United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

19 April 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

With U.S. in support role, NATO's Libya mission 'going in circles' (LA Times)
(Libya) month ago in Libya, troops loyal to Moammar Kadafi were advancing on
opposition-held areas, tens of thousands of civilians feared for their lives, and rebel
forces appeared in disarray with little prospect of driving Kadafi from power.

Misrata emerges as deadly test of NATO clout in Libya (Christian Science Monitor)
(Libya) An experiment is playing out in the Libya conflict to see if a global power other
than the United States can lead an armed humanitarian intervention. So far for the
people of Misrata, the experiment is not going so well.

Libya Rebels Learned in a Hurry (Wall Street Journal)

(Libya) Tripoli Street, once the bustling commercial avenue leading to this city's center,
was littered Monday with the burnt shells of government tanks and armored vehicles, a
river of rubble and bombed-out storefronts.

Nigerian President Reelected, Violence in North Continues (VOA)

(Nigeria) Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has won reelection in a vote that has
sparked rioting in the country's northern states that backed his leading opponent.

Joint patrols needed to secure Ivory Coast (Reuters)

(Côte d’Ivoire) Ivory Coast's newly-formed military is not ready to conduct security
patrols without U.N. and French help as soldiers might be prone to looting on their
own, a top Ivorian commander said on Monday.

Burkina Faso and Mali brace for migrants escaping Ivorian conflict (Guardian)
(Côte d’Ivoire) The governments of Burkina Faso and Mali are gearing up for the return
of thousands of people fleeing the violence and the tense political situation in the Ivory
Coast. Three million people from Burkina Faso and 2 million from Mali work in Ivory
Coast. Both countries are already receiving returnees and refugees, as foreigners are
being targeted for violent attacks by supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivorian
president who was arrested last week.

Biden says 'great concern' over Darfur security (AFP)

(Sudan) US Vice President Joe Biden has expressed "great concern" that security
conditions in Darfur "continue to deteriorate" just months before Sudan is to split into
separate states, the White House has said.

Somali enclave to set up piracy courts, prisons (Reuters)

(Somalia) The Somali enclave of Puntland plans to set up special prisons and courts to
try pirates in the Indian Ocean region in the next three to four months, a minister said
on Monday.

Zimbabwe: Ill-Health, Factionalism Weigh Down Mugabe (The Standard)

(Mugabe) Sickness, pressure from neighbours and fissures in his Zanu PF party seem to
have conspired to slow down President Robert Mugabe's push for elections later this
year.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN-backed disarmament process for ex-fighters from Darfur kicks off
 Ban stresses need for comprehensive global response to piracy off Somalia
 Côte d’Ivoire: UN rushes in agriculture aid as gradual calm begins to return
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, April 19th at 2:00 p.m.; U.S. Institute of Peace

WHAT: The Future of Two Sudans: A Conversation with former Presidents Thabo
Mbeki, Pierre Buyoya and Adulsalami Alhaji Abubakar
WHO: President Thabo Mbeki, Former President of South Africa, Head of the African
Union High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan); President Pierre Buyoya, Former
President of Burundi, Member, African Union High Level Implementation Panel
(Sudan); President Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, Former President of Nigeria,
Member, African Union High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan)
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/the-future-two-sudans-conversation-former-
presidents-thabo-mbeki-pierre-buyoya-and-adulsalami

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, April 20th at 2:00 p.m.; U.S. Institute of Peace

WHAT: H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission
WHO: H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Speaker, AU Commission
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/he-dr-jean-ping-chairperson-the-african-union-
commission
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

With U.S. in support role, NATO's Libya mission 'going in circles' (LA Times)
By David S. Cloud and Ned Parker
April 18, 2011, 7:24 p.m.
Washington and Benghazi, Libya— A month ago in Libya, troops loyal to Moammar
Kadafi were advancing on opposition-held areas, tens of thousands of civilians feared
for their lives, and rebel forces appeared in disarray with little prospect of driving
Kadafi from power.

After four weeks and hundreds of airstrikes by the U.S. and its NATO allies, in many
ways little has changed.

Kadafi's tanks and artillery no longer threaten the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi in
eastern Libya, and Kadafi's combat aircraft and helicopter gunships are grounded. But
the disorganized rebel forces are still outmatched and outnumbered by Libyan army
units, which, along with their leader, show no sign of giving up.

