United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

16 May 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

17th Air Force chief: Trust growing in Africa (Air Force Times)
(Pan-Africa) Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward has had a busy few months as commander
of 17th Air Force. She directed the U.S. air campaign over Libya. Sixty of her airmen just
finished teaching the Congolese military how to conduct aeromedical evacuations. And
she traveled to Ethiopia with Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz for the African Air
Chiefs Conference — sponsored by 17th Air Force.

Libya Offers Truce to UN in Return for NATO Cease-fire (VOA)

(Libya) Libya's prime minister has offered a truce to a visiting United Nations envoy in
return for an immediate NATO cease-fire.

Libyan Rebels Plot Out Government (WSJ)

(Libya) The rebel leadership here huddled behind closed doors with representatives of
Libyan regions for a second day on Sunday to create new interim legislative and
executive bodies better prepared to fill the void in a post-Gadhafi era.

Prosecutors put final touches to Libya indictment (AP)

(Libya) Senior officials in the embattled government of Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi have come forward to offer evidence to the International Criminal Court in its
investigation of widespread murder and persecution, prosecutors said Sunday.

Libya's rebels say dying for freedom is worth it (CBS)

(Libya) In the battle for Libya, rebels said Sunday that they are in full control of the
western port city of Misrata. They say there are no plans, for now, to advance on the
capital, Tripoli.

I. Coast militia killed 220 in southwest: government (AFP)

(Ivory Coast) Militia and mercenaries loyal to Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo
killed 220 people while fleeing through the southwest of the country, a spokesman for
President Alassane Ouattara said on Saturday.

Sudanese candidate wanted on war crimes charges wins governor's seat (LA Times)
(Sudan) Ahmed Haroun, a Sudanese ruling National Congress Party candidate wanted
by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, was elected governor of a
central Sudanese state Sunday in an election opponents say was rigged.

Danish Navy frees 16 Iranians from suspected Somali pirate ship (CNN)
(Somalia) After a firefight with suspected Somali pirates, Danish sailors freed 16 Iranian
hostages on board an alleged mother ship, according to the Danish Royal Navy.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Libya: UN envoy visits Tripoli for talks with senior Government officials
 UNICEF welcomes Rwandan plan to reduce mother-child transmission of HIV
 Security situation improves in eastern Chad, but concerns remain – UN official
 Refugee numbers in East Africa rises, as internal displacement declines slightly –
UN
 As Ivorian pupils return to school, UN report finds critical equipment shortages
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, May 16th; 1:00pm - 2:30pm; CSIS 1800 K Street, NW, WDC
20006
WHAT: Election Preparations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
WHO: Reverend Daniel Mulunda-Nyanga, Chairman, Independent National Electoral
Commission (CENI), DRC; Barrie Freeman,
Deputy Regional Director, Central and West Africa, National Democratic Institute
(NDI); Daniel Laurent, Program Officer, Central Africa, International Foundation for
Electoral Systems (IFES)
Info: http://csis.org/event/election-preparations-democratic-republic-congo-drc

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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

17th Air Force chief: Trust growing in Africa (Air Force Times)
By Scott Fontaine
May 15, 2011 8:38:30 EDT
Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward has had a busy few months as commander of 17th Air
Force. She directed the U.S. air campaign over Libya. Sixty of her airmen just finished
teaching the Congolese military how to conduct aeromedical evacuations. And she
traveled to Ethiopia with Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz for the African Air Chiefs
Conference — sponsored by 17th Air Force.

At the conference, Schwartz stressed the need to build long-term partnerships that
would prevent low-intensity conflicts from becoming “larger-scale crises that we must
confront.”
In a telephone interview from her office at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Woodward
talked with Air Force Times about a wide range of topics, including the conference and
training foreign air forces.

Q. The top air officers from 24 African nations attended the African Air Chiefs
Conference. What was the biggest concern you heard from them?

A. Resourcing, of course, is the No. 1 [issue]. And retaining the highly technically
trained airmen that are necessary to run an air force because of the highly technical
nature of what we all do.

Q. Military aircraft is obviously expensive, and money is tight among almost every
country in Africa. How much of a constraining factor is that in the development of their
air forces?

