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| Africa Subsaharan |
| AFRICOM China and Congo Resource Wars |
| 2008-12-16 |
| By F. William Engdahl, 25 November, 2008 Just weeks after President George W. Bush signed the Order creating a new US military command dedicated to Africa, AFRICOM, events on the mineral-rich continent have erupted which suggest a major agenda of the incoming Obama Presidency will be for the son of a black Kenyan to focus US resources, military and other, on dealing with the Republic of Congo, the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, the oil-rich Darfur region of southern Sudan and increasingly the Somali ‘pirate threat’ to sea lanes in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The legitimate question is whether it is mere coincidence that Africa appears just at this time to become a new geopolitical ‘hot spot’ or whether it has a direct link to the formal creation of AFRICOM. What is striking is the timing. No sooner had AFRICOM become operational than major new crises broke out in both the Indian Ocean-Gulf of Aden regarding spectacular incidents of alleged Somali piracy, as well as eruption of bloody new wars in Kivu Province in the Republic of Congo. The common thread connecting both is their importance, as with Darfur in southern Sudan, for China’s future strategic raw materials flow. Balance at the link. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 And the Somali piracy has been going on for at least a decade by now. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2008-12-16 15:21 |
| #2 It was stood up officially in Feb 2007 IIUC. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-12-16 13:16 |
| #1 What is striking is the timing. No sooner had AFRICOM become operational than major new crises broke out. Without a hammer a nail is as interesting as a large splinter. With a hammer, a nail is an opportunity for action. But I thought AFRICOM had been operational for several years. Was it that the work had been done under another command until now? Will those at the receiving end notice a difference? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-12-16 12:42 |