Boko Haram crisis: Regional force takes shape
Military chiefs from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger are finalising their strategy for a 8,750-strong regional force to tackle the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. In the last few weeks, the Multinational Joint Task Force has retaken several towns captured by the militants in north-eastern Nigeria. Now, the regional chiefs are preparing for a major ground and air offensive due to start next month – and are meeting in Chad this week to set out the command structure. The force will be led by a Nigerian commander, after which the position will rotate among the members. BBC
Chadian Army: Soldiers Kill 207 Boko Haram Militants
Soldiers from Chad killed 207 Boko Haram militants in fighting on Tuesday near a Nigerian town close to the border with Cameroon, Chad’s army announced in a statement. One Chadian soldier was killed and another nine were wounded in the clashes near Gambaru, the scene of regular attacks by the Nigerian Islamist group in recent months. There was no immediate independent verification of the Chadian army’s announcement. Chad’s military also claimed to have seized large quantities of small arms and ammunition and two pick-up trucks. Niger, Cameroon and Chad have launched a regional military campaign to help Nigeria defeat the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to carve an Islamic emirate out of northeastern Nigeria. VOA
US military trains African armies
Under the glare of the Saharan sun, a US special forces trainer corrects the aim of a Chadian soldier as he takes cover behind a Toyota pick-up and fires at a target with his AK47 – a drill that could soon save his life. Chad is sending hundreds of troops to fight Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria as part of a regional offensive against the Islamist group, which killed an estimated 10 000 people last year in a campaign to carve an Islamic emirate from the north of Africa’s largest oil producer. At the end of the exercise, a US trainer shows the 85 Chadians the paper target peppered with bullet holes – many of them outside the drawing of a gunman. “Not so great,” he says and orders them to do a round of push-ups – in which American, Italian and Belgian trainers all take part, laughing. News 24
Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan: Tide turned against Boko Haram
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has said the tide has “definitely turned” against militant Islamists as regional forces recapture territory. His comments came hours after Boko Haram militants were blamed for killing 27 people in bombings in two commercial centres in the north on Tuesday. Boko Haram had hit “soft targets” because of the setbacks it had suffered in battle, Mr Jonathan said. Regional forces have recaptured eight major towns in recent weeks. So Mr Jonathan’s comments appear to have some credence, even if he made similar remarks last year, says the BBC’s Bashir Sa’ad Abdullahi in the capital, Abuja. BBC
Boko Haram + ISIS = Marriage from Hell
For sheer cruelty, they are well matched. They also share an apocalyptic “end-of-days” vision. Now there are signs that Boko Haram — the most feared group in West Africa — may be edging toward a formal pledge of allegiance to the self-declared Caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Observers of Boko Haram, which has inflicted years of terror on northern Nigeria, note that its actions in the last six months have frequently mimicked those of ISIS — from punishments such as stoning and beheading of its victims to taking territory and an increasingly sophisticated use of social media that’s very much in the ISIS “style.” The latest sign that Boko Haram is wooing ISIS came on Sunday with a series of tweets released by jihadist site Afriqiyah Media, which declared its own allegiance to ISIS in December. One tweet quoted Boko Haram’s own media arm as saying: “We give you glad tidings that the group’s Shurah Council is at the stage of consulting and studying, and we will let you know soon the group’s decision in respect to pledging allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may Allah preserve him,” according to a translation by SITE Intelligence. CNN
Firing squads, blast walls and dangerous diplomacy in Somalia
A navy flak jacket over his sky-blue shirt, Neil Wigan peered through the bulletproof glass window at six uneven wooden poles in front of a sand dune. “There are more of them now,” the British ambassador to Somalia said, driving past the execution posts that convicts are tied to before being shot by firing squad. “It isn’t a particularly reassuring sign of progress.” Violence is routine in Somalia, whether perpetrated by suicide bombers, jihadists, assassins, soldiers or the judiciary. Chronic insecurity makes the country a study in diplomacy at its most difficult. Wigan, 44, is Britain’s first resident ambassador to the Horn of Africa country since it collapsed in a hail of gun and rocket fire in 1991. His American counterpart was announced on Tuesday but will work out of Nairobi not Mogadishu, like most other diplomats. AFP on Yahoo News
Pushing the reset button on Lesotho’s democracy
On Saturday 28 February, the people of Lesotho will head to the polls. The national election is being held two years earlier than originally planned – sadly not because citizens of the mountain kingdom are so eager to exercise their democratic privileges, but because their democracy is failing and urgently needs a fresh start. Tensions that had been simmering within the ruling coalition exploded into the open in August last year, when a component of the army – under renegade Lieutenant-General Tlali Kamoli – forcibly occupied police stations in Maseru, killing one policeman in the process. Fearing a coup, and for his own life, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fled across the border into South Africa. Kamoli is now in exile as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) deal, along with his would-be successor and the police chief. Daily Maverick
