The US is at war in Africa. It has been at war as an integral part of the Cold War. It has had practical experience in African wars. America has been fighting wars in Africa since the 1950s – in Angola, the DRC, Somalia, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Morocco, Libya, Djibouti to name but a few counties. In some countries they used US troops, but in most cases the US financed, armed and supervised the support of indigenous forces. In its support of the anti- MPLA forces in Angola, it sent arms and equipment to the UNITA opposition. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Larry Devlin of the CIA was an unofficial branch of Mobutu’s government; the US ran its own air force at WIGMO. US airmen supported the South African forces in Kwando, Fort Doppies and Encana bases in the Caprivi from WIGMO. At these bases one could also find soldiers from Southern Rhodesia (in their DC3s) and German, French, Portuguese and other NATO troops.
One of the largest of these bases was at Wheelus Field, in Libya… Wheelus Air Base was located on the Mediterranean coast, just east of Tripoli, Libya. With its 4,600 Americans, the US Ambassador to Libya once called it “a Little America. During the Korean War, Wheelus was used by the US Strategic Air Command, later becoming a primary training ground for NATO forces. Strategic Air Command bomber deployments to Wheelus began on 16 November 1950. SAC bombers conducted 45-day rotational deployments this staging areas for strikes against the Soviet Union. Wheelus became a vital link in SAC war plans for use as a bomber, tanker refuelling and recon-fighter base. The US left in 1970.
Another giant base was Kagnew Field in Asmara. The base was established in 1943 as an Army radio station, home to the U.S. Army’s 4th Detachment of the Second Signal Service Battalion. Kagnew Station became home for over 5,000 American citizens at a time during its peak years of operation during the 1960s. Kagnew Station operated until April 29, 1977, when the last Americans left Kagnew Station.
However, with the end of the Cold War, the US has found itself fighting a much more difficult and insidious war; the war with Al Qaida. This is much less of a war that involves military might and prowess. It is a war against the spread of drug dealing, illicit diamonds, illicit gold and the sheltering of Salafists (Islamic militants) who use these methods to acquire cash which has sustained the Al Qaida organisation throughout the world. The political dichotomy between the Muslim North in Africa and the Christian/Animist South is not only a religious conflict. It is a conflict between organised international crime and states seeking to maintain their legitimacy.
There are now several ‘narco-states’ in Africa. The first to fall was Guinea-Bissau where scores of Colombian Cartel leaders moved in to virtually take over the state. Every day an estimated one tonne of pure Colombian cocaine is thought to be transiting through the mainland’s mangrove swamps and the chain of islands that make up Guinea-Bissau, most of it en route to Europe. As reported by Johnathan Miller[i]
“Western narcotics and intelligence agencies believe that up to two small twin-engine aircraft carrying up to 800kg of cocaine are landing on airstrips in Guinea- Bissau every night, having crossed the Atlantic from South America. The street value of a tonne of cocaine on the streets of European capitals is roughly £50m.”
Guinea-Bissau’s Interior Minister, Major Baciro Dabo, and the head of the navy, Jose Americo Bubu Na Tchutu, are alleged to be key facilitators of the trade.
This was equally true of Guinea under President Lansana Conte whose wives (and her brother) were shown to be kingpins in the Guinean drug trade. Many in the National Army were compromised and active participants. This drug trade has spread to Senegal, Togo, Ghana and Nigeria. There are very few jails anywhere in the world which are not home to West African ‘drug mules’ tried or awaiting trial or execution. This drug trade is spreading like wildfire in West Africa, offering remuneration to African leaders, generals or warlords well in excess of anything these Africans could hope to earn in normal commerce.
In countries like Nigeria there are several important businessmen, with many legitimate businesses and deep political attachments, who also deal as ‘druggies’ in this international exercise. The authorities know who they are but find it difficult to proceed against them. In West Africa, as in most area of the world, lots of money buys immunity and, often, impunity from the law. The ‘mules’ are picked up and punished but the ‘big men’ go free.
This burgeoning drug business was an offshoot of the political, economic and military connections which were made by Al Qaida in pursuit of their takeover of the “Blood Diamond” business in West Africa.
