« The Art of War »
The « big game » of military bases in Africa
by Manlio Dinucci
Italian
soldiers on mission in Djibouti have offered sewing machines to the
humanitarian organisation which aids the refugees in this tiny country in the
Horn of Africa. It is situated in a strategic position on the most important
commercial Asia-Europe route, at the mouth of the Red Sea, facing Yemen. Italy
has a military base there, which, since 2012, « supplies logistical
support for Italian military operations located in the area of the Horn of
Africa, the Gulf of Aden, the Somali Basin and the Indian Ocean ».
So in
Djibouti, then, it would seem that the Italian military are not dealing
exclusively with sewing machines.
In the
exercise Barracuda 2018, which took place last November, chosen sharp-shooters
from the Special Forces (whose headquarters are in Pisa) underwent training in
all sorts of environmental conditions, including night operations, with the
most sophisticated high-precision rifles which can centre the target at a
distance of one or two kilometres. We do
not know in which operations the Special Forces participated, since their
missions are kept secret – however it is certain that they took place
essentially in a multinational context under US command.
In
Djibouti is situated Camp Lemonnier, the huge US base from which the Horn of
Africa Joint Task Force has been operating since 2001. The Task Force is
composed of 4,000 specialists in top secret missions, including targeted
assassinations by commandos or killer drones, particularly in Yemen and
Somalia. While aircraft and helicopters for these special operations take off
from Camp Lemonnier, the drones have been concentrated at Chabelley airport, a
dozen kilometres from the capital. New hangars are being built there, and the
work has been handed by the Pentagon to a company from Catania which is already
employed for the work taking place in Sigonella, the main drones base used by
the USA and NATO for operations in Africa and the Greater Middle East.
There
is also a Japanese and a French base in Djibouti, which house German and
Spanish troops. A Chinese military base was added in 2017, the only one outside
of its national territory. Apart from certain basic logistical functions, such
as the housing of the crews of the military vessels that escort merchant ships,
and warehouses for the storage of supplies, it represents a significant signal
of the growing Chinese presence in Africa.
This is
an essentially economic presence, to which the United States and other Western
powers oppose a growing military presence. This accounts for the
intensification of operations led by AfriCom (US Command for Africa), which has
two important subordinate Commands in Italy - the US Army Africa, at the Ederle
de Vicence barracks ; the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa, whose headquarters is
at the Capodichino base in Naples, composed of the warships of the Sixth Fleet
based in Gaeta.
In the
same strategic infrastructure is another US base for armed drones, which is
under construction in Agadez, Niger, where the Pentagon already uses air base
101 in Niamey for drones. This base serves for military operations that the USA
has been leading for years, with France in the Sahel, especially in Mali, Niger
and Chad. President Giuseppe Conte will be visiting the last two bases as from
tomorrow.
These
countries are amongst the poorest in the world, but very rich in prime
materials - coltan, uranium, gold, oil and many others - exploited by
transnational companies based in the USA and in France, who are increasingly
afraid of the competition from Chinese companies who offer African countries
much more favourable conditions.
The
attempt to halt the Chinese economic advance by military means, in Africa and
elsewhere, is beginning to fail. Probably even the sewing machines, donated to
Djibouti by Italian soldiers for the refugees, are « made in China ».
il manifesto,
January 15, 2019
Translator: Pete Kimberley
NO WAR NO NATO
Manlio Dinucci
Geographer and geopolitical scientist. His latest books are: Laboratorio di geografia, Zanichelli 2014 ; Diario di viaggio, Zanichelli 2017 ; L’arte della guerra / Annali della strategia Usa/Nato 1990-2016, Zambon 2016, Guerra Nucleare. Il Giorno Prima 2017; Diario di guerra Asterios Editores 2018.
Geographer and geopolitical scientist. His latest books are: Laboratorio di geografia, Zanichelli 2014 ; Diario di viaggio, Zanichelli 2017 ; L’arte della guerra / Annali della strategia Usa/Nato 1990-2016, Zambon 2016, Guerra Nucleare. Il Giorno Prima 2017; Diario di guerra Asterios Editores 2018.
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