Rather, Kadafi has intensified his counteroffensive in recent days. Human rights groups
accused Kadafi's military of using cluster bombs and truck-mounted Grad rockets to
bombard residential areas of Misurata, the only city in western Libya still in rebel
hands.

"We rushed into this without a plan," said David Barno, a retired Army general who
once commanded U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. "Now we're out in the middle,
going in circles."

The failure of the international air campaign to force Kadafi's ouster, or even to stop his
military from shelling civilians and recapturing rebel-held towns, poses a growing
quandary for President Obama and other NATO leaders: What now?

Privately, U.S. officials concede that some of their assumptions before they intervened
in the Libyan conflict may have been faulty. Among them was the notion that air power
alone would degrade Kadafi's military to the point where he would be forced to halt his
attacks, and that the U.S. could leave the airstrikes primarily to warplanes from Britain,
France and other European countries.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, who led
the charge within NATO to launch the air campaign in Libya, argued last week that the
alliance needed to step up its attacks to fulfill the United Nations mandate to protect
civilians. But winning agreement to escalate the intervention could further divide the
already badly split alliance.

The U.S. military moved into a support role early this month, and Obama has given no
indication that he will send U.S. warplanes into combat missions again, let alone
reconsider his promise not to use ground troops in Libya.

His decision to intervene in Libya was not popular at the Pentagon, where Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates and top uniformed officers have shown little interest in
taking a major role in the conflict while they are fighting the war in Afghanistan.
Obama managed to overcome his advisors' objections by promising to keep the U.S.
role limited.

If the alliance's most powerful member isn't willing to escalate, few other members will
be eager to do so.

But the longer Kadafi holds up under the NATO attacks, the more pressure there will
be in Washington and European capitals to deal with him by escalating the military
campaign, arming the rebels or ratcheting up sanctions and other indirect measures, in
hopes of forcing him from power.

Adm. James Stavridis, the U.S. commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
has appealed to NATO members for additional attack planes — a request that U.S.
officials made clear that other alliance members would have to meet.

Obama's decision to limit the U.S. military role left NATO without A-10 Thunderbolt II
or AC-130 Spectre gunships, U.S. planes that are designed for close air support of
ground troops and precise attacks against ground targets.

The U.S. is keeping A-10s and other strike aircraft on standby in case of an emergency.
But bringing the planes back into the fight is not under consideration, a NATO officer
said.

Still, the air campaign clearly has weakened Kadafi's army. Allied airstrikes have
destroyed nearly 40% of Libya's military equipment and headquarters facilities,
according to a senior U.S. military official.

With a maritime exclusion zone preventing Kadafi from obtaining supplies by sea, there
also are signs that his government is struggling to provide ammunition, transportation
and food to troops in the field. They include the 32nd Brigade, an elite unit led by
Kadafi's youngest son, Khamis, and a prime target of airstrikes, the U.S. official said.

Kadafi's long-term prospects for staying in power are not good, U.S. officials insist.
They cite the defection of several top aides, including his former intelligence chief, and
the loss of billions of dollars in oil revenue that he once used to help ensure loyalty in a
tribal-based society.

But those gains have not shifted the balance of military power.

The motley rebel forces that emerged in mid-February to challenge Kadafi's 41-year rule
have proved inept on the battlefield. Nor have Kadafi's military commanders or key
units defected to the rebel side, as some European officials had hoped.
"We do believe he is having some trouble in being able to mount a sustained campaign,"
said the U.S. official, speaking anonymously because he was discussing intelligence
estimates. "That said, he is still much better organized than the rebels and still has the
upper hand."

In some ways, Kadafi's forces have proved surprisingly adept. Instead of using armored
troop carriers that attract attention from surveillance aircraft, they have camouflaged
troop movements by relying on the same kind of battered pickup trucks that the rebels
use, even disguising the vehicles with the opposition flag.

The concealment tactic on the ever-shifting front lines allowed Libyan army units to
advance to the eastern city of Ajdabiya recently before they were beaten back for the
third time by rebel troops and NATO air attacks. Yet again on Sunday, rebels in
Ajdabiya came under attack from Kadafi's rocket-firing forces.

"We expected Kadafi to quickly fold his tent and go somewhere else," said Barno, a
senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think
tank. "But the Libyan forces quickly adapted to the airstrikes by becoming very quickly
like civilians."

