17-03-04
Opening a new front in the war on terrorism, the United States has begun training and equipping armies in parts of Africa that US officials see as an attractive refuge for terrorists as well as a long-term source of oil. Soldiers of the Army's 10th Special Forces Group are training troops in Mali and Mauritania, on the fringes of the Sahara Desert. And Marines are preparing for missions in Niger and Chad.
The effort, which began last November in Mali with almost no public notice, is
an extension of the Bush administration's anti-terror campaigns in Afghanistan
and the Horn of Africa, where US troops are operating with local forces and
conducting aerial and maritime surveillance. But the new focus on Africa also
marks a shift for the United States, which had been reluctant to become involved
militarily in a continent beset with instability.
Now there are plans to rotate US troops regularly into certain bases and airfields, although they wouldn't establish large bases. The developing partnership was apparent when Chad made an urgent call for US help in the aftermath of a deadly clash with fighters from an Islamic extremist group.
The US training in Chad is not expected to begin until summer, but American
forces nevertheless quickly responded. In Mali, meanwhile, the Special Forces
unit that is training forces is scheduled to complete its work soon, said Marine
Corps Lt. Col. M.J. Jadick, spokeswoman for European Command's special
operations unit.
Special Forces teams are also conducting training in two other locations in
Mali. From Timbuktu, in central Mali, the second-in-command of the Special
Forces unit said about 120 Malian soldiers are receiving basic training. The way
they use the skills will be up to the Malian government, he said. That is in
line with usual restrictions on deployed Special Forces soldiers.
"It's a good move," said J. Stephen Morrison, an African affairs
specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
There could be drawbacks, however. At times in recent history, the United States
has found that supplying arms or military training to some underdeveloped
nations, such as Afghanistan in the 1980s, can backfire if political forces
shift and the same weapons are then used against the United States or its
allies.
Morrison sees three main motives for the heightened US interest in the region:
-- Terrorism.
As bin Laden's al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups with similar
anti-Western aims get squeezed harder in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, the
regions of western and northern Africa are becoming more inviting.
That includes members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a radical group
that has pledged its allegiance to al-Qaeda. One of its leaders is an Algerian,
Saifi Ammari, who is said to be recruiting among Muslims in Mauritania, Niger
and Libya and operating with small armed groups. Chad's government said Ammari
may have been among the fighters who clashed with Chadian troops earlier.
-- International crime.
Morrison says west Africa is a "warren of crime syndicates," including
some that deal diamonds and launder money in support of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a
Shiite Muslim group whose armed wing has been branded a terrorist group by the
State Department.
-- Oil.
The United States already gets 17 % of its imported oil from sub-Saharan Africa,
and some are forecasting that within a decade that figure will rise to nearly 25
%. The biggest suppliers in the region are Nigeria and Angola.
US oil companies also are involved in Chad, where a consortium of companies led by ExxonMobil is building a $ 3.7 bn underground pipeline from oil fields in Chad, through Cameroon to the Atlantic.
Another benefit of a more robust US military presence in west Africa --
including more frequent US Navy ship visits off the Atlantic coast -- would be
improved maritime security, Morrison said.
Source: The Associated Press