"The U.S. Is Waging A Massive Shadow War In Africa" Topic

"Six years ago, a deputy commanding general for U.S. Army Special Operations Command gave a conservative estimate of 116 missions being carried out at any one time by Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and other special operations forces across the globe.

Today, according to U.S. military documents obtained by VICE News, special operators are carrying out nearly 100 missions at any given time — in Africa alone. It's the latest sign of the military's quiet but ever-expanding presence on the continent, one that represents the most dramatic growth in the deployment of America's elite troops to any region of the globe.

In 2006, just 1 percent of all U.S. commandos deployed overseas were in Africa. In 2010, it was 3 percent. By 2016, that number had jumped to more than 17 percent. In fact, according to data supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command, there are now more special operations personnel devoted to Africa than anywhere except the Middle East — 1,700 people spread out across 20 countries dedicated to assisting the U.S. military's African partners in their fight against terrorism and extremism…"
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Amicalement
Armand

1700 is not huge. The French and British probably have more about the place, as possibly do the Chinese.

The Chinese (PRC) definitely do.

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Of course VICE (the link in the OP) is part of the propaganda system China has been promoting for quite some time in the West:

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That's why they never even mention China's new naval base in the South Atlantic (Namibia).

Dan

I'm surprised the people over at VICE are not too stoned to look into something other then well, drugs and the drug culture.

That channel is terrible, and they are so ANTI-AMERICAN and anything promoting good things in our country, that I have complained to DIRECTV.

Good info Dan!…

Amicalement
Armand

Yeah, 1,700 isn't a whole lot. Several hundred are tasked with just manning the base and operating drones over the area. These do both surveillance and "other" tasks as needed. The rest are basically training operations trying to bring the African forces in various countries (roughly 60+ such operations) up to some tolerable standard. Hardly the stuff a "massive" shadow war is made of.

As for the allegation that the French and British have more troops there all I can say is that I don't know about the British but the French have a battalion task force of about 1,500 men in Mali and other garrisons in Chad, Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic, and Senegal. There may be others but these are the one's I know about. They're not waging a shadow war at all but actively engaged in rooting out Al Qaeda and ISIS in the region.

I remember back when China's "String of Pearls" referred just to bases along the Indian Ocean.

Well, they are now all over Africa and have plans to build more naval bases in the South Atlantic besides the new one in Namibia.

Besides increasing their access to other places in the Atlantic, their Namibia naval base also makes sure that their uranium interests there are well taken care of:

Seeing how little attention China's encroachments get from media in the West, I'd say they were the ones really waging the "shadow war". And, according to similar sources, the African "democracies" sure seem to love all that influence from China:

Dan