africom related news clips april 5, 2010

8/9/2019 AFRICOM Related News Clips April 5, 2010.

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office5 April 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

U.S. Navy Ship Grabs More Pirates, Lets Them Go(ABC World News)NAIROBI, Kenya - A U.S. Navy ship has sunk a pirate "mother ship" in the IndianOcean and captured 11 pirates, and then promptly let them go.

Sudan vote free and as fair as possible: US envoy(AFP)KHARTOUM, Sudan US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration said on Saturday he was

confident the country's first general elections since 1986 would be as "free and fair aspossible" and would start on time on April 11.

US seeks delicate balance on Somalia(The East African)The Obama administration may soon increase its already sizable military commitmentto Somalias weak Transitional Federal Government even as political factors compel thePentagon to maintain a mainly invisible role in combating an Islamist insurgency.

Uranium-mining nations flout nuclear mandate(Associated Press)

NEW YORK - Years after a six-month deadline passed, dozens of nations, includinguranium producers, remain potential weak links in the global defense against nuclearterrorism, ignoring a U.N. mandate on laws and controls to foil this ultimate threat.

Guinea-Bissau PM resumes post after brief detention(Xinhua)BISSAU - Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior has resumed his dutyafter being briefly arrested by mutineers earlier in the week, local media reported onSaturday.

Senegal's president reclaims French military bases(Associated Press)

DAKAR, Senegal Senegal's president said Sunday the West African country wasreclaiming three French military bases to mark its 50th year of independence fromFrance. In Paris, however, officials said the bases' future was still under discussion.

Calls for African unity as Senegal unveils controversial statue(AFP)
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DAKAR, Senegal Senegal's controversial African Renaissance statue was unveiledSaturday, with leaders from across the continent calling for unity and the realisation ofa "United States of Africa".

Zuma Seeks to Calm South Africa After Killing(New York Times)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa South Africas president, Jacob Zuma, called forcalm on Sunday, warning that agents provocateurs might try to incite racial hatredafter the brutal killing of the white supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche.

Ritual sacrifice of children on rise in Uganda(Associated Press)JINJA, Uganda The practice of human sacrifice is on the rise in Uganda, as measuredby ritual killings where body parts, often facial features or genitals, are cut off for use inceremonies. Children in particular are common victims, according to a U.S. StateDepartment report released this month. The U.S. spent $500,000 to train 2,000 Ugandanpolice last year to investigate offences related to human trafficking, including ritual

killings.

UN News Service Africa BriefsFull Articles on UN Website

Ban urges leaders in Guinea-Bissau to maintain rule of law

Cte dIvoire: UN pursues multi-pronged strategy for peaceful elections

DR Congo: UN helps women fight under-representation in government

UN efforts to improve refugee protection in Morocco bear fruit

ICC Prosecutor welcomes decision to move forward with Kenya probe--------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, April 5; 1:30 p.m.; Live Online Video Briefing

WHAT: American Enterprise Institute: Briefing on the Terror Threat from Somalia

WHO: Frederick W. Kagan, AEI Resident Scholar and Director of the Critical Threats Project(CTP) ; and CTP analyst Christopher Harnisch

Info: To obtain viewing information for the briefing, please email

[email protected] or 202-828-6023; web site:www.aei.org

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, April 7; 12:30 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: Does Democracy have a

Future in the Democratic Republic of Congo?WHO: Mvemba Dizolele, visiting scholar at SAIS, will discuss this topic.

Info: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/calendar/index.htm

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, April 15; 6:00 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: US Institute of Peace: Rebuilding Hope

WHO: Screening of "Rebuilding Hope" a film following three of Sudan's "Lost Boys" on a

journey back home to find surviving family members, and rediscover and contribute to their
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homeland, followed by a panel discussion featuring the film's director, Jen Marlowe, and one ofcentral characters in the film.

Info:http://www.usip.org/events/rebuilding-hope-washington-dc-premiere

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U.S. Navy Ship Grabs More Pirates, Lets Them Go (ABC World News)

NAIROBI, Kenya - A U.S. Navy ship has sunk a pirate "mother ship" in the IndianOcean and captured 11 pirates, and then promptly let them go.

While those five pirates remain in custody, the 11 captured Thursday were allowed toleave in small skiffs after the mother ship was sunk. The action prompted a Pentagonspokesman to deny that the Navy had a "catch and release" policy regarding pirates.

A Naval official told ABC News that the practice of releasing pirates is not unheard of.While piracy is illegal according to international maritime law, it is considered acriminal issue, not a national security one.

The latest confrontation occurred when pirates on three skiffs tried to hijack the SierraLeone-flagged commercial ship MV Evita using rocket propelled grenades and rifle fire.

The MV Evita avoided being boarded by increasing its speed and firing flares,according to a press release by the Combined Maritime Piracy Task Force.

After the ship's captain radioed for help, a Swedish patrol aircraft spotted the pirates

and the USS Farragut dispatched its own plane to monitor the situation until the Navyship could arrive.

The planes watched as the suspected pirates threw ladders and other equipment intothe ocean, which was enough to convince the Farragut that the suspects posed no morepirate threat, although they were still found in possession of grappling hooks,according to the task force statement.

