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.
Air Algerie AH5017: ‘No survivors’ from crash in Mali
Peace Corps suspends operations in Kenya over security concerns
Chad and its neighbours: Africa’s jihadists, on their way
Africa: U.S.-Africa Summit Must Listen to Voices of the People
South Sudan peace talks to resume next week
Why was there no ‘African Spring’?
Clashes in Libya’s Benghazi kill 9
ICC: Gadhafi-era spy chief can be tried in Libya
Tackling Africa’s vulnerability
Warnings mount of East Africa famine – is anyone listening?
Pope meets with Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death for apostasy
Boko Haram steps up Cameroon raids
One Hundred Days of Servitude – by Gordon Brown
Migration: Mediterranean boat people numbers soar to near 100,000
Nigeria fears as man falls ill with Ebola-like symptoms
Why Are We Ignoring a New Ebola Outbreak?
SANDF becoming an “armed welfare service”
UNICEF Report On Female Genital Mutilation Holds Hope And Woe
Ethiopia Becomes China’s China in Global Search for Cheap Labor
Bill Gates: Africa needs better international aid audit
The Woman Who Came Back from Hell: How Rwanda’s Pentecostals are keeping the demons of the past at bay
Today’s News
Air Algerie AH5017: ‘No survivors’ from crash in Mali
There are no survivors from the Air Algerie AH5017 passenger jet that crashed in Mali, says the French President, Francois Hollande. Mr Hollande said one flight data recorder had been recovered, after French troops reached the crash site near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane early on Thursday after pilots reported severe storms. The 116 passengers on the Air Algerie flight included 51 French citizens. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 had been chartered from Spanish airline, Swiftair. It was flying from Burkina Faso’s capital, Ougadougou, to Algiers. BBC
Peace Corps suspends operations in Kenya over security concerns
The Peace Corps says it is suspending its operations in Kenya and pulling out more than 50 volunteers because of security concerns. The Peace Corps said Thursday it is closely monitoring the security environment and will determine when the volunteers can return. The decision comes shortly after the State Department reduced the number of people who work in the US embassy in Kenya, which increased the number of armed guards on site earlier this year. Kenya has seen a spate of bombing and gunfire attacks, often carried out by Somali militants. The Guardian
Chad and its neighbours: Africa’s jihadists, on their way
SQUINT a little and the region skirting Lake Chad in central Africa resembles Mosul and Tikrit in northern Iraq: dried-out canals, scrubby plains, ragtag bands of Islamists with guns beneath an unrelenting sun. Thanks to satellite television, the long-suffering residents around the lake, which abutted Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria until it began to dry up and shrink over the past few decades (see map), have a rough understanding of what has happened recently in Iraq. They can imagine only too well being overrun by insurgents. Many see parallels between the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), the savage group that has captured a string of Iraqi towns, and Boko Haram, the equally murderous Nigerian outfit that is striving to expand its base beyond its original area south-west of Lake Chad. The question everyone in the region is asking is whether the Nigerian bunch of beheaders can replicate the audacious territorial conquest of their Arab-led counterparts. The Economist
Africa: U.S.-Africa Summit Must Listen to Voices of the People
In a guest column for AllAfrica, E. Gyimah Boadi of Ghana’s Center for Democratic Development says the vast majority of Africans who prefer democracy over authoritarian regimes deserve to be heard at the forthcoming U.S.-Africa Summit convened by President Barack Obama. [...] Seven out of ten Africans prefer democracy to other political regimes, and the proportion of deeply committed democrats – those who also reject authoritarian alternatives – has risen steadily over the past decade, according to Afrobarometer, a network of researchers who have surveyed African opinion since 1999. Of course, the state of democracy shows great variety across Africa. Fewer than half of all adults profess to prefer democracy in Madagascar (38 percent) and Swaziland (46 percent), where open elections have been repeatedly disputed, postponed, or never held at all. By contrast, almost everyone expresses support for democracy in Senegal (88 percent) and Zambia (90 percent), where recent elections have led to peaceful turnovers of national leaders. allAfrica
South Sudan peace talks to resume next week
The stalled South Sudanese peace talks between government and the opposition will resume on July 30, 2014, the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has said. The agenda of the next session will be to finalise and sign the Cessation of Hostilities Matrix and negotiation on details of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU), a statement from IGAD’s said. Igad noted that it has been in consultation with various actors since the adjournment of the peace talks on June 23, 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “The main objective of the consultations was to take stock of the progress, challenges and chart the way forward, particularly in the implementation of the resolutions of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government Summit meeting of 10th June 2014,” the statement said. The East African
Why was there no ‘African Spring’?
