United States Africa Command

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28 January 2011

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

US warns of February terror attacks in E Africa (Associated Press)

(East Africa) The United States is warning Americans of the potential for terrorist
attacks in the east African nations of Burundi and Uganda next month, possibly by
Somali extremists with links to al-Qaida.

Admiral calls for counterterror approach to piracy (Associated Press)

(Somalia) A senior U.S. Navy commander is calling for a broader, counterterrorism
approach to piracy off the coast of Somalia, saying likely links to al-Shabab insurgents
should not be underestimated.

Nigeria seeks UN, AU, U.S. support to oust Gbagbo – The Guardian (Nigerian
Bulletin)
(Ivory Coast/Nigeria) Nigeria is now making subtle diplomatic moves to get the
African Union(AU), United States (U.S.) and United Nations (UN) leaders behind the
military plan to oust defeated Ivoirien President Laurent Gbagbo from office.

African Union to lead recognition of S. Sudan (Associated Press)

(Sudan) The African Union chief says the organization intends to be the first to
recognize Southern Sudan as a new state should the result of its referendum be
secession.

Signs of tension everywhere in downtown Tunis (Toronto Star)

(Tunisia) The self-appointed protectors of the Tunisian revolution are camped out in
this city’s historic kasbah square, defying curfews at night and chanting their defiance
by day. Hundreds of them arrived Sunday on a “caravan of freedom” from the
countryside, where the street protests that ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali on Jan. 14 began.

Ugandan Who Spoke Up for Gays Is Beaten to Death (New York Times)
(Uganda) As the most outspoken gay rights advocate in Uganda, a country where
homophobia is so severe that Parliament is considering a bill to execute gay people,
David Kato had received a stream of death threats, his friends said. On Wednesday
afternoon, Mr. Kato was beaten to death with a hammer in his rough-and-tumble
neighborhood.

Mining Fight Shows Pressures on Multinationals (Wall Street Journal)

(Guinea) Guinean President Alpha Condé took office last month vowing to review all
mining deals. To succeed where others have failed, Mr. Condé is revisiting an existing
Simandou mining contract with Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto, as well as other
pacts signed by his predecessors.

Gabon opposition leader declares himself president (Associated Press)

(Gabon) Gabon's government dissolved the country's main opposition party
Wednesday, accusing members of high treason after their leader declared himself
president of the oil-rich nation, a government minister said.

E.Guinea's Obiang appoints opposition figure to govt. (AFP)

(Equatorial Guinea) Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, expected
to be elected the next African Union boss, shuffled his government on Thursday, taking
on one opposition member.

US in drive to raise African investment (Business Day)

(Pan Africa) The US administration was planning to aggressively increase its foreign
direct investment in Africa, Eric Silla, special adviser to the assistant secretary for
African affairs at the state department, said yesterday.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN agency calls on Uganda to ensure security of gays after activist's murder
 UN envoy urges protection from sexual violence amid Côte d'Ivoire crisis
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 5:30 pm; New America Foundation

WHAT: Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide
WHO: Rebecca Hamilton, Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation, Author,
Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide; Juan E. Méndez,
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment, Visiting Professor, Washington College of Law; Andrés Martinez,
Director, Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program, New America Foundation
Info: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2011/fighting_for_darfur

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 10:00 am; US Institute of Peace

WHAT: Perspectives on Sudan’s Referendum
WHO: Linda Bishai, Senior Program Officer, US Institute of Peace; Jok Madut Jok,
Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow, US Institute of Peace; Timothy Luccaro, Program
Specialist, US Institute of Peace; Jon Temin, Moderator, Director, Sudan Program
US Institute of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/perspectives-sudans-referendum

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday and Wednesday, February 8-9, 2011; National Defense

Industrial Association, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
WHAT: Defense, Diplomacy, and Development: Translating Policy into Operational
Capability
WHO: Keynote Speakers include ADM Michael Mullen, USN, Chairman, Joint Chiefs
of Staff; BG Simon Hutchinson, GBR, Deputy Commander, NATO Special Operations
Forces Headquarters; ADM Eric T. Olson, USN, Commander, U.S. Special Operations
Command; Gen Norton A. Schwartz, USAF, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
Info: http://www.ndia.org/meetings/1880/Pages/default.aspx
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

US warns of February terror attacks in E Africa (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON – The United States is warning Americans of the potential for terrorist
attacks in the east African nations of Burundi and Uganda next month, possibly by
Somali extremists with links to al-Qaida.