George Clooney on Sudan’s Rape of Darfur
In the early 2000s, a brutal conflict in western Sudan between the government and rebels led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Darfuris, with millions displaced as refugees. In 2004, the United States declared Sudan’s actions a genocide. After that spike in attention and concern, the world has largely forgotten about Darfur. Unfortunately, the government of Sudan has not. Because Sudan’s government routinely blocks journalists from going into the Darfur region and severely restricts access for humanitarian workers, any window into life there is limited. The government has hammered the joint peacekeeping mission of the United Nations and African Union into silence about human rights concerns by shutting down the United Nations human rights office in the capital, Khartoum, hampering investigators of alleged human rights abuses and pressuring the peacekeeping force to withdraw. Just last week, the regime reportedly convinced the peacekeeping mission to pull out of areas it says are stable, hoping no one takes a closer look. As a result, mass atrocities continue to occur in Darfur with no external witness. This is also the case in Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains, two southern regions devastated by the government’s scorched-earth tactics. The New York Times
Goodyear to pay Sh1 billion for bribery in Kenya and Angola
Top public officials at the roads and defence ministries, several parastatals and the military were among those who pocketed millions of shillings in bribes to award tenders to an American tyre company that has now been fined Sh1.5 billion in the US. Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company, which operates Treadsetters Tyres Limited as its Kenyan subsidiary, has now been ordered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay the hefty fine to the US Treasury after it was found liable for bribing public officials and private company bosses to award it tyre supply contracts. This is the second time this month that a foreign company has been fined for bribing Kenyan public officials. On February 12, two directors of a British printing company, Smith & Ouzman, were jailed for bribing election and education officials to award them printing contracts worth billions of shillings. Daily Nation
Ghana: Presidency is 2nd most corrupt institution – IEA survey
A survey conducted by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has ranked the Office of the President as the second most corrupt institution in Ghana. The Socio-economic and Governance Survey also ranked the Police Service as the most corrupt institution in the country. The survey was conducted in all the ten regions of Ghana with persons aged 18 years and above as the target population. The IEA noted that one of the most pressing governance challenges confronting the country is the high prevalence of bribery and corruption. Respondents in the survey ranked Tax officials and Members of Parliament as third and fourth most corrupt respectively. GhanaWeb
Mozambique elections and beyond: Renamo MPs sworn in, but violence raises stakes in a predictable game
It has taken almost four months since Mozambique’s last general election for members of parliament from the largest opposition party, Renamo, to be sworn in. Renamo had rejected the electoral results and demanded new political concessions in return for participation in parliament: a strategy that the party has used in some form at previous elections. What was different about the October 2014 elections was that they took place after two years of armed, organised and politically motivated violence. Some respected observers called it “war”. After 22 years of peace, 20 years of electoral democracy, and 10 years of declining fortunes for Renamo, in 2014 gunfire and bloodshed came close to sabotaging the constitutional process entirely. African Arguments
At least 20 000 Egyptians flee Libya after beheadings
An Egyptian border official says some 20 000 Egyptians have fled Libya since the release of a grisly beheading video by Islamic State militants. The video, showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, prompted Cairo to launch retaliatory airstrikes and ban Egyptians from traveling to the increasingly volatile North African country. Fawzi Nayel, security chief at the Salloum crossing, told The Associated Press an average of 2 000 to 3 000 Egyptians have crossed daily from Libya in the 10 days since the video was released. Many have come from Sirte, the central city where the 21 Coptic Christians were abducted. News 24
Libya Needs More Than Unity Government to Halt IS Rise
Four years after the revolution began to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi’s regime with NATO’s help, and amid a worsening civil war, Libya today faces a new and very real threat: militants affiliated with the self-declared Islamic State (IS). Even though Libya has no religious divisions that IS can exploit to establish a foothold, the country’s ongoing political crisis, armed conflict and security vacuum provide a fertile environment for IS to expand its influence to Europe’s doorstep. The Islamic State’s senior leadership in Libya is made up of foreign fighters from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, who were dispatched to Libya by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last summer to coordinate with local jihadis. Like IS in Iraq and Syria, its ranks in Libya are diverse, with Sudanese, Tunisian, Saudi and Libyan nationals reportedly carrying out its suicide missions. The group has also tapped Libyan jihadis who have fought with other local extremist groups, such as Ansar al-Sharia, as well as Libyans who have returned from fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria. . World Politics Review
Could Russia join the fight against ISIS by arming Libya?