A. The capital investment is significant. So it does matter. It’s interesting, though, that
it’s not so much that as it is retaining and training the qualified people. Every time you
talk to my fellow air chiefs, that’s what they’ll say more than, “I want this airframe or I
want that airframe.” It’s really about the people. …

One thing I thought that was really important to share was the shared concept of how
important trust is and to be able to build trust to work from that sense. What was really
interesting to me was how much that mattered to each of these air chiefs, and the ability
to get them all together and talking. For instance, the air chief from Cameroon pulled
me aside and was really passionate about it. He said, “Look what you’ve done. I’ve
been the air chief for many years, and this guy and this guy and this guy” — he’s
pointing to several other air chiefs — “they’re all my neighbors and I never met them
before. And you brought us all together, and now we’re talking, and now we’re
building bonds, and now we’re trusting each other.”

Q. How much did the topic of more-frequent joint military training arise at the
conference?

A. There is no one who was there, including some of the folks who we’ve had a
historically icier relationship with, who doesn’t want more and more engagement with
the United States. One, obviously, they see us as being a good partner to have. I think
they have learned over the past couple of years with AFRICOM and through our
actions, they’ve learned to trust us. And I think the African people in general, across all
the many different cultures across the continent, like Americans and like America. That
really helps us in our engagement.

Q. The U.S. had a hard time selling many African countries on the concept of a U.S.
Africa Command. One of the ways it won some support was repeatedly saying the idea
was to build better partnerships and not militarize foreign policy. And yet American
forces were attacking Libyan targets in March. Did you receive any criticism from your
counterparts?

A. None. I went in there a little concerned and addressed it right up front in my

remarks, saying, “You guys might think we haven’t been true to our word about not
militarizing the continent, but with our actions in Libya we went in as a coalition and
we went in to save African lives, and I think that’s important for what we stand for.”
And I’ll be very honest with you: All of our African air chiefs were there in lockstep
with us. I heard absolutely nothing from all of them in some very candid conversations
of any negative comments. And we still expected some issues to come up on
AFRICOM, and all I ever hear from AFRICOM these days is not, “Why AFRICOM?”
but instead, “When are you coming back?”

Q. Now that NATO has taken the lead of the Libya operation, what is 17th Air Force’s
involvement?

A. We have a couple of U.S.-specific specialties we provide — for instance, personnel

recovery and also some intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance analysis. The Air
Force provides a significant amount of targeting support through the Air Force
Targeting Center, and we help coordinate some of those pieces and parts.

Q. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley announced in January that 17th Air Force would
be closed as part of a cost-cutting push. What is the status of the unit’s closure?

A. We’re still working through most of that. I don’t really have details. Obviously it’s a
very important thing to get right. It’ll be the first time the Air Force supported two
[combatant commands] with one organization, so we’re working very hard to make
sure we get it right, right off the bat.

When I got together with our 17th Air Force members and talked to them about the way
ahead, I opened it up to questions, and I didn’t get a single question from the entire
[numbered air force] about themselves. Every single question I got from them was
about the mission. And I think that says a lot about the airmen, about how much they
care about what they do in Africa, and that’s their sole focus. It makes me feel really
good to be able to tell them that I’m absolutely certain the new organization will equally
care for the mission of [U.S. European Command] and AFRICOM, and there’s not going
to be a [reduction] in what we focus on in Africa.
----------------------------
Libya Offers Truce to UN in Return for NATO Cease-fire (VOA)
By Unattributed Author
May 15, 2011
Libya's prime minister has offered a truce to a visiting United Nations envoy in return
for an immediate NATO cease-fire.
Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi made the comments in Tripoli Sunday
following a meeting with U.N. special envoy Abdul Ilah Khatib. Soon after Khatib
arrived, Libya's state television reported that a new NATO airstrike hit the western city
of Zuwara, near the Tunisian border.

The head of Britain's armed forces, General David Richards, told The Sunday Telegraph
newspaper there is a risk the conflict could result in Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi
clinging to power if NATO does not "up the ante." He said NATO is not attacking
infrastructure targets in Libya, but needs to consider intensifying its military action.

Restrictions imposed by NATO members allow its forces to attack only targets that pose
a direct threat to Libyan civilians. Libyan officials have accused NATO of violating that
mandate by launching attacks aimed at killing Mr. Gadhafi.