No one seems certain how to break the stalemate. Ratcheting down the NATO-led air
campaign while large segments of Kadafi's military remain intact would leave the
rebels vulnerable to being slaughtered.

The Air Force is flying two Predator drones over Libya to help conduct surveillance, but
they are unarmed, officials said. The U.S. also is transferring precision-guided bombs to
NATO allies flying combat missions, since supplies have begun running short, the
NATO officer said.

The last time the United States undertook an air war largely for humanitarian purposes
was during the 1999 NATO campaign in Kosovo, the Serbian province where police
and soldiers loyal to Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic were carrying out a ruthless
assault on ethnic Albanians.

Clinton administration officials expected Milosevic to surrender quickly after NATO

launched airstrikes, but the bombing campaign lasted 78 days. The Clinton White
House promised early on not to send U.S. ground troops into Kosovo, but critics said
that appeared to embolden Milosevic to resist.

Unlike the conflict in Libya, however, U.S. warplanes conducted the vast majority of the
airstrikes during the Kosovo campaign and gradually escalated the bombing. U.S.
officials even threatened at one point to begin flying attack helicopters, and Milosevic
ultimately buckled.
There has been little sign that NATO is considering — or even capable of — that kind of
escalation in Libya as long as the U.S. stays in a supporting role.

"By the U.S. taking a back-seat role, it has a psychological effect on the mission," said
Dan Fata, a former Defense Department official who was responsible for overseeing
NATO issues during the George W. Bush administration. "If I'm Kadafi, I'm thinking I
can probably wait the Europeans out."
---------------------
Misrata emerges as deadly test of NATO clout in Libya (Christian Science Monitor)
By Howard LaFranchi
April 18, 2011
Washington - An experiment is playing out in the Libya conflict to see if a global power
other than the United States can lead an armed humanitarian intervention.

So far for the people of Misrata, the experiment is not going so well.

The only city in western Libya under rebel control is under siege from the forces of
Muammar Qaddafi. And the international coalition’s NATO-led campaign tasked with
protecting Libyan civilians has failed to stop Colonel Qaddafi’s rockets, mortars, and
sniper fire.

One reason explaining NATO’s lack of impact on Qaddafi’s siege is that the
international coalition does not have the kind of precision air power that could take out
mobile weapons like tanks and rocket launchers, some military experts say. The US
does have the kind of ground-attack fighters that could be more effective – the AC-130
and A-10 Warthog – but those have been pulled from the coalition arsenal as the Obama
administration has opted to pull back to a support role.

Reporting from Misrata, the group Human Rights Watch said Monday that
indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on residential neighborhoods were partly
responsible for more than 265 deaths recorded by hospital morgues since April 15.
Hospital officials claim that more than 1,000 people – mostly civilians – have been killed
since fighting began in early March, although the figures are almost impossible to
confirm.

One attack by a Soviet-era Grad rocket killed at least eight people waiting in line for
bread, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

NATO said in a statement Monday that it flew 60 missions on Sunday to attempt to

identify ground targets in Libya, and it also reported taking out four air-defense radar
installations in Misrata. Despite that, rebel commanders in Misrata have told the few
foreign journalists there that they have repeatedly communicated the coordinates of
Qaddafi’s forces to the NATO mission but have seen no response.
The United Nations has attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to get Qaddafi to stop the
siege of Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city. The UN’s under-secretary general for
humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, said in Benghazi Monday that the government in
Tripoli has agreed to allow humanitarian assistance to enter Misrata, although it did not
commit to halting attacks to allow aid to flow in safely.

Ms. Amos acknowledged that the siege of Misrata continues unabated, with little
reliable information trickling out about the scope of the humanitarian crisis there.

“I’m extremely worried about the situation there, I very much hope that the security
situation will allow us to get into Misrata,” she told journalists. “Nobody has any sense
of the depth and scale of what is happening there,” she said.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has managed to get a few ships to
Misrata to evacuate stranded foreign workers, but the Geneva-based intergovernmental
organization said in a statement Monday that conditions for rescue work are quickly
deteriorating.

“We wanted to be able to take more people out but it was impossible,” said the IOM
official leading the evacuation operation, Jeremy Haslam. Describing intermittent
exchanges of fire, he added, “We had a very limited time to get the migrants and
Libyans on board the ship and then leave.”

Libyan government officials said Sunday that the deal worked out with the UN on
humanitarian aid to Misrata includes “safe passage” for refugees to leave the city, but
they did not commit to halting the fight.

