United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

20 April 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

U.S. Africom Chief Stresses Continued Partnership (The Inquirer)

(Liberia) The new Commander of the United States Africa Command, General Carter F.
Ham on Monday assured the government of Liberia that Liberia's future is positive
because of the quality of professional trainings that have been given to soldiers of the
Armed Forces of Liberia, (AFL).

NATO does not need US for Libya: Biden (AFP)

(Libya) US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview published Tuesday that NATO
can handle Libya without US help, saying Washington's efforts are better focused on
places like Pakistan or Egypt.

Misurata rebels show ingenuity in Libya war (LA Times)

(Libya) The five rebel gunmen crept tensely along the side road's shuttered storefronts,
past the dark furniture shop with the broken windows and the streetlamps decorated
with plastic flowers. Perpendicular to them was Tripoli Street, the heart of Misurata,
where Moammar Kadafi's snipers hide in office buildings and rake the city with bullets.

WFP Delivers Food to Western Libya (VOA)

(Libya) The World Food Program has started moving food assistance by land into parts
of western Libya heavily affected by fighting for the first time since violence between
the government and protesters began two months ago.

France opposes idea of sending troops to Libya (Reuters)

(Libya) France is opposed to the idea of sending troops into Libya to guide air strikes as
the West struggles to break a military stalemate in the North African country, Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday.

Sudan Town Burned in Oil-Producing State, Clooney’s Satellite Project Says

(Bloomberg)
(Libya) A Sudanese town was deliberately burned in the oil-producing state of
Southern Kordofan, where elections will be held next month, the Google Inc (GOOG).-
backed Satellite Sentinel Project said in a statement today.
Despite meager resources, coast guard defend Somaliland from pirates (CNN)
(Somaliland) When you read about anti-piracy efforts off the coastline of Somalia, you
imagine huge war-ships slicing through the waters, with terrified sea bandits scattering
in their wake.

Uganda: Death Toll Rises to Four as Army Steps In (The Monitor)

(Uganda) Army and police units yesterday used tear gas, bullets and truncheons to
break up protests against rising food and fuel prices around the country, leaving at least
one person dead in Kampala, and bringing the death toll to four in three days.

Cleaner election boost's Nigeria legitimacy – and regional clout (Christian Science
Monitor)
(Nigeria) A new regional hegemony may have been born this week – Nigeria's. Africa's
most extravagant oil producer has long had the money, minerals, and raw
demographics to dominate its region like a bull in what might otherwise be France's
backyard or the People's Republic of China's shop.

Making Mugabe Laugh (NYT Op-Ed)

(Zimbabwe) Barely was Laurent Gbagbo, wearing a sweat-damp white tank top and a
startled expression, prodded at rebel gunpoint from the bombed ruins of his
presidential bunker in Ivory Coast, than Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
announced this conclusion: His ejection, more than four months after he refused to
accept electoral defeat, sent “a strong signal to dictators and tyrants throughout the
region and around the world. They may not disregard the voice of their own people in
free and fair elections, and there will be consequences for those who cling to power.”
Zimbabwe’s 87-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, who began his 32nd year in power
this week, must have chortled when he heard that one.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN health team travels to western Côte d’Ivoire to review medical needs
 Ban voices concern at deadlock in UN-backed negotiations on Western Sahara
 UN agency deplores pirates’ use of seafarers as human shields
 Right to freedom of expression vital as Algeria embarks on reforms – UN expert
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, 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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT
U.S. Africom Chief Stresses Continued Partnership (The Inquirer)
By Melissa Chea-Annan
April 19, 2011
The new Commander of the United States Africa Command, General Carter F. Ham on
Monday assured the government of Liberia that Liberia's future is positive because of
the quality of professional trainings that have been given to soldiers of the Armed
Forces of Liberia, (AFL). General Ham, who paid a courtesy visit at the Ministry of
National Defense in Monrovia, told Minister J. Brownie Samukai that while serving in
his new post, he will look for ways to strengthen the partnership between the United
States and Liberia. “I am more interested in making sure that the military-to-military
partnership perpetuates, a commitment that is more important,” he added.

The United States Army General arrived in the country on Monday to discuss wide
range of bilateral issues, including partnership, cooperation and support aimed at
developing the tactical and technical efficiency of members of the restructured armed
Forces of Liberia.

General Ham, who was accompanied to the Ministry of Defense by US Ambassador

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, observed that the partnership between the United States of
America and Liberia has been successful over the years. He said building the AFL is an
important contribution to their professional development.

According to the US AFRICOM new boss the secret for the successful contribution the
US has made in the AFL has to do with what they gain. “We gain just as much as we
give in the relationship. There are opportunities for US military personnel for all of their
services to live; work and train here along with the AFL as an important contribution to
our professional development,” General Ham stated.

