Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa Sudan bombing Nuba civilians (AFP) http://www.news24.

com/Africa/News/Sudan-bombing-Nuba-civilians-20110830 By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011- New York - The Sudanese armed forces have carried out deadly air raids on civilians in rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains that may amount to war crimes, two leading human rights groups said on Tuesday. Gaddafi still commanding troops, NATO says (AFP) http://www.france24.com/en/20110830-libya-gaddafi-still-commanding-troops-na to-bombing-loyalists-threat-civilians By: Unattributed Author 30 August 2011 - NATO vowed Tuesday to keep bombing Moamer Kadhafi forces until they stop attacking civilians, warning that the elusive Libyan leader was still commanding some troops. What does Gaddafi's fall mean for Africa ? (Al Jazeera) http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182812377546414.html By: Mahmood Mamdani 30 August 2011- As global powers become more interested in Africa , interventions in the continent will likely become more common. Algeria defends taking in Gaddafis Col Gaddafi's wife, two of his sons and his daughter are in Algeria (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14714340 By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 - Algeria's UN envoy has defended his country's decision to grant refuge to the wife and three children of fugitive Libyan leader leader Muammar Gaddafi. UN to Lead Initial Post-Gadhafi Phase in Libya http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/UN-to-Lead-Initial-Post-Gadhafi-Phase-inLibya-128716518.html By: Margaret Besheer August 30, 2011 - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that there is broad international consensus that the United Nations should lead the post-Gadhafi phase in Libya. Mr. Ban told the U.N. Security Council that the National Transitional Council, or NTC, appears to be largely in control of the capital, Tripoli, and that he believes a quick conclusion to the conflict is in sight. After Qaddafi, Arabs Tell NATO: Thanks, Now Please Go (Bloomberg) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-29/after-qaddafi-arabs-tell-nato-thanks-nowplease-go-noe-raad.html By: Nicholas Noe and Walid Raad 29 August 2011 - After Muammar Qaddafi's regime fell in Libya , even Mideast and North African commentators normally critical of Western policies in the region generally affirmed the positive role played by NATO. Deadly Christian-Muslim clash in Nigeria (Al Jazeera)

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/08/2011829234530849589.html By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 - Ramadan gathering attacked in Jos in purported revenge for Christmas Eve bomb attacks. Al Qaeda Ties Seen for Nigeria Group (The Wall Street Journal) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576540501936480880.html By: Will Connors 30 August 2011 -LAGOSMembers of Boko Haram, the group believed responsible for last week's suicide bombing of a United Nations' building in Nigeria, have received training from al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Afghanistan and Algeria, according to a recent internal Nigerian intelligence report. Al Qaeda link feared in U.N. building blast (Washington Times) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/30/al-qaeda-link-seen-in-unbombing/print/ By: Shaun Waterman 30 August 2011 - An al Qaeda North African affiliate group likely trained the terrorists who carried out the deadly suicide attack on the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria. A Nigerian strongman would only compound the damage of the bombings (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/nigeria-bombings-boko-haram By: Remi Adekoya 29 August 2011 - The radical Islamists of Boko Haram make President Goodluck Jonathan look weak which bodes badly for the nation How the US-Ugandan strategy of chasing the LRA backfires (Christian Science Monitor) http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/404800 By: Philip Lancaster 23 August 2011 - While the Ugandan and US strategy of chasing the brutal Lord's Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, has produced some attrition, it has also generated a massive recruitment campaign by the LRA. Corruption, the war on terror hindering food aid to southern Somalia (iwatch News) http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/08/30/6032/corruption-war-terror-hindering-food-aidsouthern-somalia By: Malik Siraj Akbar 30 August 2011 - As the famine in southern Somalia worsens, aid experts fear that corruption and the politics of terrorism are crimping the flow of humanitarian relief to areas where starvation is worst. Sisulu to Talk Defence Policy (defenceWeb) http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18456:si sulu-to-talk-defence-policy&catid=55:SANDF&Itemid=108 By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 [South African] Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Lindiwe Sisulu will today announce a total defence policy review for South

Africa , her office says. The last policy update and review was done in 1996 and 1998 respectively. Malema supporters clash with S.Africa police(Reuters) http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE77T0EO20110830 By: Marius Bosch and Jon Herskovitz 30 August 2011 - JOHANNESBURG - South African police used stun grenades and water cannon on Tuesday to disperse supporters of outspoken ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was locked in a party disciplinary hearing that could derail his political career. Cameroon to hold presidential election on October 9 (Reuters) http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE77T0LD20110830 By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 - YAOUNDE - Cameroon will hold its presidential election on October 9, national radio said on Tuesday, citing a decree signed by President Paul Biya. ### UN News Service Africa Briefs http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA Full Articles on UN Website Security Council voices concern over maritime piracy in West Africas Gulf of Guinea 30 August The Security Council today voiced concern over increasing maritime piracy, armed robbery and reports of hostage-taking in the Gulf of Guinea, saying the crimes were having an adverse impact on security, trade and other economic activities in the sub-region. Over 200,000 could face catastrophe in Sudanese state as Government bars aid UN 30 August More than 200,000 people affected by recent fighting in Sudans Southern Kordofan state face potentially catastrophic levels of malnutrition and mortality after the Governments refusal to let aid agencies replenish stocks and deploy personnel, the United Nations warned today. UN re-assesses security threats in wake of deadly attack in Nigerian capital 30 August The United Nations will soon conduct a global threat review in the wake of the deadly attack against the UN compound in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, which has claimed the lives of at least 23 people, according to Government reports. UN refugee agency to airlift aid into Somalia for Eid al-Fitr holiday. 30 August The United Nations refugee agency today said it will airlift 240 tons of aid from Saudi Arabia to Somalia during the Eid al-Fitr holiday to ensure that those facing the severe food crisis in the Horn of Africa country have enough to eat during the special occasion, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

International Criminal Court case against Kenyan officials to proceed. 30 August The International Criminal Court (ICC) today dismissed an appeal by the Kenyan Government to throw out the cases against six high-ranking national officials, including a deputy prime minister, two ministers and a police chief, for possible crimes against humanity in post-electoral violence more than three years ago. ### UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST: 1 SEPT 2011 WHEN: September 1, 2011, 5:45 p.m. 7:30 p.m. WHAT: The Long Shadow of 9/11: America s Response to Terrorism WHO: Brian Michael Jenkins, Senior Adviser to the President of RAND WHERE: RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St. , Santa Monica , CA CONTACT: events@rand.org. <mailto:events@rand.org.> Media contact: http://www.rand.org/events/2011/09/01.html <http://www.rand.org/events/2011/09/01.html> 8 SEPT 2011 WHEN: September 8, 2011, 12:00 p.m. 1:30 p.m. WHAT: Ten Years Later Public Diplomacy and the Arab World, Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School , Conversations in Public Diplomacy WHO: Several Panelists (see website) WHERE: USC; Tutor Campus Center Forum CONTACT: cpdevent@usc.edu <mailto:cpdevent@usc.edu> Media contact: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/events/events_detail/16973/ <http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/events/events_detail/16973/> 20 SEPT 2011 WHEN: September 20, 2011, 12:00 p.m. WHAT: Pakistan , the U.S. and Public Diplomacy with Consul General Riffat Masood CPD Conversations in Public Diplomacy WHO: Riffat Masood, the Consul General of Pakistan WHERE: USC; SOS B40 CONTACT : cpdevent@usc.edu <mailto:cpdevent@usc.edu> Media contact: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/events/events_detail/17070/ <http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/events/events_detail/17070/> ### Sudan bombing Nuba civilians (AFP) http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Sudan-bombing-Nuba-civilians-20110830

