africom

The Endless Failure of America’s Endless Wars

Nick Turse / TomDispatch Apr 3, 2024 The new junta in Niger tells the U.S. to pack up its war and go home, insisting the current security pact violates their constitution. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

American Exceptionalism Is Making Earth Uninhabitable

William Astore / TomDispatch Dec 2, 2019 Conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen have not only hardened our hearts but permanently scarred our planet. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

Pentagon Watchdog Calls Out Two Military Commands for Financial Malfeasance

Nick Turse / TomDispatch Feb 9, 2018 The U.S. Africa Command and Central Command squanders $500 million fighting a drug war in a scandal that catches the essence of what may be the true opioid crisis of 21st-century America. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

AFRICOM and the Self-Investigation Farce

Maj. Danny Sjursen / Truthdig Nov 10, 2017 The U.S. military's probe of the deadly ambush in Niger will avoid answering the most critical questions—including why our soldiers are deployed there. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Secret Documents Reveal a Constellation of American Military Bases Across Africa

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Apr 27, 2017 While the U.S. maintains a vast empire of military installations around the world with huge, hard-to-miss complexes in Europe and Asia, bases in Africa have been far better hidden. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

Washington’s America-First Commandos in Africa

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Dec 21, 2016 A document from U.S. Special Operations Command Africa shows that military support to partner nations in Africa is prioritized to suit American, not African, needs and policy goals. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

What the U.S. Military Doesn’t Know (and Neither Do You)

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Sep 7, 2016 Exactly how many times U.S. soldiers have parachuted into the sky over Africa is unknown. But according to America’s premier think tank for evaluating the military, the program in which they do so consistently produces poor results. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

The U.S. Military Pivots to Africa, and That Continent Goes Down the Drain

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Aug 3, 2016 Over the past six years, each incoming commander of the U.S. Africa Command has offered a more dismal and dire assessment of the situation facing the American military there than his predecessor. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

The Numbers Racket: U.S. Africa Command Clams Up After Contradictory Statements to Congress

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Jun 29, 2016 Somehow, between 2015 and 2016, more than 200 AFRICOM missions from 2014 simply vanished. And the Senate Armed Services Committee apparently hasn't bothered to ask for clarification. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

AFRICOM’s New Math, the U.S. Base Bonanza and ‘Scarier’ Times Ahead in Africa

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Nov 18, 2015 In the shadows of what was once called the “dark continent," a scramble has come and gone. Look hard enough and you’ll find the results of that effort: a network of bases, compounds and other sites whose sum total exceeds the number of nations on the continent. Dig deeper ( 16 Min. Read )

U.S. Special Ops Missions in Africa Fail to Stem Terror Groups, Coups and Human Rights Abuses

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch Sep 11, 2015 Will episodic training with militaries regularly implicated in human rights abuses, militaries that overthrow their governments, and militaries that have consistently failed to defeat local terror groups turn them into professional, successful armies? Dig deeper ( 14 Min. Read )

One Boy, One Rifle and One Morning in Malakal

By Nick Turse, TomDispatch May 18, 2015 When I was their age, I wasn’t trusted to drive, vote, drink, get married, gamble in a casino, serve on a jury, rent a car, or buy a ticket to an R-rated movie. No one would have thought it a good idea to put an automatic weapon in my hands. But someone thought it was acceptable for them, including the government of the United States. Dig deeper ( 18 Min. Read )