AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #53

Since Niger and Mali exposed that Ukraine, a nation heavily reliant on the United States for military and economic support, is supporting terrorism in the Sahel, this has starkly exposed the contradictions inherent in AFRICOM's mission on the African continent. AFRICOM was established under the premise of combating terrorism and ensuring stability in Africa. However, if a U.S.-backed government is actively aiding terrorist groups in the Sahel, it suggests that AFRICOM's role may not be as straightforward as it claims. Instead, it could be seen as part of a broader strategy that perpetuates instability and conflict in Africa, thereby justifying its continued presence and expanding influence under the guise of fighting terrorism.

This scenario would lend credence to the belief that AFRICOM's true purpose is not to eliminate terrorism but rather to maintain a perpetual state of conflict and dependency on the continent. By fostering instability, AFRICOM ensures that African states remain reliant on U.S. military support, which aligns with the strategic interests of the U.S. and its European and other allies in securing access to Africa's vast natural resources. 

The purpose of AFRICOM is to make African militaries so integrated and dependent on US technologies and support as to make them easy to control and direct towards imperial interests whether that be by standing up, standing down, committing assassinations, committing coups, protecting coups, among other atrocities. Africans become the face of U.S. imperialism on the continent to protect against unwanted scrutiny while still maintaining U.S. access to African resources.

Join us for the International Month of Action Against AFRICOM in October to demonstrate our opposition to these designs.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin spoke with Inemesit Richardson, the co-founder of The Thomas Sankara Center for African Liberation and Unity (@Burkinabooks), a Pan-African library and political education center based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where she resides. She is an organizer with the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) and All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union (A-AWRU). She is also a journalist with African Stream.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: The AES confederation was recently established as a transitional step before forming a federation. Can you explain the significance of this move and how it has been received by the people in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger?

Inemisit Richardson: The AES confederation is a huge move not just for the countries of the Sahel, but for Africa as a whole because it opens a pathway to sovereignty for the entire continent. This brings us one step closer to a totally unified Africa. Of course, we understand that it will take a high level of class struggle and revolution in order for the confederation to expand, but that is the real aspiration of the civilians within the AES and their leaders. The people want the AES states to form a nucleus for the broader Pan-African liberation struggle. The heads of state of the three countries have also emphasized the importance of African unity in this sense. Having visited all three AES countries, the strong desire for a singular ‘United States of Africa’ per the vision of Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keita, Cheikh Anta Diop and many others is abundantly clear and cannot be overstated. In the meantime, the AES countries have formed a confederation with a shared foreign policy which is built upon the principle of multipolarity– a value popularly evoked by civilians in this region of the world– and anti-imperialism as proven by their tremendous strides away from western neo-colonial rule. People across the Sahel celebrated the creation of the confederation with pride and excitement. Many organizations, including the Thomas Sankara Centre, also recognize that we have a lot of work to do to build a federation to regroup the Sahel, and all of Africa, into one single country with a shared government and citizenship. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: The Thomas Sankara Center has co-authored a declaration calling for a federation of the AES states. What are the main challenges the AES faces in transitioning from a confederation to a federation, and how can these be addressed? What role do grassroots movements and civil society organizations play in pushing this agenda forward? 

Inemisit Richardson: Well, transforming a confederation into a federation is no easy feat. It has been attempted on various historical occasions and has often failed due to heavy imperialist meddling. Right now Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are all in the midst of a major security crisis. Paramilitary death squads known as ‘terrorists’ in the post-9/11 language of US foreign policy, have wreaked havoc on various subregions of the three states since the NATO invasion of Libya in 2011. It was in the aftermath of Muammar Gaddafi’s assassination that rebel groups first accessed the slain leader’s governmental weapon stash to bring arms into the Sahel. Since that time, the Sahel has become a highly militarized and, in some key places, dangerous zone. In reality, these paramilitary death squads are not so different from the Contras that sought to destroy Nicaragua in the 1980s or the death squads that the United States supported in El Salvador. This security crisis is the biggest thing slowing down the creation of a Sahel federation. To give an example of what this looks like in practice, in January of 2023, Burkina Faso’s prime minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyélem de Tambèla met with the prime ministers of Mali and Guinea (Guinea was friendly towards Mali and Burkina Faso for a brief moment) in order to propose the creation of a railway system linking the three states. Apart from Guinea’s distancing from the revolutionary Sahel states, the other reason this did not move forward is likely due to the fact that this endeavor would require building miles of railway tracks over lands that have been seized by these violent death squads. That is why security has been the first and the preeminent focus of the AES leaders as well as many of the AES citizens who have chosen to take up arms and go to the frontlines in recent times. 

With that being said, there is very little that has happened within the AES that did not begin first as a call emanating from the grassroots. The reason why AES leaders are so beloved by their people is because they have consistently submitted to the people’s will. There would not even be an Alliance of Sahel States in any form if the AES leaders did not listen to the cries of their people to form one. Mass mobilisations led by civil society organizations called for the removal of French troops from the soils of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The leaders heard this call and followed the demands of their people. Niger was at the vanguard of calling for the expulsion of US troops as well, civilians having protested against AFRICOM’s presence for many years. Thus, Niger became the first African country in history to give AFRICOM the boot. Civilians in all three countries have organized mass demonstrations in favor of increased Russian partnership. Today Russia is the closest partner to the AES states apart from one another. And what started these mobilizations? Here in Burkina Faso, these mobilizations emerged in response to Assimi Goïta’s political direction and the revolution in Mali. The very first cries of the people across the Sahel as the tides were beginning to turn was to join the Malian people and their government, to become one with Mali. So Pan-Africanism was always at the base of these revolutions. Now it is up to grassroots organizations across the AES to raise their voices and push hard for the creation of this federation by any means necessary. The people know what they want and need. It is only a matter of organizing properly to get it. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: The AES has called for closer collaboration with states like Russia, Iran, and the DPRK. What are the strategic benefits of these alliances, and how do they align with the goals of the AES?

Inemisit Richardson: As aforementioned, the people of the AES were the first to raise their voices and call for close collaboration with Russia. The average person in the Sahel has a very sharp analysis of world geopolitics. People know that France, the US, and other western countries have exploited Africa and plundered its resources. They also know that there is a new camp emerging in the world and that Russia is at the forefront of it. They recognize that, unlike the western powers, Russia did not colonize their ancestors, does not control their monetary system, has never assassinated their leaders, has never carried out coups d'etat deposing progressive leaders, has never rigged African elections, does not send its own private companies to dominate Africa’s local economy, does not trap Africa in predatory loans, does not control the Bretton Woods institutions, and has been relatively non-interventionist towards Africa in general. For this reason, the overwhelming majority in the Sahel strongly prefer Russian partnership. People in the Sahel today are very perceptive and understand the strategies and tactics of imperialism. They know that the current imperialist talking point is that ‘both sides are bad’ or that they need ‘neither Russia nor France’ and they don’t fall for this rhetoric anymore.

People also appreciate partnerships with Iran for similar reasons. Iran is a powerful country that has a great capacity to defend itself and resist imperialist aggression. Countries like Russia and Iran are important to the people of the Sahel because, beyond collaborating within the areas of security, they offer the AES countries a pathway towards industrialization through the creation of factories, refineries, and power plants. That is how you know that Russia and Iran are not neo-colonial powers imposing themselves on Africa. The number one goal of the imperialist system is to maintain Africa’s status as a producer of raw materials. The west has worked tirelessly to prevent technology transfers and the development of the industry as that would allow Africa to become self-sufficient and compete with the west at their level of production. 

Finally, people are excited about the new relationship being forged with the DPRK because, here in Burkina Faso in particular, people remember the extent to which the DPRK was a friend of the Sankara revolution. Thomas Sankara visited Pyongyang on multiple occasions. There are even rumors that the Burkinabe national anthem, with lyrics written by Thomas Sankara, was composed by a North Korean. People also fly the North Korean flag at a lot of rallies because they know that the flag is a symbol that western countries find threatening or upsetting. 

Burkina Faso is also establishing new relationships with Nicaragua, which just opened its first West African embassy in Ouagadougou at the beginning of this year, and with Venezuela. Nicaragua is also a country that Burkinabe remember very fondly during the Sankara-era as Sankara was very outspoken about defending the Sandinista and made two trips to the country. Venezuela has also long been on Burkina Faso’s radar as the Burkinabe have paid very close attention to the Bolivarian revolution over the years. 

News and Analysis

African states call for UN action against Ukraine

August 21, 2024 by RT

Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have written to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) demanding action against Ukraine for its alleged involvement in a rebel attack that killed dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian military contractors.

The Imperialist Attack on the Alliance of Sahel States

August 14, 2024, by Essam Elkorghli, Kribsoo Diallo, and Matteo Capasso

The recent attack on Mali has the fingerprints of Western imperialism all over it. This series of events is part of the tried and true imperialist method of creating the conditions for intervention by sewing chaos and terror. This cyclical process must be broken through revolutionary action.

Mali and Niger Breaks Diplomatic Relations with Ukraine Accusing NATO Ally of Involvement in Terrorist Attacks

August 14, 2024, by Abayomi Azikiwe

The United States proxy war against the Russian Federation continues to impact the African continent.

Gerald Horne - Ukraine Spreading ‘Terrorism’ Around the World –Kiev is Doing the Bidding of the West

August 8, 2024, by Activist News Network

Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of History at the University of Houston, author, historian, and researcher, on The Critical Hour discussing the news that Ukraine is Spreading ‘Terrorism’ Around the World –Kiev is Doing the Bidding of the West

Mali’s Position is Clear: The Kiev Regime is a Terrorist State

August 5, 2024, by Mikhail Gamandiy-Egorov

Mali decided to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine, labeling the Kiev regime as a supporter of international terrorism. The move follows Ukraine's alleged involvement in supporting terrorist groups in northern Mali, which led to the deaths of Malian soldiers. 

The Ruthless and Desperate Pursuit of U.S. Influence and Access Over Africa

July 31, 2024, by Netfa Freeman

AFRICOM is growing more bold in its attempts to maintain dominance over the African continent. Now is the time for Pan-African and Black Nationalist forces to organize to sabotage those efforts and support the masses struggling to free themselves from the yoke of imperialism.

US-AFRICOM Attempts to Open a New War Front Against Russia in Libya

July 2, 2024, by Habib Lassoued

The geopolitical tensions in Libya remain high, with U.S. officials reportedly pressuring Libyan factions to distance themselves from Moscow, potentially escalating into a broader proxy war involving regional and international powers.

Burkina Faso: La Patrie ou la Mort… Venceremos

June 28, 2024, by Inemisit Richardson

Thomas Sankara's ideology had an enduring impact and the connections between Burkina Faso's revolutionary past and present, including ties with states like Cuba and Nicaragua.

Banner photo: Mali Rebels display Ukraine Flag (courtesy youtube.com/@CRUXnews.)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #52

As anti-imperialist sentiment gains momentum in Africa, the Alliance of Sahelian States has demonstrated a clear resolve to reclaim sovereignty from foreign powers. The backlash against Western presence, and French presence in particular, has ignited a broader conversation about the future of foreign intervention and the true path to self-determination for African nations. Yet, while AFRICOM and Western military forces are being pushed out of the Sahel by people's movements, we see a much different relationship elsewhere on the continent taking note, in particular, of the ongoing close coordination between the US and Botswana Defense Forces as well as the US and Kenya Defense forces even as they are illegitimately deployed against their own civil society. 

With Kenya as a current poster child, we observe that in Africa, there are hundreds of political parties that do not serve the interests of African people. These parties serve as middlemen between imperialism and the masses of the people.  But even in more convoluted or reactionary political environments, there is always pushback. In tandem with the events in the Sahel, Kenya is witnessing its own wave of resistance against neocolonialism, particularly in the form of protests against President William Ruto and his collusion with the IMF to further immiserate the Kenyan people on behalf of Western interests. Ruto has also sent Kenyan police to Haiti, ostensibly to serve Western imperialist agendas under the guise of peacekeeping, in a plan crafted in large part by Meg Whitman, U.S. ambassador to Kenya. These moves have been met with significant opposition within Kenya, highlighting a broader continental struggle against foreign domination and exploitation. The ongoing events signal a rising Pan-African consciousness that seeks to dismantle the remnants of colonialism and resist new forms of imperialist control.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin spoke with Salifu Mack who is a high school English and History teacher, music lover, and sparkling water connoisseur. He is also a member of the Black Alliance for Peace and the All African People's Revolutionary Party and an organizer with the Lowcountry Action Committee in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: You recently spent time on the ground in Burkina Faso during or shortly after the uprisings that led to the backlash against the French colonialists. Did you feel that this was just another military coup in Africa or that this was different and why?

Salifu Mack: Even before arriving in Burkina Faso, it was quite clear to me that the character of this coup was different from what is commonly associated with coups in Africa. My comrades on the ground at the Thomas Sankara Center for African Liberation and Unity had been reporting for months prior about the sentiment that had been emanating from the masses. 

During my time in Burkina Faso, it was quite clear to me that the movements of the Traore administration have been in direct response to, and many cases, in lock-step with the demands of the people of Burkina Faso. While many coups in Africa are a top-down imposition of the will of a few “strong-men”, moves in Burkina Faso such as the ejection of the French military, embassies, and certain NGO and media properties, were demands originally spurring from the grassroots. The military coup led by Captain Ibrahim Traore just provided the muscle to move those demands into reality. 

This is quite different from the January 2022 coup that preceded Traore, led by Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. That coup administration was deeply unpopular with the masses and lasted only 8 months. Often in Western circles, it is easy to discuss the African masses as people who lack discernment, but the reaction to Damiba contrasted against the positive reaction to Traore should be enough proof to demonstrate that people in Burkina Faso are using sound reasoning and discernment skills to determine what is in their best interests. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: Clearly, France was the primary target among foreign interests. What signs, if any, did you see that the focus would then shift to US AFRICOM next or in the future?

Salifu Mack: On February 2, 2024, I attended a rally outside of the U.S. Embassy in Burkina Faso, organized by an organization called the Black African Defence League. The group was there to deliver a letter to the US ambassador to Burkina Faso, demanding US military bases withdraw from the country immediately. 

They also denounced US imperialist policy, stating that U.S. interference in the affairs of the Alliance of Sahel States would not be tolerated by the popular administrations and that consequences for such interference would be backed by the masses of the country. I remember being so blown away not just by this action, but by the very clear analysis that members of the organization displayed regarding imperialism. 

They understood quite clearly the essence of the idea that imperialism is the primary contradiction in the world today, and they situated the U.S. at the center of that. They were declaring that while France has been the most visible hand in the oppression they’ve experienced, France would never have such abilities without the backing of the U.S. and NATO more explicitly. They pointed directly to the 2011 NATO-led invasion of Libya as a material starting point for the issue of terrorism plaguing the Sahel today. Two months later, the U.S. was dismissed by Niger, and the action was widely celebrated across Burkina Faso. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: With the exit of the French, a power vacuum has been created in the Sahel. Some suspect that the US will fill that vacuum. Others think that Russia via its Wagner group or China might fill that void. In your view, how best can Africans fill that void? 

Salifu Mack: This question comes up quite commonly in western Pan-Africanist spaces and I just want to point out that it goes back to what I mentioned in my first response, but unfortunately it’s going to be a little long-winded. Africans in the Sahel are not being lulled into compliance by the scent of some fancy Russian perfume or the promise of sweet words. The Sahel is a region of Africa that has been absolutely ravaged by the results of years of Western meddling in African affairs, direct and indirect. The Sahel has also, up to the point of establishing a relationship with Russia, received close to no real material support from any outside forces to help tackle that problem. 

The Sahel is surrounded by countries that at best are hollowed-out shells of nations due to years of neocolonial leadership, and at worst, are treacherous lackeys of Western imperialism who willingly engage in acts of sabotage against nations who won’t comply with it. This question and criticism are also often raised by the Western diaspora, who must be mindful of our inability to materially change anything about our situations abroad, and who should be honest about the fact that our powerlessness has led to a passive complicity with U.S. imperialism. With that context in mind, I think we must discuss Sahelian partnerships with Russia, or whoever else they may engage with in the future, with a bit of humility. 

While navigating desperate conditions, leaders of the AES have still managed to initiate quite meaningful security partnerships with the Russian state. Russian flags stand tall beside flags of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger at roundabouts in all three countries. And it is not because Burkinabe are engaged in a delusion of “friendship” but because they understand the utility of strategic alliances. 

In an ideal world for most people I encountered, Africa solves its own problems. However, the Sahel is forced to deal very acutely with the reality that Africa at this very moment has been conquered. They are also more honest about the reality that Africa does not exist in a world apart from the rest of this planet. Sahelian partnerships with Russia have assisted in the longstanding fight against terrorism, creating space and opportunity for meaningful attempts at development. The need for development in the Sahel states is an ill-understood aspect of the struggle there. 

The concern moving forward, in my opinion, needs to be less about filling a void, and more about building upon the achievements of the current struggle. This phase in the AES is just a building block, and each of us has a role to play in building new ones. Africans in the West need to turn our attention towards AFRICOM (through organizations like the Black Alliance for Peace) because its meddling against the region is only going to escalate from here. I also think that we need to be engaged in moving resources to organizations in the Sahel, like the Thomas Sankara Center so that they can continue to facilitate opportunities for in-person work with the masses throughout the region. There are quite energetic anti-imperialist and socialist organizations in the Sahel. Organizations are attempting to do a lot at this moment with very limited resources. The defense of our liberated territories has to be a priority because as these nations increase their capacity, they can increase the power of their material contributions toward the struggle for Pan-Africanism, which is also a very clear motivation of the masses in these countries. I have never encountered Africans with a more serious commitment to pan-African unity than I did in Burkina Faso.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: What evidence of structural or policy changes can you identify on the ground that has directly and positively impacted the material reality of the masses since the uprisings and coup?

Salifu Mack: The Traorè administration has received a lot of positive attention for kicking out the French military, NGOs, and enemy media, and rightfully so. I think many people living in the deluded realities of Western states that commit and fund terrorism but do not have to bear the brunt of terrorists running around unchecked, can not appreciate how meaningful it is to Burkinabè to see their anxieties about security being dealt with effectively for the first time in years. But in my opinion, more attention should be paid to the administration's intense focus on development. 

Captain Ibrahim Traoré has demonstrated that he is wholly invested in the process of nationalizing Burkina Faso’s resources. In 2023, the administration announced it would be nationalizing the sugar sector. The SN SOSUCO sugar company, which was once, privatized during the term of the counterrevolutionary president, Blaise Compaoré, is now state-owned. 

This administration has also positioned Burkina Faso, one of Africa's foremost gold-producing states, to develop technology to process gold mine residues on-site. Construction on the factory began in November, and it was opened this January. In his formal announcement, Captain Ibrahim Traoré noted that the facility is 40% owned by the state. 

In addition, Burkina Faso has long implemented land reform policies limiting the amount of land that can be privately possessed to 5 hectares. To boost production, the current administration is subsidizing the cost of agricultural equipment for farmers and has set a goal to increase the productivity of irrigated areas by at least 50%. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: Many African people in the United States question why we should care about what goes on in the Sahel. How would you respond to this and how can those who do care get involved?

Salifu Mack: In chapter 19 of Africa Must Unite, Kwame Nkrumah states that “... any effort at association between the states of Africa, however limited its immediate horizons, is to be welcomed as a step in the right direction: the eventual political unification of Africa.” In my observation, the average, everyday African in Burkina Faso is extremely concerned with the total unity of not just the Sahelian states, but all of Africa. It’s my most sincere hope that the AES can model something that will be the envy of Africans across the continent. The AES states have taken on a huge responsibility which must be delivered on by any means necessary. And this means that Africans everywhere we are around the world have a responsibility to defend it.

This defense, however, can not be actualized as passionate individuals reposting content on social media. We have to be members of political formations with clear principles, and goals, that have an emphasis on political education and action. We need to develop an analysis that helps to draw very succinct connections between what is going on in places like the Sahel and Haiti, and places like Baltimore and Los Angeles. Places where concepts like “terrorists” and “gangs” are being weaponized against the African masses to manufacture consent for police brutality and imperialist invasion. 

There is no cure for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, no way to “free” Sudan, no end to settler colonialism in Western Sahara, or true liberation for Africans in the United States without this unity. No confrontation of violent client states, or our ruthless petit bourgeoisie. No path to true development— not a single road or hospital built truly to our advantage. There is no way forward for our individual states in this modern era that does not involve political and economic unity, and unity presupposes organization. Word to Nkrumah! 

