United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

8 July 2010

USAFRICOM -related news stories

From and About Africa

OPINION BY ANN GARRISON: ON RWANDA, CONGO, AND AFRICOM, THE U.S. AFRICA
COMMAND
I gave particular attention to why I, as an American, feel compelled to study and speak out about this, and to U.S.
military industries' dependence on the mineral wealth of southeastern D.R. Congo and northern Zambia to
manufacture for war. The world's largest and most densely concentrated cobalt reserves are in the Katanga Copper
Belt running from Southeastern D.R. Congo into Zambia.

BURKINA US CITIZENS LEAVE BURKINA FASO

Ouagadougou - Americans working in northern regions of Burkina Faso have been evacuated to the capital
Ouagadougou following a terrorism warning, a US embassy source in Ouagadougou said. "There was information
on a possible terror threat. As a precautionary measure, we chose to withdraw persons in northern areas," the source
said, without giving numbers involved. On July 1, the US State Department issued a warning that al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) was planning to kidnap an US citizens.

SOMALIA TROOP INCREASE FIRES UP AL-SHABAB - VOW TO STEP UP JIHAD AGAINST AU

BELEDWEYN – Hundreds of al-Shabab supporters vowed Wednesday to intensify the Al Qaeda-inspired group's
jihad against African Union troops in Somalia. The demonstration in the central Somali town of Beledweyn was the
Islamist insurgent group's reply to a pledge made Monday at a summit of regional states for 2,000 more troops to
beef up the beleaguered AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

MAURITANIA DEPUTIES BACK NEW ANTI-TERROR LAW

NOUAKCHOTT — Mauritanian deputies have passed a watered-down version of an anti-terror bill, but
opposition politicians vowed to take it back to the constitutional council for revision. Provisions that would have
allowed investigating magistrates or prosecutors to authorise phone-tapping or late-night searches on terror
suspects' homes were both absent from the new version. So was another article allowing for suspects to be detained
for up to four years, though the revised bill did allow for terror suspects to be held for periods of up to 57 days.
Deputies in the lower parliamentary chamber passed the bill -- a revised version of one approved in January but
rejected two months later by the constitutional council -- in a vote late Tuesday.

LIBERIA US GIVES LIBERIA MILLIONS FOR GIRLS' EDUCATION

MONROVIA — Liberia has signed a 15 million US dollar (11 million euro) agreement with the United States
Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to finance girl's primary education, land rights and access to trade
policy. MCC senior advisor, Cassandra Butts said the grant would finance these key development areas as identified
by the Liberian government. "The areas of priorities represent key constraints to economic growth, identified by
Liberians as part of their own national development strategy," she told journalists on Tuesday. The MCC is a US-
based foreign aid agency working to fight poverty through economic growth. According to the agreement, the fund
will be administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

NIGERIA LAGOS SIGNS OIL REFINERY DEAL WITH CHINESE

Chinese investors, the Lagos state government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, are to
build an 8-billion-dollar refinery in Lagos, in the south-west of Nigeria. The joint project will be operated under the
umbrella of a public-private partnership. The refinery will be at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos. Statistics show
that the Chinese investors will provide 80 per cent of the funding, leaving 20 per cent to the NNPC.
NIGERIA FG TO REVIEW 376 BILATERAL TIES
The federal government has ordered a comprehensive review of the 376 bilateral agreements that Nigeria has entered
into with other foreign countries and agencies, following its dissatisfaction of the outcome so far. Nigeria has in the
past forged a total of 376 bilateral ties, which the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting said the country has
nothing positive to show for it. "Council has approved the comprehensive review and negotiation of many of the
agreements as well as the need to develop a well-articulated national policy on joint commissions," Dora Akunyili
said.

NIGERIA EX-NIGER DELTA MILITANTS PROTEST IN NIGERIA

ABUJA, Nigeria — About 1,000 ex-militants who last year laid down their arms
under a government amnesty on Wednesday protested against their exclusion from
the on-going post-amnesty retraining programme. "We surrendered our arms in
November but more than six months after, the big men in Abuja have excluded us
from the amnesty programme because of the financial reward," their spokesman, Aso
Tambo, told reporters. The police intercepted the youths at Gwagwalada town, 60
kilometres (40 miles) outside Abuja, as they drove in a convoy of buses towards the
Nigerian capital and blocked the highway for several hours. They demanded that the
presidential adviser on the amnesty, Timi Alaibe, who coordinates the retraining programme be removed because of
his alleged failure to put them on it.

