Tag: Niger

Army launches coup in Burkina Faso amid mass protests against France

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Army launches coup in Burkina Faso amid mass protests against France

The ousted junta leader, [Paul-Henri Sandaogo] Damiba, was widely seen as too closely linked to France. Late Saturday, there were protests outside the French embassy in Ouagadougou and the French Institute in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. Video on social media showed residents with lit torches outside the French embassy, and other images showed part of the compound ablaze. The crowds also vandalised the French Institute.

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Burkina Faso: Another Coup Led By U.S-Trained Soldier

[Paul-Henri Sandaogo] Damiba is a highly trained soldier, thanks in no small part to the U.S. military, which has a long record of training soldiers in Africa who go on to stage coups. Damiba, it turns out, participated in at least a half-dozen U.S. training exercises, according to U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM.

Ousted coup leader leaves Burkina Faso for Togo

Wisconsin Army National Guard headed to Horn of Africa for 10 months

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Wisconsin Army National Guard headed to Horn of Africa for 10 months

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Virginia National Guard soldiers return home from Africa

[11-2021] 1,000 National Guard Soldiers to Deploy to Africa as Mid East Wars Wind Down

It is unclear if the 1,000 Guardsmen is an increase in the Pentagon’s force in Africa, or if those troops are replacing others currently deployed. The U.S. has been increasingly operating in countries like Somalia and Niger as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have drawn down.

There are some 6,000 American troops, Defense Department civilians and contractors across Africa, an Army spokesperson told Military.com. About 3,400 of those people operate from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, which serves as the major hub for the U.S. military on the continent.

How The Pentagon Uses A Secretive Program To Wage Proxy Wars

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Nick Turse, Alice Speri, The Intercept, Jul 1 2022

Small teams of US SOF are involved in a low-profile proxy war program on a far greater scale than previously known, according to exclusive documents and interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials. While The Intercept and other outlets have previously reported on the Pentagon’s use of the secretive 127e authority in multiple African countries, a new document obtained through the FoIA offers the first official confirmation that at least 14 127e programs were also active in the greater Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region as recently as 2020. In total, between 2017 and 2020, US commandos conducted at least 23 separate 127e programs across the world. Separately, Joseph Votel, a retired four-star Army general who headed both SOCOM & CENTCOM, which oversees US military efforts in the Middle East, confirmed the existence of previously unrevealed 127e “counter-terrorism” efforts in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

How The Pentagon Uses A Secretive Program To Wage Proxy Wars

Related:

America Is Quietly Expanding Its War in Tunisia

Massacre of African refugees in Spanish colonial enclave of Melilla just ahead of NATO’s Madrid Summit, a mere coincidence?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Spain is seeking NATO protection for Melilla, where the massacre occurred, and Ceuta, its other colonial enclave on the North African coast. The NATO Summit has declared irregular migration from Africa to be a threat to the “state security” of its members

Massacre of African refugees in Spanish colonial enclave of Melilla just ahead of NATO’s Madrid Summit, a mere coincidence?

US military veterans training Ukrainian frontline troops say NATO’s artillery and rocket launchers are essential for Ukraine to beat Russia

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

US military veterans training Ukrainian frontline troops say NATO’s artillery and rocket launchers are essential for Ukraine to beat Russia

The Mozart Group is a cadre of US military veterans helping train Ukrainian soldiers. Established at the start of the Ukraine war by Andrew Milburn, a Marine veteran, the group has been described as the Western counterpoint to Putin’s elite Wagner Group.

So they’re the equivalent of Blackwater?!

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U.S. officials have described many of the suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban affiliates it holds at Guantanamo Bay as unlawful combatants either for taking part in hostilities against the United States or by supporting the hostilities while not part of a nation’s military.

By that standard, some of the private guards in Iraq and Afghanistan also could be seen as unlawful combatants, particularly if they have taken offensive action against unarmed civilians, experts said.

America’s own unlawful combatants? via Wikipedia

Andrew Milburn retired from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 2019 after a 31 year career. His last position in uniform was Deputy Commander of Special Operations Central (SOCCENT), and prior to that commanding officer of the Marine Raider Regiment and Combined Special Operations Task Force – Iraq.

Since retiring, he has written a critically acclaimed memoir: When the Tempest Gathers and has had articles published in The Atlantic , USA Today, JFQ, and War on the Rocks, in addition to the Military Times . He is on the Adjunct Faculty of the Joint Special Operations University and teaches classes on leadership, planning, ethics, command and control, mission command, risk, special operations and irregular warfare at US military schools. He is a co-host of the Modern War Institute’s Irregular War Podcast, and Irregular War Initiative.

Andrew Milburn, BIO

I’ve been to Ukraine, Niger, Somalia and Tunisia. I’m training people who will use what they’ve learned in the real world almost immediately.

Andrew Milburn, 02-2020

Who are the Mozart Group? Former U.S. Marine Training Ukrainians in War

Joint Statement of the Communist Party of Kenya and the Zimbabwe Communist Party On the Expansion of AFRICOM

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Communist Party of Kenya (CPK) and the Zimbabwe Communist Party (ZCP) are deeply concerned with the decision of Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema to make Zambia a center for the operations of the United States military with the opening of an AFRICOM office in Lusaka. This does not, at least at this stage, mean that US ground forces will be sent to Zambia. It does mean that the USA will train and direct Zambian troops in its interests. The pattern in Africa is similar to that pursued by the USA in Latin America for 150 years in which a country would be effectively occupied by its own army on behalf of the imperial power.

On the Expansion of AFRICOM