News and Analysis

Burkinabé Rally for Malian President

June 27, 2024, by African Stream

During an all-night rally from sundown to sunrise, Burkinabé supporters of Assimi Goita, the president of the Republic of Mali, raised awareness and showed support for Goita’s first trip to another African country and his second trip outside of Mali.

maũndũ makwa #11 (my things): #RejectFinanceBill2024, end state sanctioned violence, & Kenya out of Haiti

June 27, 2024, by Karĩmi

What to the neo-colonial subject is independence? When can people be freed of imperialism? US military bases and ‘Israeli’ weaponry and all the rest.

Nigeriens Rally Around Revolutionary Government

June 26, 2024, by African Stream

During a rally in support of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), the government of Niger led by President Abdourahamane Tiani, participants were interviewed and expressed support for the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a security pact between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, which is on track to develop into a confederation. Many also said that the AES was a step in the right direction of the total unification of the African continent.

Around the Horne: Kenya, Haiti, AFRICOM, Palestine, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, and more

June 26, 2024, by Activist News Network

Dr. Gerald Horne speaks about the malign role of AFRICOM and Kenya in Africa in the wake of a brutal crackdown on protest in Kenya, Kenyan police arriving in Haiti, and a two-day U.S. Africa Command conference in Gaborone, Botswana that drew defense chiefs from 32 African countries.

The Congolese Fight for Their Own Wealth

June 25, 2024, by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

The DRC’s vast mineral wealth contrasts with its extreme poverty, caused by exploitation and conflict. The dossier emphasizes sovereignty and dignity, echoing Congolese activists' visions for freedom.

The Cocoa Industry and Slave Labor | Netfa Freeman on Modus Operandi

June 10, 2024 by Modus Operandi on RT

This interview journeys from unpacking the unionization efforts of African cocoa farmers vs multinational corporations, the disturbing allegations of child labor exploitation within the cocoa industry, to the role of the West and AFRICOM in the geopolitical situation across the Sahel and West Africa.

ECOWAS: A Black Radical Perspective

June 1, 2024, by The Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team

The US and EU states work with intergovernmental regional organizations like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a geo-strategy to give cover for neo-colonialist interests. 

African Liberation Day Remarks from Niger

May 25, 2024 by Alassane Aboubakar

Alassane Aboubakar, member of the Organisation Révolutionnaire pour une Démocratie Nouvelle (ORDN) Tarmamowa, speaks on African Liberation Day. The ORDN is a political party in Niger. ORDN Tarmamowa is a member of WAPO (West Africans Peoples Organisation), an umbrella organization of progressive West African political parties, organizations, and trade union associations for the total liberation and unification of Africa, so dear to Comrade Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.

The Sahel seeks sovereignty

May 14, 2024, by West Africa People's Organisations

The last year has seen tremendous transformations in the Sahel region with popularly-backed military coups calling for an end to French colonialism as well as progressive electoral victories

For the Defense of the Alliance of Sahel States

May 9, 2024, by The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa

The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa calls on the African masses on the continent and in the diaspora to organize like never before in defense of the Alliance of Sahel States, for this alliance is at the forefront of our struggle against imperialism. What began as a national liberation struggle in each member state has rapidly consolidated into a Pan-African union for the complete emancipation of Africa.

Banner photo: President of the Transition of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré examining a cinder block at the construction site of the country’s very first gold refinery plant (courtesy world-today-news.com.).

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #50

While the U.S. continues to fund an active genocide against the Palestinian people with the settler colonial state of Israel, imperialism continues to wreak havoc in Africa. BAP urges readers to stay alert and engaged on struggles happening all over the Global South as they all connect back to the belly of the beast. We have been following one of the latest flare-ups in Sudan as part of a multi-year long brutal war between ruling class actors that have led to one of the largest refugee crises in the world. 

“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin spoke with Salome Ayuak who is an educator, researcher, and organizer currently serving as the Information Secretary of the South Sudanese Acholi of North America Association and a member of Black Alliance for Peace - Atlanta. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: In December of 2022 it seemed that negotiations for a two year transition to civilian leadership in Sudan were in the process. By April of 2023 fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began. According to the UN, over 12 thousand women, men and children have reportedly been killed in Sudan and between about 7.4 million have been displaced. And yet, even prior to October 7th when the current crisis in occupied Palestine intensified, we hear very little about  Sudan. What are your thoughts about why?

Salome Ayuak: The current lack of attention to the war in Sudan can be attributed to several factors. First, there's lack of knowledge and political education regarding the Horn of Africa overall which results in limited public interest and discourse. Understanding the current war requires a deeper grasp of Sudanese history beyond humanitarian statistics, which many people do not have the inclination to explore in this era of quick information. To truly comprehend the present moment, studying the history of Sudan is necessary, rather than relying solely on social media graphics that conveniently appear on our feeds. This is especially crucial considering the lack of access to internet and telecommunication tools in Sudan, making it challenging, if not impossible, for everyday people to document the war for the western audience. Furthermore, the absence of a strong international movement in solidarity with Sudan contributes to its limited visibility in global discourse. Historically, much of the international discourse on Sudan has been controlled by neoliberals such as the Clooneys and Clintons, who dictate to those in the West, particularly the U.S., when and how to "save Sudan," or more specifically, Darfur. The ongoing wars in the Sudan  from the first Sudanese civil war which began one year before the 1956 flag independence up until 1982 and the second civil war from 1983 - 2005, have also led to a desensitization among many, who may view it as just "another African country at war," thereby diminishing the significance of the present popular uprisings turned war between armed forces who are all in opposition to the most important group in this fight - which are the interests of the masses of Sudanese peoples. If we claim to be pro-African peoples, we must amplify all struggles of African peoples towards liberation. If we don’t know enough about the struggles, then we must study it so we have correct analysis to stand in real solidarity. 

AWB: Talk about the 2-3 most important things most people just don't get about Sudan and its current geopolitical situation

SA: Sudan's geopolitical situation is deeply influenced by the economic consequences of South Sudan's secession in 2011. The split resulted in a significant loss of oil revenue for Sudan, as the majority of oil fields were in the newly independent South. This economic downturn was further exacerbated by IMF austerity measures imposed on Sudan, including cuts in public sector development budgets, downsizing of the government, and lifting of subsidies on essential goods like sorghum and petroleum. The austerity measures led to bleak living conditions (already experienced by those in the peripheries) to expand to the professional class in the city centers such as doctors who now need 2-3 jobs to live. This led to protests in the city and the cultivation of groups such as the Sudanese Tea Sellers Association, Sudan Professionals Association, and neighborhood groups who in 2019 were at the forefront of revolts. 

The geopolitical landscape of Sudan involves the complex interplay of militias and foreign actors. In terms of militias and foreign involvement, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Hemedti, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Burhan, play crucial roles. RSF has been legitimized through bilateral trade agreements on minerals.  The Wagner Group from Russia and Canadian lobbyists have further played roles in legitimizing these militias. The involvement of external powers, including the U.S., the European Union, and Israel, in training, financing, and arming these militias and forces adds another layer of complexity. The RSF's access to gold mines in Darfur and its role in blocking immigrants at the behest of European nations illustrate the multifaceted connections shaping Sudan's geopolitical situation.

It is also important  to mention the role of the U.S. in fueling conflict in Sudan to control its energy resources, cementing access to the Red Sea which links the Mediterranean to Asia and is one of the world’s busiest waterways.

The current geopolitical situation is also influenced by neo-colonial interests, with the split of Sudan into Western Sudan, South Sudan, and Sudan, reflecting regional and international designs. The control over different regions by the RSF and SAF aligns with neocolonial strategies, reinforcing the influence of external actors in Sudan's internal affairs.

AWB: Recently, the African Union honored former UN Ambassador Susan Rice as a leader "working to empower across the African Diaspora." This is the same Susan Rice who as an operative of then-President Obama worked to blockade Sudan's ports and launched selective bombing raids in Sudan. What should be one's takeaways about the African Union from this as well as its recent track record?

SA: The African Union of today is made up of neocolonial puppets for western governments. Similar to Burhan and Hemedti, they do not work for the interests of the masses of African peoples. The U.S. necessitates misleaders such as those currently in power in order to continue controlling African land, people, and resources. Leaders such as John Garang, who advocated for Sudanese resources to be in the hands of Sudanese people are killed while leaders like Yoweri Museveni in Uganda who work for the interest of the U.S. supplying troops to fight Africans in Congo are to live long lives. 

AWB: What are the most hopeful signs about Sudan and how can others support moving that hope forward?

The most hopeful sign about Sudan is the people know this war is not theirs. Before the war, the Sudanese people were fighting a popular movement, in line with Sudan’s long history of peoples led revolts from the 1998 Mahdist Revolts to the 1964 anti-police violent revolts, to 2019 revolts against exploitative living conditions. We, the Sudanese people, have a strong history and understand revolution as a process. The sit-ins, demonstrations, boycotts, writing of the People's Charter, neighborhood associations, were all cultivated by the people of Sudan - everyday people from tea sellers to lawyers to students to hustlers. The revolts we’ve seen are not mouthfed and the people of Sudan know that neither Hemedti nor Burhan is fighting in their interests. 

News and Analysis

Eugene Puryear on Sudan, 5 Years Since the December Revolution

December 20, 2023 by Eugene Puryear

Five years after Sudan’s December revolution, the country is facing a devastating humanitarian crisis. A raging civil war has left hundreds of thousands displaced, facing hunger and poverty. Eugene Puryear of Breakthrough News talks about the events that have led to this situation, tracing developments back to the hope ignited by the December revolution five years ago.

War in Sudan Engulfs Agricultural Heartland Amid Record Levels of Hunger

January 1, 2024 by Pavan Kulkarni

After capturing Gezira, a state in central Sudan that was producing half of its wheat and providing refuge to hundreds of thousands of IDPs, the RSF is set to battle the Sudanese Armed Forces for the neighboring states to consolidate control over the country’s agricultural heartland.

Terrorism in Africa Increased 100,000% During 'War on Terror'

February 12, 2024 by Nick Turse

Deaths from terrorism in Africa have skyrocketed more than 100,000 percent during the U.S. war on terror according to a new study by Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. These findings contradict claims by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) that it is thwarting terrorist threats on the continent and promoting security and stability.

Black Alliance for Peace’s U.S. Out of Africa Network Deplores Plans to Expand U.S. Drone Atrocities in West Africa

February 5, 2024 by Black Alliance for Peace

The U.S. plan to build three new military drone bases in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin are some of the newest imperialist efforts in Western Africa that are supported by neo-colonial African governments and collaborators, as demonstrated by the existence of AFRICOM and the silence of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on this development.

Chad, Mauritania Pave Way for Dissolution of G5 Sahel Alliance

December 6, 2023 by Al Jazeera

Chad and Mauritania said they “take note and respect the sovereign decision” of Burkina Faso and Niger to leave the alliance, following in the footsteps of Mali, which quit in 2022.

Canceled US Joint Exercises in Africa Shows Washington's Influence Abroad Slipping

January 28, 2024 by Sputnik International

U.S. military leadership has scrapped plans to hold joint exercises with several African states such as Sudan, Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Burkina Faso. This suggests the weakening of U.S. influence.

Banner photo: AFRICOM Director of Intelligence, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, spoke with Sudanese military professionals from the Sudanese Higher Military Academy in Sudan, Jan. 27, 2021, courtesy africom.mil.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #49

From Cop City in Georgia to Genocide in Gaza, the rise of fascism touches all colonized people. It is extremely important in this time of sharpened contradictions in the global capitalist system for Africans and working class people all over the world to make these connections and build solidarity with oppressed peoples everywhere.

BAP unequivocally supports the Palestinian’s struggle for self-determination, their land, sovereignty, freedom and justice. The struggle of Palestinians is the struggle of Africans is the struggle of the masses.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

Since the October 7th act of Palestinian resistance to the 75 year occupation, there has been a great deal of discussion among African people about how this applies to us? Some feel that we have our own liberation struggles and have no capacity to focus on those of others. Others feel that there is a link between the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people and those of African people.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin spoke with Djibo Sobukwe recently who is a former longtime member of the All African People's Revolutionary Party and a member of Black Alliance for Peace Africa and Research / Political Education teams.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin (AWB): When most people think of the African Diaspora, they don’t think of Palestine. Should it be included, why or why not?

Djibo Sobukwe (DS): I think it should be included because by definition “the African diaspora” includes anywhere in the world where we find persons of African ancestry living. There is definitely an Afro Palestinian community in Palestine, in fact one would be hard pressed to find any country in the middle east (Western Asia) that doesn’t have some presence of people of African descent. It is appropriate here to mention a famous Afro Palestinian freedom fighter named Fatima Bernawi who was nine years old at the time of the Nakba. She later joined the Fatah movement, and was reportedly the first Palestinian woman jailed by the Israeli Defense Forces for being involved in a planned attack. After spending 10 years in jail she was released in a prisoner exchange and then went on to work with PLO chairman Yassir Arafat.

AWB: How should we respond to the African person, especially in the United States, who says, "I’m concerned about police brutality here and just don't have the capacity to take on the Palestinian struggle"

DS: We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves to understand that police brutality here is just one local symptom of this US racial capitalist imperialist system that is international and has violent ramifications the world over. Dr. Martin Luther King’s statement that “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government” is still the truth. The Zionist entity (Israel) is a US middle east settler colonial satellite apartheid state that has been committing genocide against the indigenous Palestinian population for 75 years, funded and supported by our tax dollars. The US empire is at the head of an international structure of violent oppression of the majority of the worlds’ people. The only way we can be victorious is to internationalize our struggle and be in solidarity with the struggle of other oppressed communities. The issue of being educated and being on the side of justice is not always easy because the first line of attack by US imperialism is the ideological arena or the battle of ideas and morals. The empire relies on constantly gaslighting and falsifying history in order to manufacture consent and gain complicity by the masses towards its objectives. It also relies on public sanction, threatening and condemning people who do speak the truth.

AWB: Talk about the primary contradictions or misunderstandings that the African Christian Zionist in the US has about Palestine and the State of Israel.

DS: The primary confusion lies in conflating biblical Israel of the old testament with the relatively new (since 1948) settler colonial state of Israel which is occupied Palestine. In reality the two have nothing to do with each other. The confusion is also rooted in the myth that Jews controlling Israel will somehow facilitate the second coming of Jesus thereby bringing salvation to Christians.

AWB: In your latest BAR op-ed, you talked about Nasser leading the Casablanca group of African countries in 1961 which supported Palestinian rights and condemning Israel. Talk about what became of that concept and if you see signs or hope of that effort being revived in Africa?

DS: Well, the struggle between the Casa Blanca group on one hand vs Monrovia and Brazzaville groups on the other, represented a big class struggle between the progressive revolutionary countries wanting total independence and the countries that wanted to remain neo-colonial. That class struggle still exists but in a different form. Now neo colonial governments have near complete dominance of the continent, there are only at best a few progressive governments. But change is constant, and there are some encouraging signs in that there are some left, progressive Pan-Africanist, socialist and communist parties and movements emerging that are challenging the dominant narrative. Even a neo-colonial government like the one in South Africa is insisting that at least Israel should not get observer status at the AU.

AWB: For those who do see Palestinian liberation being linked to African liberation, how best can one contribute to both?

DS: The best way to make contributions to both is via organizations; that is to join an organization that has revolutionary internationalism/ Pan-Africanism as a core principle and demonstrates this through its work. If one organization doesn’t totally satisfy this, one can always support or join an additional one.

News and Analysis

The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murderous Assault on Occupied Palestine

October 11, 2023 by Black Alliance for Peace

The Black Alliance for Peace stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all Palestinians under occupation in the racist, apartheid settler state of Israel. We recognize the right of Palestine to exist and the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation. We call on African/Black people to remember our long tradition of solidarity with Palestine.

The A-APRP Condemns Attack on the PAIGC

December 7, 2023 by All African People’s Revolutionary Party

We call on all revolutionary Pan-Africanist, anti-imperialist and progressive forces to stand in solidarity with the PAIGC, PAI Terra Ranka Coalition and the heroic people of Guinea Bissau who chose once again the path of progress over the neo-colonialist reactionaries and their foreign counter-revolutionary imperialist backers. We will not let their victory be stolen.

Populist Trends or Revolutionary Pan-Africanism?

November 30, 2023 by Kinuthia Ndungu & Nicholas Mwangi

The African continent is witnessing the dynamic movement of leaders who deliver passionate speeches, captivating the youth and the diaspora. However, beneath this energetic facade lies a challenge – the rise of pseudo-populist Pan-Africanism that regurgitates empty rhetoric. This practice has also extended among African presidents who are now becoming overnight celebrities around the world with short YouTube videos going viral.

Kenya’s Intervention in Haiti: An Interrogation of Impetus, Objectives, and Consequences

November 21, 2023 by Haitian Studies Association

This panel is a dialogue between Haitian and Kenyan internationalists about the implications of a Kenya-led military intervention in Haiti. It features Jemima Pierre, Professor of Global Race at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and Haiti/Americas Team-Coordinator for Black Alliance for Peace (U.S.); Georges Eddy Lucien, Professor of History and Geography at the Université d’Etat d’Haiti (Haiti); Willy Mutunga, retired Professor of Law at the University of Nairobi, former Chief Justice of Kenya, and former President of the Supreme Court (Kenya); and Boniface Mwangi, renowned photo-journalist activist (Kenya).

Why Africans / Black Folks Should Oppose Zionism: Some Aspects of a Racist Imperialist Ideology in Africa and the Americas

November 15, 2023 by Djibo Sobukwe

Colonized people must be in solidarity with the oppressed and by definition, that means being anti-zionist. Political Zionism is a racist ethno-nationalist imperialist ideology and movement founded in the late 19th century that mis-uses Judaism to justify the settler colonial occupation of Palestinian land as a state reserved only for Jews. Christian Zionism, which actually preceded political Zionism, is the belief that the biblical land of Israel should be controlled by Jews thereby ensuring the second return of Jesus which will bring salvation to Christians.

Pan-African Masquerade: William Ruto with the Mask Off

September 27, 2023 by Larmbert Ebitu

With recent credible reports suggesting that the UK’s MI6 and the US’s CIA are plotting to eliminate African leaders seen as aligned with Russia, one cannot rule out their weaponizing puppets like Ruto to do their bidding. Africans must start calling out Ruto, if only to expose the neocolonial puppet behind the mask masquerading as a pan-African.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network.

No compromise, no retreat,

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full-time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: Two demonstrators standing side by side with one holding Palestine flag and other holding DR Congo flag (courtesy social media).

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #48

Is the West losing their grip on Africa? Africans around the world are rising against neocolonialism and asserting their right to sovereignty and self-determination. Across the Sahel, the African masses have taken to the streets, calling for French troops to leave their lands. BAP not only emphasizes the importance of the liberation of “Francophone Africa” but advocates for the U.S. and NATO to exit Africa. 

From the highly militarized U.S. presence through AFRICOM and CIA bases in Niger and throughout other Sahelian states such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, etc, we cannot forget to include them as the hegemonic head of neocolonialism in Africa. 

Through this International Month of Action Against AFRICOM, we aim to express our support for the aspirations of the people in the streets and call for the ejection of all Western forces, including AFRICOM and NATO, from the African Continent.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

There is a great deal of both excitement and uncertainty about the anti-imperialist sentiment spreading in the Sahel region of Africa which includes mostly former French colonies of Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The anti-imperialist element is exciting for many of us while the direction of those military leaders is uncertain. Since 2008, 15 U.S.-trained officers have had a hand in 12 West African coups.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Rafiki Morris, an organizer and Central Committee Member of the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) about these issues. The A-APRP also recently helped to organize a rally outside of the French Embassy to protest the proposed military intervention in Niger.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: As the A-APRP noted, of 106 coup d'etats in Africa since 1950, 103 have been of a reactionary nature with only exceptions being Naser in Egypt, Gaddafi in Libya and Sankara in Burkina Faso. Do you think this current wave will be closer to what has been the exception or the rule, and on what basis?

Rafiki Morris: First we would like to thank you for this opportunity to look more closely at what is happening to African People both at home and abroad. When we do this we get a chance to see the true dimension of imperialism and its assault upon African People and humanity in general.  

We look into the happenings in West Africa in the context of the worldwide struggle being waged by African People to be free of capitalism and imperialism.  For us the movement must advance. Revolutionary coups in Africa advances the African Revolution. To have three, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso in this short period of time would be a miracle with far reaching implications. But if even one of these coups turns out to be of the caliber of the revolution led by Nassar, Gaddafi or Sankara, we will mark it as a major victory of the masses of the people over imperialism and for Pan-Africanism.