The IOM ship that left Monday morning was carrying nearly 1,000 migrant workers,
mostly from Ghana, and some wounded Libyans. Since Friday, the IOM has evacuated
about 2,200 migrant workers and Libyans from Misrata to Benghazi in eastern Libya.
But the organization reports that at least 4,000 migrants, mostly Nigerians, remain stuck
at the city’s port.
--------------------
Libya Rebels Learned in a Hurry (Wall Street Journal)
By CHARLES LEVINSON
April 19, 2011
MISRATA, Libya—Tripoli Street, once the bustling commercial avenue leading to this
city's center, was littered Monday with the burnt shells of government tanks and
armored vehicles, a river of rubble and bombed-out storefronts.

It is the lone point in Misrata where the forces of Col. Moammar Gadhafi have made
deep inroads, but it is also where they have encountered the most tenacious resistance.
From the cramped side streets, rebel fighters have swarmed the regime's tanks and
armor. and defeated tank columns with rocket-propelled grenades, homemade Molotov
cocktails and small bombs.

"At first we took a lot of losses, but then we started to learn," said Fawzi Mohammed, a
40-year-old furniture salesman who owned three stores here before he joined the
uprising in February.

As he spoke, rebels darted into the street to crouch behind sand berms and fire machine
guns at an eight-story office building occupied by Col. Gadhafi's forces.

Mr. Mohammed gestured to the Russian-made FN rifle slung over his shoulder. "Two
months ago, I couldn't have told you what kind of gun this was," he said.

Like Mr. Mohammed, many rebels appear to have taken up arms for the first time over
the past two months, and are outmatched by the regime's artillery barrages, tanks,
cluster bombs and other heavy armaments.

But they have fended off Col. Gadhafi's forces for more than 50 days in the western city,
Libya's third-largest and one of its most fiercely contested.

Col. Gadhafi's forces are laying siege to this city along three main axes, shifting the
attack each day. They occupied most of Tripoli Street for nearly a month, but rebel
fighters have since beaten them back.

When the regime forces pulled back, they left small pockets of troops behind who are
now functioning as sniper teams rebel forces are struggling to eliminate.

From the south, the government forces have homed in on Al-Thaqil Road, a long,
straight thoroughfare that leads to the city's port, the entry point for food, supplies, and
weapons rebels need to sustain their battle and the lives of around half a million
residents.

"If he takes the port, it's over," said Khaled Misrati, 38, a schoolteacher in a group of
about 50 fighters defending their Al Jazeera district on the city's western edge. Rebels
fended off sustained attacks on the port road over the weekend.

Monday, Col. Gadhafi unleashed his fiercest attacks on the western edges of Misrata, an
area known as Zawiyat al-Mahjoub. If he breaks the rebel defenses here, he will have a
clear shot along the coast.

To compensate for inadequate arms and manpower, the rebels are relying on their
intimate knowledge of the city—fighting mostly in neighborhood militias on the streets
in which they grew up, and alongside trusted friends and relatives.
Unlike in eastern Libya, where there appears to be more guns than fighters able and
willing to use them in battle, here there are scores of young men looking to join the fight
who can't because they can't get rifles. "This is our land, our city, our streets," said Mr.
Mohammed.

He and fellow fighters have learned small-unit tactics, such as how to operate in pairs,
advancing toward the enemy one at a time, with each providing covering fire for the
other.

When a mortar whistled overhead Monday morning, Mr. Mohammed didn't flinch,
another lesson he said he has learned in nearly two months of street battles. "If you can
hear it, it's no danger," he said. "The only shells you need to be afraid of are the ones
you can't hear."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that the U.N. has reached
an agreement with Col. Gadhafi's government on providing humanitarian aid to the
country.

Valerie Amos, the U.N. humanitarian chief who was in Benghazi on Monday, said she
had received assurances from Col. Gadhafi's government that the U.N. would be
allowed into Misrata.

But the thuds and explosions of incoming artillery pounded the city Monday. As the
shelling intensified, wounded streamed into the city's hospitals. In one frenetic burst,
three young men arrived in rapid succession to the outdoor tents in the parking lot of
Al-Hikma Hospital that now function as makeshift emergency rooms.

The skies overhead were silent all day, with no NATO aircraft in sight. But after sunset,
NATO planes could be heard flying overhead followed by a series of several massive
explosions. It was unclear what was targeted.

