After Setbacks, Shabab Militants Learn to Kill on the Cheap
They have lost their leader, their ports, their checkpoints and their territory. They have lost thousands of men and much of their money. They have no fleet of armored personnel carriers like Boko Haram’s. Or poppy fields like the Taliban’s. Or oil fields like the Islamic State’s. In the pecking order of the world’s leading terrorist groups, the Shabab militants, based in Somalia, operate on a shoestring budget. But as the attack on a Kenyan university last week showed, they have become proficient in something terrible: mass murder on the cheap. In the past two years alone, bare-bones Shabab teams of young gunmen have struck across Kenya, at a mall, on buses, at a quarry, in a coastal village and last week at a university, where four militants with rudimentary assault rifles killed 142 students. In all, they have slaughtered hundreds of people and shaken Kenya, an economic powerhouse and cornerstone of stability in this part of Africa, with just a few men and a handful of light weapons. The New York Times
Kenya destroys two al Shabaab camps in Somalia
The Kenyan air force has destroyed two al Shabaab camps in Somalia, it said on Monday, in the first major military response since the Islamist group massacred students at a Kenyan university last week. Al Shabaab denied the camps were hit, saying the air force bombs fell on farmland. Gunmen from the al Qaeda-aligned group killed 148 people on Thursday when they stormed the Garissa University College campus, some 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border. Jets pounded the camps in the Gedo region on the other side of the border on Sunday, Kenya Defence Forces spokesman David Obonyo said. Times Live
Kenyans hold march for national security after massacre
Kenyans prepared to march for greater national security Tuesday following last week’s massacre by Somalia’s Shebab Islamists, ahead of a candlelit vigil on the final day of mourning for the 148 people killed by the militants. Kenyan fighter jets pounded camps belonging to the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in southern Somalia on Monday, but anger has been growing over allegations that critical intelligence warnings were missed. Special forces units took seven hours to reach the university in Garissa last Thursday, some 365 kilometres (225 miles) from the capital, as Shebab gunmen stormed dormitory buildings before lining up non-Muslim students for execution in what President Uhuru Kenyatta described as a “barbaric medieval slaughter”. AFP on Yahoo News UK
Analysis: Why does Kenya’s counter-terrorism strategy keep failing?
[…] Gathara outlined the multiple governance failures that led to and exacerbated the Garissa attack – failures familiar from several other incidents prior to this, such as the Westgate Mall attack in 2013 and the Mpeketoni massacre last year. These include: downplaying intelligence warnings; the failure of rapid response units to deploy effectively; and the casual disregard for laws and constitutional protections in both the build-up and the aftermath of the attack (such as the collective punishment of ethnic Somalis both in Nairobi and in the border areas, and Kenyatta’s recent decision to defy the Constitutional Court and fast-track the training of 10,000 police recruits selected in a corrupt recruitment process). The government is having none of it, however. “This incident… is one of those incidents which can surprise any country,” said interior minister Joseph Nkaissery, who has barely had time to settle into the job he took over, with some reluctance, in December. Daily Maverick
Terror attack, threats of more violence raise security questions for Obama’s Kenya visit
Al-Shabaab’s deadly attack last week in Kenya, and threats of more to come, raise new security questions for President Obama’s planned trip to the East African country this summer – though the White House so far is making no changes to the schedule. The president’s planned visit to his father’s homeland was announced late last month. It would mark Obama’s first as president to Kenya, a country he hasn’t visited in nearly a decade and he skipped over two years ago during an Africa tour despite stopping by neighboring Tanzania. At the time, the White House cited concerns over Kenya’s elections and the indictment of President Uhuru Kenyatta before the International Criminal Court. Fox News
Kenya’s tourism industry braces for more misery after Islamist attack
Hoteliers from Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast region and sprawling game park reserves said tourists have started cancelling trips to the east African nation after Islamist gunmen last week killed 148 people at a university campus. Chilling survivor testimonies recounting how gunmen from Somalia’s al Shabaab militant group hunted down and killed students has shocked Kenya and dealt a fresh blow to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s plans to boost the tourism sector. A vital part of east Africa’s biggest economy, Kenya’s tourism industry has been in decline since 2013 when al Shabaab stormed an upscale shopping mall in the capital Nairobi, killing 67 people during a bloody four-day siege. Since then, repeat al Shabaab attacks and travel warnings issued by the likes of Britain, United States and Australia emptied Kenya’s palm-fringed beaches and forced hotels to lay off staff. Reuters
Boko Haram Militants Disguised As Preachers Kill Dozens In Nigeria
Islamist Boko Haram militants disguised as preachers killed at least 24 people and wounded several others in an attack near a mosque in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, a military source and witness said on Monday. The attackers arrived in cars late on Sunday and gathered people at a mosque in the remote village of Kwajafa, pretending to preach Islam. They then opened fire on them, witness Simeon Buba said. The group’s six-year insurgency, and President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure to end it or protect civilians, were factors in the victory of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari in last week’s election. The group fighting for an Islamic state has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds, although a military operation against them by Nigeria and neighbors Chad, Cameroon and Niger in the past two months has wrested back much of the territory it controlled. Reuters on The Huffington Post
Boko Haram Attacking Cameroon for Supplies
Despite a decrease in deadly attacks, Cameroon said suspected Boko Haram fighters have been seizing food and livestock from farmers and cattle ranchers on its northern border with Nigeria for the past few weeks. Most of the food producers are now relocating to safer areas away from the border. Midjiyawa Bakari, Governor of the region of the far North, said the armed insurgents carry out raids in groups of 5 to10 – seizing cattle, food and money from residents along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria’s Borno state. He said the very long and porous border with Nigeria makes it possible for the insurgents to attack crop farmers, cattle ranchers and small businesses and quickly make a getaway. VOA
Seven killed in Boko Haram attack in Chad
Seven civilians were killed in an attack in Chad blamed on Nigerian Boko Haram rebels, officials said Monday. The Islamist militants ambushed people on their way to a market in Tchoukou Telia near Lake Chad on Friday, Dimouya Souapebe, the deputy prefect of Baga Sola told AFP. Some of the victims had their throats cut while others were shot, he said. Improvised mines were later discovered along the road between Tchoukou Telia and Ngouboua close to the Nigerian border, which Boko Haram also raided in recent weeks. The Chadian army is taking part in an regional offensive against the insurgents along with troops from Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. Vanguard.ng
Hope for Nigerian terror victims?
