United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

11 April 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

S. African Leader: Gadhafi Accepts Cease-Fire Plan (VOA)

(Libya) South African President Jacob Zuma, leading a delegation of African leaders to
the Libyan capital, says leader Moammar Gadhafi has accepted their roadmap for a
cease-fire with anti-government rebels.

Africom's real role in Libya attack (The East African)

(Libya) Some opponents of the Obama administration’s military intervention in Libya
say that the leading role played by the US Africa Command demonstrates its true intent
and its kinetic capacity.

U.N. forces pound Gbagbo loyalist camps in Ivory Coast (CNN)

(Côte d’Ivoire) U.N. military helicopters Sunday pounded heavy weapons positions of
fighters loyal to self-declared Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, U.N. officials said.

Libyan rebels regain control of Ajdabiya (Washington Post)

(Libya) NATO airstrikes destroyed tanks belonging to forces loyal to Moammar
Gaddafi at the western gate of Ajdabiya on Sunday, as rebels reestablished control of
the strategic eastern city.

NATO Steps Up Libya Airstrikes, Bolstering Rebels (Wall Street Journal)

(Libya) NATO stepped up strikes on forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi Sunday,
incinerating a convoy of vehicles laying siege to Ajdabiya and appearing to turn the tide
toward rebel forces in the battle for control of the strategically vital city.

Qaddafi’s Handling of Media Shows Regime’s Flaws (NYT)

(Libya) Even the Qaddafi government escort could not contain his disbelief at the
sloppiness of the fraud: bloodstains his colleagues had left on bedsheets in a damaged
hospital room for more than a week as evidence of civilian casualties from Western
airstrikes.

Liberian mercenaries detail their rampages in western Ivory Coast (Christian Science
Monitor)
(Côte d’Ivoire) Liberian mercenaries returning from western Ivory Coast tell the
Monitor that they recently fought for both sides in Ivory Coast's civil war, killing
civilians, raping women, and destroying villages as they went.

Egypt gears up anti-graft battle against Mubarak regime (Xinhua)

(Egypt) Egypt has accelerated its anti-corruption campaign targeting Mubarak-era
officials to soothe protestors who demand early trials of former President Hosni
Mubarak and his top aides.

Sudan has 'irrefutable proof' Israel behind air strike (AFP)

(Sudan) Sudan said Sunday it had irrefutable evidence that Israel carried out the air
strike on its Red Sea coast last week that killed two people and destroyed the car they
were travelling in.

US envoy to Sudan calls situation in Abyei 'very worrisome' (The New Sudan Vision)
(Sudan) US special envoy to Sudan issued stern warnings to both the north and the
south on Saturday, describing the situation in Abyei as "very tense" and "worrisome."

Nigeria: Enthusiastic Voters Hope for Fair Outcome (AllAfrica)

(Nigeria) In this central Nigerian city with a history of inter-communal strife, the
delayed kick-off of Nigeria's three-week long elections process was greeted by long
lines of determined, hopeful voters. Despite logistical confusion at some polling sites
throughout the day - and reportedly across the country - counting that appeared
transparent, if often hectic, was underway at multiple vote "collation centers".

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN forces begin operation in Ivorian city in response to attack by pro-Gbagbo
forces
 African ministers pledge to combat non-communicable diseases in UN-backed
document
 Kenyan officials suspected of poll violence appear at International Criminal
Court
 Latest fighting in Somalia displaces 33,000 people, UN agency says
 UN human rights team finds over 100 bodies over past day in Côte d’Ivoire
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, April 11, 2011; 2:00 p.m.; AEI, 1150 17th Street, NW, 12th
Floor
WHAT: A Conversation with Libyan National Council Representative Ali Aujali
WHO: Libyan Council Representative Ali Aujali; Moderated by Paul Wolfowitz.
Info: http://www.aei.org/event/100395
WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, April 12, 2011; 10:00 a.m.; MCC, 875 15th Street NW,
Washington, DC.
WHAT: Investment Opportunities in Southern Africa: Previewing AGOA and Zambia's
Proposed MCC Compact
WHO: Discussion between the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Corporate
Council on Africa
Info: https://www.mcc.gov/pages/press/event/outreach-041211-agoa_zambia

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, April 13, 2011; 9:00 a.m.; Room 2172 Rayburn Building
WHAT: House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Cote D’Ivoire.
WHO: Witness: William Fitzgerald, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of
African Affairs.
Info: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, April 15, 2011; 9:30 a.m.; Brookings Institution, 1775
Massachusetts Avenue NW
WHAT: The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): Opening Doors for U.S.-
Africa Economic Relations
WHO: Mwangi Kimenyi, Director of the Africa Growth Initiative; Stephen Hayes,
President of the Corporate Council on Africa; Florizelle Liser, assistant U.S. trade
representative for Africa; Zambian Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Felix
Mutati; John Page, senior fellow of Global Economy and Development at Brookings;
Katrin Kuhlman, senior fellow and director of TransFarm Africa Policy at the Aspen
Institute; Witney Schneidman, president of Schneidman and Associates International;
and Rosa Whitaker, president and CEO of the Whitaker Group
Info: www.brookings.edu
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

S. African Leader: Gadhafi Accepts Cease-Fire Plan (VOA)

By Unattributed Author
April 10, 2011
South African President Jacob Zuma, leading a delegation of African leaders to the
Libyan capital, says leader Moammar Gadhafi has accepted their roadmap for a cease-
fire with anti-government rebels.