Drone Helped Capture Pirates

"After ensuring that the suspected pirates had no means to conduct any more attacks,all 11 were released on the two small skiffs, while the mother skiff was destroyed andsunk," according to a statement by the Combined Maritime Forces.

Officials from both the Navy and the U.S. Africa Command, known as Africom,consider any thwarted attack and capture a success and have stepped up efforts, alongwith the Combined Maritime Piracy task force, to fight piracy.
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In the predawn hours of Thursday morning, the USS Nicholas was attacked by pirateswho may have mistaken the heavily armed ship for a merchant vessel. After a shortchase, the Nicholas sank a skiff and confiscated a mother ship, and took five pirates intocustody.

ABC News has learned that an American drone launched from the Seychelles wasinstrumental in tracking and capturing the attacking vessels.

"The UAVs from the Seychelles did play role," AFRICOM spokesman Eric Elliot said."We can't discuss specifics because of security reasons. We don't want to endanger theeffectiveness of these aircrafts in future measures."

Last November AFRICOM began "Operation Ocean Look" using unmanned droneslaunched from the Seychelles to patrol the Indian Ocean for pirates.

It's not clear what the Navy intends to do with the pirates still in custody.

One option includes handing suspected pirates over to Puntland officials in NorthernSomalia. Convicted pirate 31 year-old Ibrahim Nour told ABC News he was turnedover by the French Navy, and is currently in a high-security prison in Bossaso,Puntland's largest port city. In Somalia, a conviction of piracy is often met with a deathsentence, but Navy officials said there are questions over whether Somalia's weakgovernment structure meets international justice standards.

So far only one pirate has been returned to the U.S. for prosecution. That pirate was thelone survivor of an attempt to kidnap Capt. Richard Philips after a bungled attempt tohijack his ship, the Maersk Alabama.--------------------Sudan vote free and as fair as possible: US envoy (AFP)

KHARTOUM, Sudan US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration said on Saturday he wasconfident the country's first general elections since 1986 would be as "free and fair aspossible" and would start on time on April 11.

Gration was speaking to reporters in Khartoum after meeting members of the electoralcommission, which earlier Saturday dismissed calls by opposition candidates for adelay in the April 11-13 general elections.

"They (electoral commission members) have given me confidence that the elections willstart on time and they would be as free and as fair as possible," said Gration.


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"These people have gone to great lengths to ensure that the people of Sudan will haveaccess to polling places and that the procedures and processes will ensuretransparency," he said.

Sudan's electoral commission meanwhile insisted the vote would go ahead on schedule

despite threats of boycotts by opposition parties.

"The electoral commission ensures that the elections will take place as envisioned, onApril 11 to 13," commission official Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah told reporters.

A raft of parties, including the Umma party of former premier Sadiq al-Mahdi, onFriday gave the government four days to implement key reforms before they wouldagree to take part in the poll, which they insisted be delayed until May.

The Umma party demanded a freeze to what it said were "repressive security measures"

and fair access to the state media, as well as public funding and a commitment toDarfuri representation in the presidency.

One party, the Democratic Unionist Party, said it was only pulling out of thepresidential elections, in which President Omar al-Beshir, in power since a 1989 coup,seeks another term, but would contest the parliamentary and regional elections beingheld at the same time.

Three opposition parties, including that of Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, have notwithdrawn from the elections.

Beshir on Saturday also ruled out a delay and accused the opposition of seeking tooverthrow the ruling party, in a campaign speech in the northern town of Kassala.

"There will be no delay and no cancellation," he said in the speech broadcast bySudanese television.

US State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley had said that the opposition had"legitimate concerns" over the poll but "we are still aiming for the election to occur onApril 11."

On Wednesday, Yasser Arman, the presidential candidate for the former southern rebelSudan People's Liberation Movement, withdrew from race after Beshir ruled outdelaying the vote.

"I took the decision to withdraw for two reasons. Firstly, after having campaigned inDarfur, I realised that it was impossible to hold elections there due to the current stateof emergency," he told AFP.


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"Secondly, there are irregularities in the electoral process which is rigged."

Arman said, however, that the SPLM will field candidates in regional and legislativeelections "across Sudan, except for Darfur."

Access remains difficult in Darfur, where 300,000 people have died since 2003 in a warbetween ethnic rebels and the Khartoum government.

Beshir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in theregion.

Human Rights Watch has said Sudanese government repression of its opponents andthe media was threatening the chances of the elections being "free, fair, and credible."

Britain -- Sudan's former colonial power -- and Norway, a main provider of aid, joinedthe United States in expressing concern over the polls.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is on course to retain power in national electionsafter the country's main opposition parties announced a total boycott of this month'spolls, blaming concerns over alleged fraud.Gration was speaking to reporters in Khartoum after meeting members of the electoralcommission, which earlier Saturday dismissed calls by opposition candidates for adelay in the April 11-13 general elections.

"They (electoral commission members) have given me confidence that the elections willstart on time and they would be as free and as fair as possible," said Gration.

"These people have gone to great lengths to ensure that the people of Sudan will haveaccess to polling places and that the procedures and processes will ensuretransparency," he said.

Sudan's electoral commission meanwhile insisted the vote would go ahead on scheduledespite threats of boycotts by opposition parties.

"The electoral commission ensures that the elections will take place as envisioned, onApril 11 to 13," commission official Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah told reporters.

