US to transfer troops into Africa

By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa reporter, London

The United States is planning to move some of its forces from Europe to Africa.

Africa's oil reserves are vital for the US

Draft plans have been submitted to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as part of America's attempt to come to grips with the new challenges that have arisen since the end of the Cold War.

Dealing with the twin threats of drugs and terrorism is now an integral part of American military thinking.

But their thinking is also being driven, in part, by the new oilfields being developed off the coast of West Africa,

Earlier this year General James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander of American forces in Europe told journalists that there was a need to tackle what he called the large ungoverned areas of Africa.

He said they were providing "routes for narco-terrorist training and hotbeds of instability" and also posed a "potential threat for not only the alliance, but our interests as well".

"We might wish to have more presence in the southern rim of the Mediterranean, where there is a certain number of countries that could be destabilised in the near future," he said

He went on to suggest that American warships, that currently patrol the Mediterranean might in future spend half their time off the coast of West Africa, with what he called "a fairly focussed engagement in that part of the world".

Click here to see a map of Africa's oilfields

Plans

This is all at the planning stage, and will need approval from President George Bush and from Congress.

Poverty can be a breeding ground for terrorism

But a British think tank - Oxford Analytica - reports that some steps have already been taken in this direction.

It says that Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have already reached access agreements allowing the Americans to use their airfields.

Other options being pursued include using airbases in Nigeria, as well as those in Benin and Ivory Coast.

These reports have not been denied by the United States, but the military stresses that these are currently just options that need to be pursued.

All of this comes against the background of President Bush's African tour in July, when the oilfields off the coasts of West Africa were high on the agenda.

America is clearly taking a renewed interest in its relations with Africa.

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