United States Africa Command Public Affairs Office 1 July 2011 USAFRICOM - related news stories TOP NEWS

RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with alQaeda, official says (Washington Post) (Somalia) A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday. Somali jihadists battered by airstrikes (UPI) (Somalia) Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist group is reported to be transferring foreign fighters to Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, possibly to reinforce al-Qaida militants there who have seized southern cities as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. Libya mission becomes a burden for Obama (McClatchy Newspapers) (Libya) More than 100 days after the United States and NATO allies launched what was supposed to be a quick air campaign in Libya, Pentagon officials concede that the effort has little strategic value for the U.S., and the alliance's desired outcome there remains unclear. AU Summit Opens, Libya Crisis Expected to Dominate Talks (VOA) (Libya) African heads of state and various country representatives attend the opening session of the 17th African Union Summit, at the Sipopo Conference Center outside Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, June 30, 2011..African heads of state are meeting in Equatorial Guinea for the annual summit of the African Union. The ongoing conflict in Libya is expected to dominate their two-day meeting. The Libya Campaign (NYT) (Libya) Four months into the NATO air campaign, Col. Muammar elQaddafi is still in power, protected by loyalists and mercenaries. Americans are weary of war, and patience in Europe is also wearing thin. But NATO must not give up. Libyan rebels hope French weapons will break Misrata stalemate (The Guardian)

(Libya) Libyan rebels in Misrata said on Thursday night that they are in discussions with France to supply weapons and ammunition to fighters in the besieged coastal enclave. Western Funds Are Said to Have Managed Libyan Money Poorly (NYT) (Libya) Prominent American and European investment funds managed hundreds of millions of dollars in Qaddafi regime assets poorly, charging tens of millions of dollars in fees and producing low returns, according to a document obtained by the advocacy group Global Witness. The banks appeared to have taken advantage of a Libyan investment fund that was poorly managed and "a mess," according to a western official who spoke on condition of anonymity. UN Criticizes China's Failure to Arrest Sudan's Bashir (VOA) (Sudan) The United Nations has criticized China for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during his visit to Beijing this week. Another Area Girds for Revolt as Sudan Approaches a Split (NYT) (Sudan) Children with shrapnel wounds lie on metal hospital cots. Thousands of others have been huddling in caves and stony riverbeds, fleeing the fighter jets and bombers prowling the skies. Villages are empty, fields unplowed. At the faintest buzz of a plane, people scatter into the bush, in a panic. Obiang Tells World Not To Intervene In Africa (AP) (Pan-Africa) Foreign military intervention has caused massive suffering in Africa, the African Union's current chairman said Thursday in a message that is being seen as a jab at the NATO airstrikes in Libya. Nation Tense As More Lightning Cases Reported (The Monitor) (Uganda) Ugandans yesterday woke up to news of more fatalities caused by lightning across the country. In Kiryandongo District on Tuesday, 19 pupils of Runyanya Primary School were killed and 51 others left with serious burns to their heads, fingers and hands, when lightning struck the school. Africom: the great machine for wind-brewing? (Sahel Intelligence) At the tour of the Maghreb by the head of Africom, General Carter F. Ham, comes to an end, many observers wonder about the real utility of the United States Africa Command, which is the body officially responsible "to coordinate all U.S. military and security activities on the continent".

AFRICOM: AF, Navy still flying Libya missions (Air Force Times) (Libya) Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya despite the Obama administrations claim that American forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATO operation. UN News Service Africa Briefs Full Articles on UN Website Regional drought causing alarming overcrowding at Kenyan refugee camp: UN Sudan: UN chief welcomes agreement on security in north-south border regions Youth education and employment key to progress in Africa Migiro UN agency welcomes safe return of two missing staff in Ethiopia ------------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST: WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, July 12, 12:00 1:00 pm; Live Webcast from the Woodrow Wilson Center WHAT: Libya: Death of an Idea WHO: Karim Mexran, Director for Center for American Studies, Rome Info: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm? fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=705279 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULL ARTICLE TEXT U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with alQaeda, official says (Washington Post) By Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung June 29, 2011 A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday. The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid growing concern within the U.S. government that some leaders of the Islamist group are collaborating more closely with al-Qaeda to strike targets beyond Somalia, the military official said. Zawahiri, a surgeon who spend years in underground Islamic groups in Egypt before joining al-Qaeda, had been serving as the militant groups second-in-command. More on this Story

The airstrike makes Somalia at least the sixth country where the United States is using drone aircraft to conduct lethal attacks, joining Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. And it comes as the CIA is expected to begin flying armed drones over Yemen in its hunt for alQaeda operatives. Al-Shabab has battled Somalias tenuous government for several years. In recent months, U.S. officials have picked up intelligence that senior members of the group have expanded their ambitions beyond attacks in Somalia. They have become somewhat emboldened of late, and, as a result, we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities, the official said.They were planning operations outside of Somalia. Both of the al-Shabab leaders targeted in the attack had direct ties to American-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, the military official said. Aulaqi escaped a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in May. The White House declined Wednesday night to respond to questions about the attack. But Obama administration officials have made repeated references to al-Shabab in recent weeks, indicating that the group has expanded its aims and its operations. In a speech Wednesday unveiling the administrations new counterterrorism strategy, senior White House aide John O. Brennan included Somalia among the countries where the administration has placed a new focus on al-Qaeda affiliates. As the al-Qaeda core has weakened under our unyielding pressure, it has looked increasingly to these other groups and individuals to take up its cause, including its goal of striking the United States, said Brennan, Obamas chief counterterrorism adviser. From the territory it controls in Somalia, he said, al-Shabab continues to call for strikes against the United States. And earlier this month, in a hearing to confirm him as Obamas new defense secretary, CIA Director Leon Panetta told senators that the agency had intelligence on al-Shabab that indicates that they, too, are looking at targets beyond Somalia. Panetta said al-Qaeda had moved some of its operations to nodes in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. The CIA, he said, was working with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command in those areas to try to develop counterterrorism. The Special Operations Command carried out last weeks Somalia strike, the military official said, and it has been flying remotely piloted

