African+Mercenaries+and+Security+Contractors

According to many fairly reliable accounts, in 1980 Gaddafi set the Islamic Pan-African legion, essentially a mercenary army with recruits from Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Mali, Chad, Niger and even from East Africa. By the time the war started, the Pan-African Legion had grown to over 10,000 men.The Pan-African Legion started what became an important shift in the mercenary business in Africa. Until recently, many mercenaries fighting wars and overthrowing governments in Africa were mostly Boers, former members of the apartheid South African Defence Forces; ex-SAS commandos from Britain; and former Vietnam war veterans from the USA. Now our people are also cashing in on the mercenary trade, and related one of private security contracting in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, there are over 15,000 Ugandans who have been hired by US private security contractors to do guard duty in Iraq. There are thousands more in Afghanistan. One reason driving Africans to take on high-risk private security jobs in places like Iraq is desperate poverty and the lack of opportunities back home.However, there are also a large number of former African rebels and demobilised soldiers selling their expertise. In the wider East Africa alone, the governments of Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, and DR Congo, have come to power through guerrilla wars. When they settle down and have to build professional armies, many ex-rebels are demobilised. Today, for example, Uganda has a standing army of about 65,000. In the first few years after President Yoweri Museveni seized power in 1986 after a five-year guerrilla war, and he had to fight many armed rebellions at home, the army was thought to number 250,000 men. One time Museveni boasted that with the reserve forces, he could call 1,000,000 men to arms.Against this background, the fact that Uganda is one of the leading suppliers of men to US private security firms in Iraq and Afghanistan, ceases to be a surprise. When Africans go into the hired gun business, it increases the potential for intra-continental conflicts as is happening in Libya. But it is also as good an indicator of the effect of the hyper-militarisation and militianisation that happened in Africa in the 1990s. Because African mercenaries probably charge less than former British SASs or American Marines, the number of African mercenaries and guards will only grow, not decline, over the coming years.
 * Africa: The Rise of the African Mercenary**


 * CRS Report May 2011: The Department of Defense’s Use of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq: Background, Analysis, and Options for Congress**

//The United States also uses contractors (U.S. and foreign citizens) for guard duty at U.S. military installations and U.S. embassies and consulates in a number of countries where stability generally is not an issue.//

//Security contractors come from all over the world to work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution estimated that citizens of some 30 countries have worked as security contractors in Iraq.8 PSC employees are generally divided by nationality into three groups:// //1. U.S. nationals,// //2. Third-country nationals, and// //3. Local nationals.// //U.S. and coalition nationals often have military or law enforcement experience and are generally the easiest to vet through a background check. Third-country nationals are generally cheaper than U.S. coalition contractors, even though some third-country nationals have extensive military training and experience.//

//Use Graphic depicting "//Trend of Security Contractors in Iraq by Nationality"

IIS 2008 Monograph "Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa" //**CRS Report: Private Security Contractors in Iraq: Background, Legal Status, and Other Issues, Aug 2008**//

//United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries//

//PBS's Frontline on "Private Warriors" - Documentary and pages of supporting data//

//ISN APR 2009: Cheap Labor for Private Security://

//Danger Zone Jobs in Iraq 2011 Forecast//

//Wired Danger Room FEB 2011 on US Use of Mercenaries in Iraq//
 * //SSI 2006 Student Paper Col. Bobby Towery: PHASING OUT PRIVATE SECURITY CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ[[file:SSI Student Paper 2006_Phasing Out Security Contractors In Iraq.pdf]]//**

P. W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2004),

//New Yorker June 2011: "The US Military's Third Country Nationals - The Invisible Army"//

//Migrant Rights June 2011 Report on Third Country Nationals - NGO's response to// New Yorker //article//


 * //UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries//**

//World Marketplace March 2008, "**Third World Export: Security Guards**"//

//****'Prince of Mercenaries' who wreaked havoc in Iraq turns up in Somalia** **22 January 2011// //Erik Prince, the American founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, has cropped up at the centre of a controversial scheme to establish a new mercenary force to crack down on piracy and terrorism in the war-torn East African country of Somalia. The project, which emerged yesterday when an intelligence report was leaked to media in the United States, requires Mr Prince to help train a private army of 2,000 Somali troops that will be loyal to the country's United Nations-backed government. Several neighbouring states, including the United Arab Emirates, will pay the bills.// //Mr Prince is working in Somalia alongside Saracen International, a murky South African firm which is run by a former officer from the Civil Co-operation Bureau, an apartheid-era force notorious for killing opponents of the white minority government.// //Somalia, where the country's UN-backed regime is fighting a civil war against al-Shabaab, a group of Islamic insurgents with links to al-Qa'ida, is, if anything, a more volatile country than post-invasion Iraq. The government controls only a small portion of the capital, Mogadishu, where it has the support of 8,000 UN troops from Uganda and Burundi. It is training an army to extend its reach, but observers fear that its ranks will be weakened by the arrival of Mr Prince – who will pay his troops a far better wage. Saracen's shady corporate structure has not inspired confidence in its accountability. In 2002, the UN accused its Ugandan subsidiary of training rebel paramilitaries in the Congo. Recently, the firm has claimed to be registered to addresses in Lebanon, Liberia, Uganda and the UAE, some of which seemed not to exist when reporters tried visiting.// //Figure 8. Trend of Security Contractors in Iraq by Nationality // // (March 31, 2011) // // 11% // // 27% // // 6% // // - // // 2,000 // // 4,000 // // 6,000 // // 8,000 // // 10,000 // // 12,000 // // 14,000 // // 16,000 // // 18,000 // // Sep- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 07 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Dec- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 07 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Mar- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 08 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Jun- // //<span style="display: block; 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height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 09 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Sep- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 09 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Dec- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 09 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Mar- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 10 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Jun- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 10 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Sep- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 10 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Dec- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 10 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Mar- // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> 11 // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> U.S. Third Country Nationals Local Nationals // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Source: CENTCOM Quarter Contractor Census Reports, FY2008-Q2 FY2011. // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;"> Notes: Percentages represent number of security contractor personnel who are local nationals. // //<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -25px; width: 1px;">[[image:data:image/png;base64,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 //