United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

24 June 2010

USAFRICOM -related news stories

From and About Africa

DRC CASUALTIES RISE TO 821 IN TRAIN DERAILMENT OF

REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
KINSHASA - The number of casualties climbed to 821 as of Wednesday after
Monday's train derailment accident in the Republic of the Congo. Among
them, 76 died and 745 others were wounded, said local media.

GERMANY US ARMY TO CLOSE ALMOST ALL SITES IN TWO GERMAN CITIES

Berlin- The US Army said Wednesday it would close almost all its sites in two German cities, Heidelberg and
Mannheim, where it has maintained bases since 1945.

GERMANY DETAINED GERMAN SAYS DOZENS OF EUROPEANS FIGHTING IN

AFGHANISTAN
Islamabad - A detained German national told investigators that dozens of al-Qaeda-recruited Europeans were
fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, intelligence officials said Wednesday. The detainee, identified as Rami
Makanesi, reportedly said that he had met militants from Germany, Sweden, Spain and Norway on both sides of the
border. Some of them were receiving training at camps in Pakistan and others were fighting NATO-led troops in
Afghanistan, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity said. "Rami Makanesi has been initially identified as
25 years old and hails from Hamburg. He is associated with an al-Qaeda-linked group that calls itself German
Taliban Mujahidin," the official said. He said Makanesi entered Pakistan's south-western province of Baluchistan
from Iran in early 2009 with three other German men and two women. He told investigators that he received
explosives training in North Waziristan's Mir Ali district, and fought in Afghanistan. Makanesi reportedly said the
European Muslim mercenaries "wanted to avenge America and their European collaborators for committing crimes
against Muslims around the world." "The German government might put up a formal request for Rami Makanesi
in the coming days but I think our government would allow us to complete our investigation," the intelligence
official said.

SWEDEN SECOND SWEDE ARRESTED FOR PLOTTING SOMALIA ATTACK

Police in Sweden have arrested a man suspected of planning an attack in Somalia, the second such arrest there
within a month. Swedish authorities have expressed concern about Somali militant groups recruiting fighters from
the country's Somali immigrant population. Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of Somalis have fled to
Scandinavia to escape war and poverty in their homeland.

SOMALIA AMISOM ONLY CANNOT COPE WITH THE INVADING TERRORISTS FROM
AROUND THE WORLD
APA-Mogadishu-(Somalia) Somali lawmaker and former Deputy Minister for Defense Salad Ali Jelle on
Wednesday called on the United Nations to deploy peacekeepers into Somalia to help end the country’s long-
running lawlessness. Talking to reporters in Mogadishu, the lawmaker said that peace and stability cannot be
introduced into Somalia unless United Nations peacekeepers are deployed in the country. “AMISOM only cannot
cope with the invading terrorists from around the world, so I urge the UN Security Council to take over the
peacekeeping responsibility in Somalia,” Salad Ali Jelle added during a press conference on Wednesday.
UK BBC JOURNALIST IN SOMALIA REFUSED ENTRY TO UK
A BBC World Service journalist working in Somalia was due to collect an award from parliament this month for
courageous journalism but was denied entry to the UK. According to a UK border control spokesperson, one of the
reasons Hassan's visa application was turned down was his failure to declare a second Ethiopian passport, which
gave a different name and different place and date of birth from that in his Somalian passport.

TWO GERMAN AID WORKERS ABDUCTED IN DARFUR

Armed men kidnapped two German aid workers in Sudan's Darfur region on Tuesday, U.N. and aid officials said,
in the latest in a string of abductions that has disrupted relief work in the territory. The two men working for
Technisches Hilfswerk (THW) were taken from their compound in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state -- the
first time kidnappers have ventured into one of the region's main cities, officials said. "Yesterday (Tuesday) evening,
seven men, four of them armed with AK-47 rifles, came on foot to the THW compound ... They snatched a Sudanese
security guard and two internationals," said the spokesman for Darfur's joint U.N./African Union UNAMID
peacekeeping force Kemal Saiki. The abductors loaded their captives into a vehicle and released the Sudanese guard
outside Nyala, said Saiki.

