United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

26 October 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Reserve Chief Looks to Africa, S. America (Defense News)

(Pan Africa) The U.S. Army Reserves’ top officer is looking toward Africa and South
America as he tries to find missions for Reserve units as soldiers pull out of Iraq and the
operations tempo in Afghanistan eventually slows down.

U.S. donates anti-malaria drugs to Mali (Xinhua)

(Mali) The United States has freshly donated 1.4 million U. S. dollars worth of anti-
malaria drugs to Mali, according to official sources.

Why Africa's young thinkers are headed to prestigious US colleges (Christian Science
Monitor)
(Pan Africa) Among the students at America's prestigious colleges this fall are young
Africans who are the first graduates of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in
Johannesburg, which has drawn students from more than 30 African nations and sent
its graduates to study all over Europe and North America – all with an eye, ultimately,
to bolstering the ranks of professionals who can drive Africa's political and economic
development.

EU denies role in Somalia helicopter clash (AFP)

(Somalia) The European Union's anti-piracy mission on Monday denied that one of its
helicopters was involved in a clash with Somali pirates in which four people were
killed.

U.N.: More peacekeepers couldn't halt new Sudan war (Reuters)

(Sudan) U.N. peacekeepers monitoring a fragile 2005 peace deal between north and
south Sudan could not stop new hostilities between the northern and southern armies,
the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Monday.

Sudan warns of civil war over Abyei (Al Jazeera)

(Sudan) Sudan's UN ambassador has warned that conducting a January 9 referendum
in Abyei without settling voting rights for competing tribes, as well as the border, will
lead to war.
Rioting hits Guinea towns as ethnic tensions rise (Associated Press)
(Guinea) Members of the Malinke ethnic group rioted in four towns in Guinea, killing
one man and leaving Peul-owned stores in ruins as ethnic violence spread from the
capital amid stalled presidential elections.

Uganda's Museveni, Besigye Set for Third Electoral Face-Off (Voice of America)
(Uganda) Ugandan electoral officials have cleared President Yoweri Museveni and
chief rival Kizza Besigye to run in the February 18 presidential election.

IMF: China Bolsters African Growth (Wall Street Journal)

(Pan Africa) Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to post better-than-expected growth this
year and next, due in part to increased trade with China and other fast-growing
economies in Asia and Latin America, according to a new report by the International
Monetary Fund.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Impending presidential poll ‘historic’ for Côte d’Ivoire – UN envoy
 UN envoy condemns attack against blue helmets in eastern DR Congo
 Coming months critical for Sudan’s future, Security Council hears
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, October 27, 12:00 p.m.; Council on Foreign Relations

WHAT: A Conversation with Senator Richard G. Lugar
WHO: Senator Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate
Info: http://www.cfr.org/

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, October 28, 10:00 a.m.; Georgetown University, Edmund

A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
WHAT: Curse of Berlin: Africa After the Cold War
WHO: Dr. Adebajo, African Studies Program
Info: http://events.georgetown.edu/events/index.cfm?
Action=View&CalendarID=141&EventID=80765

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, November 5, 9:30 a.m.; U.S. Institute of Peace

WHAT: Women in War Conference: The Trouble with the Congo
WHO: Severine Autesserre, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Barnard College,
Columbia University; Raymond Gilpin, Associate Vice President, Sustainable
Economies, Centers of Innovation, U.S. Institute of Peace; Christine Karumba, Women
for Women International; Howard Wolpe, Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars; Diane Orentlicher, Deputy Director, Office of War Crimes, U.S. Department of
State
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/woman-and-war
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Reserve Chief Looks to Africa, S. America (Defense News)

The U.S. Army Reserves’ top officer is looking toward Africa and South America as he
tries to find missions for Reserve units as soldiers pull out of Iraq and the operations
tempo in Afghanistan eventually slows down.

Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of Army Reserves, sees theatre security cooperation as a
mission where the Guard and Reserve can expand. Guard and Reserve soldiers have the
skills from their civilian jobs to adapt best to missions such as training foreign armies
and providing humanitarian assistance, Stultz said Oct. 24 in an interview with Army
Times.