A raft of parties, including the Umma party of former premier Sadiq al-Mahdi, onFriday gave the government four days to implement key reforms before they wouldagree to take part in the poll, which they insisted be delayed until May.


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The Umma party demanded a freeze to what it said were "repressive security measures"and fair access to the state media, as well as public funding and a commitment toDarfuri representation in the presidency.

One party, the Democratic Unionist Party, said it was only pulling out of the

presidential elections, in which President Omar al-Beshir, in power since a 1989 coup,seeks another term, but would contest the parliamentary and regional elections beingheld at the same time.

Three opposition parties, including that of Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, have notwithdrawn from the elections.

Beshir on Saturday also ruled out a delay and accused the opposition of seeking tooverthrow the ruling party, in a campaign speech in the northern town of Kassala.

"There will be no delay and no cancellation," he said in the speech broadcast bySudanese television.

US State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley had said that the opposition had"legitimate concerns" over the poll but "we are still aiming for the election to occur onApril 11."

On Wednesday, Yasser Arman, the presidential candidate for the former southern rebelSudan People's Liberation Movement, withdrew from race after Beshir ruled outdelaying the vote.

"I took the decision to withdraw for two reasons. Firstly, after having campaigned inDarfur, I realised that it was impossible to hold elections there due to the current stateof emergency," he told AFP.

"Secondly, there are irregularities in the electoral process which is rigged."

Arman said, however, that the SPLM will field candidates in regional and legislativeelections "across Sudan, except for Darfur."

Access remains difficult in Darfur, where 300,000 people have died since 2003 in a warbetween ethnic rebels and the Khartoum government.

Beshir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in theregion.

Human Rights Watch has said Sudanese government repression of its opponents andthe media was threatening the chances of the elections being "free, fair, and credible."


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Britain -- Sudan's former colonial power -- and Norway, a main provider of aid, joinedthe United States in expressing concern over the polls.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is on course to retain power in national elections

after the country's main opposition parties announced a total boycott of this month'spolls, blaming concerns over alleged fraud.--------------------US seeks delicate balance on Somalia (The East African)

The Obama administration may soon increase its already sizable military commitmentto Somalias weak Transitional Federal Government even as political factors compel thePentagon to maintain a mainly invisible role in combating an Islamist insurgency.

This delicate balance reflects competing calculations.

On one hand, the United States wants to cripple Al Shabaab militants who it says arelinked to US arch-enemy Osama bin Laden and who have threatened to attack Kenya.

Thats the factor driving possible use of US drones in Somali airspace to target AlShabaab leaders.

On the other hand, Washington worries that high-profile military involvement wouldserve to strengthen grassroots Somali support for Islamist fighters.

The militants drew on nationalist sentiment in their successful 2008 campaign to evictUS-backed Ethiopian occupiers.

Reluctance to intervene directly also stems from what some US officials refer to as theSomalia syndrome.

The previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton, quickly withdrew US troops fromSomalia in 1993 in the face of a political firestorm at home that followed the killing of 18American soldiers in Mogadishu.

Already at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama administration clearly has nostomach to dispatch US forces to a third front of the global war on terror.

Johnnie Carson, Obamas top Africa official, was at pains last month to rejectsuggestions of direct US military action inside Somalia.


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The United States does not plan, does not direct, and does not co-ordinate the militaryoperations of the TFG and we have not and will not be providing direct support for anypotential military offensives, Mr Carson declared at a press briefing.

Americanise conflict

Further, we are not providing or paying for military advisers for the TFG. There is nodesire to Americanise the conflict in Somalia.

At the same time, however, the US reserves the option to conduct commando raidsinside Somalia when prime targets come into the Pentagons sights.

US Special Forces used helicopter gunships to kill a prime Al Qaida suspect in southernSomalia last September.

The Obama administration is also considering expanding its behind-the-scenesassistance to the TFG.

The US has already supplied the government in Mogadishu with 80 tonnes of weaponsas well as funds for other military purposes.

Citing unnamed US and Western diplomats, the Associated Press reported last weekthat the Pentagon may move some drones from a base in the Seychelles to anundisclosed location in the Horn from where they would conduct surveillanceoperations over Somalia.

Kenya and Djibouti are regarded as two possible sites for a US drone detachment.

Pilotless MQ-9 Reaper aircraft stationed in the Seychelles have been tracking pirates inthe Indian Ocean for the past several months.

These drones, with a range of 3,500 kilometres, are potentially more powerful than thetype regularly used to hunt and kill Islamist militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But the Reapers operating in East Africa have so far not carried weapons, according tothe US Africa Command.

Africom is using facilities in Djibouti and Uganda to train TFG forces as well as AfricanUnion troops deployed in Mogadishu.

US military contractors also provide logistical assistance to the African Union force,known as Amisom.


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DynCorp, a major Pentagon contractor, recently airlifted 1,700 Ugandan troops intoSomalia and removed 850 others as part of a Nato operation to bolster Amisom in therun-up to an expected TFG-led offensive against Shabaab.

Expanded military aid

In co-ordination with Washington, the European Union is also expanding its militaryaid to the TFG.

Spanish, British, French and German instructors will train 2,000 Somali governmentsoldiers inside Uganda starting this week, the EU announced on March 31.