By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 New York - The Sudanese armed forces have carried out deadly air raids on civilians in rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains that may amount to war crimes, two leading human rights groups said on Tuesday. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said that during a week-long visit to the region their researchers saw almost daily bombing raids by government aircraft on villages and farmland. On August 14, an air strike near the village of Kurchi , 70km east of the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, destroyed the home and possessions of Wazir al-Kharaba, the rights groups said. On August 19, the researchers photographed three bombs falling from an Antonov aircraft near Kurchi, and on August 22, another air strike seriously wounded a man in the leg and an elderly woman in the jaw and damaged a school. The rights groups said that the researchers had investigated a total of 13 air strikes in the Kauda, Delami and Kurchi areas which had killed at least 26 civilians and wounded more than 45 since mid-June. Ceasefire No evident military targets were visible near any of the air strike locations the researchers visited. "The relentless bombing campaign is killing and maiming civilian men, women and children, displacing tens of thousands, putting them in desperate need of aid and preventing entire communities from planting crops and feeding their children," said Human Rights Watch's Africa director Daniel Bekele. "The international community, and particularly the UN Security Council, must stop looking the other way and act to address the situation. "Indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas and restrictions on humanitarian aid could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," said Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser Donatella Rovera. The research team completed its visit before the announcement by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on August 23 of a unilateral two-week ceasefire by government forces. But the rights watchdogs said that reports from on the ground suggested that the government was continuing to bomb civilian areas. South Kordofan remained part of the north when South Sudan became independent in July and fighters from the state's indigenous Nuba peoples who fought alongside southern forces in the 1983 - 2005 civil war have been

locked in conflict with government troops since early June. On Thursday, the US urged the rebels, now renamed the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North, to reciprocate the truce announced by the government and clear the way for talks on the future of both South Kordofan and Blue Nile , another former southern rebel stronghold in the north. But the same day, campaign group the Enough Project quoted reliable sources as reporting a government air raid near the South Kordofan town of Ungarto . ### Gaddafi still commanding troops, NATO says (AFP) http://www.france24.com/en/20110830-libya-gaddafi-still-commanding-troops-na to-bombing-loyalists-threat-civilians By: Unattributed Author 30 August 2011 NATO vowed Tuesday to keep bombing Moamer Kadhafi forces until they stop attacking civilians, warning that the elusive Libyan leader was still commanding some troops. While rebels sought to talk Kadhafi troops into surrendering in their last stronghold of Sirte, the Western military alliance said its air strikes were now focused near the town, which is the birthplace of the runaway colonel. "Despite the fall of the Kadhafi regime and the gradual return of security for many Libyans, NATO's mission is not finished yet," Colonel Roland Lavoie, the operation's military spokesman, told a news briefing via videolink from his headquarters in Naples, Italy. "We remain fully committed to our mission and to keeping the pressure on the remnants of the Kadhafi regime until we can confidently say that the civilian population of Libya is no longer threatened," he said. While the whereabouts of Kadhafi remain a mystery, Lavoie said the veteran strongman was still able to direct the movement of troops and weapons, operate radars and fire munitions such as surface-to-surface missiles. "Essentially, he is displaying a capability still to exercise some level of command and control," the spokesman said days after rebels took control of Tripoli. "The pro-Kadhafi troops that we see are not in total disarray, they are retreating in an orderly fashion, conceding ground and going to the second best position that they could hold to continue their warfare," he added. NATO civilian spokesman Oana Lungescu said any decision to end the mission would be in the hands of the alliance's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, based on the advice of commanders. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is a member of NATO but

refused to participate in the mission, said he wanted the end of the war to be declared on Thursday at an international conference on Libya in Paris. The alliance has shown no let-up against regime diehards and appears to have stepped up attacks in recent days around Sirte, 360 kilometres (225 miles) east of Tripoli. In a daily operations update, NATO said it had destroyed 22 vehicles mounted with weapons, four radars, three command and control nodes, one anti-aircraft missile system and one surface-to-air missile system near Sirte on Monday. "Our main area of attention is now the corridor between Bani Walid and the eastern edge of Sirte where pro-Kadhafi forces are maintaining a varying presence in several coastal cities and villages," Lavoie said. Targets in Bani Walid, a town south to Tripoli, were also struck on Monday: two command and control nodes and one ammunition storage facility. NATO welcomed the negotiations rebels have launched in a bid to convince Kadhafi loyalists to peacefully surrender in Sirte. "We see these discussions as certainly an encouraging sign and we'll see how they evolve over the coming days," Lavoie said. "I would not dismiss the possibility of a peaceful resolution in Sirte or in the villages around Sirte." ### What does Gaddafi's fall mean for Africa ? (Al Jazeera) http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182812377546414.html By: Mahmood Mamdani 30 August 2011 As global powers become more interested in Africa , interventions in the continent will likely become more common. "Kampala 'mute' as Gaddafi falls," is how the opposition paper summed up the mood of this capital the morning after. Whether they mourn or celebrate, an unmistakable sense of trauma marks the African response to the fall of Gaddafi. Both in the longevity of his rule and in his style of governance, Gaddafi may have been extreme. But he was not exceptional. The longer they stay in power, the more African presidents seek to personalise power. Their success erodes the institutional basis of the state. The Carribean thinker C L R James once remarked on the contrast between Nyerere and Nkrumah, analyzing why the former survived until he resigned but the latter did not: "Dr Julius Nyerere in theory and practice laid the basis of an African state, which Nkrumah failed to do." The African strongmen are going the way of Nkrumah, and in extreme cases Gaddafi, not Nyerere. The societies they lead are marked by growing internal

divisions. In this, too, they are reminiscent of Libya under Gaddafi more than Egypt under Mubarak or Tunisia under Ben Ali. Whereas the fall of Mubarak and Ben Ali directed our attention to internal social forces, the fall of Gaddafi has brought a new equation to the forefront: the connection between internal opposition and external governments. Even if those who cheer focus on the former and those who mourn are preoccupied with the latter, none can deny that the change in Tripoli would have been unlikely without a confluence of external intervention and internal revolt. More interventions to come The conditions making for external intervention in Africa are growing, not diminishing. The continent is today the site of a growing contention between dominant global powers and new challengers. The Chinese role on the continent has grown dramatically. Whether in Sudan and Zimbawe, or in Ethiopia , Kenya and Nigeria , that role is primarily economic, focused on two main activities: building infrastructure and extracting raw materials. For its part, the Indian state is content to support Indian mega-corporations; it has yet to develop a coherent state strategy. But the Indian focus too is mainly economic. The contrast with Western powers, particularly the US and France , could not be sharper. The cutting edge of Western intervention is military. France 's search for opportunities for military intervention, at first in Tunisia, then Cote d'Ivoire , and then Libya , has been above board and the subject of much discussion. Of greater significance is the growth of Africom, the institutional arm of US military intervention on the African continent. This is the backdrop against which African strongmen and their respective oppositions today make their choices. Unlike in the Cold War, Africa's strongmen are weary of choosing sides in the new contention for Africa . Exemplified by President Museveni of Uganda , they seek to gain from multiple partnerships, welcoming the Chinese and the Indians on the economic plane, while at the same time seeking a strategic military presence with the US as it wages its War on Terror on the African continent. In contrast, African oppositions tend to look mainly to the West for support, both financial and military. It is no secret that in just about every African country, the opposition is drooling at the prospect of Western intervention in the aftermath of the fall of Gaddafi. Those with a historical bent may want to think of a time over a century ago, in the decade that followed the Berlin conference, when outside powers sliced up the continent. Our predicament today may give us a more realistic appreciation of the real choices faced and made by the generations that went before us. Could it have been that those who then welcomed external intervention did so because they saw it as the only way of getting rid of domestic oppression?

