Eight thousand American soldiers special forces operating outside of the United States, about 17% are in Africa. More — only in the middle East. In Africa 1700 American servicemen to perform various missions in 32 countries.
The force commander of U.S. special operations in Africa, Brigadier General Donald Bolduc (Donald Bolduc) reported that U.S. special forces simultaneously performs a task 96 in 20 countries of the continent. In his opinion, in the foreseeable future, Africa will represent a much greater threat to US national interests than Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Bolduc believes that after 30 years the situation will be much worse than now, and that terrorist groups in Africa are among the deadliest on the planet. General fears of the growing influence of ISIS on the continent, the activity of Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Qaeda in Mali (an organization banned in Russia — approx. ed.), not to mention the situation in Libya.
The solution — increase in special forces operations in the region. USA, the General said, today is not involved in the war in Africa, but sometimes “self-defense” are fighting against militants of the terrorist group Al-Shabab in Somalia.
May fourth in Somalia killed American soldier and two others were wounded 40 miles West of the capital Mogadishu. This is the first killed an American, after the United States withdrew from Somalia in 1995, moving four thousand of their soldiers. In 2013, Americans returned to the country, but in a much smaller number. About 50 members of spetsnaz of the USA instructed the armed forces of this African country and acted as military advisers. Special attention Americans paid to the formation and training of battalion Somali commando “Dana”.
In mid-April of this year it became known that in addition to elite soldiers in Somalia will receive additional 40 U.S. troops, who will be responsible for the establishment of military logistics in the army of Somalia.
Since 2009, the United States invested more than half a billion dollars just in equipment and training of the armed forces of Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti, these countries were able to resist the threat from the group Al-Shabab.
Also since 2007, the U.S. special forces conducting operations in Somalia to destroy the commanders of Al-Shabab, and from 2001 to 2016 were produced about 40 strikes on militants from the air using drones. In March last year, air strikes had killed 150 insurgents, but in September the Americans destroyed more than a dozen government soldiers, mistaking them for members of Al-Shabab.
In March of this year, the Americans in Somalia changed the rules of warfare, allowing you to more quickly launch air strikes to eliminate suspected of involvement in Al-Shabab. In March, the US decided to classify all the information on the movement or presence of us troops in the region. In April, the African command of the United States requested coordinates all humanitarian missions in Somalia, what many perceived as a preparation for more active operations in the country.
In addition to Somalia and Djibouti, the Americans are working with the military Kenya, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Malawi, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and with the armies of other countries on the continent.
The US is also considering its participation in the current French counter-terrorist operation “Dune” in Africa, but without sending its troops. We are talking about assistance with logistics, refueling French aircraft in the air, giving the French satellite imagery and intelligence information. For the first time in the course of the operation “Dune” the US now has its permanent representative in the French command. France in Africa lacks large transport aircraft for rapid transfer of equipment and cargo, and have long been voices that the US should provide the aircraft for these purposes.
Last summer, the Americans recognized that in Libya are military special forces, which are responsible for the guidance of air strikes in the battle for Sirte and providing intelligence, and this month surfaced that a small American base in southern Libya in 2015. If a database is active today or not, the media do not know. A temporary base was created to control the routes of smugglers from Niger and Chad.
Until recently, Americans participated in operations in the Central African Republic (CAR) to capture Joseph Kony, the leader of the “Lord’s resistance army”, which over the years killed nearly 100 thousand people and kidnapped 20 thousand children. Today the number of groups is unlikely to exceed 100 people, and last month the U.S. and Uganda declared the end of the operation and the withdrawal of troops from the country. This partially touches and 150 us military, some of which, however, will remain and will continue to provide services in training the local military.
However, the operation ends with the scandal, as Ugandan soldiers accused of multiple rapes of local women. The Americans say they don’t know anything about these incidents.
However, despite the activity of Americans on the continent, the force commander of U.S. special operations in Africa, General Bolduc said that the African countries do not want to see on the ground the massive presence of the us military because “they see what happened in those countries where the Americans were scared shitless”. The General even said that he is “scared shitless” how it came about.