None of this will make a positive difference, some analysts maintain.

J. Peter Pham, an Africa expert at a US think tank, recently suggested that it is beyond

delusional to believe that bolstering Amisom forces can succeed where infinitelymore robust US/UN military contingents failed in the 1990s to defeat a foe less capablethan Al Shabaab.

The TFG itself remains inept and unpopular, the United Nations said in a recent reportby its Somalia Monitoring Group.

Despite infusions of foreign training and assistance, the group observed,government security forces remain ineffective, disorganised and corrupt acomposite of independent militias loyal to senior government officials and military

officers who profit from the business of war and resist their integration under a singlecommand.

The drone-augmented effort to deter piracy off Somalias coast is also falling short ofexpectations.

Pirate attacks did decline in January and February, but the International MaritimeBureau reported that 5 of 19 attempted ship hijackings succeeded in March.

Similar numbers were recorded in March 2009 when the piracy plague was runningrampant.--------------------Uranium-mining nations flout nuclear mandate (Associated Press)

NEW YORK - Years after a six-month deadline passed, dozens of nations, includinguranium producers, remain potential weak links in the global defense against nuclearterrorism, ignoring a U.N. mandate on laws and controls to foil this ultimate threat.


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Niger, a major uranium exporter, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the sourceof the uranium for the first atomic bomb, are among the states falling short incomplying with Security Council Resolution 1540, a key tool in efforts to block nuclearproliferation.

Uncontrolled freelance mining in the Congo has long worried international authoritiesthat the raw material for a bomb might fall into the wrong hands.

President Barack Obama, who calls nuclear terrorism "the most immediate and extremethreat to global security," hosts a summit on nuclear security April 12-13 in Washington,where implementation of Resolution 1540 will be high on the agenda.

Twenty-nine nations have failed to report they have taken action on nuclear security asrequired by the 2004 resolution. Among the more than 160 governments that havereported, the information supplied is often sketchy.

Resolution 1540, which set a reporting deadline of October 2004, "imposes strictreporting requirements on states, but few have fully met them," the InternationalCommission on Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, a prestigious study group,concluded in its final report last December.

Mexican U.N. Ambassador Claude Heller, chairman of the U.N. committee monitoring1540's implementation, said he plans a series of meetings with noncompliant states tourge cooperation, and he sees Obama's summit as a chance to "send a strong message"about the U.N. mandate's importance.

"It is a legally binding regime that was adopted by the Security Council," Heller said. "Itis not up to governments to say yes we will report or not."

Resolution 1540, promoted by the U.S. in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks andthe 2004 uncovering of the Pakistan-based A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network, is theonly global legal instrument designed to disrupt links between terrorists and nucleartechnology. Unlike treaties, applicable only to states that ratify them, this U.N. mandateobligated all nations.

It required governments to "adopt and enforce appropriate effective laws whichprohibit any non-State actor," such as terrorists, from making or possessing nuclear,chemical or biological weapons, their delivery systems or related material.Governments must establish "effective" border and export controls and physicalprotection for sensitive materials and sites.

An AP review of filings found vast differences in national reporting.


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The U.S. and other industrialized nations filed reports of up to 30,000 words detailingrelevant laws and how they are enforced, while other, smaller countries submittedreports of just a few hundred words noting irrelevantly the nonproliferationtreaties to which they subscribe or, in Uganda's case, requesting financial aid to carryout 1540's obligations.

In its own review issued in January, Heller's committee cited major gaps in reporting onwhether activities related to weapons of mass destruction were criminalized, onwhether laws are enforced, on establishing lists of controlled items, and on restrictingaccess to sensitive materials.

Almost all the non-reporting states are in Africa, including uranium producers Zambia,Malawi and the Central African Republic.

Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which as the Belgian Congo colony

produced the uranium that fueled the U.S. weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in1945, didn't file reports for four years after the resolution's adoption. In 2008, the 1540committee's expert staff drafted reports on behalf of those two countries, drawing onpublicly available information. But Niger and Congo themselves have not reportedtaking steps to tighten nuclear security under 1540.

The "Hiroshima mine" at Shinkolobwe in southern Congo was closed in 1960, but inrecent years thousands of individual miners, officially unsanctioned, have worked atthe site, extracting cobalt and, some reports say, uranium.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, hasexpressed concern about poor security at the mine, as well as at a nuclear researchreactor in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, whose spent uranium fuel could be used fora terrorist's radioactive "dirty bomb."

Niger, in central Africa, has huge reserves of the continent's highest-grade uranium. Insome years it ranks as the world's No. 3 producer.

With renewed global interest in nuclear power, mining companies are stepping upuranium exploration and development in Niger and elsewhere in Africa, including inGabon, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania, all non-filers under Resolution 1540.

Although they might manage to fashion relatively simple "dirty bombs," al-Qaida andother terror groups wouldn't have the expertise or large infrastructure needed to buildnuclear weapons from raw African uranium. Experts fear, however, that "non-stateactors," including financially motivated smugglers, might deliver ore, technology orother material to a state with an illicit weapons program.


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Iran, which denies Western allegations its nuclear power program is meant forweapons-building, is known to need more foreign uranium supplies.

Resolution 1540 reporting "is important especially for countries that have uraniummines or an old research reactor," said Swedish nonproliferation scholar Johan

Bergenas.