In the past decade, Western powers have created a political and legal infrastructure for intervention in otherwise independent countries. Key to that infrastructure are two institutions, the United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court. Both work politically, that is, selectively. To that extent, neither works in the interest of creating a rule of law. The Security Council identifies states guilty of committing "crimes against humanity" and sanctions intervention as part of a "responsibility to protect" civilians. Third parties, other states armed to the teeth, are then free to carry out the intervention without accountability to anyone, including the Security Council. The ICC, in toe with the Security Council, targets the leaders of the state in question for criminal investigation and prosecution. Africans have been complicit in this, even if unintentionally. Sometimes, it is as if we have been a few steps behind in a game of chess. An African Secretary General tabled the proposal that has come to be called R2P, Responsibility to Protect. Without the vote of Nigeria and South Africa , the resolution authorising intervention in Libya would not have passed in the Security Council. Dark days are ahead. More and more African societies are deeply divided internally. Africans need to reflect on the fall of Gaddafi and, before him, that of Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire . Will these events usher in an era of external interventions, each welcomed internally as a mechanism to ensure a change of political leadership in one country after another? One thing should be clear: those interested in keeping external intervention at bay need to concentrate their attention and energies on internal reform. Mahmood Mamdani is professor and director of Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University , Kampala , Uganda , and Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University , New York . He is the author most recently of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America , The Cold War and the Roots of Terror, and Saviors and Survivors: Darfur , Politics and the War on Terror. Algeria defends taking in Gaddafis Col Gaddafi's wife, two of his sons and his daughter are in Algeria (BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14714340 By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 - Algeria's UN envoy has defended his country's decision to grant refuge to the wife and three children of fugitive Libyan leader leader Muammar Gaddafi. Mourad Benmehidi told the BBC that in the desert region there was a "holy rule of hospitality". A rebel spokesman called the move an "act of aggression against the Libyan people" and said they would use all legal means to compel them to return.

Meanwhile, more details have emerged about recent mass killings in Libya . According to the NTC's Justice Minister Mr Mohammed al-Alagi, four mass graves have been discovered across Libya - including one at Ain Zara in south-east Tripoli, situated behind the barracks of the so-called Khamis Brigade, whose commander was Col Gaddafi's son, Khamis. Libyan rebels seized most of the capital Tripoli on 21 August, but fighting still goes on in pockets of the country - notably around Col Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte. Col Gaddafi's own whereabouts are unknown, and are the subject of intense speculation, with rumours variously placing him in Sirte, in regime-controlled Bani Walid south-east of Tripoli, and in Tripoli itself. 'Act of aggression' A foreign ministry statement said Col Gaddafi's wife Safia, daughter Aisha and sons Muhammad and Hannibal crossed the border between Libya and Algeria at 0845 local time (0745 GMT) on Monday. Details are emerging of the horrific discovery of charred human remains in south-eastern Tripoli But the BBC's Jon Leyne in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi said first word of such a move had already come from Libyan rebel headquarters two days ago, and that at the time, Algerian authorities denied that a convoy of six heavily armoured vehicles had crossed the border. Algeria is an obvious refuge for the Gaddafi family as the two countries have a long border and the Algerian government has still not recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), our correspondent says. The confirmation of the Gaddafis' escape caused fury at the rebel NTC, where spokesman Mahmoud Shamman said: "This would be an act of aggression against the Libyan people and against the wishes of the Libyan people. "We will use all legal means to seek the return of these criminals and to bring them to justice in Libya ." In an interview with news agency Reuters, Mr Shamman added: "We are warning anybody not to shelter Gaddafi and his sons. We are going after them... to find them and arrest them." "We have heard that Algeria will harbour them till they go to another country. They are trying to go to another country, possibly an east European country," he said. But in an interview with the BBC World Service, Ambassador Benmehidi insisted that his country had a duty to provide assistance, "and in fact in many parts of the Sahara region it's mandatory by law to provide assistance to anyone in the desert".

He said Algiers had quickly informed both the UN secretary general and the Libyan rebels of the arrival of the Gaddafis - pointing out that none of those who had entered Algeria were the subject of arrest warrants from the ICC. Algeria has signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but has not ratified the treaty. He pledged his country would fulfill its international obligations. Meanwhile rebels said they had uncovered four mass graves in recent days. The BBC's Andrew Hosken visited one of the sites in south-east Tripoli , near the barracks of the army brigade headed by Col Gaddafi's son Khamis. The charred remains of the bodies of about 50 people were found here - many are believed to be army officers who refused to fight for Col Gaddafi. But one witness told our correspondent he had personally seen between 150 and 160 people shot inside and outside the barn, and added that Khamis himself had personally supervised some of the killings. Work is under way to try to uncover bodies believed to have been buried around the barn. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has representatives at the scene, collecting data and witness information, in the hope that the case could go to the ICC. On Monday, rebel Col al-Mahdi al-Haragi was quoted as saying Khamis, who led a feared army unit, had died after being badly wounded in a clash. Rebel military spokesman Ahmed Bani said bodies in a convoy destroyed during the clash were burnt beyond recognition, but captured soldiers said they were Khamis' bodyguards. He also said Col Gaddafi's brother-in-law and the head of his intelligence services, Abdullah al-Sanussi - wanted by the ICC - were "almost certainly" killed in the same confrontation. Leaked UN document There were reports earlier in the conflict that Khamis had been killed in an air strike, though those reports were later questioned. Claims earlier this month that rebels had detained Col Gaddafi's most prominent son, Saif al-Islam, turned out not to be true. Rebel fighters are moving on Sirte from west and east, and on Monday took the small town of Nofilia on their way to the city. Meanwhile, a leaked document that appears to outline UN proposals forpost-conflict Libya calls for up to 200 military observers and 190 UN police

