{"id":139340,"date":"2019-08-05T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=139340"},"modified":"2019-08-12T11:01:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T10:01:24","slug":"violence-has-spiked-in-africa-since-the-military-founded-africom-pentagon-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/08\/violence-has-spiked-in-africa-since-the-military-founded-africom-pentagon-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence Has Spiked in Africa since the Military Founded AFRICOM, Pentagon Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A convoy of AFRICOM’s armored vehicles drive to the Uganda People\u2019s Defence Force compound in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Sept. 25, 2017.
Photo: Tech. Sgt. Andria Allmond\/U.S. Air National Guard<\/p><\/div>\n

29 Jul 2019 – <\/em>Since U.S. Africa Command began operations in 2008, the number of U.S. military personnel on the African continent has jumped 170 percent, from 2,600<\/a> to 7,000<\/a>. The number of military missions, activities, programs, and exercises there<\/a> has risen 1,900 percent, from 172 to 3,500. Drone strikes have soared<\/a> and the number of commandos deployed<\/a> has increased exponentially along with the size and scope of AFRICOM\u2019s constellation of bases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military has recently conducted 36 named operations and activities<\/a> in Africa, more than any other region of the world<\/a>, including the Greater Middle East. Troops scattered across Africa regularly advise, train, and partner with local forces; gather intelligence; conduct surveillance; and carry out airstrikes and ground raids focused on \u201ccountering violent extremists<\/a> on the African continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

AFRICOM \u201cdisrupts and neutralizes transnational threats<\/a>\u201d in order to \u201cpromote regional security, stability and prosperity,\u201d according to its mission statement. But since AFRICOM began, key indicators of security and stability in Africa have plummeted according to the Defense Department\u2019s Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. \u201cOverall, militant Islamist group activity in Africa has doubled since 2012,\u201d according to a recent analysis<\/a> by the Africa Center.<\/p>\n

There are now roughly 24 \u201cactive militant Islamist groups\u201d operating on the continent, up from just five in 2010, the analysis found. Today, 13 African countries face attacks from these groups \u2014 a 160 percent increase over that same time span. In fact, the number of \u201cviolent events<\/a>\u201d across the continent has jumped 960 percent, from 288 in 2009 to 3,050 in 2018, according to the Africa Center\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

While a variety of factors have likely contributed to the rise in violence, some experts say that the overlap between the command\u2019s existence and growing unrest is not a coincidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sharp increase in terrorist incidents in Africa underscores the fact that the Pentagon\u2019s overly militarized approach to the problem has been a dismal failure,\u201d said William Hartung, the director of the arms and security project at the Center for International Policy. \u201cIf anything, attempting to eradicate terrorism by force may be exacerbating the problem, provoking a terrorist backlash and serving as a recruiting tool for extremist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A Somali woman walks in a camp for internally displaced people on Dec. 18, 2018, as hundreds of people fled from southern Somalia while the U.S. conducted airstrikes against the Shabab.
Photo: Mohamed Abdiwahab\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Take Somalia, for example. Over the last decade, AFRICOM has conducted hundreds<\/a> of airstrikes and commando missions there and claims an enemy body count of approximately 800 terrorists, primarily members of the Shabab, a militant group. The number of U.S. air attacks has skyrocketed of late, jumping from 14 under President Barack Obama in 2016 to 47 under the Trump administration last year. Yet the Pentagon\u2019s own analysis found that violent episodes involving the Shabab represent roughly 50 percent of all militant Islamist group activity in Africa and that this \u201crate has remained consistent over the past decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October 2017, members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, or ISGS,\u00a0ambushed American troops<\/a> near the border of the Sahelian states of Mali and Niger, killing four U.S. soldiers<\/a> and wounding two others. Just after the attack, AFRICOM claimed the troops were providing \u201cadvice and assistance\u201d to local partners, but it was later revealed that American commandos operating alongside a Nigerian force had \u2014 until poor weather intervened \u2014 hoped to link up with another contingent of U.S. special operators trying to kill or capture Islamic State leader Doundoun Cheffou.<\/p>\n

Despite these and several other long-running U.S. military efforts in the region, militant groups in the Sahel have grown more active and their attacks more frequent, according to the Africa Center. In fact, \u201cviolent episodes\u201d linked to groups associated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, and ISGS increased from 192 in 2017 to 464 last year. At the same time, fatalities linked to these groups more than doubled, from 529 to 1,112.<\/p>\n

This is especially significant in light of a 2000 report prepared<\/a> under the auspices of the U.S. Army War College\u2019s Strategic Studies Institute, which examined the \u201cAfrican security environment.\u201d While noting the existence of \u201cinternal separatist or rebel movements\u201d in \u201cweak states,\u201d as well as militias and \u201cwarlord armies,\u201d it made no mention of Islamic extremism or major transnational terror threats. Now the Africa Center counts 24 \u201cactive militant Islamist groups\u201d on the continent while other official tallies have, in recent years, put the figure at nearly 50 terrorist organizations<\/a> and \u201cillicit groups\u201d of all types.<\/p>\n

Neither the Pentagon nor AFRICOM responded to The Intercept\u2019s questions about the Africa Center\u2019s analysis, the command\u2019s effectiveness, and any role it may have played in the rising violence on the continent.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Jul 2019 – AFRICOM \u201cdisrupts and neutralizes transnational threats\u201d in order to \u201cpromote regional security, stability and prosperity,\u201d according to its mission statement. But since AFRICOM began, security and stability in Africa have plummeted according to a Pentagon research institution. \u201cOverall, militant Islamist group activity in Africa has doubled since 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":139341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,65,57],"tags":[237,131,1126,1050,291,91,86,109,287,880,265,70,126,492],"class_list":["post-139340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-anglo-america","category-militarism","tag-africa","tag-africom","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-occupation","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-state-terrorism","tag-terrorism","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}