By reviewing their laws and practices for the U.N., countries can detect weaknesses andremedy them with help being offered by the U.S. and other developed nations, saidBergenas, a researcher at the Washington office of the Monterey Institute ofInternational Studies.

Heller, Bergenas and others familiar with the process say poor African states arechoosing to devote their limited resources to higher priorities than U.S. and Europeanconcerns about nuclear proliferation. A Niger U.N. diplomat seemed to agree.

"We lack capacity to follow all such requirements," said Boubecar Boureima. In trackingSecurity Council developments, he said, "we deal with economic matters, peacebuildingin our region and other matters of interest to us.

"We have uranium," he added, "but we have no intention to go the wrong way."

The 1540 regime's weaknesses lie not only at the reporting end, but here at the U.N. aswell, diplomats say.

Ambassador Jorge Urbina of Costa Rica, Heller's predecessor as committee chairman,said more expert staffing is needed to better monitor how nations comply with 1540. Heand Heller also believe the U.N. should consider establishing a permanent agency tooversee 1540, to replace the committee, made up of an ever-changing lineup of 15Security Council member countries.

"You don't need 15 countries deciding on every move," Urbina said. "The committeeprocess has slowed implementation."

An IAEA database counts scores of thefts, losses and other incidents involving nuclearmaterials each year. "It shows there's a risk that the international community has to dealwith," Heller said. His committee pledges to "redouble its efforts."

"It is still a very young regime," the Mexican diplomat said of Resolution 1540. "It is onething to adopt something. The second challenge is to implement it."--------------------Guinea-Bissau PM resumes post after brief detention (Xinhua)


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BISSAU - Guinea-Bissau Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior has resumed his dutyafter being briefly arrested by mutineers earlier in the week, local media reported onSaturday.

The soldiers who entered the office of the prime minister and detained him on

Thursday left the building the next day.

Gomes Junior then went to meet with President Malam Bacai Sanha, who expressedtrust in him and asked him to remain on the post, according to local press and radio.

The resumption of Gomes Junior's work as the prime minister was reportedly the mostimportant topic in the talks.

Reports also said the former chief of defense staff, General Jose Zamora Induta, was stillconfined to the air base near the capital Bissau.

Induta and 40 other officers were also arrested in Thursday's mutiny, in which deputyarmy chief Antonio Indjai replaced him.

Despite the rebellious move which was denounced by many as a coup, Indjai on thesame day declared the army was still submissive to political powers.

The detention went parallel with the release of the former head of marines, the rearadmiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchute, who had been accused of plotting a coup inAugust 2008.

The ex-chief of Guinea-Bissau's marines took refuge at the UN office in Guinea-Bissauknown as UNOGBIS after returning to Guinea-Bissau in a canoe from Gambia on Dec.28, 2009. UNOGBIS had previously indicated willingness to settle the issue in a"peaceful and legal" way.

Na Tchute and Indjai are seen as the men behind the action by soldiers on Thursday.

Although President Sanha had declared that "calm" had returned in his country, theincident has already sparked an outcry from across the globe.

In a statement condemning the latest upheaval in Guinea-Bissau, the EconomicCommunity of West African States (ECOWAS) said the coup attempt came at a timewhen the successful presidential election in July 2009 had created the requiredenvironment for ECOWAS and the international community to strengthen thedemocratic and national reconciliation process.


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ECOWAS had been keeping watch on the country until the holding of elections on June28, 2009, when Sanha was elected the new president. It has since warned that themilitary reform is critical to ensure the post-assassination stability in Guinea-Bissau.

"ECOWAS ... will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to defend the democratic gains

and maintain stability in the country," it said in the statement.

The regional bloc also urged the African Union and the United Nations to scale up jointefforts to stabilize the political, security and economic situation in the country.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the military and political leadershipin Guinea-Bissau to resolve their differences by peaceful means and "to avoid any risksto the gains" made by the country in its current peace consolidation efforts.

The UN Security Council also urged all parties concerned to avoid acts of violence and

respect the rule of law in the West African country.

The unrest in Guinea-Bissau is the latest in a series to hit West Africa, whereMauritania, Guinea and Niger have witnessed the military coup since 2008.

Instability including the 1998-1999 civil war has haunted the country of 1.5 millionpeople since its independence from Portugal in 1974.

Before the latest coup bid, the West African country had foiled a mutiny after holding alegislative election in November 2008, when the African Party for the Independence of

Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde won the victory.

Coup fears were on the rise after President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated inMarch, 2009. The country's Interior Ministry reported another "coup attempt" in earlyJune 2009, just days ahead of the June 28 presidential election.

Being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Program's HumanDevelopment Index, the country is one of the world's poorest country.

With a jagged Atlantic coastline, Guinea-Bissau is chosen by traffickers as a major hubfor the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.--------------------Senegal's president reclaims French military bases (Associated Press)

DAKAR, Senegal Senegal's president said Sunday the West African country wasreclaiming three French military bases to mark its 50th year of independence fromFrance. In Paris, however, officials said the bases' future was still under discussion.


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President Abdoulaye Wade announced that the government would retake the baseswhich house some 1,200 troops, effective immediately. He said the handover wouldmark the final step in Senegal's separation from its former colonial master. Senegalgained independence from France in 1960.