In the case of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, their progressive contribution is cemented by their common commitment to get the French Out of Africa. This uncompromising stand taken by the People themselves ensures that these militaries move in a positive direction..

The Soldiers assumed power during a time when emerging Pan-African sentiments were sweeping around the globe. This wave of Pan-African consciousness has a dual nature. First it is the introduction of Pan-African Thought to a new generation of people. It is also an opportunity for potential misleaders to carve out a place for themselves in the fast approaching new dispensation. We must look upon this new pan-Africanist awareness with a critical eye. History teaches that wolves often dress as lambs, charlatans dress as saviors and monsters present as messiahs.

AWB: Can the role of ECOWAS, and even Kenya in Haiti, help advance the political education of the masses around neo-colonialism or as some say, “imperialism in Black Face”?

RM: Yes we can use these events as examples to explain neo-colonialism. However, our political education must go further.  We have to teach the truth. Every place on earth that has an African population and is not liberated is neo-colonialist. Neo-colonialism unites our external enemy with the internal enemy. In a particular way we define the enemy as a single entity with internal and external aspects. Capitalism and imperialism cannot survive without their junior partners with “Black Faces.” The reactionary Black puppets that rule us worldwide cannot survive without their capitalist imperialist senior partners.

One aspect which we should not overlook is the fact that these internal enemies have always been among the people. They are the unique creation of African culture and existed among us, causing mischief, long before the imperialist came to Africa’s shores. Failure to understand this reality leads to serious error of thinking the enemy is only the external invaders. During the struggle to end colonialism many Africans thought that all they had to do was get rid of the French, English, Portuguese or Belgians. After the Europeans were gone we found out that we had traded a white exploiter for black exploiter, who were in fact in league with the white we had thought to break away from. Understanding that the enemy sometimes looks just like you is a sign of political maturity.

But examples and explanations are only part of the process of political education. The other part, the most important part, is practice. Practice is the active involvement in the struggle against neo-colonialism. Without this action there is no real understanding. We were taught by our brother Kwame Ture that if you want to know something you have to get involved in it. Take swimming as an  example. You can have all the explanations and examples of swimming in the world, you can know the name of every stroke, every type of kick and all the techniques involved in floating. But you will never know how to swim if you do not get in the water. You will have a theory but no real knowledge. Real knowledge comes from applying the theory in practice. Fighting imperialism is an active resistance. Without this resistance you cannot really know neo-colonialism. Without practice you cannot defeat neo-colonialism.

AWB: How would you explain to Africans in Haiti or Southeast DC why they should care about the Sahel and how they can and should get involved?

RM: The struggle in Sahel, Haiti, the USA etc., are all frontlines of a worldwide conflict between African People and capitalist imperialism. The strategy is to fight the enemy wherever we find them. Everywhere they use their military/police to kill, incarcerate and destabilize African People and the movement we have built to pursue our liberation. The only solution to the ongoing assault is the unification of our fighting forces. We must develop coordinated political and military action. We tell our people that the struggle in Sahel, Haiti and the USA is one struggle against a common enemy. We must unite, not to live happily ever after or to fulfill some long held dream. We must unite to defeat our imperialist, neocolonialist, white supremacist, patriarchal enemy. We understand clearly, AFRICANS UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED.

News and Analysis

All Africans Should Condemn the Call for an ECOWAS-led Military Invasion of Niger

August 7, 2023 by Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team

The Africa Team of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) condemn the threats of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to lead a military intervention into Niger. We believe this would be an act of subservience to U.S./EU/NATO interests. As Western imperialism seems to be losing its neo-colonialist grip on Africa, it is trying to expand its use of puppets and proxies to undermine resistance.

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Sign Military Pact at Liptako-Gourma Borders Area

September 26, 2023 by Abayomi Azikiwe

As threats from France continue against the military governments in West Africa, the new heads of state view a unified approach as the only suitable response to imperialist aggression

Alliance of Sahel States

September 18, 2023 by Press TV

BAP Africa Team Co-Coordinator Netfa Freeman and Pan-African News Wire's Abayomi Azikiwe interview on Press TV's Spotlight talk about the Alliance of Sahel States

Under French-backed Military Ruler Mahamat Deby, Chad is a “Pressure Cooker Waiting to Explode”

September 23, 2023 by Pavan Kulkarni

While threatening war against Niger, ostensibly to restore democracy, France continues to back the military junta of Mahamat Deby which is accused of killing at least 128 pro-democracy protesters last year. However, anger against the junta and soaring anti-French sentiment threatens its military presence in the country

Revolution in Sahel? Military Coups in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger 

August 7, 2023 by A-APRP (All-African People’s Revolutionary Party)

The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party expresses solidarity and harmony with the people of Niger, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Algeria, stands resolutely against the U.S., EU and ECOWAS sanctions, and rejects all attempts at military invasions by NATO member states or the ECOWAS body.

French Decision to Withdraw Troops from Niger is a Testimony “To the Determination and Will of the Nigerien people” 

September 25, 2023 by Pavan Kulkarni

After withdrawing from Mali and Burkina Faso, and now on the way out from Niger, Chad is the last of the now practically defunct G5 Sahel country to host a permanent base of France.

Statement on the Establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States

September 27, 2023 by Socialist Movement of Ghana

The Socialist Movement of Ghana salutes Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, on the adoption of the 16th of September 2023 Liptako-Gourma Charter, establishing l’Alliance des États du Sahel (“Alliance of Sahel States”). 

Not Just Coups: Meet the People’s Movements in the Streets of West Africa

October 2, 2023 by Rania Khalek Dispatches

Journalist Rania Khalek speaks with Kambala Musavuli, a Congolese activist, on the anti-colonial sentiments that have erupted throughout West Africa in recent months.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

No compromise, no retreat,

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full-time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: Niger army sergeant and artist Maman Sani Maigochi performs as supporters gather at Place de la Concertation in the capital Niamey {Courtesy AFP}

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #47

The United States, in the interest of imperialism, along with their puppet governments Rwanda and Uganda, is violently and savagely looting the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of its raw and precious natural resources. This large-scale theft includes that of coltan—a mineral used to make cell phones, iPhones and iPads, computers, other electronics, and modern military weapons. The DRC has 64 percent of the world’s coltan. Not only that, but the DRC is rich in gold, diamonds, copper, tin, cobalt, uranium, among other resources. 

Current estimates value the untapped potential mineral resources in the DRC at around $24 trillion, easily making it one of the wealthiest nations on Earth. This is the value today—after several centuries of brutal wealth extraction. The DRC contains almost as many minerals as the periodic table. It is for these reasons the DRC is being targeted, invaded, dominated and looted. 

Countless armed rebel militias and rogue government forces have been terrorizing the people in pursuit of ethnic vendettas, amassing greater personal power and wealth. The current conflict in the DRC has been raging for decades, with estimated death tolls of 6 million since 1996 alone. This is genocide, yet we hear nothing. Ghanian Prime Minister and President Kwame Nkrumah referred to the Congo as the heart of Africa. Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Tse-Tung is quoted as saying that "whoever controls the Congo, controls the world." Thus, when the Congo is free, the world will be free.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Ann Garrison, who is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on the conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann(at)anngarrison.com. Please support her work on Patreon.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: You have reported a great deal on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, which includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many describe it as the world's most neglected displacement crisis with some 5 to 6 million displaced due to conflict. To what do you attribute the lack of media attention on what is going on in the DRC?

Ann Garrison: Racism and class prejudice for starters, of course. Most Congolese are poor Black people in the heart of Africa, far away from the industrialized world’s centers of power. Most Americans still couldn’t find Iraq on a map, but even fewer could find the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

And though the U.S./EU/NATO nations have had everything to do with the chaos and catastrophe, it’s never cost them much. Its costs don’t begin to compare to those of the wars in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Ukraine. Americans at least know that those wars happened or that they’re ongoing. 

Big bombs don’t fall out of the sky, and neither U.S. nor other Western troops serve there, aside from special advisors, military trainers and the like. If the Russian Wagner Group shows up in [the DRC], as it has in Mali and the Central African Republic, we’ll probably start hearing a bit more about [the DRC]. And, of course, we hear a bit about U.S. and Chinese competition for [the DRC]’s vast natural resources.

What the U.S./EU/NATO nations have done in [the DRC] has been largely covert or at least under the radar. In 1997, Newsweek published a piece, in which they acknowledged the U.S. operation to overthrow Congolese President Mobutu Sese Seko—a puppet they’d tired of—and establish dominance in the region. 

I recommend this excellent 1997 report to anyone trying to understand [the DRC] as it is now, but it’s an obscure historical note of interest only to researchers and journalists who try to engage with the region in depth. Big bombs didn’t fall from the sky, so it’s little remembered, even by conscious people who might at least know that the U.S. collaborated with Belgium to assassinate Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961.

AWB: According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the Rwandan M23 militia, has re-emerged in the [DRC] and has been cited for widespread crimes, from rape to summary executions and looting. In spite of Public Law 112-239 from the 2013 U.S. Defense Authorization Act, which supposedly imposed sanctions on M23, they seem to operate with a degree of impunity. What conclusions should one draw from their continued pillaging in the region?

AG: Several. First and foremost, the U.S. has never honestly objected. In fact, they have enabled the Rwandan militia, which assumed various acronyms over the years but finally became M23. The history of this covert support is as cynical as anything I’ve ever seen. It’s complicated and difficult to explain, but let me see what I can summarize.

In 2009, on the very day of Obama’s inauguration—when no one was paying any attention—it was announced that the [National Congress for the Defence of the People] CNDP, a Rwandan and Ugandan militia pretending to be Congolese, would be incorporated into the Congolese army, as though they were Congolese. U.S. officials applauded this hair-raising development as a step towards peace. But even Human Rights Watch admitted that it was, in fact, a surrender of territory to Rwanda and Uganda. The final agreement legalizing it was signed on March 23, 2009. 

In 2012, the CNDP militia members rebelled, claiming that they had not been given all they’d been promised in that agreement. Hence the name, M23, a reference to March 23, 2009. They infamously ravaged eastern [DRC]’s Kivu Provinces, committing one massacre after another, until [U.S. President Barack] Obama finally felt compelled to pretend to do something. The UN Force Intervention Brigade was organized to drive M23 back into Rwanda and Uganda and, after it did, Obama and the rest of the West claimed a humanitarian victory. However, in the ensuing “peace talks” organized by Western powers, victory was handed back to the losers of the war—Rwanda, Uganda, and their militia, M23. I pulled up the document formalizing this and linked it into my report on the website of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper: “‘Declaration’ would contract DRC to concede to M23.” Again, it was all as cynical as anything I’ve ever seen.

M23 re-emerged in 2022, once again committing massacres and seizing territory. It became so apparent that they are under Rwandan command that Western officials have felt compelled to speak to it and call on Rwanda to stop, but nothing’s been done. Rwanda continues to enjoy the support of the West. Uganda’s involvement more or less flies under the radar.

The West essentially chose the Rwandan and Ugandan Tutsi elite to manage the resource wealth of eastern DRC in their interest, as [Rwandan and Ugandan Tutsi elite] have since first invading [the DRC] in 1996. 

Last year, in a move that made no sense whatsoever, [DRC] joined the East African Community—a common market like the [European Union]—even though two of its members, Rwanda and Uganda, had been ravaging and plundering the country for nearly three decades. This allowed the resource looters to formalize and legalize their operations, but that still wasn’t enough for them. Rwanda and Uganda also have territorial ambitions served by killing and displacing millions of people in the Kivu provinces, and the West shows no sign of pulling its support from either regime. 

I should add that neither Russia nor China object, so long as they’re getting the deals for resources that they need. All the international powers benefiting from [the DRC]’s resources welcomed the country’s entry into the East African Community, which legitimized and legalized the exploitation. 

AWB: The U.S. Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) espoused objective is to combat terrorism on the continent. It has literally trained both Rwandan and Ugandan troops. How should one reconcile this with the re-emergence of M23?

AG: This is more evidence that the U.S. doesn’t care what Rwanda and Uganda do in [the DRC], no matter how horrific. Their soldiers serve U.S. foreign policy purposes in Africa. 

AWB: The DRC holds about 70 percent of the world’s supply of coltan, which is needed for manufacturing cell phones and computers. It also holds about 80 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves, which are needed for developing aerospace and renewable technologies. Would it be overly simplistic to say that at the root of all the conflict in the region is the desperation of multinational corporations to control these resources?

AG: No, that would not be overly simplistic at all. And there’s much more—gold, timber, oil, natural gas, arable land, and more mineral wealth.

AWB: What 2 to 3 things are necessary for a path forward to peace and sovereignty in the region?

AG: That’s a tough question. A global cultural and political revolution that puts human needs before profit would help. [The DRC]’s resources are, as you said, so essential to the world’s industrial engines that everybody wants a piece of [the DRC].

Short of that, Rwanda and Uganda should get out of [the DRC], but there’s no sign of that happening anytime soon. 

The Congolese people need space to organize and elect leaders who truly represent their interests. The last presidential election [in the DRC], in 2018, was blatantly stolen by Félix Tshisikedi, but the world chose to legitimize it. 

NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Anniversary Report: Six-Day War, Democratic Republic of the Congo

June 14, 2023 by Friends of the Congo

Uganda and Rwanda began their incursions into the Democratic Republic of Congo 23 years ago. Full reparations to victims have not been paid and the two invader countries still act with impunity.

African Unity and the New Cold War

June 7, 2023 by Abayomi Azikiwe

These remarks were made by the author at the Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum (PASCF) Afrikan Liberation Day webinar held on May 27, 2023. The event was hosted by PASCF organizers in Britain under the theme, “Acknowledging Our Shared Struggles and Celebrating Our Achievements.”  

Imperialism in Sudan and Libya: Implications for the African Continent

June 7, 2023 by Black Alliance for Peace

The Black Alliance for Peace’s African Liberation Day discussion, "Imperialism in Sudan and Libya: Implications for the African Continent," featured Abayomi Azikiwe, Abdiwahab Abdisamad, Essam Elkorghli and Yolian Ogbu.

Unveiling Truth and Inspiring Change – Survivors Uncensored 

June 5, 2023 by HMG Press Office

A hybrid event with testimonies from survivors of atrocities in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and African Great Lakes region as a whole, shedding light on the role of the U.S. and the West.  This book talk and discussion featured Delphine Yandamutso, Claude Gatebuke, Salome Ayuak, Dismas Kitenge, and Steven Nabieu Rogers.

Unity Is an Imperative: Reclaiming African Liberation Day, 60 Years On

May 26, 2023 by Tanupriya Singh

African Liberation Day marks the founding of the Organization of African Unity in 1963. While the idea of “liberation” has since been removed in letter—and even in spirit—from official commemorations of the day, radical forces have held onto it in their fight against capitalism. 

Breaking the Colonial Grip on African Journalism

May 24, 2023 by Toward Freedom

This discussion took place on May 24—the day of Eritrea’s 32nd independence anniversary and one day before African Liberation Day—to hear from African journalists about how they best see to break the colonial grip on African journalism. Panelists included Washington, D.C.-based Ivorian journalist, professor and author Gnaka Lagoke and Nairobi-based Kenyan journalist Erick Gavala, the operations manager at digital Pan-African media outlet, African Stream. Toward Freedom editor and BAP Solidarity Network Co-Coordinator Julie Varughese moderated this discussion.

The Roots and Consequences of African Underdevelopment

May 21, 2023 by Walter Rodney

The Black Agenda Review published for the first time historian Walter Rodney’s presentation at the May 1979 symposium titled, “The Political Economy of the Black World.” Rodney’s talk built on his classic study, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, musing on how theories of underdevelopment had developed, as it were, over the recent past, especially when it came to understanding the core-periphery metaphor and the nature of classes in Africa.

Liberia and the Challenges of U.S. Imperialism

April 26, 2023 by Djibo Sobukwe

Liberia, like many African countries, suffers from devastating poverty as a result of a history of colonialism and neocolonialism.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

No compromise, no retreat,

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full-time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: A RPF troop that advanced into the DRCongo on May 14, 1997 (Courtesy reddit.com).

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #46

Libya, once a prosperous and peaceful country, has been ravaged by a war between armed factions backed by regional and global players ever since the 2011 NATO-led invasion. The war and destruction have significantly destabilized the country, and armed groups now openly operate.

Countries seeking regional influence and aspiring to control Libyan oil have been exploiting political and ideological differences among the ruling elite in Libya, sowing the seeds for further division and chaos. The NATO-led invasion opened up space for countries such as the United States, France, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, among several others, to further their interests in the region through the Libyan conflict. However, this has come at the cost of common people.

To suppress dissent and to exploit vulnerable migrants, Libyan authorities have used various means, such as arbitrary detention, torture, rape, murder, enslavement, enforced disappearances and sexual slavery of women. The U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination has provided monetary and material aid to Libyan authorities and to armed militias, both of which have been responsible for widespread human-rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. This “new” scramble for Africa is causing widespread suffering for African people.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Essam Abdelrasul Bubaker Elkorghli, who is a Libyan Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he researches Libya’s modern history, state ideology and contemporary imperialism in education. He is part of the Global Pan-African Movement. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: How does the U.S./NATO impose the need for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) to intervene, like it did in Libya?

Essam Elkorghli: Understanding AFRICOM’s recent activities in Libya must be integrated in a broader understanding of the history of Libya and how the aftermath of NATO’s intervention in Libya enabled AFRICOM to infiltrate the country’s security apparatus. Libya’s military was destroyed by NATO and its regional allies, laying the groundwork for a weakened state that is dependent on foreign actors to conduct its security operations in the country. The destruction of Libya and its military in 2011 manufactured the need for more Western intervention. This form of imperialism results in the forced integration of the South with the North based on a relationship of dependency, and in this case, it is security dependency.

AWB: Who are the Libyans that invited AFRICOM to start its mission in Libya and what role did they play in the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi?

Elkorghli: AFRICOM partook in the destruction of Libya under the guise of NATO’s 2011 mission. However, as Security Council Resolution 1973 ended by the elimination of the regime, their operations stopped. Nonetheless, when the groups armed by NATO in 2011 started to claim territories, declare affiliation to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and inflict endless terror on the population, calls by the newly parachuted UN authority in Libya (Government of National Accord) for another foreign intervention started. AFRICOM launched its mission in Libya in August 2016 in the city of Sirte to help the GNA’s fight against local Islamic State elements. The GNA was not elected by Libyans, but their composition includes a large proportion of the people who fought against the former regime and are predominantly [members of the right-wing political group] Muslim Brotherhood.

AWB: The explanation given for the recent visit by William Burns, CIA chief, was “security issues.” Is that merely coded pretext for the expansion of AFRICOM or are there legitimate security concerns? And, if not via AFRICOM, how do you envision those concerns being addressed? 

Elkorghli: UN estimates that there are 20,000 foreign mercenaries in Libya. These foreign groups are tied to nation states and are not clandestine militias, as the AFRICOM purports. The recent visit by the head of the CIA to Libya was largely driven by the fact that there is an adversarial group in Libya that must be combatted, which is the private [Russian] military, Wagner Group. The visit comes merely two days after that very group defeated NATO-backed troops in the strategic city of Soledar in Ukraine. The fact that a private military group defeated NATO and its allies in Ukraine is the security issue for the CIA because the group and its operations in the Sahel is materializing more fortuitous results than [the] French or AFRICOM presence in the region. In other words, wherever AFRICOM and French troops existed, there is an expansion of terror activities. The group’s presence is presumably a security issue for AFRICOM, especially following their role in the Ukraine war.

AWB: Regarding the airstrikes that killed 11 Libyan civilians, is it your sense that AFRICOM is indifferent or that it is actually intentional. And, if intentional, what would be their ultimate objective?

Elkorghli: AFRICOM’s operations did not end with the objective of eliminating terrorist elements in the city of Sirte in 2016. They continued their operations to our very day. This has had consequential reverberations on the social fabric of Libyan society. AFRICOM collaborates with GNA (and currently Government of National Unity, formed in 2021 with the aim of unifying the GNA with the rival Tobruk-based government) to target marginalized groups in the south, who have been deprived of social services and access to health care and education. The Tebu and Tuareg tribes in the south have been framed to aid in terror activities, which legitimizes the excessive use of violence against the civilian population. The killing of 11 civilians under the pretext of terrorism shows the level of impunity these military operations enjoy, especially when the local government lacks popular legitimacy and their reign is largely guarded by how the West grants them legitimacy. These airstrikes should be viewed from the forced integration of Libya with AFRICOM’s security apparatus, which renders Libya a security dependent state.

