The Rising Mercenary Industry and AFRICOM
While African states are trying to put the culture of military rule behind them, the United States appears determined to demonstrate that most civilian activities in Africa should be undertaken by armed forces. -
Samuel Makinda
Under Bush/Cheney there has been unprecedented growth in the private military and intelligence corporations. Their purpose is to extract resources and control political behavior. You’ve heard the names, Blackwater, MPRI, DynCorp, Total Intel, Triple Canopy. The mercenaries are already in Africa, and are looking to Africa for their future contracts and future paychecks.

The US use of mercenaries has a long and ugly history in Africa:

[I]n 1978, former CIA agent John Stockwell provided for many their first peek into a deadly, ruthless U.S. foreign policy that destroyed what could have been a far more promising political and economic future for the continent.

LINK to con.