africom related-newsclips 5 jan 2012

8/3/2019 AFRICOM Related-Newsclips 5 Jan 2012

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U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Office +49(0)711-729-2687 [email protected]

United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office5 January 2012

USAFRICOM - related news stories

Good morning. Please find attached news clips related to U.S. Africa Command andAfrica, along with upcoming events of interest for January 5, 2012.

Of interest in todays clips:

-- Reuters reports that East African defense ministers want to increase the size of the AUforce in Somalia and Africa Review writes that the AU has adopted a new strategy in the

fight against Al-Shabaab.-- Voice of America and AP have stories on fighting between Kenyan troops and Al-Shabaab fighters.-- Africa Review ran an article describing Al-Shabaab and Der Speigel published a moregeneral article on Islamist terror networks throughout the continent.

Provided in text format for remote reading. Links work more effectively when thismessage is viewed as in HTML format.

U.S. Africa Command Public AffairsPlease send questions or comments to:[email protected] (+49-711-729-2687)

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Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa

E.Africa ministers want to expand troops in Somalia (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/somaliaNews/idAFL6E8C42WO201201044 January 2012By Aaron MaashoEast African defence ministers want the United Nations to endorse a plan that boosts thesize of an African Union force trying to stabilise Somalia by including Kenyan troops, anAU official said on Wednesday.

African Union set for new Al-Shabaab military strategy (Africa Review)

http://chippewa.com/news/world/africa/kenya-military-reports-battle-with-somali-fighters/article_9ea93ee2-0284-585b-acf5-b6db8c901ea7.html4 January 2012


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By Argaw AshineThe African Union is set to launch a new integrated military strategy to fight the Al-Shabaab extremist group in Somalia.

Don't stoke Nigeria's elusive 'war on terror' (International Herald Tribune)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/in-nigeria-boko-haram-is-not-the-problem.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Nigeria&st=cse4 January 2012By Jean HerskovitsGovernments and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific ChristmasDay bombings of churches in Nigeria to Boko Haram a shadowy group that isroutinely described as an extremist Islamist organization based in the northeastcorner of Nigeria.

Kenya military reports battle with Somali fighters (AP)

http://chippewa.com/news/world/africa/kenya-military-reports-battle-with-somali-fighters/article_9ea93ee2-0284-585b-acf5-b6db8c901ea7.html4 January 2012Kenya's military says its forces killed three militant fighters from al-Shabab in a battle inSomalia

Kenya Says Forces Take Somali Town from al-Shabab (Voice of America)

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Kenya-Says-Forces-Take-Somali-Town-from-al-Shabab-136659073.html4 January 2012The Kenyan army says it has taken a town in southern Somalia from militant group al-Shabab in a joint operation with Somali government forces.

Lawmakers urge UK to consider trying Somali pirates (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/somaliaNews/idAFL6E8C416L20120105?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true5 January 2012The British government should consider bringing Somali pirates to Britain for trial,lawmakers said on Thursday, accusing the government of not doing enough to tackle aproblem that cost $135 million in ransoms last year alone.

Al-Shabaab: The slippery militia that Kenya has had to deal with (Africa Review)

http://www.africareview.com/Special+Reports/Al+Shabaab+slippery+militia+that+Kenya+has+had+to+deal+with/-/979182/1298986/-/gsp9wtz/-/index.html

4 January 2012By John NgirachuIf it existed in a setting where English were the dominant language, Al-Shabaab wouldsimply be known as The Youth, for that is the translation of the Arabic monikerShabaab. The group existed as the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union before theinvasion of Somalia by the Ethiopian forces, who worked with the Americans to drive thefundamentalists out, in 2006.


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Islamist Terror Network Gains Strength in Africa (Der Spiegel)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,806749,00.html4 January 2012By Horand Knaup

On Christmas Day, the extremist Muslim sect Boko Haram carried out a suicide attack ona church in Nigeria that killed dozens. By allying itself with groups such as al-Qaida inthe Islamic Maghreb, it has been gaining in strength and is threatening to spark areligious war in Nigeria.

Chinese Troops In Seychelles Analysis (Eurasia Review)

http://www.eurasiareview.com/04012012-chinese-troops-in-seychelles-analysis/4 January 2012By Teshu SinghThe republic of Seychelles has come in news with the stationing of the Chinese troops inMahe. The archipelago nation is located at a strategic location as it lies in the path of

major shipping lines. This has raised a pertinent question as to what has provoked Chinato station troops in Seychelles. Is piracy the only reason for this or there are other ulteriormotives behind the stationing of the troops?

Nigerias Catholic Bishops Appeal for Help Against Religious Cleansing (National

Review)

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287118/nigeria-s-catholic-bishops-appeal-help-against-religious-cleansing-nina-shea4 January 2012By Nina SheaIn its latest move to effect religious cleansing in Africas largest country, Boko Haram the Nigerian Islamist movement that claimed responsibility for the deadly Christmas Daybombings of a Catholic church, an evangelical church, and three police stations is nowreportedly warning all Christians in Nigerias mainly Muslim north to evacuate by Fridayor else face new attacks. It also vowed to confront Nigerian troops sent to quell four ofthe northern states it has targeted with violence.

Nigeria unions call for strike over fuel hike (Al Jazeera)

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/201214141913862546.html4 January 2012Nigeria's main trade unions have called for a national strike and mass demonstrations toshut down sectors such as oil production starting on Monday, unless the governmentrestores a fuel subsidy it scrapped at the start of the week.

South Sudan: UN defends role in Pibor ethnic clashes (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-164030834 January 2012The UN has defended the role of its peacekeepers and South Sudan government soldiersafter deadly ethnic clashes near Pibor town in Jonglei state.


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chief warned today.

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Upcoming Events of Interest:

5 January 2012Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) Discussion with Former Libyan

National TransitionalCouncil Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni and Marina Ottaway.

WHERE: CEIP, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NWCONTACT: 202-483-7600; web site: www.carnegieendowment.orgSOURCE: CEIP - event announcement at:http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2012/01/05/former-libyan-finance-minister-ali-tarhouni/8rh4

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FULL TEXT

E.Africa ministers want to expand troops in Somalia (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/somaliaNews/idAFL6E8C42WO201201044 January 2012By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA - East African defence ministers want the United Nations to endorse aplan that boosts the size of an African Union force trying to stabilise Somalia byincluding Kenyan troops, an AU official said on Wednesday.

The ministers met in the Ethiopian capital to try to forge a strategy to defeat the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, which has been driven out of the capital Mogadishu and is nowfacing a new front after Ethiopia joined Kenya last week in unilaterally deploying troops.

Nairobi sent troops into the lawless Horn of Africa country last year following a wave ofcross-border attacks and kidnappings it blamed on the rebels.

The AU has a force of less than 10,000, known as AMISOM, made up of Ugandan andBurundian soldiers and is largely responsible for preventing the militants from takingover Somalia.

Djibouti last month sent in the first 100 of a planned deployment of 900 troops, and theinclusion of Kenyan troops would push the force to a total of 17,700, the AU's Peace andSecurity Council head Ramtane Lamamra said.

"We have been working very closely on a new strategic concept that will take on board


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the new situation on the ground," Lamamra told journalists on the sidelines of thegathering.

"It means you will have an AMISOM with 17,700 soldiers. The main thing here is Kenyawill be rehatted and Djibouti will be a part of AMISOM," he said.

Part of the strategy is to also boost Somalia's security and police force to try to shore upthe peacekeepers' efforts, Lamamra added.