The U.S. embassies in Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Kampala, in Uganda, on Tuesday

issued near identical alerts to Americans. The warnings say that regional terror groups
remain actively interested in attacking U.S. interests in Burundi and Uganda.

The notices name the Somalia-based al-Shabab as a threat during February. Neither
alert was more specific.

Burundi and Uganda are the main troop contributors to the African Union
peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The peacekeepers are trying to support the weak
Somali government in its fight against al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Somalia and coordinated
bombings in Uganda.
--------------------
Admiral calls for counterterror approach to piracy (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. Navy commander is calling for a broader,

counterterrorism approach to piracy off the coast of Somalia, saying likely links to al-
Shabab insurgents should not be underestimated.
Vice Adm. Mark Fox says America and its allies must put more pressure on pirates
ashore, hitting their supply lines and tracking their money, before they head out to sea.
While he stopped short of calling for a greater use of military force, he says nations
must go after pirates with the same vigor and discipline they use when targeting
terrorists.

He warns that the pirates' growing use of larger, often commandeered ships, allows
them to go further out to sea where they could threaten cruise ships.

Fox is commander of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Central Command fleet.

--------------------
Nigeria seeks UN, AU, U.S. support to oust Gbagbo – The Guardian (Nigerian
Bulletin)

Nigeria is now making subtle diplomatic moves to get the African Union(AU), United
States (U.S.) and United Nations (UN) leaders behind the military plan to oust defeated
Ivoirien President Laurent Gbagbo from office.

Besides, African philanthropist and humanist, Dr. Mo Ibrahim has regretted that his
generation has failed Africa.

“AFTER 50 years of independence, it is important to admit that our generation has

failed Africa, as we have not been able to achieve a viable continent because we failed to
build a viable institution and we have failed in the area of good governance. We have
seen military rule after military rule all of which is the resultant consequence of lack of
good governance,” he said.

Ibrahim was a guest speaker at the African University of Science and Technology
(AUST) in Abuja yesterday. Ibrahim who is the Chairman of the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation is in the country as the guest speaker for the 2011 edition of Daily Trust
Annual Lecture scheduled for Abuja today.
--------------------
African Union to lead recognition of S. Sudan (Associated Press)

JUBA, Sudan -- The African Union chief says the organization intends to be the first to
recognize Southern Sudan as a new state should the result of its referendum be
secession.

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika made the statement Wednesday after meeting
Southern Sudan's leader, Salva Kiir. Mutharika currently holds the rotating
chairmanship of the 53-member African Union.

Sudan will be on the agenda when the AU holds a regular African leaders meeting later
this month.
Southern Sudan held a weeklong referendum that began Jan. 9. The referendum
concludes a peace deal signed in January 2005 that ended a 21-year civil war between
north and south Sudan.

Early results show strong support for secession. Final results are due in early February.
--------------------
Signs of tension everywhere in downtown Tunis (Toronto Star)

TUNIS—The self-appointed protectors of the Tunisian revolution are camped out in

this city’s historic kasbah square, defying curfews at night and chanting their defiance
by day.

They’re largely the young, the poor and the unemployed, those with nothing left to lose
after years of authoritarian rule, much like the protesters now following their example
in Egypt and Yemen.

Hundreds of them arrived Sunday on a “caravan of freedom” from the countryside,

where the street protests that ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Jan.
14 began. Some of them walked 400 kilometres to get here.

They sleep on dirty mattresses, they haven’t changed clothes in days, and they have
covered the stone government buildings that surround the square with graffiti
proclaiming freedom, democracy and the willingness to spill their blood.

