United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

2 February 2010

AFRICOM - Related News

From the Beltway

TANZANIA: HOME WOES ‘HIT U.S. ROLE IN AFRICA’ (The Citizen)

DAR ES SALAAM - The future of the US government's commitment to Africa
looks bleak if domestic problems are anything to go by though it has been
observed Obama would continue with programs his predecessor started in
Africa.

SENEGAL: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY URGES IVORY COAST TO

HOLD ELECTIONS (Voice of America)
DAKAR - International pressure is mounting for Ivory Coast to hold its long-
delayed presidential elections, as controversy over the voter list threatens to once
again push back the poll.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: NORTH AFRICA QAEDA OFFERS TO HELP

NIGERIAN MUSLIMS (Reuters)
DUBAI - An al Qaeda group in North Africa has offered to give Nigerian
Muslims training and weapons to fight Christians in the West African country,
where more than 460 people were killed in sectarian clashes last month.

KENYA: SOMALIA’S AL SHABAAB TO ALLY WITH AL QAEDA (Wall

Street Journal)
NAIROBI - The militant group al Shabaab said it would ally with al Qaeda,
offering a fresh test for U.S.-backed African peacekeepers struggling to defend a
weak Somali government.

SOMALIA: IN MOGADISHU AFRICAN UNION SOLDIERS ARE

ATTEMPTING TO KEEP THE PEACE (Times Online)
MOGADISHU - Next month, the African Union mission (Amisom) will have
spent three years in Somalia. The UN Secretary-General said that United
Nations peacekeepers would not be deployed here until the fighting has stopped.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
1 February 2010

• African leaders join forces to help achieve UN goal for malaria prevention
• Ugandan rebels kill 100 civilians in north-eastern DR Congo, UN reports
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home Woes 'Hit U.S. Role in Africa'
The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) - By Non-attributed Author
1 February 2010

The future of the US government's commitment to Africa looks bleak if domestic

problems President Barack Obama is facing are anything to go by.

The observation was made during a videoconference organised by the US

embassy in Dar es Salaam as part of activities to mark the first anniversary of Mr
Obama's administration.

However, it has been observed that Mr Obama would continue with

programmes that his predecessor, Mr George W. Bush, started in Africa.

In his introductory remarks, Prof Steve Ekovich, who was the moderator of the
dialogue, which also involved representatives from Democratic and Republican
parties, noted, for instance, that President Obama was facing mounting criticism
at home for what was seen as his failure to deliver on his campaign promises.

"Obama was flying high during his campaign days and gave hope to many
Americans... but the situation has changed tremendously now with polls
showing that those who still support him dropping to 48.7 per cent," said Prof
Ekovich, who described himself as an "independent".

He pointed out that it was obvious that Mr Obama had made some mistakes
during his first year in office and "he needs to reconnect with American people".

However, at the same time, Prof Ekovich said there were a lot of unfulfilled
issues relating to the US foreign policy, which might also keep Mr Obama and
his government busy for some time.

He said there were no doubts that President Obama would continue with
programmes in Africa started by his predecessor, but there was no assurance that
he was going to think of new ventures with regard to his commitment to the
continent where he has his origins.
Ms Meredith Gowan Le Goff, the chair of Democrats Abroad in France, who also
participated in the dialogue, said Mr Bush was "good" to Africa and Obama had
followed suit.

"We should take note that Obama has Africa at his heart... Tanzania President
(Jakaya Kikwete) was the first head of State to be welcomed to the White House
by Obama,"she said when stressing how Africa was important to Mr Obama.

But Mr Stuart Haugen, the vice-president of Republicans Abroad in France, said

although Mr Obama was going to continue with Mr Bush's programmes in
Africa, he would face many challenges in fighting terrorism around the globe.

"Bus laid the fundamental base of what he (Mr Obama) is doing in Africa... Bush
was fundamental in malaria and Aids programmes and helping Africa speak
with one voice," said Mr Haugen.

He also noted that the US's greater role in Africa might be put in jeopardy by a
fast emerging Chinese economy, which Mr Obama and his government needed
to find better ways of dealing with.