Another official told Reuters that AMISOM's mandate, currently limited to Mogadishu,would be effectively expanded with Kenya's inclusion in the force. Lamamra said the AUwas scheduled to endorse the plan on Thursday.

"We will then go to New York to present it to the U.N. Security Council which is likelyto have a special session on this in the next few days," he said.

A Kenyan military source told Reuters that the key thing with the process was for theUnited Nations to approve the expansion of the force, which was capped at 12,000.

The United Nations is one of the funding agencies of the operation, the Kenyan militarysource added.

ETHIOPIAN WITHDRAWAL

Ethiopian troops captured rebel-held Beledweyne on Saturday, in a new front against themilitants who are seen as a threat to the region's stability.

Ethiopian soldiers previously went into Somalia in 2006, and left in early 2009 afterpushing the Islamist Islamic Courts Union, the precursor of the al Shabaab and HizbulIslam rebels, out of Mogadishu.

At the time, most Somalis opposed the intervention and analysts said it may haveencouraged people to join the militants. This time, locals say public opinion has largelyturned against the militants.

Lamamra said Addis Ababa would withdraw its troops after helping Somali governmentsoldiers expand their reach in the country.

"There is a clear recommendation that Ethiopia is helping AMISOM and (Somalia's)Transitional Federal Government to achieve certain strategic results on the region," hesaid.

"Once that's done, AMISOM will take over (Ethiopia's role)."

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African Union set for new Al-Shabaab military strategy (Africa Review)

http://chippewa.com/news/world/africa/kenya-military-reports-battle-with-somali-fighters/article_9ea93ee2-0284-585b-acf5-b6db8c901ea7.html4 January 2012By Argaw Ashine

The African Union is set to launch a new integrated military strategy to fight the Al-Shabaab extremist group in Somalia.

Defence ministers and army chiefs of six East African countries are scheduled to meetWednesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the proposed new approach to tacklingthe Islamist group.

The AU's Peace and Security commissioner Ramaten Lamamra said the consultativemeeting would go over the unified plan which had been prepared by experts.

Mr Lamamra said he was however constrained to explain in detail the content of theproposed strategy as it was a classified working document.

Defence ministers and army chiefs from the troop contributing countries - Ethiopia,Djibouti Kenya Burundi, Somalia and Uganda - will take part in the final consultation onthe plan.

Sources who participated in the preparation of the document said the military strategywould task each country with different zones with the aim of avoiding contradictions inthe military interventions.

Funding hopes

The AU also hopes to get more funding from the United Nations and other Westerncountries to implement the proposed military plan.

Last month, Kenya, which is is fighting the Al-Shabaab in southern Somalia, requested tointegrate its armed force with the AU-flagged AMISOM peacekeepers.

Djibouti has also started to deploy some 850 troops to the mission which already hasUgandan and Burundian peacekeepers.

Ethiopia also re-entered Somalia with its troops last week capturing the central westSomalia town of Beledweyne .

The AU has demanded a more organised and centrally commanded troop operation inSomalia.

Al-Shabaab is in its weakest position since September 2011 due to the deterioratinghumanitarian crisis and internal divisions in its leadership.


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But the militant group has said the withdraw of its forces from the capital city Mogadishuis a strategic retreat and vowed to fight any foreigners who invade Somalia.

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Don't stoke Nigeria's elusive 'war on terror' (International Herald Tribune)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/in-nigeria-boko-haram-is-not-the-problem.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Nigeria&st=cse4 January 2012By Jean Herskovits

Governments and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific ChristmasDay bombings of churches in Nigeria to Boko Haram a shadowy group that isroutinely described as an extremist Islamist organization based in the northeastcorner of Nigeria. Indeed, since the May inauguration of President GoodluckJonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the countrys south, Boko Haram has

been blamed for virtually every outbreak of violence in Nigeria.

But the news media and American policy makers are chasing an elusive and ill-definedthreat; there is no proof that a well-organized, ideologically coherent terrorist groupcalled Boko Haram even exists today. Evidence suggests instead that, while the originalcore of the group remains active, criminal gangs have adopted the name Boko Haram toclaim responsibility for attacks when it suits them.

The United States must not be drawn into a Nigerian war on terror rhetorical or real that would make us appear biased toward a Christian president. Getting involved in anescalating sectarian conflict that threatens the countrys unity could turn Nigerian

Muslims against America without addressing any of the underlying problems that arefueling instability and sectarian strife in Nigeria.

Since August, when Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United States AfricaCommand, warned that Boko Haram had links to Al Qaeda affiliates, the perceived threathas grown. Shortly after General Hams warning, the United Nations headquarters inAbuja was bombed, and simplistic explanations blaming Boko Haram for Nigeriasmounting security crisis became routine. Someone who claims to be a spokesman forBoko Haram with a name no one recognizes and whom no one has been able toidentify or meet with has issued threats and statements claiming responsibility forattacks. Remarkably, the Nigerian government and the international news media have

simply accepted what he says.

In late November, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security issueda report with the provocative title: Boko Haram: Emerging Threat to the U.S.Homeland. The report makes no such case, but nevertheless proposes that theorganization be added to Americas list of foreign terrorist organizations. The StateDepartments Africa bureau disagrees, but pressure from Congress and several


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government agencies is mounting.

Boko Haram began in 2002 as a peaceful Islamic splinter group. Then politicians beganexploiting it for electoral purposes. But it was not until 2009 that Boko Haram turned toviolence, especially after its leader, a young Muslim cleric named Mohammed Yusuf,

was killed while in police custody. Video footage of Mr. Yusufs interrogation soon wentviral, but no one was tried and punished for the crime. Seeking revenge, Boko Haramtargeted the police, the military and local politicians all of them Muslims.

It was clear in 2009, as it is now, that the root cause of violence and anger in both thenorth and south of Nigeria is endemic poverty and hopelessness. Influential Nigeriansfrom Maiduguri, where Boko Haram is centered, pleaded with Mr. Jonathansgovernment in June and July not to respond to Boko Haram with force alone. Likewise,the American ambassador, Terence P. McCulley, has emphasized, both privately andpublicly, that the government must address socio-economic deprivation, which is most

severe in the north. No one seems to be listening.

Instead, approximately 25 percent of Nigerias budget for 2012 is allocated for security,even though the military and police routinely respond to attacks with indiscriminate forceand killing. Indeed, according to many Nigerians Ive talked to from the northeast, thearmy is more feared than Boko Haram.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram has evolved into a franchise that includes criminal groupsclaiming its identity. Revealingly, Nigerias State Security Services issued a statement onNov. 30, identifying members of four criminal syndicates that send threatening textmessages in the name of Boko Haram. Southern Nigerians not northern Muslims ran three of these four syndicates, including the one that led the American Embassy andother foreign missions to issue warnings that emptied Abujas high-end hotels. And lastweek, the security services arrested a Christian southerner wearing northern Muslim garbas he set fire to a church in the Niger Delta. In Nigeria, religious terrorism is not alwayswhat it seems.

None of this excuses Boko Harams killing of innocents. But it does raise questions abouta rush to judgment that obscures Nigerias complex reality.

Many Nigerians already believe that the United States unconditionally supports Mr.Jonathans government, despite its failings. They believe this because Washingtonpraised the April elections that international observers found credible, but that manyNigerians, especially in the north, did not. Likewise, Washingtons financial support forNigerias security forces, despite their documented human rights abuses, further inflamesMuslim Nigerians in the north.

Mr. Jonathans recent actions have not helped matters. He told Nigerians last week, Theissue of bombing is one of the burdens we must live with. On New Years Eve, hedeclared a state of emergency in parts of four northern states, leading to increased


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military activity there. And on New Years Day, he removed a subsidy on petroleumproducts, more than doubling the price of fuel. In a country where 90 percent of thepopulation lives on $2 or less a day, anger is rising nationwide as the costs of transportand food increase dramatically.

