2014-03-05

Please note: The following news items are presented here for informational purposes. The views expressed within them are those of the authors and/or individuals quoted, not those of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, or the Department of Defense.

U.S. Takes Training Role in Africa as Threats Grow and Budgets Shrink

A positive step forward: Breaking down Obama’s proposed international affairs budget

South Sudan barracks: Gunfire erupts at army HQ

Nigerian army losing grip on northeast as Islamists rampage

A Senseless Massacre of Innocents in Nigeria

In Nigeria, No One Has Your Back

Northern Uganda Emerges From Kony Threat to Attract Oil Projects

DR Congo: with attack helicopters deployed, UN envoy urges rebels to lay down arms

Democratic Republic of the Congo at Crucial Crossroad, Envoy Says

How Kabila is buying time

DDR in eastern DRC – try, try again

Central African Republic: Ignore Kony at Your Peril

Will the USA Support Peacekeepers for CAR?

East African states mull stabilization force for South Sudan

Egypt: El-Sissi gives sign of presidential run

Is Yoweri Museveni still the West’s Man in Africa?

Uganda Looks to China

Gay Africa: casualty of a different power struggle

Uganda to Shoot Poachers On Sight

Largest ever attempt to breach Spanish border repelled

Cash from Malawi’s presidential jet fed the poor, paid wages

Africa’s richest man: Aliko Dangote

Facebook buying 11,000 drones to connect Africa

Will US budget cuts lead to splendid isolation?

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U.S. Takes Training Role in Africa as Threats Grow and Budgets Shrink

DIFFA, Niger — Across Africa, affiliates of Al Qaeda and other Islamist militants are proving resilient and in some cases expanding their influence, from Nigeria to Libya to Somalia, Western and African counterterrorism officials say. So it is not surprising that the authorities in this poor West African desert nation, which has emerged as a staunch ally of France and the United States in the fight against Islamist militancy, are nervously watching Boko Haram, a sect in neighboring Nigeria suspected of killing well over 400 civilians in the last five weeks alone, including children watching a soccer match over the weekend. The group’s fighters have made a habit of quietly slipping across the border into Niger to rest, rearm and refit, officials say — a pipeline the nation is eager to shut down with the Pentagon’s help. But instead of launching American airstrikes or commando raids on militants, the latest joint mission between the nations involves something else entirely: American boxes of donated vitamins, prenatal medicines and mosquito netting to combat malaria. The New York Times

A positive step forward: Breaking down Obama’s proposed international affairs budget

Despite a small reduction in the overall budget, a couple of our programs received budget increases. We are thrilled that the President included $200 million for childhood vaccines and immunizations through the GAVI Alliance, an increase of $25 million, or 14.3 percent. This request is in line with what our Power Summit volunteers were pushing their members of Congress to support last week. The President also requested $1 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an increase of $102 million, or 11.4 percent. The MCC budget would support compacts in several sub-Saharan African countries, including Liberia, Niger and Tanzania. For Feed the Future, the President requested largely flat funding for our bilateral programs. We also appreciate the President’s strong commitment to The Global Fund with a budget request of $1.35 billion request. By law, this is the limit the US can contribute, as it constitutes one-third of the Global Fund’s overall funding. One.org

South Sudan barracks: Gunfire erupts at army HQ

Gunfire has erupted inside the main army barracks in South Sudan’s capital, where clashes last year sparked wider conflict. The body of a government soldier lay in the street outside the compound in Juba, Reuters news agency reports. Witnesses said people in the area have fled to safety. The government is yet to comment, but reports say the shooting appeared to have been triggered by a dispute over pay within the army. BBC

Nigerian army losing grip on northeast as Islamists rampage

A security source, who asked not to be named, said 2,100 people were killed in Boko Haram violence in the last six months. Nigeria – Africa’s biggest oil producer and second largest economy – is a year away from a presidential election and already the two main political parties are trading blame over the escalating Boko Haram conflict. President Goodluck Jonathan, who is expected to run for re-election in next February’s vote, declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states last May and launched a military surge into the zone. It has failed to stem the bloodshed. Reuters