Watched by soldiers and restricted by barbed wire, hundreds more from the capital join
them each day, turning the square into a heaving mass of people on the verge of a
crushing stampede.

They want the transitional government to be replaced by a kind of revolutionary

council chosen by the people — an uncompromising stand that has many fearing a
resumption of violence in the days ahead.

“Our chests are ready to meet the bullets,” says Mohadheb Bouhajeb, an unemployed
20-year-old who insists he watched police enter homes and attack families during three
days of protests in his town in late December.

The fact that key cabinet posts have remained in the hands of Ben Ali ministers has
tainted the whole interim government in the eyes of these protesters.

Foreign Minister Kamal Morjane resigned Thursday night, and Prime Minister
Mohammed Ghannouchi is expected to announce the replacement of several more
ministers seen as tainted by their association with the old regime.
Whether key opposition groups can sell the compromise to the people in the casbah
remains to be seen. As things stand, Tunis is a capital on edge.

“If things degenerate, if there is chaos, we may see the brutal face of the old regime
taking over again,” says economist Mohammed Ben Romdhane, an official with the
reformist Ettajdid movement.

Tunisians will often say that while the head of the snake was lopped off, the body
remains — particularly the police force, Ben Ali’s massive RDC party, his personal
militias and top bureaucrats.

The police — estimated at 140,000 strong — virtually disappeared from the streets after
Ben Ali left the country for Saudi Arabia. Earlier this week they joined other groups on
strike and some took the astonishing step of addressing the casbah protesters and
asking forgiveness.

But in the last two days, they’ve re-emerged in the downtown heart of the city. There
have even been signs of their old ways. On Tuesday, a photographer for the New York
Times, Moises Saman, was swarmed and beaten by several police officers after he tried
to take a picture of them beating a civilian in an alley. They also smashed his laptop
computer.

Signs of tension are everywhere downtown. The Africa hotel, a base for many foreign
journalists, has erected huge sheets of metal to protect its ground floor windows and
entrance. Tanks remain at some street corners and squares. Tourists — who provide
some 7 per cent of the GDP — are rarely spotted.

Outside the city centre, on the other hand, is a Tunis where everyday life is getting back
to normal after a series of post-Ben Ali strikes closed workplaces, schools and public
transportation. Here, there are many who support the transitional government and
prefer a go-slow approach to the revolution.

On Wednesday, some 200 of them protested down the city’s main tree-lined street,
Habib Bourguiba Avenue, shouting their support of the government.

The contrasts are sharp in a country where 74 per cent of the population is literate, the
downtown core mixes ancient alleyways with European style cafes and the main
Islamist party, An-Nahdha, is banned as a terrorist group but pleads its moderation.

Along with the fears are effervescent signs of democratic change.

On Tuesday, after two years of being banned from publishing an article, journalist Neji
Bghouri finally had a column printed in Assahafa (La Presse), the major government
daily he works for. The headline read, “Freedom for everyone.”
“I wake up in the morning and I still need a few moments to realize that I’m not
dreaming,” says Bghouri, 44, referring to Ben Ali’s ouster. “I always hoped I would take
a breath of freedom before I died, but I never thought it would happen.”

Bghouri is president of the independent National Union of Journalists. In 2009 his union
published a report that for the first time criticized the regime’s grip on the media. While
walking to work one day he was beaten by police officers in the middle of a crowded
street.

Still, Bghouri insists on a cautious path forward. It’s impossible to imagine, he says, that
democracy can take root without including members of the old regime in the process.

Bghouri says on Thursday he witnessed another encouraging sign from a once

repressed media — a presenter on Mosaic radio, a stationed owned by Benhassen
Trabelsi, Ben Ali’s brother-in-law, criticized the station’s owner.

Benhassen Trabelsi, who fled to Montreal last week on a private jet with his wife, four
children and a governess, has quickly become one of the most hated men in Tunis, if not
this country of 10.4 million people.

