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.
Ebola: WHO calls emergency talks on outbreak
How Boko Haram is beating U.S. efforts to choke its financing
Libya’s Southwest: Important to Understanding Country’s Security Crisis
Dead migrants from Libya ‘crammed in boat like animals for slaughter’
Mauritania elections: Aziz victorious, but opposition primed for future confrontations
U.S. imposes sanctions on Islamist group in Congo for targeting children
Morocco rejects African Union’s new special envoy for Western Sahara
Analysis: Should Uganda withdraw from South Sudan?
US sanctions tread lightly on Uganda’s ‘odious’ anti-gay laws
US Places Sanctions on Ugandan Rebel Group
INTERVIEW: Machar defends calls for federalism, shows concerns over mediators’ role
Why USAID is shifting maternal health funds toward Africa, Asia
UN Reports on Child Rights Violations
Leaders get immunity at new African rights court
Tunisia’s Islamists learn to embrace political culture of compromise
East African presidents to launch commodities exchange Friday
China executes Ugandans over drugs
Jill Biden highlights female empowerment, education, leadership on tour of 3 African countries
Water, Rivers and Runoff Challenge Ethiopia’s Expanding Capital
African Teams Head Home, Cash in Hand
Today’s News
Ebola: WHO calls emergency talks on outbreak
Health ministers from 11 African countries are meeting in Accra, Ghana, in an attempt to “get a grip” on the deadly and worsening Ebola outbreak. So far, 763 people have been infected with the virus – and 468 of these have died. Most of the cases have been in Guinea where the outbreak started. But it has since spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone and is now the biggest and most deadly Ebola outbreak the world has seen, say officials. BBC
How Boko Haram is beating U.S. efforts to choke its financing
When Washington imposed sanctions in June 2012 on Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, he dismissed it as an empty gesture. Two years later, Shekau’s skepticism appears well founded: his Islamic militant group is now the biggest security threat to Africa’s top oil producer, is richer than ever, more violent and its abductions of women and children continue with impunity. As the United States, Nigeria and others struggle to track and choke off its funding, Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials who closely follow Boko Haram provide the most complete picture to date of how the group finances its activities. Reuters
Libya’s Southwest: Important to Understanding Country’s Security Crisis
As Libya’s political crisis deepens and violent clashes mount, attention to the transitioning country has largely focused on the weak government in Tripoli and the tumultuous eastern region. The largely ignored southwestern party of the country known as the Fezzan, however, presents another set of challenges, with porous borders, ethnic and tribal tensions, and a widely shared sense of neglect. Valerie Stocker, an independent researcher and consultant, joined the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East on Friday, June 27, 2014, via Skype to discuss her experience in the Fezzan and present her issue brief titled “Inside Libya’s ‘Wild West.’” Eamonn Gearon, a specialist in Arab affairs and cofounder and managing director of The Siwa Group, provided commentary. Hariri Center Senior Fellow Karim Mezran moderated the discussion. Atlantic Council
Dead migrants from Libya ‘crammed in boat like animals for slaughter’
A fishing boat carrying the bodies of at least 30 men, believed to have died of suffocation while making a voyage to Europe from the Libyan coast, was towed to Sicily on Tuesday as survivors spoke of seeing others “crammed like animals for slaughter” into a small compartment on board. Stefano Frumento, captain of the Italian navy frigate Grecale whose crew rescued the boat’s 592 survivors, said the medical staff who saw inside the vessel’s stair-less, locker-like area on Sunday had seen “a mass of bodies”. The official death toll could “very probably” rise once the boat was fully vacated. The Guardian
Mauritania elections: Aziz victorious, but opposition primed for future confrontations
As he flew to Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea, to preside over an African Union summit on the fight against terrorism, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz must have been feeling very good about himself. As president of an organisation that had vilified and attempted to marginalize him only a few short years ago, this would have felt like sweet revenge indeed. With a whopping score of nearly 82% in the country’s recent presidential election, Aziz’s re-election for a second mandate was the culmination of his single-minded determination to remain in power at all costs since his August 2008 coup d’état. African Argument
U.S. imposes sanctions on Islamist group in Congo for targeting children
The United States on Tuesday blacklisted a Ugandan Islamic group, the Allied Democratic Forces, for targeting children in armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The move, which freezes the group’s assets in the United States and blocks U.S. firms from dealing with it, follows a U.N. Security Council committee decision on Monday to blacklist the same group. The U.S. Treasury said the ADF launched attacks against civilians in the DRC last year, including women and children, forcing thousands of people to escape into neighboring Uganda. The Treasury said the group kidnapped people and recruited some children as young as 10 years old to join its ranks. Reuters
Emerging threats to human security in Africa – 2014
The African Centre for Peace and Security Training (ACPST) aims to enhance the ability of practitioners to improve human security in Africa primarily through short courses and workshops. The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) created the Centre in 2011 with support from the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. The ISS is an African organisation which aims to enhance human security on the continent. It does independent and authoritative research, provides expert policy analysis and advice, and delivers practical training and technical assistance. The ISS was established in 1991 and has its head office in Pretoria. Regional offices are located in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, and Dakar. ISS
Morocco rejects African Union’s new special envoy for Western Sahara
Morocco rejects the African Union’s decision to appoint a special envoy for the disputed North African territory of Western Sahara, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano was appointed as a special envoy for Western Sahara at a meeting in Equatorial Guinea last week of the African Union’s (AU) Peace and Security Council, African news organisations reported. Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara since 1975 and claims as its own the sparsely populated stretch of desert, which has offshore fishing, phosphate reserves and oilfield potential. Al Arabiya
Analysis: Should Uganda withdraw from South Sudan?