Also Sunday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said his
investigation into crimes against humanity by senior members of the Libyan
government is "almost ready for trial." Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will file a 74-page
document outlining allegations that Libyan forces have systematically attacked civilians
since launching a brutal crackdown on anti-government rebels in February.

Western media reports say Moreno-Ocampo is expected to announce Monday that he is

seeking warrants for the killing of civilian protesters, with Mr. Gadhafi and two of his
sons as likely indictees. Judges will study the evidence presented before deciding
whether to issue arrest warrants for the suspects, a process likely to take weeks.

Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim dismissed the ICC's efforts, calling them
"questionable."

Earlier Sunday, Libyan rebels said they have taken full control of the western port city
of Misrata. But opposition spokesmen said the rebels are braced for renewed attacks by
forces loyal to Mr. Gadhafi.

In neighboring Tunisia, security forces arrested two suspected al-Qaida members near
the Libyan border. Tunisian officials said the two were carrying an explosives belt,
several bombs and led authorities to a weapons stash in the southern mountains. The
men are thought to be members of al-Qaida's North African branch.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb grew out of an Islamist insurgency movement in

Algeria, merging with al-Qaida in 2006 and spreading through the Sahara and the Sahel
region. It has been responsible for a series of kidnappings and attacks across northern
Africa in recent years.

The group is one al-Qaida's largest regional branches.

----------------------
Libyan Rebels Plot Out Government (WSJ)
By Unattributed Author
May 15, 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya—The rebel leadership here huddled behind closed doors with
representatives of Libyan regions for a second day on Sunday to create new interim
legislative and executive bodies better prepared to fill the void in a post-Gadhafi era.

The immediate objective was to boost legitimacy as several countries including the U.S.
were considering the release of some of the regime's frozen assets to the rebels. It was
unclear though if the changes under way came at the behest of Western governments
that held consultations with several top rebel leaders this past week.

"The purpose is to set up an executive and legislative administration for the country,"
said Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebels' National Transitional Council in a brief
interview on the sidelines of a meeting Saturday with senior delegates from other parts
of the country and newly returned dissidents.

He said the current 31-member council, created in March when rebels took control of
the east, would be expanded to represent all of Libya, turning into an interim
parliament of sorts. Deliberations continued Sunday with a formal announcement of the
new council expected shortly, after an executive body under the leadership of the
rebels' current de facto foreign minister Mahmoud Jibril was unveiled Thursday.

But rebel leaders continue to face major challenges in meeting expectations both in areas
under their control in the east and the rest of the country that remain in Col. Moammar
Gadhafi's grip, including the capital Tripoli.

Fawzia Bariun, a Tripoli native and professor of Arabic at the University of Michigan
who travelled to Benghazi over the weekend after 33 years in the U.S., said the changes
were urgently needed. "We are in a total vacuum now," she said.

The new council's precise makeup was still unknown but some said it could have as
many as 60 members including women and youth. Mr. Abdel-Jalil, a former judge and
member of Col. Gadhafi's cabinet before joining the uprising, said seat allotments
would be based on each area's population and proceeded to read a list that included
five seats for Tripoli, three for the embattled city of Misrata and the same for the
western city of Zawiya, where an anti-regime rebellion was crushed in March.

There were immediate objections, with some delegates demanding to know how Mr.
Abdel-Jalil determined each region's boundaries. The Zawiya delegates boycotted the
session.
"They want money and weapons. That's their demand—something concrete to give to
their people," said Mohammed al-Sheibani, a Libyan dissident who returned to
Benghazi this week after three decades abroad, about the Zawiya delegates.

A delegate from the southern city of Sebha, considered a pro-Gadhafi bastion, said the
entire south needed "sufficient guarantees" in order to mobilize against the regime but
gave no specifics.

"Otherwise it will be a massacre worse than Tripoli," he warned.

Chiding dissenters, Mr. Abdel-Jalil reminded everyone that both the new executive and
legislative bodies were temporary arrangements until the toppling of Col. Gadhafi's
regime. "Please rise above these matters," he pleaded.

Mr. Sheibani, the returned dissident, hoped the changes would spur formal recognition
from the U.S. and U.K. and the release of some of the more than $55 billion in frozen
Libyan assets held in both countries.

"Everything is in order; recognize us and deal with us," he said.

