This would be useful to protect the oil of the area and to watch for terrorists trying to set up shop in West Africa.
We are talking with Africans in a meeting in Senegal:
"The conference has started and with the objective of setting up mechanisms to fight against terrorist threats," Senegalese army spokesman Colonel Antoine Wardini told AFP.
The meeting is being held under the aegis of the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) -- a counter-insurgency network grouping the US and nine countries in the Sahel and Maghreb regions of Africa.
Given that AFRICOM will be set up to put a single American commander in charge of military relations on the continent, this makes sense I guess. Though I still think it makes more sense to keep Africa split between existing commands. Egypt will remain in CENTCOM. Yet now the Horn will be in AFRICOM. I still like my solution.
But with AFRICOM being based in Europe until it finds a home in Africa, I wonder if Sao Tome is still under discussion?