to help stabilise the country. The deployment would follow a UN mission with a core staff of 61 civilians for an initial three month period, according to the report on the website Inner City Press. Any such plan would be implemented only if requested by the Libyan transitional authorities and approved by the Security Council, it said. ### UN to Lead Initial Post-Gadhafi Phase in Libya http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/UN-to-Lead-Initial-Post-Gadhafi-P hase-in-Libya-128716518.html By: Margaret Besheer August 30, 2011 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that there is broad international consensus that the United Nations should lead the post-Gadhafi phase in Libya. Mr. Ban told the U.N. Security Council that the National Transitional Council, or NTC, appears to be largely in control of the capital, Tripoli, and that he believes a quick conclusion to the conflict is in sight. Mr. Ban told the 15-member council that he has spoken several times during the past week with the Chairman of the NTC, Mustafa Abdel Jalil. He said they discussed the U.N.s role in Libya during the coming months in areas such as election assistance, justice, security enforcement and humanitarian assistance. The secretary-general said the Libyan people are looking to the international community for help and that the National Transitional Council will outline its specific needs in the coming days. Mr. Ban noted that the heads of regional organizations, including the European Union, the African Union and the Arab League, also support the United Nations leading post-conflict efforts. My aim is to get U.N. personnel on the ground absolutely as quickly as possible, under a robust Security Council mandate, he said. Mr. Ban's special advisor on post-conflict planning, Ian Martin, told reporters after the councils meeting that U.N. assistance would not be in the form of peacekeepers deployed to the country, but that the NTC might consider U.N. assistance in training Libya's future police force. In our discussions with the NTC, it is very clear that the Libyans want to avoid any military deployment by the U.N. or others. They are very seriously interested in assistance with policing to get the public security situation under control and gradually develop a democratically accountable public security force, Marten said.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. Security Councils sanctions committee on Libya approved the release of a little more than a billion dollars in frozen Libyan assets from British banks. Britains Foreign Secretary William Hague said the money would go to help address urgent humanitarian needs, pay the salaries of key public sector employees and free up cash in the Libyan economy. Those funds are in addition to the $1.5 billion held in U.S. banks that the committee unfroze last Thursday. ### After Qaddafi, Arabs Tell NATO: Thanks, Now Please Go (Bloomberg) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-29/after-qaddafi-arabs-tell-nato-thank s-now-please-go-noe-raad.html By: Nicholas Noe and Walid Raad 29 August 2011 After Muammar Qaddafi's regime fell in Libya , even Mideast and North African commentators normally critical of Western policies in the region generally affirmed the positive role played by NATO. At the same time, some worried that NATO's triumph, in supporting the rebels who overthrew the regime, would encourage a new colonialism. Libya and other Arab states that are in crisis, they argued, are vulnerable to exploitation of their natural resources by the West and to calls for outside military intervention or another round of it. Wrote Ibrahim al-Amine, chairman of the board of the Beirut-based Al-Akhbar, a leftist daily opposed to U.S. policy in the Middle East that also runs pieces critical of the Syrian regime and the militant Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah: The Libyans got rid of Muammar Qaddafi -- this will be the story carried by history. But the king of the African kings did not fall because of the bullets of his own people. His people do not like him, they do not want him and no one can doubt that. However, these people needed some help. This time, the West, i.e. the colonizer itself, was the helper. He continued: It will be hard for any Libyan citizen, (even one) who has been oppressed by Qaddafi and his aides, to come out and yell: "I do not want NATO here." Al-Amine warned of the "harsh truth" that colonialism will return under a new form and with new faces. Western leaders who had embraced Qaddafi and had plunged their hands in his pocket, which was full of the wealth of his people, are the same leaders who are now embracing the rebels and extending their hands directly towards the nation's wealth.

This will have larger implications for the region, Al-Amine predicted. Having been caught unprepared by the Arab uprisings, he wrote, the West has now taken the initiative, which can mean only one thing: We must expect some additional madness among some of those who think they are leading revolutions, including leaders, media personalities and intellectuals. These people will now increase their calls for external interference in Yemen and Syria under the pretext of supporting the protesters there. Sateh Noureddine, a columnist for the Beirut-based daily As-Safir, took a somewhat different view. He agreed that outsiders played a vital part in the important overthrow of Qaddafi's government. The shame is about to be erased off the face of Libya and the (Arab) nation, he wrote, and the "European West," a formulation that inexplicably left out the U.S. , scored a definite moral victory through its contribution. However, Noureddine separated himself from blanket assertions made by other commentators that the West was preparing to plunder Libya 's oil wealth. He wrote that Egypt 's recent experience points to a different story. In the wake of its revolution, he said, Egypt has regained many of its rights and is in the process of reclaiming more income from its gas resources. The Libyan rebels must therefore quickly prove that they are now masters of their decisions, which means, first and foremost, asking the Europeans to rapidly end their interference in Libya . Noureddine expressed great confidence in the Libyan rebels. He said they presented themselves "in an attractive manner even at the pinnacle of the street wars, which seldom broke the honor and rules of fighting, and which did not collapse into a civil war similar to the Lebanese or Iraqi experience, in spite of many provocations and traps. Noureddine, who is Lebanese, wrote that the behavior of the Libyan rebels is testimony that the Arabs of North Africa are classier than their brothers living in the Levant and Persian Gulf . This latter group, he said, cant even manage to proceed with moderate reforms -- such as those recently proposed by the King of Morocco, establishing a constitutional monarchy -without civil wars, mutual accusations and lies that Israel is on the side of the opposition or that change in any Arab country is a free favor offered to the Israeli enemy or other enemies of the nation. Those worried about outside interference had an ally in Abdel-Bari Atwan, one of the leading critics of Western policy in the region. In the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi, Atwan wrote that NATO's rush to implement the UN-supported no-fly zone was understandable when the tanks of Colonel Qaddafi were marching towards the city to commit a massacre. But he asked why NATO continued its air raids and military operations even after the collapse of the regime, transforming itself into a police force to hunt down the toppled dictator with the aim of assassinating him.

Referring to recent UK news reports of British and French troops and British security contractors on the ground in Libya, as well as discussions about a possible deployment to Libya of a European peacekeeping force, Atwan charged that NATO is behaving as if it is on a mission of permanent occupation rather than engaged in an intervention bound by a specific time limit. Atwan wrote that Arab satellite TV stations like Al-Jazeera were no longer performing the vital role of critics of and checks on Western intervention -- now rarely showing the victims of NATO bombings, for example. And with the rebel leadership calling for Qaddafi's extra-judicial killing, the countrys sovereignty, not to mention the rule of law, is being gravely undermined, he argued. For the NATO forces, without whom the Libya rebels arguably would not have prevailed, the commentary was a good lesson in the limits of alliances, and the long, bitter taste of colonialism. ### Deadly Christian-Muslim clash in Nigeria (Al Jazeera) http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/08/2011829234530849589.html By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 Ramadan gathering attacked in Jos in purported revenge for Christmas Eve bomb attacks. Jos lies in the so-called Middle Belt between the country's mostly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south Gangs of armed youths in the Nigerian city of Jos attacked Muslims as they gathered to celebrate the last day of Ramadan, killing a number of them and burning their cars, witnesses and the military said. "The Muslim faithful went for their Eid prayers and on completion of the prayers they were trapped by the youths in that area," Brigadier General Hassan Umaru, commander of the military Special Task Force keeping security in Jos, told Reuters news agency on Monday. "They burnt some cars, quite a number of cars. The number of people killed, I can't give that yet. We are still checking with local hospital sources," he said. The head of a search-and-rescue team for the Muslim community reported nine dead and 106 people wounded. "Most of the wounds were from ... thrown missiles, machete cuts and from arrows. Twenty parents have so far reported their underage children missing," said Shitu Mohammed. Witnesses said Christian youths set up road blocks and attacked Muslims as