But legal experts have already warned that transferring some of the funds to the rebels
could prove to be very complicated.

There is also the thorny issue of monitoring how the money would be spent given the
tensions between some of the rebel leaders.

It was unclear if all rebel leaders were on board with the new interim government
arrangements. These include folding the estimated 30 ragtag rebel brigades that
sprouted after the February uprising into either a new army or internal security forces
answering to de facto defense and interior ministries respectively, according to one
rebel official. The current military council headed by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younes, a
former interior minister who defected to the rebel side, would be scrapped.

He would instead occupy the position of chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the new
armed forces, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the matter. Gen. Younes declined several interview requests.

Rebels hoped the new structure coupled with training and future weapon shipments
could break the current stalemate on the eastern front.

But the urgency of streamlining the rebel force was on full display this week in
Benghazi.
First there was confusion as to whether the rebel leadership or one of the many brigades
had circulated lists with the names and addresses of people suspected of being regime
loyalists amid heightened concern by residents over instances of vigilante justice. Then
there were the murky circumstances surrounding the killing of one French security
contractor and the detention of others, with some officials acknowledging it was a
mistake and others accusing them of being agents for Col. Gadhafi.

"They should at least collect the weapons from the teenagers," said Siraj ben Khayroun,
24, a medical student and a volunteer at a local hospital, hoping the new government
would exercise more authority.

Another resident, Ali al-Dursi, 48, welcomed the government changes but fretted that
east-west divisions could be widened if Col. Gadhafi remained in power longer than
expected.

Asked about this concern in Arabic, the rebel council chief Mr. Abdel-Jalil became angry
dismissing the questioner by saying: "I reject this word [division] from an Arab person."
-----------------------
Prosecutors put final touches to Libya indictment (AP)
By Unattributed Author
May 15, 2011
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Senior officials in the embattled government of Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi have come forward to offer evidence to the International
Criminal Court in its investigation of widespread murder and persecution, prosecutors
said Sunday.

"During the last week, the Office of the Prosecutor received several calls from high-level
officials in Gadhafi's regime willing to provide information," prosecutors said in a
statement. They did not elaborate on the nature of the information or name the officials.

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will file a 74-page document with nine
annexes outlining allegations that the Libyan regime has systematically attacked
civilians since launching a brutal crackdown on anti-government rebels in February.

The document will ask judges to issue arrest warrants for the three Libyan leaders
considered most responsible for crimes against humanity.

Moreno-Ocampo has not revealed the names of the three, but Gadhafi is widely
expected to be among them.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday said he expected the ICC to ask
for Gadhafi's arrest, which would complicate any suggestion of the Libyan leader
accepting exile as a way to end the conflict in his country.
Judges will study the evidence presented Monday before deciding whether to issue
arrest warrants for the suspects, a process likely to take weeks.

The prosecutor said in a statement Sunday his investigation already is so advanced he is

"almost ready for trial."

Moreno-Ocampo paid tribute to his office for pulling together the case in just two and a
half months — unusually fast for an international war crimes tribunal.

"The Office collected good and solid evidence to identify who bears the greatest
responsibility; no political responsibilities but rather individual criminal responsibilities
for crimes committed in Libya," he said.

Investigators from the Hague-based court have conducted 30 missions to 11 countries

and have interviewed more than 50 witnesses, including "key insiders," as well as
reviewing videos, photographs and other evidence, prosecutors said Friday.

The United Nations Security Council ordered Moreno-Ocampo to investigate atrocities

in Libya and that means that if judges issue an arrest warrant for Gadhafi every U.N.
member state will be obliged to arrest him.

The court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, has no police force of its
own and relies on other nations to execute warrants.

However, in the past some nations have been reluctant to act on such warrants. The
court's judges have reported three countries to the Security Council for allowing
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to visit without arresting him. Al-Bashir has been
indicted for crimes including genocide in Darfur in the only other International
Criminal Court case ordered by the Security Council.

While prosecutors have been building their case, NATO has been intensifying airstrikes
against Gadhafi's troops in several areas of Libya in a bid to weaken his brutal
crackdown against the rebels.

