United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

16 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

Obama Says U.S. Will 'Redouble' Efforts Against Al-Shabaab (IPS)

(Somalia) U.S. President Barack Obama has said Washington will "redouble" its efforts
against the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab (The Youth), whose deadly bombings in
Kampala Sunday are likely to result in stepped-up U.S. military and other assistance to
the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu.

US takes stock after Al Shabab terrorist bombings in Uganda (Christian Science

Monitor)
(Somalia) The truth is, America’s options here are limited, but that does not mean they
are of no value. The US simply doesn’t have the military resources right now (one
expert says it would take 100,000 “peacekeepers” to stabilize Somalia).

Africa needs standby force to tackle al-Shabaab threat (Business Daily Africa)
(Pan Africa) Africa cannot rely solely on external interference in its affairs every time
there is a problem confronting the continent. There are those, for example, who have
argued that the African Command (AFRICOM) can serve as an alternative to the
African Standby Force.

'No' Leaders Want U.S. Envoy Tamed (Daily Nation)

(Kenya) Political leaders opposed to the proposed constitution want the Kenya
Government to tame US ambassador Michael Ranneberger or kick him out of the
country.

US lawmakers crack down on Congo mineral trade (Associated Press)

(Congo) Congress is cracking down on companies dealing in minerals that fuel
violence in Congo. The legislation requires companies doing business in Congo and
neighboring countries to disclose the origin of any minerals they trade in as specifically
as possible.

Congolese ex-militia chief can go free unless appeal: ICC (AFP)

(Congo) The International Criminal Court ruled Thursday that Congolese militia chief
Thomas Lubanga should be freed after his war crimes trial was suspended, unless
prosecutors mount an appeal.
Gambia sentences 8 to death for coup attempt (Associated Press)
(Gambia) A Gambian court has sentenced eight people to death after convicting them
of plotting a coup in the tiny West African nation.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 On visit to Ghana, UN development chief lauds progress on women’s
empowerment
 ICC orders release of Congolese warlord
 UN envoy: Guinea-Bissau’s challenges must be tackled without delay
 UN rural development arm helping respond to Niger food crisis
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, July 20, 4:00 p.m., Brookings Institution

WHAT: Improving U.S. Strategies for Africa’s Two Biggest Wars
WHO: Anthony Gambino, Former USAID Mission Director, Democratic Republic of
Congo; Mwangi Kimenyi, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; John Prendergast, Co-
Founder, The Enough Project
Info: http://www.brookings.edu/events/2010/0720_africa_wars.aspx
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Obama Says U.S. Will 'Redouble' Efforts Against Al-Shabaab (IPS)

U.S. President Barack Obama has said Washington will "redouble" its efforts against the
Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab (The Youth), whose deadly bombings in Kampala
Sunday are likely to result in stepped-up U.S. military and other assistance to the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu.

In an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation Tuesday, Obama

suggested that the group represents a growing threat to the region.

"(W)hat we know is that if al-Shabaab takes more and more control within Somalia, that
it is going to be exporting violence the way it just did in Uganda," he said.

"And so we've got to have a multinational effort. This is not something that the United
States should do alone, that Uganda or others should do alone, but rather the African
Union (AU), in its mission in Somalia, working the (TFG) to try to stabilise the situation
and start putting that country on a pathway that provides opportunity for people, as
opposed to creating a breeding ground for terrorism," Obama said.
Sunday's twin bombings at a popular Ethiopian restaurant and, across the city, at a
rugby field where hundreds of spectators were watching the World Cup final in
Johannesburg, killed a total of 76 people.

The Shabaab, which government officials here describe as increasingly tied to al

Qaeda's global agenda, took responsibility for the bombings, saying that Uganda was
targeted due to its contribution of troops to the AU's 6,000-man peacekeeping mission
in Somalia (AMISOM).

"We are sending a message to every country who is willing to send troops to Somalia
that they will face attacks on their territory," said Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamoud
Rage Monday. He added that Burundi, the second-largest troop contributor to
AMISOM after Uganda, "will face similar attacks, if they don't withdraw".

