U.S. beefs up operation against terrorism in Horn of Africa

"Africa Endeavor 2009", an annual, U.S. African command-sponsored exercise, has come to an end in Gabon in western African with a main objective to enhance the command of African peacekeeping and anti-terrorist operations and to coordinate efforts of African nations in this regard. The exercise brought African militaries together to practice their ability to share military information with each other via e-mail. While retaining the intensity of attacks on terrorists in the Middle East and South Asia, this U.S. endeavor in Africa has arrested worldwide attention.

After the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001, the United States set up a naval troop in Djibouti to take charge of patrolling along the East African coast as well as a base at Camp Lemonier outside of the city of Djibouti in the fear that the remnant forces of All Qaeda would flee to Somalia and other African nations. The U.S. African command was also set up in the later days of Bush administration for directing or commanding military actions in other African regions beyond Egypt. At present, with a shift for the center of gravity in the anti-terrorist endeavor, the Horn of Africa has become increasingly more important and conspicuous in the war on terror.

In the last eight years, U.S. anti-terrorist actions in the Middle East and South Asia have dealt hard, telling blows to Al Qaeda and other extremist forces, and remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have gradually shifted to the war-torn Horn of Africa, infiltrating along the route down to Somalia, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania from Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, some youths from Western countries attended terrorist training camps in the region every year, and there were also a handful of young Britons and Americans coming to join Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, leader of the Somali al Shabaab (Youth) Party, who was killed during a recent military raid targeting him. As a matter of fact, terrorists have worked in collaboration with local pirates over recent years and made the situation in the war on terror even more complicated in the region. Moreover, the number of terrorist murders in Somalia in 2008 reportedly ranked the fourth worldwide, only next to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Out of concern with terrorism in the Horn of Africa, the United States has increased its input in the war on terror in the region. In June this year, the U.S. government announced a shipment of 40 tons of arms and munitions to Somalia while committing itself to provide an aid of 10 million dollars for a massive reinforcement of Somali troops.

During her seven-nation African trip in early August, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met and conferred with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Hillary Clinton reiterated a firm support to the Somali government in its crackdown on terrorist forces inside Somalia, and promised to provide more military aid to the nation. In its budget for the 2010 fiscal year, the United States is expected to render a fund support of 24.2 million dollars for Somalia’s "anti-terrorist items".

During the era of former President George W. Bush, the U.S. army mainly used cruised missiles and armed helicopters in its fierce operation in the Horn of Africa, and those fierce attacks caused an immense loss of human life to the great dissatisfaction or indignation of people in the region.

The United States, however, has resorted to a flexible and comprehensive approach in the region since early this year, while bolstering or increasing its development aid to this African region.

By People's Daily Online and contributed by PD reporter Chen Wenxin