Africom - A New Era in America's Africa Policy

By autumn 2007, US Africa Command (Africom) headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany should be ready for initial operations, reports the International Herald Tribune. Africom is an administrative body that will coordinate US peacekeeping activities, humanitarian aid missions, and military partnership operations with African countries as well as offer defense support in non-military operations. According to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the establishment of Africom is a nod to Africa’s growing strategic importance. Africom, which is formally a military institution, will become independent of the US’s European Command at the end of 2008.