Aside from brief cross-border raids into Kenya, Sunday's bombings marked the first
time the Shabaab has carried out a major attack outside Somalia. U.S. officials noted that
the simultaneity of the bombings suggested that the attacks were inspired, if not
organised, by al Qaeda operatives.

Washington, the single biggest supplier of military equipment and training for both the
AMISOM and the TFG, sent three Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents to
Kampala to help Ugandan authorities investigate the bombings. The U.S. ambassador to
Uganda, Jerry Lanier, said Wednesday more agents were expected in the coming days.

"We believe the Uganda mission is more important than ever now," he said, adding that
the administration intended to "increase assistance to Uganda. "In fact, the entire
AMISOM mission ... is more important because al-Shabaab has shown a willingness to
kill civilians outside of Somalia," he added.

That was echoed by a senior administration official who gave a background briefing to
reporters late Tuesday. "(We) also... need ... to look at the situation in Somalia and to
determine if this is now a trend that al-Shabaab is going to be on, and to take all
appropriate measures."

While the administration has not indicated precisely what it will do, most analysts
believe it will step up assistance to both AMISOM, which is supposed to add 2,000 more
troops in the coming months, and to the TFG's security forces which, despite launching
a long-planned joint offensive with AMISOM against the Shabaab two weeks ago, have
been unable to expand the government's control beyond a small area of Mogadishu.

Washington has provided tens of millions of dollars in equipment and training - much
of it conducted by member states of the European Union (EU) in Uganda - to the TFG's
security forces and AMISOM, particularly since the election by the Somali Parliament of
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as president in January 2009.
It was hoped that Sharif's election and his government's adoption of Sharia law,
combined with the withdrawal in late 2008 of all Ethiopian troops from Somalia, would
deprive both the Shabaab and Hizbul Islam of their religious and nationalist appeal and
persuade a sufficient number of key insurgent leaders to lay down their weapons and
effectively end their rebellion.

But those hopes have gone largely unfulfilled, due in part to a combination of
protracted infighting within the TFG, insufficient funding to attract and maintain
recruits, and corruption.

"There have been problems in paying recruits regularly; some of that is due to not
enough money, or the money is going into the wrong pockets," according to David
Shinn, a former ambassador to Ethiopia and an expert on the Horn of Africa. "More
importantly, the TFG has yet to offer a vision of a future for Somalis. That's the big
challenge, and, until that happens, I can't be very optimistic. At some point, people are
going to stop writing cheques."

Disillusionment with the TFG's performance has prompted a number of analysts to call
for reconsidering Washington's opposition to any dealings with al-Shabaab, which was
created in 2006 as an offshot of a coalition of Islamist groups then led by Sharif. The
group, which has attracted recruits from the Somali diaspora in the United States, as
well as Europe and other parts of Africa, was placed on the State Department's
terrorism list two years later.

The International Crisis Group called in May for the TFG to "reach out" to elements of
the Shabaab that are "disenchanted with the influence of foreign jihadis in the group
and the al-Qaeda sympathies among its leadership" and to the Hizbul Islam, arguing
that there were growing splits divisions within the Islamist movement.

In one widely noted study, Bronwyn Bruton, an analyst at the Council on Foreign
Relations, also argued that, left to itself, the Shabaab would likely split into different
factions.

Calling for a policy of "constructive disengagement", she urged Washington to signal "a
willingness to coexist with any Islamist group or government that emerges, as long as it
refrains from acts of regional aggression, rejects global jihadi ambitions, and agrees to
tolerate the efforts of Western humanitarian relief agencies in Somalia."

But while conceding there are differences between more nationalist and more al Qaeda-
oriented elements in the Shabaab, Shinn argued that the leadership is united on basic
issues. "Al-Shabaab wants total control; they're not going to want to share power," he
said. "I see no willingness to compromise."
The administration official who also briefed reporters appeared to dismiss Bruton's
suggestions as well. "I think that what we've seen in Kampala is a good example of why
that's not a viable way forward," he said.