In an affluent suburb of the capital, the fugitive’s sacked villa has become a tourist
attraction for Tunisians demanding he be extradited from Canada for robbing the
country blind.

They stream through a demolished section of the terracotta brick wall that surrounds
what is widely described as the more modest of Trabelsi’s homes, with its dozen or so
rooms. More than enough, however, to leave those who visit seething.

“Look how he lived with the money he stole from the people — from us,” says Henda
Abaidia, 35, pointing to the two-storey whitewashed house. “And this is just a tiny
portion of the luxury he enjoyed.”

“We want Canada to arrest him and send him back,” adds her 65-year-old father, Larbi.
“Canada is a land of justice — they arrest thieves, don’t they?

The Trabelsi clan, headed by Ben Ali’s wife Leila, is accused of using its status to amass
billions of dollars by illegally acquiring properties and assets, and transferring much of
the funds abroad. On Wednesday, the transitional government issued warrants for the
arrest and extradition of Benhassen, Leila and other members of their family, along with
Ben Ali.

On the wall outside Benhassen’s villa, in the city’s La Sokra neighbourhood, someone
has scrawled, “The museum of the thief Benhassen Trabelsi.”
The villa’s walls are burned black. A mess of shattered glass, gutted pillows, broken
wood and garbage covers the marble floor. The furniture has been looted. One young
man ripped an electrical wire from inside a wall while another tried to dislodge the
marble steps of the stairway from their cement base with a hammer.

In a second floor bedroom, an image of Benhassen as a thief lugging a sack presumably

filled with the wealth of the country has been drawn on a wall.

“We know Canadian people well,” says Sami Layoune, 21, standing in front of the
graffiti. “We know they’ll do what’s right and bring him back to face justice.”

Ben Romdhane, the economist, says corruption in Tunisia began with the reign of Ben
Ali in 1987 and flourished when he married Leila, his second wife, in 1993. Tunisians
repeatedly note that the previous president, Habib Bourguiba, whom Ben Ali deposed,
died owning little more than the plot he’s buried in.

The Ben Ali and Trabelsi families monopolized large sectors of the economy, such as car
imports and telecommunications. And they are widely accused of often confiscating
rival companies or land they coveted.

Back at the casbah, the rural poor insist there will be no more stealing of any kind.

“We won’t let them steal the revolution,” says Lotfi El Mejri, 52, who is camped out
with his wife and two young daughters. “If they do, it will be over our dead bodies.”
--------------------
Ugandan Who Spoke Up for Gays Is Beaten to Death (New York Times)

NAIROBI, Kenya — David Kato knew he was a marked man.

As the most outspoken gay rights advocate in Uganda, a country where homophobia is
so severe that Parliament is considering a bill to execute gay people, Mr. Kato had
received a stream of death threats, his friends said. A few months ago, a Ugandan
newspaper ran an antigay diatribe with Mr. Kato’s picture on the front page under a
banner urging, “Hang Them.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Kato was beaten to death with a hammer in his rough-
and-tumble neighborhood. Police officials were quick to chalk up the motive to robbery,
but members of the small and increasingly besieged gay community in Uganda suspect
otherwise.

“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. evangelicals in 2009,”
Val Kalende, the chairwoman of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, said in a statement.
“The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility
for David’s blood.”

Ms. Kalende was referring to visits in March 2009 by a group of American evangelicals,
who held rallies and workshops in Uganda discussing how to turn gay people straight,
how gay men sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil
institution” intended to “defeat the marriage-based society.”

The Americans involved said they had no intention of stoking a violent reaction. But the
antigay bill was drafted shortly thereafter. Some of the Ugandan politicians and
preachers who wrote it had attended those sessions and said that they had discussed
the legislation with the Americans.

After growing international pressure and threats from a few European countries to cut
assistance — Uganda relies on hundreds of millions of dollars of aid — Uganda’s
president, Yoweri Museveni, indicated that the bill would be scrapped.

But more than a year later, that has not happened, and the legislation remains a
simmering issue in Parliament. Some political analysts say the bill could be passed in
the coming months, after a general election in February that is expected to return Mr.
Museveni, who has been in office for 25 years, to power.