UGANDAN LEADER URGES HIS PEOPLE TO IGNORE THE WORLD CUP

Kampala - Uganda's head of state, Yoweri Museveni, is urging his people to ignore the World Cup in South Africa,
advising them to instead concentrate on income-generating activities. President Museveni says he was invited to
attend the tournament's opening ceremony but declined, instead suggesting parents should tell their children not to
"waste time " watching the matches, the Daily Monitor reported Wednesday. "Somebody recently asked me who
had won the World Cup. I was amused and I asked him who had qualified or whether the competition was finished,"
the Uganda leader was quoted as saying.

DROUGHT-HIT EAST AFRICAN STATES TO RECEIVE 24.5 MLN DOLLARS FROM EU

Brussels - Six East African countries hit by drought are set to receive 20 million euros (24.5 million dollars) in
humanitarian aid from the European Union, the bloc's executive said Wednesday. The European Commission said
over 12 million people in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda are affected by recurring
droughts, leading to high rates of malnutrition and child mortality.

SOMALIA NEW POLITICAL FEUD ENGULFS FRAGILE TFG

Mogadishu - A new row has erupted between Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh and Prime Minister Omar
Abdirashid Sharma'arke over formation of a new government. The dispute erupted after Premier handed over a new
list of cabinet ministers to President Ahmed, which he rejected. "The president rejected the PM's list of cabinet
ministers including those from Ahlu Sunnah on the grounds that he dislike of them," said an official who works in
Sharma'arke's office. Premier Sharma'arke has reportedly said that the some of the appointees, which Ahmed is
rejecting, are capable of serving the country better. However, attempts by newly elected speaker Sharif Hassan
Sheikh Aden to reconcile the two leaders and broker agreement to form the government has been futile, according
sources.

SOMALIA MPS AIM TO CHANGE CLAN POWER-SHARING LAW

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A group of 176 Somali legislators is pushing for changes to the law that dictates how
power is shared between the country's clans because they believe it is discriminatory, a former deputy speaker said
on Tuesday. Mohamed Omar Dalha, a member of the newly-formed Umbrella for Guidance and Rescuing the
Nation, told Reuters the group would seek to abolish Article 29 of the Transitional Federal Charter that institutes a
power-sharing governance structure for Somalia's clan-based politics. According to a formula in the charter,
Somalia's four major clans each receive 122 seats in the 550-seat parliament. The remaining 62 seats go to an
alliance of dozens of minority clans. The controversial formula ensures that top leaders such as the president, prime
minister, speaker and key ministers are picked from major clans. "We formed this parliamentary block to lobby the
needs of our people in the assembly, abolish or amend articles in the charter that dishonour the culture and Islamic
principles of our society," Dalha said.
SOMALIA REFUGEES ANGRY AT STATUS CHANGE
Hargeisa — The announcement by the government of Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland that there were
no refugees in the region - only economic migrants from neighbouring countries - has angered hundreds of refugees
in the country. "We are political refugees, not economic migrants; we were politically persecuted in our homes," a
representative of Ethiopian refugees said at a ceremony marking World Refugee Day on 20 June in Hargeisa, capital
of Somaliland. The representative said Somaliland's directive went against its humanitarian responsibilities to
refugees.

COUNTER-PIRACY 'EU NAVFOR NEW TACTICS HAVE REDUCED PIRATE ATTACKS'

"EU NAVFOR's new tactic has been successful, we are disrupting more suspected pirates near the coast, before
they put on the high seas and conduct hijackings. The challenge is that once they get through they venture further
and further out on the Indian Ocean," said Rear Admiral (LH) Jan Thörnqvist when he sums up his first two-
month as Force Commander.

YEMEN SOMALI PIRATES SAIL TO BAB AL-MANDAB

Yemeni Coast Guard police, in a statement distributed to the Media Center of the Ministry of Interior, said that the
pirates of Somalia have turned their activities to the area of the Strait of Bab al-Mandab due to poor marine
conditions in the Gulf of Aden. They added that the pirates of Somalia have used the area of the Strait of Bab al-
Mandab as a place of their activity, and that the Coast Guard has taken all necessary measures to combat piracy in
the Strait of Bab al-Mandab.

RWANDA FOUR CHARGED, TWO FREED AFTER FORMER RWANDAN GENERAL SHOT IN S
AFRICA
JOHANNESBURG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Four of the six people accused of involvement in the shooting of a former
Rwandan general in Johannesburg will remain in custody after their brief appearance in the Johannesburg
Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.Charges against the other two were dropped, according to South African police
spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo. He told the South African Press Association (SAPA) that all six people who
were arrested appeared in court but charges against two of them were withdrawn. He said the four remanded in
police custody would be in court again on June 29.