NIGERIA SECT LEADER THREATENS RETALIATION

A leader of a radical Muslim sect that started a rampage that left 700 people dead in Nigeria has allegedly issued a
videotaped threat calling for new violence as the one-year anniversary of their attack nears. Imam Abubakar Shekau,
a sect deputy whom police claimed to have killed during the July 2009 violence, told a Nigerian journalist that he
had taken over as leader of the Boko Haram sect. Shekau told the reporter that he suffered a gunshot wound to the
thigh during the fighting, but had been rescued by "fellow believers and protected by Allah". "I have the intention to
retaliate," Shekau said in the local Hausa language.

NIGERIA POLICE WARNS MUSLIM SECT AS TENSION BUILDS UP

Borno State police in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria have warned members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect of dire
consequences over "unnecessary tension" they are brewing in the region. The warning stems from a massive flag
hoisting and a video clip being circulated showing a leader of the sect, Iman Abubakar Shekau, threatening revenge
of the blow dealt them last year by government security forces. Nigerian police had claimed that Imam Shekau, the
deputy leader of the Boko Haram sect was killed during the bloody confrontation in 2009. Reports say Maiduguri is
awash with flags of the outlawed Boko Haram Islamic sect and which coincide with the deputy leader's promise to
return to the city this month to commemorate the 2009 bloodbath. But, Borno Police Commissioner Ibrahim Abdu,
has however dismissed the flag hoisting as a misinformation.

NIGERIA BLOODY REVOLUTION IMPERATIVE –NWABUEZE

Daily Sun - Two elder statesmen, Professor Ben Nwabueze (SAN) and Lt. General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma,
yesterday in Lagos disagreed over the manner Nigeria could be transformed from its current rotten state. While
Professor Nwabueze settled for a bloody revolution to clear the mess in the country, Gen. Danjuma disagreed with
him, warning that ―revolution is costly and does not know either enemy or friend.‖ Speaking as the author of the
books, Nwabueze lamented that the country was so rotten that only bloody revolution could clean the mess up,
doubting if there was any form of method that could clean up the country beside a bloody revolution. ―Our society
today is thoroughly rotten. To make it a better society, it must be transformed into a new one. It is a duty to
ourselves and to our children to transform it and clear all the rotten mess. ―Bringing changes with all the proposed
methods and reforms here and there cannot work. We have passed that stage of transformation. What we need is a
surgical transformation because this country can only be changed by blood. Bloody revolution so that whoever
survives would gather the pieces,‖ Nwabueze frankly submitted. To transform the society through bloody
revolution, the former Secretary- General of Ohaneze Nd‘igbo recommended reading of French Revolution history,
explaining that French and Europe owed what they were today to French Revolution.
NIGERIA RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE THREATENS NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY SAYS
PRESIDENT JONATHAN
ABUJA – Religious intolerance which has killed hundreds of people in central Nigeria this year alone, threatens
democracy in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan warned on Tuesday. "We must remember that some of the
greatest dangers to our democracy and freedom are shrouded in the perils of ethnicity and religious intolerance," he
said at an event to mark Nigerian Army Day in Abuja.
"These evils threaten our very existence as one sovereign and indivisible nation", Jonathan warned in a statement
released by his office.

RWANDA COLONEL ARRESTED

Kigali - The Rwandan army has arrested a colonel and senior civil servant for allegedly threatening a civilian with a
gun, the latest in a string of arrests of Rwandan top brass, a spokesman said Wednesday.In June, Genereal Jean-
Bosco Kazura, in charge of training for the Rwandan army and heads the country's amateur football federation, was
detained for travelling to South Africa without permission from his bosses. In April, two other senior army officers
were detained, including Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, the former deputy commander of the international Unamid
mission in Darfur, the world's largest peacekeeping deployment. Rwanda has accused two former top military
officials of masterminding a string of grenade attacks in the capital. One of them, General Faustin Kayumba
Nyamasa, was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg last month. Nyamasa's wife and opposition media have
charged Rwandan President Paul Kagame's regime was behind the failed assassination attempt, an allegation
vehemently denied by the government.

RWANDA SUMMONS SA AMBASSADOR OVER SHOOTING PROBE

Kigali has summoned South Africa's ambassador to voice concern over the probe into the shooting last month in
Johannesburg of a Rwandan general, Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told Agence France-Presse late on
Tuesday. Dissident Rwandan general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa survived an assassination attempt in South
Africa on June 19, which his wife and some opposition media in Rwanda have blamed on President Paul Kagame's
regime. "I have summoned the South African ambassador [Gladstone Dumisani Gwadiso] on Tuesday to convey the
concern of the Rwandan government over the way the investigation is carried out," Mushikiwabo said. "Some
insinuations emanating from official circles in South Africa and carried in the media appear to be pointing a finger
at the Rwandan government," she said.