"Obama can go to Ghana, Tanzania or any other Africa country and rebuke it for
lack of democracy but he cannot do the same to China," he said.

Asked if people expected too much from Mr Obama in the relatively short period
he had been in power, Mr Haugen said any leader should live up to his promises
and would be judged based on his performance and "Obama is not an
exception."
-----------------------
Obama warns of more pressure on Sudan
AFP - By Non-attributed Author
1 February 2010

President Barack Obama warned on Monday the United States would increase
pressure on Sudan's government if it did not respond to a US engagement push
aimed at securing a peace deal in Darfur.

Obama, in a question and answer session broadcast on YouTube and the White
House website, said he still hoped the Khartoum government would accept
efforts to broker a deal with rebels to end the human tragedy in the region.

"We continue to put pressure on the Sudanese government," Obama said.

"If they are not cooperative in these efforts, then it is going to be appropriate for
us to conclude that engagement doesn't work and we are going to have to apply
additional pressure on Sudan in order to achieve our objectives."

"My hope is that we can broker agreements with all the parties involved to deal
with what has been an enormous human tragedy in that region."

The Obama administration has said that solving the Darfur issue is a priority.

Last year, it unveiled a new strategy on Darfur and offered the Sudan
government US engagement if it cooperated to end "genocide" and "gross human
rights abuses" in the region.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have
fled their homes since the ethnic minority rebels in Darfur first rose up against
the Arab-dominated Sudan government in February 2003.

Khartoum says 10,000 people have been killed.

Sudan is due to hold a presidential and parliamentary election in April, the first
polls in 24 years -- a milestone that Washington says it will be closely watching
as it adjusts its policy on Sudan.
-----------------------
Southern Sudan says vote on independence is off-limits for United Nations
Washington Post - By Barney Jopsonin
2 February 2010

A surprise intervention in Sudan by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has

drawn warnings from senior officials here, who say any outside efforts to
influence a referendum on independence next year could lead to further conflict.

At an African Union summit over the weekend, Ban said he would "work hard"
to avoid the secession of southern Sudan following the referendum.

Southern Sudan's regional government quickly decried that as an attempt to

influence the outcome of a referendum that the United Nations is meant only to
administer.

"It is not the responsibility of the U.N. to help the people of the south to take
either decision," said Luka Biong Deng, minister of presidential affairs in
southern Sudan's regional government.
Ban's views have been echoed by others. Diplomats fear that a vote for
independence in southern Sudan would resonate in Nigeria, Congo and
elsewhere.

Sudan's north-south civil war ended with a peace deal in 2005, and the country is
preparing for two watershed events: next January's referendum on southern
independence and this April's national elections.

But here in Malakal, the dust-blown riverside capital of Upper Nile, one of the
south's oil-rich states, relations remain tense between the two armies that live on
either side of a dividing line.

The Sudanese Armed Forces of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan's Islamist

president, and the mainly Christian former rebels of the Sudan People's
Liberation Army were supposed to merge under the 2005 deal ending a 22-year
war that left 2 million people dead. But Malakal is a glaring example of how
mistrust on basic issues -- politics, religion, tribe -- is preventing some of the so-
called joint integrated units from working.

Twice since 2006, the area has been shaken by gunfire between the two armies,
sparked by visits to the town by Gabriel Tang, a northern general and wartime
nemesis of the SPLA. Clashes last February killed 30 civilians, and as many
soldiers, according to Human Rights Watch.

Some in Malakal fear that the next flash point will be the April elections, Sudan's
first in 24 years.

Most Sudanese are enthusiastic about the elections. But Western diplomats say
that the process will be too messy -- millions of illiterate people will vote in areas
where safeguards against fraud are limited -- and that it is not worth the risk of
added violence so close to the independence referendum. Others argue that
Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged
war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, will let the referendum take place only if
the elections give him legitimacy.