During the civil wars in Sierra Leone the Revolutionary United Front (‘RUF’) took over the diamond fields in the country; initially at Koon. The diamonds were mined by RUF rebels, who became infamous during Sierra Leone’s civil war for hacking off the arms and legs of civilians and abducting thousands of children and forcing them to fight as combatants. The country’s alluvial diamond fields, some of the richest in the world, were the principal prize in the civil war, and they have been under RUF control for the past four years.[ii] Small packets of diamonds, often wrapped in rags or plastic sheets, were taken by senior RUF commanders across the porous Liberian border to Monrovia, where they were exchanged for briefcases of cash brought by diamond dealers who flew several times a month from Belgium to Monrovia, returning to Pelikaanstraat in Antwerp.
The man in charge was by Ibrahim Bah, a Libyan-trained former Senegalese rebel and the RUF’s principal diamond dealer. After fighting with the Casamance separatist movement in Senegal in the 1970s, Bah trained in Libya under the protection of Col. Moammar Gaddafi. He spent several years in the early 1980s fighting alongside Muslim guerrillas against Soviet forces in Afghanistan where he participated in the creation of Al Qaida. He then left to fight alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon. He returned to West Africa, to Ouagadougou, where he is sheltered and protected by the President, Blaise Campaore. Campaore was already using Burkina Faso as a depot for arms to the RUF, Liberia and the rebels of the Ivory Coast. He took, and takes, his share of the blood diamond money whether they are sold to Al Qaida or Hezbollah.
The involvement of principal figures of Al Qaida in the blood diamond business is well documented.[iii] The Al Qaida and Hezbollah involvement in the illegal trade in diamonds, gold and other gemstones has tied in organised criminal activities with Islamic fundamentalism in the region, provoking a clash between the Islamists and the Christian/Animists. It has sparked civil unrest, as with Boku Haram in Nigeria and created a criminal enterprise which has taken over the Ivory Coast.
With the French-inspired and funded rebellion against the government of Gbagbo in 2001 the country was divided. The legitimate government of Gbagbo ruled in the South but the country was divided by a military line provided by the French Force Licorne and the United Nations peacekeepers. The North was free and protected to get on with its own businesses. It was run by tin pot warlords who drew their strength from their marauding bands of mercenaries, misfits and sociophobes who created little kingdoms of their own which they ran with rapacious style. They paid no taxes, they paid no rents; they paid no duties and they provided no social services. They stole everything they could find and shipped it out, usually via their home base in Burkina Faso.
In Burkina Faso, under the aegis of Blaise Campaore, they were introduced to the buyers from Hezbollah and Al Qaida. Ivory Coast has diamond mines. Illicit diamond mining in the northern part of Ivory Coast still continues and provides a healthy stream of diamonds to Al Qaida, especially Al Qaida in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
There are four big mines – Bobi, Diarabala, Seguela and Tortiya. The US sent a CIA team in to discover what was happening, now that Ouattara is notionally President. They attempted to trace the origin of around 300,000 carats produced locally last year and which generated earnings of roughly USD 25 million. The business is mainly controlled by two warlords, Issiaka Ouattara AKA “Wattao” and Herve Toure AKA “Vetcho.” The diamonds are smuggled out mainly through Mali and Guinea before ending up on the international market in Tel Aviv. These warlords are the backbone of the new Ivory Coast Army and tied closely to the Prime Minister, Soro.[iv] With the support of Campaore and the needs of the new Army, it is very unlikely that Soro will heed the call of his feeble President to stop the sale of blood diamonds to Al Qaida or to stop paying Campaore.
This thievery was repeated in the cotton and timber businesses. It was the Lebanese of Hezbollah who provided the motor scooters which the rebel irregulars imported duty-free to the Ivory Coast. Outright theft, as in Ibrahim ‘IB’ Coulibaly, who broke into a warehouse belonging to the United States agri-giant Archer Daniels Midland on the northern outskirts of Abidjan last month and sent at least 3,000 tonnes of cocoa to Ghana, was not a unique event. President Ouattara’s troops killed Coulibaly.
This litany of crime, corruption and the funding of Al Qaida and Hezbollah by the rebels in the Ivory Coast north was well known to everyone. Now they are in charge. Blaise Campaore is still in business. The cause of Al Qaida has been promoted on the basis of a notional anti-Muslim bias by the Gbagbo government. The reach of AQIM is now further south as all of the Ivory Coast is added to its reach.
The question one is bound to ask is what imp of the perverse overtook the US Government to support such a program. The US actively intervened to push the UN to take an active role in the military offensive against Ivory Coast civilians. It encouraged the amoral weasels of France to attack and kill civilians. The US has been in Africa, dealing with Africans since 1945. Agencies like the DEA are fighting a brave fight in trying to suppress the drug trade and the selling of blood diamonds. What perverse instinct of self-destruction has created a US policy which rewards its deadliest enemies and punishes its most loyal allies?