Nigeria’s president-elect Muhammadu Buhari has promised to defeat Boko Haram in six months. DW asked Nigerians forced out of their homes by the Islamist insurgency whether they believed in a swift victory. More than 20 men, women and children are sitting on mats in Ibrahim Abdullah’s yard. Sitting and waiting is now a daily routine for most of them after they fled from the Boko Haram fighters who attacked their villages in northeastern Nigeria some months ago. They found sanctuary with Abdullah, a relative who works for a non-governmental organization in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna. Deutsche Welle
Good luck, Buhari
The pre-election expectations of violence – from Boko Haram, but also from supporters of the losing candidate – were so dire that some South African companies evacuated staff. But in the end, last weekend’s presidential poll in Nigeria was such a resounding success that it has been compared to South Africa’s first democratic elections of 1994 in its importance for Africa. It was the first democratic transfer of power, in which the opposition won the elections, in Nigeria’s turbulent history. And even though Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of the deeply entrenched Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) – which had governed the country since the return to democracy in 1999 – was defeated, he conceded graciously. ISS
Calls for DR Congo to investigate Kinshasa burial site
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been urged to investigate at least 421 bodies found in an unmarked burial ground in the capital, Kinshasa. A foul smell led residents to the site in March. The government says all the bodies were buried in a single night and include stillborn babies and unclaimed bodies. But Human Rights Watch says they must check to see if any of the people killed during anti-government protests in January have been buried there. Dozens of demonstrators died in protests over a proposed electoral law change which would have required a national census to be held before the presidential election could take place. BBC
US military aid will further strangle Egypt’s democracy
On April 1, US President Barack Obama restored US military aid to Egypt. It is a stunning volte-face for the United States government, which rightly withdrew military assistance following the overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013. As the tap of military aid flows once more, $1.3bn is now available to the regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. New F-16 fighter jets, Abrams tanks and harpoon missiles will soon be at the disposal of Egypt’s armed forces. The country will be the second largest recipient of foreign military financing from the US, after Israel. Nothing could better symbolise the restoration of the status quo of US-Egyptian relations going back decades – where the real politik of supporting Middle Eastern strongmen that serve the interests of the United States rode roughshod over democracy and human rights. Al Jazeera
The riddle of the Sphinx: Why is Egypt strengthening its African ties?