Providing military aid to Libya to help fight ISIS extremists could mark the start of Moscow’s new strategy to prevent a spillover of radical Islam to the Caucasus. It might also be part of a broader plan to expand Moscow’s naval presence in the Mediterranean. Commenting on the events in Libya and the prospects of the UN resolution, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said that Moscow would seriously consider such a document as well as the possibility of arming the Libyan government against the Islamic State. “We are ready to discuss possible ways out of this situation, including through a simplified system of arms supplies to the Libyan government,” he was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency. Asked whether Russia would consider participating in the anti-ISIS campaign in Libya, Churkin said that “from the political point of view” he would not rule this out, but the decision would need to be made by the President. The statement by the Russian diplomat about a possible concerted effort against the Islamic State in Libya signals a major shift in Moscow’s strategy. Russia Direct
Shale Gas Project Encounters Determined Foes Deep in Algerian Sahara
Deep in the Algerian Sahara, daily protests against a pilot hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, project are now well into their second month. The demonstrations have spread to several towns and have provided opposition parties with a new platform at an especially precarious moment for the government, as oil prices have slumped and the declining health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has removed him almost completely from public view. Hundreds of police officers sealed off streets to block an antifracking march in the capital, Algiers, on Tuesday as opposition groups held rallies around the country in solidarity with the southern protesters in the distant oasis town of Ain Salah. At first glance, Algeriamight seem an unlikely place for the sort of popular movement against fracking, a method of tapping into deep deposits of shale gas, that has unfolded in many Western countries. Money from oil and gas accounts for 97 percent of exports and keeps afloat a socialist system of generous public subsidies for everything from food to housing. The New York Times
Brutal LRA rebel group in crisis
The reign of terror by Uganda’s once brutal rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), could be drawing towards an end after it suffered mass desertions, a leading rights group has said. Last year alone over 127 members and captives fled the LRA’s camps in the Central African Republic (CAR). Official records show that while most of those who fled were women and children, there have been other key defections with commanders like Dominic Ongwen surrendering to authorities. Ongwen is already on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. Africa Reports
Africa’s emigrants turn eastward
Higher economic growth does not mean that people will stay put, and many Africans in search of opportunities now head to Asia. These migration flows are giving birth to new cultural projects and partnerships. Malian Musbaba Moussa Traore is melding West African and Vietnamese music, combining traditional instruments from his home country and the Southeast Asian country. In China, Cameroonian Francis Tchiégué is regularly featured on television singing Chinese opera songs after arriving in China without knowing how to say ‘ni hao’ (hello). Not all the exchanges are positive, though. Africa Reports
Central African Governments Seek Ways to Fight Cybercrime
Cybersecurity experts from the 10 member states of the Economic Community of Central African states (ECCAS) have met in Cameroon to determine ways of reducing cyber criminality and terrorism. The member states say the threat of terrorism is high and have agreed to improve collaboration and organizational commitment in fighting electronic crime. Cameroon has said it is investigating a network of cyber criminals who have penetrated computer systems and networks to hack into personal and corporate bank accounts. N’tangh Bay Emile of Cameroon’s judicial police told VOA some of the suspects have diverted millions of dollars from corporate and private bank accounts. He said automatic teller machines are increasingly becoming the targets of cyber criminals. He added that he is investigating three Nigerians and a Ghanaian who were arrested with new Visa cards that they used to tap information from ATM machines and gain access to their victim’s passwords. VOA
UN peacekeeping review: change, or more of the same?