The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor in December 2010 triggered a wave of protests across Tunisia that brought down President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spread across North Africa and the Middle East. What western media dubbed the “Arab Spring”, toppled dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Libya and Yemen and sparked conflict in Syria and Bahrain. The aftershock was felt as far as Morocco, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Although reasons for the mass uprisings differ from one country to another, the Arab Spring occurred mostly because of rampant corruption in governments, rising unemployment and the many challenges of everyday survival: putting bread on the table, being able to afford fuel, clothing and even shelter. Politically, decades-long one-man rule had become unbearable and the prospect of familial succession provoked increasing public anger. Al Jazeera
Clashes in Libya’s Benghazi kill 9
At least nine people were killed and 19 wounded, mostly civilians, in Benghazi after heavy clashes between Islamist fighters and regular forces trying to oust the militants from the eastern Libyan city, medical sources said. The fighting late on Wednesday involving aircraft and troops followed a week of the fiercest clashes between militants, former rebel fighters and government forces in Benghazi and the capital Tripoli since the 2011 war against Muammar Gaddafi. More than 50 people have died so far in the violence that has deepened fears post-war Libya is slipping into lawlessness, with its government unable to control heavily armed brigades of former rebel fighters battling for power. News 24
ICC: Gadhafi-era spy chief can be tried in Libya
ppeals judges at the International Criminal Court have upheld a decision that allows Libyan authorities to put on trial a former intelligence chief from Moammar Gadhafi’s era. The appeals panel confirmed Thursday that the case against Abdullah al-Senoussi should not be handled by the Hague-based court because prosecutors in Libya are pursuing similar charges against him. The ICC indicted Al-Senoussi in 2011 on charges of murder and persecution allegedly committed during Gadhafi’s unsuccessful attempt to put down a popular revolt. AP on Stars and Stripes
Tackling Africa’s vulnerability
Sub-Saharan Africa remains low on this year’s UN Human Development Index. But economic growth in these countries means they could be in a position to provide social security to the most vulnerable, experts suggest. [...] ub-Saharan Africa is the region with the greatest disparity between rich and poor in the world. 585 million people live in poverty or at risk of poverty – that equates to 72 percent of the region’s population. Deutsche Welle
Warnings mount of East Africa famine – is anyone listening?
Nearly seven million people in South Sudan and Somalia are in urgent need of food handouts and several areas of both countries could slip into famine without increased and sustained international action, aid agencies are warning. The red flag from humanitarian groups is based on sophisticated early warning systems that aid agencies use to push donors to pay up so food and other forms of help can be ready before a catastrophe is underway. In the past, that money is rarely provided in time. In Somalia in 2011 more than half of the 258,000 victims of the food crisis died before famine was officially declared, and when funding faucets were fully opened. CS Monitor
Pope meets with Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death for apostasy
Pope Francis met privately on Thursday at the Vatican with a Sudanese woman who refused to recant her Christian faith in the face of a death sentence, which was commuted in June. The Vatican characterised the visit with Meriam Ibrahim, 27, her husband and their two small children as “very affectionate.” The 30-minute encounter took place just hours after the family landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport, accompanied by an Italian diplomat who helped negotiate her release, and welcomed by Italy’s premier, who hailed it as a “day of celebration.” France 24
Boko Haram steps up Cameroon raids
Nigerian radical Islamist group Boko Haram’s free-wheeling ruthlessness is increasingly troubling the remote Far North Region of Cameroon, which has seen several attacks in recent months, with foreigners also abducted for ransom. This month, heavily armed men suspected to be Boko Haram fighters attacked Bonderi village 5km from the border with Nigeria and stole a military vehicle, four motorbikes and weapons from the gendarmerie base there, government officials told IRIN. Another group of suspected Boko Haram gunmen also raided a gendarmerie border post in Zina town on 8 July, three days prior to the Bonderi attack, and stole guns and ammunition. In June, two teenage sons of a Muslim cleric were kidnapped in Limani border town. IRIN
One Hundred Days of Servitude – by Gordon Brown
Demonstrations around the world were held this week to mark the 100th day of captivity for more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Since their abduction in April, global outrage has not waned; on the contrary, it has spurred a worldwide movement to uphold all girls’ basic rights. CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphCampaigners from groups fighting child marriage, child trafficking, and child labor, and from groups demanding children’s right to attend school, free of intimidation, have united in the past few days to show the strength of global opinion in favor of universal education and a world free of child slavery. CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphBut what is of greater long-term significance is that girls themselves are demanding that their rights be taken seriously. Girls have mobilized in Bangladesh, where the movement to establish child-marriage-free zones is growing; in India, where the Global March Against Child Labor started; and in Africa, where child protection clubs are being formed in almost every country. Project Syndicate
Migration: Mediterranean boat people numbers soar to near 100,000
Almost 100,000 boat people have made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe this year, a roughly 60 percent increase on the whole of last year, and about 800 have died in the attempt, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday. The exodus has surged this year, as far more migrants put their lives in the hands of smugglers or unseaworthy vessels in a desperate attempt to reach Europe. Africa Reports
Nigeria fears as man falls ill with Ebola-like symptoms
A Liberian man has been hospitalised in Lagos with Ebola-like symptoms, but it is not yet clear if he is infected with the killer virus, Nigerian officials said Thursday. The 40-year-old Monrovia resident arrived in Nigeria’s mega-city on Sunday and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea, said Yewande Adesina, the special advisor on health for the Lagos state government. The patient was “detained for possible Ebola infection while blood samples were sent to the Virology Reference Laboratory in Lagos as well as to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Dakar,” she said. AFP
Why Are We Ignoring a New Ebola Outbreak?