planes over Yemen for much of the past year. It has taken the lead in operations in Yemen, where Aulaqi, a senior figure in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is based. U.S. aircraft and Special Operations commandos have carried out other attacks in Somalia against militants linked to al-Qaeda, but the strike last week appears to have been one of the first U.S. drone attacks in Somalia. It was not immediately clear what kind of unmanned aircraft was used in the attack or where the drone originated. The airstrike appears to be one piece of a larger effort to step up offensive action against al-Shabab militants with ties to al-Qaeda in Somalia. Somali media have reported numerous rumors in recent months of U.S. airstrikes on militant camps. Zawahiri, a surgeon who spend years in underground Islamic groups in Egypt before joining al-Qaeda, had been serving as the militant groups second-in-command. On April 6, an al-Shabab commander was reported to have been killed by an airstrike in Dhobley, a border town in southern Somalia, according to the Web site Long War Journal. This month, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the alleged architect of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa, was killed in a shootout in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Somali officials said. Mohammed was a founder of al-Shabab and was considered the most-wanted man in East Africa. The United States conducted a DNA analysis to confirm Mohammeds demise, a U.S. official said. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described it as a significant blow to al-Qaeda, its extremist allies and its operations in East Africa. In last weeks attack, local officials told the Associated Press that military aircraft struck a convoy carrying the militants as they drove along the coastline of the southern port city of Kismaayo late Thursday. Other local residents told journalists that an air attack had taken place on a militant camp near Kismaayo, an insurgent stronghold. Several residents were quoted as saying that more than one explosion had occurred over a period of several hours and that they thought that at least helicopters had taken part in the attack. An al-Shabab leader confirmed the airstrike and said two militants were wounded. Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig, Somalias deputy defense

minister, said the attack was a coordinated operation that killed many foreign fighters. I have their names, but I dont want to release them, he told the AP. In the early days of the Obama administration, officials became concerned about Somali extremists and debated whether al-Shabab, despite some ties to al-Qaeda,posed a threat to the United States or was primarily focused on Somalia. Some administration and intelligence officials said the groups objectives remained domestic and argued against any preemptive strike on its camps. Over the past year, al-Shabab has focused more openly outside Somalia in its statements and targets. In July, the group carried out suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, that killed 76 people, including one American. Uganda is one of the countries providing troops to a peacekeeping force that protects the U.S.-backed government in Somalia. In August, the Justice Department charged 14 people in this country with providing support to al-Shabab. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that the indictments shed further light on a deadly pipeline that has routed funding and fighters to al-Shabab from cities across the United States. ------------------------------Somali jihadists battered by airstrikes (UPI) By Unattributed Author June 30, 2011 at 3:04 PM MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist group is reported to be transferring foreign fighters to Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, possibly to reinforce al-Qaida militants there who have seized southern cities as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. The reports from Somalia coincide with an apparent escalation in U.S. airstrikes against al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaida, at the same time the U.S. covert war against al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate has also been stepped up. There have been at least three airstrikes against al-Shabaab in recent weeks. The first was April 6, when a jihadist commander was killed in the town of Dhobley in southern Somalia. Some reports said 35 fighters were slain. On June 23, unidentified helicopters carried out a nighttime missile strike on a convoy at the al-Shabaab military camp at Qandal outside the southern port of Kismayo.

Two fighters were killed, al-Shabaab communiques said. But other reports say there were 39 fatalities, including foreign fighters. The targets of the airstrike were reportedly operatives close to Anwar al-Awlaki, a key U.S.-born leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The Americans have marked him for assassination for his involvement in jihadist attacks against the United States. He escaped a drone strike in Yemen carried out by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the elite unit responsible for the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Some reports say the raid was carried out by a U.S. armed drone. If that's correct, it would be the first such attack by the Americans in Somalia. It would add weight to evidence that the Americans are stepping up operations against al-Shabaab as well as AQAP. All previous airstrikes in Somalia have been carried out by helicopters, AC-130 Specter gunships or cruise missiles. On June 28, three helicopters were reported to have hit a training camp in the Afmadow district of Lower Juba province near the border with Kenya in a nighttime raid. There has been no official confirmation of these airstrikes by U.S. authorities. The BBC reported Tuesday the United States has supplied drone aircraft to Uganda and Burundi, East African states bordering Somalia. Those countries provide most of the troops for the 8,000-strong Africa Union peacekeeping force backing Somalia's Western-backed Transitional Federal Government, which al-Shabaab is battling to overthrow. The U.S. Africa Command, based in Germany, said four drones had been provided under a $45 million military aid package to boost their counter-terrorism capabilities.

But as far as is known these have not been in action, and neither country has the capability to conduct precision airstrikes at night like those carried out in June. For the intelligence services of the West and Saudi Arabia, a hookup between AQAP and al-Shabaab to seize control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a key oil artery linking the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, has long been a nightmare scenario. Such a merger would also intensify the jihadist threat against Saudi Arabia, Yemen's northern neighbor and the world's leading oil producer. One report from Somalia said 76 foreign fighters, including several commanders, left Kismayo for Yemen aboard a small boat following the June 23 airstrike. It was not clear why, but it also followed a series of serious military setbacks for al-Shabaab inflicted by the TFG army and its allies in recent weeks. That suggests foreign fighters decided to pull out and join AQAP, one of the jihadist network's most effective groups. It's also coming under increasing attack by U.S. Special Forces, now aided by the CIA, as government authority crumbles in the face of a major uprising to topple longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was badly wounded in a June 3 bombing inside his presidential palace compound in Sanaa, the capital. The blast killed and maimed several of his key aides. Saleh, 69, was airlifted to neighboring Saudi Arabia for treatment. He remains there as his impoverished country, increasingly a key battleground in the U.S. war against al-Qaida, falls apart. AQAP, striking while Yemen's divided military fights among themselves, has seized towns in the south, such as Zinjabar, capital of Abyan province on the Arabian Sea coast. That's a dangerous development the Americans would want to crush as quickly as possible before it spreads. -----------------------Libya mission becomes a burden for Obama (McClatchy Newspapers) By Nancy A. Youssef June 30, 2011