Since Nigerias return to civilian rule in 1999, many politicians have used ethnic andregional differences and, most disastrously, religion for their own purposes. NorthernMuslims indeed, all Nigerians are desperate for a government that responds to theirmost basic needs: personal security and hope for improvement in their lives. They areoutraged over government policies and expenditures that undermine both.

The United States should not allow itself to be drawn into this quicksand by focusing onBoko Haram alone. Washington is already seen by many northern Muslims includinga large number of longtime admirers of America as biased toward a Christianpresident from the south. The United States must work to avoid a self-fulfilling prophecythat makes us into their enemy. Placing Boko Haram on the foreign terrorist list would

cement such views and make more Nigerians fear and distrust America.

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Kenya military reports battle with Somali fighters (AP)

http://chippewa.com/news/world/africa/kenya-military-reports-battle-with-somali-fighters/article_9ea93ee2-0284-585b-acf5-b6db8c901ea7.html4 January 2012

Kenya's military says its forces killed three militant fighters from al-Shabab in a battle inSomalia

Military spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said Wednesday that one Kenyan soldierwas also killed in the battle.

Chirchir said that Kenyan and Somali troops are advancing north. Kenyan troops enteredSomalia in mid-October to attack al-Shabab militants and have been supported bySomalia's weak army.

Since then Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia on the country's west, who along withAfrican Union troops in Mogadishu are squeezing al-Shabab fighters on three sides.

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Kenya Says Forces Take Somali Town from al-Shabab (Voice of America)

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Kenya-Says-Forces-Take-Somali-Town-from-al-Shabab-136659073.html4 January 2012

The Kenyan army says it has taken a town in southern Somalia from militant group al-


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Shabab in a joint operation with Somali government forces.

In messages posted Wednesday to the social media site Twitter, army spokesmanEmmanuel Chirchir says the town of Fafadun was seized in an operation that killed threeal-Shabab members.

Chirchir says the dead include a key al-Shabab leader in the Gedo region, Sheikh HassanHussein. He says one Kenyan soldier was slightly injured.

Kenyan forces entered Somalia in October to push back al-Shabab, which controls largesections of southern and central Somalia, and is blamed by Kenya for a series of cross-border kidnappings.

The militant group has also come under pressure from African Union peacekeepers, whopushed them out of the Somali capital Mogadishu in August, and from Ethiopia, whichseized the town of Beledweyne on Saturday.

Al-Shabab is known for enforcing a strict brand of Islam in the areas under its rule and isbelieved to have links to al-Qaida.

The group has also blocked most international aid workers from accessing parts ofSomalia suffering from drought and famine.

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Lawmakers urge UK to consider trying Somali pirates (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/somaliaNews/idAFL6E8C416L20120105?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true5 January 2012

The British government should consider bringing Somali pirates to Britain for trial,lawmakers said on Thursday, accusing the government of not doing enough to tackle aproblem that cost $135 million in ransoms last year alone.

Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee also called on the government -- which recentlyannounced it will permit British merchant ships sailing off Somalia to carry armed guards-- to state clearly when these guards may legally open fire.

"We conclude that for too long there has been a noticeable gap between the (British)government's rhetoric and its action," the influential committee said in a report on Somalipiracy.

Britain will host an international conference on Feb. 23 to try to agree on measures totackle instability and piracy in the east African country, described by Prime MinisterDavid Cameron as a "failed state that directly threatens British interests."


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Pirates operating from the Somali coast have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars inransoms from hijacking ships and currently hold up to 10 ships and 200 hostages .

The lawmakers said that despite nine U.N. Security Council resolutions and threemultinational naval operations, counter-piracy policy had had limited impact.

"The number of attacks, the costs to the industry and the price of the ransoms have allincreased significantly since 2007", said the committee its report, calling for decisiveaction against piracy.

Proposals to pursue financial transactions related to piracy had potential as a tool in thefight against piracy, said the report. The solution lay theoretically in pursuing stability onland, although British and international leverage there was limited, it said.

Very few British merchant ships had been successfully attacked, but Somali piracythreatened Britain's economy through the banking, insurance and shipping industries --

all key to London's position as a global financial centre -- as well as ships that Britaindepended on for trade, the report said.

FINANCIAL FLOWS

"Despite this, piracy is not a priority task for Royal Navy forces and the UK has at timesbarely dedicated even one ship to counter-piracy activities. The naval operations havebeen further limited by the failure to prosecute detained suspects and rules of engagementthat required strengthening earlier this year," it said.

Noting that ransoms paid to pirates in 2011 totalled "an alarming $135 million", thecommittee said the British government had been "disappointingly slow to take action onfinancial flows relating to ransom payments."

Even when pirates are detained by naval forces, around 90 percent of them are releasedwithout charge, the report said.

The lawmakers said prosecuting pirates in local courts should remain the preferred optionand conceded there were difficulties in bringing suspected pirates back to Britain forprosecution.

"However, we also conclude that there is no legal reason for the UK not to assertjurisdiction and try pirates in our national courts, and we urge the government to considerthis as an option if no other country will take suspected pirates captured by UK ships",their report said.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman rebuffed the criticism, saying Britain had "consistentlybeen at the forefront of the international community's efforts to counter piracy off thecoast of Somalia."


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She said Britain would always seek to take action to help ensure the successfulprosecution of pirates wherever there was a chance of success. "However, our firstpriority is to support the countries in the region to deal with the problem of piracy in theregion itself", she said.

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Al-Shabaab: The slippery militia that Kenya has had to deal with (Africa Review)

http://www.africareview.com/Special+Reports/Al+Shabaab+slippery+militia+that+Kenya+has+had+to+deal+with/-/979182/1298986/-/gsp9wtz/-/index.html4 January 2012By John Ngirachu

If it existed in a setting where English were the dominant language, Al-Shabaab wouldsimply be known as The Youth, for that is the translation of the Arabic moniker

Shabaab. The group existed as the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union before theinvasion of Somalia by the Ethiopian forces, who worked with the Americans to drive thefundamentalists out, in 2006.

Its designation as a terrorist group by the US State Department in March 2008 marked itsemergence as a significant player in the country, but its first leader, Aden Hashi Ayro,was killed by a US air strike two months later.

Others Abdelkadir Yusuf Aar Al, Hassan Abdurahman and Fazul AbdullahMohammed were killed in March, April and June respectively.

After its growth out of the dismantled ICU, Al-Shabaab quickly set about establishing itsinterpretation of Islam in the areas under its control. Its stated aim, fuelled by theinfluence of Al-Qaeda and headed by men who had undergone training in Afghanistan,was to turn Somalia into an Islamic nation.

This included encouraging men to grow beards and applying the harshest interpretation ofSharia, which entails cutting off limbs as punishment for law breakers. There were also afew bizarre interpretations, such as the ban on women from wearing brassieres and anoutlawing of the triangular samosa on the basis that it resembled the Christian doctrine oftrinity.

The group maintained a hold over several parts of Mogadishu until August last year,when it withdrew in what it called at the time a tactical retreat.

Hasty retreat

However, many believe that they were at the time weakened by the drought that had ledto a humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa and the constant fighting with forces of theAfrican Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).


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It is understood that the militia moved south, closer to the border with Kenya, and gotmore engaged in piracy and collecting taxes from the local population. They alsoestablished training camps from which they are believed to have organised and made thebombs used in their first major attack in Kampala in July 2010.