As South Sudan’s peace process stalls, questions are being raised about Uganda’s military involvement, with some analysts saying it is impeding regional efforts to broker a peace deal. Although the 23 January Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed by both principals in the conflict, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, called for the phased withdrawal of all foreign troops in South Sudan, the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) has yet to do so. “We continue to support the implementation of the 23 January Cessation of Hostilities agreement, which called for the withdrawal of all outside forces from South Sudan,” Erin Rattazzi, acting spokesperson of the US Department of State’s African Bureau, told IRIN. IRIN
US sanctions tread lightly on Uganda’s ‘odious’ anti-gay laws
A loud cry rose from the West early this year when Uganda passed an anti-homosexuality law that would put “repeat offenders” in prison for life. European countries slashed aid to Uganda and gay rights activists loudly condemned the legislation, which came at the same time that Nigeria also cracked down on homosexuals with similarly draconian laws. The “odious law,” as US President Barack Obama called Uganda’s initiative, would “complicate” the US partnership with Kampala. He ordered a review of the largely military US-Uganda relationship, with the intent of imposing sanctions. CS Monitor
US Places Sanctions on Ugandan Rebel Group
The United States has imposed sanctions on a Ugandan rebel group, one day after the U.N. Security Council did the same. The U.S. Treasury said Tuesday it is sanctioning the Allied Democratic Forces for “targeting children in situations of armed conflict through rape, killing, abduction and forced displacement.” It said the group, which is based in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, launched attacks in the DRC last year that forced thousands of Congolese to flee into Uganda. VOA
INTERVIEW: Machar defends calls for federalism, shows concerns over mediators’ role
The South Sudanese former vice-president and leader of the SPLM- in-opposition defended his call for a federal system of governance stressing it will accommodate the country’s diversity. In an exclusive interview with Tesfa-Alem Tekle, Sudan Tribune correspondent in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Riek Machar said that South Sudanese have been calling a federal system since 1947, adding that the idea of self determination emanated from this demand. “History shows that this has been the demand of the people of South Sudan and in actual fact they developed this demand to a point of calling for the right of self-determination,” he said. Sudan Tribune
Why USAID is shifting maternal health funds toward Africa, Asia
The US Agency for International Development announced today that 26 countries have done so well at achieving maternal and child health goals that they’re now on their own. Their funding will instead go to 24 countries where mothers and children are still dying at alarming rates. The countries losing their funding, many in Latin America, are those who have made significant progress on maternal and newborn health, family planning, and similar efforts. Peru, for example, has reduced its newborn mortality rate by 77 percent and maternal mortality rates by 70 percent. “We see phasing out of funding as a success,” says Kelly Saldana, deputy director of the office of health infectious diseases at USAID. “The burden of disease really shifted away from Latin America to Africa and Asia.” CS Monitor
UN Reports on Child Rights Violations
A U.N. report released Tuesday documents cases of children recruited and used as soldiers by eight national armies and 51 armed groups in the past year. Some of the most serious situations are reported in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and South Sudan. According to Leila Zerrougui, U.N. envoy on children and armed conflict, grave rights violations of children, including death, maiming, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals, are highlighted. In Syria, where a civil war is raging into its fourth year, the U.N. estimates more than 10,000 children have been killed. VOA
Leaders get immunity at new African rights court
Leaders at an African summit have voted to give themselves and their allies immunity from prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide at a new African Court of Justice and Human Rights. The decision comes as the continent confronts human rights violations and has two sitting presidents and one ousted president facing charges at the International Criminal Court. Amnesty International called it “a backward step in the fight against impunity and a betrayal of victims of serious violations of human rights”. News 24
Tunisia’s Islamists learn to embrace political culture of compromise
