Defense Department officials recently met with leaders in six African countries and had “fruitful” discussions about U.S. Africa Command, the new unified combatant command the department is establishing, a senior department official told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.

U.S. officials from several government agencies met with African leaders in various nations and discussed U.S. reasons for setting up a command with responsibility for Africa, the organization of the command, possible mission areas, and the future location of the AFRICOM headquarters, said Ryan Henry, principal undersecretary of defense for policy.

“The message that we took to those who we consulted with was that we were entering into a dialogue,” Henry said. “We found that that dialogue was generally positive, very cordial, with varying degrees of frankness, and we were able to answer questions and concerns.”

Defense Department officials joined representatives from the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, and the AFRICOM transition team in their visits to Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, the African Union, Ghana and Senegal.