U.S. military faces Africa cuts, sees Somalia, Mali successes

Reuters Africa ^ | Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:23pm EST | Peter Apps

[Pan_Yan]

(Reuters) - U.S. military forces in Africa may lose well over a tenth - or some $40 million - from their 2014 budget, the U.S. Africa Command said on Thursday, although it saw success against militants in Somalia and Mali.

The bulk of such cuts will fall on headquarters and training programs, AFRICOM commander General David Rodriguez said, most likely forcing smaller exercises.

The size of AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, is to be reduced by some 20 percent.

The planned cuts are part of broader across-the-board U.S. spending restrictions dubbed "sequestration" and imposed after Congress failed to agree deficit reduction measures.

AFRICOM - set up in 2007 to coordinate U.S. military activity on the continent - retains some 5,000 troops in Africa at any time, primarily in Djibouti. Much of their focus is on building local military capability and training forces for missions such as the African Union mission AMISOM in Somalia and its U.N. counterpart in Mali.

[Pan_Yan]

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[Lowell1775]

Gotta ask and gotta say.....

1. 5,000 troops is a heck of a large training contingent. Methinks there is more afoot than merely training modern askari’s to fight for the white devils.

2. Why are the REMF’s HQ’d in Germany? Gimme a break...who the heck at DoD approves this type of idiocy. Guess they haven’t finished the 18 hole golf course and officer’s club in Bossangoa yet. It must be in the 2014 budget deal. I bet the Chinese will build it for us.

3. Oh yeah....almost forgot...what the heck is the US doing in Central Africa anyway....I thought the “white man’s burden” was no longer stylish. Though I guess now, it is the 1/2 white man’s burden. Commander Zero must be answering his inner drums. You can take the man out of Mau Mau land....but you can’t take the Mau Mau out of the man.

We need to take a lead from Merly Streep’s Danish character Karen Blixen, pot a few of the locals, and then get “Out of Africa.” Hope it doesn’t take us 17 years to do so.

[DesertRhino]

Thank God it’s being reduced. I couldn’t care less what happens in Mali, Somalia, etc. Africa is no place for American kids to fight.

Isolate them, and punish them if they reach out from there.

[Sarajevo]

Why are the REMF’s HQ’d in Germany?

C'mon now. You don't really think the big-O's want to trade Oktoberfest and Stuttgart for some hot, dank, malaria-infested backwater that could erupt in general warfare at any time, do you?