New US Command Prompts Fear In Africa

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 4-24-2007 | Pauline Jelinek

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New U.S. Command Prompts Fear in Africa

Tuesday April 24, 2007 12:01 AM

By PAULINE JELINEK

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. delegation to Africa apparently had to calm a whole list of fears - and dash a hope or two - when it explained its plan for establishing a new military command there.

``With every group we met with, there were a number of misconceptions, and I think the discussion changed quite a bit as we were able to correct some of those misconceptions,'' Ryan Henry, the Defense Department's deputy undersecretary for policy, said Monday.

Questions included why the U.S. was setting up the new Africa Command, how many troops would come, how much aid it would bring and so on.

A weeklong trip by representatives from the Defense and State departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development ended Saturday after visits to Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal.

The group was holding consultations on the Bush administration plan to create the new command, an administrative structure to coordinate activities on the continent.

``We hopefully cleared up the misunderstanding that AFRICOM was not being stood up in response to Chinese presence on the continent, it was not being stood up solely for the effort of enhanced counterterrorism and it was not being stood up in order to secure resources - a particular sensitivity to the oil resources,'' Henry said.

``While some of these may be part of the formula, the reasons that AFRICOM is being stood up is Africa ... is emerging on the world scene as a strategic player and we need to deal with it as a continent,'' he told a Pentagon press conference.

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Pentagon to Set Up New Command in Africa
(Posted 2-6-2007)

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