Africom not setting base in Africa-US commander

Addressing a press conference yesterday, US commander of the African Command, General William Ward said while there has been speculation that the US intends to set up a military base in Africa through Africom, this is not true. "Our planning activities can be conducted from anywhere, so we do not have any intentions of moving our headquarters to Africa, that is simply not the case and never has been," said General Ward.

Africom headquarters is currently Stuttgart, Germany and Ward explained that they will remain there for the foreseeable future, as they have no intentions of moving.  General Ward said Africans have grown to become more understanding of the objectives of the command than they were at the time of its establishment in 2007. "Too often when we visited a partner nation, there was speculation that we are looking for bases or seeking to place US troops there, but it has changed these days, Africans are more accommodative to Africom as its objectives are getting clearer to them," he said.