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Commanding presence - Africom's uncertain mission statement
By Richard Reeve
13 December 2007
Officially launched on 1 October 2007, US Africa Command (Africom) is a sub-command of US European Command (Eucom) that will become the sixth US unified combat command within 12 months.
The move reflects Africa's new strategic importance in terms of commodity supply and the war on terrorism, and Washington's recognition of this. However, the concept of Africom and its future roles and deployments, in particular, has not been fully explained. US Department of Defense (DoD) officials have stressed that Africom is not intended to fight wars in Africa, but have not quelled sceptical rumours of future US engagement in the exceptional context of the war on terrorism. As a result, Africom has incurred criticism from across the region and there are fears it may act as a destabilising, rather than stabilising, presence.
Africom is intended to take on responsibility for all of the African continent and its offshore islands, except Egypt. Egypt's key role in Middle Eastern security means the latter will remain under Central Command (Centcom), which also formerly covered the Horn of Africa down to Kenya and Seychelles. The rest of the continent was formerly an outpost of Eucom. Madagascar, Comoros and Mauritius were under Pacific Command (Pacom), which includes most of the Indian Ocean.
Under the new arrangement, Eucom is expected to continue co-ordinating with Africom over policy towards the Maghrebian countries involved in NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue: Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and potentially Libya. Africom will also co-operate closely with Centcom in relation to countries around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden: Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. All three commands will co-ordinate policy relating to Egypt.
Unlike these or Northern and Southern Commands (Northcom and Southcom) covering the Americas, Africom will not be organised to undertake conventional defensive or power projection roles. Aside from the 1,800 personnel currently based with the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) in Djibouti, it will not have its own formed units of troops, combat aircraft or ships. Instead, it will incorporate a number of ad hoc training, advisory and humanitarian assistance programmes with personnel rotated around the continent.
Africom's declared aim is not to deploy troops to areas of concern, but to bring all US Africa defence-related projects from the three former commands together under one staff to improve co-ordination and delivery, and to facilitate a more comprehensive future assessment of the security environment on the world's second largest continent. Ostensibly, this will help Africom respond to the security needs of the 52 countries and will also help to build capacity within the African Union (AU) in coming decades.