African Command Working To Counter Terrorism

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

One part of the world where the U.S. has had very little military presence historically is Africa. That began changing in 2007 when the Pentagon created the first-ever Africa Command. It reflects a changing environment there, in particular concern that new threats are emerging in African countries with weak and chaotic governments. General William Ward leads the command, called Africom. He says there will be no bases in Africa for now. Troops are being sent as needed, mostly to help places like Liberia, emerging from brutal civil wars, strengthen their own militaries. I asked General Ward a question that's on many minds. How much concern is there about terrorism in the Horn of Africa and one failed state in particular - Somalia?

General WILLIAM WARD (Commander, Africom): We clearly worry about the threat of violent extremists taking hold in any parts of the continent where there are spaces that are under-governed or not in full control of the government. And so Somalia is indeed a place that we are concerned about. In that regard our policy is to provide support to those governments that are in position in various parts of the continent as they seek to maintain their control over their spaces.

MONTAGNE: And what form does that support take? Are you actively, say, training Somalia's current government's military?

Gen. WARD: No. The command is not in an active role involved with training of the militaries of that Transition Federal Government. We support the Transition Federal Government and that support is most realized through the support being provided by our Department of State.

MONTAGNE: But would training a national military and training it to work under a civilian leadership - would that be - is that something AFRICOM is doing in any country in Africa?

Gen. WARD: Well, we are doing those things. But we do them, as I said, under the auspices of our Department of State. In Liberia, we are working as a part of the armed forces of Liberia, retraining effort to stand up their new armed forces. We also provide training support to other African nations who conduct military peacekeeping operations. And so we do have military mentors. We provide technical training assistance to those nations. And as a part of that, clearly for us, how militaries perform in representative societies under the control of their duly elective civilian government is a part of that training. Respect for human rights, respect for the rule of law, those are part of our security assistance efforts.

MONTAGNE: Returning to Somalia again, the U.N. says more than a 100,000 Somalis have fled their homes in the last month. How does AFRICOM help, or does it deal with displaced populations like this one? Because of course they're in countries all over Africa - the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Sudan.

Gen. WARD: U.S. Agency for International Development is our lead. Where there are things that we can do in support of USAID, we get involved as we are resourced to do so. We could provide some logistic support, airlift support, humanitarian aid delivery - that's an example of the type of the thing that we could do and we have done.

MONTAGNE: There has been a lot of focus over these last few years on some of the wars in Africa, Sudan being maybe one the major ones that has both gotten the attention of Americans and also has just seemed intractable. How careful will AFRICOM be to in a way stay out of some of these conflicts?

Gen. WARD: Well, I think you've clearly characterized what's going on very adequately - very complex, very confusing, very tragic to be sure. Sudan is a sovereign country and so our involvement would be the result of a policy decision on the part of our government. We're involved now - as an example -the United Nations' mission in Darfur. We have provided support to those participating peacekeepers - lift support, logistic support, training support.

MONTAGNE: But given a policy determination, it is possible that troops in AFRICOM could be involved in military operations in Africa.

Gen. WARD: Oh, it's possible - that we, given the presidential determination or decision to do something, exactly right. Yes, it's possible.

MONTAGNE: General, thank you very much.

Gen. WARD: You're very welcome, and thank you, Renee.

MONTAGNE: General William Ward is the commander of the nearly two-year-old U.S.-Africa Command.

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