Meanwhile, in Athens, the U.N. special envoy to Libya said he was planning to travel to
Tripoli on Sunday aboard a Greek air force plane on his seventh trip to the North
African country in an effort to end hostilities and work out a political solution to the
crisis. The envoy, Abdelilah Al-Khatib, a former Jordanian foreign minister, met
Saturday with Greece's Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas and Prime Minister George
Papandreou.
---------------------
Libya's rebels say dying for freedom is worth it (CBS)
By Unattributed Author
May 15, 2011
In the battle for Libya, rebels said Sunday that they are in full control of the western
port city of Misrata. They say there are no plans, for now, to advance on the capital,
Tripoli.

CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark reports that rebels in the stronghold of
Benghazi have begun measuring the cost of war, and come to the conclusion that dying
for freedom is worth it.

Ayman Faraj el Berghthy was a businessman until recently. Now he's on the frontline.
His wife, who is 4 months pregnant says her husband's role in the fighting produces a
terrible feeling, and she's afraid all the time, but he has to go fight.

Nearly every family in rebel-held territory has someone at the front. Ayman's brother,
Essam Faraj el Berghthy, is a biologist who had a close call in the early days of the
protests in Benghazi. He even took a bullet to the face that broke his teeth and came up
from under his eye.

Despite that, he insisted the whole family supported Ayman's decision to fight.

"No problem if he dying for freedom. This is a good thing," Essam said.

That's pretty much what Ayman had to say as well.

"Since the first drop of blood every doctor, every lawyer, musician, artist has gone to
defend our country because Muammar Qaddafi is trying to shut us up," said Ayman.

Ayman and the other volunteers in his unit are on the front line tonight -- hoping to
finish this fight soon and get back to the lives this revolution has put on hold.

Meanwhile, NATO aircraft blasted an oil terminal in a key eastern city at nightfall
Sunday, Libyan TV reported, after Britain urged the alliance to widen its assault on
areas controlled by ruler Muammar Qaddafi.

The Libya TV report said the bombs hit methanol tanks at the oil port of Ras Lanouf,
causing leaks. NATO officials had no immediate comment.

The reported attack came as the Libyan conflict appeared largely stalemated, with each
side claiming gains one day, only to be turned back the next.

More than 1,000 people died in Misrata in the fighting and shelling.
-------------------
I. Coast militia killed 220 in southwest: government (AFP)
By Unattributed Author
May 14, 2011
ABIDJAN — Militia and mercenaries loyal to Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo
killed 220 people while fleeing through the southwest of the country, a spokesman for
President Alassane Ouattara said on Saturday.

After being chased out of their stronghold in the main city Abidjan on May 4, the
fleeing Gbagbo forces committed "atrocities in the southwest of our country," said
Patrick Achi.

As they went towards the Liberian border "these killers without faith or law set about
people, women, men, children, that they came across," he said.

The violence left a "a macabre total of 220 people killed and 17 injured," he added.

A defence ministry spokesman on May 9 gave a toll of 120 people.

The attacks occurred in the towns of Irobo, Grand Lahou, Fresco and in the Sassandra
region, the ministry said earlier in a communique.

Most of the victims were targeted for their ethnicity, the statement said.

"The last fighters loyal to the ex-president Laurent Gbagbo were Liberian mercenaries
and Ivorian militia," the statement said, adding: "It was they who took the large
community of Yopougon (in Abidjan) hostage."

Yopougon, an area in the west of Ivory Coast's economic capital, became the last bastion
for pro-Gbagbo forces after his arrest on April 11.

Separately, a United Nations spokesman said Monday that UN workers found 68

bodies in 10 graves in Yopougon, which fell to Ouattara's forces last week after heavy
fighting.

A months-long conflict pitted Ouattara and Gbagbo after Ouattara was declared the
winner of a presidential election in November but Gbagbo refused to leave office. More
than 1,000 people died in the unrest, according to UN figures.

The western Ivory Coast bordering Liberia was a hotbed of violence in the post-election
dispute.

Tens of thousands of Ivorians fled into Liberia, raising fears that the unrest could spill
over into the neighbouring country which itself emerged in 2003 from 14 years of civil
conflict that cost 250,000 lives.
-----------------------
Sudanese candidate wanted on war crimes charges wins governor's seat (LA Times)
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Alsanosi Ahmed
May 15, 2011, 7:22 p.m.
Reporting from Cairo and Khartoum, Sudan— Ahmed Haroun, a Sudanese ruling
National Congress Party candidate wanted by the International Criminal Court on war
crimes charges, was elected governor of a central Sudanese state Sunday in an election
opponents say was rigged.