A Senseless Massacre of Innocents in Nigeria

Militant terrorists from Boko Haram make a practice of burning down schools and murdering boys and girls and their very name, translated from the Hausa language, means “Western education is sinful.” Last month they razed a whole village to the ground, casually shooting panicked men, women and children as they fled for safety. It is time the world came to the aid of Nigeria as they try to make schools safe for children and to address and tackle the discrimination that prevents millions of children getting an education. Nigeria has more than 10 million children out of school, the worst record in the world. We cannot meet the millennium development goals for universal education by December 2015 unless we tackle the education gap in Nigeria. A failure to address historic under-provision and discrimination in the northern provinces has left 6 million girls without any chance of an education. The Huffington Post

In Nigeria, No One Has Your Back

[...] the military task is not an easy one, as the International Crisis Group pointed out this week, noting that the “terrain is vast and difficult,” nearly two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom, and protecting every isolated village is nearly impossible. But that does not explain why it has often taken hours for soldiers to intervene in these unimpeded killing sprees, why headlines in the Nigerian press this week suggested that outgunned soldiers had fled in the face of the attackers, why a military post near the school — an obvious target for Islamists who hate secular education — was left apparently unmanned. Nearly five years ago, Boko Haram declared war on Nigeria. For all that the group’s aims appear limited or mysterious, it is clearly succeeding in one essential goal: critically undermining Nigeria’s federal government. The New York Times

Northern Uganda Emerges From Kony Threat to Attract Oil Projects

Northern Uganda’s return to peace following a 20-year rebellion by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army is spurring investment in oil exploration, electricity production and railways. The region, where 46 percent of the population live in poverty, has largely been excluded from almost three decades of economic expansion. Kony, who has eluded capture on war crime charges, was driven out of the north along with his militia by the Ugandan army in 2005. That allowed thousands of displaced people to return home and investors including Cairo-based private-equity company Citadel Capital SAE, Total SA (FP), Europe’s third-largest oil producer, and Sinohydro Group Ltd. to seek projects. Bloomberg

DR Congo: with attack helicopters deployed, UN envoy urges rebels to lay down arms

After the intensification of United Nations support to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in joint operations against an armed group known as the Allied Democratic Forces, the world body’s envoy to the vast African nation today called on the rebels to lay down their weapons. On Saturday two UN attack helicopters fired on an ADF base in the Mbau region of the eastern province of North Kivu as part of operations with the DRC defence forces against the group, said Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN peacekeeping mission there, known by its French acronym MONUSCO. UN

Democratic Republic of the Congo at Crucial Crossroad, Envoy Says

Speaking before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations February 26, Russell Feingold, the U.S. special envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region, said the region stands at a crossroads between peace and ongoing conflict. “The decisions that the Congo, the region and the international community take now will set the trajectory of the next several years in terms of security, good governance, and development,” he said. State.gov

How Kabila is buying time

It was a surreal situation at last week’s Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit in Kinshasa, where several of the continent’s most controversial presidents gave Oscar-worthy performances as conscientious heads of state tirelessly dedicated to the development of their countries. Ugandan leader and outgoing COMESA President Yoweri Museveni – deaf to the outrage following his decision to sign a draconian anti-gay law – handed over the reins of the organisation to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Joseph Kabila, a man whose country has to rely on international military interventions to guarantee its security. ISS

DDR in eastern DRC – try, try again

There are 54 armed groups at large in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the government, which plans to spend the next five years getting shot of them. But will the third, US$100 million, attempt at disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR3) succeed where previous bids failed? “The future of peace and stability in the region” depends to a large extent on the answer to this question being “yes”, according to a recent paper by the Enough Project. IRIN

Central African Republic: Ignore Kony at Your Peril

In recent months, the world has been absorbed by the unfolding tragedy in the Central African Republic (CAR), where waves of sectarian violence have left at least 2,000 people dead. Understandably, attention has been focused on Bangui and the western half of the country, where atrocities have been concentrated. Given the high level of conflict, largely between Séléka fighters and anti-balaka militias, mention of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is likely to be seen as a distraction. After all, current LRA violence in CAR pales in comparison to other atrocities, and the rebel group poses no existential threat to the country. Many might also argue that Western campaigns such as the viral Kony2012 video focused disproportionate attention on the LRA, and point out that the LRA seems to be fading away. Indeed, according to recent research, the group’s fighting force has dropped by as much as 90% since 1999, diminishing further by an estimated 20% in 2013 alone, and Kony is believed to have around just 170 fighters left at his disposal and little prospect of returning to Uganda to recruit replacements. Think Africa Press

Will the USA Support Peacekeepers for CAR?