Stultz wants the Army’s Reserves to remains focused on maintaining an “operational

Reserve” and not falling back to a force seen only as weekend warriors. To do this, he
wants the Reserves to form five contingency pools of 24,000 to 25,000 soldiers who
would stand ready for year-long terms. The pools would fall into five-year cycles and
serve missions up to 90 days.

“This would make it easier to put [Reservists] into the fight,” Stultz said.

He did not provide a timeline when these contingency pools would start forming, but
he said this is one of his top priorities.

Stultz acknowledged, though, this would require money from the Defense Department
at a time when the Army is looking for cost savings across the service. However, he said
the Army could save money by having more Reservists trained and ready to deploy.

“Yes, it would take an initial investment, but it could providing those savings for quite
awhile,” he said.

Reservists already make up 90 percent of the force that supports Africa Command
missions.

Gen. William “Kip” Ward, head of AfriCom, said he expects Guard and Reserve
soldiers to continue to make up the majority of the force. Ward said it was not a
coincidence that he was selected as the speaker at the Guard and Reserve Breakfast at
AUSA. He depends on the Guard and Reserve to complete his mission.

“When [African] soldiers meet our soldiers … they see the best in America,” Ward said
Oct. 25. “The role the Guard and Reserve plays in that is vital.”
Stultz said the theatre security cooperation mission will keep Reserve units integrated
with active duty.

“We have never had the degree of integration that we have now and we need to keep
that,” he said.
--------------------
U.S. donates anti-malaria drugs to Mali (Xinhua)

BAMAKO - The United States has freshly donated 1.4 million U. S. dollars worth of
anti-malaria drugs to Mali, according to official sources.

The drugs will enable Mali to control the disease being prevalent in a number of regions
in the West African country, Malian Health Minister Oumar Ibrahima Toure and U. S.
Ambassador to Mali Gillian Milovanovic said at a handover ceremony held at the
weekend in the capital Bamako.

The donation was part of the U.S. president's initiative (PMI) aimed at fighting against
malaria in developing countries, and more specifically in Africa.

Over the last three years, the initiative has boosted Mali's Program to Fight against
Malaria (PNLP), officials of both sides said.

"In the recent years, U.S. contributions through PMI has enabled Mali to get 30 million
dollars, equivalent to 15 billion FCFA, for the fight against malaria. This annual budget
will soon move from 15 million to 28 million dollars," the U.S. ambassador declared.
--------------------
Why Africa's young thinkers are headed to prestigious US colleges (Christian Science
Monitor)

Johannesburg, South Africa - Among the students at America's prestigious colleges this
fall are young Africans who have had a hand in changing national legislation in Kenya,
synthesizing fuel from natural waste, and building a windmill to generate electricity in
Malawi.

They're the first graduates of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg,
which has drawn students from more than 30 African nations and sent its graduates to
study all over Europe and North America – all with an eye, ultimately, to bolstering the
ranks of professionals who can drive Africa's political and economic development.

For 19-year-old Joseph Munyanbanza, the contrast could scarcely be greater between
the crowded refugee camp in Uganda where he grew up and the rolling lawns framing
the brick buildings in Johannesburg where he studied for the past two years as a
member of the Academy's first class of some 100 students.
At age 6, he fled to the camp with his older brother to escape civil war in the
Democratic Republic of Congo – then Zaire – eventually reuniting with his parents. He
had no shoes, and read by a fire at night to augment his makeshift studies.

Mr. Munyanbanza says the two primary schools in the camp were ill-equipped, and the
teachers underpaid and unmotivated. So he tutored younger children and obtained
funding to build a primary school. "The success created another big problem," he says,
"because they wanted to go to high school – but there wasn't one in the camp."

Munyanbanza discovered a secondary school in a neighboring town that didn't charge

fees, and rented a house for the kids so they could continue studying. He points out
with pride that they have since come out with some of the highest test results in the
area.