The Kenyan government blames Al-Shabaab for a number of attacks inside the country,but the ultimate motivation for Operation Linda Nchi was the kidnapping of two touristsand the murder of another in Lamu and Kiwayu.

Kenyan troops had been stationed at Ishakani at the south eastern tip of the country since2006 to prevent the terrorists from crossing over into the country, but, after the attacks,more soldiers were deployed to the camp, which has become the launching pad for theoperation in the Southern Sector in Operation Linda Nchi.

Given its hasty retreat from Ras Kamboni, Bur Gabo and Kolbio in the Southern Sector,

there has been little suggestion that Al-Shabaab is the kind of enemy that stands andfights. It could be part of their guerrilla warfare strategy: The group seems more preparedfor ambushes and roadside bombs than for conventional combat in trenches and definedfronts.

They are armed with the ubiquitous AK47 assault rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraftguns, with the latter two mostly mounted on modified pick-up trucks called technicals.

Swift retaliation

But do not underestimate Al-Shabaab. According to this years UN Monitoring Groupreport on Somalia, the militia carried out 130 sniper and 155 grenade attacks on Amisomforces in Mogadishu between April 2010 and April 2011.

At the start of the operation, the militants had promised swift retaliation inside Kenya,and there were two grenade attacks on a downtown pub and a bus stop in Nairobi. Butthose attacks have fizzled out since the arrest and conviction of Elgiva Bwire, who wasfound with 13 grenades at a house in Kayole.

In battle, Al-Shabaab is known to prefer ambushes, which are mostly carried out with thehelp of suicide attacks that, in extreme cases, involve driving a vehicle loaded withexplosives into the enemys camp.

Suicide bombers are largely the seekers of martyrdom; people who have beenindoctrinated to believe that the afterlife would offer better opportunities for pleasure andrepose than being really alive.

KDF reckons that taking control of the port town of Kismayu would be the ultimate toolto strangle Al-Shabaab economically as the port is their main source of revenue. Toachieve that target, the forces will have to enforce a naval blockade as well as an assault


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by the army overland.

Once Kismayu is secured, the forces will then give Somalis the opportunity to map out apolitical strategy to free the country from the yoke of sectarian and clan rivalries thathave made denied Somalia peace for two decades.

But the future of the area in Southern Somalia that the Kenya Defence Forces aim toliberate from the grip of Al-Shabaab could rest on only two men.

Politics of Jubaland

Ahmed Mohammed Islan aka General Madoobe and Mohamed Abdi Mohamed Ghandiare central to the politics of the area known as Jubaland, which the KDF and theTransitional Federal Government forces have taken.

Gen Madoobe, a trained civil engineer, was the governor for Jubaland when Somalia was

under the control of the Islamic Courts Union.

Gandhi, a Somali anthropologist and historian, was last April named the president of theproposed semi-autonomous region of Jubaland, the area KDF aims to liberate.

Gen Madoobes troubles began after the ICU was pushed out of power by the combinedforce of the United States and the Ethiopian army, which moved into Somalia in 2006.

The 48-year-old, who describes himself as a businessman with an interest in fish export,said he was the sole survivor of an attack in January 2007 in Kismayu, after which hespent two years in hospital and jail in Addis Ababa.

He left jail after the Djibouti Agreement was signed, by which time Al-Shabaab hadconsolidated and taken control of Southern Somalia. Gen Madoobe then began puttingtogether the Ras Kamboni Brigade, which worked with the TFG forces in unsuccessfulattempts to remove Al-Shabaab from power.

The elimination of the militia has been Ghandis first priority since the creation of thesemi-autonomous state, referred in various online publications as Azania.

Given that Gen Madoobes Brigade is recruiting in areas that have been shorne of themilitants, and the status enjoyed by Ghandi, the two could determine the politicaldirection of the area if Operation Linda Nchi succeeds.

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Islamist Terror Network Gains Strength in Africa (Der Spiegel)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,806749,00.html4 January 2012By Horand Knaup


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On Christmas Day, the extremist Muslim sect Boko Haram carried out a suicide attack ona church in Nigeria that killed dozens. By allying itself with groups such as al-Qaida inthe Islamic Maghreb, it has been gaining in strength and is threatening to spark areligious war in Nigeria.

Shortly before 8 a.m. on Christmas Day, a gold-colored Toyota pulled up in front of St.Theresa's Catholic Church in Madalla, near the Nigerian capital Abuja, just as hundredsof worshippers were coming out. The vehicle's driver ignored instructions from theguards at the gate. He simply kept driving and accelerated directly into the crowd.

Moments later, the area was covered with blood, dead bodies and dismembered limbs.Trees were charred, and a deep crater had been gouged into the sand. Official sources sayat least 27 people lost their lives during the Christmas Day attack. But eyewitnesses putthe figure much, much higher.Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has suffered a huge setback in its efforts to

reconcile its Christian and Muslim populations. President Goodluck Jonathan, aChristian, took a long time -- longer, in fact, than the pope and the British government --to put his feelings into words. When he finally spoke, he called it "an ugly incident."

The perpetrators swiftly issued their own statement. Boko Haram, a radical Muslim sectwhose name means "Western education is sinful," claimed responsibility for the suicidebombing. It said the attack aimed to kill Christians and make the government look bad.

An Expansive Terror Network

This wasn't the only such attack carried out by Boko Haram. Indeed, in 2011 alone, thegroup killed up to 600 people.

Just a few years ago, the sect's fighters from the northeastern part of the country were stillusing poisoned darts and machetes to kill and maim police officers. Although they lookedlike a spent force by mid-2009, they have since reorganized, affiliating themselves with aglobal terrorist network that includes al-Shabab militias in Somalia, militant groups inPakistan and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North Africa.

In September, the senior US military commander for Africa, General Carter F. Ham,warned, "If left unaddressed, then you could have a network that ranges from East Africathrough the center and into the Sahel and Maghreb." In reality, though, this networkalready exists, and it stretches from Somalia, on the Indian Ocean, to Mauritania, on theAtlantic.

The terrorists have found the unpopulated Sahara desert and the adjacent Sahel to be anideal retreat. The virtually lawless region is larger than the United States, and thecountries it passes through -- Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Algeria -- are poor, weak andcorrupt. Under these conditions, AQIM members are free to meet up with gun-runnersand drug-smugglers as well as to form alliances of convenience with Tuareg nomads.


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The Birth of Boko Haram

AQIM emerged in Algeria five years ago as the Salafist Group for Preaching andCombat. Its members, estimated to number between 400 and 800, are difficult to capture

because they easily slip in and out of the rocky and sandy deserts of Mali and Mauritania.

Aside from smuggling, kidnapping has become the organization's most lucrative sourceof revenue. In this way, AQIM has allegedly netted itself some $65 million (50 million)in ransom money since 2005. Its fighters are currently holding 13 hostages from sixcountries. Most recently, in late November, they abducted four Europeans and one SouthAfrican in two raids in Mali.

For a long time, Boko Haram didn't wage that kind of struggle. The group was founded inthe mid-1990s in Maiduguri, a city in the poor northeastern corner of Nigeria. Roughly adecade ago, Mohammed Yusuf, a radical Muslim calling for the imposition of the Islamic

legal code known as Shariah, became the group's leader.

Apart from the governor and his cronies, who eagerly lined their own pockets, Maidugurinever profited from the oil revenues of the Christian south. Conditions are worsened byhigh unemployment, corruption and a police force that shoots first and asks questionslater.

According to a report published by the US House of Representatives' Committee onHomeland Security in late November, "These grievances have led to sympathy among thelocal Muslim population despite Boko Haram's violent tactics."