African Union officials say the proposal calls for an immediate cease-fire, talks between
the rebels and the government, the protection of foreign nationals in Libya and the
extension of humanitarian assistance to civilians.

Mr. Zuma said the AU delegation would travel to the rebel-stronghold of Benghazi
Monday to present the plan to opposition leaders. The rebels have said they will accept
nothing less than an end to Mr. Gadhafi's rule, while Libyan officials say he will not
step down.
The South African leader also called on NATO to stop airstrikes on government targets
to "give a cease-fire a chance." He and three other African heads of state met with Mr.
Gadhafi for several hours Sunday at his compound in Tripoli.

Meanwhile, NATO airstrikes have pushed loyalist forces out of the strategic eastern city
of Ajdabiya, reportedly allowing rebels to reestablish control there.

NATO says its airstrikes Sunday destroyed 11 government tanks near Ajdabiya and 14
near the western rebel-held city of Misrata. Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard says
the strikes were needed because pro-Gadhafi forces were brutally shelling Libyans.

Libyan rebel spokesman Colonel Hamid Hassy told The Associated Press that heavy
shelling from government forces near Ajdabiya largely stopped after the NATO
airstrikes.

Medics and reporters say the fighting at Ajdabiya has killed at least 12 people during
the past few days.

Mr. Zuma was joined by the presidents of Mauritania, Mali and Congo on his
mediation mission as well as a representative from Uganda.

Earlier, The Associated Press reported that pro-Gadhafi forces shot down two rebel
helicopters in Brega, an oil town west of Ajdabiya.

Brega has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days with it going from
government to rebel control and back again several times since the start of an uprising
against Mr. Gadhafi.
----------------------------
Africom's real role in Libya attack (The East African)
By Kevin Kelley
April 11, 2011
Some opponents of the Obama administration’s military intervention in Libya say that
the leading role played by the US Africa Command demonstrates its true intent and its
kinetic capacity.

“The gloves have come off,” declares Emira Woods, a US foreign policy expert at a
think tank in Washington.

“Africom launched itself with all sorts of rhetoric about helping Africans help
themselves. There was lots of talk about building schools, digging wells,” Ms Woods
says. “What we see now in Libya is the full force of Africom’s capabilities.”
The air attacks in Libya co-ordinated by Africom “do not bode well for US engagement”
in black Africa, Woods adds.

But another sceptic of the Pentagon’s role in Africa suggests it was naïve to see Africom
as other than primarily a military command.

And this Washington-based analyst — Daniel Volman, director of the African Security
Research Project — does not agree that the Libya operation presages a more aggressive
role for Africom in black Africa.

The Libya attack “shows President Obama’s approach to be minimalistic,” Mr Volman

says. “He has made clear that the United States will act [militarily] only under very
specific circumstances and with an international consensus.”

Obama has been at pains, for example, “to not raise expectations of US action in Ivory
Coast,” Mr Volman adds.

Africom’s leading role in the Libya intervention does not preclude it from continuing to
take part in development projects in black Africa, Mr Volman continues.

Gen Carter Ham, Africom’s new commander, is meanwhile emphasising the

multilateral dimensions of the operation in Libya.

“That, I think, from a military standpoint, is what we want to encourage on a regional

basis in Africa,” Gen Ham said in a speech last month at Africom’s headquarters in
Stuttgart, Germany.

According to an account of Gen Ham’s speech on the Africom website, a regional

military response to security problems in Africa would not necessarily include US
military capabilities.

Africom should focus on crisis prevention, and only be ordered to undertake military
action as a last solution, he said.

From its inception in 2007, Africom has been presented by its architects as something
fundamentally different than the Pentagon’s other regional commands, says Wall Street
Journal reporter Nathan Hodge, author of the newly published book, Armed
Humanitarians: The Rise of the Nation Builders.

In a chapter devoted to Africom, Hodge notes that “unlike a traditional military

command, Africom focused heavily on humanitarian and development issues.”

Africom has undertaken civic engagement projects in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
----------------------------
U.N. forces pound Gbagbo loyalist camps in Ivory Coast (CNN)
By Unattributed Author
April 10, 2011 7:42 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- U.N. military helicopters Sunday pounded heavy weapons positions of
fighters loyal to self-declared Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, U.N. officials said.

U.N. Special Representative Young-Jin Choi said pro-Gbagbo forces were shelling the
Golf Hotel in Abidjan, where the country's internationally recognized president
Alassane Ouattara is staying, and "today they began to shell our quarters" -- the section
of the hotel in which the U.N. forces are headquartered -- as well. "So we decided we
cannot pass this moment without action," Choi said.

Who is Alassane Ouattrara?

Together with the French military, U.N. forces targeted key positions. Choi said there
were "several camps" belonging to the Gbagbo loyalists. "We are taking them out."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he ordered the military operation Sunday "to
prevent the use of heavy weapons which threaten the civilian population of Abidjan
and our peacekeepers."

The U.N. mission does not extend to extracting Gbagbo from his residence, Choi said. It
would be up to pro-Ouattara forces to oust Gbagbo, he said.

Chaos continues in Ivory Coast

Ban renewed his call for Gbagbo "to step aside immediately."

"Civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence," the secretary-general said. "The
fighting must stop. Mr. Gbagbo needs to step aside immediately."

Gbagbo's forces had attacked the Golf Hotel Saturday as well. U.N. forces fired back at
the time, said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast. "We
stand ready to protect the Golf Hotel, as we have a mandate," he told CNN.