Africa's young thinkers

The students at ALA were recruited for demonstrating extraordinary leadership at a
young age in science, social activism, and politics.

As a member of the Children's Parliament in Kenya, for example, Tabitha Tongoi

helped lobby the government to provide designated train carriages for children
traveling to school, to prevent them from being squeezed out by adults. They would no
longer be forced to sit on the roof or walk miles to school.

William Kamkwamba built a windmill at the age of 14 to provide energy for his family
in Malawi. Last year, he appeared on the US comedy program The Daily Show after his
memoir, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," became an international bestseller.

The school hopes to build on this talent and create 6,000 leaders over the next 50 years,
teaching them courses in ethics, politics, and entrepreneurship as well as offering
college preparatory courses.

Last June, during the graduation ceremony, students mounted the stage in the large
auditorium to unveil projects to the excited applause of friends and family. Graduates
have developed a student online banking system, a math program on DVD, and a face
cream that repels mosquitoes, to combat malaria.

Spencer Horne, a 19-year-old South African, explains what he's working on: a digester –
a kind of compost machine – for a school kitchen. "It breaks down waste and turns it
into methane gas, along with other by-products which can be used as fertilizer
afterwards," he says. "Once it's complete we'd like to see [the school] cutting down the
cost they're currently spending on gas for cooking."
With the ALA in its third year, donations – and the number of applicants – are on the
rise. Most students are on a scholarship, which puts the $25,000 tuition within reach of
the majority of Africans who earn less than $2 a day. Alumni who fail to return to work
in Africa for 10 years or more after university must repay the scholarship.

Stemming 'brain drain'

The academy hopes to stem "brain drain," where thousands of professionals leave the
continent for job opportunities and higher pay every year. Large numbers of African
doctors and nurses work in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

But Mr. Horne, who is now studying engineering at Harvard University, doesn't
imagine he'll be tempted to stay away from Africa any longer than necessary.

"It's true, I could probably walk into an easy job after graduating and make lots of
money immediately," he says, displaying no lack of confidence. "But I think I'd derive a
lot more satisfaction from being involved directly [working in Africa], from innovation
and helping out."

It's hoped these "future leaders" will maintain the momentum of Africa's development
over the past decade, where economies have grown on average by more than 5 percent
– far outpacing advanced economies. And with some infamous exceptions, more free
and fair elections are being held on a continent that is increasingly politically stable.

Improvements in Africa will remain patchy however, says Mr. Swaniker, unless donors
and investors shift from short-term aid to training and education.

"We can spend millions of dollars treating the refugees that come out of a war, but that
won't stop until we have leaders who don't go to war in the first place," he says.

"The investments we're asking people to make in these leaders is to stop these problems
once and for all."
--------------------
EU denies role in Somalia helicopter clash (AFP)

MOGADISHU — The European Union's anti-piracy mission on Monday denied that

one of its helicopters was involved in a clash with Somali pirates in which four people
were killed.

Residents in the village of Labad on Somalia's northern coast said pirates had shot at a
military helicopter on Sunday night, which returned fire killing at least four people.

"That helicopter does not belong to EU NAVFOR," Lieutenant Colonel Per Klingvall,
spokesman for the EU naval force, told AFP.
"We have not heard of any incident like this from other task forces," he said, referring to
US and NATO operations in the waters around the lawless Horn of Africa country.

Abdi Yare, a pirate leader, said the helicopter fired one missile in response to the
shooting, killing four people including fishermen.

The incident was confirmed to AFP by elders in Labad.

"The pirates were preparing to go for an attack when the chopper spotted them," said
Abdulaziz Moalim Ahmed.

Another elder said the helicopter fired a missile after pirates shot at it.

A flotilla of foreign navies has been patrolling off the Somali coast since 2008 to
safeguard the crucial Gulf of Aden shipping lane that had nearly been overrun by
rampaging pirates from the war-wracked country.

The warships have managed to thwart several hijackings and arrested dozens of pirates,
but the attacks have not abated.

