Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
Fungi Kwaramba
Political Editor
REVELATIONS by the United States Commander of the controversial Africa Command (AFRICOM) that his country’s approach on the continent is “African-led but US-enabled” can only accentuate African countries’ anxieties as its presence is a latent threat to the continent.
While trying to dispel regional concerns over US presence in neighbouring Zambia, AFRICOM commander Gen Michael Langley said: “Our approach is African-led and US-enabled. We have increased security cooperation with them, but there’s no footprint, no posture, no base.”
But diplomatic sources who spoke to The Herald on condition of anonymity said that assertion by Gen Langley is a stunning revelation, especially in an era of proxy-global wars.
Currently, AFRICOM is facilitating the African Chiefs of Defence Conference, which brings together delegates from 35 African nations in Botswana, ostensibly to tackle terrorism, but that revelation by Gen Largely has pierced the veil.
“The comments by the American commander do not help the matter at all, if anything they accentuate African anxieties while justifying President Mnangagwa’s recent comments in Russia. What does he mean by African-led and US enabled in this era of proxy global welfare?
“For instance, would Russia feel safe that the US approach to Russia is Eastern European-led but US enabled? Is that not what gave rise to the Russia/Ukraine conflict . . . America enabled Ukraine to threaten Russia,” said the diplomat.
Another diplomat from a neighbouring country said the purported claim that the conference in Botswana is tackling terrorism is all bottled smoke.
“Does terrorism shun Zimbabwe as a potential launchpad for terrorism, is Africa any safer by excluding Zimbabwe? Clearly we are dealing with a threadbare lie by America,” said the African diplomat.
The reasons for the increased, if not frenzied, US presence on the African continent can be traced to three issues; namely Russia and China’s increased footprint on the continent, desire to snoop on Africa’s rich mineral resources and drive to exclude assertive nations like Zimbabwe, which are presently groaning under the weight of illegal economic sanctions.
Apparently, perturbed by the growing influence of both Russia and China on the African continent, vis a-vis it’s waning global hegemony, the US is desperate to pull back into its orbit African nations, hence the “Africa-led but American enabled” approach.
Apart from countering Russia and China, the US is also seeking to have a say on Africa’s rich mineral resources like lithium, which is a key component in the transition to the green energy-powered world
“They are having their summit, it has nothing to do with terrorism, but it is what they refer to as securing strategic mineral resources on the continent. They have made laws and policies on minerals which are found in Africa. Since when has America assumed extra-terrestrials to make legislation about Africa?” asked another diplomat.
Both the US and its European allies have come up with laws around special minerals that, ironically, are found on the African continent in yet another condescending approach to the continent they have looted for ages.
One top Government official quipped: “It is clear that the conference makes even clearer America’s sinister desires and designs.”
Other analysts said the US was escalating its hostile foreign policy in Africa.
“This is an escalation of the targeted sanctions that America has used to assault sovereign countries that do not pander to its whims,” said another observer.
While the US has over the years tried to diplomatically isolate Zimbabwe, not least through illegal economic sanctions it imposed on the country, it has on several occasions been rescued by Harare.
For instance, in 1998 when terrorists targeted the US embassies in East Africa, its embassy in Harare was also in the terrorists’ crosshairs and it took the ingenuity of Zimbabwe’s security apparatus to forestall the attack.
In 1993, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) were also in Somalia when the troubled African country was at the height of internecine wars.
After securing Mogadishu to stop terror attacks and allow the Red Cross to move in, the ZDF went on to secure Mogadishu Airport and thus managed to prevent the annihilation of the retreating American soldiers.
From then onwards, the United States would send an officer to join the Zimbabwe Staff College annually, until relations became frayed, when Harare sought to correct historical inequities through land redistribution.
Again in 2001, it was the ZDF that secured the American embassy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following the assassination of the country’s former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
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