A Violent Crackdown

In the early years of Boko Haram, Yusuf built up a kind of state-within-a-state, completewith its own tax-collection apparatus, healthcare system and police force. In July 2009,hundreds of his loyalists stormed prisons and police stations in Maiduguri, forcing thegovernment in Abuja to send in units of elite soldiers.

Video imagery from the time shows uniformed officers dragging suspected Boko Haramsupporters from a pickup truck and summarily executing them.

There are also pictures of Yusuf following his arrest, taken during his interrogation at apolice station. Shortly thereafter, his body was found on the streets. He had been shot,and his body showed clear signs of torture. The official figures put the number of peoplekilled in the conflict at 700. However, eyewitnesses speak of several thousand victims, ofexecutions and of mass graves dug under the cover of darkness.

A Shift in Tactics and Alliances

The crackdown brought Boko Haram more new members than ever, and it grew from a


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regional sect into a terrorist organization that now views itself as part of a global Islamistnetwork.

Experts noticed a shift in how the terrorist group identified itself more than six monthsago, when 35-year-old Mohammed Manga, a businessman and father of five, drove his

Honda Accord into police headquarters in Abuja. The explosion killed him and threeinnocent bystanders. A few days later, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the UNheadquarters in the same city, killing 25 people. For the first time, the group drewattention to itself with two back-to-back suicide bombings.

In May, the kidnapping of a Briton and an Italian, both employees of a constructioncompany in northwestern Nigeria, also showed that Boko Haram was allegedly changingits traditional approach. In August, a video of the two men revealed that they were beingheld by AQIM.

French intelligence officials have long noted ties between the two groups. "French

sources believe that AQIM is actively trying to expand its reach, and is apparently indirect contact with (the) Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram," warned US diplomats inParis in a confidential dispatch to Washington from February 2010, which was publishedby the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks.

In June of that year, AQIM leader Abdelmalek Droukdel confirmed that his organizationwas supplying weapons to Boko Haram. Indeed, the two groups are activelycollaborating. The Nigerian terrorists have reportedly visited al-Shabab training camps inSomalia. In return, AQIM allegedly sent experts to Nigeria to train people in the use ofbombs.

"Without a meaningful policy, the area could soon constitute a lasting safe haven forjihadists," says Jerome Spinoza, the head of the Africa bureau at the French DefenseMinistry. What's more, it is also believed AQIM has amassed a large arsenal of weapons,which it transported into the Sahel in the final days of the Gadhafi regime in Libya.

A Danger of Religious War

For a long time, even the Nigerian government underestimated the potential dangersposed by Boko Haram. In early 2010, for example, a senior intelligence officer claimedthe group lacked organizational capabilities and was therefore not in a position toendanger foreign interests.In June, when Boko Haram targeted Abuja for the first time, the country's seeminglyhelpless president vowed to bring the men behind the bombings to justice. But his wordshaven't been backed by action. Even worse, it looks like the group might also enjoy somehigh-level political support: In November, a senator was arrested on suspicion of being incontact with Boko Haram.

After the latest attacks, some even believe that Nigeria could be ripped apart. SaiduDogo, the secretary general of the northern branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria


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(CAN), has already called on Christians to defend themselves against further attacks."We fear that the situation may degenerate to a religious war and Nigeria may not be ableto survive one" Dogo said, adding, "Enough is enough!"

###

Chinese Troops In Seychelles Analysis (Eurasia Review)

http://www.eurasiareview.com/04012012-chinese-troops-in-seychelles-analysis/4 January 2012By Teshu Singh

The republic of Seychelles has come in news with the stationing of the Chinese troops inMahe. The archipelago nation is located at a strategic location as it lies in the path ofmajor shipping lines. This has raised a pertinent question as to what has provoked Chinato station troops in Seychelles. Is piracy the only reason for this or there are other ulteriormotives behind the stationing of the troops?

It is not the first time that China is stationing its troops in Seychelles, China Seychellesrelations date back to 1976. Defence cooperation between Seychelles and China started inOctober 2004. As a part of the military cooperation agreement in 2004, China is alreadytraining fifty Seychelles Peoples Defence Forces (SPDF) soldiers. In addition, theChinese Navys hospital Ship- Peace Ark visited Seychelles in November 2010 and twoChinese frigates visited in April 2011 for the first time.

SeychellesThe President of Seychelles visited China to mark 35 years of diplomatic relations inOctober 2011. And as a part of their military ties, they gifted the SPDF two Y-12 aircraftfor surveillance and anti-piracy. As a part of their larger diplomatic ties Chinese DefenceMinister Gen. Liang Guanglie visited Seychelles, on 3 December 2011, with his 40member delegation. As an effort to combat piracy in the region the republic ofSeychelles, invited the Chinese troops on their land. The nature of these troops will belimited to naval fleet only. Nevertheless these troops are not to protect the supply stop inSeychelles and will seek supplies or recuperate in escort missions.

China already has the resupply facilities in Djibouti, Oman and Yemen since 2008 in theGulf of Aden and it has not established a military base there.

Piracy has become a complex problem at the high seas in general and Horn of Africa inparticular. Seychelles has become the primary target of the pirates since it is thedestination of wealthy tourists. A Seychelles commercial tour yacht Serenity which wastravelling from the countrys far islands south to Madagascar in April 2009 as capturedby a group of Somali pirates. Ever since then it has become a regular phenomenon. Thiswas followed by more hijacking in subsequent years of vessel near the Seychelles,including a small cruise ship, a scientific research vessel, and several more yachts. In2009 Seychelles government paid US$ 50 million to the Somali Pirates to free theirvessels/property.


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Piracy has become a rooted problem in the region and China has a vested interest incombating piracy. Seychelles is the first point of stop for Chinese merchant vessels.Chinese economy is heavily dependent on the usage of the sea lane off coast of Somalia;a prime target of the pirates. Hence securing these sea lines of communication for energy

and raw materials is important for the Chinese economy. Considering, the immensestrategic importance of the region it is no surprise that China is interested in the regionand it largely supports any effort to fight piracy.

Today, China and Seychelles stand as a model for relations between small and bigdeveloping country. Both countries look positively within the framework of the forumon China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The two countries will be celebrating the 150thanniversary of settlement of the first Chinese in Seychelles. The archipelago nationfollows policy of nonalignment and supports the policy of reduced superpower presencein the Indian Ocean and is one of the proponents of the Indian Ocean Zone of Peace.

Thus any chance of Mahe becoming a prospective naval base seems to be a remotepossibility. Though the stationing of troops has raised doubts about Chinas militarybase in Seychelles which might lead to an increase in Chinese influence in the regionsurpassing that of the US in Africa. Nonetheless, China is not the only country which hasstationed troops, an Indian Dornier surveillance aircraft (under construction) was given tothe SPDF for maritime surveillance within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) inFebruary, 2011. In addition two Chetak maritime choppers were provided to fight againstsea pirates. India hails the Seychelles efforts to combat piracy and has initiated a series ofmaritime operations to check piracy. In 2009 US Africa Command (AFRICOM) had puttogether a US military base in Seychelles. American military drone had earlier been usedto monitor piracy off the East African coast.

Also, it takes a lot of technological and economic transfer for turning any refueling baseinto a military base. Chinese military is undergoing a modernization program and it doesnot yet have the capability to maintain a military base overseas.