Misrata's rebels said they are depending on their fighting spirit to outlast that of their
enemies. "Their morale is dying," Mr. Mohammed said. "They are in bad shape. That's
how we will win. They fear death. We don't fear death."
------------------
Nigerian President Reelected, Violence in North Continues (VOA)
By Scott Stearns
April 18, 2011
Dakar, Senegal - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has won reelection in a vote
that has sparked rioting in the country's northern states that backed his leading
opponent.

With results from all of Nigeria's 36 states, electoral commission president Attahiru Jega
announced that President Jonathan is the clear winner.
"Goodluck E. Jonathan of PDP, having certified the requirements of the law and scored
the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and his return elected," said
Jega.

President Jonathan's nearly 22.5 million votes is almost twice the number of the second-
place finisher, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, who won a little more than 12
million votes. President Jonathan avoids a round run-off election by winning at least
one-quarter of the vote in at least 24 states.

That provision is meant to ensure that a Nigerian president has some measure of
national support and is not merely a regional candidate. But much of the vote appears
to have broken down along regional lines, with President Jonathan winning the south
and Mr. Buhari winning the north.

Early results showing Mr. Jonathan in the lead led to rioting in parts of the mainly
Muslim north. In Kaduna state, Vice President Namadi Sambo's home was burned and
a 24-hour curfew was imposed after a prison was raided and inmates set free.

In the capital of Kano state, security forces fired shots into the air as stone-throwing
youths took to the streets and chanted support for Mr. Buhari. Human Rights Watch
says at least 60 people have been killed in election-related violence since the first of the
month.

In his acceptance speech, President Jonathan said his government is taking all necessary
measures to guarantee the lives and property of all Nigerians.

"I enjoin our political and religious leaders in their usual sense of patriotism to call on
their followers to eschew all acts of bitterness and violence," said President Jonathan.
"As I have always stated, nobody's political ambition is worth the blood of any
Nigerian."

Mr. Jonathan thanked God and Nigeria's voters for the opportunity to run the country.

"By this election, we have found our unity as one nation under God, have reiterated our
faith in democracy and underscored our determination to fully join the free world
where only the will of the people is the foundation of governance. We will not let you
down." he said.

President Jonathan said there is no victor and no vanquished as Nigeria proved to the
world that it is capable of holding free, fair and credible elections.

"This is a victory for the sustenance of our democracy, a victory which all Nigerians -
irrespective of creed, ethnicity or state of origin - should celebrate," said jonathan. "It is
a triumph for our common destiny as a people with shared ideals, shared dreams and
shared hopes."

Mr. Jonathan congratulated the other candidates and said the country expects their
continued leadership and commitment to nation-building. The president said
Nigerians must move away from partisan battlegrounds and find a national common
ground to build a prosperous nation.
------------------------
Joint patrols needed to secure Ivory Coast (Reuters)
By Ange Aboa
April 18, 2011 3:56pm EDT
ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast's newly-formed military is not ready to conduct security patrols
without U.N. and French help as soldiers might be prone to looting on their own, a top
Ivorian commander said on Monday.

Fighters loyal to President Alassane Ouattara, including many of the country's former
rebels, toppled former leader Laurent Gbagbo last week after fierce fighting, ending a
post-election power struggle.

Those troops now form the backbone of the new Ivorian army charged with securing
the country, though the force has been accused of looting, rape and executions during
their sweep from the north into the main city of Abidjan in March.

"We will increase patrols, but we need to be careful. If these patrols are not with Licorne
(the French military force in Ivory Coast) they will degrade," said Issiaka Wattao,
Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces under Ouattara.

"That is why I prefer to mix these patrols with Licorne, who are respectful guys and
they could never steal in front of them," Wattao said in an interview.

"There will be more mixed patrols with Licorne and the United Nations to reassure the
population and convince them it is safe to go out," he said.

Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan is slowly returning to normal after heavy combat
between Ouattara's fighters and those loyal to Gbagbo, and authorities in the world's
top cocoa grower are hoping for a swift revival of the economy.

But looting remains rife, and Gbagbo loyalists continue to operate in some
neighborhoods, with residents in the northern Abidjan district of Yopougon reporting
nightly gunfire.

