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World News See other World News Articles Title: Exclusive: The U.S. has more military operations in Africa than the Middle East The deadly ambush in Niger last October that left four U.S. serviceman dead prompted months of hand-wringing inside the Pentagon. But that botched operation, which drew national attention to U.S. counterterror operations throughout Africa should not have shocked military leadership, the former commander of U.S. Special Operations forces in Africa told VICE News. “These weren’t the first casualties, either. We had them in Somalia and Kenya,” said retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, who served as commander of Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) from April 2015 to June 2017, in an interview with VICE News. “We had them in Tunisia. We had them in Mali. We had them in Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. But those were kept as quiet as possible. Nobody talked about it.” Advertisement Indeed, two separate military efforts — named Juniper Shield and Obsidian Nomad — that were set to intersect but failed to on the night of the deadly ambush near Tongo Tongo in Niger were part of a pattern of expansion on the African continent that has made it the most active U.S. military theatre in the world. The United States has conducted more than 30 named operations and activities in Africa over the last three years, according to documents obtained by VICE News. While more troops are deployed to, and engaged in combat in, the Greater Middle East, the sheer number of named efforts in Africa actually surpasses that region. “What we’re doing shouldn’t be a mystery.” VICE News reviewed documents from the U.S. Army, Africa Command, and Special Operations Command Africa, and conducted interviews with current and former military personnel and experts familiar with America’s “war on terror” in Africa. These documents and testimony paint a startling picture of a sprawling, labyrinthine, and at times chaotic shadow war on the African continent, in which commandos are endangered by a lack of resources and “assistance” operations blur with combat. “Africa has more named operations than any other theater, including CENTCOM [the command that oversees the Middle East],” Buldoc confirmed to VICE News. “But remains under-resourced for doing what it’s been directed to do.” Secretive and sprawling In 2017, U.S. troops carried out an average of nearly 10 missions per day — 3,500 exercises, programs, and engagements for the year — across the African continent, according to Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the AFRICOM commander. These efforts — carried out in at least 33 countries — range from capture-or-kill commando raids to more banal training missions. Americans are also gathering intelligence, involved in surveillance and reconnaissance missions carried out by drones, engaged in construction projects, and accompanying allies on tactical operations. There are also now 34 U.S. military outposts on the continent, concentrated in the north and west and the Horn of Africa, according to a recent report by The Intercept. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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