He pointed out that making meaningful contribution to the AFL makes them better
soldiers, sailors, Coastguards and marines by having the opportunity to engage with
them, and by that they are more appreciative. “This is a highly mutually beneficial
relationship for both nations and serves members. I want to continue this enduring
relationship into the future,” General Ham added.

Earlier, the Minister of Defense, J. Brownie Samukai commended the US Government

for being a partner and a friend to Liberia throughout the years. He expressed
satisfaction for the visitation of General Ham to the country on the day that marked the
4th anniversary of the signing of the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement
(ACSA).

On April 18, 2007, the US Government and Liberian Government signed the ACSA that
was aimed at building a military cooperation between the two countries. The agreement
is a mutual support agreement that permits the exchange of logistical support, supplies
and services between the two militaries.

Minister Samukai told the US General that the agreement has been very fruitful and
beneficial for the two countries. He explained further that the onward operation liberty
has been very fundamental in helping them get the AFL excel to another level. He
expressed hopes that the program will continue in the next years.

He commended the US Government for the training they gave to the Liberian Coast
Guard. He also pleaded to the US General to document some of the training courses to
enable the AFL continue its training for younger officers and build up their capacity
since it is costly to carry out training for a large number of soldiers outside the country.

General Ham, a career soldier who served in several countries, is the successor of the
Commander of the US AFRICOM four star General William E. 'Kip' Ward. His previous
assignment was Commanding General of the United States Army Europe and 7th
Army.
--------------------
NATO does not need US for Libya: Biden (AFP)
By Unattributed Author
April 11, 2011
WASHINGTON — US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview published Tuesday
that NATO can handle Libya without US help, saying Washington's efforts are better
focused on places like Pakistan or Egypt.

"If the Lord Almighty extricated the US out of NATO and dropped it on the planet of
Mars so we were no longer participating, it is bizarre to suggest that NATO and the rest
of the world lacks the capacity to deal with Libya -- it does not," Biden told the Financial
Times.

"Occasionally other countries lack the will, but this is not about capacity," he told the
daily amid deep unease among the US public and lawmakers over military action in
Libya.

His comments came after the US Defense Department said the US military had flown
more than 800 sorties over Libya since handing control of the air campaign's operations
to NATO.

Navy Captain Darryn James said US fighter jets this month unleashed bombs eight
times on the air defenses of strongman Moamer Kadhafi's government, which is
battling anti-regime rebels in the North African nation.
Washington coordinated operations in the first days of allied intervention in Libya after
the United Nations Security Council approved international military action to thwart
attacks by Kadhafi forces on rebel-held cities.

It transferred command to the NATO alliance earlier this month, leaving the Pentagon
primarily providing refueling and surveillance aircraft, but it still flexes its military
might.

Biden argued that Washington had to decide whether to spend resources "focusing on
Iran, Egypt, North Korea, Afghanistan [and] Pakistan", or give Libya more attention,
stressing: "We can't do it all."

"The question is: Where should our resources be?" he asked.

If it came down to deciding between getting a complete picture of Libya's opposition or

understanding events in Egypt and the role the Muslim Brotherhood -- an Islamist
group feared by some in Washington -- then "it's not even close," said Biden.

But the vice president flatly denied that domestic US political considerations had
shaped the US handover to NATO.

"This is about our strategic interest and it is not based upon a situation of what can the
traffic bear politically at home," he said.

"The traffic can bear politically more in Libya: There's a bad guy there, everybody
knows he's a bad guy, the people don't like him, and so that's not hard," he added,
referring to Kadhafi.

Fulfilling the UN mandate to protect Libyan civilians "is totally, thoroughly, completely
within the capacity of NATO," he said.

"Where we brought unique benefits to bear and unique assets we have applied those
assets and we will."
-------------------------
Misurata rebels show ingenuity in Libya war (LA Times)
By Ned Parker
April 19, 2011, 7:25 p.m.
Misurata, Libya — The five rebel gunmen crept tensely along the side road's shuttered
storefronts, past the dark furniture shop with the broken windows and the streetlamps
decorated with plastic flowers. Perpendicular to them was Tripoli Street, the heart of
Misurata, where Moammar Kadafi's snipers hide in office buildings and rake the city
with bullets.
Their feet crunched the concrete and metal debris scattered on the ground, but the men
were otherwise silent. They'd done this before.

At the intersection with Tripoli, one of the men darted into the traffic circle, now filled
with sand berms, truck frames, tires and a torched tank. He lunged to one knee and
began firing, shooting again and again at a building down the block.