The vote is important for diplomats who want to negotiate a deal between
elected officials in northern and southern Sudan that would give the south de
facto independence.
-----------------------
International Community Urges Ivory Coast to Hold Elections
Voice of America - By Anne Look
1 February 2010
International pressure is mounting for Ivory Coast to hold its long-delayed
presidential elections, as controversy over the voter list threatens to once again
push back the poll.

In January, President Laurent Gbagbo accused the Independent Electoral

Commission of approving a voter list for the presidential elections that contains
the names of almost one-half million foreigners. The Ivorian government ordered
an investigation into the fraud allegations, and Mr. Gbagbo's accusations were
followed by calls for the head of the electoral commission to resign.

Denying the fraud allegations, electoral commission head, Robert Mambé, said
that voter list should never have been released.

Questions of nationality were divisive during the civil war in 2002 and remain
sensitive in Ivory Coast, which has a large immigrant population.

In a statement released Sunday, the former rebel faction in the North, the New
Forces, denounced what they called attempts to remove northerners from the
already published provisional voter rolls, by questioning their nationality.

Ivorian officials have said political fights over the voter list will not delay the
poll, but observers fear otherwise.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council extended the mandate of the
U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast until May 30, hoping to encourage
elections by extending the mandate for only four months instead of six.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the Security Council hoped elections would
take place by the end of May and called repeated delays "a source of real
concern" for the United States and the Council.

"There was a very unfortunate incident in which a false voter list was released
and that has set back the process further," Rice noted. "It is our view that the
steps need to be taken by the Ivorian authorities to ensure that the election
happens properly but also that the conditions for it are such that the people of
Ivory Coast can all participate, that all eligible voters are allowed to cast their
ballots and that it happen in a transparent and legitimate fashion," she said.

At a summit of the African Union in Ethiopia Sunday, United Nations Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon urged Ivory Coast "to overcome the outstanding issues
and set a definite date for the elections," ideally holding them before the end of
March.
The World Bank, which has already forgiven 55 percent of Ivory Coast's debt to
it, has tied further debt relief to the holding of elections.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who left the Ivorian commercial capital,
Abidjan, Saturday, said the world has been waiting for this presidential poll.
And he deplored what could be another delay, resulting from recent issues with
the voter list.

"I was encouraged that both the president and the opposition seemed to want to
move forward on those elections, and I tried to do what I could to say that we
thought that moving forward on those elections would enable us to help with
further debt relief and further investment in the country," said Zoellick. "That's
not only important for the people of Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast is a big economy in
this region. It is important for stability and growth in the region as well," he said.

Ivory Coast was once an economic powerhouse in West Africa. It is the world's
leading cocoa producer. But the political stalemate has prevented much-needed
reforms to the cocoa sector, such as reducing high taxes on cocoa farmers.
Zoellick called these reforms a "fundamental issue" for Ivory Coast.

The vote is an attempt to find a lasting political solution to nearly a decade of

internal conflict in the once stable West African nation, but voter registration
issues have prompted Ivory Coast to push back the election several times since
President Gbagbo's mandate ran out in 2005.

The opposition has accused Mr. Gbagbo and his government of stalling elections
to remain in power.

The election is currently planned for March, but no date has been announced.
-----------------------
North Africa Qaeda offers to help Nigerian Muslims
Reuters - By Non-attributed Author
1 February 2010

An al Qaeda group in North Africa has offered to give Nigerian Muslims

training and weapons to fight Christians in the West African country, where
more than 460 people were killed in sectarian clashes last month.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan sent in the military to halt the violence after
four days of clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs armed with guns,
knives and machetes in the area round the city of Jos in central Nigeria.
"We are ready to train your people in weapons, and give you whatever support
we can in men, arms and munitions to enable you to defend our people in
Nigeria," the statement by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said.

It was signed in the name of Abu Mus'ab Abdel-Wadoud, who was described as
the "emir", or leader, of the group, and appeared on Islamic websites that often
carry statements from groups using the al Qaeda name around the world.

"You are not alone in this test. The hearts of Mujahideen are in pain over your
troubles and desire to help you as much as possible, in the Islamic Maghreb,
Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya," it said.

Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, though

traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faith.

