updated 4:10 p.m. ET, Tues., Sept. 30, 2008
DAKAR, Senegal - A new command takes over all U.S. military operations in Africa on Wednesday, a program that many Africans fear has a hidden agenda skewed by the war on terror and a self-interested scramble for resources.
Before Africom was created one year ago, American military programs on the continent had been divvied up among three other commands more concerned with NATO and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new command is inheriting responsibility for a Centcom-run base in Djibouti, where 1,800 troops are deployed to keep Horn of Africa terror networks in check. It also takes over European Command's Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative and dozens of other military and maritime training programs."Africans believe Africom is aimed at promoting America's interests, not Africa's," said Wafula Okumu, a Kenyan analyst at South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. Most Africans don't trust their own militaries, which in places like Congo have turned weapons on their own people.
"They don't trust Africom, either, because it's a military force," Okumu said. There is also "a suspicion America wants to use us, perhaps make us proxies" in the war on terror.
Africom's deputy for military operations, Vice Adm. Robert T. Moeller, said counterterrorism is a priority, but it is not the only one
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