Africom not setting base in Africa-US commander

FREDERICK KEBADIRETSE
Staff Writer | Thursday April 29, 2010 00:00

 

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.

General Ward told the press that the purpose for his visit to Botswana was to discuss ongoing security cooperation programs and to also look for ways that US Africom can support Botswana in its future military goals and objectives. He added that since the establishment of Africom, they have been able to provide assistance to African nations in increasing their capability to deal with the military problems they face in their respective regions. He said the relations they build in Africa are established from the US foreign Policy objectives. This was General Ward's third visit to Botswana and he was able to visit the Defence Command and Staff College (DCSC), which is in its third academic year. He described the BDF as a truly capable, professional organization. General Ward and his team left yesterday evening for Namibia.