Toure added that Gbagbo loyalists continue to control three main areas -- the
presidential palace, Gbagbo's residence and the state television station, RTI. He said the
French military and U.N. forces are in charge of the Abidjan port.

Violence erupted after Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election in November and
escalated into all-out war when Ouattara's forces launched an offensive that brought
them into Abidjan.
As Gbagbo has refused to cede power, the political stalemate has plunged the West
African nation into crisis.

The U.N. human rights office said Friday that its investigators found more than 100
bodies over 24 hours in three Côte d'Ivoire towns.

Gbagbo's forces used a lull in fighting last week as a "trick" to reinforce their positions
around the Abidjan, according to Alain Le Roy, the head of United Nations
peacekeeping operations.

They said Tuesday they wanted a peaceful solution to the monthslong fighting, but
soon resumed shelling both the U.N. headquarters and the civilian population, Le Roy
told reporters at the United Nations.

Since then, they have regained control of two central areas of Abidjan and fighting is
continuing, Le Roy said Friday, after briefing the U.N. Security Council on
developments in the cocoa-producing nation.

"They have clearly used the lull of Tuesday as a trick to reinforce their position," he
said.

Mark Toner, acting deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, released a
statement Saturday echoing that idea.

"It is clear that Gbagbo's attempts at negotiation this week were nothing more than a
ruse to regroup and rearm. Gbagbo's continued attempt to force a result that he could
not obtain at the ballot box reveals his callous disregard for the welfare of the Ivoirian
people, who will again suffer amid renewed heavy fighting in Abidjan," he said.

Most areas of the capital, however, are now under U.N. or French military control,
journalist Seyi Rhodes reported from the French military base in Port Bouet. The French
military has been working to reconnect the disrupted water and electricity supply in
what is the country's main city.
--------------------
Libyan rebels regain control of Ajdabiya (Washington Post)
By Leila Fadel
April 10, 1:49 PM
BENGHAZI - NATO airstrikes destroyed tanks belonging to forces loyal to Moammar
Gaddafi at the western gate of Ajdabiya on Sunday, as rebels reestablished control of
the strategic eastern city.

Rockets still landed inside the nearly deserted city on Sunday but a military official
with the rebel council said they had complete control by Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, members of the Transitional National Council, which governs the rebel-
held east, met with Western diplomats in the temporary opposition capital of Benghazi.
Officials said they discussed the role of NATO, which has come under severe criticism
for not striking Gaddafi forces early enough to avert a humanitarian crisis or advances
by Gaddafi’s forces.

Forces loyal to Gaddafi stormed the rebel stronghold Ajdabiya on Saturday for the first
time since coalition airstrikes began last month, moving the front line closer to
Benghazi.

Gaddafi forces approached Ajdabiya from the south and from the coast, and fierce
street battles erupted in the heart of the city, 100 miles south of Benghazi. The loyalists
also pummeled the western gate to Ajdabiya with mortar shells and artillery rounds for
a third straight day.

Some rebels fled the city during the afternoon. But by nightfall Saturday, opposition
forces said they had pushed most of the loyalists out of town and captured at least
three, including a high-ranking officer. Sporadic street fighting continued into the night.

But the battle showed that the ragtag rebel army of the east remains in disarray as
Gaddafi’s forces gain ground and adapt to NATO airstrikes. Since NATO took control
of the skies from coalition forces — who struck last month to stop Gaddafi’s forces from
overrunning the east — the front line has crept slowly toward Benghazi, where the
uprising against Gaddafi began in February.

Gaddafi’s forces have adapted to the new environment by driving civilian vehicles and
dressing like the rebels to avoid airstrikes. In some cases they’ve placed tanks in the
center of civilian populations to stop NATO from striking.

“What used to be a target-rich environment is now a target-poor environment,” said

one Western diplomat emerging from a meeting in Benghazi on Sunday.

The diplomat, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks,
said there were no discussions of ground troops entering LIbya and that the council
understood the difficulties NATO faces. He said it would take only one “catastrophic”
bombing that killed civilians to “undermine” the NATO mission. He called the rebel
uprising “pure” and said he was “hopeful” they would succeed.

“I only see this going one way,” he said referring to Gaddafi’s ouster. “It’s only a matter
of when.”
---------------------
NATO Steps Up Libya Airstrikes, Bolstering Rebels (Wall Street Journal)
By CHARLES LEVINSON and STEPHEN FIDLER
APRIL 10, 2011, 9:13 P.M. ET.
NATO stepped up strikes on forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi Sunday,
incinerating a convoy of vehicles laying siege to Ajdabiya and appearing to turn the tide
toward rebel forces in the battle for control of the strategically vital city.

Meanwhile, a delegation of African leaders including South Africa's President Jacob

Zuma arrived in Tripoli Sunday for talks with Col. Gadhafi as his troops stepped up
their offensive in Ajdabiya.

The talks are part of a regime-backed African Union initiative to end fighting and begin
dialogue between rebels and the government in Tripoli. But success looked doubtful
from the start, given that the sole demand for the rebels and the opposition in the east
remained Col. Gadhafi's departure—something non-negotiable for him and his core
supporters.

Later the African Union's commissioner for peace and security, Ramadan Lamamra of
Algeria, told reporters in Tripoli that Col. Gadhafi formally accepted the initiative and
that the African delegation except for President Zuma would travel to the rebel
stronghold of Benghazi in the east on Monday to hold discussions with opposition
leaders there.

Some analysts saw the initiative as another ploy by the embattled regime to buy time
and divide the Western-led front.