At least 27 foreign vessels and 485 seamen remain in the hands of the pirates, according
to Ecoterra, an NGO monitoring maritime activities in the region.

Meanwhile, Somali pirates abandoned a hijacking attempt on a German cargo vessel on

Monday after pressure from an international patrol vessel, the shipping company said.
--------------------
U.N.: More peacekeepers couldn't halt new Sudan war (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. peacekeepers monitoring a fragile 2005 peace deal between
north and south Sudan could not stop new hostilities between the northern and
southern armies, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Monday.

Alain Le Roy, under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, was discussing

some of the possibilities for boosting security ahead of a planned referendum on
southern independence early next year.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has said there is a possibility of
temporarily increasing the 10,000-strong blue-helmet force in Sudan, known as UNMIS,
so it could better monitor hot spots on the north-south border.

Le Roy suggested that an increase would not help.

"An increase in the number of troops would not enable UNMIS to prevent, or even to
contain, a clash between the two armies," Le Roy told the 15-nation Security Council.
"Our best available tool against a return to war remains our commitment in favor of a
political agreement ... of the parties on the key pending issues," he said.

Privately, U.N. officials have ruled out the option of boosting the number of UNMIS
troops, saying it was not clear the Security Council could reach agreement and there
was too little time ahead of the planned January 9 votes.

Le Roy said preparations for the referendum on independence of the oil-producing

south, and a separate plebiscite on whether the oil-rich central region of Abyei should
join the south or remain with the north, were severely behind schedule.

U.S.-supervised talks in Addis Ababa to work out disagreements on talks that would
enable the Abyei referendum to go ahead broke off in deadlock earlier this month. New
talks are slated to begin later this week in the Ethiopian capital.

Le Roy said a deal in Addis Ababa was crucial since "tensions continue to increase on a
daily basis in Abyei."

'TIME BOMB'

Sudanese Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told the council that boosting the
number of UNMIS troops would be ill-advised. Afterward, he told reporters it was
crucial to reach agreements on unresolved political issues, such as border demarcation,
which represent a "time bomb" for Sudan.

"If pending issues are not resolved ... it gives a chance for war to erupt," he said.

Rice issued a statement on the reported arrests of people in Darfur who spoke with
members of the Security Council during their trip to Sudan earlier this month.

"The United States strongly condemns the reported harassment, intimidation and
arrests of individuals in Darfur for speaking to U.N. Security Council members," she
said. "Any such actions are unacceptable."

Osman repeated Khartoum's denial -- that neither of the two people arrested was
detained over the council's visit. He said anyone with information to the contrary
should make it public.

"Those people were arrested in connection with ordinary crimes in El Fasher," he said,
referring to the capital of North Darfur. While in Darfur, council members visited a
camp for people displaced during more than seven years of conflict between rebels and
Khartoum in the remote western region.
Both the north and the south have said they do not want a return to war. Analysts warn
that a delay of the southern independence vote could spark renewed fighting.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended more than two decades of civil war
between the north and south in which some 2 million people died.

Tensions have been increasing this month, Le Roy said, with the north and the south
accusing each other of building up military forces along the north-south border. Le Roy
said UNMIS has not been able to fully verify the security situation.

However, he said, there had been "no major military mobilization" though both the
north and south have strengthened defensive positions along the borders.

Le Roy added that UNMIS was increasing the number of patrols along the north-south
border and had boosted its forces in Abyei, which has been a flashpoint in recent years.

The chief administrator of Abyei on Monday rejected U.S. calls for compromise over the
area's future that would split it without a referendum. Khartoum says the Abyei
dispute must be resolved if the southern vote is to go ahead.
--------------------
Sudan warns of civil war over Abyei (Al Jazeera)

Sudan's UN ambassador has warned that conducting a January 9 referendum in Abyei

without settling voting rights for competing tribes, as well as the border, will lead to
war.

"It is evident that any attempt to conduct the plebiscite before achieving an acceptable
settlement between the two parties will mean only a return to war," Daffa-Alla Elhag
Ali Osman told a Security Council debate on Sudan on Monday.

