{"id":84931,"date":"2017-01-02T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=84931"},"modified":"2017-01-02T10:58:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T10:58:08","slug":"u-s-special-operations-numbers-surge-in-africas-shadow-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/u-s-special-operations-numbers-surge-in-africas-shadow-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Special Operations Numbers Surge in Africa\u2019s Shadow Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

31 Dec 2016 – <\/em>Africa has seen the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America\u2019s elite troops of any region of the globe over the past decade, according to newly released numbers.<\/p>\n

In 2006, just 1% of commandos sent overseas were deployed in the U.S. Africa Command area of operations. In 2016, 17.26% of all U.S. Special Operations forces \u2014 Navy SEALs and Green Berets among them \u2014 deployed abroad were sent to Africa, according to data supplied to The Intercept by U.S. Special Operations Command. That total ranks second only to the Greater Middle East where the U.S. is waging war against enemies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Africa, we are not the kinetic solution,\u201d Brigadier General Donald Bolduc, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, told<\/a> African Defense, a U.S. trade publication, early this fall. \u201cWe are not at war in Africa \u2014 but our African partners certainly are.\u201d<\/p>\n

That statement stands in stark contrast to this year\u2019s missions in Somalia where, for example, U.S. Special Operations forces assisted<\/a> local commandos in killing several members of the militant group, al-Shabab and Libya, where they supported<\/a> local fighters battling members of the Islamic State. These missions also speak to the exponential growth of special operations on the continent.<\/p>\n

As recently as 2014, there were reportedly only about 700<\/a> U.S. commandos deployed in Africa on any given day. Today, according<\/a> to Bolduc, \u201cthere are approximately 1,700 [Special Operations forces] and enablers deployed\u2026 at any given time. This team is active in 20 nations in support of seven major named operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using data provided by Special Operations Command and open source information,\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>\u00a0found that U.S. special operators were actually deployed in at least 33 African nations, more than 60% of the 54 countries on the continent, in 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Special Operations Forces deployments in 33 African countries in 2016.
Map: The Intercept<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re supporting African military professionalization and capability-building efforts,\u201d said<\/a> Bolduc. \u201cThe [Special Operations forces] network helps create specific tailored training for partner nations to empower military and law enforcement to conduct operations against our mutual threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of African governments that hosted deployments of U.S. commandos in 2016 have seen their own security forces cited for human rights abuses by the U.S. State Department, including Algeria<\/a>, Botswana<\/a>, Burkina Faso<\/a>, Burundi<\/a>, Cameroon<\/a>, Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a>, Djibouti<\/a>, Kenya<\/a>, Mali<\/a>, Mauritania<\/a>, Niger<\/a>, Nigeria<\/a>, and Tanzania<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

According to data provided to The Intercept<\/em> by Special Operations Command, elite U.S. troops are also deployed to Sudan, one of three nations, along with Iran and Syria, cited by the U.S. as \u201cstate sponsors of terrorism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. [Special Operations forces] have occasionally met with U.S. State Dept. and interagency partners in Sudan to discuss the overall security situation in the region,\u201d Africa Command spokesperson Chuck Prichard wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw added, \u201cTheir visit had nothing to do with Sudan\u2019s government or military.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

Nick Turse<\/a> – t@nickturse<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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

Africa has seen the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America\u2019s elite troops of any region of the globe over the past decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84931","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=84931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}