"[The regime is] trying to put a wedge inside the coalition to make it think of other
alternatives," said George Joffe, a Libya expert at Cambridge University.

Rebels in Ajdabiya cheered the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Sunday for what
appeared to be its most intensive day of attacks on ground forces since taking control of
the campaign on March 31.

The alliance said Sunday it destroyed 11 tanks on the route to Ajdabiya and 14 tanks
approaching the besieged rebel-held enclave of Misrata in western Libya, although it
was impossible to verify the claim.

On the road leading west out of Ajdabiya, an old man in traditional dress chanted
jubilantly into a megaphone: "Allahu Akbar," or "Allah is the greatest!"

The bodies of pro-Gadhafi fighters lay amid the wreckage of about a dozen Land
Cruisers, which Col. Gadhafi's forces have been using instead of tanks in a bid to
maintain a lower profile and dodge airstrikes.

Ajdabiya occupies a critical crossroads that serves as a gateway into eastern Libya, with
thoroughfares leading to Benghazi, about 100 miles to the north, and another east to the
oil-port city of Tobruq.
Rebels have been fending off a fierce assault on the city since late Friday, when they
were surprised by a flanking move by Col. Gadhafi's forces coming out of the southern
desert.

Sunday's increase in bombing followed days of mounting criticism by rebel

commanders, who said NATO failed to provide sufficient air support and proper
coordination, which contributed to two friendly-fire airstrikes on rebel forces.

Rebels endured repeated setbacks during those days. Col. Gadhafi's forces laid siege to
oil fields in the desert south of Ajdabiya, forcing rebels to halt oil production.

Rebel fighters complained that as their defenses appeared to be collapsing, NATO

aircraft were nowhere to be seen. On Saturday, NATO said it flew the fewest sorties
since it took over: 133, 20 fewer than on any previous day.

Asked about Sunday's uptick in activity, a NATO official said more than half-a-dozen
nations were now carrying out strike missions, relieving pressure on the French and
British air forces and giving the alliance more firepower.

The official also said Sunday's strikes had been more visible to rebels and journalists
accompanying them than in recent days, when the strikes had been behind front lines.

Another key factor may be rebel efforts to try to improve communication with NATO,
said several rebel commanders, who along with Western officials in Benghazi had
blamed poor communications for some of NATO's recent missteps and shortfalls.

A European diplomat in Benghazi recently complained of the dismal communication

between the rebel leadership and NATO. He said some rebel officials had even turned
to him to relay targeting requests to NATO.

"They know you come from a country taking part in the NATO coalition, so they tell
you things and assume that means you can tell the appropriate NATO commander, but
it's not the most efficient way to do it," said the diplomat, noting he has no direct ties to
NATO commanders and can only pass on such information to his foreign ministry
superiors.

NATO has been struggling to stop itself from being identified as the rebel air force, and
therefore having its reputation linked to the fortunes of the opposition, emphasizing
that its role is to protect civilians from threats from wherever they come.

As a result, however, NATO hasn't taken steps normally expected in a coordinated air
and ground campaign, such as putting target spotters on the ground among the rebels,
or air-power coordinators into the rebels' control room.
Meanwhile, the importance of ground-level intelligence has increased as Col. Gadhafi's
forces have shifted tactics in response to the air campaign.

Without their own people on the ground, NATO faces the daunting task of obtaining
and sorting timely and actionable information from the front lines while rebels struggle
to conveying intelligence through the ranks from ragtag rebel fighters on the front to
NATO commanders in Europe.

On Sunday, rebel commanders described a slapdash communications system that

depends on the personal connections and resourcefulness of individual commanders.

Two rebel commanders in Ajdabiya claimed credit on Sunday for helping steer the
NATO planes to their targets, although there was no way to verify their claims.

Abdel Moneim Mukhtar, commander of the Omar Mukhtar Brigade in Ajdabiya, said
he called in the location of the Gadhafi unit laying siege to the city's western gate early
Sunday morning through an old friend, Juma Fuhaima, a botany professor from the
eastern city of Baida, who happens to be the personal aide to rebel leader Mustafa
Abdel Jalil.

"My guy in Benghazi can get word to the right people, who then go to NATO and tell
them where to bomb," said Mr. Mukhtar. Mr. Fuhaima confirmed he had received the
air-support request from Mr. Mukhtar and said it was relayed up the chain to NATO.

Another commander on the front lines, Col. Mohammed Khufair, of the Ali Hassan
Jaber Brigade, said a system has been put in place within the past week in which rebel
commanders could call in requests for air support to the rebel command center. But he
said the center received a lot of calls from volunteer fighters that weren't always
reliable, and other field commanders interviewed didn't seem to be aware of the
system.
---------------------
Qaddafi’s Handling of Media Shows Regime’s Flaws (NYT)
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
April 10, 2011
TRIPOLI, Libya — Even the Qaddafi government escort could not contain his disbelief
at the sloppiness of the fraud: bloodstains his colleagues had left on bedsheets in a
damaged hospital room for more than a week as evidence of civilian casualties from
Western airstrikes.

“This is not even human blood!” the escort erupted to group of journalists, making a
gesture with his hands like squeezing a tube. “I told them, ‘Nobody is going to believe
this!’ ” he explained, as Elizabeth Palmer, a correspondent for CBS News, later recalled.
His name was withheld for his protection.

For the more than 100 international journalists cloistered here at the invitation of the
Qaddafi government, its management — or, rather, staging — of public relations
provided a singular inside view of how this autocracy functions in a crisis.