they gathered in Jos's Gada Biu and Rukuba areas, shooting a number of them dead. Christians involved in the clashes spoke of revenge for a string of bombs that exploded in Jos on Christmas Eve last year that left at least 80 people dead. Nigeria has a roughly equal Christian-Muslim mix. More than 200 ethnic groups live side by side in the West African country. Though generally peaceful, Nigeria has seen periodic bouts of religious violence, with Jos in particular showing a tendency to flare up. The region lies in the so-called Middle Belt between the mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south of Africa 's most populous nation. If the violence worsens or triggers reprisals, it may prove another major headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose security forces are already stretched by daily attacks from an Islamist sect in the northeast, which also claimed Friday's deadly bomb attack on the UN offices in Abuja that killed 23. ### Al Qaeda Ties Seen for Nigeria Group (The Wall Street Journal) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576540501936480880.ht ml By: Will Connors 30 August 2011 LAGOSMembers of Boko Haram, the group believed responsible for last week's suicide bombing of a United Nations' building in Nigeria, have received training from al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Afghanistan and Algeria, according to a recent internal Nigerian intelligence report. The report by the State Security Service, Nigeria's leading agency for internal intelligence, was submitted to senior government officials in June, a person familiar with it said. That marked roughly the beginning of a string of attacks this summer attributed to the group here in Africa's most populous country, an important oil exporter. Nigeria's latest attack, a suicide bombing Friday at the U.N. compound in the capital, Abuja, marked what is believed to be Boko Haram's first assault on an international target. The bombing killed at least 23 people and injured more than 80, according to a U.N. spokesman. The June report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, didn't appear to contain specific intelligence on future attacks. But critics say the bombing attempts that followed its submission to top officialspaired with mounting evidence that some Boko Haram members are pursuing higher profile al Qaeda-style attacks on international targetshighlights what they say is an intelligence service hobbled by poor coordination and corruption

within its ranks. These people point in particular to a finding in the report that four of the five top members of Boko Haram have been in police custody at least once in recent years but have been released. The report doesn't state reasons for the releases. A spokesman for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan didn't respond to requests for comment about the report. A spokeswoman for the state security service declined to speak about the report or Boko Haram. Several of the report's findings were confirmed by other Nigerian and Western security officials. The report presents a more detailed picture of foreign terror links than the government has acknowledged. It portrays Boko Haram as an Islamist group with Jihadist aspirations and more substantial international connections than previously believed. It says group members began traveling abroad for weapons training as early as 2002, with a trip that included several members heading to Mauritania. In 2007, the report says, members of Boko Haram traveled to Afghanistan to receive training in the making of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, and in suicide-bombing techniques. The report names a man from Nigeria's Adamawa state it says "led a group of members to Afghanistan for training on IEDs and on their return they imparted their knowledge to others." A Nigerian undercover security official in the country's north confirmed that Boko Haram members have received training in Afghanistan. "They usually fly there from neighboring countries, like Niger or Chad," the official said. The report also says Boko Haram members received combat and bombmaking training in Mauritania and in Algeria with members of al Qaeda's north Africa branch, known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. Algeria-based AQIM has claimed credit for several killings and kidnappings of foreigners in west Africa, including a Friday suicide bombing of an Algerian military academy that killed 18 people. The group still has at least four French hostages kidnapped last September in Mali. A U.S. official said it was unlikely that Boko Haram was active enough before 2009 to send people in considerable numbers to train elsewhere. But by 2009, this official said, Boko Haram made contacts and established relationships with members of AQIM. In 2010, they began training alongside elements of AQIM in northern Mali. "Within the last year, they've established more contacts and training opportunities with AQIM," said the U.S. official. "What we're seeing now is

probably the result of the additional radicalization of their viewpoints and the training." The official said Boko Haram is estimated to number a few hundred people. "This is not a widespread, huge movement," the U.S. official said. Many inside Nigeria's government criticize Mr. Jonathan and the security agencies for not preventing the recent attacks thought to have been carried out by Boko Haram. The group is blamed for the June bombing of a northern Nigeria beer garden that killed 25 people, and a bombing at the Nigerian police headquarters in Abuja that same month. There is no indication that the Boko Haram members who received training abroad are those responsible for last week's bombing. A man claiming to be a Boko Haram member took credit for last week's U.N. bombing, in a phone interview Saturday with The Wall Street Journal that was arranged in an intermediary in northeastern Nigera, where the group is based. The claim hasn't been independently confirmed. Late Monday, the Nigerian police said they made several arrests of suspects behind the bombing but didn't release any additional details. The Nigerian government hasn't issued any statements assigning blame for the attack. On Tuesday, President Jonathan said he directed the security services to "implement additional security, intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism measures, including greater cooperation with other nations engaged in the global war on terrorism." While Nigerians commonly refer to their largest homegrown terrorist group as Boko Haram, which roughly means "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language, the group officially calls itself Jama'atul ahlul Sunna Lidda'awa Wal Jihad, which means "Brethren of Sunni United in the Pursuit of Holy War." It has existed in various forms, and under various leaders, since the late 1990s, according to the report. Members demand a wider implementation of Sharia law in Nigeria, the cessation of attacks against its members and the end of Western-style education promoted by the Nigerian government. After a series of confrontations with local police in 2009, the group attracted more recruits and sent more members abroad for training. After a prison break in 2009 freed some 800 convicts, including several suspected Boko Haram members, some members fled to Algeria and were trained by AQIM, according to the report. The group has a long list of those it aims to attack: "local government institutions and security agencies, moderate Muslims, non-Muslims thought to be responsible for social, economic and political misfortune against the north [of Nigeria], certain clerics, churches, Christian businesses, and relaxation spots," according to the report. It doesn't offer details of how it would attack these targets.

Several northern Nigerian leaders have suggested amnesty for Boko Haram members, arguing that if Mr. Jonathan can give amnesty to Niger Delta militants, he can do the same for northern militants. ### Al Qaeda link feared in U.N. building blast (Washington Times) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/30/al-qaeda-link-seen-in-un-bom bing/print/ By: Shaun Waterman 30 August 2011 An al Qaeda North African affiliate group likely trained the terrorists who carried out the deadly suicide attack on the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria. A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives through a security barrier and into the lobby of the U.N. headquarters building in Abuja, the Nigerian political capital on Friday, killing 23 people and wounding 76 more. A Nigerian Muslim extremist group called Boko Haram took responsibility for the attack, and a U.S. official said intelligence reporting revealed that members of the group had trained at al Qaeda camps in nearby Mali. "Some Boko Haram members trained with AQIM [al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group's North African affiliate] which probably contributed to this more violent attack," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in discussing intelligence matters. Nigerian news media reported this week that some of those arrested in connection with the bombing attack were graduates of al Qaeda camps in Mali or of training from the extremist insurgent group al Shabab in Somalia. The U.S. official declined to comment on the reports. The Nigerian government has not made any official comments about the arrests, but President Goodluck Jonathan promised an overhaul of the country's security apparatus, including, according to one report, compulsory biometric registration for all foreigners living in the country. If the report that the bombing was linked to extremists trained in AQIM camps is confirmed, it will be "an important data point," said Andrew Lebovich, a policy analyst with the New America Foundation. "It is one of the pieces of hard evidence we have been waiting for" outlining links between the Nigerian group and the global extremist network founded by Osama bin Laden, he said. But he cautioned that the arrest of training-camp graduates "doesn't necessarily tell us how extensive or strong the linkages are" between the groups.