Libya - More than 100 days after the United States and NATO allies launched what was supposed to be a quick air campaign in Libya, Pentagon officials concede that the effort has little strategic value for the U.S., and the alliance's desired outcome there remains unclear. Instead, with NATO unable to bring an end to the fighting, the mission has run into stiff opposition from both parties in Congress and led military officials to fret privately that even the limited U.S. role will generate more ill will in the Arab world. What's become an open-ended conflict, military officers and experts say, illustrates ill-defined U.S. objectives, the limits of relying solely on air power and the lack of diplomatic tools to broker an end to Col. Moammar Gadhafi's regime. Thousands of anti-Gadhafi rebels have been killed, and some at the Pentagon worry that the mounting deaths and reduced U.S. involvement have jeopardized what President Barack Obama called a campaign to protect Libyan civilians. "We are losing the goodwill this was supposed to create," said one senior military officer who wasn't authorized to be quoted by name. Perhaps undercutting Obama's rationale for war, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a series of exit interviews ahead of his retirement, has begun to describe the U.S. involvement as payback to NATO nations which depend on Libya's oil reserves - for joining American troops in fighting in Afghanistan, which was mainly a war about U.S. strategic interests. "These allies, particularly the British and the French, and the Italians for that matter, have really been a big help to us in Afghanistan. They consider Libya a vital interest for them. Our alliance with them is a vital interest for us. So as they have helped us in Afghanistan, it seems to me that we are in a position of helping them with respect to Libya," Gates, who opposed U.S. involvement in Libya from the beginning, said last week on the PBS NewsHour. On Wednesday, Obama vigorously defended the campaign, saying, "We've protected thousands of people in Libya, we have not seen a single U.S. casualty, there's no risks of additional escalation, the operation is limited in time and scope." But Obama also said that Gadhafi "needs to go" and that no political settlement is possible with him in power. U.S. military officers say that NATO's commitment of military force doesn't match that goal.

The NATO effort is almost exclusively an air campaign, which is designed to ground Gadhafi's warplanes and strike at his weapons sites. But at times it appears that NATO has tried to topple Gadhafi, which experts said demands ground forces, a larger air campaign and a clear plan for who will lead Libya in the aftermath of the regime. The hope was that by only using air power, NATO would reduce the costs and risk to troops. But experts say that air power only rarely leads to regime change and isn't always cheaper. "It is very hard to create desired political outcomes merely using air power," said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Washingtonbased Center for Strategic and International Studies. "There is a firm commitment to not put boots on the ground. And diplomacy with the Gadhafi government has always been unpredictable. So what are the instruments and what are the objectives?" For the U.S., Libya wasn't a clear threat. Indeed, there were signs that Libya was helping America in the war against terrorism. Gadhafi had expressed willingness to take back Libyan detainees released from Guantanamo Bay. In March 2004 he tipped off American intelligence officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency about a shipment of nuclear weapons components believed to have come from Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, who'd worked closely with al-Qaida. An April 2008 State Department cable, obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by McClatchy Newspapers, said that the Libyan government "had recently undergone 'an awakening' to the fact that there was a real problem with extremism in the east and was now making serious efforts to counter the threat." The Obama administration said that it decided to intervene to save Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the de facto opposition capital, from an imminent threat from charging Gadhafi forces in March. NATO believed that without Gadhafi's air power, the rebels could claim control of the country within weeks - as quickly as the regimes fell in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia. But instead, the rebels now control less ground than they did when the NATO intervention began. While they've made tenuous gains in the

western mountains, they've lost ground between Benghazi and Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown. There have only been sporadic rebellions in Tripoli, where Gadhafi remains in control. The operation began with strong support from the 22-member Arab League. But outgoing leader Amr Moussa told the Guardian newspaper last week that he had second thoughts and called instead for a ceasefire and a political settlement that eased Gadhafi out of power. "You can't have a decisive ending," Moussa told the British newspaper. "Now is the time to do whatever we can to reach a political solution. That has to start with a genuine cease-fire under international supervision." The Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week passed, on a bipartisan vote, a measure allowing the operation to continue for another year - but it included a provision that barred ground troops except in very limited circumstances. The full Senate will take up the measure in July, but lawmakers from both parties don't want the mission to expand. "The question that has not been answered is what happens after Gadhafi falls - what do we do?" said Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, a Democrat who sponsored the provision. Some believe that the fight has evolved into a battle over finances. Intelligence officials have said Gadhafi has billions in cash reserves that he's using to buy weapons, pay off mercenaries and bribe supporters. For the U.S. and NATO, the rising costs of a prolonged conflict increasingly are causing controversy. By Sept. 27, when NATO's authorization in Libya expires, U.S. officials believe the war will have cost the U.S. at least $1 billion. According to an estimate by a British newspaper, the U.K.'s involvement will have cost about $1.6 billion. Last week, Italy's foreign ministry called for an immediate end to hostilities in part because of the costs of the war. NATO has said it is committed to supporting the rebels if the Gadhafi regime falls. But at the same time there's concern about how long it could take. And it's unclear who will be in charge.

