Pentagon spends $500M on troops in Africa

The BBC has been showing heart-breaking images of wraith-like, starving children in Niger, one of several countries in the African region known as the Sahel where large numbers of people are in grave danger because a plague of locusts destroyed their crops last November.

Hardly any food aid has arrived in these countries, even though donors in the rich imperialist countries have had nine months to respond to UN appeals.

One BBC report said that if food aid had been sent earlier to Niger, it would have taken only one dollar per child to avert famine. The cost now could be 80 times that, assuming the food aid comes through at all. No explanation is being given as to why organizations that every year collect hundreds of millions of dollars, supposedly to provide relief in exactly these kinds of situations, have done virtually nothing.

It is widely recognized that global warming—which comes from the burning of fossil fuels in the developed imperialist countries—has contributed to the desertification of the Sahel and the resulting suffering of millions of people.

Also not being mentioned in connection with this widespread hunger and suffering are the hundreds of millions of dollars now being quietly spent by the U.S. government on military operations in resource-rich Africa—giving the “war on terror” as the excuse.

Hunger, oil and U.S. troops

The hunger belt south of the Sahara also includes Mali, Chad and Mauritania, where a popular and bloodless military coup just ousted the pro-U.S. government of Ould Taya. Taya was overthrown while out of the country, attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. Large deposits of oil were recently discovered in Mauritania, which expects to begin pumping next year. The deposed government had been the first in Muslim Africa to recognize Israel—at Washington’s prodding.

According to the Aug. 9 Christian Science Monitor, “Washington had enlisted Mr. Taya as a key partner in its Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI), a five-year, $500 million program that kicked off in June across nine West and North African countries (Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, and Tunisia). American units have already begun training 3,000 troops from Mauritania and other Saharan armies to improve border security in a region considered to be a potential hotbed for terrorist activity.”

$500 million for “counter-terrorism,” but not one penny for starving children!

Last September, two months before locusts blanketed the area, U.S. Marines were in Chad training troops there, under the command of Maj. Paul Baker. “We’re ‘looking at Africa as a place of growth for the Marine Corps and the Department of Defense,’ says Major Baker, standing in his command post under a giant shade tree. There’s growing evidence of terrorist activities on the continent. And there’s a need to protect Africa’s rapidly expanding oil industry. So the U.S. military is paying attention.” (Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 17, 2004)

The Pentagon is also getting involved in the Darfur region of western Sudan. According to a news release from the U.S. European Command, U.S.-contracted planes on Aug. 7 moved 49 Rwandan civilian police officers from Kigali to Darfur. This operation began on July 14 with the deployment of 150 U.S. Air Force personnel “to provide logistical and airlift support of Rwandan forces as part of the African Union’s expanded mission in Sudan, or AMIS II. The AU plans to increase its presence in the region to more than 7,700 personnel by September.

“As part of a larger NATO effort, the U.S. is airlifting three battalions of Rwandan troops to Darfur by mid September. Movement of the first battalion’s 680 troops and 14,500 pounds of cargo began July 17 and was completed July 27 by U.S. Air Force C-17 and C-130 aircraft. The C-130s also returned 190 previously deployed Rwandan troops from El Fashir back to Kigali. ...

“Two additional Rwandan battalions, of approximately 540 soldiers each, are being flown via U.S. contracted commercial airlift. ...

“President Bush on July 15 authorized an additional $6 million in emergency spending for the Defense Department to support the transportation of African Union forces to Darfur to help improve security and enable humanitarian assistance to relieve suffering to those displaced by conflict in the region.”

The Rwandan military, which has a close relation to the Pentagon, invaded eastern Congo—an area of vast mineral wealth—and played a key role in the war there that cost over 3 million lives. And now the Pentagon is moving Rwandan troops to Darfur for “humanitarian” reasons?

Darfur in western Sudan is another area in Africa where oil was recently discovered. Sudan also has oilfields in the south, which it has been developing with China’s help. This has made the country a prime target of U.S. and British intrigue. These imperialist governments helped instigate the fighting in Darfur and are now using it as an excuse for military intervention, pushing the African Union to authorize their role.

The imperialist politicians do the bidding of the huge corporations and banks that have sucked Africa dry. They know no shame. Their rhetoric about “debt relief” and “humanitarian assistance” are just a cover for the continued plunder of Africa’s riches, especially its oil and other mineral wealth.

Is it any wonder that the level of resistance—called “terrorism” by the imperialists—is rising in Africa, too?