About 1 million people were killed in Nigeria's 1967-70 civil war, and there have
been outbreaks of religious unrest since then. But more than 200 ethnic groups
generally live peacefully side by side in the West African oil producer.

Last month's violence erupted after an argument between Muslim and Christian
neighbours over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in previous clashes in 2008.

A Nigerian man tried to bomb a U.S.-bound plane on December 25 in an attack

claimed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Saudi-Yemeni group using the
al Qaeda name and based in Yemen.

AQIM kidnapped a Frenchman and three Spaniards in the Sahara late last year
and said it would kill the French hostage by the end of January unless Mali freed
four al Qaeda prisoners.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday the group had
extended the deadline.

AQIM has waged a campaign of suicide bombings and ambushes in Algeria but
in the past few years has shifted many of its activities south to the Sahara desert.

Last year it killed a British tourist, Edwin Dyer, after kidnapping him on the
border between Niger and Mali while he was attending a festival of Tuareg
culture.

The group also said it shot dead a U.S. aid worker in the Mauritanian capital
Nouakchott in June last year and carried out a suicide bombing on the French
embassy there in August that injured three people.
Saharan states have been planning a regional conference to map out a joint
response to the al Qaeda threat for more than a year, but the gathering has been
postponed repeatedly.
-----------------------
Somalia's Al Shabaab to Ally With Al Qaeda
Wall Street Journal - By Sarah Childress
2 February 2010

The militant group al Shabaab said it would ally with al Qaeda in a drive to
establish an Islamic state in Somalia and fight for Muslims across East Africa,
offering a fresh test for U.S.-backed African peacekeepers struggling to defend a
weak Somali government.

In a statement Monday, the group said it had agreed, among other things, "to
connect the horn of Africa jihad to the one led by al Qaeda and its leader Sheikh
Osama Bin Laden." The statement, written in Somali and Arabic, is believed to be
the first explicit confirmation of what U.S. and Somali government have long
suspected: Militants in one of Africa's least stable places are sharing resources
and merging agendas.

It isn't clear whether this new resolution will result in funding or training from al
Qaeda, or even if it will lead to an official endorsement from the global terror
group. At the very least, the statement signals a tightening embrace with foreign
fighters who have been supporting al Shabaab's efforts to topple the Somali
government.

The cooperation also could spur Somali militants to assist al Qaeda elsewhere. Al
Shabaab has sent fighters to Afghanistan to train with al Qaeda, according to the
Somali government. Al Shabaab recently pledged to send fighters across the Gulf
of Aden to Yemen, where al Qaeda is active.

Al Shabaab made its announcement a day after Somali President Sheikh Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed marked his first year in office. The past year has offered little
respite from the violence that has rocked Somalia for nearly two decades. In the
short term, a combined threat is likely to increase pressure on Mr. Sharif's
tenuous government and those trying to stave off its collapse.

The U.S supports Mr. Sharif and is the biggest backer of an African Union
peacekeeping mission in Somalia, for which it has provided training and
equipment. That support reflects concerns that al Qaeda is attempting to
establish a base in Somalia to attack Western targets.
Overall, the Somali government has been frustrated with the lack of foreign
support. Thus far, Western donors have provided only a fraction of the $213
million pledged in 2009 to the Somali government and the African Union
mission.

A Somali government spokesman declined to comment on the statement from Al

Shabaab. An African Union official dismissed the statement as a "non-event,"
given that the AU already assumed the two groups were working together.

Still, the announcement shows how the Somali militant group's identity is
evolving, analysts say. Al Shabaab, which already controls much of the country,
is increasingly split between Somali nationalists who oppose foreign leadership
and want to establish Shariah law in their country, and those who seek a bigger
role in the global terror network, these analysts say. Some warn too much foreign
influence could backfire.

"The thing that gives Al Shabaab its punch is its national agenda," said Roger
Middleton, an analyst who focuses on the horn of Africa, at London think-tank
Chatham House. "That's key for it, in terms of recruiting and being able to
control areas of territory. If they fail to respect that nationalist element of
Shabaab, they're going to be in trouble."

