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6 April 2010

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

US advises against long delay in Sudan elections (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - The United States urged Sudan on Monday not to have a long delay
in the staging of Sudan's first multiparty elections in a quarter-century, set for this
month.

Equatorial Guinea Minister Seeks Strong Ties With U.S (Voice of America)
An Equatorial Guinea cabinet minister says President Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo’s government wants to strengthen ―cooperation and friendship‖ with the
Barack Obama administration.

Goodluck Jonathan calls on Barack Obama (Sun News online)

Goodluck Jonathan gets his first experience as ―president‖ next week when he visits the
U.S. at the invitation of President Barack Obama.

Govt, U.S. Sign Historic Agreement Wednesday (This Day)

NEW YORK — In the first major bi-national agreement with an African country in a
long time, the United States will on Wednesday sign a historic comprehensive
commission pact with Nigeria in New York.

Congo Clashes Kill Two U.N. Workers (Associated Press)

KINSHASA, Congo—The United Nations' head of Congo peacekeeping operations said
two U.N. personnel have been killed during fighting between the Congolese military
and a militia.

U.N. sees Congo troops withdrawn over three years (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations has prepared a plan for a three-year phased
withdrawal of the world body's biggest peacekeeping force from the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, according to a U.N. report released on Monday.

Somali refugees recruited to fight Islamist militia (Washington Post)

The U.S.-backed government of Somalia and its Kenyan allies have recruited hundreds
of Somali refugees, including children, to fight in a war against al-Shabab, an Islamist
militia linked to al-Qaeda, according to former recruits, their relatives and community
leaders.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
Darfur: UN-backed training course held for local prison officers
UN peacekeeper, contractors killed by insurgents in north-western DR Congo
Ban proposes drawdown of 2,000 UN peacekeepers from DR Congo by end of
June
UN appeals for more funds to assist people facing food crisis in Niger
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

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

WHAT: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: Does Democracy have a
Future in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
WHO: Mvemba Dizolele, visiting scholar at SAIS, will discuss this topic.
Info: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/calendar/index.htm

WHEN/WHERE: Monday, April 12; 8:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Council on Foreign Relations: A Conversation with Goodluck Jonathan
WHO: Goodluck Jonathan, Acting President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Info: http://www.cfr.org/member

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

WHAT: US Institute of Peace: Rebuilding Hope
WHO: Screening of "Rebuilding Hope" a film following three of Sudan's "Lost Boys" on a
journey back home to find surviving family members, and rediscover and contribute to their
homeland, followed by a panel discussion featuring the film's director, Jen Marlowe, and one of
central characters in the film.
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/rebuilding-hope-washington-dc-premiere
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

US advises against long delay in Sudan elections (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - The United States urged Sudan on Monday not to have a long delay
in the staging of Sudan's first multiparty elections in a quarter-century, set for this
month.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the United States recognizes
that a brief delay might be needed. But he said any delay should be used so Sudan can
improve the elections and deal with opposition parties' legitimate misgivings.
Crowley said it is the responsibility of everyone involved to make sure the elections are
peaceful, transparent and credible.

The elections, which have been thrown into disarray by allegations of government
violations and opposition threats of a boycott, are a crucial step in a 2005 north-south
peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war.

Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani, a senior adviser to President Omar al-Bashir and the
government's point man on the Darfur region of Sudan, said discussion among the
government and opposition groups have been positive. He said there was no need for
delaying the voting.

Many of opposition party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi's demands have been addressed, al-
Mahdi told reporters in Khartoum on Monday after meeting with U.S. envoy Scott
Gration, who has been working to solve problems involved with the elections.

"This is a step forward," he said. "We talk to all the different groups and we try to
narrow the gap. But we are committed to having the elections on time."
--------------------
Equatorial Guinea Minister Seeks Strong Ties With U.S (Voice of America)

An Equatorial Guinea cabinet minister says President Teodoro Obiang Nguema

Mbasogo’s government wants to strengthen ―cooperation and friendship‖ with the
Barack Obama administration.

On his recent trip to the United States, Foreign Minister Pastor Micha Ondo Bile said
criticism of President Mbasogo’s rule by the international media is misplaced and
shows a lack of understanding of Equatorial Guinea’s growing democracy.

―My objective is to strengthen the relationship of cooperation and friendship with the
United States of America, and above all with the Obama Administration…and as such
the United States is now the most important partner of Equatorial Guinea. As a result,
my visit to Washington is to hold meetings and exchange impressions of how we can
further strengthen these relationships of friendship and of cooperation with our friend,
the United States of America,‖ he said.

In 2008, an American journalist Peter Maas called the Equatorial Guinea leader Africa’s
worst dictator, worse than Zimbabwe’s embattled President Robert Mugabe -- a charge
the government denies.