As the incident of the faked blood shows, the Qaddafi government’s most honest trait
might be its lack of pretense to credibility or legitimacy. It lies, but it does not try to be
convincing or even consistent.

Government officials often insisted that the journalists watch grisly footage of public
beheadings, presented on state television as scenes from rebel-held Benghazi, even
though the officials surely knew that all the major news organizations had
correspondents in Benghazi confirming that there were no such executions.

The members of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s fractious family who run the country
scarcely pretend to rest their authority on his impotent and unworkable “Jamahiriya”
— the hierarchy of popular committees he calls direct democracy.

And as some of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons now try to persuade the NATO allies to trust
their pledges about a cease-fire, power-sharing or democratic reforms, the opaque and
fickle system so vividly displayed to the foreign journalists here may come back to
haunt them.

Twenty-six journalists received a firsthand lesson in the Qaddafi government’s

decision-making style late on Wednesday afternoon. All were suddenly ordered,
without explanation or pattern, to leave Libya the next day. By the end of the night,
many had negotiated individual exemptions.

Then at breakfast the next morning, another official announced that the exemptions
were no good, a bus was coming to dump the journalists in Tunisia, and it was time to
go. But by 11 a.m. it was finally clear that there would be no bus to the border at all.
Who in the government pushed for the expulsions and who might have stopped them is
impossible to determine.

“It is just the chaos of not having institutions in the country,” said one businessman
who has worked closely with the Qaddafi family and government, speaking on the
condition of anonymity. “When a decision is made, it is not always a decision in truth.
Nobody is really in charge, and decisions are made on whim and caprice.”

The idea of inviting the foreign news media into the tightly closed capital appears to
have come from Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, who announced it on television. He rose to
pre-eminence in the family in part by obtaining influence over the Libyan government’s
investment fund, Western businessmen who worked with him say. He doled out
investment opportunities inside Libya to businessmen and officials in the West in
exchange for help repairing its relations with European and American governments.

While Seif el-Qaddafi has sought to project a reformist face to the news media and the
West during the crisis, two of his brothers have led the crackdown on the rebels.
Khamis el-Qaddafi leads the most formidable brigade now believed to be charged with
the siege of rebel-held Misurata. And Mutassim el-Qaddafi is a national security adviser
with a private militia now believed to be leading the fighting against rebels in the east.

When four New York Times journalists were captured by pro-Qaddafi militia in the
east, Seif el-Qaddafi and his staff in Tripoli immediately pledged to protect them, and
his chief of staff, Mohamed Ismail, said Seif el-Qaddafi deserved credit for engineering
their release. But the journalists were blindfolded and beaten for several days before
Mr. Ismail said he could locate them, and they said that during that time they had
overheard the soldiers talking about orders from “Dr. Mutassim.”
Another brother, Saadi el-Qaddafi, a former professional soccer player who has dabbled
in Hollywood movies and Libyan business development, apparently broke with his
family last week over the handling of Eman al-Obeidy, the Libyan woman who told
journalists she was raped by Qaddafi militiamen and has become a heroine and
spokeswoman for the anti-Qaddafi rebels. Government officials tried for two weeks to
silence and discredit her, until an opposition satellite network and CNN managed to
conduct interviews with her.

After those interviews, Saadi el-Qaddafi decided that instead of muzzling her he would
help her tell her story. He sent a car to pick her up and bring her to his office for a
second interview with CNN, conducted by its correspondent Nic Robertson. Saadi el-
Qaddafi asked Mr. Robertson to cut Ms. Obeidy’s call for the rebels in the eastern Libya
and Misurata “to be strong,” so with her consent Mr. Robertson described those
comments himself on the air.

But Saadi el-Qaddafi’s intercession on her behalf still provoked an angry confrontation
with Qaddafi government press officials and other members of the family, according to
people involved. Saadi el-Qaddafi “appeared shocked afterward,” Mr. Robertson said
during the broadcast. “He commented on her strong character.”

While some Libyan officials have publicly promised foreign journalists the freedom to
report, others have sought to manipulate them. One Libyan official privately warned a
Times reporter last week not to trust information from people speaking over Internet
connections from Misurata because some were in fact government agents trying to trap
journalists. He even cited a specific casualty count recently attributed to a Misurata
resident in the pages of this newspaper.

Was that new resident of Misurata who recently made contact in fact a double agent?
Maria Golovnina, a Reuters correspondent, received an e-mail purportedly from an
exiled opposition figure asking for rebel contacts in Misurata. Could that person, too, be
a spy? But both proved legitimate after further communications; the Libyan officials
were apparently just playing mind games.

For an official press bus trip to the Misurata on Friday, a senior Libyan press official
quizzed a Times correspondent about his “predispositions” before making a decision
about allowing him to board.

After another official then assured the reporter that he had a seat on the bus, a brief
power struggle broke out among three Libyan media officials, who argued over the job
of doling out the scarce seats to a crowd of journalists vying for them. And in the end an
official told the correspondent that he was not on the list after all, having evidently
failed the quiz.

Journalists who made the trip reported that, as is often the case, Colonel Qaddafi’s news
media handlers had shown them more and less than promised. Musa Ibrahim, the
government spokesman, has said at news conferences each night for weeks that
Misurata was largely under government control, except for small “pockets of violence.”