###

Nigerias Catholic Bishops Appeal for Help Against Religious Cleansing (National

Review)

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287118/nigeria-s-catholic-bishops-appeal-help-against-religious-cleansing-nina-shea4 January 2012By Nina Shea

In its latest move to effect religious cleansing in Africas largest country, Boko Haram the Nigerian Islamist movement that claimed responsibility for the deadly Christmas Daybombings of a Catholic church, an evangelical church, and three police stations is nowreportedly warning all Christians in Nigerias mainly Muslim north to evacuate by Fridayor else face new attacks. It also vowed to confront Nigerian troops sent to quell four of


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the northern states it has targeted with violence.

Catholic archbishop John Onaiyekan, of Abuja, Nigerias capital city, appealed for help.Its a national tragedy. We are all unsecured. Its not only Catholic. Today its us.Tomorrow we dont know who it will be, he said. Nigerias Catholic bishops report that

some 200 individuals, mostly Catholic worshippers, were killed in the coordinatedChristmas bombings.

According to the Vatican news agency Fides, Nigerias Catholic bishops called onIslamic leaders to speak up and take measures to end the violence. On behalf of thebishops, Archbishop Ade Job, president of the Episcopal Conference of Nigeria, issued adesperate plea: Members of the Boko Haram sect have claimed responsibility for thisshameful crime against God and humanity. We use this opportunity to call on our peace-loving Muslims, especially their leaders from the political, economic, social, andreligious spectrums, not only to publicly denounce these acts, but for their own good andgood of Nigeria . . . to do everything positive to end this movement.

So far, this plea has been met with silence from Nigerias Sunni religious leaders. Nodoubt some are afraid that they too will become targets if they dissent from BokoHarams dictates.

Western analysts debate whether, as U.S. AfriCom commander Gen. Carter Ham asserts,Boko Haram is linked to al-Qaeda, or is, as stated by others, a diffuse group of localSunni Muslims. In any event, former U.S. ambassador John Campbell, now an expertwith the Council on Foreign Relations, who takes the latter view, said that a group callingitself Boko Haram could very well launch the cleansing campaign as threatened.

Boko Haram, in the local Hausa language, means Western education is prohibited.Fides explains that its roots lie in traditional local opposition to British-introducedWestern education, which associated with foreign white people was understood asBoko or witchcraft. Math, science, and literature stood in stark contrast to the simplerecitation and memorization of the Koran that is the practice of the madrassas in theMuslim areas of the country.

Fides reports that even today over 80 percent of Muslim parents in both rural and urbanareas of Nigerias northern states refuse to send their children to school to acquireWestern education. It states that hordes of Muslim children who today roam the streetsof Nigeria are graduates of the Islamiyya schools, under the tutelage of an itinerantteacher, Mallam. It concludes: These children, with no job, are the lifeblood that feedssects like the Boko Haram and other similar millenarian movements, occasionallypopping [up] in northern Nigeria.

The Nigerian government has arrested hundreds of northern Muslims following theChristmas bombings but, over three years of Boko Haram violence, has yet tosuccessfully prosecute anyone associated with the movement. The Catholic bishops havegiven up on these efforts and now call for foreign expertise. Archbishop Job declares: It


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is apparent that, if we depend only on our available active security agents, we shall notmake much progress. I therefore call on Mr. President to recall the retired experts incriminology and employ foreign experts in this field to assist the active security agents toput an immediate end to [the] Boko Haram menace.

This is precisely the expertise that the United States should be providing and fast.

Nina Shea is the director of the Hudson Institutes Center for Religious Freedom

###

Nigeria unions call for strike over fuel hike (Al Jazeera)

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/201214141913862546.html4 January 2012

Nigeria's main trade unions have called for a national strike and mass demonstrations to

shut down sectors such as oil production starting on Monday, unless the governmentrestores a fuel subsidy it scrapped at the start of the week.

"If the government fails to do so, they direct that indefinite general strikes, mass ralliesand street protests beheld across the country with the first on Monday, 9th January 2012," the National LabourCongress and Trades Union Congress said in a joint statement released on Wednesday.

"All offices, oil production centres, air and sea ports, fuel stations, markets, banks, amongothers will be shut down."

Wednesday was the second day of mass protests that have seen at least one person killedand more injured. The removal of the fuel subsidy has already more than doubled theprice for gas.

Ayo Johnson from Viewpoint Africa magazine told Al Jazeera that Nigerians are angrynot only because of the subsidy cut but also because of the government's decision-makingprocess.

"The government would say it has consulted with people over the last two months, but,clearly, the consultation process has not been long enough," he said.

"People don't seem to understand why the government is taking the action it is, andpeople [are angry] that they're being penalised by a government who they've onlyrecently put back in office. Clearly these subsidies are going to have a detrimental effecton people's lives, and people are not going to have it."

Deadly protest

On Tuesday, in the central city of Ilorin, a protest left one man dead in an incident in


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which the National Labour Congress accused police of shooting the "anti-fuel hikeprotester".

Protesters shut down petrol stations, formed human barriers along motorways andhijacked buses as police used riot control tactics to control them.

A group of protesters in Kano threatened to burn down an office of the Daily Trustnewspaper, whose coverage the protesters perceived as supportive of the government'smove, but police blocked them.

They smashed the windshield of a newspaper van and beat a security guard, leaving himwounded.

"They came in hundreds with the intent to set ablaze our office. The early response ofpolicemen saved the situation," said Awwan Umar, Kano bureau chief for the newspaper.

'Politically suicidal'

Nigeria's government says it will transfer $8bn it would save by canceling the subsidy tomuch-needed infrastructure projects.

Even so, Oladipo Fashina, a union leader, has described the move as "immoral andpolitically suicidal'' and he has urged Nigerians to resist "with everything they have".

Previous attempts to even tamper with the subsidy have been met with nationwideprotests.

A group of protesters on Tuesday went to petrol stations in Lagos, telling owners not tosell the commodity at the revised prices of about $0.94 cents per litre.

The price is more than double what consumers paid only days ago for the fuel needed topower generators that keep many businesses running in Nigeria.

President Goodluck Jonathan announced on Monday evening that he had set up acommittee to ensure that the savings from the subsidy's end will be invested effectively toimprove the lives of Nigerians.

The protests over rising gas prices are only adding to Nigeria's security woes. Jonathanhad already declared a state of emergency over the weekend in parts of the country hit bya growing Islamist campaign that is fueled in part by widespread poverty.

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South Sudan: UN defends role in Pibor ethnic clashes (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-164030834 January 2012


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The UN has defended the role of its peacekeepers and South Sudan government soldiersafter deadly ethnic clashes near Pibor town in Jonglei state.

Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in the region, told the BBC the town

had been successfully defended from some 6,000 Lou Nuer fighters.

Tens of thousands of town residents, members of the rival Murle community, havesought safety in the bush.

Ms Grande said "a major humanitarian operation" was now a priority.

This is the latest round in a cycle of violence which has lasted several months - in oneincident last year some 600 ethnic Lou Nuer were killed.

The clashes began as cattle raids but have spiralled out of control.

John Boloch of South Sudan's Peace and Reconciliation Commission said at least 150people, mostly women and children, had been killed since the Lou Nuer fighters arrivedin the vicinity of Pibor on Saturday.

Ms Grande said she had visited Pibor on Tuesday and that "hundreds if not thousands" ofpeople had begun to return to the town after about a week in the bush.

"The humanitarian situation is pretty grim," she told the BBC's Network Africaprogramme.

"They've been without food, they've been without water, without shelter."

She said the "the main body of the Lou Nuer youth" who had been outside Pibor hadstarted move in a north-easterly direction and were now 15km (about 10 miles) from thetown.

They had a large number of cattle with them, the envoy said, AFP news agency reports.

