Muslim insurgents killed four and wounded two U.S. soldiers on October 4, 2017 around the town of Tongo Tongo, 200 km from Niamey, the capital of Niger.
This area is no stranger to these types of attacks: insurgents killed 15 Nigerians on February 15th.
The U.S. soldiers died taking part in what they referred to as antiterrorist operations. They were in pursuit of forces who were near the village of Tongo Tongo, in the northern area of the Tillabéri region.
It is quite clear that they were in combat in a combat zone.
The world was shocked at the revelation of 800 U.S. troops in the country. The French press feigned surprise at the discovery that U.S. troops outnumbered French soldiers.
What are the U.S. Special Forces doing in Niger?
Niger is a key producer of uranium, desperately needed by the white power nuclear industry. Seventy-five percent of France’s electricity comes from uranium.
The U.S. can exert its control over oil from Nigeria, Libya, Algeria and other nearby countries using Niger as a base of operations.
The U.S. army used Niamey’s airport for drones before moving to Agadez in the northern part of Niger where they can be distanced from the curiosity of Africans in Niamey.
It is incredible that U.S. drones shared the runway with Niger civil airplanes.
According to Libération, the French liberal imperialist paper, ”U.S. troops are everywhere throughout Niger. They are in southeast Niger dealing with Boko Haram insurgents.”
The U.S. army has also been training Niger’s army since the 2000s. The French and the U.S. have military bases at the Niamey airport, and the French have another one in Madama, used for Operation Barkhane.
The death of U.S. army African sergeant La David T. Johnson on African soil is troubling because we believe that the only legitimate war worth dying for is the war for black power, liberation and the unification of the African nation.
U.S. rulers seeking control of all neocolonial armies in Africa
Africans need to know that the West African region is a target of combined counterinsurgency operations from France and the United States.
France is a former colonial power while the U.S. has been a growing power since the sixties, but since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of China in Africa, we have seen the U.S. aggressively developing AFRICOM, a plan for control of African resources.
They are in this part of Africa for the same reasons they are in the rest of Africa: to steal and tighten colonial control over our resources and to establish more neocolonial systems.
The Sahel G5 region includes Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. U.S. imperialists are building a joint task force for this region that will be made of 5,000 soldiers.
These neocolonial troops are what white power leaders would present to the world as an African force solving African problems.
Donald Trump’s administration has announced the payment of $60 million to building the G5 Sahel.
U.S. Green Beret special forces are not just instructors in Niger as the press would want you to believe, they are part of the fighting troops.
The October 14th bombing of Mogadishu makes U.S. government the number one suspect.
We heard of the massive explosion of the 1,700-pound bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia that killed at least 300 African people there and injured hundreds more.
The whole population of Somalia, which has seen a lot of carnage, was in an unprecedented state of collective shock. The African nation profoundly shared this pain too.
Al-Shabaab has not claimed responsibility for the October 14th bombing of Mogadishu, but the imperialist press and Somalia’s petty bourgeois forces united to blame it on Al-Shabaab.
There was no “je suis Mogadishu” from white press or people, white presidents did not go to Somalia, and the Eiffel Tower did not light up with Somalia’s flag.
We African Internationalists suspect that the U.S., with 400 troops on the ground in Somalia, may be the source of this abominable act.
The U.S. rulers are clear on their drive to escalate their assault of Somalia: “The U.S. has stepped up military involvement in the long-fractured Horn of Africa nation since President Donald Trump approved expanded operations against the group [Al-Shabaab] early this year.” (Bloomberg, October 21, 2017)
The escalation signs are all around us: for what reason is the 101st Airborne Division training Somalia’s army?
According to Bloomberg, the white house has handed its military leadership over to the Pentagon: “The White House has also reportedly expanded military targeting authorities in various war-on-terrorism hot spots and delegated responsibility down the chain of command, to enable increased responsiveness and agility by U.S. forces in the field.” (Hal Brands, Bloomberg)
U.S.’s relentless assault to control Somalia’s vast mineral wealth
White imperialists have relentlessly assaulted Somalia; the French, Italian and British shared it amongst themselves.
One year after collapse of the Siad Barre’s regime that the U.S. supported from 1977, George W. Bush, freshly defeated in presidential elections invaded Somalia in 1992 with 30,000 troops under the operation named Restore Hope, disguised as humanitarian assistance.
According to documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times “nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia’s pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January 1991.”
The valiant Somali fighters from general Aidid and others forces united and delivered a crushing and humiliating defeat to the U.S. soldiers, forcing a newly elected Bill Clinton to pull out his troops from Somalia in March 1994.
Somalia’s land possesses key industrial minerals, including uranium, gold, platinum, bauxite, coal, silica and tin among others. There are also gemstones such as emerald, sapphire and rubies.
After the U.S. debacle, Somalia has been without a central government since 1991.
In 2006, The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), who seemed on the ascendancy, winning the confidence of many people because they restored order in Mogadishu, was militarily attacked by the alliance between the puppet Transitional Federal Government and the Ethiopian army, backed by the U.S. government.
Since Al-Shabaab emerged in 2006 out of the defeated UIC, for which they used to act as one of the components of their military wings, they have been able to resist AMISSON, the African Union neocolonial army, authorized by the United Nations.
Somalia a key geo-strategic maritime place and trade route
Somalia controls one of the two accesses to the Red Sea and has over 3,000 kilometers of coast on Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
These waters are full of foreign sea vessels moving tons of oil, raw materials and all other kind of resources from Africa and the Middle East.
Djibouti, a colonial port under direct French rule, now hosts three military powers: The U.S., France and China.
Djibouti is just 20 miles away from Yemen on the other side of the Red Sea.
Somalia’s Red Sea waters host one of the most fish-rich regions in the world, but it is full of the same imperialist vessels that are depleting the sea with their colonial industrial fishing means, depriving traditional Somali fishermen of their fish and livelihood.
Furthermore, the parasitic insurance companies based mostly in Europe, particularly in London, have used the so-called Somali pirates to hike the insurance rates for ships passing through the Red Sea along Somalia’s coast.
Our Call to Africans from Somalia and Niger to Join us is Concretised by the 14th Point of the Platform of our Party: “We want the total liberation and Unification of Africa under an All-African Socialist Government.”