"The presence of these French bases after all these years is seen as more and more out ofplace" and gives many people the impression of "incomplete independence," he said.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero, however, countered that Senegalhas always had "total sovereignty" over the French bases on their soil.

Wade's comments came two years after French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced amajor overhaul of his nation's policies toward Africa, saying that its militaryagreements were outdated and that France had no interest in keeping its forcespermanently on the continent.

France and Senegal have been discussing the future of the bases since then, Valero said,and the talks are ongoing.

"On the future of the holdings, the calendar, etc., all that is being discussed in the run-up to agreement that I'm sure will satisfy both parties," Valero told RFI radio.

Details of the way France envisions its military presence in Senegal came during a visitthere by French Defense Minister Herve Morin in February.

Morin announced that France was going pull many of its military personnel fromSenegal, leaving behind only about 200 soldiers who would assist French boats andairplanes and also take part in bilateral efforts, his ministry said. Details are still beingworked out, the ministry said.

Senegal also marked its independence on Saturday by unveiling a 160-foot (50-meter)-high bronze statue depicting a family rising triumphantly from a volcano that issupposed to symbolize Africa's renaissance.

But the monument has drawn criticism from many in the poverty-stricken countrybecause of its $27 million price tag.--------------------Calls for African unity as Senegal unveils controversial statue (AFP)

DAKAR, Senegal Senegal's controversial African Renaissance statue was unveiledSaturday, with leaders from across the continent calling for unity and the realisation ofa "United States of Africa".


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President Abdoulaye Wade called for the continent to unite in an address to a largecrowd and 19 African leaders at the foot of the bronze statue, built by North Korea andhigher than the Statue of Liberty.

"The time to take off has arrived," he said of the continent, split into 53 states, which is

increasingly courted for the rich minerals beneath its soil and its market of over onebillion inhabitants.

While African leaders vaunted the statue as a symbol for all black people around theworld and its inauguration as a historical moment, thousands of local opponentsprotested at a wasteful extravagance in hard economic times.

Riot police patrolled nearby streets earlier Saturday as demonstrators held up bannersdemanding the resignation of Wade, 84, who has been in power since 2000.

Deputy opposition leader Ndeye Fatou Toure said the statue was an "economic monsterand a financial scandal in the context of the current crisis," in a country where half thepopulation lives below the poverty line.

Championed by Wade, the 52-metre (164-foot) monument whose cost is estimated atmore than 15 million euros (20 million dollars) has caused a mixture of anger over itsprice tag, and bewilderment over its style.

The inauguration of the statue is the highlight of Senegal's 50 years of independencefrom France on April 4, 1960.

It depicts a muscular man emerging from a volcano with a scantily clad woman in towand holding a baby aloft in his left arm, pointing West towards the Atlantic Ocean.

The depiction of a woman with a whisp of fabric covering her breasts and skirting herthighs has baffled many in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, where women dressdemurely, and drawn criticism from Islamic leaders.

Calling for unity, Wade said that "only a political integration of the United States ofAfrica will shelter us from potentially fatal marginalisation" on the world's poorestcontinent, which holds rich economic potential, he added.

After "five centuries of ordeals, slavery, Africa is still there, folding sometimes, butnever breaking. She is upright and resolute to take her future in hand," Wade said.

"The slave traders have left, the last colonialist has left. We have no more excuses. Wemust seize this opportunity so that history does not repeat itself."


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Former Nigerian president and African strongman Olusegun Obasanjo who cut aribbon in the colours of the Senegalese flag, said the statue was "a monument for blackpeople all over the world".

"We have a symbol to remind us, to inspire us" of and against years of slavery and

abuse. "A united union of Africa can make it not happen again."

African Union chief Bingu wa Mutharika, the president of Malawi, called for a newAfrican unity: "We have more things that unite us, than those that divide us... Let usreturn to our countries with a new hope of a new Africa."

A 100-strong African-American delegation included civil rights activist Jesse Jacksonand Senegalese-American singer Akon.

The presidents of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cap Verde, the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast,

Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania and Zimbabwe were also present as well asthe head of the African Union Commission Jean Ping.

"Africa has seized this monument. It is rare to have one country hosting more than adozen heads of state for this kind of event. That testifies to their support," presidentialspokesman Mamadou Bamba Ndiaye told AFP.

Long on the table, a United States of Africa has been planned by the African Union by2025, but doubts have been raised about the ability of the continent to unite amidwidespread poverty and conflicts.

-------------------Zuma Seeks to Calm South Africa After Killing(New York Times)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa South Africas president, Jacob Zuma, called forcalm on Sunday, warning that agents provocateurs might try to incite racial hatredafter the brutal killing of the white supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche.

Julius Malema, the leader of the governing partys youth league, has recently included asingalong at his public appearances. The song, Ayesab Amagwala, dates back to thestruggle against apartheid. Its lyrics include the lines Shoot the Boer the Dutchword for farmer shoot, shoot, shoot them with a gun.

These renditions have led to hot crosscurrents of opinion here, with some saying thatthe song has historical importance and that the shooting part is metaphorical, whileothers claim the words are a renewed solicitation to kill.


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Last week two judges, in separate hearings, declared the song unlawful and banned itsperformance, a decision that had many legal experts debating the boundaries betweenfree speech and hate speech.