"The way this will be judged is in the political outcome, which is as unclear now as it was two months ago," Alterman said. (William Douglas and David Lightman contributed to this report.) -----------------------AU Summit Opens, Libya Crisis Expected to Dominate Talks (VOA) By Scott Stearns June 30, 2011 Dakar - African heads of state and various country representatives attend the opening session of the 17th African Union Summit, at the Sipopo Conference Center outside Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, June 30, 2011..African heads of state are meeting in Equatorial Guinea for the annual summit of the African Union. The ongoing conflict in Libya is expected to dominate their two-day meeting. Representatives from Moammar Gadhafi's government and the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) are both at the AU summit outside Malabo where African leaders will present their roadmap for ending Libya's crisis. The proposal is being drafted by five African presidents - South Africa's Jacob Zuma, Mauritania's Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali and Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo. It calls for a ceasefire and a transition to democratic elections. The Gadhafi government appears to accept the plan, but rebels want it to include demands that the Libyan leader step down immediately. African Union Commissioner Jean Ping says the 53-nation bloc wants a peaceful solution. Ping says while there are many issues before this summit, the African Union's deliberations on the Libyan crisis are unquestionably the most eagerly anticipated. The summit will also discuss the continuing crisis in Somalia and the coming independence of south Sudan, where Ping says the African Union has played an important role. Ping says the challenges are great, but because of the perseverance of the AU mediation team, there is now a final accord on security arrangements for the disputed Abyei region. He urged both north and

south Sudan to continue working toward all aspects of their 2005 comprehensive peace agreement. The summit opened Thursday with a moment of silence in memory of two former heads of state who died this year, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia and Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic. ------------------------The Libya Campaign (NYT) By Unattributed Author June 30, 2011 Four months into the NATO air campaign, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is still in power, protected by loyalists and mercenaries. Americans are weary of war, and patience in Europe is also wearing thin. But NATO must not give up. If Colonel Qaddafi is allowed to have his way, thousands more Libyans will die. The credibility of NATO and this country would also be severely damaged. Colonel Qaddafi, who has a long history of sponsoring international terrorism, is not one to let bygones be bygones. There is progress. The make-shift rebel army aided by British, French and Italian advisers and armed by France and Qatar is slowly improving. NATO strikes on military command centers, including Colonel Qaddafis compound in Tripoli, have done real damage. This weeks International Criminal Court indictment of Colonel Qaddafi, one of his sons and his intelligence chief on charges of crimes against humanity should be a warning to all of his cronies. A naval blockade and international sanctions are increasingly having an effect. Oil revenues, the governments main income, are down by two-thirds. There are reports of long gasoline lines in Tripoli and rising bread prices. On Thursday, people fleeing Tripoli told of overnight gunfire and signs of revolt. The Qaddafi clan is watching closely for signs that NATOs will is flagging. Italys recent call for a cease-fire (which could give government forces time to regroup) and second-guessing by the Arab Leagues outgoing leader, Amr Moussa, are not helpful. Neither are Congressional efforts to force an end to American support for the air campaign. President Obama was wrong to ignore the War Powers Act, but that should not stop the House and Senate from adopting the Kerry-McCain resolution authorizing the mission to continue for another year.

NATO must help, but the Libyan people are the only ones who can bring the regime down. The rebels need more military advisers and weapons and access to $30 billion in frozen Qaddafi government funds. The United States and other countries need to remove the legal obstacles to getting that money. The alliance should extend sanctions to more of Colonel Qaddafis cronies and the subsidiaries of state-owned enterprises. Washington and its partners should also help the rebels start building the political and civil institutions they will need to keep a post-Qaddafi Libya from descending into chaos. There has been recent talk by all sides about a possible deal between the rebels and the government. We are eager to see an end to the fighting. But Washington and the NATO alliance must stand firmly with the rebels and reject any solution that does not involve the swift ouster of Colonel Qaddafi and real freedom for Libyans. -----------------------Libyan rebels hope French weapons will break Misrata stalemate (The Guardian) By Chris Stephen July 1, 2011 Misrata - Libyan rebels in Misrata said on Thursday night that they are in discussions with France to supply weapons and ammunition to fighters in the besieged coastal enclave. The frontlines have remained in stalemate for more than a month, with the city enduring nightly bombardments from rockets, and rebel fighters saying they lack the heavy weapons to break the ring of government forces around the city. "We are in discussion with France to supply us with the guns," said rebel military spokesman Ibrahim Betalmal. "We are trying to do our best to get ammunition and guns from France and inshallah [God willing] we are going to get those guns. These are negotiations with France, not with Nato." The news comes after reports from Paris said France airdropped weapons and ammunition to rebel forces battling pro-Gaddafi forces in the western mountains who are pushing towards Tripoli from the Tunisian border. Rebels in Misrata say their efforts to expand the pocket around the battered city are frustrated because of a lack of artillery, mortars and

tanks. For the past four weeks successive rebel offensives pushing west towards Tripoli have been turned back by pro-Gaddafi forces dug in around the town of Zlitan. Nato has stepped up air strikes against government positions in the past two weeks and has used warships for shore bombardment, but they have not been coordinated with rebel troop movements. Betalmal said negotiations were being handled by the rebel government, the National Transitional Council, and refused to speculate on what kind of weapons might be offered or when they might arrive. The UN has imposed an arms embargo on Libya and Nato warships patrol the coastline to intercept ships suspected of bringing weapons to either government or rebel forces. "We notice that Nato over the past two weeks has increased air strikes for which we are grateful," said Betalmal. Libya's opposition leader had earlier on Thursday said that rebels needed more weapons and funding, as China and Russia raised concerns over revelations that France had supplied arms. Mahmoud Jibril, of the Transitional National Council, said foreign deliveries of military hardware would give the rebels a chance to "decide this battle quickly [and] to spill as little blood as possible". French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said on Wednesday that France had airlifted weapons to Libyan civilians in a mountain region south of Tripoli. The deliveries of guns, rocketpropelled grenades and munitions took place in early June in the western Nafusa mountains, when Gaddafi's troops had encircled civilians. Gaddafi's prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi predicted that France "will suffer for this", saying that the weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists. "Many more French citizens will die because of these acts," alMahmoudi told a small group of reporters in Tripoli, according to a partial transcript of his remarks obtained by the Associated Press. ----------------------Western Funds Are Said to Have Managed Libyan Money Poorly (NYT) By DAVID ROHDE June 30, 2011