For an Islamist leader, Rachid Ghannouchi seems to take a surprisingly moderate view of Tunisia’s political landscape. “A political transition is no time to govern with a relative majority of 51%; it’s a time for consensus,” says Ghannouchi, in his office in Tunis. “If Mehdi Jomaa [Tunisia's caretaker prime minister] can succeed, we won’t veto his action, or that of any other minister, so they can carry on. Never change a winning team.” This may seem odd, coming from the head of the Islamist Ennahda movement, the Tunisian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. But it reveals a great deal about the complex relationship with power that the party has developed since it was recently forced to leave the government. Ghannouchi visited France last month to meet members of the Tunisian community. He is perfecting his strategy. In future Ennahda will not govern on its own, even if that means leaving the current prime minister, appointed in January, at the helm. The Guardian
East African presidents to launch commodities exchange Friday
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Friday join his Rwandan and Ugandan counterparts in the official launch of the East Africa Exchange (EAX). The private-funded exchange is a regional electronic commodity platform established to link smallholder farmers to agricultural and financial markets to secure competitive prices for their products and facilitate access to funding opportunities. The Kigali-based exchange will offer smallholder farmers, who are faced with seasonal fluctuation of prices, better access to markets. Commodities exchanges are generally known to improve the net income of farmers through encouraging transparency in pricing and reducing exploitation by middlemen. The East African
China executes Ugandans over drugs
Chinese authorities have executed two Ugandans convicted of trafficking narcotics, the Foreign Affairs ministry has announced. Ministry spokesperson Fred Opolot yesterday identified the convicts as Omar Ddamulira and Ham Andrew Ngobi. “Ddamulira was executed on May 21, 2014 while Ngobi was killed last week (June 24),” he said. “Their bodies were cremated but we have initiated talks with the Chinese government to return the ashes to their families.” Mr Opolot said the two men’s families were allowed to talk to them on phone before they were executed. By June 2012, Uganda’s embassy in China had compiled a list of 23 Ugandans who had been sent on death row in China over drug trafficking while another 22 were serving life in jail over similar offences. Daily Monitor
Jill Biden highlights female empowerment, education, leadership on tour of 3 African countries
Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is spending part of her summer vacation in Africa this week, highlighting female empowerment, education and leadership during stops in three countries. She arrived in Lusaka, Zambia, on Tuesday, and was being accompanied on stops there by Rajiv Shah, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development. She is also traveling with Catherine Russell, the U.S. ambassador at-large for global women’s issues, who will be with Biden for the entire trip. Stops are also planned in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone before Biden returns to Washington next week. The trip is a chance for Biden, a lifelong educator who teaches English twice a week at a Virginia community college, to highlight what happens when women and girls are empowered through education and entrepreneurship, administration officials said. U.S. News and World Report
Water, Rivers and Runoff Challenge Ethiopia’s Expanding Capital
The streets of Addis Ababa are increasingly turning into water-logged obstacle courses as downpours increase in the run up to Ethiopia’s July to September rainy season. Strangers link hands to steady themselves as they step high and gingerly over the spreading puddles and slippery mud. Sustainable drainage systems may not sound like an exciting topic to get the heart beating faster, but it is one of increasing importance in Ethiopia and especially in Addis Ababa as the capital city grows, construction sites abound, its population swells and demand for accessible, clean water increases — and the downpours keep coming. IPS
African Teams Head Home, Cash in Hand
This has been a history-making World Cup for Africa, and not just for the number of contentious meetings, suspensions and threatened player boycotts. For the first time, two teams from the soccer-adoring continent advanced to the knockout stage of the tournament. But that sense of accomplishment succumbed to reality in a matter of hours Monday as both teams battled hard but lost to favored opponents, leaving behind more lasting images of training ground strikes, cash-laden airplanes and an assortment of missed opportunities. [...] Cameroon took the initiative even before the team boarded its plane for Brazil, with the players demanding their appearance fee for the World Cup up front, in cash. Or else, they said, they would not go. Last week the players from Ghana refused to practice and threatened a player strike in their game against Portugal unless they quickly received more than $3 million, cash in hand. One day later, the players from Nigeria also refused to practice and made the same demand of their soccer federation: Pay us now, in cash, or we go home. The New York Times