"What is happening in Yopougon right now, we are negotiating with the militias to
make sure they understand that the solution is not war," Wattao said. "Gbagbo is gone,
and it is important they understand they need to put down their arms."
"Among them, there could be future police, gendarmes, even military, if they agree," he
said.

Gbagbo, who came to power in 2000, refused to step down following an election in
November 2010 that U.N.-certified results showed he lost to Ouattara, sparking a
bloody standoff that killed thousands and displaced more than a million.

Gbagbo was captured last week and is being held in the country's north.
------------------
Burkina Faso and Mali brace for migrants escaping Ivorian conflict (Guardian)
By Liz Ford
18 April 2011 18.05
The governments of Burkina Faso and Mali are gearing up for the return of thousands
of people fleeing the violence and the tense political situation in the Ivory Coast.

Three million people from Burkina Faso and 2 million from Mali work in Ivory Coast.
Both countries are already receiving returnees and refugees, as foreigners are being
targeted for violent attacks by supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivorian
president who was arrested last week.

During Ivory Coast's 2002-03 civil war, more than 200,000 returned to Burkina Faso and
Mali, and some of them never went back to Ivory Coast – unable to reposess their
property or concerned about potential unrest.

Christian Aid says that between 40,000 and 50,000 could cross those borders over the
next few weeks, putting pressure on already tight resources. Of the 169 countries listed
in the 2010 Human Development Index, Burkina Faso and Mali were ranked at 161 and
160 respectively.

"A majority of the people fleeing Ivory Coast are foreigners who are migrant workers,
some of them for generations, as they have been specifically targeted for violence and
abuse," said Cristina Ruiz, Christian Aid's west Africa regional emergency manager.
"These people are now living with relatives and acquaintances in their country of
origin."

Government ministers in the two countries are understood to be drawing up plans with
the UN and NGOs to cope with the expected influx.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last week that
404 people had registered as refugees in Mali and 70 in Burkina Faso. However, exact
figures are hard to gauge: many people cross the border and head straight to relatives'
homes.
Ruiz said that the immediate assistance of refugees and returnees, was the main focus
of humanitarian operation, but longer-term plans, particularly in Mali, are being
considered, including income-generation activities and microfinance projects.

Niger is also receiving huge numbers of returnees from Ivory Coast. According to
OCHA, by last week 5,523 people had entered. A further 50,000 Nigerois are still in
Ivory Coast, but 21,500 are fleeing from Libya, and another 30,000 are waiting to get out
of the north African state.

Since violence broke out in Ivory Coast, following last November's presidential election,
more than 150,000 refugees have left – the majority to Liberia, and 8,500 to Ghana – and
a further million have left their homes. Now that the battle for the biggest city, Abidjan,
has diminished, many more people may feel safe enough to leave their homes and cross
the borders.

Aid agencies warn that the humanitarian crisis in the region is likely to continue for
months and have called for more funding, according to AllAfrica.com.

Oxfam's regional humanitarian coordinator in Ivory Coast, Philippe Conraud, said the
organisation was preparing for a "long-term humanitarian emergency and potential
public health disaster … The fallout of the past four months will be felt for a long time
to come. Refugees need lifesaving aid immediately and support to help rebuild their
lives over the coming months."

The UN says $160m is needed for Ivory Coast but, so far, only $22m has been
committed by the international community. For Liberia, the UN needs $146.5m, just
over a quarter has been pledged.

The European Commission is expected to announce this week a substantial increase in

aid to Ivory Coast and neighbouring states. The EU is the largest donor of humanitarian
aid to the country: from its initial pledge of €55m, €30m is being used to support the
UN, Red Cross and other NGOs.

Last week, the European commissioner for development, Andris Piebalgs, announced
that Ivory Coast's debts from projects funded by the European Investment Bank,
including a new airport, would be written off.
---------------------
Biden says 'great concern' over Darfur security (AFP)
By Unattributed Author
April 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — US Vice President Joe Biden has expressed "great concern" that
security conditions in Darfur "continue to deteriorate" just months before Sudan is to
split into separate states, the White House has said.
Biden's comments were made during a White House meeting with former South
African president Thabo Mbeki, who is chairman of the African Union's special panel
for Sudan.

"The vice president underscored the importance of ensuring the establishment of two
viable states in Sudan after the south's independence in July and stressed that a
resolution to the situation in Darfur must be part of that process," according to an
official readout of the meeting.

