Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
Make a deal with France to ensure country's security vis-a-vis external aggressors. No army otherwise, it just gets used for coups.

Hire Gurkhas and fuggidabowdit.

Posted
Design an Army for today's Africa.

 

Specific countries to choose from: Rwanda, Sudan, Nigers, Ethiopia, and--or Chad.

 

Have fun.

 

Rwanda? What they have. Seems to serve them pretty well. Tchad hasn't exactly been a pushover, either.

Posted

I once saw a translation of the Abyssinian mobilization order from 1935, and it sounded something like:

 

"Every able man is to come to the capital, and bring with him a spear to fight with and a woman to do his cooking and laundry. Those who doesn't will be shot."

 

As one who once struggled with Danish army mobilization plans of the 1980s I find it admiringly simple, but in a 21st century context I guess we could allow AK47s instead of spears.

 

 

Regards

 

Steffen Redbeard

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Ethiopia seems to have given a remarkably good account of themselves in Somalia. Probably because what they lack in modern equipment, they make up for in a desire to actually use it (unlike the pussy-footing we did).

 

Rwanda doesn't have a military per-say. They have a giant armed street gang made up of warlords. Which I suppose is perfectly fine if you just want to slaughter women and children.

 

BTW, my own smart ass answer would be to buy a lot of Toyota pickup trucks and mount machine guns and anti-tank weapons. B)

 

My second smart ass answer would be to do something about the totally inept Nigerian Navy. :lol:

 

- John

Edited by Kensuke
Posted
Wouldn't decent training be the key and might even make it less likely to be a tool for Coups?

 

Decent training requires discipline and loyalty to the institution. Since most Africans don't have loyalties outside of their primary groups, a well trained army there is essentially loyal to its officers, not to the country or a political ideal such as a constitution. That makes it the best coup tool in the world. Why do you think it is that African coups always seem to involve some type of presidential guard (loyal to its officers, not the president, of course) or paratroop battalion? Precisely because they are the best trained troops and most loyal to the coup faction, provided you can get their officers to support the coup.

Guest JamesG123
Posted

Don't worry about buying new toys. Spend the money on education, infrastructure, and preventative medical care. Launch a promotion campaign (propaganda) for the population and a training (indoctrination) program for the army and police to build nationalism and the idea of loyalty to the nation instead of family, tribe, or a singular personality.

 

Bring in western trainers to teach professional police work. Hire a large external accounting firm to do the books and overwatch the financing for the entire country to prevent "sticky fingers".

Create an "FBI" of incorruptibles (as close as you can get) who's primary mission is fighting corruption. If they have to be, make it a harsh secret police that have the power to investigate anyone in any position, from the traffic cop on the street to supreme court justices.

 

Once you have the inefficiencies and hemmoraging of corruption and ignorance under control, then you can start thinking about building a modern military.

Posted
...

Rwanda doesn't have a military per-say. They have a giant armed street gang made up of warlords. Which I suppose is perfectly fine if you just want to slaughter women and children. ...

- John

 

Aren't you thinking of the Rwandan army up to mid-1994? The one which was destroyed by the current one? The current one marched into Zaire (now Congo) & overthrew its government in 1996. May be murderous, but seems to be pretty effective compared to most African armies.

Posted
Aren't you thinking of the Rwandan army up to mid-1994? The one which was destroyed by the current one? The current one marched into Zaire (now Congo) & overthrew its government in 1996. May be murderous, but seems to be pretty effective compared to most African armies.

 

True. One shouldn't confuse the Hutu gangs in the Interahamwe,

with the armed Tutsi-forces (the Ibo of Rwanda) of FPR.

Posted (edited)
"ahem" Give us a yearly budget. Make it interesting.

The CIA World Factbook gives us approximate GDP's and annual military expendutures as a percentage of GDP (unfortunately not always for the same year as the GDP estimate). We can get a ballpark number for existing military budgets from them (rounded over to nearest tens of millions of dollars):

 

Rwanda: $400 million/year

Sudan: $2,920 million/year

Niger: $160 million/year

Ethiopia: $2,250 million/year

Chad: $630 million/year

 

All figures are USD equivalents.

 

Also from the Factbook, short descriptions of security issues which should drive military objectives and thus acquisitions:

 

CHAD: ($630mil/yr)

since 2003, Janjawid armed militia and the Sudanese military have driven hundreds of thousands of Darfur residents into Chad; Chad remains an important mediator in the Sudanese civil conflict, reducing tensions with Sudan arising from cross-border banditry; Chadian Aozou rebels reside in southern Libya; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty, which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

 

ETHIOPIA: ($2,250mil/yr)

Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but neither party responded to the revised line detailed in the November 2006 EEBC Demarcation Statement; UN Peacekeeping Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which has monitored the 25-km-wide Temporary Security Zone in Eritrea since 2000, is extended for six months in 2007 despite Eritrean restrictions on its operations and reduced force of 17,000; the undemarcated former British administrative line has little meaning as a political separation to rival clans within Ethiopia's Ogaden and southern Somalia's Oromo region; Ethiopian forces invaded southern Somalia and routed Islamist Courts from Mogadishu in January 2007; "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities in Berbera and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; civil unrest in eastern Sudan has hampered efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia.

