Interesting take on AFRICOM and its perception
Quote:
Looking at the various successive US administrations’ record in Africa, it is one long script of betrayal, destabilisation, political blackmail and even worse. Is it then therefore such a surprise that Africa is concerned about its formation? Of course, the bigger African powers also see AFRICOM as an attempt to overshadow their hegemony and undermine them and their interests in Africa. African governments are willing to accept the US Dollar in times of financial crisis but, at the moment, that is as far as it goes. They remain extremely reluctant and wary to allow the wolf to guard their sheep.
As for the few whites that remain in Africa, they too have seen and experienced US betrayals first-hand. AFRICOM is therefore not seen as their saviour either in any shape or form. Instead, they know that their advice and knowledge of the continent will be turned down and thus they view it as another disaster in the making.
US foreign policy has in many ways been shaped by the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) (mis)adventures in Africa, both covert and overt. Whereas there have no doubt been some successes, the failures have been spectacular. Casting a look at the continent, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda and many others immediately spring to mind. Indeed, the US Special Forces are still active in Africa – training the Rwandan Armed Forces (amongst others) – nothing wrong with that - but who in turn are accused of providing support to the rebels in the DRC. “Are they part of AFRICOM?” asked an African minister.
http://eebenbarlowsmilitaryandsecuri...g-or-what.html
Nigeria & AFRICOM: same problem, perception
In the last few days there have been posts on AFRICOM on the live thread 'Nigeria: the (wide) context for violence':http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=7914 and it maybe worth checking in there. Perception remains an issue.;)
Charles Taylor 'worked' for CIA in Liberia
News story from BBC. Will only add to the common perception that the USG is up to no good in Africa. Does not help AFRICOM's perception.
Liberians are now openly saying that the reason why the US was reluctant to intervene in Liberia "was because their man was in power". Liberians feel betrayed by the US. (Liberians still regard the Nigerian Military as their (flawed) saviours).
Quote:
US authorities say former Liberian leader Charles Taylor worked for its intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the Boston Globe reports.
The revelation comes in response to a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper.
A Globe reporter told the BBC this is the first official confirmation of long-held reports of a relationship between US intelligence and Mr Taylor.
Mr Taylor is awaiting a verdict on his trial for alleged war crimes.
Rumours of CIA ties were fuelled in July 2009 when Mr Taylor himself told his trial, at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Hague, that US agents had helped him escape from a maximum security prison in Boston in 1985.
The CIA at the time denied such claims as "completely absurd".
But now the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy arm, has disclosed that its agents - and those of the CIA - did later use Mr Taylor as an informant, the Globe reports.
Globe reporter Bryan Bender told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Pentagon officials refused to give details on exactly what role Mr Taylor played, citing national security.
But they did confirm that Mr Taylor first started working with US intelligence in the 1980s, the period when he rose to become one of the world's most notorious warlords, Mr Bender says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16627628
Deportation row grows in Nigeria, South Africa
This is off topic, but I thought it needs a mention. What many people don't realise is how much South Africans (Blacks) and Nigerians loathe each other. This isn't on a governmental/diplomatic level, but on a personal level.
Quote:
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A series of airport deportations by South African and Nigerian authorities has sparked a growing diplomatic row between the two African nations.
Last week, South Africa deported 125 Nigerians arriving to Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport on an Arik Air Ltd. flight from Nigeria. Health authorities there said those passengers carried fraudulent yellow fever cards, Nigeria's government has said.
Since those deportations, authorities at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Nigeria have deported at least 84 South Africans over similar claims about their vaccination cards, two government officials who requested anonymity said Wednesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak about the issue.
Yellow fever vaccination cards, though required throughout much of Africa, often serve as a means for officials to extort bribes from travelers who forget their cards. In Nigeria, health authorities often target foreigners coming in for work at foreign oil firms in the nation's crude-rich southern delta. Yellow fever cards also remain easy to purchase, with hawkers selling properly stamped cards outside of Lagos' international airport for the equivalent of $5.
Nigeria Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru, speaking at the National Assembly on Tuesday, said the deportations represented something more than a vaccination concern. Ashiru said it represented the ongoing "xenophobia" faced by Nigerian immigrants living in South Africa who face rampaging police who arrest them without cause.
In South Africa, many there blame Nigerian immigrants for contributing to the nation's high crime rate.
"When you deport two Nigerians from your country on flimsy excuses, there will be appropriate reaction. It will not be retaliation but you will know that we are reciprocating one way or the other," Ashiru said. "South African immigration authorities or officials do not have a monopoly of deporting travelers."
Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for South Africa's Foreign Ministry, said his country planned to issue a statement Wednesday.
Visa requirements remain strict between the two countries. Diplomatically, the two nations also hold differing views, including Nigeria supporting Libya's rebels during the nation's recent civil war. Nigeria also joined international forces calling for the ouster of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo in 2010, while South Africa largely remained quiet.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...8ced0c83fa2636
Nigerians, understandably, have a tough time with immigration authorities all over the World. While we might be willing to accept rude behaviour from US immigration authorities (I was sexually assaulted in Chicago in 2005), but we will not accept the same behaviour from African nations (especially from an African nation with one of the highest HIV infection rates and public health challenges of its own).
Nigeria and South Africa also tend to find themselves on different sides of major diplomatic issues like Ivory Coast and Libya.