The warmth of the speeches by many African heads of state in Sharm el Sheikh during the recent Egyptian Economic Development Conference was a powerful reminder of the deep historical and cultural ties linking Egypt and many of its neighbours. It also revealed a shared belief in the urgency of accelerating future engagement. After four years of turmoil following the 2011 Revolution, the conference – attended by over 3,000 people from over 100 countries – sent a clear message that stability is finally returning, government and investors are confident in their ability to think and plan for the long term and Egypt can rely on unwavering political and economic support from its partners around the world. The message, whether from African, Gulf, European, Asian or US leaders, was unanimous: Egypt’s stability and security is integral to regional and global stability and security and therefore everyone has a shared responsibility and interest in contributing to the country’s transformation. The East African
French special forces rescue hostage held in Mali since 2011
French special forces have rescued a Dutch hostage in Mali after discovering him by surprise during a dawn raid against suspected al-Qaida-linked jihadists. Sjaak Rijke, a 54-year-old Dutch train conductor, had been kidnapped from a hotel in Timbuktu in northern Mali in November 2011 while on a dream holiday with his wife. He had been held hostage for three and a half years. The French president, François Hollande, said French commandos had stumbled upon Rijke by chance. “It was a surprise for us – for our forces – to be able to free this hostage because we did not have information on the presence of this hostage.” He said Rijke had been transported to a temporary base in Tessalit in north-east Mali and that a number of suspected jihadists had been killed in the raid. The Guardian
Mali says concept of people of Azawad ‘does not exist’
Mali has urged separatist rebels in the north to commit to a peace deal signed by the government several weeks ago, saying their claimed homeland “does not exist”. The Algiers Agreement, hammered out over eight months of tough negotiations, aims to bring a lasting peace to a sprawling area of northern desert that the rebels refer to as “Azawad”. It has been signed by Mali’s government and smaller armed groups but Tuareg-led rebels under the banner of the Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA) have sought more talks. The rebels have been calling for “recognition and compensation by the state of Mali” and “recognition of Azawad as a political, legal and territorial entity”. AFP on Yahoo News
Exclusive: Rwanda Revisited
On March 25, 1998, President Bill Clinton expressed regret for failing to halt genocide in Rwanda, saying that he didn’t fully appreciate the depth and the speed with which [Rwandans] were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror. But U.S. officials in Rwanda had been warned more than a year before the 1994 slaughter began that Hutu extremists were contemplating the extermination of ethnic Tutsis, according to a review panel’s newly released transcript and declassified State Department documents obtained by Foreign Policy from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. An August 1992 diplomatic cable to Washington, written by Joyce Leader, the U.S. Embassy’s deputy chief of mission in Kigali, cited warnings that Hutu extremists with links to Rwanda’s ruling party were believed to be advocating the extermination of ethnic Tutsis. On the morning the killing began in April 1994, there was little doubt about what was happening in Rwanda.”We had a very good sense of what was taking place,” Leader told an unprecedented 2014 gathering of former Rwandan officials and international policymakers who managed the response to the world’s worst mass murder since the Holocaust. Foreign Policy
Poignant doc offers glimpse into South Sudan’s forgotten war
Children will always be children and even war will not kill their sense of creativity and play. US documentary maker Andrew Berends spent several months filming in Sudan’s remote Nuba Mountains, where a forgotten war has left hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Much of his film centers on a young girl named Madina, whose hopes and wishes mirror those of most girls in the refugee camp where she lives. “She’s sad about not getting an education. She’s sad about having seen fighting and people get killed at eleven years old. And she’s sad about her country, genuinely. And you know, she says, ‘My dream is to get an education so I can go back and support my country.’ It’s such a beautiful message,” says Berends. The documentary features unique footage and gripping testimonials which Berends managed to film in areas few people have managed to enter and from where little information flows. Euronews
Body of a Rebel Leader Is Identified in Uganda
The bullet-scarred remains of the No. 2 commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army, the guerrilla group that once terrorized central Africa, have been positively identified after having been exhumed three months ago in a Uganda-led military expedition, a person involved in the recovery operation said Monday. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement from Uganda, said forensics experts were still completing DNA confirmation on the remains of the commander, Okot Odhiambo, one of five Lord’s Resistance Army soldiers, including its leader, Joseph Kony, wanted for the past decade by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The person said there was no doubt, based on other evidence, that the remains were those of Mr. Odhiambo. The New York Times
Military action inevitable in fight against terrorism: Italy’s foreign minister
Military action is inevitable in the fight against terrorism and more should be done to tackle religious persecution, Italy’s foreign minister said. In an unusually strongly worded interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday, Paolo Gentiloni said Europe has long ignored dangers faced by people in other parts of the world and must do more. […] He noted that Italian forces are committed to training local armed forces in Somalia that fight against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants who singled out Christians in a shooting on Thursday at a university in Kenya that killed nearly 150 people. Islamic State’s incursion into North Africa has alarmed Italy, whose southernmost island is separated from Tunisia by a 70-mile stretch of the Mediterranean. Reuters
Op-Ed: ‘Party loyalty’, patronage and the future of the South African Parliament
On the eve of the opening of Parliament’s 2015 session, our consciousness had been bombarded with phrases like ‘paralysis of Parliament’ a ‘disgraceful moment in South African democracy’ and the need to restore the ‘dignity’ or ‘decorum’ of Parliament. These expressions and many more were a reaction to disruptions in Parliament in 2014, unprecedented in South African Parliamentary history, whether in the post-1994 era or in pre-democratic Parliaments. Where do we stand now, and why? Daily Maverick
Yes, We Were Warned About Ebola
The conventional wisdom among public health authorities is that the Ebola virus, which killed at least 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, was a new phenomenon, not seen in West Africa before 2013. (The one exception was an anomalous case in Ivory Coast in 1994, when a Swiss primatologist was infected after performing an autopsy on a chimpanzee.) The conventional wisdom is wrong. We were stunned recently when we stumbled across an article by European researchers in Annals of Virology: “The results seem to indicate that Liberia has to be included in the Ebola virus endemic zone,” the authors wrote. In the future, “medical personnel in Liberian health centers should be aware of the possibility that they may come across active cases and thus be prepared to avoid” epidemics caused by hospital-acquired infection. The New York Times
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