And each day, residents of Misurata, eventually with corroboration from journalists
who reached the besieged city by boat, have said that rebels still held the city despite
heavy shelling from the colonel’s forces outside. The government’s bus tour ended up
confirming the rebels’ account as well. At the outskirts of the city, journalists found pro-
Qaddafi soldiers taking cover from gunfire — one started bleeding as a bullet grazed
his head just feet from the journalists — and reporters said the sound of heavy shelling
appeared to come from just out of sight. And when the bus returned to the hotel,
government officials could be heard arguing behind closed doors about who was
responsible for the mishap of the tour.

It was not the first time such a trip had backfired. A few weeks ago officials staged a
late-night visit to the city of Zawiya that was supposed to show Qaddafi forces had
retaken it from the rebels. But the trip went only as far as a soccer field on the edge of
the town, where rowdy Qaddafi supporters set off fireworks. And as the journalists
were about to leave, the crowds began grabbing bags of rice and groceries off army
trucks, apparently given to them as compensation.

The Libyan authorities customarily refuse to let journalists out of the hotel inside of
Tripoli on Fridays, the traditional day for street protests in the Arab world.

But three journalists left behind from the Misurata trip wanted to investigate reports of
a sporadic violence against security forces around the city, so one created a diversion to
distract a government minder while the others got away.
What they found, they said, was a city locked down more tightly than ever. Heavy
contingents of armed men surrounded mosques, and the streets of rebellious
neighborhoods were crowded with the white four-door Toyota pickup trucks favored
by the pro-Qaddafi militia. Many rode with the barrels of their assault rifles pointed out
the windows, making no effort to hide the role of their guns in enforcing the uneasy
calm in the city.
-----------------------------
Liberian mercenaries detail their rampages in western Ivory Coast (Christian Science
Monitor)
By Emily Schmall and Mae Azango
April 10, 2011
Morovia, Liberia - Liberian mercenaries returning from western Ivory Coast tell the
Monitor that they recently fought for both sides in Ivory Coast's civil war, killing
civilians, raping women, and destroying villages as they went.

One commander of a unit of more than 30 Liberian mercenaries who returned days ago
from Ivory Coast, Karmo Watson, says he was approached by a go-between for forces
loyal to Ivory Coast President-elect Alassane Ouattara called "Colonel Mark" in
December with an offer of $1,500 to fight for Mr. Ouattara.

When he wasn't paid after arriving in Ivory Coast months ago and fighting in another
nation's battle, he and his men went on a rampage.

“I killed people. I burned villages. After that I got wounded," says Mr. Watson. "I did it
because [recruiters] lied to me. $1,500 US. They said they would pay me when we got
there. I came back with nothing. I came back with sickness. I came back screaming, cold,
crying.”

Watson – who fought as a soldier for former Liberian President Charles Taylor, now on
trial at the International Criminal Court for war crimes – is just one of hundreds of
battled-hardened Liberian fighters adding to a messy ethnic conflict brewing in western
Ivory Coast that security experts warn could spread across the region's porous borders.

“It’s a security threat to Liberia that can have a major impact very quickly,” says Gilles
Yabi, International Crisis Group’s West Africa project director.

Mr. Yabi predicts the violence in Ivory Coast's west will continue to flare long after a
resolution to the deadly presidential battle in the main city of Abidjan is reached.

“The situation in the west has always been particularly explosive," says Yabi, "because
of the proximity with Liberia, the fact that mercenaries were recruited by both sides in
2002 and 2003, and because of the ethnic mix in the western region.”

Battled-hardened fighters
Watson says he returned to Liberia after a rocket-propelled grenade ripped through a
pick-up truck, burning his feet and legs.

He bears a jagged scar across his left cheek. A bullet blew off the top knuckle of his left
pointer finger.

A veteran of Ivory Coast’s last major conflict in 2003, he said he spent most of the
interim years working on a cocoa farm to support his wife and four children in
Monrovia.

Prince Dennis, a goldsmith and fellow former fighter for Mr. Taylor, says high-ranking
members of the forces supporting Ouattara sent an emissary to Liberia’s capital,
Monrovia, in December to recruit fighters with the promise of $1,000.

Mr. Dennis says he was transported to Ivory Coast, where he received camouflage
clothing and a new AK-47. They were only ever paid $100, Dennis says, and survived
on food and money they pillaged from villages along the border, raping and killing
along the way.

“I killed so many people," says Dennis. "You know, it’s a war, so a bullet can’t pick and
choose. I even killed civilians because you don’t know who you’re firing at.”

He said he slipped across the border back into Liberia among the throngs of Ivorians
seeking refuge from the violence in Ivory Coast.

Path to a better life?

Like Watson and Dennis, many of the mercenaries now returning to Liberia from Ivory
Coast are former fighters from the country’s long civil conflict who fought for Taylor.

“These guys see war as an opportunity, access to a better life,” says Morle Gugu Zawoo,
a former child soldier and the executive director of the National Ex-combatant Peace
Building Initiative in Monrovia. Mr. Zawoo estimates more than 2,000 ex-combatants
have crossed the border to fight in Ivory Coast.

“In this country, some Liberians cannot afford fifty Liberian dollars [70 US cents] a day
to eat, and next door, the people are giving $1,500 to fight. What do you think he would
do when all he knows is to fight?” says a former commander in Taylor’s notorious Anti-
Terrorist Unit, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Some of us did not want to fight but poverty made us do it,” says "Commander
Solution," another mercenary who returned to Liberia from Ivory Coast this week.
Liberia launched a massive disarmament campaign in 2003, but many former
combatants say it was a failure. They are out of work and hungry, Zawoo says. Former
combatants remain loyal to former generals and are easily swayed to action.