According to the police, Saturdays killing of Mr. TerreBlanche, the 69-year-old leader

of a right-wing party that has largely slipped from significance, was carried out by twofarm workers angry with him in a dispute over their pay.

The crime, while certainly notable, might have followed its victim into obscurity were itnot for the current prominence of the song. Mr. TerreBlanche considered himself a Boerand was proud to say so.

Some of his party followers in the Afrikaner Resistance Movement now blame Mr.Malema for inciting the death. Its general secretary, Andre Visagie, was quoted by theSouth African Press Association as vowing an unspecified revenge.

Our leaders death is directly linked to Julius Malemas shoot the Boer song, hereportedly said, adding that Mr. Malemas party, the African National Congress,condoned the death because it approved of Ayesab Amagwala.

The killing of white farmers is a volatile issue in South Africa. The police say nearly 900of them have been slain since 2001. But many farmers insist the number is far higherand charge that a government conspiracy is at the root.

To them, kill the Boer is a lyric with a fearsome immediacy. The knifing and

bludgeoning of Mr. TerreBlanche was just another in a common pattern.

For his part, Mr. Malema denied any responsibility for the crime. Reuters quoted him assaying, On a personal capacity, I am not going to respond to what people are saying.

Mr. Malema is on a trip to Zimbabwe, where he is again proving to be South Africasmost inflammatory politician. In a speech in Harare on Saturday, he allied himself withthe 86-year-old autocrat Robert Mugabe, a stance likely to complicate negotiations inZimbabwes political crisis and intensify the apprehensions of white farmers andmining interests in his own country.

Mr. Malema, 29, commended Mr. Mugabe for standing firm against imperialists inthe same manner as Fidel Castro. He further praised him for appropriating the land ofZimbabwes white farmers.

In South Africa, we are just starting, he said, according to news reports. Here inZimbabwe, you are already very far. The land question has been addressed.


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He continued: We hear you are now going straight for the mines. Thats what we aregoing to be doing in South Africa. Now its our turn to enjoy from these minerals.

Actually, the A.N.C.s official position opposes the nationalization of mines. And thegovernments land redistribution program, while very troubled in its execution,

nevertheless buys white-owned farms rather than confiscating them, paying areasonable price to landowners willing to sell.

Mr. Malemas blustery remarks, then, might seem inconsequential. After all, thepresidency of the partys youth league is a position relatively low on the partys flowchart.

But after Mr. Zuma, Mr. Malema, a relentless newsmaker, is the second-most-quotedperson in the country. If people prone to saying the outrageous are called loosecannons, Mr. Malema could be considered heavy ordnance.

There is recurring speculation about why the A.N.C. does not curb his vitriol andracially polarizing statements. It is a hierarchical organization that insists on partydiscipline. Many here believe that Mr. Malemas comments must come with thesanction of some within the party leadership.

Mr. Malemas trip to Zimbabwe is itself curious. Last month, Mr. Zuma himselftraveled to Harare, trying to revive a power-sharing agreement between Mr. Mugabeand his chief rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. As the official mediator for agroup of southern African nations, Mr. Zuma needed to seem even-handed in the

delicate negotiations.

Mr. Malema scorned Mr. Tsvangirai, a man beaten up several times for his oppositionto Mr. Mugabe. He called him a lackey for imperialists, a term usually directed at theUnited States and Britain.

A man who dresses in expensive clothes and drives luxury cars, Mr. Malemaadditionally condemned some of his white countrymen. The economy is stillcontrolled by white males who are refusing to change, and the media is also controlledby white males who are refusing to change, he said.

Mr. Malema is scheduled to meet with Mr. Mugabe on Monday. His visit has beenhosted by the youth league of Zimbabwes governing party, Zanu-PF. DuringSaturdays speech, Mr. Malemas remarks were largely received with boisterousapproval.

In honor of their guest, the crowd, with Mr. Malema joining in, sang, Shoot the Boer,shoot, shoot, shoot them with a gun.


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--------------------Ritual sacrifice of children on rise in Uganda (Associated Press)

JINJA, Uganda Caroline Aya was playing in front of her house in January when aneighbor put a cloth over her mouth and fled with her.

A couple of days later, the 8-year-old's body was found a short walk away with hertongue cut out. Police believe she was offered up as a human sacrifice in a ritual killing,thought to bring wealth or health.

"If it is a sickness you try to treat it, and if they die that is one thing," said Caroline'sfather, Balluonzima Christ. "But when you slaughter a person like a goat, that is noteasy."

The practice of human sacrifice is on the rise in Uganda, as measured by ritual killings

where body parts, often facial features or genitals, are cut off for use in ceremonies. Thenumber of people killed in ritual murders last year rose to a new high of at least 15children and 14 adults, up from just three cases in 2007, according to police. Theinformal count is much higher 154 suspects were arrested last year and 50 taken tocourt over ritual killings.

Children in particular are common victims, according to a U.S. State Department reportreleased this month. The U.S. spent $500,000 to train 2,000 Ugandan police last year toinvestigate offences related to human trafficking, including ritual killings.

The problem is bad enough that last year the police established an Anti-HumanSacrifice Taskforce. Posters on police station walls show a sinister stranger luring twoyoung girls into a car below bold letters that call on parents to "Prevent Child Sacrifice."