In the last years of the Bush administration, Washington carried out a series of drone
attacks against al-Shabaab leaders suspected of being closely tied to al Qaeda. Those
attacks, in which civilians were also killed, are now seen as having been largely
counterproductive.

Obama appears to have suspended such attacks, although, in mid-September last year,
helicopter-borne U.S. Special Forces ambushed a convoy carrying Saleh Ali Saleh
Nabhan, the leader of an al Qaeda cell in Kenya who, according to U.S. officials, played
key roles in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and
a 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Mombasa.

Nabhan was one of what many analysts believe are about 300 "foreign fighters" in the
Shabaab with links to al Qaeda.
--------------------
US takes stock after Al Shabab terrorist bombings in Uganda (Christian Science
Monitor)

On Tuesday, senior US officials got on the phone with reporters to give a background
briefing on the coordinated terrorist bombings that killed 76 people in the African
nation of Uganda on Sunday as they were watching the World Cup.

The US officials, however, did not sound particularly reassuring.

They acknowledged that “there are indications that Al Shabab was indeed responsible.”
This is the Somali terrorist group of extreme Islamists that has ties to Al Qaeda, that has
successfully recruited Americans and Canadians with Somali roots, and that, for the
first time, has now struck outside its own country. Al Shabab poses a threat not only to
Africa, but, potentially, to the United States. Indeed, an American was killed in the
bombings.

The officials said that since Al Shabab was designated a foreign terrorist organization
during the Bush administration, the group has been on the US "radar screen" and the
US has been “trying to monitor” any hints of plans to carry out a terrorist attack. They
said the US needed to “take stock” of recent developments and “take a look and see
what it is that we need to do as a result of those attacks.”

That amounts to a lot of looking, watching, monitoring, and taking stock. But what
about doing?
The truth is, America’s options here are limited, but that does not mean they are of no
value. They amount, basically, to a policy of containment from afar, or mostly afar – a
stark contrast to the boots-on-the-ground approach to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Full-scale US military engagement in this lawless Muslim country in the Horn of Africa
might end up badly – just as one in 1993 did. During that invasion, 18 US Marines were
killed in pursuit of a Somali warlord, dramatized in the film “Black Hawk Down.”

The US simply doesn’t have the military resources right now (one expert says it would
take 100,000 “peacekeepers” to stabilize Somalia). And this failed state is in far worse
shape than Afghanistan or Iraq.

The US officials described Somalia as a “complicated and challenging environment,”

and that’s putting it mildly. It is made of fiercely loyal and clashing clans, and has had
14 governments between 1991 and 2010. It now has a Western-backed transitional
government that controls only a few blocks of the capital city, Mogadishu, thanks to the
presence of about 5,000 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi.

Al Shabab is fighting to turn Somalia into a state ruled by a harsh interpretation of

Islamic law, and it controls the two biggest ports in the south. Its stated reason for the
Uganda attack was to force foreign troops out of Somalia. It was a fringe movement
until 2006, when Ethiopian troops, with US backing, intervened and instated the
transitional government.

Indeed, some experts point out that it’s the foreign intervention that has stoked Al
Shabab and turned it into a full-blown insurgency that made it open to Al Qaeda’s
funds and training. In the 1990s, Al Qaeda tried to put down roots in Somalia, but it
was perceived as foreign and Arab and couldn’t break into the clan system. Until
recently, Taliban-like fundamentalism was a stranger to this country of Sufi Muslims
with moderate religious views.

Questions still remain as to Al Shabab’s intentions. Are they limited to Somalia? Or

might they reach to US soil? A controversial report by the Council on Foreign Relations
suggests that the US is too focused on backing the corrupt and ineffective transitional
government, which cites the threat of Al Shabab terrorism to garner support from the
West and the region.