Also attending the meeting were former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar,
and former Burundi president Pierre Buyoya, both of whom are members of the Sudan
panel.

On Darfur, Biden "expressed great concern that security conditions on the ground
continue to deteriorate and are further aggravated by important restrictions on
peacekeepers' and humanitarian workers' access to vulnerable populations," the
statement said.

Last week, heavy clashes between the Sudanese army and a coalition of armed groups
in northern Darfur caused several casualties on both sides.

Renewed fighting between rebels and the army over the past four months has resulted
in more than 70,000 new arrivals at camps in Darfur set up for the displaced, according
to United Nations reports.

At least 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 1.8 million people forced to flee
their homes since non-Arab rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum
regime in 2003, according to the United Nations.

The government puts the death toll at 10,000.

On Monday, Biden expressed appreciation "for the panel's role in brokering the recent
commitment by Sudanese leaders to withdraw northern and southern forces from
Abyei."

The flashpoint border region's future is the most sensitive of a raft of issues which
Khartoum and Juba are negotiating ahead of southern independence in July.
------------------
Somali enclave to set up piracy courts, prisons (Reuters)
Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:42pm GMT
By Martina Fuchs
DUBAI - The Somali enclave of Puntland plans to set up special prisons and courts to
try pirates in the Indian Ocean region in the next three to four months, a minister said
on Monday.
The breakaway enclave of Somaliland and semi-autonomous Puntland, itself a centre of
piracy, are seen as relatively stable compared with the rest of the Horn of Africa
country, where a weak interim government is battling Islamist insurgents.

"In the next to weeks, the construction of the prison in Bosaso and Garowe will start,
and also in Somaliland," Saeed Mohamed Rage, Puntland's minister of marine
transport, ports and counter-piracy, told Reuters.

Pirates based in Somalia have turned busy shipping lanes off the coast of the conflict-
wrecked state into some of the most perilous waters on Earth and cost the world
billions of dollars.

The U.N. Security Council in April backed the idea of special courts to try captured
Somali pirates but put off a decision on thorny details such as where to locate them.

The Puntland prisons would enable the establishment of two courts in Bosaso and
Garowe to try pirates and will be set up in the next 3-4 months, Rage said in an
interview in Dubai.

There were now more than 260 pirate inmates in Puntland's prisons, he said. Asked
about who will fund the prisons, he said: "The European Union will fund, in
collaboration with Norway, and also mostly the UK."

PUNTLAND-SEYCHELLES ACCORD

Puntland borders on Somaliland to its west, the Gulf of Aden to the north and the
Indian Ocean in the southeast. The capital is Garowe, but commerce and business is
concentrated in the port city of Bosaso.
On Monday, Puntland signed an agreement with the Seychelles on the repatriation and
transfer of sentenced pirates.

With Somalia lacking legal infrastructure, Kenya and the Seychelles have prosecuted
dozens of suspects handed over by foreign navies. But both say they would have
difficulties coping if all the seized pirates were sent to them.

A Russian-drafted U.N. resolution also urged all countries to criminalise piracy, saying
the crime could be prosecuted anywhere no matter where it was committed, and called
on states and organisations to fund prisons in Somaliland and Puntland.

Rage said attacks by pirates were increasing. "It is really every day. It was supposed to
decrease, but every day there is another active operation because of the payment rise
and the payment of ransom. We have to get them all," Rage said.
"We have to stop the payment of ransom, it will accelerate the pirates, their authority,
and they will become another government," he said. "The solution is not on the
international community, but on the Somalis."

At the beginning of the month, pirates were holding at least 29 vessels, ranging from
fishing boats to tankers, holding their crews hostage and demanding multi-million-
dollar ransoms.

The hijacking of ships near the coast of Somalia, where an Islamist insurgency and
lawlessness has created a pirate safe haven, has cost the shipping industry millions of
dollars.
-------------------
Zimbabwe: Ill-Health, Factionalism Weigh Down Mugabe (The Standard)
By Kholwani Nyathi
April 17, 2011
Harare — SICKNESS, pressure from neighbours and fissures in his Zanu PF party seem
to have conspired to slow down President Robert Mugabe's push for elections later this
year.

Only a few weeks ago, Mugabe appeared unstoppable as he sought to defy everyone
who believed that Zimbabwe is not ready for fresh elections.