No American official has been more outspoken on the need for a coherent international response to unfolding crisis in the Central African Republic than Ambassador Samantha Power. But soon, Ambassador Power could be in the unfortunate position of having to explain to other UN member states that the USA will not be able to support a desperately needed UN Peacekeeping mission to CAR. As the crisis escalated in the late fall, Power led the US government’s response, helping to pass a Security Council resolution that gave a French supported African Union force wide mandate to protect civilians in CAR. She also helped marshall American resources to transport and equip the African troops so they could quickly deploy. UN Dispatch

East African states mull stabilization force for South Sudan

East African states are considering sending troops into South Sudan to help enforce a ceasefire deal between government forces and rebels, a regional bloc said, amid persistent accusations by both sides that the other is breaking the truce. The IGAD grouping, which is mediating peace talks between the two sides, said in a statement it was discussing a “protection and stabilization force” with the African Union and United Nations. The statement gave no details on the size or mandate of any force but said it would be part of a mechanism to monitor a cessation of hostilities the warring factions agreed on January 23. Reuters

Egypt: El-Sissi gives sign of presidential run

Egypt’s military chief, Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, gave his strongest indication yet that he intends to run for president, saying Tuesday that he “can’t turn his back” to public demands. In a campaign-style speech, he said Egyptians must unite and end street turmoil to tackle the country’s mounting economic and security woes. El-Sissi is considered almost certain to win if he runs for president, riding on a wave of popular fervor since he ousted the country’s first freely elected president, Islamist Mohammed Morsi, who had faced massive protests demanding his removal after a year in office. The Washington Post

Is Yoweri Museveni still the West’s Man in Africa?

It is a role that has made him indispensible to those seeking a reliable anchor in a region that is no stranger to violent conflict. In the last few years Kenya buckled under ethnic violence and was followed this year by South Sudan – traditional trouble spots like Congo have now been overtaken by the total breakdown of the Central African Republic. Recently, Mr. Museveni made himself the centre of a global debate on the rights of gay people by signing into law new legislation imposing harsh sentences for homosexuality. However, at the nerve centre of this public theatre is not the gay debate, but Mr. Museveni’s increasingly public show of independence from traditional western partners who have, until now, enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with him. This has been driven mainly by peace and security concerns in the Great Lakes region. That the West is losing influence here is not simply a fact, but within Uganda’s political transition it is also a necessity. African Argument

Uganda Looks to China

While East Asian investment in Africa, particularly from China, is nothing new, Western influence in the political and social realms has traditionally been the dominant outside influence. However, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s passage of an anti-gay bill reveals a changing relationship with Africa’s foreign backers, as well as a careful consideration by Museveni of the leverage he holds over Western donors. Uganda has been steadily turning toward China, which is becoming Uganda’s preferred trade and investment partner. Despite the large amount of humanitarian aid that still comes from the West, predominately the U.S., the pillars of Uganda’s economy are its growing relationship with the East. The Diplomat

Gay Africa: casualty of a different power struggle

Uganda’s war over homosexuality threatens to spread to other African countries and has further damaged the increasingly strained relationship between Africa and Western donors. For the donors it is a matter of human rights for minorities – a corner stone of democracy. For Africa it is part of the push back against the Western donors and the assertion of an African agenda. In Africa’s very religious – Christian or Muslim – societies, it is a matter of morality. At best it is a battle between Western human rights and African morality but both suspect the other – quite rightly – of more cynical agendas. How did we get here? In the mid 1980s when Aids became front page news it was at first an American story from San Francisco dubbed “The Gay Plague”. Then there were the reports from Southern Uganda – the area I had lived in more than a decade earlier. A particular hard-nosed news editor asked me: “So are they all bumming each other in Africa?” My reply was that in all the time I had been working in Africa I had never come across homosexuality. That was true. Nobody talked about it. African Argument