'Hunted and killed'She rejected criticism of the UN and the South Sudan army - the SPLA - of not havingdone enough to help civilians, many of whom reportedly faced attack when they fled thetown.

"What the United Nations mission has been doing is helping the government to defendthe town, we've been rescuing civilians, we've been evacuating civilians and we've beenhelping to deter violence. The UN has done its job," she said.

An attack on the town's southern flank had been repulsed after the SPLA, backed by UNarmoured personnel carriers, had fired at the Lou Nuer, she said.


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Besides the looting of a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic, the town had not suffered muchdamage and the government was beginning to deploy 3,000 extra soldiers and 800 policeofficers to the area, Ms Grande said.

Earlier, Mr Boloch, from the Murle community, said people who had fled Pibor had sincebeen hunted down and killed near the River Kengen, south-east of the town.

"Children and women were massacred in that area on the 2nd [of January], up to the3rd," he told Sudan Catholic Radio News.

He accused local politicians of exacerbating the long-standing rivalries for their own endsand also asked why UN peacekeepers and the army were protecting governmentbuildings in Pibor, rather than people.

Another woman was in tears as she told the BBC that her mother had called to say that 20

family members had been shot dead on Monday - all women and children.

"They had fled Pibor before the fighters reached there. They were hiding about threehours' walk away by the River Kengen," she said.

There are also reports that many people may have drowned in a river as they fled theattacks.

Town burntCattle vendettas are common in South Sudan, as are other ethnic and tribal clashes: theUN says some 350,000 people were displaced because of intercommunal violence lastyear, reports the BBC's Barbara Plett at the United Nations.

This presents a major challenge to the government of the newly independent state, whichalso faces cross-border tensions with its northern neighbour Sudan.

South Sudan is one of the world's poorest regions - it gained independence from Sudan inJuly 2011 and has hardly any roads, railways, schools or clinics following two decades ofconflict, which have left it awash with weapons.

The Lou Nuer fighters arrived in Pibor on Saturday after marching through Jonglei statein recent weeks, setting fire to homes and seizing livestock.

The entire town of Lukangol was burnt to the ground last week. About 20,000 civiliansmanaged to flee before the attack, but dozens were killed on both sides.

The governor of Jonglei state and the vice-president of South Sudan have been trying tomediate between the rival ethnic groups.

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Rwandan FDLR rebels 'kill 26 in DR Congo' (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-164199445 January 2012

At least 26 people have been killed in attacks by a Rwandan militia group in the easternDemocratic Republic of Congo, the Congolese army says.

It says several remote villages in South Kivu province have been targeted since the startof January.

An army spokesman blamed the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda(FDLR) - which has a history of attacking Congolese civilians.

The army is sending reinforcements to the area.

All those killed were civilians, said army spokesman Sylvain Ekenge.

He said bands of rebels had attacked settlements and burned homes in Shabunda territory,a heavily forested area of South Kivu, on 2 and 3 January.

The villagers "said they were attacked because the population had been supporting[another] local militia", Col Ekenge said.

He said military operations were already taking place to try to flush the rebels out.

Kigali attackThe violence is among the worst carried out by the FDLR for months.

The group is one of several armed militias still active in the east of DR Congo, more thaneight years after the civil war in the country ended.

FDLR fighters have been blamed for many rapes and killings, despite the presence of UNpeacekeepers in the region.

The group was formed by ethnic Hutus who fled from neighbouring Rwanda followingthe genocide of 1994.

In a separate development, two people have been killed in a grenade attack in theRwandan capital, Kigali.

Sixteen others were wounded. The security forces have blamed previous similar grenadeattacks on the FDLR.###

Aid groups lobby US not to shut off remittances to Somalia (The Guardian)


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http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jan/04/aid-us-remittance-money-somalia?newsfeed=true4 January 2012By Mark Tran

Banks in Minnesota fearing prosecution under anti-terror legislation end moneytransfers from American Somalis to families in Somalia, despite humanitarian crisis.

Aid groups are lobbying the US treasury to provide assurances to a community bank thatit will not be prosecuted for resuming remittance services to Somalia, where 250,000people are still affected by famine.

Sunrise Community Banks in the state of Minnesota last week announced it would stopprocessing remittances to Somalia because it risked violating government rules designedto block the funding of terrorist groups. The bank was a major lifeline for Somalis, andone of very few still offering remittances to Somalia.

"It is estimated that $100m in remittances goes to Somalia from the US every year. Thisis the worst time for this service to stop. Any gaps with remittance flows in the middle ofthe famine could be disastrous," said Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America's humanitarianpolicy manager. "The US government should give assurances to the bank that there willbe no legal ramifications of providing this service to Somalis in need."

Interagency discussions are under way, Scribner said, and Somali Americans areplanning demonstrations to put pressure on the US government and Sunrise to resolve theissue. "But we know from experience that these legal obstacles can take a long time toresolve," said Scribner. "The bank has said it needs assurances or a waiver that it won't beprosecuted in any way before it restarts the remittances. It is complicated and it isdifficult to manoeuvre around these laws."

Sunrise's decision came weeks after two Minnesota women were convicted in October ofconspiracy to provide support to al-Shabaab, the Islamist militants operating in south andcentral Somalia. Evidence at the Minnesota trial showed the women, who claimed theywere sending money to charity, used money transfer services to send more than $8,600 toal-Shabaab, which has banned some aid agencies from operating in areas it controls.

The bank's decision came despite statements from the US treasury that "there is noassumption on the part of treasury that money transmitters present a uniform orunacceptably high risk of money laundering, terrorist financing or sanctions violations".

The US government has become the largest humanitarian donor to the region, providingmore than $870m to meet urgent humanitarian needs, including nearly $205m forSomalia. Congressman Keith Ellison from Minneapolis has appealed to President BarackObama to find a way to continue the remittances, citing the "catastrophic humanitariansituation in Somalia".


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Somalia, riven by decades of conflict, has been worst hit by the drought that struck theHorn of Africa last year. Sunrise said it recognised the potential impact from the end ofthe money transfer services and remained in constant communication with congressionalleaders and government officials to look for a solution.

"We continue to work tirelessly with the community and government officials to create atemporary legal and regulatory solution that would allow the bank to extend the accountclosure date," Sunrise said in a statement last week.

The Somali government has said an estimated $2bn one-third of the country's grossdomestic product is channelled to Somalia through "hawala" or small money transferbusinesses. Last week, the Somali mission to the UN appealed to Sunrise to extend the 30December deadline. Sunrise had first planned to end the services on 15 December, butlater extended the programme to the end of the month.

Sunrise said the challenges of providing aid and services to Somalia were not new and

that the US government had found ways to remove legal obstacles temporarily for aidgroups providing food to famine victims.

A report from the Overseas Development Institute in October said counter-terrorism lawsthat criminalise the transfer of resources to terrorist groups have had a chilling effect onhumanitarian operations, particularly in Gaza and Somalia. Islamic charities had been hitparticularly hard, especially after the September 11 attacks in the US, but the impact hasnot been restricted to Muslim groups, according to the ODI report.

The ODI also found that the administrative burden imposed by counter-terrorismlegislation has affected the timelines and efficiency of humanitarian aid, and can evendeter relief groups operating in high-risk areas. In the case of Somalia, the ODI saidfunding had declined by half between 2008 and 2011, mainly as a result of a drop inAmerican contributions following legislation in the US.

US legislation has had the most impact on humanitarian operations, particularly asanctions regime overseen by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Violations of Ofacsanctions are subject to both civil and criminal penalties, with the latter increasing in2007 to a maximum fine of $1m or up to 20 years in prison.