The Zanu PF campaign manifesto was anchored on an ambitious lobby to get two
million signatures on a petition that calls for the lifting of punitive measures against
Mugabe's inner circle imposed by the West.

The party, which ensured its resurrection a decade ago through a ruinous agrarian
reform programme, had also set its sights on grabbing what remains of foreign-owned
companies to use them as bait for reluctant voters.

But Mugabe appears to be having too much in his hands right now to worry about
elections. There are indications that his wife Grace is seriously ill after she allegedly fell
down at their Borrowdale home and dislocated a hip.

She is said to be receiving treatment in Singapore and this has seen Mugabe making
four trips to the Asian country since January. The last trip was on April 8.

His spokesman George Charamba also confirmed that his boss had used one of the trips
to see doctors for his own health problems.

These problems have forced the 87-year-old former guerilla leader to make fewer public
appearances than usual. As if that was not enough Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) leaders who in the past have been accused of being soft in dealing
with an intransigent Mugabe have suddenly changed their game plan.
The leaders, led by South African President Jacob Zuma are now demanding that the
87-year-old leader plays ball and the weeks leading to a special Sadc summit on
Zimbabwe in Namibia next month will provide the sternest test to Mugabe's diplomatic
skills.

Disloyal Zanu PF MPs who voted for MDC-T chairman Lovemore Moyo to be Speaker
of Parliament ahead of their own chairman Simon Khaya- Moyo have also given the
geriatric leader headaches.

The frustrations were evident at the burial of the deputy director general of the Central
Intelligence Organisation Mernard Muzariri on Thursday when Mugabe lashed out at
traitors from within.He said he was aware that there were "sell-outs" within the ranks of
Zanu PF.

Mugabe's fallout with Zuma has also left one of his self-appointed propagandists,
Jonathan Moyo badly bruised. Moyo has been on a lonely but damaging crusade
against Zuma since the Livingstone rude awakening.

There are reports that just like in his first flirtation with Zanu PF, the acerbic professor
of political science has rubbed his seniors in the party the wrong way.

Khaya-Moyo refused to discuss the allegations when The Standard sought his comment
last week.

However, the Tsholotsho North MP defended himself through an online publication

saying the storm that he precipitated was a "fake hullabaloo." However, another analyst
Bril-liant Mhlanga believes Zanu PF was not bruised as much as its opponents wanted
to believe and its anti-sanctions campaign would resonate with the electorate.

"Zanu PF's elections strategy of using sanctions is selling," he said. "People have to be
careful not to dismiss it so early."

Mhlanga said the decisions of the Sadc troika were not representative of the sentiment
in the region and cannot give Mugabe sleepless nights.

Sadc communique shocked Zanu PF

BEKITHEMBA Mpofu, a political analyst said it was clear that Zanu PF was in sixes and
sevens, especially after the Sadc troika on peace and security meeting in Zambia last
month.

"It is evident that the Sadc communiqué was a shock to the Zanu PF system, it was not
expected and the fallout from it was not planned," Mpofu said.
"Like any ordering or prioritisation of work and activities, their electioneering
programmes have to take a back seat while they firefight for their very existence."

He said Zanu PF had survived this long largely because of the solidarity from
neighbouring countries.

Mpofu said Zanu PF's only option was to abandon its inflammatory programmes such
as the anti-sanctions campaign where its foot soldiers coerce people to append their
signatures and the grabbing of companies.

"The First Lady's sickness and Mugabe's own health challenge have not helped the
situation," he said.

"Instead it has allowed the dark sinister forces within the party which were identified
by (Prime Minister) Morgan Tsvangirai to have free rein in the presidential office."
-----------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN-backed disarmament process for ex-fighters from Darfur kicks off

18 April – More than 1,000 former fighters from Sudan’s armed forces and Darfur’s
rebel groups are laying down their arms over the next 10 days and beginning a United
Nations-backed process aimed at reintegrating them into civilian life.

Ban stresses need for comprehensive global response to piracy off Somalia
18 April – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for a comprehensive response to
maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia, saying the menace is a consequence of the
overall insecurity, lack of a stable national government and underdevelopment in the
Horn of Africa country.

Côte d’Ivoire: UN rushes in agriculture aid as gradual calm begins to return

18 April – As calm gradually returns to Côte d’Ivoire after months of post-election
violence, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that
it is rushing to assist farmers as they prepare to sow their rice and maize crops at the
onset of the rainy season in the north and west of the country.