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.
Boko Haram threatens to ’sell’ kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
Boko Haram: Why Have You Taken Our Girls?
Pressure mounts for U.S. to help find kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
US offers to rescue abducted schoolgirls, but rules out troops’ deployment
13 heads of state, 1000 delegates for WEF in Abuja
Kidnappers snatch three Dutch nationals in Nigeria’s Delta
US Signs Long-Term Lease for Military Base in Djibouti (video)
Rising African Cachet Poses Choice For US Ties
DRC court clears most soldiers of rape
Analysis: Kenyan blasts prove that collective punishment is still not counter-terrorism
KDF won’t withdraw, Ruto warns and asks judges to be hard on killers
Chinese premier proposes to upgrade China-Africa cooperation in six areas
China and Ethiopia sign major deals
How the Indian vote matters in South Africa
Sisi says Muslim Brotherhood will not exist under his reign
Official: Egypt satellite monitors Ethiopia’s dam
Maghreb unity as regional panacea
South Sudan rival leaders to hold direct talk on Friday
Ethnic Cleansing in Africa
Libya’s Faustian Bargains: Breaking the Appeasement Cycle
Did We Bomb Libya to Keep the Arab Spring Going?
Nine ‘terrorists’ killed near Algeria-Mali border
Fibre-optics and Africa’s increasing internet access
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Boko Haram threatens to ’sell’ kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
The leader of the Boko Haram Islamist group claimed responsibility for the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria last month and threatened to sell them in a video obtained by AFP on Monday. “I abducted your girls,” the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in the 57-minute video. Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful”, has been waging a bloody insurgency to establish sharia law in northern Nigeria. France 24
Boko Haram: Why Have You Taken Our Girls?
[...] The question remains; what would motivate Boko Haram to kidnap a group of female students who pose a minimal to non-existent threat to the sect’s aspirations and/or longevity? Vengeance is a possibility. In a series of communiqués released by Boko Haram in 2012, the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, routinely accused the Nigerian government of kidnapping the wives and children of suspected militants. Shekau’s rhetoric coincided with documented reports that the Nigerian authorities had detained at least 100 civilians, mostly women and children, on the suspicion that these individuals had familial ties to several high-ranking Boko Haram militants. Unconfirmed reports suggest that members of Shekau’s immediate family were seized during such security operations, which have purportedly become a mainstay of Nigeria’s counter-insurgency strategy. Think Africa Press
Pressure mounts for U.S. to help find kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
The United States is offering its help, but making clear that the Nigerian government must take the lead in finding more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Officials told CNN the Obama administration is sharing intelligence with Nigerian authorities and could provide other assistance, but there is no planning to send U.S. troops. With a World Economic Forum gathering set to begin Wednesday in Abuja, the Nigerian government came under mounting pressure to save the girls abducted in the country’s remote northeast and threatened with being sold into slavery. CNN
US offers to rescue abducted schoolgirls, but rules out troops’ deployment
The United States has offered to help Nigeria in the effort to rescue the kidnapped schoolgirls, but making clear it is up to the Federal Government must take the lead in the operation. CNN yesterday quoted US officials as saying that the Obama administration is sharing intelligence with Nigerian authorities and could provide other help, but there is no plan to send US troops. President Barack Obama is being briefed on the matter, according to report, and pressure is mounting worldwide for the Nigerian government to act. Sun News Online
13 heads of state, 1000 delegates for WEF in Abuja
NO fewer than 13 heads of state and about 1,000 delegates are expected to participate in the World Economic Forum, WEF, on Africa beginning tomorrow in Abuja. Ms Elsie Kanza, Director, Head of Africa, disclosed this at a pre-event briefing on the WEF, yesterday, said the number was one of the largest the forum had witnessed in the many years it had been hosted in different countries. She said, “We are expecting more than a thousand participants from over 70 countries. More than half will come from African countries and many will come from the business communities, NGOs and religious groups.” She listed some of the heads of state that would be participating as China, Republic of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Rwanda, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Niger and the U.S. Vanguard
Kidnappers snatch three Dutch nationals in Nigeria’s Delta
Gunmen have snatched three Dutch nationals in Nigeria’s volatile Niger Delta region, where armed kidnapping rings frequently operate, authorities said on Monday. The Dutch nationals, two men and a woman, were abducted in Bayelsa state on Sunday, police spokesman Alex Akhighe said. The kidnapping of expatriates by armed gangs seeking ransom money has been rife in the oil-producing Delta region, although it has tailed off since a 2009 amnesty was signed with militant groups there. Foreign firms have also improved their security. Reuters
US Signs Long-Term Lease for Military Base in Djibouti (video)