His four colleagues pivoted around the corner and sprayed protective fire, not wincing
at the bullets whistling by.

Shielded, the first man raced back to the side street. His companions quickly swung
back around the corner, all of them temporarily out of harm's way. There, they pumped
their fists and hoisted their weapons, all of them buzzed by the skirmish.

The men of the so-called Shahid group had just fought another small battle in the
ongoing guerrilla war in Misurata, the sole western city holding out against Kadafi's
forces. This band, and others like it, has been integral to the city's defense.

When eastern Libya erupted into anti-Kadafi protests in mid-February, Misurata and
other cities in the west quickly followed. But when Kadafi answered with gunfire,
crushing protests in the smaller western city of Zawiya, Misurata residents vowed not
to suffer the same fate.

By March, this city of 500,000, the third-largest in Libya, had mobilized, with its own
secretive city leadership and the emergence of young gangs to guard Misurata's
neighborhoods.

The bands, each with a commander, have quickly evolved, coordinating the supply of
weapons and trucks, defending Misurata's rebel-held neighborhoods and answering
emergency battle calls. In their David-vs.-Goliath fight, they have shown aplomb and
ingenuity, sneaking up on a tank and attaching a bomb to its bottom or side, ambushing
soldiers from rooftops with heavy machine guns, even burning small buildings with
Kadafi's snipers lurking inside.

Their most inventive act may have been partitioning Tripoli Street with sand-filled
trucks into three sections. Now Kadafi's snipers are holed up in a life insurance
building, post office and a trade bank; from there they open fire on the surrounding
areas.

But with daily shelling and with the city isolated, Misurata and its gangs fear they are
living on borrowed time. The pressure builds by the day. Bread and fuel lines grow
longer, and more and more Libyans are thinking of leaving the city. The city's pool of
men is limited. Streets have been unofficially renamed for those who have died on their
pavement.
All of the fighters know that, at some point, their hand-me-down and captured
weapons could run out and the shrinking number of fighters could be overrun. They
wish NATO troops would help them flush out Kadafi's fighters and destroy the
antiaircraft guns, mortars and artillery that hammer Misurata. They've asked. Except for
a blunt "no" from the U.S., the response has been equivocal.

So they fight on.

These improvised gangs devoted to the community's survival are the equivalent of
neighborhood watch groups on steroids. Many are family members and longtime
friends, with ties that go back years; others are strangers who have coalesced over the
last five weeks into fighting units. Most are in their teens, 20s and 30s.

The weapons they own are a treasure won by looting abandoned Kadafi militia
barracks in Misurata and by plundering the assault rifles of defeated Kadafi fighters.
When one rebel wins a better weapon, he hands down his old rifle to a new recruit. If a
foot soldier dies, his weapon is passed on to another fighter. Every bullet and every life
counts in this war, a war in which the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against the
people of Misurata.

Here off Tripoli Street, the Shahid group is intent on harassing Kadafi fighters
ensconced in buildings. Like each militia, the Shahid group goes by the name of its
leader, Khalid Shahid. His fighters describe him as a 37-year-old who gathered
weapons and vehicles in the early days of the fighting and quickly gained a following.

Like other bands roaming the streets of Misurata, the Shahid men have proved quick
studies of guerrilla tactics. They coordinate by word of mouth and by radio with other
militias, most ranging from 20 to 60 men, and with the city's military operations room.
One militia on Tripoli Street is called the Head, another Khatiba and another Abu Jihad.
The militias have developed radio code names for the enemy: Tanks are "cockroaches,"
Kadafi's fighters are "ants."

It is the family and neighborhood ties that keep the Shahid group and other units
together — that and the camaraderie forged in the trenches.

Radwan Bilal, 19, is typical of the fighters in Misurata. He found like-minded men who
wanted to take on Kadafi after the demonstrations began. Soon he was one of the
original seven who gathered around Shahid. The group quickly ballooned to more than
30.

At the beginning of March, Bilal joined Shahid and an informal group of rebels stalking
a Kadafi paramilitary unit that had stopped to buy supplies on Tripoli Street. The rebels
blocked the intersections and overpowered the men, taking them captive; Bilal was
given his first Kalashnikov.

He's now a cross between seasoned rebel fighter and restless neighborhood kid.
Showing his youth, he bragged that, during the rebellion, he had seen through night-
vision goggles a Kadafi sniper kissing a mercenary. He hails from the center of
Misurata, around Tripoli Street; this is his home.

Others came to Tripoli Street at the beginning of March because they saw it as the
biggest battleground in the city. They stayed, and now the men there are family in this
fight. They patrol the streets around the clock, slipping away to their homes every few
days for a shower and to assure relatives of their safety.

