Separate AFRICOM on the Horizon?

A provision of President Bush’s proposed 2009 defense bill, now pending before Congress, would earmark $389 million to create a separate U.S. African Command, which would bolster ties with nations and organizations on the world’s second-largest continent. At present, AFRICOM exists as a sub-command under U.S. European Command. Headquarters is in Stuttgart, Germany. Roughly half of its 1,300 employees are civilian. Under the AFRICOM umbrella, the Navy Sealift Command Ship Cleveland delivered supplies to members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 in Monrovia, Liberia, on March 24. The Seabees will use the bulldozers, trucks, and generators to renovate local civilian medical clinics. During the same mission, a team of Army health care professionals inoculated local livestock.