interview
Soon after General William E. (Kip) Ward became the first commander of the United States Africa Command, known as Africom, in October 2007, he summed up his vision for his new undertaking in a posting on the Africom web site: "Years from now we want Africans and Americans to be able to say Africom made a difference — a positive difference."
Prior to Africom's creation, responsibility for coordinating U.S. military activity in Africa was divided among three other regional commands. The decision by President George W.
Bush sparked considerable controversy and debate, and African governments and non-governmental organizations have reacted with a mixture of caution and outright rejection. Ward, who joined the U.S. army in 1971 and is the only African American four-star general on active duty, believes much of the criticism is waning, as he explained in an interview with AllAfrica in his Pentagon office. Excerpts:
Africom evokes varying reactions and is perceived quite differently by various constituencies. What is the core mission?
Our mission is providing sustained security engagement, working in cooperation and conjunction with our partners, friends, allies. We do our best to help Africans increase their capacity to provide for their own security, and we do that through this notion of sustained engagement, working with the African nations to help them build their structures . . . and doing all of that clearly in line with our foreign policy objectives as opposed to things that anyone of us wearing the uniform think might be a good idea.What is Africom's role in combating terrorism?
Terrorism is something that plagues many parts of the world, and Africa is not immune. We are not there to eradicate terrorism for Africans; we are there to work with Africans as they attempt to deal with their own issues of terror, or violent extremism that's committed against innocent civilians. Our role is working with the security structures of the nations to increase their capacity to deal with terror problems. That was going on before the command was created.
We've taken over those programs in a more cohesive and focused way by spending time with these nations, working with them in a very dedicated and collaborative way to do the sorts of things that increase their capacity to provide for their own security, from their borders to how they work together a
mongst themselves in a region, how they understand the environment, and then clearly the capability of their security forces to deal with the threat of terror and the threat of violent extremism.
That involves training?
It involves training. It also involves equipping, communications, the ability to talk to one another, the ability to see what's going on in their borders [and] territorial waters - to help them be able to have better control over their territory...more..http://allafrica.com/stories/200908070991.html
Prior to Africom's creation, responsibility for coordinating U.S. military activity in Africa was divided among three other regional commands. The decision by President George W.
Bush sparked considerable controversy and debate, and African governments and non-governmental organizations have reacted with a mixture of caution and outright rejection. Ward, who joined the U.S. army in 1971 and is the only African American four-star general on active duty, believes much of the criticism is waning, as he explained in an interview with AllAfrica in his Pentagon office. Excerpts:Africom evokes varying reactions and is perceived quite differently by various constituencies. What is the core mission?
Our mission is providing sustained security engagement, working in cooperation and conjunction with our partners, friends, allies. We do our best to help Africans increase their capacity to provide for their own security, and we do that through this notion of sustained engagement, working with the African nations to help them build their structures . . . and doing all of that clearly in line with our foreign policy objectives as opposed to things that anyone of us wearing the uniform think might be a good idea.What is Africom's role in combating terrorism?
Terrorism is something that plagues many parts of the world, and Africa is not immune. We are not there to eradicate terrorism for Africans; we are there to work with Africans as they attempt to deal with their own issues of terror, or violent extremism that's committed against innocent civilians. Our role is working with the security structures of the nations to increase their capacity to deal with terror problems. That was going on before the command was created.
We've taken over those programs in a more cohesive and focused way by spending time with these nations, working with them in a very dedicated and collaborative way to do the sorts of things that increase their capacity to provide for their own security, from their borders to how they work together a
mongst themselves in a region, how they understand the environment, and then clearly the capability of their security forces to deal with the threat of terror and the threat of violent extremism.That involves training?
It involves training. It also involves equipping, communications, the ability to talk to one another, the ability to see what's going on in their borders [and] territorial waters - to help them be able to have better control over their territory...more..http://allafrica.com/stories/200908070991.html
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