The Africa Command

The U.S. military's new Africa command will help safeguard West African nations' oil and other energy production against rebel or terrorist attacks.
The U.S. wants to help countries such as Nigeria, its fifth- largest supplier of oil, improve its military's ability to thwart the kind of attacks by militants who in the past year halted production by about 600,000 barrels a day.
Continuing unrest in the Middle East puts a premium on U.S. security alliances and energy resources in Africa. The continent supplied 24 percent of U.S. daily crude oil imports in February, ahead of the Mideast's 18.6 percent.
Consolidating the military's operations in Africa under a single command will help the U.S. to strengthen counter-terrorism programs it runs in more than nine countries from the Horn to the Western Sahara as al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations migrate deeper into Africa, said Craddock and other officials. Other factors including improving African responses to humanitarian crises like the conflict in Darfur.
The U.S. military divides the globe into regions of responsibility or commands. The Africa Command will be the fifth, joining commands responsible for NATO and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pacific and South America.
Terrorism isn't a new concern but Craddock agreed with a statement yesterday by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte that al-Qaeda is spreading into sub-Sahara Africa, including Chad, Mali and Niger.
The U.S. in 2001 established a task force in Djibouti to track down al-Qaeda terrorists, who gained prominence in August 1998 with the bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed over 300 people.
The U.S. now has more than 1,500 troops operating out of Djibouti, most of them involved in peacekeeping missions and training. U.S. and African forces have conducted joint military and medical training exercises since 1996.
One of the most aggressive programs is the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative, which provides developmental aid and trains militaries in Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria and Morocco.