Abu Bakr Zain joined the Shahid group on Tripoli Street in this way. First he trailed
another fighter, offering him help with supplies. When his friend took a rocket-
propelled grenade from a Kadafi fighter, he offered his old weapon to Zain. From there,
Zain's skills grew. Soon after, he said, he used a borrowed machine gun to kill four
Kadafi fighters from a roof.

Kadafi's loyalists fired off a tank round at the building, but he was already on the move.
"Street fighting taught me never stay in one place too long," Zain said.

Two of his cousins recently joined him on the front. Tripoli Street is his post now, he
says, and he will live or die here.
------------------
WFP Delivers Food to Western Libya (VOA)
By Lisa Schlein
April 19, 2011
Geneva - The World Food Program has started moving food assistance by land into
parts of western Libya heavily affected by fighting for the first time since violence
between the government and protesters began two months ago.

The World Food Program reports a convoy of eight trucks loaded with wheat flour and
high-energy biscuits crossed into western Libya on Monday. WFP says these supplies
are enough to feed nearly 50,000 people for 30 days.

WFP spokeswoman Emilia Casella says earlier this week, the agency signed an
operational agreement with the Libyan Red Crescent to coordinate the delivery and
distribution of food assistance to the areas facing food shortages.

"WFP is coordinating with all of the parties on the ground to ensure that affected
civilian population does not go hungry irrespective of their area’s adherence to any of
the warring factions," she said.
Casella says WFP also will be delivering food to people in need of assistance in the
capital, Tripoli, which is under the control of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

She says the World Food Program delivered a one-month supply of food on April 7 to
40,000 people in the rebel-controlled port city of Misrata, which is under siege by pro-
Gadhafi forces.

"Now, we are trying to deliver it in other parts of the country where people need
assistance. And, at this stage, we have managed to get in food for 50,000 people and we
will continue to try to get in food to all the areas including back to Misrata if we can,"
said Casella.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Children’s Fund says a ship carrying medical supplies for 15,000
to 25,000 people is expected to dock in Misrata on Wednesday. A UNICEF
spokeswoman, Marixie Mercado, says supplies include first aid kits, drinking water,
water purification tablets, and hygiene items.

"It is now 50 days into the fighting in Misrata and the full picture of the toll on children
is emerging - and it is far worse than we had feared, and certain to get worse unless
there is a cease-fire," she said. "We have at least 20 verified child deaths and many more
injuries due to shrapnel from mortars and tanks and bullet wounds. The youngest
victim was nine months old and most of those who have been killed in the past two
weeks were younger than 10."

Mercado says many children are traumatized by the conflict. She says many have
limited access to water, food and other essential needs.
-------------------
France opposes idea of sending troops to Libya (Reuters)
By Yves Clarisse
April 19, 2011 11:39am EDT
PARIS - France is opposed to the idea of sending troops into Libya to guide air strikes
as the West struggles to break a military stalemate in the North African country,
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday.

Juppe said the situation in Libya was "difficult" and "confused" a month after France
launched the first U.N.-mandated strikes against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

He added that the West had underestimated the Libyan leader's ability to adapt his
tactics in response to the coalition campaign.

Gaddafi's army has switched to light vehicles like pickup trucks after strikes led by
France, Britain and the United States targeted his tanks and heavy weaponry.
"I remain absolutely opposed to a deployment of troops on the ground," Juppe told
reporters, saying it would not be allowed under a United Nations Security Council
resolution permitting the intervention in Libya.

"It is likely ... that there will not be a military solution," he added.

The head of the French national assembly's foreign affairs committee, ruling
conservative party member Axel Poniatowski, said this week that only an intervention
by ground troops could boost the coalition's Libya campaign, which has flagged as
Gaddafi shelters his armor in civilian areas.

"What we have perhaps underestimated is Muammar Gaddafi's capacity to adapt,"

Juppe said.

Britain said on Tuesday it would send military officers, believed to number around a
dozen, to help Libyan rebels, whose fighting has been disorganized and lacked
leadership.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to meet the head of Libya's rebel opposition,
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, in Paris on Wednesday to discuss ways to move forward on a
political solution.

Juppe said a political solution would require a "real" ceasefire and for the rebel
opposition to sit down around a negotiating table with tribal leaders and defected
Gaddafi officials. He added that military pressure should be maintained and even
intensified to encourage more defections.

Abdel Jalil is expected to ask Sarkozy that NATO ramp up its air strikes and could
supply a list of names of officials in Tripoli with whom the opposition would be willing
to work if Gaddafi departs, a source close to the Libyan opposition said.

