Africom: No unified command for Africa

Pentagon unveils AFRICOM’s motives

No unified command for Africa

El Khabar, 23 june, 2007

“We are considering the possibility to share the U.S. Africa command AFRICOM among many African countries”, Ryan Henry, principal undersecretary of defence for policy pointed out. He further added “African countries were interested in how AFRICOM would help support their counterterrorism efforts”.
At the verge of his visit to African countries among them Algeria in the framework of discussions over the new unified combatant command the Defense Department is establishing in Africa, Henry Ryan underscored “we examine the possibility to divide the commandment into many cells in the continent”, stressing “AFRICOM is not going to be a base of security operations in Africa but to help African countries efforts cope with terrorism”.
In the press conference held by Henry Ryan in Washington, he made clear that Officials have not decided the where the new command’s headquarters will be, nor have they named a commander. As for the possibility to manage the command with many cells spread in African countries, Henry Ryan said “information technologies will ease that task”.
The US senior official added that the Pentagon worries about the increasing threat of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which led African countries to wonder about how AFRICOM is going to help responding to the threat.

23-06-2007
By Atef Kedadra/ Translated by N. K