The Abyei ballot - scheduled for the same day as people in south Sudan decide whether
to opt for independence - is for the people of Abyei to decide whether to remain in
north Sudan or join the south.

The separate referendums in southern Sudan and the Abyei region are part of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement reached in 2005, which ended the two-decade old
Sudan civil war and left more than two million dead.

Preparations for both votes are way behind schedule, and many Western nations fear
conflict if the referendums are delayed.

Status of the Abyei region

New US-brokered talks between Abyei and the Khartoum government, due to start in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday, have been called off.

The Sudanese ambassador said his government wanted negotiations on the

referendums to lead to peace, "not to war, which we have never willingly accepted."

No referendum commission has been set in disputed Abyei and the region's leaders
have failed to reach an accord with the Khartoum government on either who is eligible
to vote or Abyei's borders.

Local tensions in Abyei, where oil fields are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, have
heightened worries over the dispute with Khartoum. The territory is dominated by the
Dinka Ngok tribe - who support south Sudan - and Arab Misseriya nomads who
migrate with their cattle through the region's rich pastures.

UN concerns

The referendum law gives voting rights to the traditionally southern-supporting Dinka,
leaving it up to a commission to decide whether "other Sudanese" are considered
residents of the region and can also vote.

The Misseriya have threatened to carry out acts of violence in the district if they are not
allowed to vote.

Khartoum's warning comes as the UN peacekeeping chief told the Security Council on
Monday that reinforcing the UN force in Sudan cannot prevent hostilities between the
north and the south if tensions continue to rise.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said the southern Sudan commission must now
work "extremely quickly" if it is to get a vote ready on time.

He also said he was "deeply concerned" about events in the oil-rich Abyei region.

"The continued lack of progress is exacerbating an already tense and volatile situation
on the ground," Ban said on Monday in a report to the Security Council.

Peacekeeping efforts

UN peacekeeping chief Alain LeRoy told the Security Council that the UN mission in
Sudan (UNMIS) was considering redeploying troops from the rest of the country to the
north-south frontier or calling for international reinforcements.
He said any redeployment would weaken the UN peacekeeping mission in the rest of
Sudan but added that "any increase in the number of troops would not enable UNMIS
to prevent or contain a clash on the frontier."

"Our best available tool against a return to war remains our commitment in favour of a
political agreement ... of the parties on the key pending issues," he said.

LeRoy said there had been no "major military mobilisation" but added that it was
"urgent" that progress is made in Abyei talks.

Sudan's UN ambassador spoke out against a reinforcement saying it would be a waste

of resources that would not help ease tensions.

Additionally, UN officials have said it would be almost impossible to get significant

numbers of new troops to Sudan in time for the referendum.

"The stakes are undeniably high, as failure to meet the deadline for the referendums
prescribed by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement could have severe consequences,"
the UN secretary-general added.

With the south and the north accusing each other of a military build-up on the shared
frontier, the UN mission in Sudan UNMIS has already stepped up monitoring along the
border and reinforcing "hotspots".
--------------------
Rioting hits Guinea towns as ethnic tensions rise (Associated Press)

CONAKRY, Guinea – Members of the Malinke ethnic group rioted in four towns in
Guinea, killing one man and leaving Peul-owned stores in ruins as ethnic violence
spread from the capital amid stalled presidential elections.

Tensions are rising in the African nation with a presidential runoff between two
candidates — one Peul, the other Malinke — being delayed. The U.N. said last week
some of the violence in the capital appears to be ethnically motivated. At least one
person was killed and 62 were hurt last week in the capital.

In the northern village of Siguiri, one man was killed by machete-wielding Malinkes, a
relative of the victim told The Associated Press. Local radio is reporting that stores
owned by Peuls in Siguiri, Kankan, N'Zerekore and Kissidougou were vandalized by
Malinkes during the weekend.