AWB: There are clearly multiple groups/factions on the ground in Libya, all with their own agendas. Is there a constructive role for the African Union (AU) to play in the process of rebuilding Libya?

Elkorghli: The AU’s involvement since 2011 has been circumscribed by NATO and its allies. In 2011, the AU was barred from traveling to Libya and was threatened by NATO that Libyan airspace should not be approached—ironic how African airspace is controlled by NATO. The AU also saw that successive Libyan governments parachuted by the UN were not interested in the former regime’s orientation of integrating Libya with Africa. This has resulted in limited engagement with the AU, which is reciprocated by the AU’s divided attention on Libya. However, given that the AU has not proliferated the destruction of Libya, always called for genuine peaceful solutions to conflicts between different groups, and consistently called for de-escalation, they do have a role in the reconstruction of Libya. If a group of influential African states (for example, South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Algeria and Ghana, to name a few) could consolidate their efforts to conjure a plan for Libyan factions to meet in Libya for a Libyan-Libyan dialogue, this would sideline any efforts for the U.S./EU to select a few elites and reproduce the same results that the [United Nations Support Mission in Libya] UNSMIL has driven.

AWB: How can Africans worldwide, particularly those of us who espouse a Pan-Africanist perspective, best act in solidarity with the masses of Libyan people?

Elkorghli: There are a select few actors in Libya who have garnered international legitimacy by being subservient to the interests of the U.S./EU/NATO and transnational capital. These state actors do not represent the Libyan masses. The Libyans masses long for a dignified life, sovereign land and control of [their] resources. The history and fate of Libya is linked directly to the fate and history of the rest of Africa, whether through anti-colonial struggles or through the re-emergence of neocolonial interests, where the African continent has become NATO’s southern neighborhood. As Pan-Africanists, we should understand the malign and divisive interests of the West in further plundering Africa; we must act in unison against the neocolonial onslaught against Africa and its people; we must oppose the current trajectory of increased militarization (except in self-defense); silence the guns; and understand that our struggles are one—sovereignty over our lands, seas and air.

NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Gerald Horne on Sudan: Almost 100 Dead in Fighting Between Army and Paramilitary Forces & role of US

April 17, 2023 by The Critical Hour

Dr. Gerald Horne, Professor of History at the University of Houston, author, historian, and researcher, on The Critical Hour, discussing Sudan: Almost 100 Dead in Fighting Between Army and Paramilitary Forces & role of U.S.

As Army and Rapid Support Forces battle it out, Sudanese left calls for restoring the revolution

April 15, 2023 by Pavan Kulkarni of Peoples Dispatch

The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have begun fighting each other. The root of the conflict lies in disagreements over integrating the paramilitary into the army. The Sudanese left has noted that both parties seek to escalate armed conflict, so that it can be used as a reason to not hand over power to civilian forces.

Life or Debt: The Stranglehold of Neocolonialism and Africa’s Search for Alternatives

April 11, 2023 by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

The International Finance Institutions—mainly the IMF—exacerbate the poverty brought on by colonialism and transform it into a permanent debt crisis. This dossier explores that topic and moves into a deeper assessment of the contradictions of sovereign debt on the African continent. 

Debunking the U.S.-led Hypocrisy Summit

April 11, 2023 by WPFW 89.3 FM - Voices With Vision

Imani Umoja of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, as well as a member of the Steering Committee of BAP's U.S. Out of Africa Network, spoke about the U.S.-led Democracy Summit held in Zambia, March 28-30. The conversation was preceded by comments by Dr. Fred M’membe, president of the Socialist Party in Zambia, about that conference and U.S. imperialist arrogance.

AFRICOM: Securing African or U.S. interests?

April 5, 2023 by African Stream

The United States Africa Command—or AFRICOM—was founded in 2007. But it has failed to bring peace and security. Major failures in Somalia, Libya and elsewhere have left many Africans suspecting it exists only to serve U.S. interests.

The long arm of Washington extends into Africa’s Sahel

March 25, 2023 translation by Vijay Prashad

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Niger and its offer of $150 million do not hide that its main interest lies in security cooperation.

Israel’s Humiliating Expulsion from AU Summit Exposes Its Failed Diplomacy in Africa

March 22, 2023 by Ramzy Baroud 

The removal of Israel’s Observer Status in the African Union reflects the broader trend of geopolitical spaces opening up for countries in the Global South and the increasing challenge to the hegemony of former colonial powers.

Libya Hearing: International People's Tribunal on US Imperialism

March 10, 2023 by 

The sanctions as one of the key tools of U.S. imperialism. In order to uncover the depth and breadth of U.S. imperialism, we will determine the impact of sanctions on various aspects of life, with a focus on social, political, economic, and ecological issues.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

No compromise, no retreat,

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full-time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: Libyan security forces affiliated with Tripoli-based interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in the northwestern city of Misrata (Courtesy AFP)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #45

Nigeria has imperial and neocolonial trappings it must acknowledge and vehemently reject. This includes surrendering decision making about financial and credit facilities or political organization to the West, which has a significant impact on the actions of those who take political office in the country. The United States is an imperial power that operates through its neo-colonial subjects and its control over imperialist structures, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as through its control over the politicians in office.

Nigerian sovereignty is reduced to mere “flag independence” because of U.S. external-policy interference and economic control. This allows the space for Nigerian elites to engage in wrongdoing—whether by corruption, nepotism or human-rights abuses. We must contextualize these instances in terms of how Western corporations and governments often enable (and encourage) such actions to preserve lucrative economic arrangements.

General elections will be held in Nigeria on February 25 to elect the president and vice president, as well as members of the Senate and House of Representatives. These elections will take place amid an unprecedented state of general crisis. Any politician or party coming into power will have to contend with an ongoing capitalist crisis. The response of any neo-colonial government is likely to  be to tighten fiscal consolidation on behalf of big business. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and its U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) must support the antithesis of neo-colonial governance, which are self-determination and bottom-up, participatory democratic processes.

NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Africans’ Message to Imperialism: “We Are Not Your Flunkies!”

March 1, 2023 by Mark P. Fancher

South Africa's participation in military drills with Russia and China is an indication that the global south are not taking orders from Washington. African nations should continue their tradition as non-aligned states.

The international politics of observing elections, By Owei Lakemfa

March 4, 2023 by Owei Lakemfa

Why would numerous observers travel from across the world to observe Nigeria elections - as guardians of democracy?

Uncertainty in Nigeria as Cash, Fuel Shortages Bite Ahead of Vote

February 10, 2023 by AFP

With under three weeks to go until Nigeria's presidential elections, major shortages of cash and fuel have plunged Africa's most populous country into crisis. As well as provoking outrage among ordinary people, the shortages threaten to upend the February 25 presidential poll, while throwing its organization into doubt.

United States’ Pursuit of Imperial Military Base in Northern Somalia Fuels Brutal War

February 8, 2023 by Jamal Abdulahi 

The history of European colonialism and the endless U.S. desire for a military presence strengthen a Somalia secessionist movement and warfare that most people in that country do not want.

“Whoever wins we must continue to fight”—Nigeria’s coming election

February 7, 2023 by ROAPE (Review of African Political Economy)

ROAPE speaks to Nigerian socialist and activist, Alex Batubo, about the elections this month, and the political and economic situation in the country. Batubo focuses on the struggle of labor, and the possibilities of a radical alternative emerging from the challenges (and opportunities) of the present.

The US Seeks Libyan Elections that Will Enshrine the Fait Accompli

February 7, 2023 translation by Internationalist 360°

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the chorus of delusionists who believe that there is indeed a possibility of organizing an electoral entitlement in light of current contradictions that dominate the scene.

The US is trying to expel Russian mercenaries from Sudan and Libya

February 3, 2023 by The Bharat Express News

The Biden administration has been working for months with regional powers Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to pressure military leaders in Sudan and Libya to end their ties with the Wagner Group.

Nigerian Politics: Past, Present, and Future

November 14, 2022 by Forward Ever Podcast

In this episode, the podcast interviews an activist in Nigeria about the political history that continues to shape what is referred to as Naija, the vernacular term for Nigeria. Some parts of the interview contain low or unclear audio because of poor connection. “[These are] some of the issues when interviewing others on the ground in developing nations, but we hope the overall interview can shed light on contemporary and historical Nigerian politics.”

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

No compromise, no retreat,

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full-time staff and no big-foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: African troops in a boat of the coast of West Africa participating in Obangame Express 2023 exercises (courtesy AFRICOM Twitter.)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #44

The United Nations recently held the first session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in Geneva, Switzerland. From December 5-8, more than 600 delegates from UN member states, UN structures, and civil society took the floor to call for global recourse and the institutional protection of human rights for Africans all over the world.

Established in August 2021, during the 7th year of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent—spanning 2015 to 2024—the Permanent Forum will act as an advisory body to the UN Human Rights Council. The UN General Assembly declared the Forum also will serve as “a consultative mechanism for people of African descent and other relevant stakeholders” and “platform for improving the safety and quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent.”

The convening consisted of international and virtual pre-events and side events that discussed the human rights situation of Africans on the continent, as well as Africans in Europe, and what we call “Nuestra América,” the landmass encompassing what is now known as Canada to the tip of Chile. Representatives from the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) attended the December convening to:

• engage in political struggles around the establishment of this forum—which are discussed in this month’s interview;

• reach out to and build international structures (significant numbers of folks from the global South were in attendance); and 

• focus on issues of militarization and its impact on African people.

BAP and the USOAN emphasize the increased militarization of the African continent and Nuestra América, as well as its implications for resistance efforts by local communities and activists, as a key part of the war on African people. We seek to build the mass movement necessary to defeat it.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Mama Efia Nwangaza, who is the Founder/Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, member of the Black Belt Human Rights Coalition Criminal Punishment System Sub-Committee as well as the Black Alliance for Peace, and a veteran of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC):

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: What are your thoughts on the Permanent Forum?

Efia Nwangaza: The Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, December 5-8, 2022, Geneva, is the United States’ and other European countries’—former colonizers and enslavers—effort to control today's Bandung-like global reparations-centered freedom movement, as evidenced by the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA). The Forum, as presently constituted, is a mechanism designed to waylay, blunt and bury the DDPA with hand-picked gatekeepers and the racist slur of “anti-semitism.”

In Durban, South Africa, the world—meaning governments and civil society—reached a consensus and issued the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA). The world declared colonialism, slavery, apartheid, and genocide crimes against humanity, without statute of limitations and [with] a basis for reparations.

In 2001, the United States, led by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, walked out of the Durban World Conference Against Racism. The U.S. and other European countries—former colonizers—worked to prevent the global consensus that was reached and, having failed, continue to work to undermine and bury it.

AWB: Who are the main players in the Permanent Forum?

EN: The Forum is composed of 10 members; five nominated by states and five by the president of the Human Rights Council, “in consultation with civil society.” Here, “civil society” is not limited to people of African descent, as is the case with the members of the [United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues].

While the U.S. described how it pressured governments to vote for its pick, Justin Hanford, little or nothing else is known about the rest's appointment. It is located in Geneva, in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), instead of  the more accessible New York, under the more appropriate Economic and Social Council.

The chair, Epsy Campbell-Barr, is a former vice president of Costa Rica, one of the world's smallest countries and [containing] an even smaller number of people of African descent; little more than 400,000. The vice chair is Alice Ange'le Nkom of Cameroon. She is the first woman admitted to practice law in Cameroon and is president of the Cameroonian Association for Defence of Homosexuality, co-chairperson of the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, and a member of the National Democratic Institute International Working Group. The rapporteur [an independent human rights expert whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective] is Michael McEachrane, of Sweden, who calls himself a “mixed race, academic and activist.” As of 2016, there were 110,758 citizens of African nations residing in Sweden.  

Justin Hansford, U.S. member/Pan-Euro representative is director of the Howard University Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. He, like Clarence Thomas, enjoys the good will that comes from the use of Thurgood Marshall's name. Hansford, presenting himself as a Black “liberator,” dismissed the DDPA saying, “I was 16 years old when it was written.” He reportedly “believes he can get a better deal;” apparently under the ruse of “Sustainable Development Goals.”

AWB: What were your contributions to the convening?

EN: I publicly reprimanded Justin Hansford for trying to gaslight me and others when the chair attempted to refuse to take floor responses to McEachrane's attempt to limit DDPA relevance in his “interim” summary of the Forum's future work. “The DDPA will be applied to the extent it applies to people of African descent,” he said. His opening statement is attached.

I challenged Forum participants—in-person and virtually,—to read the DDPA.  Admonished them to not let fancy, obscure language, lack of information, age, experience, and a short-term promise (Sustainable Development Goals [SDG]) of an immediate bowl of porridge cause us to betray our peoples. All were challenged to fully claim, affirm, and assert the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action as our human right of self-determination.

I reminded them, “The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is the heart and soul of this Forum, without the DDPA this is nothing more than a free trip and a talk fest. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is our lifeline and that of generations unborn. HOLD ON TO IT—BLACK POWER! BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL! BLACK POWER! BLACK POWER to BLACK PEOPLE!!! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!” The crowd roared and gave two standing ovations. Black Power and the call for fidelity to the DDPA rang out throughout the remaining days.

AWB: Thank you for your insights and analysis!

You can hear more about the Permanent Forum from Mama Efia and other advocates who attended the first session in Geneva during a webinar titled, The African Diaspora Convenes on the World Stage & Calls for Reparatory Justice, hosted by The Human Rights Cities Alliance, on Thursday, January 19 at 6:30 p.m. (EST) / 3:30 p.m. (Pacific).

News and Analysis

White House Summit With African Leaders Results in Empty Promises

December 20, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe

A $55 billion package from the United States cannot regain ground lost to China and Russia on the continent and criticisms among the people and those in government are growing over the role of AFRICOM and occupying French military forces.

Episode 178: Onwards to Multipolarity

January 11, 2023 by CODEPINK Radio

From our unipolar world under U.S. hegemony, transition to multipolarity is inevitable and ensures the greatest chance for peace. In this episode, we hear about the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) from Sylvie Ndongmo, Brother Imani Umoja, Dr. Gnaka Lagoke, and Colonel Ann Wright.

U.S. Airstrikes in Somalia Increased By 30% in 2022

January 8, 2023 by Dave DeCamp

In 2022, Biden ordered the deployment of up to 500 troops in Somalia and stepped up airstrikes as the U.S.-backed Mogadishu-based government began an offensive against al-Shabaab.

The Hope of a Pan-African-Owned and Controlled Electric Car Project Is Buried for Generations to Come: The Fifty-Second Newsletter 

December 29, 2022 by Vijay Prashad

The United States government held the US-Africa Leaders Summit in mid-December, prompted in large part by its fears about Chinese and Russian influence on the African continent.

The Hidden Truth Behind AFRICOM – US Africa Command 

December 22, 2022 by Lee Camp

Under AFRICOM—a program that the Pentagon will barely even admit exists—the U.S. military is involved in assassinations, bombings, torture, surveillance, the killing of civilians, blowback deaths of U.S. soldiers and—of course—cover-ups.

Why One Organization Dubbed the U.S.-Africa Summit the ‘Meeting of Uncle Tom and Uncle Sam’

December 20, 2022 by Julie Varughese

The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit was clearly set up to obscure the real U.S. role in Africa and give legitimacy to the continuing U.S. plunder of African resources, exploitation of African people and military domination of the African continent.

U.S. & Europe Want to Make Africa Cold War Battleground Against Russia & China w/ Mikaela Nhondo Erskog 

November 30, 2022 by Rania Khalek’s Dispatches

The United States and Europe have labeled Africa as NATO’s “Southern Neighborhood” and are using AFRICOM as a mechanism to control the continent under the guise of protecting it from “malign” Chinese and Russian influence.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

No compromise, no retreat,

BAP’s U.S. Out of Africa Network

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: Jan. 8, 2023 ceremony where U.S. presented $9 million in military supplies to the Somali National Army (courtesy AFRICOM Facebook page.)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #43

The U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination that props up the white supremacist, colonial/capitalist project that began in 1492 is a primary enemy of African people. Effective opposition to the Axis of Domination requires bold, independent, and revolutionary action on the part of African people, the other oppressed nations in the U.S., and the working class as a whole. The organization of the workers and oppressed in the U.S. must be carried out in conjunction with the revolutionary and national democratic forces in operation around the globe. Also, Africa is central to the struggle against imperialism since its origins stem from the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.

What is needed are bottom-up, popular struggles which programmatically target neocolonial leadership that allow the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination to oppress our people. In the U.S., for example, this leadership has consistently backed the white ruling class agenda of subversion and military intervention, from its support for the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) to its failure to oppose the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, responsible for transferring millions of dollars-worth of military equipment to local police forces that are then deployed against poor working class Black and Brown communities.

The Black Alliance for Peace and the U.S. Out of Africa Network organized a Month of Action Against AFRICOM to support the development of a mass movement to oppose the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination. We must join with other genuinely progressive and revolutionary forces throughout the world to proclaim that Pan-Africanism and Proletarian Internationalism is the only real solution to the monumental social and economic problems engendered by capitalism and imperialism. Contribute to BAP’s Fall Fundraising Drive or become a monthly sustainer—because freedom isn’t free and the oppressors won’t fund our liberation. We must rely on you, the people. 

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Ezra Otieno, who is a revolutionary organizer and a member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialist League in Kenya.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: What is the impact of AFRICOM on the security situation on the African continent and Kenya in particular?

Ezra Otieno: Insecurity on the African continent has increased exponentially during the years that the U.S. has been building its network of bases through AFRICOM. Billions of dollars in security assistance are being used to do so. For example, the Kenyan army is being funded by the U.S. Army to wage war in Somalia as a proxy. The majority of the people in the country do not even want the army there. But the army is there because they are being supported by imperialist U.S. power. A lot of soldiers are dying in a war that is not theirs.

In 2017, there was an attack on a Kenyan base which killed over 100 soldiers. Many Somali civilians are being killed by the army there which is being funded by the U.S. There are at least 25 military Islamist groups that have been recorded on the continent, which is up from around 5 before AFRICOM was formed. This is a very significant increase that has resulted in violence against African people. Three thousand violent events are recorded each year, and it's on the increase. For example, in Kenya, since AFRICOM was formed, there have been a lot of attacks by these militant extremist groups. In Nairobi, there was the Westgate attack, which killed, reportedly at least over 70 people. There was an attack at Garissa University which killed over 150 students. There was an attack on DusitD2 Hotel, which killed dozens of people. There are attacks on buses where people are traveling. And I'm talking of Kenya alone. The atrocities that are being committed here are very, very bad, and we cannot allow this to continue.

AWB: How does AFRICOM impact people’s struggles and the goal of African unity?

Otieno: Many people on the African continent are not informed regarding AFRICOM. The people are being kept in the dark because the details of the deals that are signed by the government with the United States are being kept away from the people. People do not know what is going on. They just have a vague idea.

Neo-colonialism seeks to fragment Africa and weaken the African state institutions, and prevent African unity and the sovereignty of the people. They want us to be their subordinates. With Pan-Africanism, we are seeking the political unity and territorial sovereignty of the African people. The enduring presence of foreign military bases, not only symbolizes the lack of unity and sovereignty, it equally enforces the fragmentation and subordination of the African people and governments.

It is our duty as progressive people, wherever we are across the world, to use Pan-Africanism as an ideology to unify Black people all over, because we believe that we can achieve this by coming together as a people, having one system of government that works for the people, and one army for the African people, an All-African People's Revolutionary Army, that will protect the interests of the African people. We cannot have foreign powers dictating to us and having military bases on the African continent. There's no African state that has a military base outside of Africa.

We should push for African unity all over the world, and we should push to shut down AFRICOM, because if we don't do that, even the Pan-African unity that we seek will just be a mirage.

AWB: Thank you for your insights and analysis!

News and Analysis

AFRICOM Says 17 al-Shabaab Killed in Latest US Airstrike in Somalia

November 13, 2022 by Dave DeCamp

The strike was the second of the month in Somalia reported by AFRICOM. There’s little accountability for US operations in Somalia since the airstrikes receive little coverage in the Western press despite the high casualty rates being reported by AFRICOM.

Who’s really behind Burkina Faso’s coup?

