The purpose of AFRICOM is to use U.S. military power to impose U.S. control of African land, resources, and labor to service the needs of U.S. multinational corporations and the wealthy in the United States. U.S. and African leaders say AFRICOM is “fighting terrorism,” but AFRICOM has only increased militarism and barbarity on the continent. The real reason for its existence is to protect U.S. neo-colonial interests in geopolitical competition with China and Russia.
We don’t know the true scale of the death and destruction that AFRICOM has wrought on the continent, and the Pentagon wants to keep it that way. It was only earlier this year, after Amnesty International and AirWars publicly condemned AFRICOM’s use of drone strikes without reporting civilian deaths, that the US Africa Command officials decided to release quarterly reporting on civilian murders by AFRICOM drones. Still, that reporting seems to undercount the number of people that have died by drone strike. They have only admitted to killing five people so far, and their operations are clouded in secrecy.
While Amnesty International laments AFRICOM’s failure to compensate the families of those that they kill, we know that a more decisive stance must be taken. After all, how can you put a monetary value on a life? We must call for the total removal of AFRICOM and all U.S. forces from the African continent to stem the death-making caused by empire.
US military acknowledges past civilian deaths, kills two children in another attack today
SomaliAffairs – July 29, 2020
AFRICOM released its second report on civilian casualties. US drones also bombed areas in a Jilib town believed to have been hosting Al-Shabaab militants, killing even more civilians.
Somalia: AFRICOM yet to compensate families despite casualty admissions
Amnesty International – July 28, 2020
Since April last year, AFRICOM has admitted to killing five Somali civilians and injuring six others, but none of those families or victims have been compensated by the command.
Europe is in debt with Africa, not the other way around
By Aleksandar Novaković – July 27, 2020
African countries will only be truly independent if the rebellion within the continent and the rebellion in the very same countries that keep the continent in neocolonial shackles meet.
Sudan’s women demonstrate for fair representation in transitional government
Sudan Tribune – July 26, 2020
Women leaders have recently launched a protest in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum to highlight women’s will to take part in the institutions of the transitional phase.
How AFRICOM Is Working to Destabilize the African Continent
By Abayomi Azikiwe – July 19, 2020
Mr. Azikiwe joined On Your World News to contribute detailed critical analysis regarding the ongoing imperialist wars waged on Africa by way of Western nations like the US and France.
AFRICOM and the Guise of Terrorism
By Tunde Osazua – July 15, 2020
If AFRICOM’s mission is to fight terrorism, then why have terror attacks increased five-fold since the US began its military occupation of the continent?
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Photo credit: Tara Todras-Whitehill for the New York Times