Guinea's election chief on Friday called off Sunday's presidential runoff — the second
delay of the crucial vote. This bauxite-rich West African country has never freely elected
its own leader since it won independence from France in 1958.
Electoral chief Siaka Toumani Sangare, a Malian who was appointed after his
predecessor died of illness in September, did not say when a new date would be
announced. The appointment of a foreigner to the key post was aimed at ending ethnic
discord over the makeup of the electoral commission.

Presidential candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo is a Peul, which despite being the country's
largest ethnic group has never had one of its own in power. His rival, Alpha Conde, is a
Malinke — a group heavily represented in the army and in the junta blamed for a
September 2009 massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in the capital, Conakry.

During protests last week in Conakry, security forces fired at unarmed protesters —
shooting some at point-blank range, the Geneva-based U.N. human rights office said
Friday. The U.N. said authorities severely beat protesters and arbitrarily detained an
unknown number of people and kept them in undisclosed locations. Among the victims
was a 7-year-old schoolboy who was shot in the head by a stray bullet and remains in a
coma.

The U.N. agency said some of those responsible for the violence appear to belong to a
special police unit charged with safeguarding the election.

Security forces are feared in Guinea. On Sept. 28, 2009, soldiers sealed off the exits to the
national soccer stadium where tens of thousands of protesters had gathered to demand
an end to military rule. The troops entered and opened fire with assault rifles. A U.N.
commission said 156 people were killed or disappeared and at least 109 women were
raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence, which may constitute crimes
against humanity. The Peul were explicitly targeted.

The U.N. human rights office said some of the violence last week appears to be
ethnically motivated.
--------------------
Uganda's Museveni, Besigye Set for Third Electoral Face-Off (Voice of America)

Ugandan electoral officials have cleared President Yoweri Museveni and chief rival
Kizza Besigye to run in the February 18 presidential election.

This will be the third election in a row that the president has faced the opposition
leader, who at one time served as Mr. Museveni's personal doctor.

The electoral commission approved both men Monday during nomination ceremonies
in the capital, Kampala. Several other candidates are expected to run, but analysts say
Mr. Besigye is the only one who poses a challenge to the president.

Mr. Besigye lost the 2001 and 2006 elections to Mr. Museveni. On both occasions, he and
his supporters accused the president of fraud.
Speaking to reporters Monday, President Museveni said he wants to make Uganda a
modern, first-world country. In separate remarks, Mr. Besigye promised to fight
government corruption.

Mr. Museveni has led Uganda since his rebel group seized power in 1986. He has won
three elections since the advent of multi-party polls in 1995. Five years ago, parliament
removed presidential term limits, enabling him to run for office indefinitely.

Mr. Museveni was once hailed for stabilizing Uganda, liberalizing the economy and
tackling the AIDS epidemic. But critics say he has become autocratic over the years.

During the 2006 elections, the state accused Mr. Besigye of plotting to overthrow the
government and charged him with treason and rape. He was cleared of the rape charge
in 2006, and Uganda's constitutional court dismissed the treason charge earlier this
month.

Also this month, Uganda officials seized 500 copies of a new book by Mr. Besigye's
sister that is critical of the president.
--------------------
IMF: China Bolsters African Growth (Wall Street Journal)

NAIROBI, Kenya—Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to post better-than-expected growth

this year and next, due in part to increased trade with China and other fast-growing
economies in Asia and Latin America, according to a new report by the International
Monetary Fund.

In a report released Monday, the International Monetary Fund said that growth for the
sub-Saharan region—which typically counts 47 countries excluding North Africa—
should reach 5% this year, up from an earlier prediction of 4.5%. The IMF predicted
annual growth would rise to 5.5% next year. The organization attributed the increase
mainly to strong economic fundamentals, such as high levels of reserves and low
inflation. But it also noted a marked shift toward trade with resource-hungry China and
developing countries in Asia and Latin America.

Africa's growth acceleration has stirred interest among investors, since it comes as the
U.S. and Europe are struggling to recover from the global slump. After China and India,
Africa is seen as the next emerging, billion-person market—one that boasts not just
mineral wealth but increasingly large pockets of consumer spending power, too.