Uganda to Shoot Poachers On Sight

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has given the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF) and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) a go ahead to shoot on sight any poacher found in a National Park. The president, who looked irritated, gave the directive in Kidepo while the National Park was marking 50 years of existence. It was recently voted by the Cable News Network as Africa’s third wilderness park last year. “That means there is sleeping in the army. How can someone fail to respect another person’s home? If those Toposas and Turkanas come back to disturb our wildlife shoot them. If you can’t do it then I will come and do it myself,” said Museveni. “Anybody who enters Uganda with a gun must be shot,” added Museveni. allAfrica

Largest ever attempt to breach Spanish border repelled

About 1,500 people tried to cross the border, but were repelled by Moroccan security forces, Spanish police confirmed. None of the would-be migrants managed to reach Spanish soil. Spanish police did not intervene in Tuesday’s security effort. Last week, around 400 refugees – reportedly from Cameroon and Guinea – attempted to enter at two points on the border, climbing over the fences which in some places are more than six metres tall. At least 214 succeeded and entered a refugee camp in Melilla, another Spanish territory that borders with Morocco. It was the third mass storming of Melilla in 11 days and the fifth since the beginning of the year. Times Live

Cash from Malawi’s presidential jet fed the poor, paid wages

The $15-million raised from last year’s sale of a luxury Malawi presidential jet fed the poor and bought military equipment, the president said Tuesday amid allegations they may have been embezzled. “It was me who said let’s sell the jet and the cabinet agreed three things to benefit Malawi…to buy maize, buy military equipment such as patrol boats and pay for peacekeeping mission in the DRC,” said President Joyce Banda. Malawi has contributed soldiers to the 3,000-strong UN intervention brigade authorised to go after armed groups ravaging DR Congo. Other troops are from Tanzania and South Africa. AFP

Africa’s richest man: Aliko Dangote

Africa’s most successful industrialist Aliko Dangote has been talking about his journey to success. Speaking to Africa Business Report’s Lerato Mbele, he explained how he turned a loan from his grandfather into a business which spanned cement, sugar, flour and salt. He also spoke about his latest venture to build a $9bn petroleum refinery in his native Nigeria – and avoiding corruption in the process. BBC

Facebook buying 11,000 drones to connect Africa

Facebook is in negotiations to buy a drone manufacturer with the aim of using its high-altitude autonomous aircraft to beam internet connections to isolated communities in Africa, according to reports. The social networking company is one of the main backers of the internet.org project, which aims to connect the large parts of the world which remain offline. Today, only 2.7 billion people – just over one-third of the world’s population – have access to the internet, according to Facebook. Other founding members include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung. The Telegraph

Will US budget cuts lead to splendid isolation?

US President Barack Obama published his budget on Tuesday, a week after Secretary of State Kerry had warned that cuts in military spending potentially signaled a “new isolationism” among the American public and its elected representatives. “This not a budget we want,” Kerry told reporters last Wednesday. “It’s not a budget that does what we need. It was the best the president could get. It’s not what he wanted.” “Look at our efforts to get the president’s military force decision on Syria backed up on (Capitol Hill),” the secretary of state said. “Look at the House of Representatives with respect to the military and the budget.” Deutsche Welle

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FOR THE RECORD – AFRICA – U.S. Government Events, Statements, and Articles.

A weekly compilation by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS)

Sudan, South Sudan Can Still Find Peace, U.S. Official Says
Despite ethnic and political rivalries that have resulted in bloodshed and social upheaval in Sudan and South Sudan, peace is possible for the two countries, according to Donald Booth, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to the two nations. “Sudan can make the choice to undertake a truly comprehensive and inclusive constitutional process and national dialogue on the country’s future,” Booth told the House of Representative’s Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Human Rights, and International Organizations at a hearing February 26. “Similarly, the government of South Sudan has a crucial opening to establish an inclusive, peaceful nation, representative of all, the kind of nation that is worthy of all they sacrificed in its creation,” he said.

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