Al Shabaab has struggled to hold the support of a population wearied by war in

part by claiming not to kill civilians. But foreign fighters have introduced more
vicious tactics, including suicide bombs and attacks on civilians. After a suicide
bombing in December killed at least 19 people, most of them civilians, Somalis
took to the streets in protest. Al Shabaab initially denied any involvement. It later
admitted the bomber had been an al Shabaab fighter, and a foreigner.
-----------------------
In Mogadishu African Union soldiers are attempting to keep the peace
Times online - By Tristan McConnell
2 February 2010

“This is a peacekeeping mission in a place where there is no peace to keep,” said

Major Ba-Hoku Barigye, spokesman for the operation in Somalia, as he squatted
behind a wall of sandbags on a roof in central Mogadishu.

Next month, the African Union mission (Amisom) will have spent three years in
a city that has been a graveyard for peacekeepers from the United Nations and
America.
At the weekend Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said that United
Nations peacekeepers would not be deployed here until the fighting has stopped.
It has been going on for decades.

The 5,300 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers are all that stand between
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Islamist al-Shabaab
insurgents, a group with links to al-Qaeda and Yemeni extremists. Since
peacekeepers arrived in 2007, more than 70 of them have been killed in
Mogadishu.

The front line is a city block known as K4 because it is 4km from the port. “K4 is
very strategic. For anyone to control Mogadishu they have to control K4,”
Captain Kenneth Wabwire, the commander of an Amisom detachment, told The
Times as we crouched on the roof of the bombed-out former Egyptian Embassy.
Bullets flew overhead, occasionally smacking into concrete walls or sandbags.

“Since morning we have been under attack from sniper fire,” Captain Wabwire
said. His Ugandan soldiers occasionally peered over the sandbag wall at the
whitewashed buildings less than a mile away from which militants were taking
potshots.

The junction at K4 connects the airport to the seaport allowing humanitarian

supplies, military equipment and consumer goods to reach the city and beyond.
The Ugandan position overlooks the K4 roundabout, its centrepiece a 20ft-high
plinth whose statue has been shot away. Young boys sit in its shade while next to
them cows root through plastic bags and rubbish. The barrel of a T55 tank sticks
through the wall of an abandoned cinema but they pay no attention.

K4 is attacked almost every day. At night the assaults intensify. The commander
says that his soldiers ignore rifle fire, responding only when mortars get close to
their compound. Amisom is criticised for its indiscriminate bombardment of
civilian districts but Major Barigye says that under the circumstances, the troops
show restraint.

The peacekeepers have also been attacked with roadside bombs and suicide
attacks, techniques that Western intelligence sources say are taught by foreign
jihadis who have bolstered the ranks of al-Shabaab in recent years. Last
September the mission’s Burundian deputy commander and 16 other
peacekeepers were killed in suicide attacks on the Amisom Command
Headquarters and a compound used by DynCorp, a US contractor.
With only 5,300 present of a mandated 8,000-strong force, and with scarcely
enough vehicles to move its own troops around, it is impressive that Amisom
has stayed this long.

The last mission pulled out in March 1995. It had 28,000 peacekeepers and lasted
less than three years. It was curtailed after the infamous Black Hawk Down
episode in 1993, when 18 US Rangers were killed.

For now, a stalemate is in place. Amisom, with its peacekeeping mandate, is not
allowed to go on the offensive. That must be done by government forces, which
have proven incapable of the job. “We can get Mogadishu under control in less
than 30 minutes,” asserted Major Barigye, “but at a cost. Not to us, but to the
population.”
-----------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website
1 February 2010

African leaders join forces to help achieve UN goal for malaria prevention
1 February – Dozens of African leaders met today in Ethiopia to tackle the
challenges facing the continent in the effort to meet the United Nations target of
ensuring universal access to malaria control measures by the end of this year.

Ugandan rebels kill 100 civilians in north-eastern DR Congo, UN reports

1 February – Some 100 people were slaughtered by a notorious Uganda rebel
group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last month, the United
Nations humanitarian arm has said.