Words cannot express the utter stupidity and self-destructiveness of US policy in allying itself to the rabble of Ouattara and his friends. What government in Africa will ever trust or deal openly with such a maniacal formulation of national interest on the part of the US. The US is at war in Africa. To win, or survive, requires helping one’s friends and punishing one’s enemies. What imp of the perverse can have gotten things so wrong; and so often?
By Dr. Gary K. Busch
[i] Miller, Johnathan, “Drug barons turn Bissau into Africa’s first narco-state”, Independent 18/7/07
[ii] Farah, Douglas, “Al Qaeda Cash Tied to Diamond Trade” Washington Post 2/11/01
[iii] For a good, detailed account see “Global Witness “For a Few Dollar$ More: How al Qaeda moved into the diamond trade” April 2003.
[iv] Africa Miining Intelligence 31/5/11
Gary K. Busch is an international trades unionist, an academic, a businessman and a political affairs and business consultant for 40 years, and has traveled and worked extensively in Africa.
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Flag Map of Guinea. Source: www.cpgui.org
The Republic of Guinea, Conakry on the western coast of Africa has a history that mirrors that of many other countries on the African continent. From Colonialism, Imperialism, and dictatorships, Guinea has managed up until the present to avoid major ethnic clashes. Although there has always been ethnic tensions that have hovered over the Guinean society, Peuhl, Malinke, Susu, Kisi and all other groups have found ways to live as one nation. The current outbreak of ethnic violence in the wake of the first and second rounds of elections has roots in the beginning of the modern Guinean state.
Colonized by the French, Guinea was a part of French West Africa Federation in 1895. In 1958, Guinea was lead into Independence by Ahmed Sekou Toure, becoming the first French-speaking colony to opt for unconditional independence after turning down a proposal from France to be a part of la Francaphonie. The year 1958 also marked the break up of the French Federation. Although Toure had very limited formal education, his charisma and passion for a free Guinea was widely shared by Guineans. As a result of Guinea opting for total independence from France, the French left Guinea barren, stripped of all resources, infrastructures and left the country to fend for itself. Toure’s most famous quote that motivated all Guineans and Africans was “We prefer dignity in poverty to affluence in slavery.” Guinea was not deterred in its mission as it had encouragement from some of the great African Revolutionaries. From Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana to Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, Sekou Toure of Guinea was one of the great contenders of African revolution, independence, and unity. Toure however followed the path of dictatorship as most African leaders unfortunately follow.
President Sekou Toure at the United Nations, 1960
By the late 1960s, Guinea’s single party system and lack of democracy and free media under Toure were getting criticized by many abroad and on the continent that had chosen sides between the Soviet Union and the West. Opposition within Guinea was faced with detention camps and the secret police. No one group in Guinea was immune. Toure was heavy handed with the Malinke, his own ethnic group and the Peuhl, the two main groups that today are on the brink of major clashes. Guineans have not forgotten about these targeted attacks, but instead have held on to the hurtful memories. The issue has been that Toure was viewed as a Malinke leader that suppressed the others. Lansana Conte, the second president of Guinea who took over after the death of Toure through a coup in 1984 was also viewed as a Susu dictator that ran the country into the ground. The refusal to separate a person’s leadership skills and ability from his ethnic/socio-economic affiliation is a widespread problem in Africa and other countries transitioning into democracy.
The civil wars of Sierra Leone in 1991 and Liberia in 1999 had a significant impact on Guinea, as it has major refugee camps until this day. Guinea witnessed on two occasions what it is like for a nation to be torn apart by war and so called differences that were not worth the suffering that it brought on the people. Other countries on the continent such as Rwanda, Somalia, and many more have all served as a lesson to the destruction that ethnic violence can bring to a country its society. There is wide spread hope, especially within the younger generation of Guinea of preventing a descent into ethnic strife that have plagued other countries on the African continent. The problem with fueling ethnic divides is that it is always done by a selected few that encourage a majority who acts without the knowledge that they are being manipulated. Not long after, the ones that benefit from these actions, those in power, are least affected.
As we monitor the situation in and outside of the country, we implore the diaspora and the international community to discourage any and all forms of violence. We also ask that the dialogue continues about other ways for Africans to trust in each other and communicate our disagreements through alternative means other than violence.