It will be the first time Sarkozy -- the first foreign leader to recognize the interim
national transition council -- will meet its leader, formerly Gaddafi's justice minister.
------------------
Sudan Town Burned in Oil-Producing State, Clooney’s Satellite Project Says
(Bloomberg)
By Maram Mazen
Apr 19, 2011 11:31 AM ET
A Sudanese town was deliberately burned in the oil-producing state of Southern
Kordofan, where elections will be held next month, the Google Inc (GOOG).-backed
Satellite Sentinel Project said in a statement today.
The project, which George Clooney set up using Google’s Map.Maker technology, said
on its website that it “has confirmed that at least 356 structures in the town of el-Feid”
were burned in northern Sudan’s only oil-producing state.

The state’s gubernatorial and state legislative elections, now scheduled for May 2, were
postponed from last year’s nationwide vote. Ahmed Haroun, who’s wanted by the
International Criminal Court in The Hague over allegations he was responsible for war
crimes in the western region of Darfur, is the candidate of President Umar al-Bashir’s
ruling National Congress Party.

“This is fabricated news,” Rabie Abdel Ati, a senior NCP member and adviser to the
information minister, said by phone today from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. “This
is all political propaganda to be used in the election campaign.”

While Southern Sudan, which accounts for 75 percent of Sudan’s daily oil production of
490,000 barrels, is scheduled to become independent on July 9, Southern Kordofan and
Blue Nile states remained part of the north and were promised a “popular consultation”
exercise in a 2005 peace agreement that ended a two-decade civil war between the north
and south. Details of the process weren’t explained in the accord.

Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. and Petro Energy E&P Co. operate blocks in
Southern Kordofan. The concessions are mostly owned by China National Petroleum
Corp. Other stakes are held by Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, India’s
Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. and Sudan’s state-owned oil company, Sudapet.
---------------------
Despite meager resources, coast guard defend Somaliland from pirates (CNN)
By Jane Ferguson
April 19, 2011
Berbera, Somaliland (CNN) -- When you read about anti-piracy efforts off the coastline
of Somalia, you imagine huge war-ships slicing through the waters, with terrified sea
bandits scattering in their wake.

But closer to shore, in the tiny breakaway east African state of Somaliland, it's a
different picture. Despite being only a few hundred kilometers down the coast from
piracy-ridden Puntland, Somaliland's coast guard operates with more than modest
resources.

A 20-foot long motor boat in Berbera, the country's port town, lies at the docks,
seemingly broken beyond repair. One other coast guard boat - which I am assured is
sea-worthy -- is brought out. Soldiers pile on board carrying RPG rockets and AK47s.

"As you know, we have only two boats and they are very small boats," explains Issa
Mahad Abdi, second-in-command of the coast guard. "The coast is very long and we
cannot cover it all but we try our best."
Their performance in the water, however, seems to prove that they are more than a rag-
tag group of officers. One fishing boat far beyond the breakwater cannot be identified
and the coastguard race toward it. After leaping on board and searching the tiny vessel,
there is much hand-shaking and everyone is on their way.

Somaliland and environs "That boat came in from the east and nobody knew if they
were pirates or local fishermen," Mahad Abdi shouts over the engine as we roared
away. "Therefore we attacked it and we found that the boat was a Somaliland fishing
boat. So always we go patrolling in this area and when the radar tells us, we attack."

But if their target is clearly armed then it's a much less friendly affair, he explains.

"When we meet the pirates, several rounds we fire over them. And they are afraid - they
only have small boats, very small boats - so they give up. They put their hands up and
we catch them, collect their arms, tie their boats and come here."

A group of pirates being chased by Mahad Abdi and his colleagues recently came
ashore and fled through the coastal plains and into the mountains. The coast guard
chased the fugitives deep inland on vehicles and caught them as they got lost.

"They don't know the land so it was a stupid place for them to run to," Mahad Abdi
recalls, smiling.

The success of the coast guard is hardly surprising, considering the career paths of their
leaders. Mahad Abdi and his senior colleagues were all members of Somalia's formerly
strong navy, based in large southern ports such as Mogadishu and Kismayo. There they
served under notorious dictator Siad Barre.

Mahad Abdi tells me he trained in the United States with the Marines. His boss, who he
says is now too old to be out on raids, was taught in the Soviet Union, a testament to the
Cold War that was then creeping deep into Africa.

"It was tough training in Texas and Virginia," says Mahad Abdi. "A lot of the men were
younger than me and physically it was really tough, but I passed anyway."

