Why africom command

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Contact Us. History of U. Africa Command. Theater Medical Clearance. Network Account Creation. Operational Contract Support. Travel to Africa. Useful Links. Welcome to the. Bomber Task Force mission over Djibouti highlights partnership and commitment. Two U. Fs from U. Strengthening the partnership and addressing common challenges are key tenants in U. Partnerships U. The U. The trip highlighted how U. Africa Command conducts its counter-terrorism and crisis response missions in a complex and evolving security environment.

One of the reasons Africom was created was to help put an end to that kind of confusion. We have also been accused of looking to establish military bases across the African continent. Misconceptions arose when, in the early months of , some people in the U.

However, there was never a formal search, and as soon as the command opened its doors in October , we made it clear that we intended to stay in Stuttgart for the foreseeable future. Our footprint in Africa remains purposefully limited. We have only one forward operating base, at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, established in under the U. Central Command. We are not seeking any additional bases.

We also have a few dozen program officers and liaisons working across the continent, mainly in U. This hardly means, however, that we are building "mini-Africom headquarters" in U. It is common practice worldwide for a small number of military personnel to play a supporting role in a larger diplomatic mission.

Lesson 4: Africom is most effective when it listens to the concerns of its African partners. We have spent the last three years meeting with African leaders, African media, and African people. Mostly, we have been listening. And what we have heard is that many people across Africa have an interest in long-term stability. The consistent message we hear from the leadership and the people of Africa is that they want to provide for their own security.

Despite sometimes difficult histories, many African nations today are working to develop professional security forces that follow the rule of law and protect all their peoples. African nations today make up more than 40 percent of all international peacekeepers deployed throughout Africa with the United Nations and African Union. Their goal is for Africans to make up percent of the peacekeeping forces within Africa. By building a regionally focused African Standby Force, the African Union seeks to play an ever-greater role in bringing peace and security to turbulent regions on the continent.

Rather than deploying large numbers of U. Africom sends small teams of specialists to dozens of countries to offer our perspective on military topics such as leadership, the importance of civilian control of the military, the importance of an inspector general program, the finer points of air-traffic control and port security, aircraft maintenance, military law, and squad tactics for a unit preparing for peacekeeping deployment or patrols against violent extremist groups — the list goes on.

Even though we are showing and explaining how we do business, we are not imposing U. After all, our practices might not be right for them — that is a question they must answer, based on the information they receive not only from us, but from their many international partners. We also take part in military exercises that promote cross-border cooperation and coordination. We participated in Exercise Flintlock this May, which was designed to help nations in West and North Africa cooperate more effectively on cross-border threats from illegal traffickers and violent extremist groups.

Another exercise, Africa Endeavor, brought together 25 African nations in Gabon to coordinate their communications technology. This is a surprisingly challenging task, due to the fact that this diverse array of nations uses a hodgepodge of computers and radios made in different countries throughout the world. Not only do these exercises solve practical problems — they provide former adversaries or strangers with opportunities to develop a shared history of working together to solve problems. Our partners in Africa warn us that we must adopt an "African time" perspective.

We should not expect quick results or approach the continent with a "make it happen now" mindset. At the same time, we do see slow, steady progress. Coups are decreasingly tolerated as a means of acceptable regime change, and in some cases, such as Mauritania, we have seen militaries take stock of the international community and make steady progress in restoring civil authority.

Much of our work is aimed at reinforcing African success stories so that we can work together as capable partners to address regional and global concerns.