By Saran Traore
Saran Traore is a research analyst with Friends of the Congo in Washington, D.C. Her work is centered on the effects of international foreign policy on Africa and African policies. Traore is from Guinea, is co-founder of the Council for the Progress of Guinea.
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Our Home-Made Safety Net
As Africans, without the need for extremely large centralized states, we do have a sense of social responsibility to one another by which all members of the direct and extended family form a social safety net. In the region of Guinea where my parents come from, indeed there is much poverty, yet, no such thing as homelessness. Everyone can count on a relative or neighbor to take them in. In fact, this assurance has gone beyond an expectation, and has evolved into a societal norm.
I do not wish to generalize for the entire continent, as the media has done, nor to deny the harsh reality that presents itself in conflict and humanitarian crisis areas; nonetheless, in Guinea and neighboring countries (Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast), turning away a relative or neighbor who wants to join in for dinner could earn someone the scorn of the entire town.
“Have you heard what so and so did?” The very next day, the market may become animated with such statements as “he has no fear of God in his heart!” or “she is a woman and she does not pity other people’s children… what kind of mother and wife will she be?” Never mind that guests may well invite themselves to your house without the formalism that is observed in Western society… and these guests may may even decide to spend the night. Of course, the social trends I described above are becoming isolated in their specificity, and are rapidly changing with the cultural effect that sudden access to internet and media has had on the continent.
Inevitably, various cultures on the continent are adjusting, and will continue to do so with the influx of pro-capitalist teachings that are passed on to African intellectuals, especially young African diasporeans studying in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Despite this observation, it is hard to dispute the fact that Africans share, and they share a lot… with their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, and respective villages and towns. The IMF and World Bank are fully aware of this detail. African diasporeans remit as much as $20 billion annually, and in some parts of the continent, remittances top 750% of the foreign aid being received, respectively.
Perhaps, the problem lies not in the erroneously implied world view that Africans cannot, and do not do enough for themselves; rather, we have to alter the way we assist one another. For a continent that has been wooed by China’s attention, the well-known old Chinese proverb serves as an appropriate reminder: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” At this point, let us substitute the noun “man” for “African.”
Free will and self determination are two themes in the human narrative that should never be ignored when we deal with one another. It is easy to witness the power of human will as early as childhood. As Robert Greene puts it, “children are willful creatures.” Children do and say whatever they wish, and they ask for the object of their desire without shame or restraint. Most importantly, they run, they jump, and they take action in the fulfillment of their needs to the best of their very limited ability. Eventually, they become socialized, and their will becomes the prisoner of their culture.
Conversely, when a child has eaten, it stops crying; when a child has played until tiring, it sleeps; when a child has received the toy it sought, it stops asking (until the desire for a new toy is born). This is part of our nature, and it carries over into adulthood. When a man and a woman depend on someone other than themselves, they are less likely to strive with all their energy and creativity to achieve their ambitions. A man and woman should be taught how to read, write, count, speak… they should also be taught how to do research, learn, categorize, and present information… finally, they should be trained to make decisions about their own lives, but decisions should never be made for them.
Hypothesis: foreign direct investment would be preferable to foreign aid; social entrepreneurship would be the ideal middle ground between aid and investment, and an excellent way to maximize the benefit of African Diasporean remittences. I am confident that time, and the efforts of many, will test and prove the validity of this thought.
African Solidarity, an Old Concept Practiced Since Youth Simply put, Africa is not wanting of solidarity, neither from her own sons and daughters, nor from her western partners; rather, changes should be made in the way solidarity is practiced in order to achieve maximum efficiency and bring out the best of human nature.
Mohamed Toure is an undergraduate business student at the University of Baltimore. He is a member of the steering committee of Alliance Guinea, an organization dedicated to promoting justice and democracy in Guinea. He is also the co-founder of Harambe Guinea, a country branch of the Harambe Endeavor Alliance. Mohamed blogs on social-entrepreneurship and the African Diaspora at www.SEADiaspora.com. Twitter @MohamedToure
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Guinea’s (Conakry) run-off election, scheduled for September 19, was again postponed four days to the election. The run-off is between Cellou Dalein Diallo, who captured 44% of the initial vote, and the runner up, Alpha Conde, who received 18% of the vote. According to Guinea”s constitution, the run-off that was supposed to have taken place fourteen day after the first election.