Earlier this month, after meeting senior Nigerian officials in Lagos, the commander of the U.S. military's Africa Command, Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, said "multiple sources" of intelligence indicated there are growing ties between Boko Haram and AQIM and al Shabab. "What is most worrying at present is, at least in my view, a clearly stated intent by Boko Haram and by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to coordinate and synchronize their efforts," the general told Associated Press. "I'm not so sure they're able to do that just yet, but it's clear to me they have the desire and intent to do that." Mr. Jonathan is pursuing talks with Boko Haram, but it is unclear what the future of that initiative is likely to be in the wake of Friday's bombing. If AQIM is indeed behind the U.N. bombing, the Nigerian president may face pressure to break off his attempts at dialogue with the group. (The largest of its own attacks was the 2007 double-suicide car bombing of another U.N. headquarters, in Algeria.) A successful entry into Nigeria by al Qaeda would represent a new theater of war for the group in a country that has one of the largest Muslim populations and is one of the largest oil producers in the world. It also would be a much-needed boost to the terror network, whose central leadership in Pakistan has been reduced repeatedly by U.S. drone strikes. Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden by Islam" in the Hausa dialect, which is spoken in the majority-Muslim north of Nigeria. The group, formed in 2003, advocates the establishment of a Taliban-like Islamic law regime in all of Nigeria. It is active in several of the 12 northern states where some form of shariah, or Islamic jurisprudence, is already in force. About half of the population in this vast and diverse country of 155 million are Muslims and 40 are percent Christian. ### A Nigerian strongman would only compound the damage of the bombings (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/nigeria-bombings-boko-ha ram By: Remi Adekoya 29 August 2011 The radical Islamists of Boko Haram make President Goodluck Jonathan look weak which bodes badly for the nation The radical Islamist group Boko Haram (meaning "western education is forbidden [under Islamic law]") has claimed responsibility for last Friday's bombing of the UN headquarters in the capital city, Abuja, which killed at least 21 people and injured many others. At the moment, the Nigerian government looks incapable of halting Boko Haram's campaign. In June Boko Haram bombed the headquarters of the Nigerian police in Abuja (supposed to be the safest city in Nigeria ), nearly killing the nation's

police chief. Police stations have been regular targets, as the group considers Nigerian policemen enforcers of a corrupt and morally bankrupt establishment. This is a sentiment shared by many Nigerians, which has helped the group gain traction among some in the populace. Still, recent activity marks a shift in Boko Haram's role and influence. No group has ever launched attacks on this scale against the Nigerian establishment. Even the infamous Niger delta militants have usually stuck to kidnapping foreigners for ransom money or sabotaging oil refineries via bomb attacks. While the delta groups "only" appeared willing to risk their lives for money, Boko Haram seems to act out of purely ideological motives. The Nigerian government was able to silence most of the delta groups by buying off their leaders, granting them "amnesty". But Boko Haram is a much tougher nut to crack: so far it has rejected all overtures from the Nigerian establishment. President Goodluck Jonathan has issued a statement calling last Friday's attacks "barbaric", but that didn't impress anyone. The Nigerian authorities reacted in their usual haphazard way: policemen ran helter-skelter in the city, mounting road blocks, barking orders at innocent citizens and trying to look tough. The truth is that the attacks have made the Nigerian state look frail and weak. Nigeria 's notoriously corrupt police are tough when harassing the unarmed citizens they are supposed to be protecting, but decidedly meeker in the face of the superior terrorist firepower. Should the government listen to Boko Haram's demands? It's hard to see how. Its followers hold on to the Qur'anic phrase that says that "anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors". They believe it is forbidden for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with western society (a pretty broad spectrum) and regard the Nigerian state as being run by unbelievers. In fact, the group issued the same demands even when Nigeria had a Muslim president, Musa Yar'Adua, who died in 2010 while in office. Since the Sokoto caliphate, which ruled parts of what is now northern Nigeria , fell to British control in 1903, there has been resistance among many of the area's Muslims to western education. But Boko Haram is not content with just rejecting western education it wants to create an Islamic state along Taliban lines in Afghanistan before they were ousted in 2001. When its first leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in 2009, Nigerian police paraded his dead body on national television, saying the group was finished. But its fighters have obviously regrouped under a new leader and are growing in strength. Although it is unlikely that they could take over the whole country (about half of Nigerians are Christians), it is not all that improbable that they could be eventually co-opted by politicians in the largely Muslim north of the country, who would let them have a role in

governance in return for their "muscle". Boko Haram's rise had considerably harmed the image of Goodluck Jonathan. He has often been called weak and indecisive by his detractors, and his government's helplessness in this situation has only fortified that belief among a growing number of people creating the danger that, in the face of such terror, Nigerians might start yearning for another "strong leader", presumably a military man who would crush the group and bring about some semblance of order. For Nigeria , that would be the worst possible option: experience has proven that military strongmen have a habit of growing fond of power. The country's young democracy is still fragile and unstable: it's not hard to imagine it being thrown back into a military dictatorship overnight. But if President Jonathan doesn't act fast to prove he won't let Nigeria be transformed into an Afghanistan or an Iraq , then that is not as unlikely a scenario as it might seem today. ### How the US-Ugandan strategy of chasing the LRA backfires (Christian Science Monitor) http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/404800 By: Philip Lancaster 23 August 2011 While the Ugandan and US strategy of chasing the brutal Lord's Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, has produced some attrition, it has also generated a massive recruitment campaign by the LRA. Given yet another famine emergency in the Horn of Africa, seemingly endless violence in the Middle East, and the number of wobbling economies in both Europe and North America, it is understandable that concern about an obscure group of African bush fighters seems limited to a small band of Africa nerds. But the surpassing indifference to the plight of the Azande people, who appear to have been left to the tender mercies of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), is so far below the low standard of response common to these sorts of problems that it simply cant be allowed to pass without comment. In addition to a long running insurgency that savaged northern Uganda for over 20 years, the murder and mayhem caused by the LRA across south eastern Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past few years was serious enough to bring both houses of the American Congress to set aside partisan politics long enough to agree on legislation. At about the same time, in August 2010, an international working group comprised of the US, UK, and EU governments with participation from the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping and the World Bank, alarmed at the reports of LRA atrocities, assembled around consensus on the need for effective coordination across all the agencies and governments involved.

The UN Security Council weighed in again in July 2011 with a second resolution calling for the LRA to disarm and praising the actions taken so far by governments, international agencies and NGOs to address the harms inflicted by the LRA. The Security Council particularly praised the efforts of the AU to organize a coordinated military and diplomatic response. But what, exactly, has been accomplished? More press releases, more declarations of intent to capture or kill Joseph Kony, more empty assurances of imminent victory and yet another round of search and destroy operations led by the Ugandan Army. None of this is new and all of it has failed in the past. The Azande people, an historically marginalized ethnic group of hunters, herders, and farmers living in the border regions of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan have been targeted for special attention by the LRA, are caught in the yawning gap between rhetoric and action. I am reminded of the feeling of abandonment felt by the few who stayed on the ill-fated UN Peacekeeping Mission in Rwanda as the outside world decided that their reports of genocide must somehow be exaggerated. Have we all become so cynical that we will let a whole people suffer like this again? While the challenges of taking effective action in such a complex environment are indeed daunting, it is the shallow understanding of the military dimensions of the problem that is so disappointing. We have ample evidence from reports of the past 20 years that the LRA are a force to be reckoned with. Ruthless as they are, their tactics are well adapted to the terrain and the nature of the forces they face. And yet the proposed military responses under the new AU offers no new troops, no new thinking and no sign of serious military technical analysis. A cynic might be led to think that no one really wants to look at the problem carefully out of fear of being called to do more than they might want to. The LRA make deliberate use of terror to tie up military forces and survive by hit and run attacks that are well-planned and flawlessly executed. The military response from UN Peacekeeping and national forces has been totally inadequate insofar as they focus on providing limited static defense of a small number of civilian settlements. The LRA just find the ones that arent protected. Since none of the armies deployed have a policy of pursuit after attack, the LRA consistently escape with loot and abducted recruits. Chasing the leaders, which seems to be the strategy preferred by both the Ugandan Peoples Defence Force and the US military, is a hit or miss approach that will call down more attacks on unprotected civilians as the LRA instrumentalise them to send their twisted message and replace battlefield losses by abducting new fighters. While the Ugandan/US strategy has produced some attrition, it has also generated a bloody response and a massive recruitment campaign that seems to have gone unnoticed.