Prominent American and European investment funds managed hundreds of millions of dollars in Qaddafi regime assets poorly, charging tens of millions of dollars in fees and producing low returns, according to a document obtained by the advocacy group Global Witness. The banks appeared to have taken advantage of a Libyan investment fund that was poorly managed and "a mess," according to a western official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The document, a September 2010 summary of Libyan Investment Authority assets, showed poor performance by European and American money managers and a Libyan with close ties to the Qaddafi regime. Libyan Investment Authority officials complained that a $1.7 billion investment they made in six different funds generated returns far below the industry benchmark. To date, we have paid in excess of $18 million in fees, for losing us $30 million, the report says at one point, referring to a fund reportedly managed by the son-in-law of the head of Libyas state oil company. The report, prepared by the London office of the consulting firm KPMG, shows that a $300 million Libyan investment in Permal, a hedge fund that is a unit of the Baltimore-based Legg Mason, lost 40 percent of its value from January 2009 to September 2010. At the same time, Permal received $27 million in fees. Consistently negative performance since inception, Libyan officials said in the report. Very high fees for no value. The Libyans voiced similar complaints about investments in funds managed by European firms that also lost value. Despite producing low returns, the Dutch firm Palladyne received $19 million in fees, the French bank BNP Paribas earned $18 million, Credit Suisse took $7.6 million and the Swiss firm Notz Stucki had $5 million. KPMG analysts also warned that the Libyan Authoritys investment in such funds was too high compared with other types of investments. Representatives for the firms declined to respond publicly or could not be reached for comment. KPMG declined to comment, but The New York Times was able to independently verify the documents authenticity. An official at one firm criticized in the report, who spoke anonymously, blamed the poor investments on middlemen and denied that the firm had received high fees. Its not as straightforward a picture as it perhaps should be, the official said.

In 2008, Goldman Sachs lost more than $1 billion in Libyan Investment Authority money in currency and other trading, The Wall Street Journal reported in May. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether an offer by Goldman to pay a $50 million fee as part of a package to help the fund recoup its losses violated American bribery laws. Goldman has denied any wrongdoing and declined to comment on Thursday. Doing business with Libya was legal for American companies from 2004 to 2011. American banks, oil companies and construction companies rushed to do business in Libya after Col. Muammar elQaddafi renounced terrorism and halted his attempt to develop nuclear weapons and the Bush administration lifted sanctions in 2004. The Obama administration reimposed sanctions in February after the Qaddafi regime began brutally repressing an uprising in the country. The creation of the Libyan Investment Authority in 2006 set off a frenzy in banking circles. Leading financial firms scrambled for the opportunity to manage the authoritys $40 billion in assets. Managing the sovereign wealth funds for oil-rich states some of which are authoritarian is an enormous business for Western banks. For example, the Libyan Investment Authoritys total assets grew by $10 billion over three months, to $64 billion in September 2010 from $54 billion in June, according to the newly released document. The document also showed that the British bank HSBC became the Qaddafi regimes largest Western banking partner in September 2010, receiving $1.4 billion in Libyan money. The document showed that the amount of Libyan state oil money managed by HSBC soared to $1.42 billion in September 2010 from $282 million in June 2010. The document also corroborated a document leaked by Global Witness in May showing that Goldman Sachs managed about $45 million and JPMorgan Chase about $173 million for the Libyan regime in 2010. Socit Gnrale and other European banks also helped the Qaddafi regime manage oil proceeds. Under current American and British law, the business relationships between sovereign wealth funds and Western banks can be kept secret. In a statement, Global Witness called for such dealings to be made public so that citizens of oil-rich and Western countries could understand what was taking place. Banking secrecy laws still mean that citizens are left in the dark about how their own states funds are managed, said Robert Palmer, a campaigner at Global Witness. We cant continue with a situation

where information about how a state handles its assets is only made available once a dictator turns violently on his own people and information is leaked. Evidence of cronyism appears in the report as well. The state fund invested $300 million in a Palladyne fund managed by the son-in-law of the head of Libyas state oil company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Forty-five percent of the $300 million investment was held in cash, the report said. In addition to losing $30 million while charging $18 million in fees, the fund performed 39 percent below a worldwide index of similar funds. -------------------UN Criticizes China's Failure to Arrest Sudan's Bashir (VOA) By Unattributed Author June 30, 2011 The United Nations has criticized China for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during his visit to Beijing this week. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Thursday she is "disappointed" China welcomed Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court. The ICC has charged Bashir with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. Pillay said Thursday that even though China is not an ICC member, Beijing still has a responsibility to ensure the African leader is brought to trial. China's foreign ministry said this week that it reserves judgement on the ICC's prosecution of Bashir. The United Nations says fighting in Darfur has killed some 300,000 people and displaced 2.7 million since 2003. President Bashir and Chinese President Hu Jintao signed loan and economic cooperation agreements in Beijing on Wednesday. China is a key arms supplier to Sudan and its biggest purchaser of oil. ---------------Another Area Girds for Revolt as Sudan Approaches a Split (NYT) By Tyler Hicks June 30, 2011

LEWERE, Sudan Children with shrapnel wounds lie on metal hospital cots. Thousands of others have been huddling in caves and stony riverbeds, fleeing the fighter jets and bombers prowling the skies. Villages are empty, fields unplowed. At the faintest buzz of a plane, people scatter into the bush, in a panic. A health coordinator in Kauda took cover as a plane flew overhead. Many have fled bombings. Just lie flat, or you could get killed, warned Nagwa Musa Konda, the director of a local aid organization, as a plane growled closer. Despite an agreement signed only days ago to bring peace to this part of central Sudan, it seems to be sliding inexorably toward war. Young men here in the Nuba Mountains are being mobilized into militias, marching into the hills to train. All the cars in this area, including humanitarian vehicles, are smeared with thick mud to camouflage them from what residents describe as unrelenting bombings. And opposition forces vow to press their fight until they win some form of autonomy, undeterred by the governments push to stamp them out. Its going to be a long war, said Ahmed Zakaria, a doctor from the Nuba Mountains who recently quit his job to become an opposition fighter. We want a secular, democratic state where we can be free to rule ourselves. Like Kurdistan, Dr. Zakaria said, smiling. And we will fight for it. The conflict is overshadowing one of the biggest events in Sudans history: the independence of the southern part of the country and the creation of two Sudans. In just over a week, southern Sudan will officially break off from the north, the capstone of decades of civil war and years of international negotiations to stave off further bloodshed. But the fighting in the Nuba Mountains, which sit in the norths territory, underscores how fractured Sudan will remain even after the south secedes. The same demands being espoused by opposition fighters here have been the kindling for major conflict and major suffering in several other corners of northern Sudan, where the government is determined to keep a firm grip across a country of diverse groups clamoring for their rights. In the few towns in this vast landscape of terraced mountainsides and thatched-roof villages, the northern government has been amassing tanks, rocket launchers, artillery and thousands of soldiers and allied