Haroun defeated opponent Abdul-Aziz Hilu of the Sudan People's Liberation

Movement by about 6,500 votes to become governor of Southern Kordofan, a post to
which he had been appointed in 2009. The opposition party withdrew from vote
counting in Southern Kordofan on Friday, citing balloting irregularities. Similar
allegations last year delayed the election.

ICC officials allege that Haroun recruited and armed some of the notorious militias,
known as janjaweed, in Sudan's Darfur region while working at the Interior Ministry
before he became governor. Haroun says he did nothing illegal.

"Haroun and the National Elections Commission are partners in rigging this election,"
Hilu told reporters Sunday. "We will never recognize and accept the outcome because
they are rigged and we have evidence of that."

The state includes the disputed oil-rich border town of Abyei, the site of clashes in 2008
and, more recently, last week when four United Nations peacekeepers were shot.

Southern Sudan is preparing to secede from Africa's biggest country in July, after 99%
of voters there backed independence in a January referendum.

A draft version of southern Sudan's interim constitution explicitly claims Abyei is in the
south. But last month, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir threatened not to
recognize the new state if it tried to claim Abyei.
-------------------------
Danish Navy frees 16 Iranians from suspected Somali pirate ship (CNN)
By Per Nyberg
May 15, 2011 4:29 p.m. EDT
After a firefight with suspected Somali pirates, Danish sailors freed 16 Iranian hostages
on board an alleged mother ship, according to the Danish Royal Navy.

Four suspected pirates were killed and 10 wounded during the firefight Thursday, the
Royal Navy said on its website. No one on board the Danish ship Esbern Snare was
hurt, and the hostages were also not injured.

The Esbern Snare closed in on the suspected pirate mother ship Thursday while
patrolling off the coast of Somalia, according to the statement. "When Esbern Snare tried
to stop the mother ship with calls, the mother ship opened fire on Esbern Snare, which
immediately returned fire," the statement said.
After the firefight, the crew could see weapons being thrown overboard from the
suspected mother ship, and "there were signs of the pirates surrendering," the statement
said. The crew then took control of the ship.

Sixteen hostages and 28 suspected pirates were on board, along with several weapons
and some equipment, the Navy said. Four pirates had been killed and 10 wounded in
the firefight, while 14 others were unharmed, said the statement.

The 10 injured were being treated onboard the Esbern Snare, the Royal Navy said. The
four suspected pirates who were killed were buried at sea "in accordance with NATO
procedures with regards to Muslim traditions."

The 16 Iranians "can look forward to a quick reunion with their respective families,"
according to the statement.

All the suspected pirates were being held onboard the Esbern Snare while Danish
authorities looked into possible prosecution, the Navy said.
--------------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Libya: UN envoy visits Tripoli for talks with senior Government officials
15 May – The top United Nations envoy to Libya made a one-day visit today to the
capital, Tripoli, and met top Government officials as part of the world body's ongoing
diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis and end the fighting in the North African
country.

UNICEF welcomes Rwandan plan to reduce mother-child transmission of HIV

14 May – The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed Rwanda's
announcement that it is starting a nationwide campaign to eliminate the transmission of
HIV from a mother to her child.

Security situation improves in eastern Chad, but concerns remain – UN official

13 May – The withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central
African Republic (CAR) and Chad at the end of last year so far does not appear to have
adversely affected security in eastern Chad, the UN’s top humanitarian official told the
Security Council today.

Refugee numbers in East Africa rises, as internal displacement declines slightly – UN

13 May – The number of refugees in 10 countries in Eastern Africa has risen to nearly
1.4 million, an eight per cent increase since September, the United Nations
humanitarian office said today in an update that shows that the majority of the new
asylum-seekers travelled to Kenya and Ethiopia.
As Ivorian pupils return to school, UN report finds critical equipment shortages
13 May – While the overwhelming majority of Ivorian children in the country’s central,
northern and western regions have returned to classes after the country’s post-election
crisis, the majority of recently re-opened schools lack critical equipment and facilities,
according to a United Nations report released today.