Africom begins to make its mark on Arfrica

[unhappycamper]

AFRICOM chief: Skepticism of command is fading
By John T. Bennett - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 20, 2010 14:49:34 EDT

The U.S. Africa Command chief, Army Gen. William Ward, says his talks with African leaders increasingly focus on what the still-developing American military organization can do for them, leading him to conclude that skepticism on the continent about AFRICOM is waning.

Ward said command officials have put in much “hard work” to “deepen our relationships” with African leaders, other U.S. agencies and international players in Africa. The result: Over the last 15 months, African officials began asking him what more AFRICOM could do to foster their goals and meet their needs, Ward said Tuesday during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Those kinds of questions have led Ward — the nearly three-year-old command’s first and only commander — to conclude “we have turned a corner” away from AFRICOM’s early days, when U.S. officials spent more time addressing questions about Washington’s intentions for the new organization.

Mike Phelan, a senior Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide, said during the forum that he is “encouraged” that AFRICOM officials are no longer spending so much time explaining what the command is all about. Phelan faulted other U.S. agencies for not participating earlier in AFRICOM’s development. Instead, he said, other agencies opted to “sit back and wait” for the command to stumble or fail.

Ward and other officials struggled early on to convince African leaders that the command is aimed at helping with tasks like training African nations and building their capacity to spawn and then maintain stability.



U.S. to boost training for troops in Somalia
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 20, 2010 15:22:32 EDT

WASHINGTON— The U.S. military is looking for ways to expand the training and equipping of African forces to help battle al-Shabab militants in Somalia who claimed responsibility for recent bombings in Uganda, a top commander said Tuesday.

Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward said that the African nations who are contributing forces in Somalia are still committed to the peacekeeping effort there despite the attacks last week that killed 76 people.

Al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaida, has threatened more attacks in what worried officials see as the first moves to expand its violence beyond Somalia’s borders. The group has said that the bombings were revenge for Uganda’s deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu with the African Union force, known as AMISOM.

Speaking to a gathering at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ward said that the unrest in Africa creates a security threat to other nations, including the U.S.

“Violent extremism can grow unchecked in the Horn of Africa and across the Sahel, leading to attacks against U.S. persons and interests around the world, or, in the worst case, against the U.S. homeland,” said Ward, who is the head of U.S. Africa Command.