Bush approves new military command for Africa

Washington, Feb 7: President George W Bush said on Tuesday he had approved plans to create a US military command for Africa, a move that reflects increased US strategic interest in the continent.

Bush's decision was the culmination of a long debate that gained momentum as Washington grew more concerned about Islamist militancy in parts of Africa and more attracted by the potential of the continent's natural resources.

''This new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa,'' Bush said yesterday.

''Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa,'' he said in a statement.

In Germany, a spokeswoman for the US military, Holly Silkman, told the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper the unit dubbed ''Africom'' would be based initially in the Kelly Barracks in the Moehringen district of Stuttgart.

''We've started moving already this week,'' Silkman told the newspaper's Wednesday edition. She said the unit would later be transferred to a base in Africa.

''But that is the long term plan,'' she said.

Bush said he had asked Defence Secretary Robert Gates to get the new Africom unit up and running by the end of September 2008. The United States would work closely with African allies to choose a location for the new command in Africa, he said.

The US military assigns responsibility for parts of the world to regional commands, such as Central Command, which handles the Middle East and Horn of Africa. The commands are unified, meaning they control assets from different armed services.

''This command will enable us to have a more effective and integrated approach than the current arrangement of dividing Africa between Central Command and European Command -- an outdated arrangement left over from the Cold War,'' Gates told the US Senate's armed services committee.

'Important Continent'

The United States has paid increasing attention to Africa in recent years, partly out of anxiety that African states with weak governments can be a haven for Islamist militants.

Al Qaeda carried out near simultaneous car bombings at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1998, killing more than 250 people. US forces carried out at least two air strikes in Somalia last month, targeting al Qaeda militants.

The United States began counterterrorism training in West and Central Africa in 2002, teaching local armies basic techniques to help them locate and take out militant cells.

But Washington is also interested in the potential offered by natural resources, particularly as it aims to reduce dependence on oil from the volatile West Asia.

The world's biggest energy consumer hopes the Gulf of Guinea region in West Africa will provide up to a quarter of its oil imports within a decade and is working to guarantee stability in one of the most volatile parts of the planet.

''It's an important continent,'' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

He said Pentagon officials would flesh out plans for the new command at a briefing on Wednesday. No commander had yet been nominated to run it, he said.

''Standing a combatant command, a unified command, is obviously a large endeavor and it will take some time to do but we're going to move out expeditiously,'' Whitman said.

While Africa now mainly falls under the remit of European Command and Central Command, Pacific Command has responsibility for Madagascar and some other smaller islands.

US officials declined to say what the exact geographical boundaries of the new command would be.

Reuters