November 8, 2022 by TJ Coles

Western media fixates on coup supporters waving Russian flags in Burkina Faso’s capital while overlooking the long history of US and French control over the country – and its destabilizing consequences.

New World Coming: Working-class Pan-Africanism

November 5, 2022 by The People’s Forum 

Mikaela Nhondo Erskog and James Counts Early discuss the historical legacy of African national liberation and socialist projects, how that legacy is relevant to struggles today, and how popular movements are rebuilding the capacity to fight for alternatives to neoliberal capitalism. 

Africa Does Not Want to Be a Breeding Ground for the New Cold War

November 3, 2022 by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

The African Union firmly rejected the coercive efforts of the US and Western countries to use the continent as a pawn in their geopolitical agenda.

Pantsula Podcast Ep. 88: AFRICOM & "U.S. Democracy"

October 31, 2022 by Kaji Circle A-APRP

On this episode of the Pantsula Podcast, All-African People's Revolutionary Party organizers Winfred and Sadiq discuss AFRICOM and misconceptions around "U.S. democracy."

Neo-Colonialism, International Finance Capital and the Necessity of Pan-African Sovereignty

October 28, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe

African Union member-states are facing a critical conjuncture as the looming threats of global conflict against imperialism threatens world peace.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner Photo: AFRICOM Commander Gen. Michael Langley, addressing African soldiers standing at attention in Air Base 201 in Niger (courtesy @USAfricaCommand)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #42

The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has worsened the security situation in the Sahel through its many exploits on the African continent. During the dismembering of Libya, captured Libyan arms had been deployed to various armed groups including al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb. The result is enhanced military capacities of Boko Haram in Nigeria, civil war in Mali and destabilization and armed conflict in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, as well as many coups by officers trained by AFRICOM.

The most recent coup took place on the night of September 29 to 30, 2022, when the populations of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso were once again surprised by heavy and light weapon fire. Later, precisely at the end of the evening of Friday, September 30, a declaration was read on national television by young officers led by Captain Ibrahim Traore announcing the dismissal of President Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba from the Presidency of the Patriotic Movement for the Safeguarding and Restoration (MPSR) and the Presidency of Burkina Faso. Just as in January 2022, the perpetrators of the new coup, also members of the MPSR of Damiba, justify their act by the failure in the fight against terrorism of their predecessor, his incompetence, the deviation from their initial objectives and the persistence of corruption.

As AFRICOM’s prescence and activity across the continent has grown, so has the terrorism it is meant to curb. Power vacuums caused by U.S. military intervention fortify the political will and strength of terrorist groups. Terrorist activity doubled from 2012 to 2018, and the number of countries experiencing attacks increased by 960 percent during that time period. Moreover, there was a ten-fold increase in violent events, jumping from 288 incidents in 2009 to 3,050 in 2018. By all metrics, the war on terror has been an abysmal failure in Africa. The one thing AFRICOM has dramatically succeeded at is boosting corporate profits associated with the lucrative counterterrorism industry that the war on terror has made possible.

In opposition to this criminal effort, the Black Alliance for Peace and U.S. Out of Africa Network has organized the ongoing International Month of Action Against AFRICOM to demand the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Africa and the closure of U.S. bases throughout the world. Please join us in this effort by taking action using this toolkit. 

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Ameth Lô, who is a member of the Group for Research and Initiatives for the Liberation of Africa in Toronto, Canada.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: What should we think about the recent coup in Burkina Faso?

Ameth Lô: This umpteenth coup d'etat is the result of the decay of the national army made up today of clans preoccupied with business and the management of power. On the strength of the observation of the numerous untimely interventions of the army in national political life, we believe that it must urgently return to the barracks and stick to its sovereign role of defense of the national territory, in a word, to be a republican army.

AWB: How does this coup relate to imperialist domination?

Lô: The coup of September 30, 2022, with the announcement of France's involvement to support the ousted president, enjoyed popular support. I salute the clear expression of the anti-imperialist sentiment of the Burkinabe people, in particular of its youth. However, on this question of imperialist domination, we believe that it is not a question of leaving a given imperialist bosom to put oneself under the thumb of another imperialism. That said, what matters is the diversification of partnerships, while respecting national sovereignty.

AWB: What do you think about the coup leader?

Lô: The declarations of Captain Ibrahim Traore speaking of "unfortunate political adventures,” of “the continuous deterioration of the security situation," of "restoration by forces of an old order," amply confirm his analyses on the governance of the MPSR under Lieutenant Colonel Paul Henry Sandaogo Damiba. You will remember that the latter, instead of the assessment of his action that he had promised for September 4, 2022, had indulged in insults uttered against the people of Burkina Faso.

AWB: How can we strengthen the class struggle on the African continent?

Lô: It is imperative for both socialists and pan-Africanists to reconnect with the traditions of radical struggle on a transnational level for the emergence of a new society. We need to reconnect with viable forms of transnational solidarity in order to promote the class struggle of oppressed layers of the population. This course requires that the Eurocentric Left recognize that deep-going shifts in the international relationship of forces will involve a lowering of the standard of living in the richest countries. These living conditions have been made possible only through the systematic pillage of resources from the countries of the South and from Africa in particular. Is the new Left prepared for such an eventuality? The future will tell.

AWB: Thank you for your insights and analysis!

News and Analysis

Demonstrations in Support of Recent Coup in Burkina Faso Highlighted Solidarity with Russia

October 16, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe

The West African state witnessed youth-led attacks on a French embassy and installations amid security challenges.

When Will the Stars Shine Again in Burkina Faso?: The Forty-First Newsletter (2022)

October 13, 2022 by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

On 30 September 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré led a section of the Burkina Faso military to depose Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power in a coup d’état in January. The second coup was swift, with brief clashes in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou at the president’s residence, Kosyam Palace, and at Camp Baba Sy, the military administration’s headquarters.

Dissecting AFRICOM, and Environment, Oil, and the UN in the DRC

October 12, 2022 by AfricaNow!

The show begins with a discussion with Aziz Fall, Member of the Group for Research and Initiatives for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA) and Netfa Freeman of Black Alliance for Peace on the U.S. militarization of Africa through U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo provides an update on critical environmental issues and the role of the UN in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

For peace in the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda must be brought to justice

October 11, 2022 by People’s Dispatch

Kambale Musavuli talks about the first installment of reparations that Uganda has paid to the Democratic Republic of Congo for war crimes and atrocities in the 90s. He also explains why the process of ensuring justice is far from complete.

Pentagon doesn’t know if it trained Burkina Faso coup leader

October 10. 2022 by Nick Turse

Capt. Ibrahim Traore deposed the last guy who overthrew the government — Lt. Col. Sandaogo Damiba — who did extensive training with the U.S. and AFRICOM.

Imperialist Militarism and the African Crisis

October 8, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe

The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and all iterations of foreign interference bring instability to the African continent. 

On the Coup D'etat in Burkina Faso: Declaration of the Trade Union Action Unit

October 5, 2022 by Trade Union Action Unit 

Following the recent coup where a disgruntled army captain ousted the sitting transitional military government (that came to power in a coup in January 2022), the trade union group released a statement containing a ten-point plan for dealing with the national crises.

A Guide to #ShutDownAFRICOM

October 4, 2022 by Ready for Revolution

On October 1st, the criminal and genocidal US military command, AFRICOM, will have been in existence for 14 years. In those 14 years, a sizable amount of awareness on the program has been raised by committed individuals and organizations who want to see our homeland released from the clutches of the US empire. But as that fourteenth year begins, the necessity of ending this initiative, once and for all, grows more and more dire. #ShutDownAFRICOM

Colonialism, Compradors & The Militarized Crisis of Capitalism in Africa

October 1, 2022 by Black Alliance for Peace

The Black Alliance for Peace organized this cutting edge webinar, “Colonialism, Compradors & The Militarized Crisis of Capitalism in Africa,” to kick off the 2022 International Month of Action Against AFRICOM. The online discussion featured analysis from organizers in hotspots on the ground in Africa and from others with uncompromising and lucid views on the state of affairs in Africa and strategies to get the “U.S. Out of Africa” and “Shut Down AFRICOM.”

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner Photo: Coup spokesman Capt. Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho reads a statement in a studio in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso flanked by fellow soldiers (courtesy RTB via Associated Press)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #41

White supremacy is the combined ideological and structural expression of “white power.” In its ideological expression, it posits that the descendants of people of the territory/idea referred to as Europe represent the highest examples of human development. That their culture, social institutions, religions, and way of life are inherently and naturally superior. This position is combined with what BAP calls the global structures and institutions of white supremacy, the material means to maintain and advance global white power: The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO), the global banking system, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and U.S. dollar hegemony.

For BAP, white supremacy cannot be reduced to individualized attitudes and values just among people identified as white. Instead, it should be seen as a structure of domination that is ideologically embedded into every aspect of U.S. and European society to the extent that it has become normalized and obscured as general common sense. White supremacy is fundamental to the Pan-European Colonial/Capitalist Patriarchy that began with the invasion of the “Americas” in 1492.

The IMF and World Bank are making moves in Africa against states like Kenya and Zambia, both of which are even more vulnerable as a result of the global economic crisis stemming from the capitalist reaction to the pandemic and the ongoing war in Europe. We must confront this important aspect of the new context of neo-colonial domination in Africa. The upcoming International Month of Action Against AFRICOM BAP has organized will deal with this. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all peoples are able to realize the right of sovereignty and the right to live free of domination.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Gacheke Gachihi, who is the coordinator of the Mathare Social Justice Center in Kenya and a member of the Social Justice Centres Working Group. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: Can you discuss the role of the IMF and World Bank in white supremacy?

Gacheke Gachihi: The World Bank and IMF have for too long perpetuated a racist stratification between developed and developing countries that is the result of centuries of colonialism and has served as a gatekeeper of a global economic system that continues to privilege the developed world of European countries and colonial settler-states such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

If the World Bank is earnest about putting an end to the scourge of white supremacy, it must work towards upending centuries of ruthless domination and exploitation—including systematic racial subjugation, colonization, wars, genocides and enslavement—which have produced a global economy that continues to benefit developed countries to the social, economic and environmental detriment of developing countries, Black countries in particular. The white supremacy of the World Bank and the IMF is holding African and Caribbean countries in debt bondage.

Colonialism is a structure, not an event. We see this in the global trade system. Economies that were colonized are at greater risk of getting locked into the production of raw materials and low-tech goods—a new form of colonialism. And we see this in global power relations. Africa has been a double victim. First, as a target of the colonial project. Second, African countries are underrepresented in the international institutions that were created after the Second World War, before most of them had won independence. The nations that came out on top more than seven decades ago have refused to contemplate the reforms needed to change power relations in international institutions.

AWB: How does this colonial, white supremacist structure play out in practice?

Gachihi: The racially stratified world order that was established by centuries of colonialism is reflected in the governance structure of the World Bank. Rather than being elected, the leaders of the World Bank (and the IMF) are appointed by the United States and Europe, one result being that the leaders appointed to the World Bank are always American (while the leaders appointed to the IMF are always European). Moreover, the entire voting system of the World Bank is skewed towards the domination of the United States, Europe and other developed countries and the subordination of developing countries, African countries in particular. The largest vote holders are the G7 countries—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom—while middle- and low-income countries, which represent approximately 85 percent of the world’s population, have approximately 40 percent of the vote. Moreover, the systemic relegation of Black people in particular to the status of second-class global citizens is demonstrated in the gross underrepresentation of African and Caribbean nations on the board of the World Bank. 

Whereas the majority of World Bank programs are in Africa and African countries account for more than 25 percent of the member countries of the World Bank, they are allotted a paltry 5.5 percent of the voting rights. Nigeria alone has a population of 196 million people and a $1.1 trillion GDP (PPP), but merely 0.65 percent of the voting rights in the World Bank. Qatar with a population of less than 2.8 million people and a $346 billion GDP (PPP) wields more voting power than Nigeria. Ethiopia, one of the 23 founding members of the World Bank, with 109.2 million people and a $253 billion GDP (PPP) is allotted 0.08 percent of the voting rights, which is significantly less than that of Luxemburg with a population of 613,894 and GDP of $44 billion. 

White supremacy is a widespread global phenomenon that has virtually excluded over 1.2 billion African and Caribbean people from global economic forums such as the Group of Twenty (G-20) and a GDP of $6.36 trillion is represented by only one country, South Africa. By comparison, South America, with a population of 423 million and a GDP of $6.6 trillion is represented by three countries. Officially, the G-20 bills itself as “the premier forum for global economic and financial cooperation” and proclaims to be “inclusive” with a vision to “secure sustainable and balanced global growth and reform the architecture of global governance.” 

AWB: What has been the impact of the work of the World Bank and IMF on the continent?

Gachihi: The wealth amassed by the global economic order continues to be concentrated in businesses and peoples in the developed world. And the economies, production and consumption of developed countries continue to rely on cheap access to natural and human resources in developing countries. This relationship undermines sustainable development, self-determination over natural resources, living wages and other labor rights, manufacturing output, access to higher education, social mobility, peace, security and political stability in developing countries. This is no less true for Africa. Most of the world’s least developed and poorest countries are in Africa. Fourteen of the 15 least educated countries are in Africa. Twenty-three of the 25 highest infant mortality rates are to be found in African countries. The 30 countries with the lowest life expectancy are all in Africa. And excluding countries in civil war, eight of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world are in Africa. Between 1980 and 2009, $1.2 to 1.4 trillion was illicitly siphoned out of Africa. This is far more than the money the continent received in foreign aid and loans over the same period. Sixty percent of the losses Africa suffered are due to aggressive tax avoidance by multinational corporations. 

In many cases, African countries were performing better than Asian countries before the World Bank became a fixture on the continent. As World Bank data shows, in 1960 there were 10 sub-Saharan African countries with a GDP per capita (constant 2010 U.S. $) higher than those of China and Korea. Looking at the regional average, in 1960, the GDP per capita for sub-Saharan Africa was more than 300 percent of that of the average for South Asia. In 2019, the average for sub-Saharan Africa was 14 percent less than South Asia’s. In the 1970s, Africa accounted for over 3 percent of global manufacturing output. In 2016, the figure was down to 1.5 percent, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit. As World Bank data shows, in 1985, the world traded $2.47 trillion worth of stocks. In 2017, the figure had shot up to $77.57 trillion. Sub-Saharan Africa (barring South Africa) is the only region that did not even register a blip on the radar screen of the global capital (stock) markets. African countries were performing better than Asian countries before the World Bank became a fixture on the continent. 

After 50 years of the IMF and World Bank’s intervention in African countries, the results are damning. Far from alleviating poverty, IMF and World Bank-financed projects have “devastating consequences for some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet,” as documented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The Bank’s virulent racism, which has segregated and marginalized Black people in its decision-making governance architecture, has left the fate of Africa to white supremacy. In effect, IMF and World Bank loan conditions and programs (including “structural adjustment”) have aided foreign investors, corporations and developed countries rather than African peoples; given priority to NGOs, consultants, skilled laborers and development experts from developed countries over those from African and Caribbean countries; increased access of developed economies to African natural resources, cheap labor, and markets, rather than aided the development of African countries; burdened African taxpayers, economies, and societies with ever growing unsustainable and insurmountable debts; and in the process failed to empower African countries to become economically as well as politically sovereign and self-determined. The Bank’s own economic and social data serves as its report card, showing the pillaging and devastation of Africa.

AWB: How does debt factor into this state of affairs?

Gachihi: The white supremacy of the World Bank and its sister institution the IMF is holding African and Caribbean countries in debt bondage. As the Heritage Foundation has demonstrated with hard data, “Most long-term recipients of World Bank money are no better off than they were when they received their first loan. Many are actually worse off.” This is not least true of African countries that face the highest costs of borrowing in the world when compared to their fiscal and economic capacities. 

The vicious cycle of African and Caribbean countries having to borrow to stay afloat rather than develop, while sinking further into debt without any hope of ever repaying it, has been demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic emergency loans that they have taken from the World Bank and the IMF. Although African countries seem to have among the lowest infection rates in the world, most COVID-19 emergency loans from the World Bank have gone to African countries. In addition, African countries have taken emergency loans from the IMF to the tune of $7.5 billion.

AWB: Thank you for your insights and analysis!

News and Analysis

Int’l Month of Action Against AFRICOM w/ Tunde Osazua and Netfa Freeman

September 22, 2022 by Black Power Media’s ReMix Morning Show

A massive global, people(s) centered campaign must be waged to Shut down AFRICOM and get the U.S. out of Africa.

The Real U.S. Agenda in Africa Is Hegemony

September 21, 2022 by Pepe Escobar

Washington's primary interest in Africa today is keeping the Chinese and Russians out.

U.S. Says it Kills 27 Al Shabaab Militants in Somalia Air Strike

September 21, 2022 by Abdi Sheikh and Hereward Holland

The U.S. shrouds its Somalia operations in secrecy, potentially undermining accountability for incidents involving civilian deaths.

Colonialism Is an Everyday Story

September 12, 2022 by Sam Husseini 

After the death of Queen Elizabeth, some attempt to silence discussion of colonialism while others effectively limit it to the past.

African People Bear the Weight of US’s Deadly “War on Terror” on the Continent

September 11, 2022 by Jamila Osman

The airstrike happened two weeks after the Pentagon said it was sending troops back to the country.

Zambia's IMF Bailout Comes With Painful Conditions

September 9, 2022 by Chris Olaoluwa Ogunmodede

Zambia’s austerity laden IMF deal could be the latest of multiple SAP-like measures implemented across the continent. Ghana and Kenya are likely to pursue them, and it’s possible Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola implement similar measures.

Africa Stands Up to US Cold War Bullying Against China & Russia, w/ Kambale Musavuli

September 2, 2022 by Breakthrough News

U.S. Cold War with China and Russia has real implications for Africa. China’s rise could benefit the continent, providing it leverage and another partner to rely on, though the U.S. says otherwise. 

US-backed TPLF resumes war in northern Ethiopia

August 30, 2022 by Pavan Kulkarni

Dismissing the AU-led peace negotiations, the TPLF called for Western intervention in Ethiopia before resuming the war on August 24. This ended the five-month long truce with Ethiopia’s federal government, weeks after envoys from the US and EU visited its base.

Corporate Media Mostly Mum as US Strikes Kill at Least 20 in Somalia

August 19, 2022 by Brett Wilkins

It’s been a long time since the United States was not bombing Somalia. This comes after a particularly bloody period during the so-called War on Terror in which the CIA was using the country to detain and torture terror suspects from across North Africa.

NATO Expands Into Africa As US Bullies the Continent Over Ukraine, w/ Vijay Prashad

August 12, 2022 by Breakthrough News

In this episode of Dispatches w/ Rania Khalek, Vijay Prashad discusses Europe's military footprint in Africa, NATO's 2011 intervention in Libya, and more.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network.

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner Photo: U.S Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin passes AFRICOM guidon to new AFRICOM Commander, Gen. Michael Langley. (Courtesy: www.africom.mil)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #40

The United States Department of Defense has carved up the earth into eleven unified combatant commands. The U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, and the U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM, are two of these combatant commands. While AFRICOM encompasses the African continent with the exceptions of Egypt, which is under the jurisdiction of CENTCOM, and Eritrea, SOUTHCOM incorporates the Caribbean and South and Central America and claims to be protecting human rights in the region as a long-term responsibility through the development of “regional militaries,” controlled and facilitated by the U.S. Its mission includes contingency planning, operations (including disaster response and “crisis action”), security cooperation, “the force protection” of U.S. military resources in the region, and “ensuring the defense” of the Panama Canal, a critical geographic node for U.S. commerce and security across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Like AFRICOM does on the African continent, SOUTHCOM works to extend and protect U.S. political and economic interests in the Americas region. And like AFRICOM, the military-first strategy has become the tool to maintain U.S. regional domination, despite SOUTHCOM’s spurious claims of “humanitarian assistance/disaster relief” and counter-narcotics operations. U.S. “Full Spectrum Domination” is SOUTHCOM's real objective in our region.    

Both SOUTHCOM and AFRICOM are extensions of NATO and the militarized assault on the democratic and human rights of Africans by the U.S. with the support of neocolonial forces, as well as an attack on the self-determination of African peoples and nations in the Americas, the African continent, and the world. Domestic and international repression by the U.S. security state are linked. Our oppression crosses borders; so must our solutions. All who support the right of the people to authentic democracy and human rights should stand in solidarity against neo-colonial rule and the imperialism that it protects. 

