{"id":43250,"date":"2014-05-26T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=43250"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:34:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:34:57","slug":"map-the-u-s-military-currently-has-troops-in-these-african-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/05\/map-the-u-s-military-currently-has-troops-in-these-african-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"MAP: The U.S. Military Currently Has Troops in These African Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama’s announcement that United States\u00a0has deployed 80 troops to Chad came as a surprise to many. But as my colleague Craig Whitlock points out<\/a>, the United States already has boots on the ground in a surprising number of African countries.<\/p>\n

This map shows what sub-Saharan nations currently have a U.S. military presence engaged in actual military operations.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/a>

Adam Taylor and Laris Karklis\/The Washington Post<\/p><\/div>\n

It should be noted that in most of these countries, there is a pretty small number of troops. But it is a clear sign of the\u00a0U.S. Africa Command’s increasingly broad position on the continent in what could be described as a growing shadow war against al-Qaeda affiliates and other militant groups<\/a>. It also shows an increasingly blurred line between U.S. military operations and the CIA in Africa.<\/p>\n

More details of the troops deployed are below.<\/p>\n

Burkina Faso<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States has a base in Ouagadougou,\u00a0Burkina Faso, since 2007. The base acts\u00a0as a hub of a U.S spying network in the region<\/a>, with spy planes departing form the base to fly over\u00a0Mali, Mauritania and the Sahara, where they search for fighters from\u00a0al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.<\/p>\n

Congo<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States has troops in Congo assisting the nation in the search for\u00a0Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army.<\/p>\n

Central African Republic<\/strong><\/p>\n

In April 2013, the United States had around 40 troops<\/a> in Central African Republic assisting the search for the LRA.<\/p>\n

Chad<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Washington announced that it<\/a> would be sending\u00a080 troops to Chad to help with the search for Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by\u00a0militant Islamist group Boko Haram.<\/p>\n

Djibouti<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. military has a major base in Djibouti, Camp Lemonnier<\/a>. There are around 4,000 troops there, including lots of aircraft and drones.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States has had a military drone base at\u00a0Arba Minch since 2011. The base is\u00a0used to fly Reaper drones over East Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kenya<\/strong><\/p>\n

Camp Simba, near the border with Somalia, had around 60 military personnel stationed as of November 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mali<\/strong><\/p>\n

In April 2013, 10 U.S. troops were deployed<\/a> to war-torn Mali to provide \u201cliaison support\u201d to French and African troops. The Pentagon insisted they would not be engaging in combat.<\/p>\n

Niger<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. Air Force set up a drone base in\u00a0Niamey, Niger<\/a>, in 2013. The White House says it has around 100 military personnel in the country on an \u201cintelligence collection\u201d mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nigeria<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the beginning of May, a small team of U.S. troops and civilian advisers was deployed to Nigeria<\/a> to join the search for the abducted\u00a0schoolgirls. According to the Associated Press<\/a>, these troops joined around\u00a070 military personnel in Nigeria, with 50 regularly assigned to the U.S. Embassy, and 20 Marines there for training.<\/p>\n

Somalia<\/strong><\/p>\n

In early 2014, the United States deployed fewer than two dozen regular troops to Somalia<\/a> for training and advising purposes.<\/p>\n

South Sudan<\/strong><\/p>\n

In December 2013, the United States deployed 45 military personnel<\/a> to South Sudan to protect U.S. citizens and property in the country.<\/p>\n

Uganda<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States has a base in Entebbe that it uses to fly PC-12 surveillance aircraft in search of Kony’s LRA. The total number of U.S. troops in Uganda is said to be around 300<\/a>, and they are officially in the country to \u201cprovide information, advice and assistance\u201d to an African Union force searching for Kony.<\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

Adam Taylor<\/em> writes about foreign affairs for the <\/em>Washington Post. Originally from London, he studied at the University of Manchester and Columbia University.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

This map shows what sub-Saharan nations currently have a U.S. military presence engaged in actual military operations. More details of the troops deployed are below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250","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=43250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}