The United States officially activated its new U.S. Africa Command on Wednesday. AfriCom will be responsible for all U.S. interests within the continent of Africa, with the exception of Egypt, and will oversea the promotion of U.S./Africa security ties, as well as helping African nations to fight piracy and prevent terrorism.
Officially, however, AfriCom will not establish its headquarters on African soil. Instead it will be headquarted in Stuttgart, Germany. The reason for this is to ease tensions with African nations which do not want to see the United States establish a permanent military presence upon the continent or a militarizing of its policies regarding African nations.
AfriCom becomes the 6th full combat command for the pentagon, rotating troops and training exercises regularly with the other 5, but it will be structured slightly differently in an effort to help it appear less geared to overt military action and more towards establishing ties with the African community.
AfriCom command falls to General William “Kip” Ward. He will maintain a staff of more than 900 personnel on a regular basis, but more than half of those will be civilians. The staff number will be growing to around 1300 total by next year.
The United States officially activated its new U.S. Africa Command on Wednesday. AfriCom will be responsible for all U.S. interests within the continent of Africa, with the exception of Egypt, and will oversea the promotion of U.S./Africa security ties, as well as helping African nations to fight piracy and prevent terrorism.
Officially, however, AfriCom will not establish its headquarters on African soil. Instead it will be headquarted in Stuttgart, Germany. The reason for this is to ease tensions with African nations which do not want to see the United States establish a permanent military presence upon the continent or a militarizing of its policies regarding African nations.
AfriCom becomes the 6th full combat command for the pentagon, rotating troops and training exercises regularly with the other 5, but it will be structured slightly differently in an effort to help it appear less geared to overt military action and more towards establishing ties with the African community.
AfriCom command falls to General William “Kip” Ward. He will maintain a staff of more than 900 personnel on a regular basis, but more than half of those will be civilians. The staff number will be growing to around 1300 total by next year.