DRC SEVERAL MOTIVES BEHIND THE MURDER OF FLORIBERT CHEBEYA

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides)- Several motives could be behind the assassination of Congolese human rights activist
Floribert Chebeya, chairman of the NGO Voice for the Voiceless (VSV), who disappeared with his driver in the
evening of 1 June in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “Chebeya intended to deposit an
investigation and institute a civil action regarding repression led in 2007 by the national police against the political
religious movement Bundu dia Kongo, in Bas Congo” says a report sent to Fides by Rete Pace per il Congo, a
network promoted by missionaries working in the country. “Regarding the east of the country- the report says-
Chebeya had strongly criticised military operations conducted jointly with the Rwandan army against Rwandan
Hutu rebels of the Rwandan Democratic Forces of Liberation FDLR in 2009, operations directly agreed between
John Numbi and the present Rwandan minister of defence, James Kabarebe. In view of the country's 50 years of
independence, to be celebrated 30 June, Chebeya was preparing an initiative to request an amnesty for 51 detainees
awaiting execution after being found guilty of the assassination of Laurent Désiré Kabila, the father of the present
day President Joseph Kabila”. VSV, the association of Floribert Chebeya, had asked the UN Security Council to open
an investigation on the assassination of the Congolese Head of State, similar to the one instituted after the
assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in the meantime, National Police inspector general, John
Numbi Banza Tambo has been dismissed because of his involvement in the inquiry on the death of the human rights
activist.

MAN ARRESTED ON EXPLOSIVES CHARGE AHEAD OF G-20

TORONTO — A Toronto man was charged Wednesday with possession of explosives in what police are calling a
Group of 20 summit-related arrest. Officers armed with a search warrant went to a million-dollar-plus home in a
wealthy neighborhood in Toronto's north end and charged Byron Sonne, 37, with several offenses, including
possession of explosives, dangerous weapons, intimidating a justice system participant and mischief, police said in a
statement. Police spokesman Jillian Van Acker declined to release more details, but police said the investigation is
part of the ongoing effort to ensure a safe and secure G-20 Summit in Toronto this weekend. The G-20 groups the
leaders from 19 leading rich and developing nations and the European Union. A LinkedIn profile for a Byron Sonne
living in Toronto says he specializes in computer and network security and is a licensed private investigator.

Moroccan children are seen here with foster parents at Village of Hope.
Authorities had raided the children’s home, accusing them of proselytizing,
and forced the parents and Christian volunteers to leave the country and abandon 33 children

US CONGRESSMEN DECRY MOROCCAN

GOVERNMENT’S ’PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS’
Following last Thursday’s (June 17, 2010) hearing in Washington,
DC, at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on recent
religious persecution in Morocco, including the religiously-motivated
deportation of the Christian operators of the Village of Hope
orphanage, Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) and Congressman
Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), co-chairs of the International Religious
Freedom Caucus, have released their prepared remarks from the
hearing. Congressman Franks stated, “I am particularly troubled by
the deportation of
.
foreigners who selflessly worked with orphans, were the only parents most of the children there have ever known,
and who were needlessly kicked out of the country solely because of their private religious beliefs. I strongly urge the
Moroccan government to look into this situation and help us to understand what necessitated such harsh measures.
The United States will not turn a blind eye toward the denial of due process. It is unfortunate that the Moroccan
government would take such measures against those who are providing much needed humanitarian and business
services to Morocco.”

MOROCCO SLAMS ISRAELI DEMOLITION PLAN IN JERUSALEM

Morocco strongly slammed an Israeli plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, describing it as a
step towards altering the Islamic nature of the disputed city.

NIGERIA CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT: FAKE COPIES SUPPLIED TO STATE HOUSES OF

ASSEMBLY
THE possibility of holding the 2011 general election as scheduled looked dim on Wednesday, as the House of
Representatives called for the withdrawal of copies of the proposed new constitution from the 36 states of the
federation. The Reps took the decision on discovering that the copies of the amended constitution earlier forwarded to
all the state Houses of Assembly were fake, because they were not the harmonised copies signed by both the Senate
and the House.