Africom

Backed by AFRICOM, corporations plunder DR Congo for “climate-friendly” materials and blame China

Cobalt, a key metallic element used in lithium batteries and other “green” technology, is sourced from slave labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the West points the finger at China, the US Africa Command is indirectly policing mining operations that profit US corporations. Ever since Belgium’s King Leopold II (1835-1909) established the Congo Free State in 1885, international powers have exploited the region’s vast resources. Leading a regime that went on to kill an estimated eight million people […]

How the US enabled Ethiopia’s bloodletting, training its military while playing innocent observer

The Biden administration has sanctioned Eritrea and Ethiopia for alleged crimes against the Tigray people. But over the last three decades, successive US governments trained and modernized Ethiopia’s military under the cover of “peacekeeping” operations. The World Food Program reported in October that 7 million Ethiopians across three northern states — Afar, Amhara, and Tigray — risk starvation, more than 5 million of whom are in Tigray, a region that borders Eritrea and consists of 7 million Ethiopians. The governments […]

The US is turning oil-rich Nigeria into a proxy for its Africa wars

Under the cover of counterterrorism, AFRICOM is beefing up Nigeria’s military to ensure the free flow of oil to the West, and using the country as a proxy against China’s influence on the continent. Last month, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times. It might as well have been written by the Pentagon. Buhari promoted Brand Nigeria, auctioning the country’s military services to Western powers, telling readers that Nigeria would lead Africa’s “war on terror” in […]

In Somalia, the US is bombing the very ‘terrorists’ it created

US and British meddling transformed Somalia’s al-Shabaab into an extremist group, inflaming the humanitarian crisis that persists throughout the country. This July, the Biden administration picked up where Trump left off and began bombing Somalia, a country with a gross domestic product of less than $6 billion and a poverty rate of 70 percent. But why? The official reason provided by the Pentagon was that the Somali National Army needed air support in its operations to counter al-Shabaab. But the […]

U.S. Government Turns Somalia Into Failed State to Steal Its Oil for Shell and Exxon-Mobil

“United States foreign policy in Somalia has always sided with the wrong side.” That’s how Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a young Somali historian studying for his doctorate at Oxford, summarized Washington’s legacy there in an interview with CovertAction Magazine. Instead of promoting what it claims to—peace, stability, “nation-building”—the U.S. government, Ingiriis elaborates, keeps Somalia “wartorn,” a […]

Trump Exits Somalia

Binoy Kampmark These are things that might have been done earlier. During the last, flickering days of the Trump administration, activity is being witnessed across countries which have a US troop presence. Numbers are being reduced. Security wonks are getting the jitters. Is the imperium shrinking? Will President elect Joe Biden wake up and reverse …

New Report Reveals US Special Forces Active in 22 African Countries

A new report published in South African newspaper The Mail and Guardian has shed light on the opaque world of the American military presence in Africa. Last year, elite U.S. Special Operations forces were active in 22 African countries. This accounts for 14 percent of all American commandos deployed overseas, the largest number for any region besides the Middle East. American troops had also seen combat in 13 African nations.

An American Oligarch‘s Dirty Tale of Corruption

By F. William Engdahl – New Eastern Outlook – 12.06.2015 Rarely does the world get a true look inside the corrupt world of Western oligarchs and the brazen manipulations they use to enhance their fortunes at the expense of the public good. The following comes from correspondence of the Hungarian-born billionaire, now naturalized American speculator, […]