“I was called a few days ago to recruit men to go fight in Ivory Coast, because I have the
power to mobilize over three hundred men within one hour,” says a former
commander in the Armed Forces of Liberia, who also spoke on condition of anonymity
for fear of eventual prosecution. “All I have to do is show some money to a few men
and the news will go like wild fire.”

Now that the fighting appears to be winding down in Ivory Coast, the fighters are
returning to Liberia – with guns – and many fear they will pose a threat to the fragile
country in the lead up to elections later this year.

Liberia’s Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Chris Massaquoi

declined to comment on the situation.

Meanwhile, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan

Simonovic arrived in Ivory Coast this past week to look at the situation in the west.

On Wednesday, the International Criminal Court posted a statement on its Web site
saying that its chief prosecutor had been conducting a “preliminary examination” in
Ivory Coast into “alleged crimes committed there by different parties to the conflict.”
-----------------------
Egypt gears up anti-graft battle against Mubarak regime (Xinhua)
By Unattributed Author
April 11, 2011
CAIRO - Egypt has accelerated its anti-corruption campaign targeting Mubarak-era
officials to soothe protestors who demand early trials of former President Hosni
Mubarak and his top aides.

Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the country's attorney general, on Sunday summoned

Mubarak and would do so to his younger son Gamal in a few days, judicial sources
said.

Former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, a top ally of the ex-president, was detained along
with a former housing minister on the same day over corruption charges.

These have come after one was killed and dozens were injured in a riot early Saturday
in central Cairo's Tahrir Square, when troops and police were dispersing hundreds of
protestors who wanted to stay there overnight, defying a curfew which remained in
effect from 2 a.m. (0000 GMT) to 5 a.m. (0300 GMT).
Tens of thousands of protestors on Friday gathered in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of
the mass demonstrations which forced Mubarak to step down on Feb. 11, to express
their anger over what they believed the slow process of putting on trial those corrupt
officials in the former government.

Remnants of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) were blamed for
instigating Saturday's deadly riot aimed at driving a wedge between the army and the
people.

To avoid bloodshed, which means no excuse for more protests, prosecutors should
speed up their investigations into corruption cases of ex-officials and bring them to
justice as soon as possible, as demanded by youth groups and some opposition parties.

As the country's economy suffers a big blow because of the turmoil, the restoration of
normalcy in every sector is badly needed for its recovery.

Protests have never stopped in this country after the Jan. 25 to Feb. 11 demonstrations.
People like to turn to demonstrations to achieve what they want, whether it is realistic
or not.

With pressure from protests, the caretaker government was reshuffled in early March.
Editor-in-chiefs of national newspapers were replaced with new faces. Figures linked
with the Mubarak regime were removed from their posts.

Since the fall of Mubarak, a number of top figures, including former ministers of
interior, tourism, information, finance, industry and trade and housing, have been
detained or investigated over corruption charges.

Mubarak and his family were banned from travel abroad and their assets frozen on Feb.
28. On April 5, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces decided to form a judicial
committee to investigate the assets of Mubarak and his family.

Charges against Mubarak included the crackdown on peaceful protests and abuse of
power. At least 384 people died and more than 6,000 were injured in the 18 days of
protests.

Various reports about the wealth of Mubarak and his family have come out during and
after the protests. Corruption allegations against Mubarak and his aides was one of the
major causes of the protests, in addition to high unemployment rate and rising food
prices in the country.

Mubarak defended himself and his family by denying the accusations in a recorded
audio speech aired by pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV on Sunday.
"I strongly pained regarding unfair campaigns and baseless accusations targeting my
reputation and history," he said, in his first public statement after resigning and
handing power to the army.

He said he agreed to the top prosecutor's request for Egypt's Foreign Ministry to inquire
about his assets abroad through diplomatic means.

Mubarak denied that he had used his power to accumulate big wealth.

"I kept silent for the past few weeks against all campaigns and false claims aimed at
defaming my reputation and trials to badly affect me and my family's integrity until the
general prosecutor gets all the reports from countries abroad and reveal the truth," said
Mubarak.

He added neither Alaa nor Gamal's wealth was gained by exploiting their influence or
through illegal profiteering.

"I reserve my legal rights towards those who tried to ruin me and my family's
reputation," he said.

It is obvious that protestors will not stop their demonstrations unless they see real
progress in the trials of the top officials in the previous government.

Therefore, these procedures will be implemented in a more efficient way so as to calm

down the enthusiastic youth activists.

Mohamed El Gohary, chairman of Egypt Anti-Graft Agency, has said there is no delay
in questioning of Mubarak and other officials and that all defendants will be summoned
upon completion of interrogations.

Egypt will hold parliamentary elections in September and presidential polls by

November. The army will transfer power to a civilian government after the elections.
---------------------
Sudan has 'irrefutable proof' Israel behind air strike (AFP)
By Unattributed Author
April 10, 2011
KHARTOUM — Sudan said Sunday it had irrefutable evidence that Israel carried out
the air strike on its Red Sea coast last week that killed two people and destroyed the car
they were travelling in.

Tuesday's attack was carried out by two AH-64 Apache helicopters, around 15
kilometres (nine miles) south of Port Sudan, Sudan's foreign ministry said in a
statement.
They flew in from the Red Sea and unleashed a barrage of Hellfire missiles and
machinegun fire on the car after having jammed the local radar system, the statement
added.

