AFRICOM – An insidious enabler of the war against African civilians

There is no greater example of US complicity in African wars than AFRICOM’s involvement in Chad, even as the current Sudanese war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) drags on.

By MARIAM JOOMA ÇARIKCI

Charles Dickens saw through the self-serving logic of empire when he observed, ‘The one great principle of the English Law is, to make business for itself.’

While the world is focused on trade wars, US foreign (military) policy in Africa continues to operate no differently: peace is the promise, but war is the business – and business is booming.

Just as Sudanese civilians call for justice and an end to the war that has, since 2023, claimed an estimated 150 000 lives and displaced some 13 million people, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is currently involved in its most expansive ‘African Lion’ exercise to date. From April 14 to May 23, military exercises involving 10 000 troops from more than 40 countries and seven NATO member states are taking place across Tunisia, Ghana, Senegal and Morocco.

And the aim of this ‘premier annual exercise’, first inaugurated in Morocco in 2004?

According to Major General Andrew Gainey, the commanding general of the Southern European Task Force for Africa (SETAF-AF), ‘It demonstrates the capabilities of the total force by building strategic readiness and interoperability with our African partners and allies to deploy, fight and win in a complex multi-domain environment.’

Let’s forget for a minute the notion that the US has, for decades, carved the globe into military areas of influence, with 29 documented bases of varying categories on the African continent alone. Instead, focus on the fact that since its inception, AFRICOM’s military ‘partnership’ has not only caused greater destabilisation in Africa – particularly in areas like the Sahel where ‘anti-terrorism’ activities are ongoing – but has also strengthened the hand of anti-democratic elites whose alliances with the US are the only criteria for continuing military and economic aid.

It is no secret that this year’s ‘host’ countries have strong ties to Israel. Except for Tunisia, which reportedly uses back channels to interact with the Zionist regime, Ghana, Morocco and Senegal have all continued and deepened their relationships with the occupying state. Despite strong public opposition to its foreign policy links with Israel, the Rabat regime benefits from drone sales, cyber surveillance tech, and joint military operations that are almost always targeted at opposition movements.

The only losers in US military surveillance of Africa are its people; entrenched regimes and war economies go undisturbed.

There is no greater example of US complicity in African wars than AFRICOM’s involvement in Chad, even as the current Sudanese war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) drags on. While the Sudanese military government takes the UAE to the ICJ for sponsoring what many experts are calling a ‘genocide’ in the country’s western region of Darfur, the US’s relationship with Chad and the UAE, by default, raises questions about how international law is selectively upended by military alliances. It is the insidious nature of the US empire that speaks of ending wars just as it adds further fuel to the eternal flames of conflict.

Much has been written about the UAE’s increasing role as an investor in Africa – overtaking China, Russia, and the US – but there remains scant analysis on the link between the UAE and the US in carving up more of Africa’s mineral-rich territory. Indeed, the UAE is almost a distraction from which the larger theatre of war is managed – the situation rooms of the US military establishment.

It is from Sudan’s neighbouring country that the US monitors the war next door – tracking RSF troop movements, weapons flows, and humanitarian crises – all while claiming non-involvement.

But recent revelations make this posture untenable. A leaked report from a United Nations panel of experts, reviewed by The Guardian, alleges that weapons destined for the RSF are being shipped from the UAE to Chad, then transported across the porous border into Darfur. The Sudanese government has gone a step further, accusing the UAE of complicity in genocide.

The crucial question becomes: if these flights land in Chad – a country hosting AFRICOM – and if the US has the most advanced satellite and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) capabilities in the region, how is this not being intercepted or exposed?

To put it bluntly: AFRICOM sees everything. But it says nothing.

Chad’s military ruler, Mahamat Idriss Déby, is both a key Western ally and a pivotal regional broker. By keeping one foot in AFRICOM’s orbit and the other in Sudan’s tribal politics, Déby has allowed UAE-chartered flights to land, maintained links with RSF commanders, and simultaneously hosted both US and French military personnel.

AFRICOM’s silence is complicity because it actively prevents any disruption of the status quo.

Germany and Israel – silent benefactors of US Empire

Based as it is in Stuttgart, Germany – since no African nation was willing to risk hosting US AFRICOM – it represents all that is wrong with foreign military intervention in Africa: a self-interested foreign policy launchpad.

The German government hosts the operational headquarters of AFRICOM while also pledging millions of euros for humanitarian efforts – completely reinforcing the never-ending cycle of instability rather than empowering civilian-led peace.

But AFRICOM is not just a windfall for the US and Germany; it is a conduit for sales of Israeli military tech, surveillance, and cyber-intelligence. Israeli companies like the NSO Group, Elbit Systems, Verint and the Mer Group benefit from sales of their ‘counter-terrorism’ tech, which is often first tested out in the Palestinian territories.

With Israel a firm partner of the US, despite its brutal and well-documented genocide in Palestine, we can expect little by way of substantive power for individual African states as long as they continue to be part of the theatrics of US militarism.

The African Union and the African trade block, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), have so far struggled to mediate a credible peace. The UN has been largely sidelined. Into this vacuum step powers like the UAE and the US, whose interests may align in ways that don’t prioritise Sudanese lives.

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Sudan’s ICJ case – regardless of its outcome – is a call to the international community and African citizens alike to reconsider what ‘security’ means and to whose benefit.

Mariam Jooma Çarikci is a Senior Researcher with the Johannesburg based, Media Review Network (MRN), and the author of Kurdistan, Achievable Reality or Political Mirage, (AMEC). She focuses on the politics of the Horn of Africa, Türkiye and the role of Zionism in Africa.

AFRICOM – An insidious enabler of the war against African civilians

There is no greater example of US complicity in African wars than AFRICOM’s involvement in Chad, even as the current Sudanese war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) drags on.

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