“The deadly ebola outbreak in West Africa deserves the full attention of the international community. There is no time to wait. Three small, impoverished nations in West Africa—Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—now demand the world’s attention as the deadly Ebola epidemic spins out of control, killing hundreds and threatening millions. Caused by a highly contagious virus, the disease starts with typical flu-like symptoms, yet most often leads to a horrific death in just a matter of days. Since the outbreak started in early 2014, the World Health Organization reports 1048 people have contracted the disease, and over 600 have died. But since ministries of health in these three countries do not have the capacity to survey the disease and count the dead properly, many experts believe that the numbers are much higher. The New York Times
SANDF becoming an “armed welfare service”
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF), which should be saving lives, is becoming an “armed welfare service which is saving jobs,” according to the Democratic Alliance, which was reacting to defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s budget speech yesterday. Mapisa-Nqakula told Parliamentarians they have to apply their minds to assist in righting the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) when she introduced her budget vote this week by ensuring the Defence Review had their full support. That the country’s military is not well was also stressed by opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party shadow defence and military veterans minister, David Maynier, who told the house the SANDF was “in deep trouble”. DefenceWeb
UNICEF Report On Female Genital Mutilation Holds Hope And Woe
Women and girls are less likely to undergo female genital mutilation, or FGM, than 30 years ago. That’s the encouraging news from a UNICEF report on the controversial practice, presented this week at London’s first Girl Summit. The rate has dropped in many of the 29 countries across Africa and the Middle East where FGM is practiced. In Kenya, for example, nearly half the girls age 15 to 19 were circumcised in 1980; in 2010 the rate was just under 20 percent. But there’s a sobering side to the report. In countries like Somalia the rate has gone down slightly but is still over 90 percent. NPR
Ethiopia Becomes China’s China in Global Search for Cheap Labor
Ethiopian workers strolling through the parking lot of Huajian Shoes’ factory outside Addis Ababa last month chose the wrong day to leave their shirts untucked. Company President Zhang Huarong, just arrived on a visit from China, spotted them through the window, sprang up and ran outside. The former People’s Liberation Army soldier harangued them loudly in Chinese, tugging at one man’s aqua polo shirt and forcing another’s shirt into his pants. Nonplussed, the workers stood silently until the eruption subsided. Shaping up a handful of employees is one small part of Zhang’s quest to profit from Huajian’s factory wages of about $40 a month -– less than 10 percent the level in China. Bloomberg
Bill Gates: Africa needs better international aid audit
Bill Gates has called for an improved audit of international aid in Africa, to make sure it achieves its aims. The billionaire philanthropist told the BBC that aid remains vital in ensuring Africa is lifted from poverty, but that African countries need to find solutions for their own problems, especially development matters. He spoke to BBC Africa’s Emmanuel Igunza in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. BBC
The Woman Who Came Back from Hell: How Rwanda’s Pentecostals are keeping the demons of the past at bay
[...] Before the deaths of close to 1 million Rwandans in the 1994 slaughter, roughly 65 percent of Rwandans were Catholics. But many have since turned away from the church: A 2011 study from the Pew Research Center found that the number of Catholics had dropped post-genocide, to around 50 percent of the population. Many of those who have abandoned Catholicism have gravitated to Protestant denominations of Christianity — or even to Islam. The reasons are complicated. The current Rwandan government as well as many ordinary Rwandans accuse the Catholic Church of complicity in the genocide, citing the notorious cases of church officials and priests who participated in the killings. Experts caution against such generalizations, pointing out that there were also priests who fell victim to the slaughter, some in the attempt to protect their parishioners. (The Vatican, for its part, continues to dispute any institutional involvement in the genocide.) Foreign Policy