From bases to embedded officers, London is reportedly helping Washington in places like Somalia
The British military has quietly played a “significant role” in operations of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) for years, the outlet Declassified UK reported on Wednesday, citing documents it recently obtained.
A number of British officers have been embedded with the Americans in Djibouti and helped plan operations in Somalia for at least a decade, according to almost 200 pages of documents Declassified obtained through freedom of information requests.
Almost all the names of the officers involved had been redacted, except for Sergeant Carina Reeves. According to the files, she was “the Intelligence Country Analyst of the only Combined Joint Intelligence Center on the continent,” at Camp Lemonnier, the US base in Djibouti. In that capacity, Reeves is said to have “trained and mentored over 50 US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine intelligence analysts” from 2014 to 2015.
The documents say Reeves “identified a communication gap between” the Special Operations and the intelligence directorate of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and helped bridge it with weekly meetings. For this, she received a US commendation medal.
Declassified said it had tried to contact Reeves for comment, but she did not respond.
Another officer, Colonel Hugh Baker of the British Army, served as the Director of Strategy and Plans at CJTF-HOA from 2020 to 2021. In a public-relations piece produced by AFRICOM in December 2020, Baker described himself as “an American officer who happens to wear a British uniform and speaks with an English accent.” He has since retired from the military.
Several UK officers played a key role in CJTF-HOA operations in Somalia during the last decade. One officer, identified only as a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst with 23 years of service, headed the Strategy and Plans Directorate. He reportedly played a key role in planning the 2016-17 Juba Valley River operation against Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia – which the US State Department later admitted was a failure.
Other revelations by Declassified include the extent to which the US Air Force and Space Force use the British-controlled Ascension Island, located off the coast of Africa, as a base of operations. About 40% of AFRICOM’s intelligence analysts work out of the Royal Air Force Base Molesworth, north of London.
The UK appears to be the most prominent of the 18 non-African countries – including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Spain, South Korea, and Türkiye – that have contributed to US military operations on the continent. The documents viewed by Declassified refer to their officers as “coalition” personnel.
AFRICOM spokesperson Kelly Cahalan insisted that the Americans “do not have ‘coalition’ forces in Africa.” She acknowledged to Declassified that there is “a number of non-African liaison officers assigned to the command,” however.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) “failed to answer” multiple inquiries about its role in AFRICOM operations, the outlet noted.
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