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.
Niger extradites Gaddafi’s son Saadi to Libya
Ex-general takes charge of Nigeria defence ministry
U.S. Freezes $458 Million in Assets of ex-Nigeria Dictator
Slaughter-crazy: Why is Nigeria’s Boko Haram so successful?
Fighting breaks out in South Sudan capital
Special Envoy Feingold’s Travel to Europe, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Weak Somali Government Struggles to Oust Al-Shabab
SA: Do we really need to patrol the Mozambique Channel?
West African piracy should be nipped in the bud
Sudan: Israel halts ‘weapons shipment from Iran’
SP-MAGTF CR redeploys to Morón, Spain
N. Uganda emerges from rebel threat to entice oil projects
How did the DRC become the ICC’s Pandora’s Box?
S Sudanese refugees forced to flee to Darfur
After Uganda, Kenya Gears Up for Gay Rights Debate
Election looming, Algeria hunts down terrorists
Al-Jazeera English Journalists Pictured Caged In A Cairo Courtroom
Local Community Initiatives to Prevent Emergence of Terrorism in Africa
Are Africa’s politicians value for money?
World’s illegal wildlife trade supply chain needs exposing
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Niger extradites Gaddafi’s son Saadi to Libya The Libyan government says former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saadi, has been extradited from Niger and is now in custody in Tripoli. Pictures posted on the internet showed him having his head and beard shaved. Saadi Gaddafi, the former head of Libya’s football federation, fled after his father was killed in the 2011 revolution. The 40-year-old is best known for a brief career in Italian football as well as his playboy lifestyle. Saadi, one of Col Gaddafi’s seven sons, is accused of shooting protesters and other crimes committed during his father’s rule. BBC Ex-general takes charge of Nigeria defence ministry Ex-army general Mohammed Gusau formally took charge of Nigeria’s defence ministry on Wednesday, a choice analysts said may lead to a change in strategy in the raging battle against Boko Haram. The defence post had been vacant since June 2012, when President Goodluck Jonathan sacked Mohammed Bello following a spate of deadly attacks by the Islamist insurgents. Gusau, a former chief of army staff, has twice served as Nigeria’s national security advisor, including from 1999 to 2006. News 24 U.S. Freezes $458 Million in Assets of ex-Nigeria Dictator The United States said Wednesday it had ordered a freeze on $458 million in assets hidden in European accounts by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his conspirators. The Justice Department said the corruption proceeds — stashed away in bank accounts in Britain, France and Jersey — were frozen at Washington’s request with the help of local authorities. Naharnet Slaughter-crazy: Why is Nigeria’s Boko Haram so successful? Boko Haram, the diffuse, apparently grass roots insurrection, has undertaken a current wave of carnage in Nigeria’s northeast. Several of the most recent incidents involve government security forces unaccountably not at their posts, allowing Boko Haram freedom of movement. The governor of Borno state publicly said that Boko Haram fighters outgun government forces. Over the past few weeks I have been hearing from a number of credible interlocutors that Boko Haram fighters are indeed better than government forces. They suggest that Boko Haram has not crumbled to the Nigerian military because: CS Monitor Fighting breaks out in South Sudan capital Clashes erupted at a military barracks in the South Sudan capital on Wednesday, with the sound of heavy gunfire heard coming from the site near Juba University, according to Agence France-Presse. The conflict in South Sudan started in the capital Juba nearly three months ago amid tensions within the ruling party of President Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar, but quickly spread across the country. Al Arabiya Special Envoy Feingold’s Travel to Europe, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) Russell D. Feingold will travel to London and The Hague this week to meet with donor partners, including with the Great Lakes Contact Group. He intends to discuss next steps in supporting the Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework peace process, including Angola’s facilitation of a regional dialogue during its chairmanship of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, implementation of the Nairobi Declarations, and Uganda’s alarming Anti-Homosexuality Law. The Contact Group will also discuss support for reform efforts in the D.R.C. and for upcoming elections in the Great Lakes region, among other topics. State.gov Weak Somali Government Struggles to Oust Al-Shabab [...] Although al-Shabab is considered to be at its lowest point now and its controlled territory has shrunk as a result of AMISOM army intervention since 2007, the inefficiency of the government and the rampant corruption among officials has led to support for al-Shabab—especially from the poor and from those who feel neglected by the central government. “Al-Shabab is in no hurry to seize control of Somalia,” said Dr. Laura Hammond, head of department and senior lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. “So they will be willing to operate in the shadows for a long time, hoping that the government fails on its own to live up to its promises and that people will, out of disillusionment, turn to them as an alternative.” The Epoch Times SA: Do we really need to patrol the Mozambique Channel? Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has claimed that the reduction in piracy off Africa’s East coast is partly as a result of SA Navy patrols in the Mozambique Channel and that it is necessary to keep up these costly patrols in order to deter pirates. However nice it may be to applaud the SA Navy for eliminating piracy in the Mozambique Channel, the stark truth may be that piracy has declined regardless of the South African Navy’s activities and that having Navy assets deployed round the clock in foreign waters is an unnecessarily expensive undertaking. DefenseWeb West African piracy should be nipped in the bud While successful hijackings off the coast of Somalia have considerably decreased in the last few years, the root causes of Somali piracy have not yet been tackled. The international community and shipowners have managed to keep the pirates at bay at great costs, both human and economic. Ships transiting the high risk area are today less vulnerable, mainly due to passive (sharp lookout, barbed wire surrounding the ships, faster sailing speeds etc…) as well as active self-defense measures (deployment of national armed forces or private armed guards on board). A resurgence of piracy in the Horn of Africa is however far from improbable, so continued international military presence and the implementation of protective measures are still of the upmost importance. ECSA Sudan: Israel halts ‘weapons shipment from Iran’ Israel says it has seized a ship carrying advanced Iranian weapons made in Syria that was heading towards Gaza. The Panamanian-flagged vessel was boarded by Israeli naval commandos in the Red Sea off the coast of Sudan, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. They found M-302 surface-to-surface missiles that were flown to Iran before being loaded onto the ship, it added. Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamist movement that governs Gaza, strenuously denied any involvement. BBC SP-MAGTF CR redeploys to Morón, Spain The Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response (SP-MAGTF CR) began their redeployment to Morón, Spain, on March 2, 2014 after completing a forward deployment in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. When conflict erupted in Juba, South Sudan, on Dec. 15, 2013, operations at CJTF-HOA dramatically increased. Over the following weeks, as violence spread to areas throughout South Sudan, U.S. citizens in those areas needed to be evacuated. While the East Africa Response Force was providing security for the embassy, additional forces were required to continue the evacuation mission. CJTF-HOA N. Uganda emerges from rebel threat to entice 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; Total, Europe’s third-largest oil producer’ and Sinohydro to seek projects. Sun Sentinel How did the DRC become the ICC’s Pandora’s Box? This Friday, Germain Katanga has the ambiguous honour of receiving the third ever judgement from the International Criminal Court (ICC). It comes a decade after Joseph Kabila outsourced his backyard of crime to international prosecutors. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seemed to be the perfect case file for the newly established court that prosecutes genocidaires, war criminals and criminals against humanity. But the trials in The Hague show the opposite. Congo became the ICC’s Pandora’s Box. African Arguments S Sudanese refugees forced to flee to Darfur The civil war in South Sudan has left people so hungry and desperate for relief that they are even fleeing across the border into Darfur, a long-troubled region of famine and suffering in neighbouring Sudan, according to the United Nations. About 900,000 South Sudanese are homeless since the conflict erupted in December, and about 195,000 of them have fled as refugees to Uganda, Ethiopia and even into Darfur, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan Tony Lanzer told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Al Jazeera After Uganda, Kenya Gears Up for Gay Rights Debate Kenya could become the next battleground for gay rights as lawmakers plan to introduce a motion in parliament to compel authorities to more strongly enforce the country’s anti-homosexual laws. Gay rights activists say the pressure has already increased since neighboring Uganda passed a strict anti-gay law last month. First-term member of parliament Irungu Kang’ata is leading a newly-formed caucus set to combat homosexuality in Kenya. In an opening move, the lawmaker is requesting the ruling party to explain what measures the government is taking to uphold the current laws. VOA Election looming, Algeria hunts down terrorists As Algeria prepares for the April 17th presidential election, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal urged militants to renounce armed action and benefit from the reconciliation charter, which he said was still effective. Since last Saturday, army units launched a wide military campaign that resulted in the deaths of at least six terrorists, according to the official count. Algerian troops on Monday (March 3rd) took out two terrorists during a sweep of the forests of Sidi Ali Bouneb, located between the wilayas of Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdes. ANP troops found anti-tank rockets, bombs, guns and ammunition, the defence ministry said. The weapons were smuggled from Libya, according to Tout sur l’Algerie. Magharebia Al-Jazeera English Journalists Pictured Caged In A Cairo Courtroom Three journalists from the Al-Jazeera English broadcaster have been pictured on Wednesday caged in a courtroom in Cairo’s Tora prison. Canadian-Egyptian Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, producer Baher Mohamed and correspondent Peter Greste – formerly of the BBC – have been charged with spreading false news and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which the authorities have designated a terrorist organisation. All three deny the charges. On their arrival in court, Mohamed shouted out “journalists are not terrorists”. The Huffington Post Local Community Initiatives to Prevent Emergence of Terrorism in Africa Africa is becoming a niche for armed group terrorist organizations and drug cartel recruiters. Its disillusioned and disenfranchised youth are an easy target, requiring very little to be convinced by these organizations that present themselves as the best hope for their future. As King Ighobor points out, “Unemployment can fuel the fire of political violence and civil unrest”. Investing in and empowering communities around local initiatives is key to solving Africa’s social, economic and political crisis and a sustainable way to promote peace and prosperity. A Congolese thinker, Godefroid Kangudie, puts it well, “The urgency today — in Sub-Sahara Africa — is mainly to generate an organizing spirit around local projects that provide concrete response to vital needs, such as health, education and food, in fact fighting misery and poverty by the ability to be and act together.” The Huffington Post Are Africa’s politicians value for money? [...] in Africa, the political map is changing. More street protests – whether against bad local services in South Africa or spiralling state utility prices in Ghana – are urging MPs to stand up for the constituents against overbearing party leaders and governments. Last year civic activists worked closely with opposition MPs to fight South Africa’s secrecy bill, which they said would criminalise investigative journalism and protect corrupt public officials. A similar alliance between youthful protestors and opposition parties organised mass protests in Nigeria in January 2012 to scupper the government’s attempt to end the fuel subsidy. Then the opposition MPs demanded hearings in the National Assembly to investigate claims that much of the funding for the subsidy had been diverted to benefit cronies of the ruling party. Africa Report World’s illegal wildlife trade supply chain needs exposing [...] Looking at the beginning of the supply chain, Chatham House asks what draws armed actors into poaching — and also poaching on such a large and well organized scale that it has the capacity to supply a mass consumer market. If an international effort were to succeed in removing the current armed actors from the business of poaching, who would replace them, given the seeming insatiable market demand for ivory and horn? Who benefits politically from the poaching business, how and where? Regarding the middle of the supply chain, when ivory and horn is seized at ports, by what route and means has it been transported from Africa’s forests and savannahs? Who acts as middleman, and what compensation do they receive for their services? Without answers to such questions, policy makers and activists are limited in their capacity to counter the rise in poaching. CS Monitor
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