militiamen, either to pressure Nuba leaders into disarming or to prepare for a major offensive once the rains stop in a few months. While the hillsides are slick and muddy, the government can do little but bomb, as it admits doing. But government officials say their fight is solely with opposition fighters, not with civilians, contending that widespread reports of civilian casualties are fabrications intended to rally Western nations against Sudan. The government is trying to control and take care of the people for peace and security and actually defeat and remove all the traces of rebels from the area, said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman. We are not against the people, Mr. Atti added. But as the conflicts in the western region of Darfur and southern Sudan long before that have proved, counterinsurgencies often cast a wide net. At a small, mountainside hospital here in Lewere, an entire ward is filled with victims who said they were at a well, fetching water, when they were bombed. Most are children. Their whimpers filter through the mesh windows, along with the pungent smells of antiseptic solution and decaying flesh. Inside, Winnasa Steven, a 16-year-old girl, writhed on a cot. From her hip, doctors cut out a three-inch chunk of ragged shrapnel, which her mother keeps, wrapped in white paper. I am in big pain, Winnasa said. Next to her, a toddler cried, his face a map of bandages. Not far away, a little girl sucked down spoonfuls of porridge. Her mother tried not to look at the gaping hole in her leg. Tensions had been building steadily in the Nuba Mountains since a disputed election in May. The governing partys candidate, Ahmed Haroun, who has been indicted on charges of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court, won the governorship of Southern Kordofan, the state that encompasses the Nuba Mountains, by a margin of 6,500 votes out of a total of 400,000, defeating a popular Nuba leader who used to be a guerrilla fighter. The Carter Center endorsed the election, but people say the government fiddled with the tallies because Southern Kordofan was too important to lose. It has the most productive oil fields in the north and borders the south, making it a useful rear base for the militias widely

believed to be armed by the north. Kordofan also has fertile land, minerals and gum arabic, an ingredient in countless Western products. This area has a history of oppression and resistance. The Nuba people were enslaved by their neighbors hundreds of years ago, bombed by the British and subjugated by the north. The people here are not Arab like the northerners, and many are Christian. Tens of thousands of Nuba fighters joined southern rebels during the northsouth civil war. It is these southern-allied fighters who are refusing to disarm, and clashes erupted in June. In Kadugli, the biggest town in the Nuba Mountains region, many witnesses say the Sudanese Army and allied Arab militias have gone house to house, methodically executing civilians. Kamil Omer El Amin, a Nuba agricultural officer, matter-of-factly described what happened to his friend Philip. He drove up to the U.N. compound, Mr. Amin said. The intelligence agents told him to get out of the car. He sat down. They shot him in the chest. United Nations officials confirmed the killing, but said the overwhelming number of northern troops rendered them powerless to stop it, even though the shooting happened right outside the United Nations base. Many Nuba professionals have fled to the opposition-controlled mountaintops. We spent two weeks up there, drinking something you can barely call water, said Caddy Ali, who worked for a project financed by the World Bank. Ms. Ali said the agreement signed on Tuesday between southern-allied opposition leaders and the government, which outlined steps for political compromise and a cease-fire, was meaningless. Were never going to forgive them now, she said. Do you know how many people Ive seen die right in front of me? Aid workers said hundreds of civilians had been killed in the bombings. The Sudanese Army is also blockading roads and bombing airstrips, essentially cutting off food supplies. These people are going to starve, one Western aid worker said.

On Thursday, some Nuba aid workers stopped their car to pick up some deleib, a wild mushy fruit that looks like a coconut. This is what the fighters lived off in the 1990s, Dr. Zakaria said. It seems some people are preparing to live off it again. ------------------Obiang Tells World Not To Intervene In Africa (AP) By Unattributed Author June 30, 2011 MALABO, Equatorial Guinea - Foreign military intervention has caused massive suffering in Africa, the African Union's current chairman said Thursday in a message that is being seen as a jab at the NATO airstrikes in Libya. Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the president of Equatorial Guinea, also blamed outside "agents" for sparking pro-democracy demonstrations in countries across Africa including his own. "The intervention for human rights are nowadays causing a massive scourge," he said at the opening of the AU's biannual summit being held in this capital, located on an island off the western coast of Africa. "The uncounted number of victims, among them women and children, displaced people and the destruction of economic infrastructure does not justify such interventions. Instead of providing solutions to problems we are complicating and worsening world conflicts." Obiang did not specifically mention Libya, but the AU has come out forcefully against the bombardment that is threatening to topple Moammar Gadhafi, whose grip on power was thought to be absolute. His fall would be discomforting for the other entrenched rulers in Africa, including Obiang, who has maintained total control of state institutions in Equatorial Guinea since his uncle was overthrown and killed in a coup 32 years ago. Obiang's country is considered among the most undemocratic in the world, one that has never had elections deemed free and fair, and where opponents to the regime are systematically tortured, according to Human Rights Watch and the report of the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture. Speaking about the popular uprisings in North Africa, Obiang said the youth are right to protest when their cause is "just and necessary," but added that outside "agents" are in some cases attempting to manipulate public sentiment in order to cause unrest.