The Black Alliance for Peace stands against the growing influence and power of SOUTHCOM and AFRICOM, and the ever-increasing militarization of the regions that they operate in. We call for international “Zones of Peace” in the Americas and on the African continent. Informed by the Black radical peace tradition, we understand that peace is not the absence of conflict, but the achievement, by popular struggle and self-defense, of a world liberated from nuclear armament and proliferation, unjust war, and global white supremacy.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Ahjamu Umi, who has been an organizer for the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) for 38 years, working to build the party in several areas of Africa, Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and throughout the U.S. His work to build the party has included helping establish independent African schools in five different countries and organizing communities for self defense against violent white supremacist groups. Ahjamu is the author of five books.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: In your manual, A Guide for Organizing Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence, you talk about the need for more clarity about the role of Africans in the Diaspora in achieving liberation. Talk more about that role?

Ahjamu Umi: For Africans concerned about our people in the U.S., the question always revolves around what approaches are best suited to address our problems.  Since Africans in the U.S. are for the most part disconnected from the rest of the world, the capitalist system has very effectively convinced most of us here that nothing outside of U.S. capitalism is available to us so therefore, any discussions about solutions to our problems, typically revolve around themes of how we integrate into the capitalist system. The focus of my book is to raise the question about Africans within the U.S. seeing ourselves as aligned with the African masses worldwide and all oppressed peoples across the globe. Not aligning ourselves with the U.S. capitalist system. The idea is to push us to begin to figure out ways in which we can connect our struggles as Africans within the U.S. to the struggles Africans face everywhere. Police terrorism isn't just a problem for us in the U.S. It happens in Canada, Britain, Honduras, Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, the Congo, Germany, France, Australia, etc. If we seriously want to solve problems like that one, it just makes sense for us to start thinking about why problems like police violence against us are problems in so many places and once we start thinking that way, we can start to truly begin to develop real solutions, outside of the capitalist system, that will seriously address our issues. That is the approach the book takes to this question.

AWB: You cite that foreign interests dominate Africa today. Many Africans in the Diaspora immediately think of China when this is raised and not in positive terms. Can you talk about distinctions between Chinese interest in Africa vs the West?

Umi: Of course, we are Pan-Africanists so consequently, our objective is to have Africa's vast mineral resources controlled by African people, period, so we understand the concern about China's role in Africa. That said, we have to ensure we are critical in our assessments. Anyone who argues that China's participation in Africa is exactly the same as that of the colonizing European capitalist countries is not being honest. We can point to countless examples of sabotage against Africa by the colonists from the destabilization of the Congo by King Leopold 100 years ago to NATO's destruction of the Libyan Jamahiriyah in 2011. China has over a billion people and their efforts are designed to figure out ways to feed their people and in order to do that, they recognize that they must trade construction and infrastructure in Africa with mineral resources. And, unlike the European capitalists, we can see the results of many of those infrastructure projects. Again, this isn't to say that we support China's role in Africa. Our objective with Pan-Africanism is to develop the capacity for Africans to be able to provide the infrastructure that we need in Africa, but while we are working for that capacity it doesn't benefit us to become wrapped up in Western capitalist imperialist propaganda against China.

AWB: Ghana declared 2019 as the Year of Return which was a huge marketing effort to welcome Africans from the Diaspora to visit. By all accounts, from a purely tourist/commerce perspective, it was very successful. As you correctly note in your manual, you as a part of the A-APRP have played a key role in educating Africans in the Diaspora about the continent. Did the year of return help the work you have long been doing or complicate it? Talk about the pros and cons.

Umi: It's our position that our work over the years has helped create the conditions where rights of return programs can begin to see light. Forty years ago, very few Africans in the U.S. saw going to Africa as viable. Even today, it's still a small percentage of us who have that objective. It's only through the constant political education from organizations like the A-APRP and others that Africa has become more attractive to Africans in this country, but that is only the surface of the struggle. Africa today is controlled by neo-colonialism. As a result, the purpose of these right to return programs is to bring financial investment into Africa for the purpose of advancing the interests of the small petit bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie in Africa. None of this is designed to uplift the African continent on a collective level. These neo-colonial regimes are smart enough to recognize that if they wish to advance tourism, which segment of the population is most likely to want to visit Ghana, Zimbabwe, etc.? Obviously the Africans within the U.S. because we have the historical and cultural connection to Africa and we, unlike most other Africans throughout the world, have the largest economic capacity to travel. All of this is good because it helps develop a consciousness about Africa, but only on a limited basis. 

AWB: A friend, who is a Garveyite, attended the 60th anniversary of the All African People’s Conference from 1958 in 2018. Upon his return, he insisted that African countries would have to surrender about 80% of their sovereignty in order for the continent to reach the level of Pan Africanism necessary for defense and liberation. Do you agree with that estimate and if so, how can countries be convinced to do this?

Umi: We would argue that it's truly a 100% surrender. None of the 54 states in Africa today are viable in any serious discussion about Pan-Africanism and none of them were ever created to serve that purpose. Their reason for existing; Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Tanzania, etc., was to permit Europe to have clear division of property over Africa. None of those states were created to ensure the stability and development of Africa and her children. Since we know this to be fact, in 2022 and beyond, it makes no sense for us to continue to pretend that this fantasy of statehood in Africa is anything other than what it is, a creation of colonialism and the maintenance of neo-colonialism. We believe that our solution is never going to come from the existing governments. Instead, we believe in what Kwame Nkrumah articulated within the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare. It’s my humble wish for people to see my manifesto as an addendum to Nkrumah's book. In his book he calls for the unification of revolutionary Pan-African formations throughout Africa who agree in the definition of Pan-Africanism as one unified socialist Africa. The work of the A-APRP over the last 50 years has been bringing Nkrumah's vision into reality. I myself have done work with many of those Pan-African formations that we seek oneness with. The African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC).  The Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG). Zimbabwe Movement for Pan-African Socialists (ZIMOPAS). Pan-African Union of Sierra-Leone (PANAFU). Pan-African Congress of Azania (PAC), etc. Our work is to unite all of these entities into one political party. People who claim they believe in Pan-Africanism see our objective as unrealistic, but it's much more realistic and material based than any thinking that any one of these neo-colonial governments is going to play a serious role in developing revolutionary Pan-Africanism. All one has to do is study our African Liberation Day programs for 2022 or any year and you will see some of the fruits of this on the ground work.

AWB: In your manual you note that Patriarchy predated Colonialism and Capitalism in Africa. How do we push back against those who cite this to defend patriarchal attitudes and behavior today?

Umi: We have to help people identify the difference between African culture and patriarchy because since it has existed for so long, many people are confused into believing they are one and the same. We have to convince people that no true movement for justice can include components that are oppressive towards any segment of the population. In other words, no Pan-Africanist can support capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, etc. And, we have to do this work by demonstrating how patriarchy is an institution that objectively oppresses women and marginalized genders. There is a clear history of efforts in Africa to combat patriarchy and we are doing a lot of work designed to bring those efforts to the surface. We have established an Anti-Patriarchy Task Force within the A-APRP and we are working to expand our booklist to include works that speak to the history of patriarchy among African people and its oppressive system. We are doing lots of work designed to facilitate discussions around patriarchy throughout our party which means this discussion is taking place in Africa, Europe, the Americas, etc. We need more and more work of this magnitude throughout our communities.

AWB: Thank you for your insights and analysis!

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

News and Analysis

The U.S. is Bombing Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Again

June 5, 2022 by Nicholas Slayton

The airstrike happened two weeks after the Pentagon said it was sending troops back to the country.

Black Skin, White Mask

June 3, 2022 by Jeremy Kuzmarov 

Lt. General Michael Langley is poised to become the first Black Four Star Marine Corps Officer and second Black commander of AFRICOM.

The Rise of NATO in Africa

May 31, 2022 by Vijay Prashad

NATO is not the defensive alliance of north Atlantic nations that it claims to be. It is a tool of imperialism which has spread its handiwork all over the world, including on the African continent.

African Liberation Day 2022: Smash Neo-Colonialism!

May 26, 2022 by Hood Communist Collective

The sale request will also see Nigeria receive two thousand Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) guidance sections, electronic warfare systems, M197 20mm machine guns and Target Sight System (TSS), among other arms. 

On African Liberation Day Biden’s Troop Deployment to Somalia Confirms Africa is Not Free

May 25, 2022 by The Black Alliance for Peace

The Black Alliance for Peace marks African Liberation Day with a statement condemning the latest U.S. troop deployment to Somalia and U.S. legislation H.R. 7311, the “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act”.

Pan-Africanism Yes! U.S. AFRICOM and NATO No!

May 25, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe

Pan-African solidarity and the struggle against imperialism are key in advancing the condition of African states and peoples.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner Photo: U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark Hicks inspecting African soldiers in ceremony of Flintlock 2019. (Courtesy: www.africom.mil)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #39

The interventions of France and the United States have done more to worsen instability in the Sahel and other regions of the continent as manifested through the recent seizures and removals of governments on West Africa. At the root of the numerous coups taking place on the African continent is the economic and political alienation born from decades of Western neo-colonialism and an unsustainable global economy. 

The ostensible purpose of the numerous Pentagon training operations is to provide assistance to governments in Africa related to the enhancement of their internal security structures. However, with the advent of AFRICOM beginning in 2008 and the escalation of military officers being trained by the Defense Department both on the continent and in the U.S., the actual security situation in Africa has declined precipitously. France and the U.S. effectively created a zone of terror in the Sahel by supporting war in Algeria and overthrowing Gaddafi. The human security crisis in the region has greatly contributed to a political opening for the legitimation of state capture by military juntas via coups d'état.

In Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, the officers involved in military coups d’etat had close ties with various Pentagon and State Department projects. Even though the rationale for taking power in Mali and now Burkina Faso was that the civilian governments had failed to protect people from the jihadists, since the 2012 coup in Mali, the successive military and civilian administrations have not been able to defeat the insurgencies. Even domestic police forces throughout the African continent receive training from U.S. police officers through the U.S.-led International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)’s International Police Education and Training (IPET) program.

NATO and U.S. training of police forces is part of the militarized assault on the democratic and human rights of Africans by the U.S. with the support of neocolonial forces, as well as an attack on the self-determination of African peoples and nations. Domestic and international repression by the U.S. security state are linked. Our oppression crosses borders; so must our solutions. All who support the right of the people to authentic democracy and human rights should stand in solidarity against neo-colonial rule and the imperialism that it protects.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Owei Lakemfa, who is the former Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), and currently a human rights activist, journalist and author.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: What is driving the coups we have seen over the past few years in West Africa?

Owei Lakemfa: The main issue in many of these coups is these governments’ failure to stem jihadist attacks that have destabilized broad swathes of the Sahel. In Burkina Faso, that meant the displacement of 1.4 million people, as well as 2,000 deaths last year alone. The general feeling in the country was that the time had come to try an alternative government. The coup leader and President is 41-year old Lt-Col Paul-Henri Damiba, an infantry officer trained in France and the United States. There are disturbing reports that just last week, he tried to convince President Kabore to hire the Russian Wagner paramilitary group and failed. 

The Burkinabe coup was therefore similar to the one in Egypt in 2013 when the coup was announced on national television months before it happened. The politics of Africa has been changing dramatically in recent years propelled by the return of the military to power. There had been an abortive coup in Burkina Faso in 2015 that was foiled. This time, there was no impediment. In the new dispensation, there was a military coup in Zimbabwe in 2017. This was followed by the 2019 military coup in Sudan and the 2020 military coup in Mali. The military were active in assisting power takeovers in Tunisia and Algeria in 2020. The same year, a military coup was aborted in Niger Republic. The military strongman in Mali was not happy with the limited powers he was constrained to take in 2020 and did another coup in 2021 giving himself full powers. The same thing happened in Sudan in 2021 as the military staged another coup to take on full powers and break the bonds with their civilian collaborators. In Chad, the 2021 coup was to keep power in the family following the killing of strongman Idris Deby. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, civilians have demonstrated in favour of military rule and have been ready to collaborate with them. Clearly, there is a new generation in Africa that has no memories of the terrible impact of military rule and in their naivety think military rule can be a political solution.

AWB: How do these recent examples fit into the broader scope of coups d’etat in Africa?

Lakemfa: Post-colonial Africa has seen over 200 coup attempts, with roughly half seeing the leader successfully removed. The democratic transition of 1989 to 1994 led to a dramatic decline of unconstitutional seizure of state power. The past two years has however witnessed a new wave of coup d’état on the continent. The current trend is however different from that of the 1970s and 1980s. Today, we are witnessing the grand entry of politics by the gun. In the Sahel, as well as other parts of Africa, numerous non-military groups have acquired guns and are engaged in armed struggle for power or sometimes just armed banditry. Generalized insecurity has become the order of the day and in many of our countries – Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and so on, the military has completely failed to contain the armed combatants and reduce insecurity.

This situation has created two narratives in an emerging blame game. The military have been complaining in loud whispers that the corrupt democratic administrations have not been supplying them adequate weaponry to deal with insurgents, jihadists and armed bandits. The response is that deep corruption has also penetrated the military and they often misappropriate the funds given to them to execute the war. A war economy has developed in which officers are massively enriching themselves from the war effort and thereby sabotaging it. The winner, as it were, is corruption.

The more profound narrative is that the African situation today is characterized by three types of coup d’état. The first is the constitutional coup in which serving presidents recklessly tear the normative framework they had themselves developed and engage in tenure elongation beyond constitutional limits thereby destroying the legitimacy of the political system. The second coup is engaging in massive electoral fraud to change electoral outcomes. There have been at least thirteen African countries, where the leaders have used various legal devices and political maneuvers to extend their tenures beyond two terms since 2012.

Often, it is the experience of these forms of coup d’état that creates the conditions for the third type which is the military coup d’état. The result is that Africa’s robust normative frameworks for deterring unconstitutional changes of government and for advancing democracy, election and governance have been considerably weakened over time. The norms codified in Article 30 of the African Union Constitutive Act, 2002; and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, 2012 have gradually lost their meaning. It is for this reason that the condemnation of military coups by the African Union or by ECOWAS have very little resonance because people always ask what these institutions did when democratically elected leaders were messing up the constitution and/or the electoral system. Democratic culture has therefore been weakened considerably through anti-democratic practices by ruling parties. Repeatedly, ECOWAS, the African Union, and the United Nations Security Council have strongly condemned coups and called on the military to reinstate the deposed leaders and restore constitutional rule with no effect. Even the imposition of sanctions has had very little effect on the emerging juntas.

AWB: What is the path forward for African people and nations?

Lakemfa: The time has come for Africans to reopen the debate on the best pathways of deepening democracy in our countries. The contemporary African must learn to read the tea leaves. Apparent democrats win elections with the promise of democratic consolidation and when they get power they work on dismantling the democratic system. Meanwhile, their colleagues in the African Union and Regional Organisations watch without comment and only show concern when the military steps in. We know from our past experience that the military cannot be the solution to our democratic and developmental needs. What we need to reinforce in our political systems is early detection of democratic derailment so we can put the system back on course.

AWB: Thank you for your insights and analysis!

News and Analysis

Our Case Against NATO–Africans and the Struggle Against Imperialism

April 18, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe 

The Pentagon-led politico-military alliance continues to serve as a major impediment to peace, liberation and a just world system.

Eritrea Continues Its Fight for Sovereignty

April 15, 2022 by Black Agenda Radio

The US continues to target Eritrea with sanctions, along with its neighbor Ethiopia, but Eritrea takes a firmly independent stance, as it has shown with recent UN votes regarding Russia.

U.S. approves sale of 12 attack helicopters, high-tech military equipment to Nigeria

April 15, 2022 by Jerry Omondi

The sale request will also see Nigeria receive two thousand Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) guidance sections, electronic warfare systems, M197 20mm machine guns and Target Sight System (TSS), among other arms. 

Ukraine, War Crimes and White Power: The Black Alliance for Peace Calls for the Dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and All Imperialist Structures

April 13, 2022 by The Black Alliance for Peace

BAP calls for the dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and all imperialist structures. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all peoples have a right of sovereignty, and the right to live free of domination.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy requests address with Africa Union

April 12, 2022 by Al Jazeera

Zelensky is likely seeking to court African countries, which have mostly stayed neutral or muted in condemnation of Russia.

U.S. Airstrike Killed 11 Libyan Civilians and Allies, Human Rights Groups Say

April 3, 2022 by Nick Turse

A criminal complaint accuses a former commander at a U.S. airbase in Sicily of murder. But U.S. full spectrum dominance and its AFRICOM iteration are the true perpetrators.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner Photo: U.S. AFRICOM supervisors standing with some military personnel of African countries. (Courtesy: Twitter / AFRICOM)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #38

The Nigerian military has been carrying out extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of Igbo people in the south-eastern part of Nigeria. It's a region that is currently resisting militarized repression and experiencing a very intense crackdown. The "Biafran" movement, which is made up of Igbo people in the region, has a few  organizations, including the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which the Nigerian government has designated a "terrorist" group and arrested its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). 

This situation has deep historical roots going back to the colonial period, as well as the 1967 Nigerian civil war that saw the defeat and dissolution of the state of Biafra, a war which multinational oil companies helped to spark by exacerbating ethnic tensions. The war also precipitated by a great deal of current-day discrimination against the Igbo people at the hands of other ethnic groups in Nigeria. A U.S./NATO/EU blockade during the war led to millions of Igbo deaths from starvation, disease and conflict, all to maintain access to the vast petroleum resources in the south eastern region. Shell-British Petroleum and the French state company Société Anonyme Française des Recherches et d’Exploitation de Pétrole (SAFRAP; now Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd.) were centrally involved in the bloodshed and exploitation. 

Despite the formal independence and sovereignty of Nigeria, “its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside,” as Kwame Nkrumah wrote. Following the discovery of oil in Nigeria in the 1950s by Shell-BP, the British colonial government bolstered a system of Nigerian oil extraction tailored to foreign, mainly western corporations through a series of heavy concessions by the British government in Nigeria to foreign oil corporations that granted complete control over Nigeria’s resources to multinational corporations. As Nigerian author Bade Onimode argues, this system was bolstered by “political manipulation… market control and… collaboration with imperialists.” Neocolonial puppets in the Nigerian government, big bourgeois compradors, and corrupt civil and military officials are the elements collaborating with the west to maintain this state of affairs. This continues into the present day as 18 multinational oil companies that operate in Nigeria account for 99% of crude oil production in the entire country. Investors in the oil industry maintain large roles in the direction of the Nigerian government.

This ongoing brutality in Nigeria directed at the Igbo people and other parts of the Nigerian population is driven in large part by the militarization of the country. The army is currently deployed in at least 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states. The frequent deployment of Nigeria’s military has resulted in many cases of excessive use of force, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances throughout the country, and in particular in the northeast, southeast and north central regions. Brutal and oftentimes deadly repression of the Nigerian people needs to be seen as a tool of the imperialist system to maintain the “free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market.” The U.S. has been quietly transforming Nigeria’s police and military into a neo-colonial force that can support missions led by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The U.S. is also exporting weapons and sending special forces to train the Nigerian military to continue this barbarism. 

U.S. OUT OF AFRICA: VOICES FROM THE STRUGGLE

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Mark P. Fancher, who is an attorney and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team. He is also a member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the All-African People's Revolutionary Party.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: Is there anything unique about US Foreign policy in Africa compared to other areas around the world?

Mark P. Fancher: Yes, there has always been a difference. While the U.S. is unable to deny its history of brazen imperialist military aggression in Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and assorted other regions of the world, it never flagrantly colonized Africa in the way that European countries did. Although the U.S. is as guilty as any European colonizer, the U.S. has always been very careful to avoid the appearance of being an oppressor or exploiter of Africa. To that end, when imposing its will in Africa or exploiting the continent, the U.S. has used covert operations, puppet heads of state, quick-strike military attacks, and armed drones. This makes it easier for the U.S. to claim it is a “champion of democracy” and otherwise assume a holier than thou posture when, for its own advantage, it points accusing fingers at African governments and accuses them of being tyrannical, sponsors of terrorism, fiscally irresponsible, etc.

AWB: How has AFRICOM impacted US Foreign policy in Africa?

Mark P. Fancher: AFRICOM has made it much easier for the U.S. to lie and claim moral purity. While the U.S. would love to outright invade Africa militarily and lock it down once and for all for the benefit of U.S.-based corporations and the U.S. government’s geo-political strategic advantage, it could never get away with that. AFRICOM makes it possible for the U.S. to deploy its military personnel to almost every country in Africa, and at the same time have them remain practically invisible. U.S. soldiers hide behind the scenes, giving training and directions to African proxy troops. If asked about their presence, AFRICOM personnel claim that U.S. troops are in Africa digging wells and delivering medicine to villagers. It’s a ridiculous charade, and they get away with it because not many folks in the U.S. care what’s done in Africa.