During interviews conducted as part of some recent research on this subject, UPDF officers presented slides showing the numbers of LRA killed or captured but nothing about the numbers recruited. Subsequent questions revealed that the UPDF were not really interested in recruitment. One suspects a repetition of the victory by body count strategy that failed so spectacularly in Vietnam . It is clear that there will be huge difficulties in finding the right kinds and numbers of troops that would probably be needed to be effective against the LRA. However, it is also clear that repeating failing strategies, no matter whether through the AU or some other agency, will not work unless exceedingly lucky and Kony and his key leaders are all killed at once. As a matter of simple logic, and as a first step, the question of who needs to act should be informed by an analysis of what kinds of action are likely to succeed. This could be achieved by competent technical research conducted by one of the military forces involved and it would cost very little when compared with the cost of poorly aimed military strikes. Yet, it doesnt seem to have been done. Even the wealth of intelligence available from the UPDF has not been shared with the other armies now engaged and so each of them, including the UN Peacekeeping forces, are learning about the LRA the hard way. And learning very slowly. Nor does anyone appear to have conducted a formal command estimate of the LRA problem. Normally, no serious army would take on any mission without analysis and yet the forces engaged against the LRA seem to be operating on the premise that its easier to fight than to think. Surely this must have something to do with political interference with what should be a normal military staffing action. Isnt it time they are allowed to devote some thought to the battle plan before more civilians pay the price for the inevitable next round of blunders? As frustrating as the problem of the LRA is, it is also a fascinating mirror reflecting political dynamics in the West. The nub of the political problem could be understood as a manifestation of the hypocrisy of our times. It is as simple as the old childrens story about a village of mice deciding that the solution to their cat problem is to make it wear a bell. The problem seems solved until one of them asks who is going be the brave soul to hang a bell on the cat. In the LRA case each affected state has other priorities and no third party state is willing to commit political or military resources to give either the UN or the AU a real hope of success. But everyone involved is too polite to point out that neither organization has the capacity it needs and wont unless someone steps up to take the responsibility to ensure that it does. Who shall bell the cat? But, it would seem, in this case, we havent even started looking for a bell. ###

Corruption, the war on terror hindering food aid to southern Somalia (iwatch News) http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/08/30/6032/corruption-war-terror-hindering-fo od-aid-southern-somalia By: Malik Siraj Akbar 30 August 2011 As the famine in southern Somalia worsens, aid experts fear that corruption and the politics of terrorism are crimping the flow of humanitarian relief to areas where starvation is worst. Abundant U.S. aid targeted for the Horn of Africa cannot directly reach starving people in southern Somalia because its blocked by Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda-aligned Islamist group labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. That tag, in turn, also prevents any U.S. citizen from conducting business or distributing materials that could benefit suspected terrorists. Right now, $580 million in aid designated for the Horn of Africa by the U.S. government the most from any one country is directed at the Somali refugees who have migrated to camps in Kenya and Ethiopia . The aid is distributed by a variety of international aid groups. Help is also being trucked into Somalia via United Nations and non-aligned humanitarian programs but a lot of the foodstuffs and other material are siphoned off by theft and corruption by officials in the countrys nominal government, according to aid experts. Mutual distrust between the U.S. and Islamist militants has made matters worse. EJ Hogendoorn, International Crisis Group [3] project director for the Horn of Africa , said corruption is widely acknowledged as a problem, but it should not be the main debate at the peak of the famine. Now the challenge is how to minimize corruption so that at least some assistance goes to those who urgently require it, he said. Al-Shabaab is not the only threat in Somalia . Even if the Federal Transitional Government (FTG), whose powers are restricted barely to the capital city, Mogadishu , gains full control of the relief assistance, the possibility of corruption in distribution will still remain there, Hogendoorn said. Hogendoorn added that Al-Shabaab is not as powerful as depicted in the media. The organization is internally divided, he said, between hardliners who spurn international aid and more pragmatic leaders who seek foreign assistance. The best way to operate in that country is to build partnership with the local authorities rather than working in isolation, Hogendoorn said.

Al-Shabaab is a splinter from a larger militant faction forced out of power in Somalia by Ethiopian and African troops a few years ago. Militant power in Somalia grew rapidly after the United States withdrew the forces it had sent to Somalia to protect food distribution in the early 1990s. U.S. troops left a power vacuum in the wake of clashes that led to a bloody shootout made famous by the Black Hawk Down book and movie. Al-Shabaab is suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack in Uganda in 2010 and of being associated with the authors of other bombings in Kenya and Ethiopia . A U.S. military drone strike this summer was aimed at leaders of the militant group. U.S. Special Forces also have targeted Al-Shabaab. U.S. government officials say the blame for delays in relief efforts must be put on Al-Shabaab, which has not allowed enough aid to enter territory it controls. At this point, Access remains the number one obstacle to providing life-saving assistance to more than 2.8 million people in southern Somalia , said Matthew Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is the presence of Al-Shabaab that prevents aid from flowing into Somalia , not U.S. sanctions. Last week, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said death rates among new refugees coming from Somalia to Ethiopia had reached alarming levels. Since June when the Kobe refugee camp in Ethopia was established, at least 10 children under the age of five have died every day. The death rate has been compounded by an outbreak of measles. According to U.S. government estimates, at least 29,000 children under age five have died in the past three months since famine reached acute levels in the Horn of Africa. Some 12 million people are facing starvation while 3.2 million Somalis are in immediate need of assistance. The UN says it requires $2.4 billion in aid supplies to assist drought victims, while an additional $1.4 billion is needed to contain the famine. But the UN has only received $1.1 billion in response to its appeals. Whats the hold up? U.S. officials recently hinted at softening the restrictions it has placed on direct aid to parts of Somalia, under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). That rule forbids Americans from doing business with designated terrorist individuals and organizations. But the restriction remains and the pace of providing assistance to the famine victims has frustrated many in the aid community. Critics of U.S. policy point to the International Committee of Red Cross, which is active in the famine zone. The organization says it has not been threatened by Islamic extremist groups. The ICRC has managed to reach to 162,000 starving people in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab.