On Thursday, Don Schmierer, one of the American evangelicals who visited Uganda in
2009, said Mr. Kato’s death was “horrible.”

“Naturally, I don’t want anyone killed, but I don’t feel I had anything to do with that,”
said Mr. Schmierer, who added that in Uganda he had focused on parenting skills. He
also said that he had been a target of threats himself, recently receiving more than 600
messages of hate mail related to his visit.

“I spoke to help people,” he said, “and I’m getting bludgeoned from one end to the
other.”

Many Africans view homosexuality as an immoral Western import, and the continent is
full of harsh homophobic laws. In northern Nigeria, gay men can face death by stoning.
In Kenya, which is considered one of the more Westernized nations in Africa, gay
people can be sentenced to years in prison.

But Uganda seems to be on the front lines of this battle. Conservative Christian groups
that espouse antigay beliefs have made great headway in this country and wield
considerable influence. Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity, James Nsaba Buturo,
who describes himself as a devout Christian, has said, “Homosexuals can forget about
human rights.”
At the same time, American groups that defend gay rights have also poured money into
Uganda to help the beleaguered gay community.

In October, a Ugandan newspaper called Rolling Stone (with a circulation of roughly

2,000 and no connection to the American magazine) published an article that included
photos and the whereabouts of gay men and lesbians, including several well-known
activists like Mr. Kato.

The paper said homosexuals were raiding schools and recruiting children, a belief that
is quite widespread in Uganda and has helped drive the homophobia.

Mr. Kato and a few other activists sued the paper and won. This month, Uganda’s High
Court ordered Rolling Stone to pay hundreds of dollars in damages and to cease
publishing the names of people it said were gay.

But the danger remained.

“I had to move houses,” said Stosh Mugisha, a woman who is going through a
transition to become a man. “People tried to stone me. It’s so scary. And it’s getting
worse.”

On Thursday, Giles Muhame, Rolling Stone’s managing editor, said he did not think
that Mr. Kato’s killing had anything to do with what his paper had published.

“There is no need for anxiety or for hype,” he said. “We should not overblow the death
of one.”

But that one man was considered a founding father of Uganda’s nascent gay rights
movement. In an interview in 2009, Mr. Kato shared his life story, how he was raised in
a conservative family where “we grew up brainwashed that it was wrong to be in love
with a man.”

He was a high school teacher who had graduated from some of Uganda’s best schools,
and he moved to South Africa in the mid-1990s, where he came out. A few years ago, he
organized what he claimed was Uganda’s first gay rights news conference in Kampala,
the capital, and said he was punched in the face and cracked in the nose by police
officers soon afterward.

Friends said that Mr. Kato had recently put an alarm system in his house and was killed
by an acquaintance, someone who had been inside several times before and was seen by
neighbors on Wednesday. Mr. Kato’s neighborhood on the outskirts of Kampala is
known as a rough one, where several people have recently been beaten to death with
iron bars.
Judith Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman, said Mr. Kato’s death did not appear to be a
hate crime, though the investigation had just started. “It looks like theft, as some things
were stolen,” Ms. Nabakooba said.

But Nikki Mawanda, a friend who was born female and lives as a man, said: “This is a
clear signal. You don’t know who’s going to do it to you.”

Mr. Kato was in his mid-40s, his friends said. He was a fast talker, fidgety, bespectacled,
slightly built and constantly checking over his shoulder, even in the envelope of
darkness of an empty lot near a disco, where he was interviewed in 2009.

He said then that he wanted to be a “good human rights defender, not a dead one, but
an alive one.”
--------------------
Mining Fight Shows Pressures on Multinationals (Wall Street Journal)

Alpha Condé, the new president of Guinea, pledges to do what none of his
predecessors have: Harness vast iron-ore reserves contained in the Simandou mountain
chain to give the West African country one of the continent's most prosperous
economies.

Guinean President Alpha Condé took office last month vowing to review all mining
deals.