The report's author, Bronwyn Bruton, claims that neither Al Shabab nor the transitional
government can rule Somalia, and that the best policy for the US is one of “constructive
disengagement” – letting the Somalis work out their problems over years, while the
West uses intelligence and selective military actions to go after bad guys, and helps
with humanitarian and development aid. [Editor's note: A previous version contained
an incorrect attribution.]
The senior administration officials decried that approach, but they are following much
of it. Last September, US special forces killed an Al Qaeda trainer of Al Shabab forces in
broad daylight; unlike in the previous administration, which used cruise missiles and
gunships to go after terrorists, there was no collateral damage to civilians.

Meanwhile, the US is spending millions of dollars in military and economic aid and
logistical support for regional counterterrorism allies such as Uganda, Ethiopia, and
Kenya.

Probably the biggest question that lies ahead is a planned increase of African Union
troops in Somalia. Will that exacerbate the situation and stoke Al Shabab? Or will it
succeed in tamping down this violent group that preys on civilians, including fellow
Somalis?

No wonder senior officials say they have to consult with the region and “take stock.”
--------------------
Africa needs standby force to tackle al-Shabaab threat (Business Daily Africa)

The recent bombings in Kampala, Uganda, by the terrorist group al-Shabaab illustrate
the need for the swift establishment of the African Standby Force (ASF), a longstanding
goal of the African Union.

Such a force would serve as an alliance that can protect members and intervene in
various troubled hotspots in the continent without the continent having to look outside
for help.

As the heads of state of various African countries prepare to meet in Kampala, where
the callous and unacceptable terrorist attacks on innocent football fans took place, they
must return the ASF agenda to the very top of their list of priorities.

Africa cannot rely solely on external interference in its affairs every time there is a
problem confronting the continent.

There are those, for example, who have argued that the African Command (AFRICOM)
can serve as an alternative to the African Standby Force.

This is a very unfortunate display of the neo-colonial attitudes that hold back progress
in Africa.

It would be far better for the continent to have its own troops, who would serve to
advance its own strategic interests and not those of foreign countries.

It is extremely unfortunate that there are African countries which have offered to host
Africom, in defiance of an African Union, which has specifically stated that the SF is the
best means by which the continent can have troops to help in times of crisis and
possibly to serve as a deterrent to trouble makers such as the terrorists of the al-
Shabaab.

The African heads of state meeting in Kampala next week should reiterate their position
on this and insist that the other countries on the continent should respect this
commitment in the spirit of African unity.

It is not a coincident that any of these nations are in West Africa, which is near a vital
transport corridor for oil and is also home to many oil-producing nations, including the
latest member of that family, Ghana.

Is it a coincident that America prefers this region for its base?

It is abundantly clear that its motives are driven solely by self-interest.

The arguments in favour of an ASF are abundant.

According to a report for the Institute for Security Studies authored by Solomon Dersso,
the ASF is intended to be a central mechanism in the AU institutional architecture that
will allow it to respond to conflict on the continent.

A critical difference between the Organisation of African Unity and the AU is the fact
the AU has the right to intervene in the internal affairs of members states.

Since this is already the normative state in which the AU exists, the ASF as an
instrument with which the AU can achieve the goal of maintaining political stability,
protecting human rights and promoting principles of democratic governance across the
AU is already legally a feasible option to deal with present and emerging threats.

Certainly, Africom does not allow such a situation as things stand.

For way too long, the continent has relied on Westerners to offer it solutions to the
myriad problems it faces.

This approach has not worked. Instead, the continent has sunk deeper into trouble
besides becoming dependent on foreign actors who do not have its best interests at
heart.

It is therefore imperative that as the African leaders meet in Kampala they consider as
an urgent priority the establishment of an ASF.
--------------------
'No' Leaders Want U.S. Envoy Tamed (Daily Nation)
NAIROBI, Kenya — Political leaders opposed to the proposed constitution want the
Kenya Government to tame US ambassador Michael Ranneberger or kick him out of the
country.

Addressing a news conference in Parliament, the No team led by Higher Education

minister William Ruto termed the envoy as "a Yes activist with no manners at all",
saying he had lost his diplomatic status when he openly campaigned for the proposed
constitution.

