Skepticism Greets New US Africa Command

Senegalese port workers prepare for the arrival of the USS Fort McHenry, a landing dock ship on a half-year training exercise through the Gulf of Guinea, at the port in Dakar, Senegal Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. Just a few years ago, the U.S. military was all but absent from the oil-rich waters of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea. This year, it plans to be there every day. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) (Rebecca Blackwell - AP)

DAKAR, Senegal -- Just a few years ago, the U.S. military was rarely seen in the oil-rich waters of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea. This year, it plans to be there every day.

The strategic importance of Africa and its natural resources is on the rise, and the Defense Department last month created a new unified U.S. military command for the continent called Africom.

The first American mission to Africa since that move began Monday when the USS Fort McHenry arrived in Senegal's capital to begin a half-year training exercise for African naval forces around the Gulf of Guinea.

For American commanders, Africom means consolidating responsibility for a continent previously split among three other regional commands, each of which viewed Africa as a secondary interest.

However, Africom's creation has provoked so much skepticism on the continent that one of the most basic questions _ where it will be located _ remains unresolved.

Some Africans are concerned the new command could draw the continent deeper into the global war on terrorist groups.

Others wonder if it is meant to protect America's competitive stake in African oil and other resources increasingly sought by rising powers like China and India. The continent has surpassed the Persian Gulf as the leading supplier of oil to the United States.

"Africans have a feeling Africom represents something more than what is being sold to them," said Wafula Okumu, an analyst at South Africa's Institute for Security Studies. "If it was packaged a different way and better explained, maybe it could be a success."

U.S. officials concede America's strategic interests come first. But Africom's deputy for military operations, Vice Adm. Robert T. Moeller, said the command will allow the United States "to do more with our African partners when it makes sense to do so and where it's in their interest to do so."

There is a misconception that Africom is part of "a U.S. effort to militarize Africa, and that's definitely not the case," Moeller said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The U.S. military is already well-entrenched in Africa, spending around $250 million a year on military assistance programs, said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Since 2002, about 1,800 American military personnel have been stationed in Djibouti as part of efforts to stifle terrorist networks in the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia. Money is also being poured into the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative, which has focused on training armies in western and northern African nations from Algeria to Nigeria.