FIRST READ:
AFRICOM : Seizing The Helm Of Africa
http://www.antipasministries.com/other/article026.htm
AFRICOM and the Recolonization of Africa
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18660
Africom - Latest U.S. Bid to Recolonise the Continent
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16869
Predator Drones To “Stop Genocide”?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24590
US offers Shs120b to Amisom
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1190428/-/byq93oz/-/index.html
Kampala
Posted Tuesday, June 28 2011 at 00:00
The US is offering spy drones among a huge military consignment to AMISOM to help bolster its capability to decimate the al- Shabaab, foreign media reported yesterday.
The package includes four shoulder-launched Raven drones, other surveillance systems, body armour, night-vision gadgets, generators as well as communications and heavy construction equipment, according to the New York Times. This aid package will cost Washington nearly $45 million (Shs111b).
Secret documents Associated Press news agency obtained from Pentagon show Uganda will separately receive unspecified military communication and engineering gadgets worth $4.4 million (Shs10.9b). “I am not aware. The consideration may still be at policy level. We have not yet received anything,” Uganda’s Defence and Military Spokesman, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, said yesterday when contacted.
News of the military aid comes six weeks after Gen. Carter Ham, the new commander of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), visited Uganda and held talks with President Museveni at his home in Rwakitura, Kiruhura District, on May 10 about Somalia’s hazardous situation.
Mr John Dunne, the deputy public affairs officer at the US Mission in Kampala, said last evening that they have increased their military spending on AMISOM in line with US commitments made during the July 2010 AU summit in Kampala as “the situation in Mogadishu remains difficult”.
Difficult situation
“It is important that these attacks are defeated and that AMISOM and the Transitional Federal Government together restore stability in Mogadishu so that political development and humanitarian operations can continue,” he wrote in an email reply.
Uganda and Burundi, the only countries contributing some 9,000 soldiers on behalf of the African Union to fight al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist group, claim to now control 70 per cent of Mogadishu following gains in past weeks.
The US, however, maintains that the situation there “remains difficult” and outgoing Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director and Defence Secretary-designate, Leone Panetta, recently warned that al-Shabaab was getting stronger and linking with Yemen-based al-Qaeda elements in the Arabian Peninsula.
In yesterday’s email, Mr Dunne wrote: “We have and will continue to provide equipment, training, and some logistical support to Ugandan and Burundian soldiers.” To date, Washington has directly committed $185 million to support AMISOM operations in Mogadishu beside its other assessed contributions to the United Nations that provides logistical assistance to the continental force.
The latest Pentagon aid is part of a $145.4 million package that its officials approved and sent to Capitol Hill last week as part of a notification process before the equipment can be delivered. The plan aims to build the counter-terrorism capabilities of Uganda and Burundi.
AMISOM Spokesman Paddy Ankunda, promoted yesterday to Lt. Col, said from Mogadishu that the equipment, when it arrives, will be “force multiplier”. He said al-Shabaab has lost the enthusiasm to fight but still maintain some capability to harm civilians through suicide bombings.
Uganda and Burundi to get US drones to fight Islamists
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13946702
28 June 2011 Last updated at 15:31 GMT
The US is supplying drone aircrafts to Uganda and Burundi to help them fight Islamist militants in Somalia, its defence officials have told the BBC.
The four drones will be part of a $45m (£28m) military aid package aid to the two countries.
Uganda and Burundi contribute the 9,000 peacekeepers to African peace force in Somalia battling Islamists that control much of the country.
The US sees Somalia as an al-Qaeda haven in East Africa.
Air strikes
The US military command for Africa (Africom) confirmed to the BBC that the Pentagon plan was to strengthen Uganda's and Burundi's counter-terrorism capabilities.
The military aid is to include body armour, night-vision gear, communications and surveillance systems.
The al-Shabab Islamist group, which has links to al-Qaeda, control large swathes of southern and central Somalia, including parts of the capital, Mogadishu.
Analysts say Somalia's weak interim government relies heavily on the African Union peacekeepers to stave off the threat posed by al-Shabab.
There have been US air strikes on al-Shabab in the past, and a US special operations team killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most senior leaders of al-Qaeda's East Africa cell, inside Somalia in 2009.
The US has a military base in neighbouring Djibouti where some 3,000 US troops, as well as armour, aircraft and drones are based.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of Siad Bare in 1991.