"I draw attention here to those agents accustomed to manipulating the innocence and the good faith of our youth and inexperienced population to unnecessarily cause sterile revolutions," he said in Spanish, the national language of Equatorial Guinea. "This is the case of my country, Equatorial Guinea, which is victimized by a systematic campaign of misinformation by these agents." The wave of popular protest that has swept across the northern part of the continent has so far not spread dramatically south, largely because leaders like Obiang have clamped down at the slightest sign of dissent. In Malabo, reporters were told by the minister of information that state TV would not be discussing the events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya because they do not have correspondents in those countries who can ascertain if the information being reported by the international media is correct. In Zimbabwe where summit attendee Robert Mugabe has been in power for 31 years, even watching video footage of those uprisings can lead to treason charges punishable by death. And in Cameroon, where 77-year-old President Paul Biya has ruled since 1982, the government ordered cell phone companies to suspend mobile services for Twitter after citizens used the site to organize a "Drive Out Biya" march. Traditionally the AU has chosen to support its leaders at the expense of the people they govern, but the recent conflict in Ivory Coast may have marked a turning point. An African Union panel charged with finding a solution to the conflict initially backed Laurent Gbagbo, the country's outgoing president who lost last year's presidential election and took his country to the brink of civil war in an effort to stay in office. Under immense international pressure, however, the panel that included Obiang eventually called for Gbagbo to step down. The same evolution may be in the works on Libya. The ad hoc committee charged with dealing with the crisis has issued numerous statements supporting Gadhafi and advocating for talks between the Libyan leader and the rebels attempting to overthrow him. The proposal was rejected outright by the rebels and the international community, which views Gadhafi as the problem and not a part of the solution.

On Sunday, the committee reversed course, however, saying they welcomed Gadhafi's decision to not be part of the negotiation process. In a statement issued Thursday, the committee said it had met in Malabo and agreed on a set of proposals to help Libya emerge from the crisis. It said the proposals would be submitted to the AU assembly for their support. "I believe there is certainly a change in the whole perception of Gadhafi. We are in a very different position to the one we were in just five, six weeks ago," said Britain's Minister for Africa Henry Bellingham who attended the first part of the conference. He said he had met with many of the foreign ministers of the 53 member nations attending the conference, and found that even those that were previously reluctant to call for Gadhafi's ouster are now privately agreeing that he should go. -----------------Nation Tense As More Lightning Cases Reported (The Monitor) By David Mafabi, James Eriku, Steven Ariong, Cissy Makumbi, Rajab Mukombozi, Livingstone Kidega, Francis Mugerwa &george Muzoora. 30 June 2011 Ugandans yesterday woke up to news of more fatalities caused by lightning across the country. In Kiryandongo District on Tuesday, 19 pupils of Runyanya Primary School were killed and 51 others left with serious burns to their heads, fingers and hands, when lightning struck the school. Police in the area have since urged home owners and institutions to ensure that their buildings have earth wires and conductors which can mitigate lightning strikes. The Midwestern Regional Police spokesperson, Ms Zurah Ganyana, said 15 of the injured were transferred to Mulago Hospital. At least 36 others are still undergoing treatment at Kiryandongo Hospital. "The most affected were the pupils who were in P3, P4 and P6 classes," Ms Ganyana observed. In Sironko District, one person was killed on Tuesday during a heavy downpour accompanied by hailstones. Hassan Wandulu, 58, who had visited a friend, Aramanzan Dongo in Mpogo in Sironko, was struck at about 3pm. Ms Hamida Kakai, who had accompanied Mr Wandulu, was also struck. She was reportedly thrown to a corner but quickly regained consciousness and left the refuge of the house. "We were seated

outside when it started raining heavily," Ms Kakai told Daily Monitor yesterday. "We immediately went inside the house...... Shortly the rains increased, there was lightning that forced itself through the door way inside, it sent my brother on ground in one corner and I was also sent in another corner." And in Kotido, Raffle Lotyang, a P3 pupil at Kotido Army Primary School, was killed while another was left unconscious during an afternoon downpour, also on Tuesday. Confirming the incident, Mr George Obia, the Kotido Police spokesperson, said Lotyang and his friend were walking home from school in Rengen Sub-county in Kotido District when they were struck by lightning. In southwestern Uganda, Jennifer Kiiza of Rubirizi District, Katerera Sub-county was struck dead on Tuesday evening as she attempted to collect rain water outside her house. Farouk Musindo Basiime, Patrick Tumusiime and Didas Gumirensi - all residents of Kakoba Division in Mbarara town - were also struck dead as they took shelter from a downpour at a butchery. Unconfirmed reports also indicate that three more people were struck dead in Kibaale yesterday. Isingiro District environmentalist Joseph Mwesigye attributed the increased cases of lightning to human activities like deforestation, wetland encroachment and pollution. These activities, he said, have led to the generation of a lot of heat which when mixes with rain clouds, they become heavy bringing about lightning. Local leaders in northern Uganda and Karamoja yesterday called on the clergy to spearhead special prayer sessions over the increased attacks. Mr Alex Ojera, the Pabo Sub-county LC3 chairman in Amuru District, told this newspaper that his council had resolved to ensure all public mobile phone charging premises install lightning conductors for safely. Patrick Wokorach, a pupil of Pabbo Primary School, was struck dead on Tuesday, leaving 13 others in critical condition in hospital. ------------------------Africom: the great machine for wind-brewing? (Sahel Intelligence) By Marion Zunfrey 7 June 2011 (translated from French) At the tour of the Maghreb by the head of Africom, General Carter F. Ham, comes to an end, many observers wonder about the real utility of the United States Africa Command, which is the body officially responsible "to coordinate all U.S. military and security activities on the continent".