The Republic of Djibouti is a geographical gold mine. With its busy port, it sits strategically in the Horn of Africa. It’s across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen and bordered by Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia — making it a prime counter-terrorism partner for the United States. “The U.S. has calculated that putting the money into what’s seen as a relatively stable country in a very strategic location with access to a lot of unstable countries will pay off both in the near and the long term,” said Joe Siegle, research director at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Ben Fred-Mensah, who teaches international relations and government at Howard University, said, “terrorism is very much alive. As America always says, ‘It’s better we fight them outside, than to wait and fight them at home.” VOA
Rising African Cachet Poses Choice For US Ties
Traveling from lush green hilltops to hot dusty roads and seaside ports, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked African nations last week to make a choice: Choose democracy. Embrace economic stability. Reject violence, and move people into the modern world. It was an optimistic offer, and the kind of Western attitudes the U.S. is used to espousing. But two conflict-wracked African nations said no, challenging the limits of American influence in a continent that is emerging as the next land of opportunity for foreign financial investors. NPR
DRC court clears most soldiers of rape
The biggest rape trial in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo has delivered just two guilty verdicts against government soldiers. The trial relates to the alleged mass rape of 130 women by 39 soldiers. A military court in DR Congo on Monday cleared almost all of 39 soldiers accused of rape and murder in the country’s eastern South Kivu province. Of those convicted, only two were found guilty of rape, with a further 24 being convicted for other crimes such as looting. Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from outside the courtroom, said convictions for rape were rare, and the fact that the trial had taken place at all was a step forward. Al Jazeera
Analysis: Kenyan blasts prove that collective punishment is still not counter-terrorism
No one disputes that Kenya has a serious problem with domestic terrorism. This weekend was further proof, if any was needed: another seven people dead, and scores injured in four separate attacks. But Kenya’s response isn’t helping. While the violence may have its root in Somalia, this doesn’t mean that Kenya’s large ethnic-Somali population deserves to be punished. Daily Maverick
KDF won’t withdraw, Ruto warns and asks judges to be hard on killers
Deputy President William Ruto Monday described the weekend terrorist attacks as acts of desperation by Al-Shaabab fighters who are on the run as the noose tightens around their necks. Mr Ruto said Kenya would not withdraw its forces from Somalia until order is restored. He insisted that despite the terror attacks in Mombasa on Saturday night and on Thika Road in Nairobi Sunday evening, the security agencies had foiled many more and eliminated terror cells. “Even a single act of terrorism makes hundreds of successful deterrent measures seem unhelpful,” he told journalists when asked to give more details about foiled attacks. Daily Nation
Chinese premier proposes to upgrade China-Africa cooperation in six areas
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang proposed Monday that China and Africa earnestly boost collaboration in industry, finance, poverty reduction, ecological protection, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security so as to create an upgraded version of their all-round cooperation. Li outlined the proposal in a speech delivered at the headquarters of the African Union in which he expounded China’s Africa policy and reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to further deepening the China-Africa comprehensive cooperative partnership. Xinhua
China and Ethiopia sign major deals
China and Ethiopia have siged more than a dozen agreements aimed at shoring up burgeoning ties between the world’s second-largest economy and the African continent that saw their trade top $200bn last year. The agreements were signed on Sunday after Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for the first leg of his four-nation tour of Africa. The visit is Li’s first trip to Africa since he became premier last year, and follows a trip to the continent by President Xi Jinping in March 2013, when he renewed an offer of $20bn in loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015. Al Jazeera
How the Indian vote matters in South Africa
[...] Known as ‘born frees’, they were born after South Africa became free of apartheid and have no memories of the repression. However, just over 30 per cent of young South Africans have registered to vote. The ANC has had to woo different sections and has intensified its outreach to the minorities, using Mandarin language to attract the Chinese voters. It has showcased its senior leaders of Indian descent, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Ravi Pillay and Maggie Govender in the Indian-dominated areas, linking them with Indian leaders of ANC’s anti-apartheid struggle like Yusuf Dadoo, Monty Naicker and Mewa Ramgobin. The ANC was quick to suspend a local party official of Indian descent for his intemperate outburst on social networking website Facebook. Rediff
Sisi says Muslim Brotherhood will not exist under his reign
