U.S. military interventions arouse African suspicions

U.S. troops are currently engaged in military exercises in northern Mali in Africa. Called Operation Flintlock, the exercise involves troops from the former colonialist powers Britain, France and the Netherlands, as well as from Mali, Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Senegal, Tunisia and Nigeria. The U.S. military ran the first Operation Flintlock in 2005 in northern Mali.

Mali, which is among the 10 poorest countries in the world, is Africa’s third largest gold producer, after South Africa and Ghana. Mali’s gold mining is dominated by Canadian, European and South African firms. Northern Mali, which shares a long border with southern Algeria, may contain vast pools of oil.

Operation Flintlock, scheduled to end Sept. 8, reinforces the U.S. goal of setting up a new African Command (AFRICOM) somewhere inside Africa. This goal defies the position taken by many African countries, including South Africa.

After the meeting of the defense and security ministers of the Southern African Defense Community (SADC) at the end of August, South African Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota briefed the press.

Questioned regarding AFRICOM, Lekota said: “The SADC Summit did adopt the position that it is better if the United States were involved with Africa from a distance rather than be present on the continent. That creates a sense of uncertainty. ... The SADC defense and security ministers took a decision that sister countries of the region should not agree to host AFRICOM and in particular, armed forces, since this would have a negative effect. That recommendation was presented to the Heads of State and this is a SADC position.”

Regarding AFRICOM and the African Union, Lekota said: “My understanding is that this is a continental position. We have no quarrel with AFRICOM as such, but the issue of its location in Africa is of concern. The continent has said that it would not like to see new forces in Africa.”

The SADC’s members include Angola, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and nine other smaller countries in the region.

Africa’s vast resources and labor have enriched and developed capitalism in Europe and North America for centuries, while leaving most Africans impoverished. Thus it should be no surprise that African media are also expressing suspicions about the U.S. goals with AFRICOM.

In the Kenyan newspaper The Standard, a July 8 article analyzed U.S. motives: “Last week, Tanzania announced that it had hit commercially viable oil deposits along its coast. This comes just over one year after Uganda struck its own black gold in the west. And suddenly rumors of Americans calling on the region are rife.”

The article notes that the U.S.’s traditional sources of oil in Latin America and the Middle East are “tightening grip on their resources. Which is why East Africa is believed to be the next oil frontier the West appears determined to hold onto.” The article emphasizes not only that Africa can supply the U.S. with oil but that its economy is growing so fast, with the increasing price of oil, that Africa will become an important market.

In the midst of Operation Flintlock, a revolt among the Tuareg, a nomadic ethnic group living in northern Mali and Niger, and southern Algeria, suddenly flared up after a peace agreement had been reached in July. La Tribune, an Algerian newspaper published in Algiers, asked in an editorial published on its website Aug. 29 if this revolt was going to be an “alibi for the U.S. to militarily install itself in the region.”