One of the main topics that have been making world headlines is the formation of the United States Africa Command (Africom). The Command was launched on October 1. However, despite a 19-month effort to win African acceptance, the headquarters of Africom remains in Stuttgart, Germany.

Major political states and regional blocs of the continent rejected the formation of the Command. History tells us that African states hardly agreed on any major issue except in rejecting the formation of the most unwanted American military command, the Africom.

The only base for U.S. operations in the continent is Camp Lemonier in Djibouti that existed since 2002, when the Bush administration put greater emphasis on the Horn of Africa, claiming that…. “Islamic terrorists” were utilizing neighboring Somalia as an area of operation (Abayomi Azikiwe: Editor, Pan-African News Wire). This provides the United States strategic control of the maritime zone through which a quarter of the world's oil production passes. The Djibouti base is also in close proximity to the Sudanese oil pipeline.

Prior to the creation of Africom, the U.S. military command structure in Africa was divided among three other regions: the Central Command, which was responsible for Eritrea, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya; the European Command, which covered other states on the continent; and the pacific Command, with responsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles and the Indian Ocean area.

According to political analysts of the continent, U.S. has attempted to cover its imperialist objectives and to promote Africom as another assistance program to that end. Some believe that the number one priority of Africom was the so-called war on terrorism. An article published on BBC’s web site stated that the U.S. has no faith in those states it has funded to work toward eradicating the purported influence of al-Qaeda and other organizations that are targeted as a threat to imperialist interests. America has launched a number of airborne attacks on suspected al-Qaeda personnel in Somalia without success, of course.

Other analysts believe that the second priority of Africom is to secure oil resources for U.S. markets. With the increasing levels of resistance in Iraq and the Middle East region, the transnational oil corporations are looking to Africa to supply greater amounts of petroleum to the U.S. and other Western imperialist countries. Due to the emerging resistance against American dominance and resources exploitation, Latin America is not also conducive to the U.S. strategic interests anymore.

Africa has been the growing oil market to the United States and China. The U.S. gets about 20 percent of its oil supplies from West Africa and it is committed to increase oil supply from the continent to 25 percent by 2015. What the U.S. solely needs is strengthening its presence in the continent at any cost. For Africans the worst would come, while the Americans try to meet their demands.

Since October 2007 Africom was operating under the auspices of U.S. European Command, but since October 1, it officially became the Defense Department’s tenth unified combatant command. With the formation of Africom, the potential for wider military conflicts in the continent would involve direct and indirect U.S. conspiracy. The political situations in Sudan, Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, all oil-rich countries, involves American intervention. In Somalia, a U.S.-backed invasion by Ethiopian troops has created the worst humanitarian crisis on the continent. In Sudan, the conflict in Darfur has been utilized to push for the arrest of that nation’s head of state and for U.S. intervention through a purported U.N. peacekeeping force.

Another reason that the BBC identified, as far as U.S. imperialism is concerned, is the emerging influence of the People’s Republic of China in Africa. Thomas M. Skypek, a Washington-based analyst described the current situation on the continent as “The Grate Game in Africa.” According to him, the continent is quickly becoming a proxy battleground for Washington and Beijing. “China’s burgeoning influence in Africa is now squarely on the Pentagon’s radar screen,” he said. China has established military relationships with states such as Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.

Over the last decade, China has been steadily increasing its diplomatic, military and economic involvement in Africa. Sino-African trade in recent years has shown dramatic expansion. Stephanie Hanson of the Council on Foreign Relations reported in mid 2008 that from 2002 to 2003, trade between china and Africa doubled to $18.5 billion and by 2007 it reached $73 billion. During the 1990s trade between China and Africa increased by 700 percent in which Africa possesses both the raw materials and new markets Beijing needs to continue its steady economic growth. Washington is worried about this.

Once fully staffed, Africom will have a staff of 1,300 personnel. In terms of defense appropriations, the Command was budgeted for $75.5 million for fiscal year 2008. The defense Department requested nearly $400 million in fiscal year 2009 for its newest unified command.

U.S. military operations in Sub-Saharan Africa-increased its activities in West Africa, centering on those states with substantial oil production and/or reserves in or around the Gulf of Guinea (stretching roughly from the Ivory Coast to Angola). The U.S. military's European Command now devotes 70 percent of its time to African affairs, up from almost nothing as recently as 2003. (John Bellamy Foster: Global Research, February 9, 2007)

As pointed out by Richard Haass, now president of the Council on Foreign Relations, in his foreword to the 2005 council report entitled ‘More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa: "By the end of the decade sub-Saharan Africa is likely to become as important as a source of U.S. energy imports as the Middle East." West Africa has some 60 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Its oil is the low sulfur, sweet crude prized by the U.S. economy.

U.S. agencies and think tanks project that one in every five new barrels of oil entering the global economy in the latter half of this decade will come from the Gulf of Guinea, raising its share of U.S. oil imports from 15 to over 20 percent by 2010, and 25 percent by 2015. Nigeria already supplies the United States with 10 percent of its imported oil. Angola provides 4 percent of U.S. oil imports, which could double by the end of the decade.

Therefore, whether it is a proxy battleground or a diplomatic strategy, Africom is the most unwanted foreign intervention to the continent that Africans have to stand against. Because, U.S. “military involvement in Africa can mean only greater instability and underdevelopment on the continent.”(Abayomi Azikiwe: Pan-African News Wire)

Sources: by John Bellamy Foster (Global Research, February 9, 2007; Monthly
Review, February 2007)
* Abayomi Azikiwe: Editor, Pan-African News Wire

* Thomas M. Skypek