Egypt’s former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Monday night that the Muslim Brotherhood – the group he removed from power last year – will not exist if he is elected president later this month. The comments, in an interview broadcast on two Egyptian television stations, were the clearest indication yet there was no prospect for political reconciliation with the Islamist group that propelled Mohamed Morsi to the presidency in 2012. “There will be nothing called the Muslim Brotherhood during my tenure,” Sisi said on Egypt’s privately-owned CBC and ONTV television channels. The Brotherhood has been subject to an aggressive state-led crackdown in the months since Morsi’s overthrow. The movement was formally blacklisted as a terrorist organisation on Christmas Day and continues to be blamed for bomb attacks across Egypt, although many have been claimed by militant groups, including the al-Qaida-linked Ansar Beit el Maqdis. The Guardian
Official: Egypt satellite monitors Ethiopia’s dam
Egypt has launched a new satellite that will keep an eye on Ethiopia’s building of its hydroelectric dam, which Cairo has claimed will hinder the Arab country’s access to the Nile’s water, a local news website reported Wednesday. The satellite, Egysat, was launched two weeks ago to monitor Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam by capturing high quality photos of the construction site along with other sources of the Nile, Ahram Online reported Alaa el-din el-Nahry, vice president of Egypt’s National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, as saying. The satellite, reportedly worth almost $43 million, will not only track the dam but it will also monitor the Kongo River basin to assess the effectiveness of a proposed project to link the Kongo and Nile rivers, the website reported. Al Arabiya
Maghreb unity as regional panacea
Maghreb states face the same economic and security challenges. Proponents of the Maghreb Union say it’s time to work together to finally get them fixed. Dr Mohamed El Adel chairs the Tunis-based Maghreb Forum for International Co-operation, which hosted a Nouakchott conference on April 5th about the regional integration strategy. Magharebia met him to learn more about how his group’s new approach to the long-dormant Maghreb Union plan may finally get results. Magharebia
South Sudan rival leaders to hold direct talk on Friday
South Sudanese president Salva Kiir will Saturday hold direct face to face meeting with his former vice-president turned rebel leader, Riek Machar, senior diplomats in Juba disclosed Monday. “The Ethiopian prime minister in his capacity as the chairperson of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has notified the government of the meeting which the president had accepted to take place between him and Riek Machar”, a senior diplomat told Sudan Tribune on Monday. I am told the meeting will take place on Friday 9th”, added the official who requested anonymity. Sudan Tribune
Ethnic Cleansing in Africa
The sectarian violence between Christian and Muslim militias and civilian mobs that has plagued Central African Republic for the past several months has tipped into a full-fledged campaign of ethnic cleansing of Muslims from the capital Bangui and the southern part of the country. Efforts to stem the mayhem have so far failed, and the country is on the brink of a de facto partition as Muslims flee toward the country’s northern borders. With 2.2 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance, donor countries must act quickly to finance the $274 million in emergency aid the United Nations says is urgently needed. The New York Times
Libya’s Faustian Bargains: Breaking the Appeasement Cycle
A new Atlantic Council report examines the threats to Libya’s stability, provides a detailed mapping of the militia landscape, and details policy options for the Libyan government and its international partners. In Libya’s Faustian Bargains: Breaking the Appeasement Cycle, the authors attribute the cycle of violence, intractable political stalemate, and weakened economy to the Libyan authorities’ continued policy of appeasing opponents. Atlantic Counsil
Did We Bomb Libya to Keep the Arab Spring Going?
[...] In testimony last Thursday before the House Committee on Oversight, terrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross suggested that the Obama administration’s 2011 decision to intervene in Libya was influenced by a desire to keep the revolutions going. The administration, says Gartenstein-Ross, was initially wary of involvement. Yet as the international clamor to stop Qaddafi’s swift advance toward the revolution’s nexus in the eastern city of Benghazi grew, two lines of argument for American action became prominent. The first was a worry that Qaddafi would commit horrific crimes against humanity if he entered Benghazi. (That was, after all, exactly what Qaddafi had said he’d do.) The second argument was more strategic. Gartenstein-Ross quotes RAND Corporation political scientist Christopher S. Chivvis’ study of the intervention, Toppling Qaddafi: National Interest
Nine ‘terrorists’ killed near Algeria-Mali border
Algerian armed forces killed nine armed Islamists near the Malian border, the defence ministry said. The “terrorist group of nine criminals” died after clashes with the army in the Taoundert border area yesterday, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Tin Zaoutine in Tamanrasset province, the APS news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying. It said eight automatic Kalashnikov-type rifles, an RPG-7 rocket launcher technical equipment and a “large amount” of ammunition were seized. The clampdown came after “effective use of information on suspicious movements of a terrorist group,” said the statement. Business Standard
Fibre-optics and Africa’s increasing internet access
While Africa’s growth in mobile and internet access has been rising faster over the last decade than any other region of the world, the continent is still playing catch-up. The continuing investment in infrastructure, dropping costs, rising incomes and demographics, however, will lead to a far greater growth over the next decade. The Africa Report
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