Since then, these seamen have witnessed the collapse of government in Somalia in 1991,
the destruction of the navy and Somaliland break away as an independent state from
the chaos in the south. The phenomenon of piracy, however, has given them a new,
crucial mission which they are embracing whole-heartedly. So much so that
Somaliland's jails now have dozens of pirates languishing in their cells. That one small
coastguard boat we patrolled on, Mahad Abdi tells me, has caught close to 100 pirates
during the past couple of years.
But the coast guard can't patrol constantly. The state - which has not been recognized
internationally as a country yet - is deeply impoverished. The coast guard sleep on the
floor of their dilapidated headquarters. I had to insist on paying for the fuel costs of our
trip out to sea.

But they have one secret weapon: local people. Berbera Port is the only economic option
for the town, and Somalilanders know piracy on their shores spells disaster.

We have only two boats and they are very small boats. The coast is very long and we
cannot cover it all but we try our best.

On the docks, one small employment office attracts a huge crowd of men every
morning, shouting and pushing to the front, in hope of the only paid work in town that
day. This, as well as a history of conflict and opposition to neighboring Puntland --
where most of the pirates are based - means that local people call the coast guard when
they spot suspected pirates.

"If they are fishermen, rural area people, if they are businessmen, they have a general
concept to fight piracy," says Ahmed Yussuf, Berbera's port manager, sat in his office
overlooking the ocean.

Without local cooperation, Mahad Abdi explains, this strategy wouldn't work. "If we
get more boats, we can go wherever the pirates are and we can save the merchant
ships," he adds.

Limited international aid has been forthcoming, Mahad Abdi says, including 4 x 4
vehicles from the British government, which are used to drive around the port when the
weather is very hot. As the piracy problem spirals, so there has been international
interest in spending money on private navies. But at the same time many shipping
companies have also paid ransoms to pirates to free their vessels.

"The money these companies are paid should go to the coast guards," says Ismail Aar,
Somaliland's justice minister. "They should be given radars, they should be given
communications. We need a communication center to be established here so that we can
communicate with Yemen and Djibouti, so we can share information and experiences."

Aar argues that ransom payments only compound the problem, encourage piracy in
Puntland and undermine the rule of law in the region.

He calls for the international community to support the democratic process that is going
on in regions like Somaliland, which has seen democratic elections. Piracy cannot be
solved at sea, says Aar, and only the rule of law on land can stamp out the problem.
But despite the security and political progress in Somaliland, the coast guard need more
funds, equipment and training. Berbera does have a tiny university specializing in
marine studies - but it has no means of teaching potential coast guards. Mahad Abdi
and his most-experienced colleagues are now old men. They are due to retire and the
future of their country's coastal waters causes concern. They worry that without them,
the pirates could run amok.
--------------------
Uganda: Death Toll Rises to Four as Army Steps In (The Monitor)
By Yasiin Mugerwa, Gerald Bareebe, Al-Mahadi Ssenkabirwa, Philippa Croome
Anthony Wesaka, Warom Felix Okello, David Mafabi, Andrew Bagala, Alfred
Tumushabe Juliet Kigongo & Martha Musiimenta
19 April 2011
Army and police units yesterday used tear gas, bullets and truncheons to break up
protests against rising food and fuel prices around the country, leaving at least one
person dead in Kampala, and bringing the death toll to four in three days.

Mr Frank Mugisha, who reportedly died after being attacked in Kasangati, is the first
person to die in Kampala. Last week, at least three people were killed in the northern
district of Gulu during protests.
While police authorities said that Mr Mugisha was ill, Ms Robina Nakku, one of the eye
witnesses, said: “That man (Mugisha) was first beaten by the military and when police
came, they fired tear gas at him, he collapsed and was picked up by the Uganda Red
Cross volunteers and later died on his way to Kasangati Hospital.”

Uganda Red Cross last evening confirmed the death and other cases of people hit by
bullets. At least four people in Kireka, including two pregnant women, were taken to
hospital. In Namugongo, a civilian suffered gunshot wounds to the head while five
others sustained severe injuries in Kasangati. In Mukono, four men were hit by rubber
bullets and taken to Mulago Hospital.

The walk-to-work campaign again spread to several districts, and saw several
opposition leaders arrested. Democratic Party leader Norbert Mao was sent to Luzira
prison until May 2 after he declined bail.

For the first time since the campaign started on April 11, uniformed soldiers were
deployed in parts of Kampala other than just Kasangati, Dr Kizza Besigye’s
neighbourhood. Uniformed soldiers and police conducted joint operations in the city
and major towns across the country.
Plain-clothed security also took part, although they were accused, by the police, of
shooting a man in Kireka.

Police said yesterday they arrested 104 people, 50 of whom were charged with holding
illegal assembly and inciting violence. Dr Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change
and Mr Olara Otunnu of the Uganda Peoples Congress, were among opposition leaders
charged with inciting violence and rioting after proclamation among other crimes. They
were later freed on bail.

