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U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)


June 16, 2014


Congress has continued to examine the evolving role and
posture of the U.S. military in Africa since AFRICOM
became fully operational as the newest U.S. geographic
combatant command in 2008. The command is responsible
for Department of Defense (DOD) operations, exercises,
and security cooperation on the African continent, its island
nations, and its surrounding waters.

AFRICOM's stated mission is to advance U.S. national
interests and promote regional security, stability, and
prosperity in Africa, in concert with interagency and
international partners, by building defense capabilities,
responding to crises, and deterring and defeating
transnational threats. AFRICOM Commander General
David Rodriguez has stated that the command's most
important responsibility is to detect, deter and prevent
attacks against the United States, its territories, possessions,
and bases and to employ appropriate force to defend the
nation should deterrence fail.

Before AFRICOM became a stand-alone command in
October 2008, responsibility for U.S. military involvement
in Africa was divided among European, Central, and Pacific
Commands. Its area of responsibility (AOR) does not
include Egypt, which remains in Central Command's AOR.
Its FY2015 budget request (headquarters, operations,
exercises and related programs) is $245 million.

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AFRICOM's establishment and its evolution reflect a
change in policymakers' perceptions of U.S. strategic
interests and security challenges in Africa. For some, the
justification for a U.S. military command focused on the
continent has never been more pronounced. The Obama
Administration's 2012 U.S. Strategy toward Sub-Saharan
Africa argues that Africa is more important than ever to
the security and prosperity of the international community,
and to the United States in particular. While the military
prepares a strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region,
in the near term, African conflicts and extremist threats
increasingly occupy military planners' efforts. Despite
positive political and economic trends in some countries,
armed conflict still plagues parts of the continent and poses
threats to regional stability and other U.S. interests.

Terrorist threats appear to be increasing in North Africa; in
such West African countries as Nigeria and Mali; and
throughout East Africa, including in Somalia and Kenya.
Violent extremist groups like Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, Ansar al Sharia and other
like-minded groups continue to attract recruits, and are
reportedly increasingly sharing training, tactics, and
weapons, including those from former Libyan stockpiles.


  For the foreseeable future, the most direct threat to
  America at home and abroad remains terrorism....
  from decentralized al Qaeda affiliates and extremists,
  many with agendas focused in countries where they
  operate. And this lessens the possibility of large-scale
  9/11 -style attacks against the homeland, but it
  heightens the danger of U.S. personnel overseas being
  attacked, as we saw in Benghazi. It heightens the
  danger to less defensible targets, as we saw in a
  shopping mall in Nairobi. So we have to develop a
  strategy that matches this diffuse threat-one that
  expands our reach without sending forces that stretch
  our military too thin, or stir up local resentments. We
  need partners to fight terrorists alongside us. President
  Barack Obama at the U.S. Military Academy-West Point
  May 28, 2014



In Africa, the United States has taken a lower profile
approach to countering terrorism that it has in Afghanistan,
where the U.S. military deployed in large numbers to
pursue Al Qaeda, or in Pakistan or Yemen, where air strikes
against terrorist targets have been more frequent.
AFRICOM works primarily indirectly, by training,
equipping, and sustaining partner forces such as the African
Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to degrade extremist
capabilities. Direct U.S. military action has been limited;
examples include Special Operations Forces missions in
Somalia and Libya in October 2013 to capture suspected
terrorists; the January 2012 rescue of a U.S. hostage in
Somalia; and, in a limited number of cases, targeted strikes
against members of Al Qaeda in Somalia.

AFRICOM's largest military operation to date is Operation
Odyssey Dawn, in which it had operational and tactical
command of U.S. forces supporting the multilateral effort to
enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians in Libya in 2011.

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The Obama Administration's 2010 National Security
Strategy stresses the need to embrace effective
partnerships in Africa, highlighting U.S. strategic priorities
such as access to open markets, conflict prevention, global
peacekeeping, counterterrorism, and the protection of vital
carbon sinks. The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review
asserts that our ability to project forces to combat
terrorism in places as far away as Yemen, Afghanistan, and
Mali-and to build capacity to help partners counter
terrorism.. .reduces the likelihood that these threats could
find their way to U.S. shores. It outlines DOD's intent to
rebalance its counterterrorism efforts toward greater
emphasis on building partnership capacity, especially in


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