"The stakes are rising. We've got companies, beyond gold exploration [Mali is Africa's third largest gold producer], wanting to explore for oil in northern Mali.
"There has been significant interest by investors wanting to explore for oil in Timbuktu (and other northern towns)....If oil is eventually discovered, that could of course play a role." [16]
The report from which the above is quoted also said: "Tuareg tribesmen in neighboring Niger...launched a fresh rebellion early last year, demanding greater autonomy and a bigger slice of revenues from French-operated uranium mines in their traditional fiefdom around the northern town of Agadez." [17]
Last year the Red Cross reported that 1,000 Tuareg civilians fled into neighboring Burkina Faso to escape a U.S.-supported Malian government offensive.
AFRICOM's mission in the region, as with much of the rest of Africa, is to wage counterinsurgency campaigns to secure vital resources including gold, precious stones, oil, natural gas and uranium.
The infamous Niger "yellow cake" forgeries played a decisive role in U.S. propaganda leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Off the eastern coast of Africa "The US has supplied the Seychelles with drone spy planes....Seychelles officials say the planes will be used for surveillance, but did not say how many aircraft the US would be handing over....The move comes a day after the US gave equipment to Mali to fight insurgents." [18]
A Middle Eastern website put together several components of AFRICOM's plans in rendering this analysis:
"The United States is taking its military venture in Africa to new levels amid suspicions that Washington could be advancing yet another hidden agenda. American operatives are expected to fly pilotless surveillance aircraft over [Seychelles] territory from US ships off its coast....Washington has also started to equip Mali with USD 4.5 million worth of military vehicles and communications equipment, in what is reported to be an increasing US involvement in Africa.
"The developments come as the White House seeks grounds to establish a major military presence in Africa....[A]nalysts caution that similar pretexts were used to justify the US invasion of Afghanistan, the missile attacks in Pakistan, and its waning military operations in Iraq, where the civilian population continues to bear the brunt of the US intervention." [19]
The same news site reported two days earlier that a U.S. spy drone had been shot down over the southern Somali port of Kismayu. "Kismayu residents routinely report suspected US drones flying over the port. The drones are believed to be launched from warships in the Indian Ocean." [20]
It was also reported in a feature titled "US to make Blackwater-style entry into Somalia" that "The grounds have reportedly been established for armed American presence on Somali soil with a US security firm [Michigan-based CSS Global Inc.] winning a contract in the war-ravaged country." [21]
The development was characterized as follows: "Washington has been [increasingly] deputizing the companies, which are notorious for misusing their State Department-issued gun licenses as excuses for trigger-ready atrocities. The move has been denounced as an effort at putting a non-military face on the US pursuits in the respective countries." [22]
Though not part of AFRICOM's area of responsibility, the African nation of Egypt recently hosted the latest Bright Star war games.
The Pentagon's website described aspects of this year's Bright Star, "U.S. Central Command's longest-running exercise":
"U.S. Marines and sailors were part of a four-nation coalition that stormed the beaches...during a major amphibious assault demonstration Oct. 12.
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