Opposition groups also complained of fraud after incumbent President Mbasogo was
declared winner of the 2009 presidential election with over 90 % of the total vote.
Mico Abogo, leader of the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy Party (CPDS)
denounced President Mbasogo’s government as oppressive adding that it won elections
only through fraud.

But supporters of the government say the opposition criticism shows the
administration’s commitment towards ensuring freedom of speech and association in
Equatorial Guinea.

Critics of the administration also say the government has failed to improve the
country’s poor or non-existing infrastructure despite its enormous oil wealth.

But Foreign Minister Ondo Bile said the government is ―judiciously‖ using the oil
wealth to aggressively improve Equatorial Guinea’s infrastructure.

―We have already been able to construct asphalt of more than 80% of the national roads.
We are building a basic infrastructure which includes the ports and airports in the
entire national region. Equatorial Guinea now has the best healthcare facilities in the
(Central African) region. We have built hospitals in every 80 kilometers of road in the
country. Our priority is education. We created a national university which last year
produced the first 110 national doctors. I think that within the next five years,
Equatorial Guinea will be self-sufficient in national doctors,‖ Ondo Bile said.

Foreign Minister Ondo Bile further said that during a meeting on the sidelines of the
recent United Nations General Assembly, President Mbasogo urged President Obama
to institute a U.S–Africa summit, which he said will strengthen the cooperation between
the United States and Africa.
--------------------
Goodluck Jonathan calls on Barack Obama (Sun News online)

Goodluck Jonathan gets his first strutting experience as ―president‖ next week when he
visits the U.S. at the invitation of President Barack Obama. How Jonathan handles
himself, and the image he projects, will determine how seriously his American host
takes him and the country he runs. Umaru Yar’Adua set a poor tone when, during a
visit at the White House in 2007, he acted like a child let loose in a candy shop. Eyes
glimmering, he gushed to President George W. Bush that coming to America was the
best day of his life.

It would serve Jonathan to avoid such callow exuberance. He better come properly
briefed, and fully prepared, to articulate Nigeria’s take on the topics of discussion.
The two men, and their respective countries, have a large menu of bilateral issues to bite
into. There are such issues as oil, terrorism, democracy, trade relations, anti-corruption
measures, and Nigeria’s tense – and, it appears, worsening – sectarian divide.
It’s easy, in talking with Obama, to misread his ties to Africa – as the son of a Kenyan
father – as an indication of deep sympathy for African causes. Half of Obama’s heart
may be Kenyan, but he is, when all is said and done, a quintessential American original.
Given his cosmopolitan outlook, Obama is unquestionably more informed than his
recent predecessors, about the poor places of the world, and more sympathetic to the
plight of the world’s poor.

Even so, his deepest loyalties lie – as they should – with America, and especially with
America’s corporate giants, many of them with tentacles in Nigeria. It’s Jonathan’s place
to recognize this fact, and to do his best to champion Nigeria’s economic interests as
strongly as Obama pushes America’s interests.
Oil is at the center of America’s interest in Nigeria’s vicissitudes. With the rise of anti-
American sentiments in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, U.S. authorities have made
no secret of wishing to buy more of their crude oil from Nigeria.

That prospect means that the U.S. is attentive to Nigeria’s domestic stresses. There’s
little doubt that Washington closely monitors both the deepening militarization of the
oil-rich Niger Delta and the incessant outbreaks of religious violence in such places as
Jos, Maiduguri, and Bauchi.
America is, in short, invested in easing the pressures that have caused sharp declines in
Nigeria’s daily oil output. But Jonathan, who happens to hail from the Niger Delta,
ought to convey to Obama that economic justice is key to reducing militancy. The
Nigerian state and the oil companies have exploited the resources of the oil-producing
delta.
It would be a mistake to imagine that Obama is less than enthusiastic about George
Bush’s plan to establish an African Command. Should Obama try to sell the idea,
Jonathan ought to unambiguously register Nigeria’s continuing opposition. At the very
least, such a command would further undermine the sovereign will of African nations.
At worst, it is likely to subordinate African nations, willy-nilly, to American control. Put
bluntly, it is a recipe for re-colonization.

America now perceives Nigeria as an incubating site for terrorists. That dishonor came
by dint of a young Nigerian’s attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit last Christmas. If
the plan had succeeded, some three hundred passengers on the flight would have
perished – to say nothing of the number of casualties if a burning plane had crashed in a
city.
In scale, it would have been the most serious terrorist assault on American soil since the
September 11, 2001 bombing of the Twin Towers in New York City. The would-be
bomber, Umaru Abdul Mutallab, has Nigerian parents and carried a Nigerian passport.
But he was recruited into al Qaeda in England, not Nigeria; his training and equipment
took place in Yemen, far from Nigeria.
Last week, a motorist in Calabar came close to causing another terrorist calamity. In a
shocking breach of airport security, this man was able to ram his car onto an Arik Air
flight. Little information has been released about the incident, but the attack – one must
admit – is likely to strengthen Obama’s resolve to keep Nigeria on the roster of
―terrorist nations‖.