Human sacrifices have been recorded throughout history and occur still in manycountries, including India, Indonesia, South Africa, Gabon and Tanzania. Onetraditional healer in Uganda, when asked about the phenomenon, pointed to the storytold in the Bible's book of Genesis, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice a son.

However, the rise in human sacrifices in Uganda appears to come from a desire forwealth and a belief that drugs made from human organs can bring riches, according totask force head Moses Binoga. They may be fueled by a spate of violent Nigerian filmsthat are growing in popularity, and showcase a common story line: A family reapingriches after sacrificing a human.

"I call it a problem of psychological disorientation," said Binoga. "People getdisoriented. People stop having respect in humanity and believe more in the worth ofmoney and so-called good fortune, and they lose that natural social respect for people."


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The sacrifices are also linked to a deep belief in traditional healers, or witch doctors,who can be found practically every half mile in Uganda.

At the end of a winding dirt road on the edge of Kampala, Uganda's capital, barefoot

children scurry past a sign advertising the abilities of Musa Nsimbe, who goes by thetrade name Professor Gabogola. The sign in front of his small wood hut reads like apanacea for the world's woes.

"A traditional healer with powers over spirits. Solves all cases, demons, thieves, toothdecay, madness fevers, appelipse, genital affairs."

Sunlight streams in like tiny laser beams through holes in the metal roof of Nsimbe'sshrine. Smoke fills the air. Furry hides cover the floor. Animal horns are arrayed beforeNsimbe, who chants, hums, murmurs, shakes and bangs his head against the wall in a

furious calling of the spirits.

The 38-year-old Nsimbe a father of 14 children with two women says it's possiblethat some witch doctors carry out ritual sacrifices, but that he does not.

Another traditional healer, 60-year-old Livingstone Kiggo, said sacrifice is part of thehealer's tool kit sacrificing a goat, sheep or chicken is considered a call to the spirits,to people's ancestors. But killing humans is not part of the practice, said Kiggo.

He blamed sacrificial deaths on people who "want to destroy the work of traditional

healers."

"Those are killers. They are not healers. They are killers," said Kiggo.

In 2008, Kiggo said a man approached him offering to sell a child. He went to the police,who set up a sting operation and snared a man trying to sell his nephew for $2,000.Police and advocates point to several cases where impoverished parents or relativeshave tried to sell children to witch doctors for money.

The people of Jinja have seen three suspected cases of child sacrifice in recent months,including Caroline's. When Binoga held a town-hall-style meeting in early February,some 500 people squatted under the shade of five large trees, straining to hear hiswords.

Many complained of police corruption, slow investigations and a lack of convictions bythe country's lethargic courts, words that drew loud cheers from the emotional crowd.Of about 30 people charged with ritual killing last year, nobody has yet been convicted.The last conviction was in 2007.


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"There is a lack of political will to protect the children. We have beautiful laws but alack of political will," said Haruna Mawa, the spokesman for the child protectionagency ANPPCAN. "As long as we keep our laws in limbo we are creating a fertilebreeding ground for human and child sacrifice to escalate. No convictions. What

message are you giving to the police?"

Mawa's agency has helped with several recent cases of child sacrifice. A 2-year-old boyhad his penis cut off by a witch doctor in eastern Uganda and now urinates through atube, Mawa said.

A 12-year-old named Shafik had a knife put to his throat when a female witch doctorrealized the boy was circumcised. Witch doctors don't kill children who are circumcisedor who have pierced ears because they are considered impure, Mawa said. As a result,some parents have taken their children to get piercings or circumcisions.

The Christ family is protecting their three remaining children in other ways. Thesiblings no longer walk to school alone and are instead accompanied by their parents. Itis a security precaution that the parents can't take forever, said Fred Kyankya, thedistrict criminal intelligence officer.

"You can't keep holding onto a child very tightly. Children move freely," Kyankya said."So people get scared that there are such vices in the country."--------------------UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website

Ban urges leaders in Guinea-Bissau to maintain rule of law1 April Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the military and politicalleadership of Guinea-Bissau to resolve their differences peacefully and to maintainconstitutional order and the rule of law, after military incidents in which the PrimeMinister was briefly detained.

Cte dIvoire: UN pursues multi-pronged strategy for peaceful elections1 April From high-level political meetings to workshops and sporting events, theUnited Nations mission in Cte dIvoire (UNOCI) is deploying a multifaceted strategy

to create a peaceful environment for the repeatedly delayed elections that are intendedto reunify the divided country.

DR Congo: UN helps women fight under-representation in government1 April The United Nations is boosting the efforts of women in the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC) to overcome decades of low female participation in


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politics and achieve their rightful role in governing the vast African country andrebuilding it after years of civil war.

UN efforts to improve refugee protection in Morocco bear fruit1 April Efforts by the United Nations refugee agency to address refugee protection

and mixed migration in Morocco have helped to improve protection, but significantchallenges remain, the agency said in a new report.

ICC Prosecutor welcomes decision to move forward with Kenya probe1 April The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) today welcomed thebodys decision to grant his request to investigate alleged crimes against humanitycommitted in the wake of disputed Kenyan elections two years ago.

africom related news clips april 5, 2010

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