 

NIGER: ($160mil/yr)

Libya claims about 25,000 sq km in a currently dormant dispute in the Tommo region; much of Benin-Niger boundary, including tripoint with Nigeria, remains undemarcated; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries.

 

RWANDA: ($400mil/yr)

fighting among ethnic groups - loosely associated political rebels, armed gangs, and various government forces in Great Lakes region transcending the boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda - abated substantially from a decade ago due largely to UN peacekeeping, international mediation, and efforts by local governments to create civil societies; nonetheless, 57,000 Rwandan refugees still reside in 21 African states, including Zambia, Gabon, and 20,000 who fled to Burundi in 2005 and 2006 to escape drought and recriminations from traditional courts investigating the 1994 massacres; the 2005 DROC and Rwanda border verification mechanism to stem rebel actions on both sides of the border remains in place.

 

SUDAN: ($2,920mil/yr)

the effects of Sudan's almost constant ethnic and rebel militia fighting since the mid-20th century have penetrated all of the neighboring states; as of 2006, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda provided shelter for over half a million Sudanese refugees, which includes 240,000 Darfur residents driven from their homes by Janjawid armed militia and the Sudanese military forces; Sudan, in turn, hosted about 116,000 Eritreans, 20,000 Chadians, and smaller numbers of Ethiopians, Ugandans, Central Africans, and Congolese as refugees; in February 2006, Sudan and DROC signed an agreement to repatriate 13,300 Sudanese and 6,800 Congolese; Sudan accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel groups; efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia proceed slowly due to civil and ethnic fighting in eastern Sudan; the boundary that separates Kenya and Sudan's sovereignty is unclear in the "Ilemi Triangle," which Kenya has administered since colonial times; while Sudan claims to administer the Hala'ib Triangle north of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd Parallel; both states withdrew their military presence in the 1990s, and Egypt has invested in and effectively administers the area; periodic violent skirmishes with Sudanese residents over water and grazing rights persist among related pastoral populations along the border with the Central African Republic.

 

Niger would be the most interesting to plan out, for me .. they have one well-defined dispute, and a small budget (relative to these other countries).

 

Here's some groundwork regarding Niger, and some assumptions I'd make to justify establishing a new army:

 

NEIGHBORS:

Libya to north: ~350km of border

Algeria to northwest: ~960km of border

Chad to east: ~1200km of border

Mali to west: ~820km of border

Nigeria to south: ~1500km of border

Burkina to southwest: ~630km of border

Benin to southsouthwest: ~270km of border

 

1,267 million square km's of mostly desert (11.5% arable, 0.01% crops (750sq km), 88.5% desert)

12.9M citizens, median age of 16.5 years, life expectancy of 44 years

70,000 (0.5%) salaried workers, 60% of whom are employed by government

8.1M citizens (63%) living in poverty

GDP per capita $1,000

No domestic oil production -- all oil is currently imported.

Southern 20% or so is savanna suitable for livestock and limited agriculture.

All citizens obligated to serve for two years (about 258K men + 242K women at any given time), but apparently that does not actually happen, currently?

As of 2007, Niger Armed Forces consists of 8,000 personnel: 2,700 gendarmes (police), 4,000 Republican Guard, 1,300 other: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Niger

* General Staff

* 2 paratroop companies

* 4 light armored squadrons (Panhard AML light armored cars with 90mm guns, et al)

* 9 motorized infantry companies

Military budget USD$160 million/year

 

Assume: Something horrible happened (Rivers State civil dispute, or World Cup riot) and most existing equipment was destroyed (no vehicles remain), which is why I am being charged with rebuilding army.

Assume: Lake Chad Commission delimitation treaty is ratified.

Assume: Relations with France, Morocco, China, Germany, and Algeria continue to be good.

Assume: Oil is available for purchase from ExxonMobil-Petronas in Agadem block (east), and can also be reliably imported from Algeria.

RESOLVED: Benin/Niger border officialy set to Niger's advantage http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/6238805.html

ISSUE: Benin might decide it's unhappy about border settlement.

ISSUE: Tommo dispute with Libya may or may not remain dormant. What is relevance to national interests?

ISSUE: Insecurity approaching insurgency in northern regions http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900S...PB?OpenDocument

ISSUE: Agriculture in south threatened by worsening droughts and pollution http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qr...umn=ENVIRONMENT

 

Thus:

* Most equipment would probably be purchased from France, China, Germany, or Algeria.

* Outlaw factions in northern regions should probably be brought into line (maybe .. are they threatening national interests?).

* Possible invasions from Libya, Benin, Chad (unlikely), Nigeria (unlikely?) should be kept in mind and guarded against,

* Because worsening climate change and pollution threatens Niger with permanent famine, President may propose to General Staff invasion of a southern neighbor to seize water and croplands. Prepare for this.

 

-- TTK

Edited by TTK Ciar
Guest JamesG123
Posted

There are alot of regional/tribal/cultural issues in this area that we as westerners are totally clueless about which makes for alot of inaccuracies.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...