Johannesburg — "Africom must leave Africa!" That is a clear message expressed by speakers during the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)'s webinar titled A Climate of Insecurity for COP27 – How the West has Militarised and Impoverished the African Continent. The discussion was aimed at addressing a worsening climate crisis across the African continent, Africom and The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s role in Africa and, what can be done to expel imperialist forces from the continent. The discussions were also in preparation for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The United States Africa Command, better known as Africom, is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense. Its mission is stated as working with partners to counter transnational threats and malign actors to strengthen security forces and respond to crises in order to advance U.S. national interests and promote regional security, stability, and prosperity.
"The presence of natural resources in Africa has proved to be a curse than a blessing for most African countries, resources have led to a lot of internal violent conflicts, and local people bear the brunt of the availability of natural resources in their vicinity. It is either they are displaced to pave way for foreign investors, or they are forced to migrate to safer areas due to violent conflicts that are caused by groups fighting for control over resources and access.
"Evidence from Angola, Sierra Leone, and DRC show that natural resources show that natural resources are being used to fuel conflicts through the use of the revenue to supply the military and rebels with their needs on the war front. While resources are the main cause of conflict in Africa, the resources are feeding the militarized political economies of the global north and the global south," said Edwick Madzimure, president of WILPF Zimbabwe.
All eyes are on the leaders attending the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The conference is happening at a time when the world has seen an increase in conflict with the Ukraine/Russia war still ongoing. The African continent has seen more coups in the past few years, and most countries continue to face drought, floods and many other environmental crises. Nearly 50 heads of states have taken to the stage to speak at the climate crisis' high-level meeting and the world is watching to see what concrete decisions will be taken to avert the climate change crisis.
"If we are serious about averting catastrophic climate change on the African continent and in the world, it is imperative that we call for Africom and NATO to get out of Africa, that we call for western militarism and act extractivism to end on the continent, and that we call for reparations and loss in damage. Without peace, there is no climate justice," said Tamara Lorincz, WILPF Environment Working Group Convener.
Lorincz said Africom and NATO's presence and activities in African countries are troubling and ominous and have led to the militarisation of the continent.
"What NATO and Africa have caused on the continent are more coups and more chaos. It has been bombing Somalia and Libya for many years. In 2011, NATO launched a military intervention to force Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi out, it was Canada my country that led the NATO bombing of Libya. For over seven months, NATO's fossil fuel-powered fighter jets dropped 20,000 bombs, and its diesel-powered warships scammed the country.
"This bombing severely damage civilian infrastructure and it wrecked the great man-made river system, which is a source of 70% of Libya's water.After the bombing, the Canadian Air Force revealed that its fighter jets consumed 14,000 pounds of fuel, and the Canadian Lieutenant that oversaw the operation retired and joined Lockheed Martin, the world's largest American weapons manufacturer. NATO's military operation in Libya led to the killing of Qaddafi and severely destabilized the country, causing a humanitarian and refugee crisis that led to waves of African migrants crossing and drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
"After a decade, there is still chaos in Libya, and the country is not able to deal with the social unrest, much less with the climate-induced extreme weather events from severe sandstorms, droughts, heat waves, and crop failure. Yet Libya was one of the wealthiest countries in Africa with great oil and gas resources, and it was able to provide free health care and education to its people. And it was one of the leading countries in the African Union. Qaddafi was a Pan-Africanist, and he did not want western colonialism and capitalism on the continent. Now Libya is in crisis from political instability and worsening climate change," she said.
Jasmine Burnett from the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) agrees that the U.S. could justify its activities in Africa by saying the continent is of strategic importance to the US. "But really, we understand that Africom's role is to foment extremism on the continent in order to justify the program's existence and to create an environment in which African nations are reliant on the U.S. military's presence. So it's an extension of imperialism and Neo colonialism," Burnett said.
Burnett describes BAP as a collective of organisations and individuals that put together educational activities, organisation efforts and, support movements against U.S. state repression, both domestically and globally, "pushing and demanding the complete withdrawal of US forces from Africa, demilitarisation of the continent and the closure of the U.S. bases around the world so we can activate a pro-peace agenda".
In October BAP launched a month-long International Month of Action Against AFRICOM in an effort to raise the public's awareness about the U.S. military's existence in Africa, and how the presence of U.S. forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.
Many African countries have oil and mineral wealth that has the potential to transform their economies but most of those countries have battled conflicts for decades leaving the citizens of those countries some of the poorest in the world. This can also be attributed to the leadership crisis facing the continent. Powerful economies with military resources like France and the U.S. are leading in conducting military operations in Africa. At least 13 foreign powers have a substantial military presence on the continent.
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor and publisher of the Pan-African News Wire, said the existence of these powers, including Africom in Africa, led to widespread violence and armed groupings attacking state institutions and civilian, especially in Libyan communities, since 2012.
"Libya today is the source of much of the instability in North and West Africa. Western imperialist governments which led the campaign to destroy Libya have never taken any responsibility related to its disastrous consequences. Sectional violence spread after the Libyan war of regime change in 2012. Armed groupings based upon sectional and religious approaches to national politics began to attack state institutions and civilian communities.
"Some of the most impoverished and marginalized people have suffered from the escalation of violence. Mali became the first country to experience the fallout from the Pentagon-NATO war against Jamahiriya Libya. Several armed groups emerged claiming the right to establish separate governments and spheres of influence. Who is really behind the emergence of these Islamic rebel groups operating in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Nigeria, among other states?" asked Azikiwe.
Studies continue to highlight that climate crisis conditions exacerbate conflict in some parts of the world, and it is often cited as a risk multiplier. Harsh weather conditions continue to force people in the Sahel to migrate and competing for fertile land, which can lead to fighting between communities.
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"Several scholars have attempted to draw a nexus between climate change, poverty, and military conflict. These connections are present in Burkina Faso and other states within the Sahel. The Sahel extends across some sections of the West Africa region. In this region, the increase in temperature has resulted in severe declines in rainfall, the erosion of soil, and appreciably lower yields in agricultural production. Many people within these countries are suffering from abject poverty characterised by high unemployment, food deficits, and the decline in the availability of potable water," he said.
Solutions and the way forward for Africa and the world
Azikwe challenged all Africans living in the Western countries to see the greater responsibility to fight against militarism, also adding that Africa's focus should be on the U.S. since historically, they have been the greatest threat, and maintain the greatest threats to world peace. "I think that the question of the United States being the largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions has been documented in several studies that have taken place over the last several years."
"During COP27, let's amplify African voices on the key issues affecting the continent. Let's demilitarize to decarbonize, let's stop the wars and cut the military spending for climate finance," Zimbabwe WILPF President Madzimure said.
This webinar discussion became a briefing document that WILPF and its partners took to COP27 to call for for the demilitarization, decarbonisation and decolonization of the African continent.
AllAfrica's reporting on peacebuilding is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