Yves van Loo, an ICRC official based in Somalia , said his organization made sure to include local leaders in setting aid plans, emphasizing the organizations principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. ICRCs security was insured by the ICRC itself. Our main protection is the acceptance by all, van Loo said. It is not enough, though, to convince U.S. officials that Al-Shabaab wont sabotage relief efforts. Al-Shabaab has given mixed signals on whether it is lifting its ban on humanitarian agencies, said USAIDs Johnson. Whats clear, other U.S. officials said, is that Al-Shabaab is the problem in this crisis. Despite promises to improve access for aid workers, Al-Shabaab continues to block humanitarian assistance to the hungriest and neediest in Somalia , said Hilary Fuller Renner, press and public affairs officer at States Bureau of African Affairs. The answer [to the current situation] is not to further militarize Somalia . The answer is for Al-Shabaab to put down its weapons and allow food to reach the hungry. U.S. officials said aid restrictions to Somalia are in place to prevent diversion of relief assistance. They fear that Al-Shabaab will further consolidate its grip over the region if it gains control of international relief supplies. While the U.S. has withheld some funds from the U.N. relief agency, the world body has moved forward with aid to Somalia , policing its distribution through an internal mechanism called post-distribution monitoring, rather than strictly follow American rules on aid. Spokesman Andreas Needham said the UNs accountability and transparency measures fulfill U.S. government requirements. We are hopeful that there will be U.S. funding for UNHCR Somalia in the context of the current emergency, Needham told ICIJ. ### Sisulu to Talk Defence Policy (defenceWeb) http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=184 56:sisulu-to-talk-defence-policy&catid=55:SANDF&Itemid=108 By: Non-Attributed Author 30 August 2011 [South African] Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Lindiwe Sisulu will today announce a total defence policy review for South Africa , her office says. The last policy update and review was done in 1996 and 1998 respectively. The review of South African defence policy seeks to update the current

policy in line with defence challenges and opportunities of the 21st century in SADC, Africa and across the world, Sisulu's office added. The review will look at how the South African Defence policy can respond to challenges of the 21st century and also the role of the SANDF in a developing state with many developmental and social challenges. The minister will also announce a Defence Review Committee and outline the programme of action towards a draft Defence review and Policy for further consultation. The Afrikaans daily, Beeld, reported earlier this month that Sisulu had appointed a heavy-weight committee to review the latest final draft of the Defence Review. The committee, chaired by former National Party defence minister and long-time Armscor director Roelf Meyer, was said to include defence analyst Helmoed-Rmer Heitman as member. It reportedly has until November to report. Others serving on the committee include South African Navy Flag Officer Fleet Rear Admiral Philip Schultz, until recently chief director of operations for the South African National Defence Force at the Joint Operations Division. Political appointees include African National Congress deputy secretary general Thandi Modise. Currently also North West Province premier, she was for several years a formidable chair of the Portfolio Committee on Defence. Also on the committee is Tony Yengeni, a former ANC chief whip and noted uMkhonto we Sizwe commander. He is currently also an ANC National Executive Committee member. Sisulu in in April said an update of the 1996 White Paper on Defence and 1998 Defence Review had been completed and was ready for Parliamentary and public discussion. We promised to deal with a number of issues of policy review and we have done that, she said in her annual budget vote. The long overdue Defence Review is here. We have a draft that we would like to present to the Parliamentary Committees at their earliest opportunity. Thereafter we would like to embark on a public consultative process before we submit the final Defence Review to Parliament. It is not clear why the latest draft, as prepared by the Department of Defence needs external revision. Various ministers of defence have promised an update since 2004 but none have reached Parliament. Heitman has said that various efforts have been made over the years, with the latest produced just before Sisulu's appointment. But this, he says, blithely skipped over core strategic issues, ignored already approved army and navy force designs and contained errors of fact. Heitman wrote in Janes' Defence Weekly in April last year that the draft had been written by advisers with nave notions of international politics and little understanding of defence and who focused on peripheral issues. Sisulu in her second annual budget in May last year noted major changes, both dramatic and evolutionary, have taken place in the defence environment over the past 15 years. The policy review and strategy would of necessity

take this into consideration and will be informed by a clear-eyed assessment of what we want our foreign policy to achieve, the potential threats facing us, and socio-economic interests in what is a very uncertain era of growing competition among new major powers. The new environment requires new thinking and new approaches, Sisulu said. ### Malema supporters clash with S.Africa police(Reuters) http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE77T0EO20110830 By: Marius Bosch and Jon Herskovitz 30 August 2011 JOHANNESBURG - South African police used stun grenades and water cannon on Tuesday to disperse supporters of outspoken ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who was locked in a party disciplinary hearing that could derail his political career. Scores of Malema supporters hurled rocks and beer bottles at police and burned African National Congress (ANC) flags and posters of President Jacob Zuma outside the party headquarters in central Johannesburg . Malema's disciplinary hearing is a gamble for Zuma. Malema helped him rise to power but has in recent months been courted by Zuma's rivals and is seen as a potential future leader. If he is exonerated, Zuma could be fighting for his political life. The violence, in which at least one policeman and several journalists were hurt, was the worst near the headquarters of South Africa 's ruling party since apartheid ended in 1994, ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said. "We are not intimidated. If this is an attempt to intimidate, it is not working," Mantashe said, blaming the Youth League for the violence. "Whoever brought this crowd here will have to take responsibility." If found guilty of sowing discord in party ranks by the hearing -- Malema's second disciplinary hearing in just over a year -- the firebrand youth leader could be suspended from the party for several years. Explusion would silence his calls for nationalisation of the mining sector, to the relief of investors, but would anger thousands of his supporters. By midday, police had contained the several thousand protesters -- including children in school uniforms -- behind razorwire barricades near the ANC building. "KILL FOR MALEMA" At least one police officer was hit by a brick, a police spokesman said, and the domestic eNEWS channel said one of its television crews was attacked. Two photographers were also attacked with rocks, the SAPA news agency

reported. Mantashe told reporters Tuesday's violence outside the party headquarters was the worst since 1994 when several people were killed during a march on the building by supporters of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party. The protesters earlier tried to break through the police barricades towards the building in downtown Johannesburg where the hearing was taking place. They waved placards saying: "Hands off Julius Malema" and one reading: "We are prepared to take arms and kill for Malema". Another placard read: "Zuma is a liability for Africa ". Although Malema called for restraint from supporters on Monday, analysts said the violence may have been orchestrated. "If anyone thinks what is happening on the streets of Johannesburg is spontaneous combustion, well that is just rubbish," said Nic Borain, an independent political analyst. "Malema is prepared to gamble everything on making his disciplining and removal from the party as costly as possible." The hearing is as risky for Zuma, who hopes to be re-elected ANC leader at a party meeting in December 2012, as it is for Malema, who party insiders say ultimately wants the country's top job. Analysts said the ANC waited too long to rein Malema in. "Today is therefore a show of power by Zuma and the current ANC leadership against them -- which they need to win and make up for letting this drag on for so long," said Nomura International emerging markets economist Peter Attard Montalto. Zuma is on a state visit to Norway this week. The disciplinary panel is led by senior ANC member Derek Hanekom and includes mines minister Susan Shabangu, who has criticised Malema's calls for nationalisation. In another sign of the party turning against him, former ANC guerrillas issued a statement condemning the violence. "We who have fought against apartheid take a stand that we shall never allow our country to slip into the dark days of war," the Umkhonto Wesizwe veterans groups said. Malema, 30, and the top five members of the youth wing have been charged with sowing division in the party that has ruled South Africa for nearly two decades.

### Cameroon to hold presidential election on October 9 (Reuters) http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE77T0LD20110830 By: Non-Attributed Author30 August 2011 - YAOUNDE - Cameroon will hold its presidential election on October 9, national radio said on Tuesday, citing a decree signed by President Paul Biya. Biya, 78, one of the continent's longest-serving leaders, is expected to seek another term, having ruled the oil producing Central African nation for nearly 30 years. He would face a divided and weak opposition that has not been able to challenge him in the last two elections. Biya's ruling party, the CPDM, plans to hold a congress on September 15-16, when it is expected to name him as its candidate. Opposition parties and some analysts have argued that a constitutional reform, enacted by Biya's government to remove term limits and clear the way for him to run, has instead barred him from seeking another term. The opposition have vowed to ask the court to rule on the matter if Biya decides to run.