Defiance

“I am going to walk-to-work on Thursday because nobody has said what I’m doing is
wrong. I have a right to walk or I don’t – otherwise if they just stop me and there is
some commotion and they charge me with that commotion, what kind of justice can
that be? They have never brought me to court to say that my attempt to walk to town is
an offence,” Dr Besigye said.

In Arua, Mbarara, Kibaale, Hoima, Mbale, Entebbe, Wakiso, Soroti, Kabarole and Gulu
districts, the military deployed heavily. Traffic on the Jinja-Kamuli road was paralysed
by protesters for several hours. And like in Kampala areas of Kireka, Kasangati,
Bweyogerere, Makindye and Kinawataka, were they engaged police in running battles
in Jinja.

Jinja’s Bugembe township saw taxi drivers and boda boda cyclists join members of the
public in blocking the Jinja- Iganga highway which connects Uganda to Kenya. They
were dispersed by riot police.

Elsewhere, the FDC chairman in Hoima, Ismael Kasule; a former FDC candidate for
Hoima woman parliamentary seat, Asinasi Nyakato; and Mr Pascal Alinaitwe were
detained by police. Kibaale FDC chairman Ayebale Kanyarutooke was also bundled
onto a police pick-up truck as he walked bare foot to the FDC offices in Kagadi town
from his residence in Kyenzige Trading Centre. He was released on police bond after
three hours.
----------------------
Cleaner election boost's Nigeria legitimacy – and regional clout (Christian Science
Monitor)
By Drew Hinshaw
April 11, 2011
A new regional hegemony may have been born this week – Nigeria's.

Africa's most extravagant oil producer has long had the money, minerals, and raw
demographics to dominate its region like a bull in what might otherwise be France's
backyard or the People's Republic of China's shop.

The nation's 154 million people account for more than half of West Africa's population,
and one-seventh of Africa's total head count. Its gross domestic product is growing as
fast as any world economy left of China.

Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.

"Nigeria should be in a position to be a part of the G20," US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton told reporters in 2009, referring to the influential group of the world's 20 largest
economies.

The only thing Africa's sleeping giant has lacked – or, at least, the main thing – is
credibility. When, for example, President Obama made his first trip to Africa as
president, he publicly snubbed Nigeria to visit famously democratic Ghana, a fellow ex-
British colony with a tenth of Nigeria's population and an even smaller fraction of its
oil.

Yet Nigeria's battered international reputation appears on the mend following

Saturday's presidential election – Nigeria's only free and fair election since it moved
away from military rule 12 years ago.

International observers judged the poll reasonably fair, a marked improvement on the
2007 vote that was universally denounced as an descent into election theater.

"This is such an important moment," said Alex Vines, Africa analyst for the London-
based watchgroup Chatham House. "Nigeria now has the legitimacy behind it of an
election that met minimal international standards. It's very promising. It will allow
Nigeria to speak more authoritatively when there are significant governance challenges
in place like Guinea-Bissau."

The country is already there.

Nigeria's now duly elected president, Goodluck Jonathan, has been vocal in support of
Guinea-Bissau's military reform program. Leaders of the former Portuguese colony are
trying to retool their military to pave roads and dig irrigation canals, instead of smuggle
Colombian cocaine toward Europe.

More audaciously, Nigeria stuck its boot in the middle of what may have been Africa's
most divisive conflict since the fall of apartheid: Ivory Coast.

When the former French West African colony's defeated incumbent President Laurent
Gbagbo refused to concede last November's elections, South African dignitaries flew
thousands of miles over French-speaking terrain they rarely visit to offer Gbagbo a
Zimbabwe-style powersharing deal that repulsed West African leaders.

Nigeria responded by co-sponsoring a declaration of war on Laurent Gbagbo,

dramatically staged at the United Nation Security Council – all in the middle of
Nigeria's own election season, no less.

"If that's what Nigeria is doing when it's distracted by elections and inward-looking, it
does show the country's potential for leadership," Mr. Vines said.
----------------------
Making Mugabe Laugh (NYT Op-Ed)
By PETER GODWIN
April 18, 2011
BARELY was Laurent Gbagbo, wearing a sweat-damp white tank top and a startled
expression, prodded at rebel gunpoint from the bombed ruins of his presidential
bunker in Ivory Coast, than Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced this
conclusion: His ejection, more than four months after he refused to accept electoral
defeat, sent “a strong signal to dictators and tyrants throughout the region and around
the world. They may not disregard the voice of their own people in free and fair
elections, and there will be consequences for those who cling to power.”

Zimbabwe’s 87-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, who began his 32nd year in power
this week, must have chortled when he heard that one.