AWB: I recently read the brilliant Palestinian legal scholar Noura Errakat's book, "Justice for Some," which focuses primarily on international law and Palestine.  How can international law be used to reign in US Imperialistic initiatives in Africa?

Mark P. Fancher: While international law has limited potential as an effective deterrent to imperialist aggression, it nevertheless establishes norms for respect for human rights, self-determination, and the sovereignty of countries. International legal standards are generally either a matter of custom or provisions of international treaties – sometimes referred to as conventions or covenants. Unlike domestic laws passed by Congress that can be enforced by the government, there is usually no enforcement authority one can turn to when a country fails to comply with a convention. At best, establishing a violation of international law gives legitimacy to measures countries might take in response. These might include such things as sanctions, embargoes, or even military intervention. The U.S. is not likely to become the target of an embargo or anything of that sort. But establishing that it has consistently violated international law norms can tarnish its cherished image and remove any moral authority it might claim when threatening imperialist aggression.

AWB: When most African people, especially in the United States, discuss foreign presence in Africa, it is overwhelmingly sounding the alarm about China, in spite of USAFRICOM’s deadly military operations. Would this narrative be best combated by lobbying for change in US foreign policy or by pushing back on corporate media accounts which reinforce the notion of "China as the new colonizer."

Mark P. Fancher: Yes, the best response to this is truth-telling. Comparing the U.S. involvement in Africa with China’s engagement there is like comparing apples and oranges. Africans in the U.S. just need to know that the U.S. gives Africa death and China gives Africa highways, electricity, and railroads. We of course want Africa to get to where it can provide itself with infrastructure, but right now you can’t compare U.S. militarization strategies and China’s quid pro quo negotiations with African governments.

AWB: How else can everyday working-class African people join the struggle to push back against US Foreign policy in Africa?

Mark P. Fancher: I think we need to spend less energy trying to lobby U.S. government officials, and more energy engaging with representatives of African governments at their embassies. African governments need to know that Africans in the U.S. have their backs if they want to make efforts to disengage from AFRICOM. It’s high time for a Pan-African strategy for pushing AFRICOM out of Africa. Whatever that strategy might be, there will likely be a vital role for those of us in the proverbial belly of the beast.

AWB: Thank you for your time and analysis!

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Many Africans Reject Washington’s Position on Ukraine Crisis

March 13, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe 

Half of the countries abstaining from the United Nations General Assembly Resolution condemning Moscow were African Union member states.

France Withdraws from Mali, But Continues to Devastate Africa’s Sahel

February 25, 2022 by Vijay Prashad 

French troops have now begun to leave Mali, but they are not returning to France. They will be deployed to next-door Niger, where they will continue their mission to prevent migration to Europe and to fight off the radicalized victims of IMF austerity. 

US Launches Airstrike Against al-Shabaab in Somalia

February 23, 2022 by Dave DeCamp

AFRICOM launched an airstrike against al-Shabaab in Somalia. The Pentagon is notorious for undercounting civilian casualties, and the CIA also conducts drone strikes and raids in the country in secret. 

NATO and Africa: A Relationship of Colonial Violence and Structural White Supremacy

February 23, 2022 by Djibo Sobukwe

NATO is the means of continuing colonial aggressions against African countries. It continues today in the form of AFRICOM facilitating wars, instability, and the corporate pillage of Africa.

The House Is Burning

February 17, 2022 by Hood Communist Collective

A statement from the Hood Communist editorial team about how Africa is a land that is ripe for revolution, even when it can’t be immediately seen.

Libya Remains a Failed State 11 Years After NATO Intervention

February 17, 2022 by teleSUR

The Western-backed overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi ushered in a period of political instability and violence that continues to this day.

Defend Mali

February 11, 2022 by Forward Ever Podcast

During this episode, they discuss the situation in Mali and why they believe all justice-loving people need to defend their struggle for sovereignty.

AU Ignores Foundational Values By Upholding Apartheid Israel’s Observer Status

February 7, 2022 by The Pan African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN)

The Pan African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN) issued this statement regarding the African Union (AU) Summit and the way that Israel’s ‘observer status’ was handled by AU leaders and new chair, Macky Sall.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner Photo: U.S. AFRICOM supervisors in a training. (Courtesy: Twitter / AFRICOM)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #37

Troops trained by AFRICOM have been behind nine coups d’etat on the African continent in the thirteen years of the military command’s existence. All but one of the G5 Sahel countries have experienced a coup in that period, and the military training that the U.S. and France provide to troops in these countries through the various AFRICOM exercises and the French Foreign Legion among other installations, present a serious concern. A 2017 study using data from 189 countries shows that greater numbers of military officers trained by the U.S. Military increase the probability of a military coup, and as Netfa Freeman wrote previously, AFRICOM serves as a “coup incubator” by emboldening a military class on the African continent that the U.S. can’t control. 

The reasoning that the military troops often provide for carrying out coups d’etat, including the recent coup in Burkina Faso, often points to the inability of their comprador heads of state to effectively deal with armed opposition groups in their countries. The U.S./E.U./NATO war on Libya, in which AFRICOM played an important role, was pivotal in the enhancement of the military capabilities of these armed opposition groups and their proliferation across the Sahel. Western imperialist countries supported these groups in Libya, and they are now wreaking havoc in different parts of the continent.

As Burkinabé revolutionary Thomas Sankara once stated, “without patriotic political education, a soldier is only a potential criminal.” The officers involved in the recent coup in Burkina Faso, as well as the eight previous coups d’etat in the region, not only lacked patriotic political education, they participated in military training that came with indoctrination about colonization and the role the U.S., French, and European forces have played in Africa. It is almost impossible for these officers to develop or maintain any revolutionary consciousness.

Though there is a rejection of Western domination by the masses in countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal, it is incorrect to assume that these coups d’etat are any threat to Western neo-colonialism. A successful challenge to neo-colonialism would go far beyond an effort from military officers that lacks commitment to genuine anti-imperialism. As Kwame Nkrumah one said, “The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of the African continent.” A commitment to participatory democratic processes and self-determination is necessary, along with the understanding that African countries must pursue Pan-African unity to defend themselves from foreign domination.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Lauren Gould, who is Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies at Utrecht University and the director of the Intimacies of Remote Warfare programme on new strategies of remote warfare across Africa and the Middle East.

AWB: Would you please describe the concept of “liquid warfare” as it relates to U.S. military operations on the African continent?

Lauren Gould: Aiming to define the ‘new newness’ of interventionist warfare, we look to Western state-led operations as a marked shift away from ‘boots on the ground’ deployments towards light-footprint military interventions, involving a combination of drone strikes and airstrikes, special forces, intelligence operatives, private contractors, and military-to-military (M2M) training teams on the ground. Largely, these military interventions (and their lived realities) remain hidden from Western publics. And if they incidentally appear on our screens, the shadowy mix of alliances and actors involved makes it hard to trace lines of responsibility and underlying power constellations. This elusiveness is problematic for a number of reasons. For one, larger audiences are (effectively) confused into indifference, and, importantly, those at the receiving end of the violence are unable to hold governments to account. War is rendered invisible and normalized.

The ‘newness’ of war can be attributed to three developments. First, the horrors of interventionist ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq invoked a sense of risk aversion and war fatigue, ushering in a ‘post-interventionist’ or ‘pull-back’ era. As a reaction, the U.S. and its coalition partners (but also major powers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia) have combined a resort to ‘precision’ airstrikes with a shift to smaller, clandestine, more focused interventions. Second, the turn to military robotics (and drones in particular) is a key feature of interventionist warfare. What is often implied is that somehow new technologies are the drivers behind new forms of warfare. Third, and equally prominent, is the debate on the networked nature of war. Simply put, the argument goes that because the ‘enemies of the state’ are now operating through shadowy networks and cells, the state has to resort to similar tactics. Elements within the U.S. military and related agencies, legitimated (and ‘legalized’) by the War on Terror, have increasingly adopted more networked forms of organization, which has made possible the integration of drones and new technologies into so-called counternetwars, in which ‘hybrid blends of hierarchies and networks … mount strike operations across shadowy transnational battle spaces’. What is in fact implied is that ‘shadow warfare’ results from the state mimicking its enemies.

War is an alternative system of profit, power and protection. Wars are produced; they are made to happen by a diverse and complicated set of actors who may well be achieving their objectives in the midst of what looks like failure and breakdown. The changing nature of interventionist warfare cannot be attributed to reactive impulses or strategies alone. Rather, ‘war fatigue’, ‘remote technology’ and ‘enemy networks’ provide additional conditions of possibility for the spatial and temporal reconfiguration of war. As with the case of AFRICOM, they offer new opportunities to further what the U.S. Department of Defense articulates as “shaping the international security environment in ways that promote and protect U.S. interests.” Paying tribute to Zygmunt Bauman’s liquidity vocabulary and Derek Gregory’s notion of ‘everywhere war’, we use the term ‘liquid warfare’ to highlight how conventional ties between war, space and time have become undone. Liquid warfare is about flexible, open-ended, ‘pop-up’ military interventions, supported by remote technology and reliant on local partnerships and private contractors, through which (coalitions of) parties aim to promote and protect interests. Liquid warfare is thus temporally open-ended and eventful, as well as spatially dispersed and mobile.

AWB: What brought about the “newness” of war?

LG: The origins of the temporal reconfiguration of modern war, and particularly U.S. warfare, can be traced back to the 1950’s. The U.S. doctrine of the past 60 years is that of a long and consistent pattern of military expansionism in the service of empire, which some have termed ‘forever’ or ‘permanent’ war. We have to rethink late modern war not merely in terms of time but also in terms of space and territoriality. Whereas wars in the past were conducted in ‘resolutely territorial terms’, we now have to ‘supplement cartographic reason by other, more labile spatialities’ (Gregory, 2011: 239). War has become mobile. The concept of the battlefield in U.S. doctrine is replaced by a multiscalar, multidimensional battlescape. The geocentric concept of war is now opposed to a target-centered one, attached to the bodies of the enemy prey.

Although the War on Terror is often seen as the starting point of this ‘mobile turn’, we can see the military interventionism that ensued from it as a climactic summation of a longer history of ‘globalizing wars’ in which the goal is not to take over territory but to ‘remove the obstacles on the road to a truly global freedom of economic forces’. The power of the state in late modernity rests upon credit ratings, corporate capacity and global market shares, not on the capture of territory. Control over resources is of key importance, but access is arranged through free trade regimes, leasing and contracting, large scale land purchases, forestry permits, and ‘accumulation by conservation’, rather than territorial conquest. In contrast to the direct colonial era of rule, ascendancy over a territory has ‘ceased to be the stake of the global power struggle’. Today’s wars look like ‘the promotion of global free trade by other means’. This has been labeled ‘military neoliberalism’: a useful shorthand for the increasingly military means whereby the state seeks to make the world ‘safe’ for global capital. What we notice for the case of AFRICOM is that the major technique of interventionism is the rejection not just of geopolitical territorial confinement but also of biopolitical notions of controlling the life and death of populations, along with the related responsibilities and costs of order and nation-building. Instead, what is at its core is the notion of ‘shaping’ – pursued by ‘forward presence’ and ‘forward posture’ in military terms.

We here include the above-mentioned temporal and spatial dimensions in the way we define liquid warfare as a form of military interventionism that shuns direct control of territory and populations and its cumbersome order-building and order-maintaining responsibilities, focusing instead on ‘shaping’ the international security environment through remote technology, flexible operations and M2M partnerships. Key to such an understanding of liquid warfare is its inherently indirect and assembled nature. Because of its reliance on remote management, it works through assemblages of heterogeneous and changing ‘partnerships’, which are often full of friction. 

AWB: How does AFRICOM fit into liquid warfare?

LG: The hunt for Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA rebel movement that was at war with the Ugandan government for over two decades, features as one of the campaigns justifying U.S. extrastate military engagement in Africa. Other more recent examples are ‘destroying’ Al-Shabaab, ‘countering’ Islamic State and AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), and ‘blunting’ Boko Haram, as well as the open-ended campaign to contain the fallout from the 2011 military intervention that ousted Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya. These operations are coordinated by AFRICOM. In 2008, AFRICOM became the leading organization responsible for U.S. military and security policy towards Africa. According to its mission statement, AFRICOM ‘builds defense capabilities, responds to crisis, and deters and defeats transnational threats in order to advance U.S. national interests and promote regional security, stability, and prosperity’. The 2011 National Military Strategy stresses the importance of establishing partnerships between the U.S. and African governments to help ‘facilitate the African Union’s many security challenges’. In more unguarded moments, however, officials have been more straightforward: Vice-Admiral Robert Moeller, at a conference in 2008, declared that AFRICOM was about preserving ‘the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market’, while citing terrorism, oil disruption and China as major ‘challenges to U.S. interests’.

The U.S. has been fighting wars in Africa since the 1950s – in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Libya and Djibouti, to name but a few countries. In some cases, this has involved overt military operations using U.S. troops, operating from large military bases such as Wheelus Field in Libya (stationing 4600 U.S. personnel) and Kagnew Station in Asmara (home to 5000 U.S. personnel at its peak during the 1960s). U.S. military engagement during the Cold War also involved clandestine military operations and the financing and arming of local forces. Washington’s militarization efforts were accelerated after 9/11, when Africa became the ‘new frontier’ in global counterterrorism operations, and were centralized under AFRICOM in 2008. AFRICOM’s mode of operation represents a change from large deployments of U.S. troops to more flexible and lighter operations. It has neither permanent combat troops assigned to it, nor even any permanent official bases housing U.S. troops in Africa, with the exception of Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.

Instead, it aims to work through African partners. As Branch explains, ‘AFRICOM is being built through informal base sharing agreements with African states and through the establishment of barebones facilities, so-called “lily-pads” or “cooperative security locations,” which can be converted into functioning U.S. military bases in 24–48 hours’ – something we refer to as ‘pop-up warfare’. Moreover, the focus is on security cooperation, including military-to-military training. According to data supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command, there are 1700 people dedicated to assisting the U.S. military’s African partners, spread out across 20 countries, conducting 96 activities at any given time. AFRICOM claims ‘these activities build strong, enduring partnerships with African nations, regional and international organizations, and other states that are committed to improving security in Africa’. In practice, this means that African troops are doing the actual fighting and dying on the ground while AFRICOM performs most of the support tasks, such as logistics, medical support, surveillance and training.

AWB: Thank you for your time and analysis!

News and Analysis

Burkina Faso Military Coup Reflects Wave of Insecurity in West Africa

January 30, 2022 by Abayomi Azikiwe 

France and the United States interventions have done more to worsen instability in the Sahel and other regions of the continent. There has been yet another military coup in West Africa following the events of Mali and Guinea during 2020-2021. 

Countering China in Africa: U.S. trained soldier leads coup in Burkina Faso

January 28, 2022 by RT America’s In Question

Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, shares his perspective on the U.S. trained military officer’s coup in Burkina Faso. 

Another U.S.-Trained Soldier Stages a Coup in West Africa

January 26, 2022 by Nick Turse

Since 2008, U.S.-trained officers have attempted at least nine coups (and succeeded in at least eight) across five West African countries.

Ethiopia, from The Development State to The Neoliberal State

January 26, 2022 by Djibo Sobukwe

The current conflict in Ethiopia must be examined with a deep analysis of that country's history. Neo-colonial and neo-liberal policies have played a large role in shaping conditions there.

Why is Joe Biden Discreetly Looking the Other Way as His AFRICOM Commander Commits War Crimes for Which He Would Have Been Hanged at Nuremberg?

January 14, 2022 by Jeremy Kuzmanov

From Grenada to Iraq, to Syria and now Africa, AFRICOM Commander Stephen Townsend has gone around the globe for the last 38 years hunting down insurgents in the interests of the American empire.

Understanding the Who and the Why of the Sudan Coup

January 10, 2022 by Kribsoo Diallo

The October 25 military coup d’etat in Sudan marked the collapse of the unstable and rotten compromise between the military and liberals that took place in the summer of 2019.

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

(Banner Photo: U.S. Army General Stephen Townsend, AFRICOM commander, meets with Chiefs of Defense from Liberia, Ghana, and Malawi August 13-14, 2019 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. COURTESY: TWITTER/AFRICOM)

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #36

AFRICOM is the re-colonization of Africa by the U.S., and constitutes the new scramble for Africa tantamount to when, in the 1800s, the colonial powers fought over which of them would dominate which parts of the resource rich continent. One of the forms the new scramble takes is that of militarized interventions that are framed as interventions against domestic terrorist entities. Meanwhile, it is the US/EU/NATO axis of domination that wages a war of terror against African people. 

The U.S. military recently announced that it is sending 1,000 National Guard members to the Horn of Africa as U.S. intervention in Ethiopia becomes more likely. Earlier this year, the U.S. intensified the militarization of the DRC with the introduction of U.S. special forces and the escalation against the ADF by the U.S. and Uganda. The U.S. and U.K. are driving militarization in Kenya, and France and Rwanda are militarizing Mozambique to fight Al Shabab. These more contemporary events are comparable to when Tanzania intervened in Uganda and depose Idi Amin. 

Important political and economic considerations, including the ability for western multinational corporations to access African land, labor, and resources, are obscured when the labels “terrorist” and “terrorism” have been strategically used by imperialist powers to militarize and destabilize the African continent. The labels are also strategically used by these powers to surveil, target, imprison, and isolate African people. It is imperative that we oppose these imperialist interventions and end the new scramble for Africa. U.S. Out of Africa! Shut Down AFRICOM!

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Jared A. Ball, who is a Professor of Communication and Africana Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. and author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power (Palgrave, 2020). Ball is host of the podcast “iMiXWHATiLiKE!” and co-founder of Black Power Media which can be found at BlackPowerMedia.org. Ball's decades of journalism, media, writing, and political work can be found at imixwhatilike.org.

AWB: What is Emancipatory Journalism and why is it important in the struggle for African Liberation and in the process to rid the continent of AFRICOM?

JAB: The proliferation and mission success of AFRICOM requires and involves a public relations (psychological warfare) component which means the dominant presses of the US and Western worlds will be used to promote a justification for the project. This messaging also targets African people themselves in an attempt to justify or at minimum normalize the presence of Western military control, leadership, presence, etc. As a result Emancipatory Journalism, or the philosophy of journalism which calls for the conscious production of media for the purposes of expanding the ranks of anti-colonial organized struggle, produced by and for the colonized, must be part of resistance efforts.

AWB: Talk about Black Power Media.  Is this the natural evolution of IMIXWHATILIKE that you envisioned.

JAB: BPM is a natural extension of the work of anyone interested in the creation of revolutionary public spheres meant to impact and move oppressed people. This is why BPM originated with a call from Kalonji Changa, Kamau Franklin, and Ear Dr who were doing their work with Renegade Culture and called me to begin the expansion to BPM. So as much as BPM is indeed a natural extension of iMWiL! its origins are actually elsewhere, with others who also recognize the need to create new public spheres, new spaces where more appropriate politics can be shared, discussed, debated.

AWB: There are too many myths and propaganda about Africa for us to cover here. Milton Allimadi does a great job covering them in his book Manufactuaring Hate: How African was Demonized in Western Media. Talk about a couple that actually give cover for AFRICOM and how they do so.

JAB: Among the greatest and most pervasive myths is, of course, that today’s Africa is somehow “African.” The continent itself is still a mirrored reflection and literal creation of European imperialism, from name, to shape, to identity. No “African nation” is “free” or even “authentically African.” And yet, just as we in the diaspora fight desperately to cling to our imposed identities, those on the continent have been further mythologized into thinking, because they remain on the land, that they are somehow farther away from the West. “Nigeria” is no more authentically African than Maryland. Both result from the same on-going process and neither exists to benefit African people.

AWB: You work at an HBCU.  On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being emancipatory, how would you rate the communications programs and specifically the journalism programs and how can they improve if they fall short of 10? 

JAB: Journalism programs are bought and run by the corporations HBCUs hope their students will work for and from which HBCUs hope to get investment. There is no emancipatory potential there or at PWIs for that matter. That is, in fact, the point of EJ; that the colonized, the oppressed perform the journalism work their movements need. 

AWB: Talk about 2-3 things anyone can do to improve his/her media literacy and or hold outlets accountable when they fall short of Emancipatory Journalism standard?