In fact, the main mission of AFRICOM is to help secure the Sahel, but this U.S. command is best known for its delay in choosing a seat, or its inefficiency in training personnel from countries bordering the Sahel belt. And what a surprise it was for the Malian General in charge of hosting the Africom trainers specialized in counter-insurgency when he found out that none of them spoke French. Among the other (juicy) anecdotes reported by various armies of the Sahel countries is that AFRICOM mainly specializes in the organization of costly conferences to which Western experts are always invited, or in the maintenance of the Magharebia website which wasted millions of dollars for an audience which is disappointing at best. Above all, from a strategic point of view, the stiff language practiced by the command of AFRICOM and its concern to maintain "political correctness" impedes efforts by the countries bordering the Sahel to lay the groundwork for a genuine regional cooperation. Among the avatars of this non-cooperation is the chronic rivalry between Morocco and Algeria that the Americans have failed to overcome by their inability to bring the two countries around the same table. The timid tone of the successor of General Ward, Carter Ham, has led this observer of U.S. politics to say that AFRICOM is more like a "sub-department of the State Department than an army corps." This situation seems to concern NATO which had hoped that AFRICOM would be much more severe with Algeria; especially after the discovery by the transatlantic organization that the Polisario was sending mercenaries to Libya with the possible help of the Algerian intelligence services. Algiers has vigorously denied its involvement in sending Sahrawi mercenaries to Libya but NATO appears to have overwhelming evidence according to the British newspaper, "The Telegraph". ------------------------AFRICOM: AF, Navy still flying Libya missions (Air Force Times) By Dave Majumdar June 30, 2011 (Libya) Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya despite the Obama administrations claim that American forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATO operation. An Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that since NATOs Operation Unified Protector (OUP) took over from the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 31, the U.S. military

has flown hundreds of strike sorties. Previously, Washington had claimed that it was mostly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and tanker support to NATO forces operating over Libya. U.S. aircraft continue to fly support [ISR and refueling] missions, as well as strike sorties under NATO tasking, AFRICOM spokeswoman Nicole Dalrymple said in an emailed statement. As of today, and since 31 March, the U.S. has flown a total of 3,475 sorties in support of OUP. Of those, 801 were strike sorties, 132 of which actually dropped ordnance. A White House report on Libya sent to Congress on June 15 says that American strikes are limited to the suppression of enemy air defense and occasional strikes by unmanned Predator UAVs against a specific set of targets. The report also says the U.S. provides an alert strike package. Dalrymple named the Air Forces F-16CJ and Navys EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft as the primary platforms that have been suppressing enemy air defenses. However, those F-16s are not solely drawn from units based in Spangdahlem, Germany, or Aviano, Italy. The service has reportedly deployed U.S.-based units to Europe to conduct these operations. Earlier this month, Malta Today reported that two F-16s from the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing, made emergency landings on the island. The 20th Fighter Wing is based at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. The AFRICOM spokeswoman did not address why U.S.-based units were deployed for the mission. The Navys Growlers are based at Whidbey Island, Wash. However, those may not be the only strike aircraft flying over Libya. Last week, Air Force F-15E crews attending the Paris Air Show, along with their public affairs officer, said they could not talk about their activities in Libya during Odyssey Dawn because they are not able to comment on current operations. AFRICOM couldnt immediately say when the last U.S. strike sortie over Libya was flown. The fact that the U.S. is conducting strike missions over Libya should not come as a surprise, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the services former intelligence chief.

Its no surprise to me that weve been participating, because were a member of NATO, Deptula said. What is different now, he said, is that sorties are planned differently under NATO control. Deptula said it is not particularly surprising that additional units would be brought in to support those operations. The revelation comes as a debate rages in Washington over the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which calls for the president to ask Congress for permission to deploy American forces into combat longer than 60 days. If the Congress does not grant that permission within that span, U.S. forces must be withdrawn within 30 days. Its not necessarily a violation of the War Powers Resolution, said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap, now associate director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, and visiting professor of the practice at Duke University School of Law. [But] it does raise questions about the scope and intensity of our participation versus how its been represented. Others disagreed. The president is in clear violation of the War Powers Resolution, said Robert Turner, co-founder of the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia. Under the legal definition of hostilities, even providing logistical support or intelligence data qualifies as such, he said, never mind firing missiles from Predator UAVs or F-16 fighters. However, the resolution itself is unconstitutional because treaties are effectively part of the Constitution the way the framers wrote the document, he said. Legally, this is his discretion, but he is in clear violation of the statute, Turner said. The reason hes not bound by that is because the statute is clearly unconstitutional. Dunlap said he is less sure. It does raise that specter [of violating the Constitution], but in any event, it doesnt seem to track with what weve been told about the relatively benign participation of U.S. forces, he said. The Obama administration has said that the War Powers Resolution does not apply to the Libya operation because the U.S. role is limited. The White House declined to comment on how 801 strike sorties constitutes limited involvement, but Harold Koh, a State Department legal adviser, said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that when U.S forces engage in a limited military mission, that involves limited exposure for U.S. troops, and

limited risk of serious escalation, and employs limited military means, we are not in the kind of hostilities of the kind envisioned by the War Powers Resolution. He said there have been no active exchanges of fire with hostile forces despite AFRICOMs statement that weapons had been dropped during 132 sorties. Many in Congress on both sides of the aisle vehemently disagree with the White Houses contention. Most air assets involved in the campaign are reconnaissance aircraft, including the U-2 high-altitude spy plane, E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System ground surveillance aircraft and the Navys P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. The U.S. provides nearly 70 percent of the NATO operations ISR capacity, according to the White House report. Additionally, the Air Force is still providing EC-130J aircraft to the operation to conduct psychological warfare operations by broadcasting coercive messages. The remaining aircraft operating in the theater are aerial refueling tankers, including KC-10s and KC-135s. The U.S. also provides the majority of the alliances tanker capability. (Staff writer Kate Brannen contributed to this report.) ------------------------UN News Service Africa Briefs Full Articles on UN Website Regional drought causing alarming overcrowding at Kenyan refugee camp: UN 30 June The United Nations humanitarian agency reported today that the numbers of new arrivals of Horn of Africa drought victims at an already overcrowded refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya is growing at alarming rates. Sudan: UN chief welcomes agreement on security in northsouth border regions 30 June Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the signing of an agreement between the governments of Sudan and Southern Sudan on border security and a joint political and security arrangement, urging both parties to conclude and implement a cessation of hostilities pact as well. Youth education and employment key to progress in Africa Migiro

30 June The United Nations today urged African countries to empower the continents youth through schooling and jobs, stressing that the foundation for peace and development lay in giving young people opportunities to build better lives for themselves. UN agency welcomes safe return of two missing staff in Ethiopia 30 June The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed today that two Ethiopian staff members who went missing after a deadly incident in mid-May have been safely recovered.