The US-made helicopters were not owned by any country in the region except Israel,
said the statement.

While Israel has refused to comment on the raid, officials there have previously
expressed concern about arms smuggling through Sudan, which has close ties with the
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The attack mirrored a similar strike by foreign aircraft on a truck convoy reportedly
laden with weapons in eastern Sudan in January 2009.

Khartoum has already named the two occupants of the car, whose charred remains
were buried on Friday, insisting they were both Sudanese nationals, and denying that
Sudan was harbouring Islamic militant groups.

The foreign ministry says Israel carried out the strike in an attempt to tarnish Sudan's
name and prevent it being removed from the US terror blacklist.

The Khartoum government is desperately seeking Sudan's removal from the US list of
state sponsors of terror.

Washington promised this in return for their allowing January's referendum on

southern independence to take place, and for accepting the overwhelming vote for
secession.

Sudan said it planned to lodge a formal complaint against Israel with the UN Security
Council and would take similar action at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
-------------------------
US envoy to Sudan calls situation in Abyei 'very worrisome' (The New Sudan Vision)
By Unattributed Author
April 9, 2011
JUBA, Southern Sudan - US special envoy to Sudan issued stern warnings to both the
north and the south on Saturday, describing the situation in Abyei as "very tense" and
"worrisome."

Ambassador Princeton Lyman, who was recently appointed by President Obama to

replace Gen. Scott Gration, said the north and the south are bringing heavily military
equipment to Abyei, a gesture he said to be in total violation of the recent security
arragements that called for withdrawal of all troops from the volatile , oil rich area.
Mr. Lyman said both sides are bringing in military equipment to the area at a time
when everthing seems to be uncertain around that disputed region.

"The danger is that a confrontation in a place like Abyei could get out of hand," he said.
"And that could lead them to wholesale war with very serious consequences."

Abyei has long been a source of contention for the north and the south. Its status is well
addressed in the CPA as conditional on the Ngok Dinka who are supposed to vote on
whether to keep it in the north or make it part of the south as was the case before it got
transfered back in 1905.

But the issue became hard in the run up to the referendum when the north and the Arab
Misseriya tribe began to stake some claim to the area, so the fate was left to the
presidency to find a situable politcal solution.

Mr. Lyman met both Kiir and Bashir in Ethiopia after attending a meeting on Southern
Sudan's transition to nationhood.

He said both leaders have pledged to not take both sides to war. Mr.Lyman said the
issue of Abyei will be his number one priority.
-------------------
Nigeria: Enthusiastic Voters Hope for Fair Outcome (AllAfrica)
By Maggie Fick
10 April 2011
Jos, Nigeria — In this central Nigerian city with a history of inter-communal strife, the
delayed kick-off of Nigeria's three-week long elections process was greeted by long
lines of determined, hopeful voters. Despite logistical confusion at some polling sites
throughout the day - and reportedly across the country - counting that appeared
transparent, if often hectic, was underway at multiple vote "collation centers".

There was an explosion on Saturday at a polling station in the tense northern town of
Maiduguri. On the eve of the vote, a bomb blast at an electoral office near the capital,
Abuja, killed at least eight elections workers and injured more than two dozen people,
many of them National Youth Corps volunteers.

But in Jos – a city often cast as the epicenter of brutal sectarian violence over the past
decade – the mood at polling stations was jubilant. Voters, a couple of whom flashed
thumbs-up signs at Nigerian and international journalists, endured scorching sun
throughout a near day-long voting process. Would-be voters first had to be verified as
registered through a accreditation process in the morning, before casting their ballots
beginning at 12:30p.m. Despite a delayed start in several stations, the process remained
calm and orderly.
In a city where political rivals and government officials have so often been directly
linked to instigating violence, resulting in terrible tolls on the residents, voters in Jos
know the stakes of these polls. Yesterday, many voters here seemed to be eager to
participate in a process which they view as much more likely to be free and fair than the
flawed and disputed elections held in Nigeria since 1999, when military rule ended.

"I came here to get in line right after morning prayers," said Danjuma Bawa, 32, a
secondary school math teacher. "It's a better process this time," he said, expressing
confidence that his vote will count this time.
------------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN forces begin operation in Ivorian city in response to attack by pro-Gbagbo forces

10 April – United Nations peacekeepers in Côte d'Ivoire launched a military operation
late today against the forces supporting the former president Laurent Gbagbo after they
continued to mount attacks against the UN, the country's elected Government and
civilians in the city of Abidjan.

African ministers pledge to combat non-communicable diseases in UN-backed

document
8 April – African health ministers have adopted a United Nations-backed declaration
calling for urgent action against non-communicable diseases, including heart
conditions, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory problems, blood disorders, mental
health, violence and injuries.

Kenyan officials suspected of poll violence appear at International Criminal Court

8 April – Three senior Kenyan officials, including the deputy prime minister, today
appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC), which set 21 September as the
date for the start of a hearing on the confirmation of charges preferred against them in
connection with the 2008 post-election violence.

Latest fighting in Somalia displaces 33,000 people, UN agency says

8 April – Fighting in southern and central Somalia between Government forces and Al-
Shabaab militants has displaced about 33,000 people in the past six weeks, the United
Nations refugee agency reported today.

UN human rights team finds over 100 bodies over past day in Côte d’Ivoire
8 April – The United Nations human rights office said today that its investigators have
found more than 100 bodies over the past 24 hours in three different towns in strife-torn
Côte d’Ivoire, with some of them appearing to be ethnic killings.