RWANDA PRESIDENT CLEARED TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION

KIGALI — President Paul Kagame will face three challengers in Rwanda's August 9 presidential elections, the
electoral commission announced Wednesday.Social Democratic Party candidate and Deputy Parliament Speaker
Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, the Liberal Party's Prosper Higiro and Alvera Mukabaramba of the Progress and
Harmony Party -- the only woman candidate -- will challenge Kagame in the ballot. Kagame, who has led the central
African country since the end of the 1994 genocide, is the favourite to win the vote. Rights groups have accused
Kagame of stifling any form of dissent in recent months, while the US blamed Rwandan authorities of taking
"worrying actions" to restrict freedom of expression ahead of the presidential poll.

GUINEA OBAMA CALLS FOR PEACEFUL GUINEA RUN-OFF VOTE

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on the people of Guinea to build on a "historic"
first stage of their free presidential election by ensuring a peaceful run-off vote.
"I extend my congratulations to the people of Guinea, who peacefully and successfully conducted an initial round of
voting in the country's first free elections since becoming an independent state in 1958," Obama said. "The people
of Guinea now have an opportunity to build on this historic achievement as they move toward a second round of
voting," Obama said in a written statement. "I urge all parties in Guinea to continue to choose the rule of law and
peaceful political participation over ethnic division and violence. They can continue to count on the support of the
United States as they move forward." Ex-prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo and veteran opponent Alpha Conde
will face off in a second round of voting on July 18.

ANGOLA RIOT POLICE TOLD TO KEEP READY TO MAINTAIN LAW AND ORDER
LUANDA - General Commander of Angola's National Police Ambrosio de Lemos on Wednesday urged the riot
police to stand ready to against any emerging violence and safeguard the society, although the country has been
politically and economically stable since the civil war ended in 2002. He made the appeal in a keynote speech at the
opening session of the 7th Broad Consultative Council of that operative organ of the General Command of the
National Police, which was held under the theme "Riot police ready for the challenges of peace." "The riot police in
the past were mainly tasked with defending the territory along with the Angolan Armed Forces, and today this
organ fits better to the great moment of peace and national reconstruction," emphasised the police chief.

ZIMBABWE MUGABE INVITES CHINESE BUSINESSES TO INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE

HARARE - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday urged Chinese businesses to invest in developing
infrastructure in the various productive sectors of the economy for the country to develop rapidly and turn its
fortunes around. Mugabe made the call when he met with visiting Chinese delegation that is in the country for the
8th session of the Zimbabwe-China Joint Commission. "The land which was in the hands of the British colonialists
we took it and gave it to our people. Our people are now the farmers and not only do they need equipment,
technology and inputs they need necessary capital invested to capacitate them," he said.

MOROCCO US CONGRESS GETS INVOLVED IN MOROCCO DEPORTATIONS

In the last few months, the Moroccan government has been deporting Christians left and right. The number
deported since March has now reached 128, reports. "Extremists in Morocco are accusing these Christians of a
crime called ‗proselytism,' which basically means sharing their faith with people who are Muslims," says Carl
Moeller, president and CEO of Open Doors USA. "That's a big offense in the eyes of extremist Muslims."
Moroccan law makes it illegal for Christians to attempt to convert Muslims, but the extent of "proselytism"
actually taking place in many of these cases has not even been proven. the estimated 1,000 Christians left in
Morocco are still under pressure. "Their status politically and socially within that country is really quite
precarious," says Moeller. "They're not recognized by the government; they have no rights. Officially, the
government does not recognize anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity." The injustice has been so obvious,
however, that it has had the attention of the U.S. government almost since it began. "The Human Rights
Commission of the U.S. Congress, and particularly representative Frank Wolf, have been holding hearings and
actually using the power that they have to discuss even withholding financial aid from Morocco in response to these
illegal deportations as we see them," says Moeller.

ALGERIA TROOPS KILL 3 ISLAMISTS IN SHOOT-OUT

ALGIERS: Algerian security forces on Tuesday killed three Islamist militants in a shoot-out southeast of the capital
Algiers, security sources told the APS news agency. The troops engaged a group of Islamists near Msila, around
250 kilometers from Algiers, killing three in a two-hour firefight, the sources said, adding that three Kalashnikov
automatic rifles had been recovered. At the end of June, Al-Qaeda-linked militants claimed responsibility for killing
11 Algerian paramilitary police in the deadliest attack in a year.

ALGERIA BLAST KILLS THREE GENDARMES

Three Algerian gendarmes were killed and another was injured in an explosion in the northeast region, local el-
Khabar newspaper reported.