JAB: Become and continue to work towards being politically educated. 

Step 1 is best served in collaboration with radical political organization.

Produce or help others in the production of EJ and expand the imaginative approaches to that work.

AWB: Thank you for your time and analysis!

News and Analysis

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the U.S. National Guard deployment to Horn of Africa

December 10, 2021 by Black Alliance for Peace 

On International Human Rights Day, BAP called for the U.S. to end its military occupation of the African continent.

US Still Strong Arming “Democracy” Onto Libya

December 7, 2021 by Netfa Freeman

The Western imperialist forces responsible for the overthrow and assassination of Muammar Gaddafi, as well as the destruction of Libya, are now trying to force elections and so-called “democracy” onto the country.

The Truth About Ethiopia | Unmasking Imperialism Ep. 44

December 4, 2021 by Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez

Yolian Ogbu, an organizing member of the Horn of Africa Pan Africans for Liberation and Solidarity as well as the All African People's Revolutionary Party, discusses attempts by Western imperialism to interfere in the internal affairs of Ethiopia. 

Eritrea Versus AFRICOM: Defending Sovereignty in the Face of Imperialist Aggression

December 1, 2021 by Dina M. Asfaha and Tunde Osazua

The rapid expansion of AFRICOM on the African continent should be a cause for concern as African nations are surrendering their sovereignty to the U.S. As the only country without a relationship to AFRICOM, Eritrea bears the brunt of U.S. vilification. 

Backed by AFRICOM, corporations plunder DR Congo for “climate-friendly” materials and blame China

November 30, 2021 by TJ Coles

Cobalt, a key metallic element used in lithium batteries and other “green” technology, is sourced from slave labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the West points the finger at China, the US Africa Command is indirectly policing mining operations that profit US corporations.

Senate eyes plan to send military aid to Africa — to fight Beijing and Moscow

November 19, 2021 by Sobukwe Odinga

The Senate’s 2022 National Defense Authorization Act empowers the Pentagon to establish a strategic competition initiative for the U.S. Africa Command. 

Kenyan Families Say U.S. Government Fueling “War on Terror” Disappearances and Killings, Demand Records

November 18, 2021 by Center for Constitutional Rights

Security forces trained by the CIA and the UK's MI6 use the "war on terror" as justification for killing and abducting Kenyans. In fact, the US/EU/NATO axis wage a war of terror against African people. 

If you are interested in getting more directly involved in the fight to liberate Africa, please consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network. 

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

(Banner Photo: Senegalese soldiers practice live fire maneuvers during an AFRICOM training exercise, Senegal, June 19, 2014 (U.S. Army Africa photo by Staff Sgt. Donna Davis). )

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #35

The U.S. Out of Africa Network and the Black Alliance for Peace want to thank everyone who participated in the International Month of Action Against AFRICOM that has now come to a close. On October 1 of this year, the Black Alliance for Peace and the U.S. Out of Africa Network launched a month-long mobilization effort in support of the U.S. Out of Africa!/Shut Down AFRICOM! campaign to raise the public's awareness about the U.S. military's existence in Africa, and how the presence of U.S. forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.

A webinar entitled “AFRICOM at 13: Building the Popular Movement for Demilitarization and Anti-Imperialism in Africa” kicked off a month of various activities, including teach-ins, more webinars, banner drops and other forms of activity in the U.S., on the African continent, and beyond. These efforts should and will continue. Please visit the Black Alliance for Peace website for additional resources, like a Toolkit to Shut Down AFRICOM, in order to inform yourself and show solidarity with Africans on the continent who are facing militarized repression and expose the connections to the domestic war on colonized people here in the U.S.

The effort to shut down AFRICOM is ongoing and will continue past the month of October. If you would like to get involved and stay up to date with the campaign, we urge you to consider joining the U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN), which is the organizational arm of the Black Alliance for Peace’s U.S. Out of Africa!/Shut Down AFRICOM! campaign. We will continue to educate the public about the destructive U.S. hybrid war and imperialist policies perpetrated by AFRICOM on the African continent and build real opposition to the designs of the Pan-European Capitalist Patriarchy. 
 

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Dr. Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe, who is a professor of Political Science at Eastern University, and a former central committee member of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party and All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union. Her published works address Africa and structural adjustment, African leadership, black women in the church and political movements. She is an ordained minister and founding member of Black Radical Christians. 

The following is a continuation of the interview published in Bulletin #33.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: Are there important distinctions between the Financial Imperialism imposed by Western powers and the increasing imprint of China on the continent?  If so, please talk about them.

Dr. Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe: Definitely, yes. First, while some argue that China is indebting African nations in neocolonial relationships, China does not extort African countries to get them indebted. Whereas imperialists force peripheral countries worldwide into the structural adjustment trap with nothing to show for it over 50 years, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides another alternative. BRI focuses on infrastructure and human development, producing considerable infrastructural improvements, such as ports, waterways, highways, hospitals and innovations in technology and farming. In return, China benefits as a trading partner, typically in raw materials needed for industry and especially manufacturing growth, on free trade terms (Prashad, 2021).

While the future will tell if China is entrapping African countries, this does not seem to be the case. Chinese banks have been restructuring African debt, to Africa’s advantage, for two decades. Multilateral lenders — the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and others — constitute 20 percent of Africa’s debt service this year. While these lenders are undertaking some efforts to help countries repay their own loans, they are not relaxing repayment requirements (Acker, Brautigam, & Huang, 2021). Meanwhile, the pandemic has worsened Africa’s debt crisis, such that during the pandemic, 64 countries spent more on debt service than healthcare (Prashad, 2021). However, China is responding. In at least 16 cases, China has restructured debt of $7.5 billion in 10 African countries between 2000 and 2019. China also wrote off the accumulated arrears of at least 94 interest-free loans amounting to at least $3.4 billion.

In addition to cancelling debts, China’s restructuring has involved extending repayment periods and occasionally, decreasing interest rates to address cash flows available for loan-financed projects as well as the country’s overall payments position (Acker, Brautigam, & Huang, 2021).

Secondly, for those who contend that China is neither socialist nor communist, and certainly not revolutionary, it’s worth studying how China has transformed its population. The Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research found that “850 million people had climbed out of absolute poverty (the culmination of a seven-decade-long process that began with the Chinese Revolution of 1949), that their per capita income had increased to US$10,000 (a ten-fold increase in the last twenty years), and that life expectancy had increased to 77.3 years on average (compared to 35 years in 1949).” Further, studying ground level poverty eradication efforts, they found the concept of multidimensional poverty is central to the Chinese approach. Through this approach, the Communist Party of China provides

• ‘three guarantees’ (safe housing, healthcare, and education) 

• ‘two assurances’ (being fed and being clothed). 

• cadre to help local authorities survey households to understand the depth of poverty in the countryside. 

• 3 million cadre out of the Party’s 95.1 million members to be part of 255,000 teams that spent years living in poor villages working towards the eradication of poverty and the social conditions it created. One team was assigned to a village, and another to each family.

• These studies resulted in five core methods for eradicating poverty: 

  • developing industry, which created capital-intensive agricultural production (including crop processing and animal breeding); restored farmlands; and grew forests as part of the ecological compensation schemes, reviving areas that had become prey to resource overexploitation; 

  • relocating people; 

  • incentivizing ecological compensation; 

  • guaranteeing free, quality, and compulsory education; 

  • and providing social assistance. 

While there is still much to be done in this area, emphasis was also placed on educating minority populations and women. As a result, in 2020, China ranked first in the world in the enrolment of women in tertiary education, according to the World Economic Forum.

Countries in Africa and the periphery in general seem to get more options with China than multilaterals. The BRI is the Chinese Communist Party’s internationalist mission for the second century, it has socialist experience backing it, and it provides a win-win for both developing countries and China. As Campbell (2015) notes, it’s simplistic to suggest that China is imperialist because there are large-scale Chinese investments in Africa. Chinese investments in Africa are less than in Europe, North America, or in Eastern Europe, and many of these criticisms emphasize investments by Chinese state companies, while the much larger, and more clearly exploitative, role of Western multinational corporations is hidden in accounting due to their private nature. However, as Campbell (2015) argues the Chinese state is vulnerable to criticism for the exploitation of Chinese and African workers alike, and for its history of lack of respect for environmental standards. 

AWB: A 2018 Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) tracked 30 African countries from 1970-2015 and concluded that they lost about $1.8 trillion in capital flight to include interests and earnings. Over the same period the same countries received just under $500 billion in foreign aid and investment which show that Africa is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world.  Yet it is widely viewed as a debtor region. Can you talk about why there is such a wide gap between how Africa is perceived and the reality? 

SGS: This question, I think, is related to the next. If one considers only the criteria and standards of imperialist reporting and lending agencies, what is evaluated plays to the interests of the imperialists. Intellectuals who assess the impact of imperialism on the periphery, as Samir Amin did, must use different analyses, which highlight the experiences of African countries and the African masses.

AWB: The Egyptian scholar and economist Samir Amin talks about intellectual compromise and how academic programs in the social sciences in many African universities stifle the development of critical thought. As a result, African students are essentially trained to maintain the status quo of Financial Imperialism. How can this be changed?

SGS: We can follow Samir Amin’s model. He was, first, always optimistic about the processes of revolutionary change on behalf of the masses, avoiding the typical ‘pessimism of the intellect’ common among frustrated intellectuals and students. Further, like Amin, we must be committed to dialectical analyses, reflecting between theory and practice to fully assess the issues of imperialism and racial capitalism, and focusing on the material and social realities of the suffering masses to understand the relationships between global and local conditions, and ensuring a rounded and connected analysis of the developments of capitalism. Amin also made sure his analyses were grounded in not only the present but history as well, recognizing that capitalism is fundamentally a global system, determined in its nature and functioning by the unequal relationship between center and periphery (Ghosh, 2021). Regardless of whether universities teach this kind of dialectical analysis, we must do so in revolutionary organizations.

AWB: Thank you for your time and analysis!

News and Analysis

Ethiopians Mobilize to Halt Western-backed Coup Attempt
November 8, 2021 by Abayomi Azikiwe

Western imperialists led by the United States are behind the TPLF attempt to re-take power in Ethiopia. These events illustrate clearly the role of imperialism in fostering division and balkanization in Africa.

The Fight to Free Africa: Africans vs. AFRICOM
November 4, 2021 by Hood Communist Radio

In this episode of Hood Communist Radio, the editors discuss the need to shut down US imperialism in Africa, as part of the Black Alliance for Peace month of action on AFRICOM.

African Union Must Implement Strategies to Reverse Military Coups
October 29, 2021 by Abayomi Azikiwe

The class position of the military within post-independence African society is a manifestation of the legacy of colonial rule.

AFRICOM and the Horn of Africa
October 25, 2021 by United National Antiwar Coalition

BAP Coordinating Committee member Margaret Kimberley and Yolian Ogbu of the Horn of Africa Pan Africans for Liberation and Solidarity and the All African People's Revolutionary Party spoke with the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) as part of the "Shut Down AFRICOM" month of action.

Weekly Pan-African News: Shut down AFRICOM! with Tunde Osazua of Black Alliance for Peace
October 21, 2021 by A-APRP New Mexico

This episode of #WeeklyPanAfricanNews featured a discussion with Tunde Osazua, the U.S. Out of Africa Network Coordinator for the Black Alliance for Peace, about the movement to get the US and NATO out of Africa.

Pantsula Podcast Ep. 41: End AFRICOM and 1033 now!
October 18, 2021 by Kaji Circle A-APRP

On this episode of the Pantsula Podcast, A-APRP organizers Evan and jamilah speak with Jelani, organizer with Black Alliance For Peace (BAP), discussing the campaigns to end AFRICOM and 1033, as well as the importance and mission of BAP's work.

Join the U.S. Out of Africa Network to get the AFRICOM Watch Bulletin in your inbox!

No Compromise, No Retreat!

Banner Photo: Distinguished visitors day in Kitgum, Uganda, courtesy of flickr user U.S. Army Africa.

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #34

October 1, 2021 marked 13 years since the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) was established. Please join us in our International Month of Action Against AFRICOM to demand the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Africa, the demilitarization of the African continent, and the closure of U.S. bases throughout the world. We urge the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to oppose AFRICOM and support hearings on AFRICOM’s impact on the African continent.

The U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) is the organizational arm of the Black Alliance for Peace’s U.S. Out of Africa: Shut Down AFRICOM campaign which is designed to educate the public about the destructive U.S. hybrid war and imperialist policies perpetrated by AFRICOM. The USOAN aims to raise the public's awareness about the U.S. military's existence in Africa, and how the presence of U.S. forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.

BAP and the USOAN take a resolute anti-colonial, anti-imperialist position that links the international role of the U.S. empire, which is an empire based on war, aggression and exploitation, to the domestic war against poor and working class Black people in the United States. This Month of Action is a contribution to the effort to build a popular movement for demilitarization and anti-imperialism in Africa. Visit the Black Alliance for Peace website for additional resources, like a Toolkit to Shut Down AFRICOM, and to learn more about how to get involved.

U.S. Out of Africa: Voices from the Struggle

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin speaks with Tunde Osazua, the Coordinator of the U.S. Out of Africa Network, a member of the Black Alliance for Peace’s Africa Team, and a member of the team that produces the AFRICOM Watch Bulletin. 

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: How has U.S. military involvement on the African continent changed with AFRICOM?

Tunde Osazua: U.S. military presence in Africa did not begin with AFRICOM. However, AFRICOM now formalizes that presence with better coordination and strategic focus for realizing the long term geopolitical goals of U.S. imperialism in Africa. According to a U.S. Congressional Research Service Study published in November 2010, Washington has dispatched anywhere between hundreds and several thousand combat troops, dozens of fighter planes and warships to buttress client dictatorships or to unseat adversarial regimes in dozens of countries, almost on a yearly basis. The record shows U.S. armed forces intervened in Africa forty-eight times. The countries receiving one or more U.S. military intervention include both Congos, Libya, Chad, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Central African Republic, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea. 

Between the mid-1950’s to the end of the 1970’s, only four overt military operations were recorded, though large scale proxy and clandestine military operations were pervasive. Under Reagan-Bush Sr. (1980-1991) military intervention accelerated, rising to eight, not counting the large-scale clandestine ‘special forces’ and proxy wars in Southern Africa. Under the Clinton regime, U.S. militarized intervention in Africa took off. Between 1992 and 2000, seventeen armed incursions took place, including a large-scale invasion of Somalia and military backing for the Rwandan Kagame regime. Clinton intervened in Liberia, Gabon, Congo and Sierra Leone to prop up long-standing troubled regimes. He bombed Sudan and dispatched military personnel to Kenya and Ethiopia to back proxy clients assaulting Somalia. Under Bush Jr. fifteen U.S. military interventions took place, mainly in Central and East Africa.

AFRICOM defines its responsibilities as military-to-military partnerships to improve the capacity and operability of African armed forces, assisting other U.S. agencies in fulfilling their tasks in Africa and, where necessary, undertaking military activities in Africa to protect America’s national interests. As a result, the main thrust of AFRICOM programs involves the training and equipping of local forces. It engages in regular exercises with African armies, including African Lion Exercise, Cutlass Express Exercise, Phoenix Express, Obangame Express, Justified Accord, and Flintlock. Most of these involve working alongside and mentoring local allies. Flintlock, for instance, the showcase effort of the Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA), is an annual training exercise in Mauritania and Senegal involving elite U.S., European, and African forces, which provides the command with a plethora of publicity. More than 1,600 military personnel from 30-plus nations took part in Flintlock 2020. There are a wide range of programs in addition to the U.S. participation in various UN programs like AMISOM in Somalia.

Most of the U.S.’s African outreach these days is built on military links to neo-colonial military officers. The Pentagon has military ties with fifty-three African countries. The Bush Administration announced in 2002 that Africa was a “strategic priority in fighting terrorism”. Henceforth, U.S. foreign policy strategists, with bipartisan backing, moved to centralize and coordinate a military policy on a continent-wide basis forming AFRICOM and SOCAFRICA. These structures work with African armies, in arrangements euphemistically called “co-operative partnerships,” to support anti-terrorist activities in the continent. U.S. special operations teams are now deployed to over twenty-three African countries, and the U.S. operates bases across the continent.

AWB: How has the U.S. “war on terror” in Africa been impacted by U.S. military presence?

TO: Before 9/11, Africa seemed to be free of transnational terror threats, according to the U.S. government. Since then, U.S. military efforts on the continent have grown in every conceivable way, from funding and manpower to missions and outposts, while at the same time the number of transnational terror groups has increased in linear fashion, according to the military. The reasons for this are multiple. 

There is spillover from the war on terror in the Middle East and Central Asia. In early 2002, a senior Pentagon official speaking on background told reporters that the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan might drive “terrorists” out of that state and onto the African continent. This spillover has contributed to the rise of groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda on the continent. U.S. operations are helping to spawn and spread terror groups. The war on terror actually acts as a recruitment agent for folks joining extremist organizations, which produces further terror attacks, which leave the states involved more dependent on U.S. military support.

The Pentagon is also inflating the terror threat for its own gain. Of the 54 countries in Africa, Islamist extremists are active in less than ten. These places cannot be the entire story. There are 44 other countries in Africa. It is not that we do not perceive threats of the military, but the point needs to be made that many of these threats are exaggerated. One can distinguish between the forecasts of military planners who want a full scale external military intervention on the continent and those from entities that are planning for the large market that will be provided by Africans.

The rise of these terrorist organizations is also due to myriad local factors, including a lack of socio-economic opportunities; marginalization and discrimination; poor governance, violations of human rights; and prolonged and unresolved conflicts. By ensuring the spread of terror groups across the region, the western powers created a demand for their military assistance which hitherto did not exist. They created a protection racket for Africa that served as a justification for the presence of AFRICOM.

AWB: How has economic competition with China contributed to U.S. militarization of the continent?

TO: AFRICOM is the U.S. response to economic competition with China, and its increased influence on the continent. Chinese trade with Africa has surpassed that of the United States, and it is noteworthy that Chinese trade with Africa is skewed toward the African side, compared to the trade that the U.S. and other western countries engage in. Since 2008, China has had a $5 billion deficit as a result of trade with Africa. These trade and aid relations are made more appealing to African states by the fact that Chinese aid is broadly non-conditional and is a result of historical south-south solidarity. 

The response to these developments from the U.S. and the west, of course, has been a military one. Economic dependence on the U.S. and the west – rapidly being shattered by China – has been replaced by a new military dependence. If African countries would no longer come begging for western loans, export markets, and investment finance, they would have to be put in a position where they would come begging for western military aid in order to maintain the neo-colonial imperialist order.

AWB: How does AFRICOM use development to mask its true purpose?

TO: AFRICOM has a developmental component, with over thirty officials from other U.S. agencies – including the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – as part of its structure. Further, one of its deputy commanders is  a senior state department official. The official reason for this is to synchronise AFRICOM’s activities with U.S. development activities. However, it has been criticised by the DOS for ensuring that military activities come before development and diplomacy.

The development programs that AFRICOM engages in are methods by which capital and capitalism are internationalized. They ensure that markets and resources are secured and that a climate conducive to world wide private investment is created and strengthened. Capitalist development programs in colonized countries often stunt economic growth by perpetuating corruption and bad policy in recipient nations, even as the aid is used to manipulate developing countries in the interest of developed countries and their favored industries. AFRICOM’s developmental mask attempts to create the illusion that U.S. actions on the continent are altruistic and not part of the new scramble for Africa.

AWB: How does U.S. militarism through AFRICOM relate to struggles in the U.S.?

TO: As Erica Caines responded in Bulletin #27, “Black people in the U.S. have a colonial relationship with the larger society—a relationship characterized by over-policing and institutional racism. Police are used to enforce the status quo of white ruling-class power and colonial control over the lives of Black, Brown, and other oppressed nations of people.

This relationship is a mirror image of the imperial relationship between the U.S. and the continent. These similarities are most evident when we examine the use of the 1033 program and so-called wars against drugs.

Imperialism should not only be understood as a global matter manifested through U.S. military occupation. Imperialism is a domestic issue manifested through the occupation of our communities by militarized police forces. Just as the demand for #USOutOfAfrica and self-determination is key to the struggles on the continent, ending federal police programs like the 1033 program and community control (of police) are key factors in how we fight back. Neither can be done, however, without organized struggle.”

AWB: Thank you for your time and analysis!

News and Analysis

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Banner photo: A Nigerian soldier provides security for his squad as they participate in Exercise Flintlock in 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Zayid Ballesteros)