Mr Mithika Linturi (Igembe South, Kanu) read the group's statement where they called
on Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula to summon the ambassador for a
dressing down. They accused the envoy of a "blatant breach of diplomatic rules and
etiquette".

"If Mr Ranneberger feels that the proposed constitution is so good, he should wait until
August 4, then after Kenyans have rejected it, he can recommend it to President Obama
for adoption as the new Constitution for the USA," said Mr Linturi.

The news conference was the second in two days by MPs allied to the No camp, who
accuse the US of meddling in Kenya's affairs.

The No team accused the US of "imperial arrogance and patronage" saying there was no
need for foreign forces to interfere or induce Kenyans to vote for the document on the
referendum to be held in the next 19 days.

"(It) is an intolerable invasion on the sovereignty and national pride of the people of
Kenya," said Mr Linturi.

Bribing voters

Mr Ruto was joined by his Chepalungu counterpart Isaac Ruto in insisting the envoy be
disciplined.

"Any person of average intelligence will tell you that what Ranneberger is doing is
bribing voters. It is too obvious. It is not even covert. MPs have confessed to the media
not to us, what other proof do you need?" posed Mr Ruto.

The group then turned the spotlight on the Central Organisation of Trade Unions
-Kenya's workers' umbrella body--saying it had been supporting the proposed
document because of "the American money".

"Even groups like Cotu who've been making a lot of noise, including insulting the
Church, have been doing so because they are drunk with American money and want
Kenyans to adopt a flawed document," said the Higher Education minister.
The group accused Mr Ranneberger of "openly lying and spreading falsehoods"
regarding the US interests in the document.

"Between us and Ranneberger, it's now for the people of Kenya to judge who's telling
the truth. It's now in black and white that Congress is complaining that Ranneberger
used American taxpayer's money to openly support a flawed document," said Mr Ruto.

In relation to the televised defection of some pastors in Kitale and Kisii from the No to
the Yes camp, the leaders dismissed them as "ordinary citizens, who've not seen any
money being given hundreds of thousands, and who are just out to survive."

"What do you expect them to do?" asked Mr Ruto, the No camp de facto leader.

He restated that the proposed constitution will allow for homosexuality. He cited article
27(4) on non-discrimination of anyone based on race, sex, colour, age, disability among
others.

"Even in the clauses that our opponents are citing, they say that everyone has a right,
not that you do not have a right. If you do not exclude, then you automatically include,"
said Mr Ruto.

27(4) reads: The State shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on
any ground, including race, sex, pregnancy, marital status, health status, ethnic or social
origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, dress, language or
birth.

(5) A person shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against another person on any
of the grounds specified or contemplated in clause (4).

Present at the news conference were MPs: Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi, ODM), Wilfred
Machage (Kuria, DP), Jackson Kiptanui (Keiyo South, ODM), Charles Keter (Belgut,
ODM), and Dr Julius Kones (Konoin, ODM).
--------------------
US lawmakers crack down on Congo mineral trade (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON – Congress is cracking down on companies dealing in minerals that

fuel violence in Congo.

The legislation requires companies doing business in Congo and neighboring countries
to disclose the origin of any minerals they trade in as specifically as possible. The
requirement applies to any company listed on a U.S. stock exchange.
The legislation specifies four minerals believed to be funding the conflict, including
gold and tin ore. It would give the U.S. secretary of state the ability to expand the list.

The legislation is part of a broad financial regulation bill passed Thursday. President
Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law in a matter of days.

U.S. officials and rights groups say armed militias in eastern Congo are forcing villagers
to extract the minerals. They say profits are used to purchase weapons and extend the
cycle of violence that has ravaged the region for more than a decade.

Democrat Howard Berman of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, called the legislation "a vital tool for alleviating the pain and suffering
experienced by the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
--------------------
Congolese ex-militia chief can go free unless appeal: ICC (AFP)

THE HAGUE – The International Criminal Court ruled Thursday that Congolese militia
chief Thomas Lubanga should be freed after his war crimes trial was suspended, unless
prosecutors mount an appeal.