The postponement comes in the midst of a turbulent 2 months, following the first round of elections. Since the close of the polls the head of the electoral commission, Ben Sekou Sylla, died in France this week, and another senior officer was sentenced to 1 year in prison for voter fraud. Furthermore, fresh violence broke out among rival candidates, leaving 1 person dead and 50 people injured.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The Associate Press reports that interim President General Sekouba Konate went on Guinean TV and expressed his fears that the “republic is in danger” due to ethnic and political divisions.
A spokesperson for the election commission has pointed out that Guinea is awaiting the arrival of 450,000 new ballot cards. Supporters of Cellou Diallo complain that the postponement is designed to allow his opposition to catch up in the polls.
International election observers reported that the first round of voting held in June was “generally free and fair”. Despite this fact nearly all of the candidates have complained of irregularities. The new run-off election date will be set by interim President Konate. This is Guineas first democratic vote since independence from the French in 1958.
Our guests are Jennifer Swift-Morgan, from the election monitoring outfit Alliance Guinea, and three Guinean journalists; Nassirou Diallo, who was at the stadium covering the event when the massacre of more 200 people and the rape of women by the soldiers of the Guinean military junta occurred on Sept 28, 2009; Abduoulaye Diallo, who recently returned from Guinea, and Mamadou Diallo.
This interview was first broadcast live on our radio program AfobeatRadio on WBAI 99.5 FM, New York on September 18, 2010. AfrobeatRadio on WBAI is a program of AfrobeatRadio.Net
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AMISOM Armored Troops
The head of the African Union on Friday has said that two more countries will send troops to join the African Mission for peacekeeping in Somalia (AMISOM). Mr Jean Ping AU commission president said that Djibouti and Guinea will both send troops to the ravaged country to boost the overwhelmed contingent of Uganda and Burundi forces, bringing the estimated troops levels to 10,000. The AU mission currently has about 6,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi in Somalia.
The announcement for the new deployment came during a meeting of African Union leaders in Uganda, which suffered twin bombings July 11, 2010 during the World Cup final that killed 76 people at a rugby club and a restaurant. Al-Shabab, Somalia’s most feared militant group, claimed responsibility for the attacks and said they were in retaliation for civilian deaths caused by AU troop.
“Guinea is preparing a battalion to be sent to Somalia immediately. Djibouti prepared a battalion six months ago. Guinea’s commanders are in Mogadishu preparing for the arrival of their troops,” Ping said. However, Ping did not specify the number of troops Guinea plans to send. A battalion may consist of between several hundred to more than 1,000 troops .
The weak U.N. backed Somali government is fighting an Islamist insurgency that is itself riven by divisions. The strongest insurgent group, al-Shabab, has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and the U.S. State Department says some of its leaders have links to al-Qaida.
The transitional government, which has long promised to launch a major offensive against al-Shabab, controls only a few streets of the capital. Al-Shabab, along with a number of other anti-government groups, controls much of southern and central, as well as most of Mogadishu. At least 21,000 civilians are believed to have been killed in the violence over the last years, while 1.5 million have been forced to flee their homes.
The EU and the U.S. are spending millions of dollars to train 2,000 Somali government soldiers at bases in Uganda. Human rights groups have accused Guinea’s armed forces of severe abuses, including the massacre of over 150 opposition supporters in 2009 and several gang rapes.
News Report By Abdulaziz Billow.
Abdulaziz Billow is AfrobeatRadio’s correspondent for East Africa.
Barack Obama jabs Guinea's Captain Moussa Dadis Camara
US President Barack Obama has stopped Madagascar, Guinea and Niger from receiving trade benefits for a year. Mr Obama said that each of these countries “have experienced an undemocratic transfer of power” and that they had failed to make “continual progress” in meeting US requirements for The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. The Act was set up in 2000 ostensibly to offer tangible benefits including job creation for African countries who must adapt their economies to the free market.
The Act requires countries to show they are working towards, among other things, introducing the rule of law and political pluralism, the elimination of barriers to US trade and investment and efforts to combat corruption. However, Mauritania was re-instated to the programme. A coup took place in Mauritania last year, but an election was held his year that, although it returned the coup leader Gen Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz to power, was deemed by observers to be transparent.
Those favoring the African Growth and Opportunity Act bill see it as presenting a new opportunity for Africa in private sector trade and investment. Supporters also argued that the bill expands eligibility of African countries, increase women’s input in growth and development, and promote democracy and good governance within sub-Saharan Africa. Those opposing it cite lack of consultation with African civil society, inadequate support for debt relief initiatives, potential disruption of regional integration, and unrealistic or ill-advised eligibility standards.