To succeed where others have failed, Mr. Condé is revisiting an existing Simandou
mining contract with Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto, as well as other pacts signed by
his predecessors. Foreign investors, no matter how big, will have to follow rules or
leave Guinea, he says.

"No more impunity," he says in an interview. "We will look into all mining deals."

The stakes for Guinea are huge. A country the size and population of Michigan, the
nation of 10 million people is among the world's poorest. With the Simandou and other
mining projects, Guinea could export 350 million metric tons of iron ore annually,
putting it among the world's top exporters of the mineral, a key ingredient in steel.

But as Mr. Condé tries to unwind more than a decade's worth of deals that haven't
yielded much, he risks painting Guinea as a nation that can't be relied on to respect its
past business commitments.

That tension illustrates a common challenge to conducting business in Africa. Even as

elections and transparent governance become more widespread, political risks remain
significant for investors big and small. Changes in government frequently change the
tilt of a country's playing field, bringing some investors into favor while ushering out
others.

Such challenges currently are on full display in Ivory Coast, where foreign and Ivoirian
companies have been caught in the cross-fire between claimants to the presidency.

The Nov. 28 run-off between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara was
supposed to stabilize a shaky political situation and spur an economic recovery.
Instead, the dispute has undermined both. Although most countries recognize Mr.
Ouattara the winner, Mr. Gbagbo has refused to step down.

Mr. Ouattara has tried to deprive his rival of any funds, even if it means striking at the
heart of the country's economy. He called for Ivory Coast to suspend coffee and cocoa
exports this week. Cargill Inc., a major multinational exporter in the country, said it has
heeded that call, while Archer Daniels Midland Co. said it was considering a halt. The
ferment in the world's largest cocoa producer pushed futures to one-year highs this
week.

Meanwhile, the tightrope Mr. Condé is walking is being duplicated in South Africa,
where a unit of mining giant Anglo American PLC is fighting over an iron-ore contract.
Similar disputes are playing out over oil in Ghana and Uganda and over diamonds and
copper in Liberia and Congo.

The challenge is to revisit past contracts, which often implies colliding with powerful
corporations, without industry grinding to a halt.

"Guinea's new authorities must sift through contracts to check what was legal and what
wasn't," says Ibrahima Soumah, a former Guinean minister of mines. "But a radical
approach, a big shake-up won't help anybody."

In Guinea, the Simandou contracts are just some of several that are under review in
disputes with companies from Russia, China and the U.S. And the outcome of the
Simandou dispute is likely to rattle at least one powerful international investor: either
Rio Tinto or rival Vale SA of Brazil. Aluminum Corporation of China also has a dog in
the fight.

The presence of high-grade iron ore in the Simandou was discovered decades ago,
when Guinea was still a French colony. Several attempts at tapping one of the world's
biggest iron-ore pits collapsed in the face of engineering obstacles: Landlocked in
Guinea's eastern forest province, the project requires building a railroad, power stations
and a deep-water port.
In the mid-1990s, Rio Tinto obtained permits to explore the Simandou and in 2006,
Guinea's authoritarian ruler Lansana Conté gave Rio Tinto a concession to develop a
mine.

The agreement called for Rio Tinto to pay for all development costs. Guinea, in return,
had an option to buy a 20% interest in the project and would get tax revenue from
production.

But in the summer of 2008, the Conté government said it planned to rescind Rio Tinto's
concession because the company had missed deadlines to start mining. Rio Tinto
blames the delays in part on Guinea having been slow in dealing with administrative
paperwork.

Guinea nevertheless split the Simandou concession into four blocks. Rio Tinto was left
with roughly half its original concession: Blocks Three and Four. Blocks One and Two
went to a unit of Switzerland's BSG Group Cos.

Lacking the financial muscle to develop such a vast project, BSG Resources searched for
a partner, says the company's manager for Guinea, Asher Avidan. And last April Vale
agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a 51% stake in BSG Resources' assets in the Simandou and
elsewhere, Vale says.