The parallels between Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe are striking: both were once viewed
as the singular successes in their respective regions, the envy of their neighbors. Both
Mr. Gbagbo, a former history professor, and Mr. Mugabe, a serial graduate student, are
highly educated men who helped liberate their countries from authoritarian regimes.

Both later clothed themselves in the racist vestments of extreme nativism. Mr. Gbagbo
claimed that his rival Alassane Ouattara couldn’t stand for president because his
mother wasn’t Ivorian; Mr. Mugabe disenfranchised black Zimbabweans who had
blood ties to neighboring states (even though his own father is widely believed to have
been Malawian).

The two countries have also been similarly plagued by north-south conflicts. And when
they spiraled into failed statehood, both leaders blamed the West, in particular their
former colonial powers — France and Britain — for interfering to promote regime
change.

Finally, the international community imposed sanctions against both countries,

including bans on foreign travel and the freezing of bank accounts, that have largely
proved insufficient.

But here’s where the stories crucially diverge — why Laurent Gbagbo is no longer in
power, while Robert Mugabe, who lost an election in 2008, continues to flout his
people’s will.

The most important point of departure was the sharply contrasting behavior of regional
powers. The dominant player in West Africa, Nigeria, immediately recognized the
validity of Mr. Ouattara’s victory in United Nations-supervised elections, and worked
within the regional alliance, the Economic Community of West African States, to unseat
the reluctant loser. But Zimbabwe’s most powerful neighbor, South Africa, played a
very different role. Instead of helping to enforce democracy, it has provided cover for
Mr. Mugabe to stay on.

Partly this is due to what is called “liberation solidarity.” Most of the political parties
still in power in southern Africa were originally anti-colonial liberation movements —
like those in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Angola — and they tend to abhor
the aura-diminishing prospect of seeing any of their fellows jettisoned.

It is also because South Africa eyes the Zimbabwean opposition — which morphed out
of a once-loyal trade union movement — through the suspicious lens of its own trade
union movement’s contemplation of opposition politics.

As a result, instead of supporting the Zimbabwean opposition in 2008, Thabo Mbeki,

then the South African president, bullied it into a power-sharing government of
national unity headed by Mr. Mugabe. This democracy-defying model has threatened
to metastasize into the mainstream of African politics; that same year it was also
applied to Kenya, where a unity government was set up to end post-election bloodshed.
When Mr. Mbeki was deputized by the African Union to broker a solution in Ivory
Coast, that was the Band-Aid he reached for — but it was rightly rejected by Mr.
Ouattara.

Of course, the other crucial difference is that in Ivory Coast, the dictator’s ejection came
at the hands of men with guns. The northern rebels moved on Abidjan. The United
Nations peacekeepers, trussed by restrictive mandates as always, nevertheless
protected Mr. Ouattara until the French expanded an airport-securing operation into
something altogether more ambitious. They basically prized Mr. Gbagbo from his
bunker, though to avoid bad postcolonial optics, they brought the rebels in to make the
final move.

In contrast, for refusing to plunge the country into a civil war, Zimbabwe’s democratic
opposition has been rewarded by the international community by being largely
ignored.

Next month, a group of southern African nations will discuss Mr. Mugabe’s continued
resistance to agreed-upon reforms intended to pave the way to free elections. Either
South Africa must get Mr. Mugabe to honor them, or it must withdraw its support for
him. If it won’t, then the international community needs to push South Africa out of
leading the negotiations, and engage more directly.

Zimbabweans need help if their voices are to be heard. If the United States wants to
prove that Mrs. Clinton’s words were more than empty rhetoric, it should begin by
pressuring South Africa. Otherwise Zimbabwe’s hopes for freedom will founder, even
as Ivory Coast regains its stolen democracy.
-----------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN health team travels to western Côte d’Ivoire to review medical needs

19 April – A team of United Nations health experts have visited western Côte d’Ivoire
in an effort to identify what needs to be done to improve access to health services,
which were severely disrupted by the post-election conflict.

Ban voices concern at deadlock in UN-backed negotiations on Western Sahara

19 April – Neither party to the dispute over Western Sahara has taken steps to date that
would suggest a readiness to move to an acceptable compromise, Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon says in a new report in which he recommends measures to help advance
progress in the United Nations-backed negotiations.

UN agency deplores pirates’ use of seafarers as human shields

19 April – The United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) has
condemned the use of sailors as human shields after Somali pirates continued to detain
seven crew members of a recently released ship even though a ransom had been
reportedly paid.

Right to freedom of expression vital as Algeria embarks on reforms – UN expert

19 April – An independent United Nations human rights expert today called on Algeria
to guarantee the right to freedom of opinion and expression as part of its ongoing
political reforms, noting that journalists still face a number of challenges in carrying out
their work.