The apprehensions were not without foundation. On October 3 U.S. ambassador-designate to Gabon and to Sao Tome and Principe, Eunice Reddick, issued the following statements:
"Mismanaged, an oil boom could threaten Sao Tome and Principe's young democracy, security and stability."
"The United States has trained Gabonese forces under the African Contingency Operations Training Assistance (ACOTA) program....To promote the security of the strategic Gulf of Guinea region, origin of a growing share of U.S. oil imports, U.S. military engagement with Gabon has developed in several areas....If confirmed, I will work closely with the Gabonese civilian and military leadership, our European Command and the new Africa Command...." [28]
As noted above, the month after AFRICOM's preliminary activation the U.S. Navy dispatched its first Africa Partnership Station mission to the Gulf of Guinea, described by the Pentagon as a multinational maritime security initiative.
The guided missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman visited Cape Verde for three days in early November "to consolidate a growing sense of partnership between the U.S. Navy and the Caboverdian armed forces" [29] at the same time USS Fort McHenry began the Africa Partnership Station's maiden mission with a visit to Senegal en route to the Gulf of Guinea.
In 2008 the NATO secretary general at the time, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, visited Ghana, meeting with the country's president and defense minister "on deepening the cooperation between NATO and Africa," and delivered a speech on the topic at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra. [30]
In July of that year U.S. European Command conducted the Operation Africa Endeavor 2008 multinational interoperability and information exchange exercise in Nigeria with the participation of the armed forces of Nigeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal,
Sierra Leone and Uganda. General William Ward, commander of AFRICOM, attended the closing ceremonies at Nigerian Air Force Base, Abuja.
The following year's Africa Endeavor exercises were held in Gabon, with "more than 25 nations participating...the second largest communications exercise in the world." For the first time run under the command of AFRICOM, it focused on "interoperability and information sharing among African nations via communication networks and collaborative communications links with the United States, NATO and other nations with common stability, security and sustainment goals/objectives for the African continent." [31] Participants included the Economic Community of West African States and Gulf of Guinea nations Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sao Tome and Principe.
At the time Associated Press reported:
"Just a few years ago, the U.S.military was all but absent from the oil-rich waters of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.
"This year, it plans to be there every day.
"Africa -- including Algeria and Libya in the north -- supplies the U.S. with more than 24 percent of its oil, surpassing the Persian Gulf at 20 percent, according to statistics from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration. Of that amount, 17 percent comes from the Gulf of Guinea and Chad, which runs a pipeline to the Atlantic Ocean through Cameroon." [32]
A spokesman for the U.S. Sixth Fleet said that in terms of "ship days" in the Gulf of Guinea, U.S. naval presence had increased 50 percent from 2006 to 2007 and the U.S. Navy was expected to have a daily presence in 2008.
The Pentagon and its NATO allies are firmly ensconced in the Gulf of Guinea, in part to realize one of the decisions agreed upon at last November's NATO summit in Portugal: To "develop the capacity to contribute to energy security," as the summit declaration stated.
The Pentagon has forged both bilateral and regional military partnerships with every African nation except for Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
What began in the Gulf of Guinea has now absorbed an entire continent.
1) Associated Press, December 15, 2010
Al Jazeera/Daily Mail (Ghana), December 20, 2011
2) Ghana Government, March 18, 2010
3) Atlantic Council: Securing The 21st Century For NATO
Stop NATO, April 30, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/atlantic-council-securing-the-21st-century-for-nato
4) Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability
in the West African Maritime Domain
Atlantic Council, November 30, 2011
http://www.acus.org/publication/advancing-us-african-and-global-interests-security-and-stability-west-african-maritime-d
5) U.S. Africa Command, July 12, 2010
6) AFRICOM Year Two: Seizing The Helm Of The Entire World
Stop NATO, October 22, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/africom-year-two-taking-the-helm-of-the-entire-world
7) NATO: AFRICOM's Partner In Military Penetration Of Africa
Stop NATO, March 20, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/nato-africoms-partner-in-military-penetration-of-africa
8) Agence France-Presse, September 24, 2002
9) U.S. Department of Defense, June 27, 2004
10) Agence France-Presse, July 22, 2005
11) Stars And Stripes, July 31, 2005
12) Associated Press, August 7, 2005
13) BBC News, August 22, 2002
14) Ghana Web, February 23, 2006
15) U.S. Department of Defense, August 18, 2006
....
Global Energy War: Washington's New Kissinger's African Plans
Stop NATO, January 22, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/global-energy-war-washingtons-new-kissingers-african-plans
16) Trend News Agency, May 3, 2006
17) Associated Press, April 24, 2006
18) Associated Press, May 2, 2006
19) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, June 30, 20016
http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2006/06-june/e0628a.htm
20) Reuters, June 22, 2006
21) United States European Command, September 18, 2007
22) Associated Press, November 6, 2007
23) Malu Suleiman Mohammed and Olumide Bajulaye
Why US Wants to Establish Military Base in the Country
Daily Trust, November 24, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711240118.html
24) Abba Mahmood, Country, Gulf of Guinea And Africom
Leadership, November 22, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711220187.html
25) Ochereome Nnanna, Nigeria: No to U.S. Army Base
Vanguard, November 22, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711220612.html
26) Juliana Taiwo, U.S. Military Base - Country Begins Diplomatic Inquiries
This Day, October 2, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200710020239.html
27) Horatius Egua, Nigeria too late to stop US military on base in Africa
Business Day, September 27, 2007
http://businessdayonline.com/National/208.html
28) United States Department of State, October 3, 2007
29) United States European Command, November 13, 2007
30) North Atlantic treaty Organization, November 25, 2008
31) U.S. Africa Command, January 14, 2009
32) Associated Press, November 5, 2007
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