"There's a lot of money out there, and it's looking for places to go," said Roger Nord,
senior advisor at the IMF's Africa department. Mr. Nord added that natural resources
would continue to receive significant investment, but that investors were also looking at
tourism and telecommunications.
The European Union remains Africa's largest trading partner. The U.S. also is heavily
invested in the continent, particularly in oil-producing countries—at a level that IMF
officials say is on par with China.

Yet China has made broad gains in trading in the region in the past eight to 10 years,
particularly in oil and minerals, and banking in South Africa, the continent's largest
economy. China has also invested in infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges and
dams, which will be critical to Africa's growth and help it lure investors to other sectors,
IMF officials say. China now has a greater share in sub-Saharan Africa's total exports
and imports than it has shares in nearly every other region in the world, according to
the IMF report.

China recently gave $13 billion in loans to Ghana, a stable, west African nation that
recently discovered oil off its shores. The money will be used in part for Ghana's oil and
gas, and agricultural sectors, and for infrastructure building. The IMF has said it
approved of the deal. But the IMF was more critical about an earlier $9 billion
agreement China made with the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo—a deal
that would exchange infrastructure for minerals. After the price of commodities fell
with the global downturn, the IMF argued that the deal would have increased Congo's
debt.

"You also have to look at the reason why China is interested in Africa," said Abebe
Selassie, the IMF's regional studies division chief in the IMF's Africa department. "It's
not just for the minerals and oil, but because of its high growth."

Meanwhile, sub-Saharan Africa fared much better than other regions during the
economic crisis in part because its banks aren't as exposed to the global market. Their
governments also imposed sound fiscal policies that helped to buffer the shock,
continuing to spend on health and education, and managing inflation and private
investment.

Most nations in sub-Saharan Africa were able to avoid slipping into a recession and
have experienced "a fairly robust rebound" this year, the report said. And the growth
trend favors Africa—the region is expected to post a moderate increase in growth while
that of developing Asian countries is expected to decline again.

The only economy in the region expected to contract this year is that of Madagascar, the
southern African island which remains fraught with political turmoil and has been
subjected to sanctions from the African Union that were imposed after an opposition
leader seized power in a coup in 2009.

Sub-Saharan Africa wasn't left unscathed by the global crisis. The slowdown lessened
demand for African exports, which in turn curbed imports. This raised unemployment,
sent incomes plummeting, and threatened progress towards achieving the United
Nations' Millennium Development Goals, such as universal education and ending
poverty and hunger.

The global downturn also drained the fiscal balances in middle-income and oil-
exporting countries that had flourished during the boom in the mid-2000s, the IMF said.
South Africa, the continent's economic engine, was hit particularly hard, slipping into a
recession and shedding one million jobs.

The IMF report warned that Africa's continued recovery depends in part on the global
recovery. It said that the global economy needs to grow by its projected rate of 4% to
4.5% for 2011 to continue the trade and aid needed to ensure the region's continued
expansion.

There could also be domestic snags. Many African countries are vulnerable to economic
shocks from political instability, and 2011 could see as many as 17 elections on the
continent, the report said. "Overall, our projections show we're not expecting any
countries to experience negative growth next year," said Mr. Abebe. "But that doesn't
always pan out."
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Impending presidential poll ‘historic’ for Côte d’Ivoire – UN envoy

25 October – With the people of Côte d’Ivoire heading to polls this weekend for the
much-delayed presidential election, 31 October will be a “historic” day for the West
African nation, a

UN envoy condemns attack against blue helmets in eastern DR Congo

25 October – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative to the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), Roger Meece, has strongly condemned this weekend’s
attack against blue helmets in the volatile far east of the African nation.

Coming months critical for Sudan’s future, Security Council hears

25 October – The next few months will be crucial for Sudan as it prepares to hold two
referenda on self-determination in January, top United Nations officials said today,
urging all parties to redouble their efforts to ensure that the polls are held on time, free,
fair and credible.