"Africom...is sponsoring the exercise and much of the instruction is done by U.S. military personnel based in Europe and the United States." [1]
Coordinated with the command out of which AFRICOM arose, "The AFRICOM exercise comes on the heels of a similar U.S. European Command-sponsored operation - Combined Endeavor - that tested the communication compatibility of the U.S. and its European allies." [2]
The Gabon-based exercise reprised the previous year's Africa Endeavor which was run by European Command before AFRICOM's formal activation and which included "21 African nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Sweden and the United States.
"Nations and organizations who participated...were Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Uganda, the United States and Zambia...." [3]
This year's maneuvers effected the formal transfer of Africa from European Command to the new Africa Command.
From October 16-25 the U.S. is heading a multinational military exercise, Natural Fire 10, in Uganda in which "More than 1,000 American and East African troops are...deployed...as the United States carries out its biggest military exercise in Africa this year." [5]
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are to provide troops to join 450 U.S. military personnel in drills which "involve live fire in the field as well as convoy operations, crowd control and vehicle checkpoints...." [6]
An African newspaper account of the exercises suggests ulterior motives: "[T]he decision to site the exercise in northern Uganda raises questions about whether it may presage a renewed US-supported assault against the Lord's Resistance Army," which has waged an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government since 1987.
The same source continued with these observations:
"The exercise in northern Uganda is scheduled to begin one week after the conclusion of another US-led military exercise in Gabon.
"Nearly 30 African nations - including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda - took part in that communications-focused initiative led by the US Africa Command....Together, these exercises are cited by Africom's critics as further indications of what they describe as the growing militarization of the US presence in Africa.
"Situating the exercise in Uganda reflects the close military relationship that the United States has developed with that East African country....
"Worries persist in Africa that the Pentagon intends to station large numbers of US troops on the continent, despite denials by Africom's leaders that such a move is being planned.
"The United States already maintains about 2,000 troops at a base in Djibouti. This Joint Task Force/Horn of Africa detachment is the source of some of the US soldiers, sailors and Marines who will participate in Natural Fire 10." [7]
Two days after the above was published a Ugandan newspaper announced that "Hundreds of Rwandan and Burundi troops have arrived in the country for joint military training exercises geared towards the formation of the first Joint East African Military Force.
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