Presiding judge Adrian Fulford said Lubanga should be "freed without conditions" as
his detention "is no longer fair" given the suspension of the trial last week for what
judges called the prosecutor's abuse of process".

"According to the judges, an accused cannot be held in preventative custody on a

speculative basis, namely that at some stage in the future the proceedings may be
resurrected," the ICC said in a statement.

But the court ruled that Lubanga remain behind bars for at least another five days to
give the prosecution time to file an appeal against its decision.

If such an appeal bid is accepted, Lubanga will have to stay in prison until that process
is finalised.

"We will appeal," prosecution spokeswoman Nicola Fletcher told AFP.

Lubanga cannot be freed until arrangements have been made for his transfer to a
country.

Lubanga, 49, has been standing trial since January 2009, accused of using children
under the age of 15 to fight for his militia during the 1997-2002 civil war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last week, the ICC suspended his trial after rapping chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-
Ocampo for abusing court processes and ignoring judges' orders.

Judges had ordered the prosecutor to disclose to Lubanga's defence team the name of
an "intermediary", but he refused.

The defence claimed that false evidence had been fabricated with the help of
intermediaries used by the prosecutor to find witnesses, and that individuals were paid
to give false testimony.

The court found that as long as the prosecutor refused to implement judges' orders,
Lubanga could not be guaranteed a fair trial.

Fulford, while granting the prosecutor's application for leave to appeal last week's
decision, reiterated that his actions constituted "a deliberate and in our judgment,
wholly unjustified refusal to comply with the directions of the court."

The office of the prosecutor said in a statement it regretted the "disturbance" caused.

"But this shows that this is a court of justice.

"The victims of Thomas Lubanga?s alleged crimes must remain confident that justice
will be done in this case."

Lubanga surrendered to the ICC in March 2006.

His trial, the ICC's first, was initially to have started in June 2008 but was stalled until
the following year when the court ruled that prosecutors wrongly withheld evidence
potentially favourable to his defence.

The prosecution alleges that Lubanga's militia abducted children as young as 11 from
their homes, schools and football fields and took them to military training camps where
they were beaten and drugged. The girls among them were used as sex slaves.

Lubanga is accused of being driven by a desire to maintain and expand his control over
the Congo's eastern Ituri region, one of the world's most lucrative gold-mining areas,
where rights groups say inter-ethnic fighting has claimed 60,000 lives over the last
decade.
--------------------
Gambia sentences 8 to death for coup attempt (Associated Press)

BANJUL, Gambia – A Gambian court has sentenced eight people to death after
convicting them of plotting a coup in the tiny West African nation.
A judge in Banjul, the capital, on Thursday sentenced the men, who include the former
head of the country's military. Judge Emmanuel Amadi said they had been convicted of
treason, conspiracy to murder, and participating in a monthslong plot to overthrow the
government in 2009. The defendants' lawyer said they pleaded not guilty and will
appeal the conviction and sentence.

Gambia, a former British colony, is a tiny sliver of land surrounded on three sides by
Senegal. Gambian President Yahya Jammeh grabbed power in a 1994 coup.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

On visit to Ghana, UN development chief lauds progress on women’s empowerment

15 July – United Nations development chief Helen Clark has lauded the progress made
by Ghana towards women’s empowerment and gender equality, one of the eight social
and economic objectives known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that
world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

ICC orders release of Congolese warlord

15 July – After suspending the case against a Congolese warlord on trial for allegedly
enlisting child soldiers, the International Criminal Court (ICC) today ordered his
release.

UN envoy: Guinea-Bissau’s challenges must be tackled without delay

15 July – Recent events in Guinea-Bissau have spotlighted the fragility of the efforts to
consolidate stability, but the West African nation’s challenges, though significant, can
be overcome if they are addressed immediately, a senior United Nations official said
today.

UN rural development arm helping respond to Niger food crisis

15 July – The United Nations rural development arm is helping to improve agricultural
programmes in West Africa’s Sahel region, especially in Niger, which is currently in the
throes of a growing food crisis.