Niger Delta region. The failure of the Nigerian government to 
implement major elements of its amnesty programme in this vital 
oil-producing area has recently led to a resumption of violent incidents 
and attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta.

In Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, the Obama administration is 
increasing security assistance to Uganda, Rwanda, the Kenya, Ethiopia 
and other countries in the region, and has conducted major training 
exercises both in Uganda and in Djibouti for the new East African 
Standby Force (EASF). The EASF is a battalion-sized force authorised by 
the African Union for independent African peacekeeping operations and 
other missions, but it remains dependent upon external support – 
especially from the United States – and is not expected to be able to 
operate on its own for many years to come. And in the Democratic 
Republic of Congo, the Obama administration has just authorised the 
deployment of US Special Forces troops to train an infantry battalion at 
a base at Kisangani that was recently rehabilitated by the United 
States. The Obama administration has chosen to engage in this training 
programme despite the continuing involvement of Congolese troops in 
gross human rights violations (including the rape and murder of 
civilians) and in the illegal exploitation of the country’s mineral 
resources.

This growing US military engagement in Africa reflects the Obama 
administration’s genuine concerns about the threat posed by Islamic 
extremism and by instability in key resource-producing regions, and its 
desire to help resolve conflicts throughout the continent. However, all 
these measures increase the militarisation of Africa and tie the United 
States even more closely to unstable, repressive and undemocratic 
regimes. Furthermore, despite President Obama’s rhetorical commitment to 
an approach that combines military and non-military activities, the 
administration lacks a comprehensive and effective plan to address the 
underlying issues – the lack of democracy and economic development – 
that lead to extremism, instability and conflict in Africa.

This is chiefly because the Obama administration lacks the diplomatic 
and economic means to address these issues. The State Department and the 
Agency for International Development have been systematically starved of 
funding and other resources for years and simply lack the capacity to 
engage in Africa in the manner that would make such an effort possible. 
It will take many years and substantial increases in funding to build 
this capacity. And the Obama administration’s food security programme – 
its one major new initiative for Africa – is highly problematic since it 
relies on the use of expensive petroleum-based fertilizers, the 
mechanisation of agricultural production and the use of 
genetically-modified seeds.

In the meantime, President Obama has decided that he has no choice 
except to rely primarily on military instruments and to hope that this 
can protect US interests in Africa, at least in the short term, despite 
the risk that this military engagement will exacerbate existing threats. 
The Obama administration would be well advised to curtail its military 
engagement in Africa and devote its attention to developing the capacity 
for diplomatic and economic efforts to address Africa’s underlying 
problems (as Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen argued in a 
recent speech) and to working with the European Union, China and other 
stakeholders on a cooperative engagement with Africa that will not 
further undermine African security and jeopardise America’s long-term 
interests.