Rio Tinto, meanwhile, struck an agreement last July with the Chalco unit of Aluminum
Corporation of China to develop the Simandou jointly. Rio Tinto says the deal is for the
entire Simandou project, not just Blocks Three and Four.

In an attempt to sound out Guinea's new president, who took office last month, the
chief executives of Rio Tinto and Vale headed to Conakry, the country's capital. During
separate meetings, Mr. Condé sidestepped the issue of Simandou's ownership,
according to people familiar with the matter.

Still, the people say, he told Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese that the country won't
tolerate any deviation from Guinea's mining code and listened to Vale CEO Roger
Agnelli's plans for Blocks One and Two.

Rio Tinto says the meeting was "a time for congratulations, rather than talking detailed
business" and that it is confident that its rights will be restored.

But the government has indicated otherwise. New Minister of Mines Mohamed Lamine
Fofana says the 2008 decision to strip out half of Rio Tinto's concession is final.

"The government will not come back on this decision," he says. And under Guinea's
"use it or lose it" rule, Rio Tinto could lose part of its remaining Simandou assets if it
fails to submit plans for developing Blocks 3 and 4 before a Feb. 4 deadline, he says.
Rio Tinto says it has submitted documents that Guinean authorities requested but that
"the absence of a secure title" has impeded work.

Even after that controversy is resolved, Mr. Condé will have to solve another headache:
how to export the iron ore. A railroad cutting across Liberia to a port on the Atlantic
Ocean would be much shorter than a boomerang-shaped route through Guinea to the
coast. But many people in Guinea fear the country would lose control over its iron
riches if they are shipped through a foreign port.

Mahmoud Thiam, Mr. Fofana's predecessor, says there is enough ore in the Simandou
to develop an intra-Guinea route down the line, but for now Liberia is the best option.
"The urgency is to get work started in Simandou," he says.
--------------------
Gabon opposition leader declares himself president (Associated Press)

LIBREVILLE, Gabon – Gabon's government dissolved the country's main opposition

party Wednesday, accusing members of high treason after their leader declared himself
president of the oil-rich nation, a government minister said.

Opposition leader Andre Mba Obame took the oath of office late Tuesday declaring
himself the new leader of Gabon, challenging the authority of President Ali Bongo, the
son of Gabon's longtime dictator who died in June 2009 after a 41-year rule.

Obame came in third place in the Central African country's August 2009 elections,
which opposition candidates said were fraudulent.

African Union chairman Jean Ping condemned Obame's actions in a statement

Wednesday, saying the declaration comes 17 months after a presidential election
monitored by international observers.

Obame's announcement "hurts the integrity of legitimate institutions and also

endangers the peace, the security and the stability of Gabon," said Ping, who is from
Gabon.

The 2009 election was called to replace the late President Omar Bongo. His son Ali was
declared the winner with 41.8 percent of the vote, but opposition candidates accused
him of vote-rigging. Days of rioting and violence broke out in the southern oil hub of
Port Gentil in the former French colony.

Obame was among the country's top three opposition leaders who went into hiding
after the elections, saying they feared security forces were trying to kill them.
A spokesman for Obame said at the time that the opposition was considering forming a
parallel government.

Late Tuesday at the opposition party headquarters, Obame said it was time for those in
Gabon to be directed by someone they truly chose as their leader. He said he would
"defend the constitution and the rights of the state."

Obame named a parallel government of 19 ministers, and the group then marched to
U.N. headquarters with hundreds of supporters, where they stayed overnight.

The move is likely inspired by events in Ivory Coast, where incumbent leader Laurent
Gbagbo has refused to cede power even though the international community recognizes
his opponent Alassane Ouattara as president. Ouattara runs a parallel government from
a hotel that is being guarded by U.N. peacekeepers.

Jean Francois Ndongou, Gabon's interior minister, said Wednesday that Obame and his
co-conspirators had committed high treason, according to a Gabon news website where
the government's statement was published.

In the statement, Ndongou said that Obame and his supporters "made the choice to not
respect Gabon's constitution."

