![]() ![]() The new 2019 AFRICOM planning documents provide information on five bases slated for closure, including a longtime “enduring” site in Gaborone, Botswana, and four contingency locations, or CLs, in Faya Largeau, Chad Lakipia, Kenya Benina, Libya and Gao, Mali. outposts in Africa represents a decrease of seven sites from the 34 bases detailed in a set of briefing documents by AFRICOM science adviser Peter Teil that were published by The Intercept in 2018. military aims in West Africa have recently been scaled back from a strategy of degrading the strength and reach of terror groups to nothing more than “ containment.” The situation has become so grim that U.S. Reported fatalities resulting from African militant Islamist group activity also increased by 7 percent over last year, to an estimated 10,460 deaths. There were 3,471 reported violent events linked to these groups last year, a 1,105 percent increase since 2009. Militant Islamist activity also hit record levels in 2019. There are now roughly 25 active militant Islamist groups operating in Africa, up from just five in 2010 - a jump of 400 percent - according to the Defense Department’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies. airstrikes in Somalia (just over one attack per week in 2019). Special Operations forces in at least 13 African countries between 20, and a record number of U.S. has been building up its network of bases, providing billions of dollars in security assistance to local partners, conducting persistent counterterrorism operations that include commando raids, combat by U.S. Violent extremism and insecurity on the continent has increased exponentially during the very years that the U.S. Africa Command’s “Enduring Footprint” and “Non-Enduring Footprint” in 2019. with an archipelago of 15 “enduring locations” and 12 less-permanent “contingency locations.” The documents note, however, that AFRICOM is actively seeking to enhance its presence and is primed for expansion in the future. ![]() Since the plans were created, according to AFRICOM spokesperson John Manley, two bases have been shuttered, leaving the U.S. The 2019 planning documents provide locations for 29 bases located in 15 different countries or territories, with the highest concentrations in the Sahelian states on the west side of the continent, as well as the Horn of Africa in the east. This “light” footprint consists of a constellation of more than two dozen outposts that stretch from one side of Africa to the other. Africa Commandĭuring testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee late last month, Stephen Townsend, the commander of AFRICOM, echoed a line favored by his predecessors that AFRICOM maintains a “light and relatively low-cost footprint” on the continent. The Pentagon defines “enduring” bases as providing “strategic access and use to support United States security interests for the foreseeable future.” “Non-Enduring” outposts - also known as “contingency locations” - are defined as supporting and sustaining “operations during contingencies or other operations.” Contingency locations can be categorized as initial, temporary, or semipermanent. “Enduring” and “Non-Enduring” bases in Africa. These formerly secret documents, created by the Pentagon’s Africa Command and obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, offer an exclusive window into the footprint of American military operations in Africa. military documents and a set of accompanying maps that provide the locations of these African bases in 2019, including the one at Manda Bay. military has built a sprawling network of outposts in more than a dozen African countries. bases, there is the potential for such attacks, because bases are not just launching pads for offensive military operations, but targets for them too. military personnel were wounded, six surveillance aircraft and helicopters were destroyed, and parts of the airfield were in flames. When it was all over, the two American pilots of that plane and a U.S. surveillance plane and touching off an hourslong firefight. One of them took aim with a rocket-propelled grenade, firing at a U.S. Last month, about a dozen al-Shabab fighters infiltrated the perimeter of a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya. ![]()
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