Peacekeeping operations, and their effectiveness, have long been subject to public scrutiny. Late last year, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations tasked with providing a comprehensive review of the state of UN peace operations today, and the emerging needs of the future. During the announcement of the review, it was stated that the panel will ‘consider a broad range of issues facing peace operations.’ These include the changing nature of conflict, mandates and peacebuilding challenges, along with planning, partnerships, human rights and the protection of civilians. Africa has a particularly high stake in this process, as 87% of uniformed UN personnel are deployed to Africa. ISS
U.N. panel urges increased use of drones in peacekeeping missions
A United Nations panel assessing the future technological needs of peacekeeping missions has recommended dramatically expanding the use of unmanned surveillance drones in U.N. military operations, the head of the panel said on Monday. Jane Holl Lute, who was previously U.S. deputy secretary for Homeland Security and a senior U.N. peacekeeping official, said that was one of 119 recommendations the expert panel on technology and innovation in U.N. peacekeeping made in a new report. “We make a very strong recommendation that drones, or the capacity for aerial visualization, is a capacity every mission should have with very few exceptions,” Lute, who led the expert panel, told reporters. DefenceWeb
From Africa’s Palms: The environmental consequences of palm oil plantations in equatorial Africa
There are few products so ubiquitous as palm oil. You can find its derivatives in chocolate, shampoo, toothpaste, detergent, ice cream, floor polish and a host of other products filling supermarket shelves. Extracted from the fruit of the tropically-grown oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis), it has become so versatile and sought after that the growing economies of Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s two largest producers, make some $40bn a year from its production and export. Given that by 2020 global demand for palm oil is expected to double and then triple by 2050, it is no wonder that other developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan West Africa where the tree originates, have been looking enviously at Southeast Asia and hoping to emulate that success.Al Jazeera
South Sudan sanctions loom as US presents draft UN resolution
South Sudan’s warring factions are a step closer to facing sanctions after the US presented a UN draft resolution threatening a global travel ban and assets freeze. The resolution is a signal the US is losing patience with the repeated failure of the two sides “to put their narrow political and economic agendas aside” and stop fighting. Similar language emerged from the UN’s peacekeeping chief, who accused both the government and rebels of “a serious failure of leadership that remains focused on its pursuit for power rather than care of its people”. The US measure, which was submitted to the UN security council on Tuesday, came a day after the latest round of negotiations to end South Sudan’s 14-month civil war began in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The Guardian
U.S. Threatens South Sudan With Sanctions…Again
[…] Last May, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to warn Kiir and Machar that they could face sanctions if they impeded peace efforts. To drive home the point, the White House that same month imposed sanctions on two rival officers Marial Chanuong, the commander of Kiir’s presidential guard force, and rebel commander Peter Gadet who are accused of committing atrocities. Tuesday’s move by the United States came as a senior U.N. human rights official provided the U.N. Security Council with a briefing on a recent trip to South Sudan. Though the scale and severity of the conflict has recently declined, the number of displaced and refugees has continued to grow, reaching 2 million people. There are thousands more civilians dead and further humanitarian law and human rights violations have been committed by both sides, U.N. assistant secretary general Ivan Simonovic told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. Displaced people told me they are frightened. They have nowhere to go. And both sides seem to be rearming and preparing for a new military campaign. […] Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations, first announced back in May that the United States would press for a U.N. sanctions resolution. But the move was delayed as a result of divisions among African leaders. There were also sharp internal feuds between top American policymakers, including National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who has resisted calls for an arms embargo, and Kerry and Power, who favor it. Foreign Policy
Israel’s Africa policies ‘an exercise in cynicism’
[…] A secret analysis from South African intelligence dismisses a tour of African countries by the Israeli Foreign Minister in 2009 as “an exercise in cynicism.” It says Avigdor Lieberman’s nine-day trip to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya laid the groundwork for arms deals and the appropriation of African resources, while hiding behind “a philanthropic façade”. Israel has long maintained ties with African countries based on its own security and diplomatic needs. Its ties with the old apartheid regime in South Africa were strongly based on military needs, and reportedly included cooperation in the development of nuclear weapons. Kenya, from where Israeli special forces staged a commando raid to free hostages held at Uganda’s Entebbe airport in 1977, has long been counted as an important ally. Reports in the Israeli and Nigerian media last month said the US had blocked Israel’s planned sale of military helicopters to Nigeria. Israeli media hailed Israel’s deepening ties with President Goodluck Jonathan for putting an end to a December 30 UN Security Council resolution setting a timetable for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories. Nigeria had signaled it would support the Palestinian-backed resolution, but its switch to an abstention denied the resolution the necessary majority in the Council. Al Jazeera
Kenya’s debt burden may double
Kenya’s debt burden could double in the next two years as a result of failure by the government to tackle key structural issues related to the economy, warns a new report. The study by global consulting firm Control Risks, says the country’s debt burden for East Africa’s biggest economy could grow two-fold because Treasury is “running huge deficits”. “Governments (in Africa) have so far failed to tackle key structural issues … Kenya, as one of the best-governed countries in the region, is running big deficits and debt loads will double by 2017,” Mr Daniel Heal, the Control Risks managing director for East Africa, said in a statement. DAily Nation
Ebola endemic in west Africa remains a risk, scientists warn
Scientists are warning of a real risk that the Ebola virus disease could become endemic in west Africa if efforts to end the epidemic slacken as the number of cases falls. All previous outbreaks of Ebola were stamped out within months and the virus disappeared from the human population each time. Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, however, have been in the grip of the virus for more than a year. While the numbers of cases dropped dramatically in December and early January, they have now plateaued and there are fears that the disease may not be totally eradicated. “There is that risk,” said Prof Mike Turner, head of infections at the Wellcome Trust. “You can’t quantify how great that risk is but that risk is there. It is not going to be a smooth ride.” The Guardian