The government said it has dissolved the National Unity party and "has the right to
take other legal and necessary measures relative to this situation."
--------------------
E.Guinea's Obiang appoints opposition figure to govt. (AFP)

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea – Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema,

expected to be elected the next African Union boss, shuffled his government on
Thursday, taking on one opposition member.

Celestino Bonifacio Bacale Obiang, the deputy secretary general of the main opposition
party, the CPDS, was appointed deputy economy minister.

Francisca Tatchoup, the former deputy economy minister, was named to head the
ministry, the first woman to ever hold the post.

Ignacio Milam kept the post of prime minister he has held since 2008 in the the first
government reshuffle since Obiang Nguema was re-elected in November.

Two other politicians who had supported Obiang Nguema's re-election but are not
members of the ruling PDGE party were also given deputy ministerial posts.
Obiang Nguema has ruled the small central African state with an iron fist since coming
to power in a coup in 1979 when he had his uncle -- the country's first president
Francisco Macias Nguema -- shot.

His regime has frequently been criticised for its human rights record, and he is accused
of personally profiting from its oil wealth.

Obiang Nguema is expected to be elected the next African Union boss at a summit
starting Sunday.
--------------------
US in drive to raise African investment (Business Day)

The US administration was planning to aggressively increase its foreign direct

investment in Africa, Eric Silla, special adviser to the assistant secretary for African
affairs at the state department, said yesterday.

Mr Silla was speaking at a seminar in Pretoria at the University of SA on US foreign

policy challenges in Africa. He dismissed suggestions that the US was trying to compete
with Chinese interests in a quest to gain ground lost to the second- largest economy in
the world.

"This notion that there is a scramble for Africa between the China and the US is
overplayed," Mr Silla said. "China shares a lot of similar goals with the US … in Africa."

However, he acknowledged that China was a significant actor and had an important
role to play in Africa’s economic future.

Last year, the US administration dispensed $11bn to various economic, health, peace
and security programmes in Africa. SA was allocated one of the highest amounts,
totalling more than $700m last year.

Through the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, the US imported goods worth
$66,3bn from Africa from January to October last year.

Mr Silla’s visit to SA takes place three months after the chairman of the US’s Export-
Import Bank, Fred Hochberg, toured the country to look for investment opportunities in
SA’s rail and energy sectors.

The bank last year had continent- wide investment projects to the tune of $800m in 41
sub-Saharan African countries including SA. Mr Hochberg said the bank, which
represents the interests of American business, would consider offering favourable
investment concessions to match those of the Chinese.
Through the China-Africa forum, China last year committed to provide up to $10bn in
concessional loans to African countries on top of the large- scale infrastructure projects
already undertaken on the continent.

Francis Kornegay, a senior research associate at the Institute for Global Dialogue,
yesterday said the US administration should focus on Africa’s regional economic
integration efforts.

"We should revisit the revival of the Southern African Development Community-US
forum despite the challenges in Zimbabwe," Mr Kornegay said.

The Southern African Customs Union was another platform the US administration
could use to engage the region on economic issues, Mr Kornegay said.

Bongani Masuku, an international relations officer at the Congress of South African

Trade Unions, challenged the US administration to expedite the conclusion of the
negotiations on climate change and the Doha round of world trade talks.

The US administration has prioritised seven foreign policy intervention areas on the
continent. These areas are on democracy and governance, conflict mitigation, economic
growth, healthcare, climate change, women’s rights and transnational issues such as
terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN agency calls on Uganda to ensure security of gays after activist's murder

27 January – The United Nations today condemned the murder of a prominent gay
activist and human rights defender in Uganda and called on the Government to ensure
the security of gays in a country where homosexuality is a crime under existing laws.

UN envoy urges protection from sexual violence amid Côte d'Ivoire crisis
27 January – The United Nations envoy on sexual violence in conflict has called on
authorities in Côte d'Ivoire to swiftly investigate reported rapes that have occurred
during the post-election crisis and to ensure better protection for women and girls in the
West African nation.