"Through remittances, American Somalis provide a lifeline to hundreds of thousands ofpeople," said Daniel Wordsworth, president of American Refugee Committee. "Withfamine and drought already impacting families throughout Somalia, the cessation of banktransfers will be devastating on a national scale."

Somalis in Minnesota home to the US's biggest Somali community have said theywill find other ways to send money, but they are more laborious. One way is to send theremittances to another country, such as Kenya or Britain, where many Somalis use theDahabshiil company, and then have a third party pick up the money and rewire it toSomalia.


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###

UN diplomat calls for human rights investigation into NATO actions in Libya (AP)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/un-diplomat-calls-for-human-rights-

investigation-into-nato-actions-in-libya/2012/01/04/gIQATyy1aP_story.html4 January 2012

UNITED NATIONS The incoming U.N. Security Council president calledWednesday for an investigation into human rights abuses committed during NATOsbombing campaign to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

South Africas U.N. Ambassador Baso Sangqu, who holds the rotating Security Councilpresidency for January, said he believed NATO overstepped its mandate enforcing a no-fly zone, killing an untold number of innocent civilians.

We were alive to the fact that the implementation of the resolution itself would have itsown problems, but we now hear strong voices that talk about many mistakes that weremade, Sangqu said. They were supposed to be precision strikes, but it was clear thatthose were not that precise.

Sangqu said U.N. human rights officials are currently conducting investigations on theground, but demanded that they must look at all parties involved.

There must be investigations of human rights abuses in Libya across the board: byGadhafi regime supporters, by the rebels, by NATO, anybody who was involved in thatconflict as mandated by the resolution 1973 and 1970 should be held accountableespecially those that were mandated, Sangqu said.

Sangqu, who said he was speaking in his capacity as South Africas ambassador, said hebelieved the Security Council resolution that his country supported authorized only a no-fly zone but did not mean regime change or anything else.

Sangqus remarks echoed a similar call by Russias U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin,who recently expressed unhappiness with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon over the U.N.chiefs comment that NATO acted within its mandate in its bombing campaign in Libya.

Russia has also called for an independent U.N. investigation of civilian casualties. SyriasPresident Bashar Assad is a close Russian ally.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu denied that the alliance exceeded its mandate orthat the bombing resulted in a large number of civilian casualties.

Throughout the operation, we took every precaution to minimize the risk to civilianswith solid intelligence, a very strict target selection and precision-guided munition,Lungescu said, speaking from Belgium. And we repeatedly warned civilians to stay


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away from military installations and equipment. We did everything we could to reducethe risk, while also making clear that in an air campaign that risk can never be zero.

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Libya and Tunisia strengthen ties (Financial Times)http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1ce648c6-36e8-11e1-9ca3-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1iQsPRql84 January 2012By Borzou Daragahi

Unshackled from tyrannical autocrats and bound together geographically, Libya andTunisia are edging closer together politically and economically with possible geopoliticalramifications for all of north Africa.

In recent weeks Tunisians and Libyans have forged economic and security deals that

have tightened the bonds between the two neighbours. Both last year overthrew long-timedictatorships, purged themselves of the former elites and moved toward democracy. Like-minded Islamists of varying stripes appear to be ascending and dominating the politicallandscape in both countries.

Moncef Marzouki, the Tunisian president, visited Libya this week as his first trip abroadsince being sworn in on December 13. At a conference last month in the city of Benghazi,Libyan leaders declared that Tunisia, which strongly backed the uprising against thenLibyan ruler Colonel Muammer Gaddafi, would be given priority over other nationswhen it came to business deals.

The reconstruction of east Libya requires, in the next month, 150,000 Tunisian skilledand unskilled labourers, Salah Mabrouk Laabidi, Libyan chamber of commerce leader,said during the signing of a trade agreement with Tunis. When recruiting foreign labour,the priority will be given to Tunisia, the country which strongly supported the Libyanarrangements.

Tens of thousands of Tunisian engineers, professionals and labourers sought work in theireastern neighbours oil and services industries while more than a million Libyanstravelled to Tunisia for its superior medical care and recreation facilities. But there wasalways mistrust between the nations, exacerbated by Gaddafis erratic behaviour andharassment of fishermen in the Mediterranean.

The Arab uprising welded the two countries and their destinies together like never before,especially after Tunisians opened their homes to Libyan refugees, patched up woundedLibyan fighters and largely looked the other way as Libyans smuggled guns and weaponsthrough their borders. The bolstered ties are creating new potential synergies between thesparsely populated oil-rich behemoth of Libya and highly urbanised and educatedTunisia.


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You have Libya, a country with six million people with huge infrastructure needs, andnext to this you have Tunisia, with 10 million people, and a much smaller country whichis a net importer of oil with a highly educated population, said Lachen Achy, a Rabat,Morocco-based economist and scholar for the Carnegie Middle East Center.Initial conditions were good, he said. Now with the changes in both countries there is

a political will to transform this integration another step where there will be more tradeand labour mobility.

Crimps remain in the Tunisian-Libyan relationship. During Dr Marzoukis visit to Tripolithis week, Libyan officials demanded access to former loyalists to the Gaddafi regimeand allegedly ill-gotten assets in Tunisia. Dr Marzouki demanded that Libyans step upborder security after the kidnapping of several Tunisian border guards by gunmenoperating out of Libya.

The tightening of bonds between Tunisia and Libya the creation of a new economic andpolitical bloc could also alter the balance of power in north Africa, especially with

regard to Algeria. The well-armed and oil-rich state, considered the regions mainpowerbroker, has grown nervous about regional democratic experiments led by Islamists.The ruling military elite senses it is the odd man out in north Africa, where revolutionsand experiments in reform have altered domestic politics.

Last month Algiers appointed Major General Bachir Tartag as chief of the directorate ofinternal security in part to stave off potential attempts by Tunisian, Libyan, Moroccanand Egyptian Islamists to offer a helping hand to their brothers in Algeria in order tocomplete the circle of the Arab Spring, according to a report in the pro-government ElWatan.

Algeria was the last regional country to recognise Tripolis transitional government,harbours members of Gaddafis family and continues to keep closed its 1,000km borderto Libya.

The Tunisians will have to be careful with how they approach Libya, said PauloGorjao, professor of international relations at Lusiada University in Portugal, and co-director of the Institute for International Relations and Security, which publishes aregular report on north Africa. The approach to Libya cant be too sudden or tooprofound so as not to scare the Algerians.

Algerias main opposition parties have demanded that president Abdelaziz Bouteflikaremove the prime minister and appoint an interim cabinet of technocrats to ensure aparliamentary election later this year is not rigged, Reuters reports.

Algeria is the only country in north Africa largely untouched by the Arab uprisings, butthe election, scheduled for May, could be a catalyst for a surge in anti-governmentprotests which would destabilise the oil and gas exporter.

The main opposition parties demanded that Ahmed Ouyahia, the prime minister, be


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removed before the election because, they said, his government could not be trusted tooversee a free and fair vote.

If Bouteflika is serious about free and fair elections, he must accept our demands, andappoint a new government with one task: to supervise the elections, said Fateh Rebai,

whose Ennahda party was one of those seeking a change in government.

(Election) fraud will mean that the government is not serious about reforms, making arevolt a very likely scenario.

That call was backed by a secularist opposition group, the Workers party. Two otherIslamists parties, the MSP and the Front for Justice and Development, have alsodemanded a new government.

Mr Bouteflika, who is 74, has so far not responded publicly to the demand for a newgovernment before the election. The opposition parties have limited influence over the

president.

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END REPORT

africom related-newsclips 5 jan 2012

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