That shouldn’t stop Jonathan from pleading Nigeria’s case, namely, that the isolated
actions of two men hardly add up to the portrait of a nation that spawns international
terrorists.
Jonathan is, like Obama, a figure thrown up by history – and capable of acting as an
agent of profound historical change. Obama’s election more than a year ago signaled
America’s willingness to lift, however temporarily, the veil created by its long history of
racial discrimination. On his part, Jonathan ascended to power through the quirks of
fate.

Unlike Obama, Jonathan is handicapped by a deficiency of legitimacy. In 2007, he and

Umaru Yar’Adua became prime beneficiaries of one of the most fraudulent elections in
history. Now, with Yar’Adua consigned to the shadows through physical devastation,
Jonathan has been thrust into power. And he’s been assigned a rare opportunity to rise
beyond his circumstances and imprint his name in history.
Many doubt that he’s capable of rising to the challenge. He has been criticized,
justifiably in my view, for coming up with a mostly uninspiring list of ministers. And
even though he’s spoken of his commitment to electoral reforms, many doubt that he’s
willing to go through with measures that are likely to upstage his political party.

Yet, Jonathan must know that Nigeria has changed since the 2007 impunity that foisted
the Yar’Adua-Jonathan duo in power. The country may not be able to survive a repeat
of the electoral heist of 2007.
Obama should encourage Jonathan to stand behind electoral reform, to fire Maurice
Iwu from the chairmanship of Nigeria’s electoral commission, and to ensure that the
police, armed forces, and security agencies are not invited to help PDP candidates in
thwarting the wishes of the electorate in 2011.
Jonathan is reportedly making overtures to Nuhu Ribadu, a former chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to serve as an advisor on anti-corruption
issues. This promises to rank as one of Jonathan’s most warmly received appointments.
In his second coming, Ribadu has a rare opportunity to address legitimate questions
about the selectivity of some of the EFCC’s prosecutions, and then proceed to
reinvigorate the fight against all corrupt elements.

Ribadu will face a quandary. It was reported that, in September 2006, Ribadu’s EFCC
officials seized $13.5 million from Patience Jonathan, then Governor Jonathan’s wife.
Somehow, that case – which drew international attention – fizzled out. Neither Jonathan
nor Ribadu can afford silence on the case. Both men must make it a priority to divulge
the facts about Patience’s alleged millions. Is it true that the EFCC confiscated that stash
of cash? If true, where’s that money? Was it handed back to Mrs. Jonathan? In that
event, how and where did she make it? If it was confiscated, then Jonathan would do
well to apologize on his wife’s behalf. Then, and then, should Ribadu get cracking on
other abusers of public trust.
--------------------
Govt, U.S. Sign Historic Agreement Wednesday (This Day)

NEW YORK — In the first major bi-national agreement with an African country in a
long time, the United States will on Wednesday sign a historic comprehensive
commission pact with Nigeria in New York. Under the bi-national commission
agreement, the two countries would be cooperating in four areas.

The areas, according to the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Professor
Adebowale Adefuye, are trade and energy; Niger Delta; electoral reform; and peace and
security.

The agreement is expected to be followed by the visit of Acting President Goodluck

Jonathan to the United States for the nuclear security summit which holds between
April 11 and 14. Diplomatic sources in Washington told THISDAY that the Acting
President had already accepted President Barack Obama's invitation to the summit.

Speaking to THISDAY in New York, Ambassador Adefuye said the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale, would sign on behalf of Nigeria
as leader of the delegation consisting of top government officials while the United
States Secretary of State, Senator Hilary Clinton, would sign for her country.

The signing ceremony is coming barely a week after the US put aside the emergency
aviation security measures she announced on January 3, this year, which classified
Nigeria as a "country of interest", following the botched attempt to bomb an American
airliner by a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Diplomatic sources also told THISDAY last night that the development would further
strengthen relations between the two nations.

The Nigerian-US relations have continued to improve since the restoration of

democracy in 1999 and the two countries have been cooperating on many important
foreign policy goals, including regional peacekeeping.

While an estimated one million Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans are believed to live,
study, and work in the United States, over 25,000 Americans live and work in Nigeria.

The exclusion of Nigeria from the list of countries visited by Obama during his first
official visit to Africa last year, however, brought to the front burner, the fears that
Nigeria might gradually be losing its prime status in American foreign policy focus to
neighbouring countries on the West African coast.

The US Secretary of State, Clinton, visited Nigeria last August in her first official trip to
Africa, during which time she held talks with top Nigerian government officials and
expressed US position on several issues especially the anti-corruption war, which she
said had lost steam.
--------------------
Congo Clashes Kill Two U.N. Workers (Associated Press)

KINSHASA, Congo—The United Nations' head of Congo peacekeeping operations said

two U.N. personnel have been killed during fighting between the Congolese military
and a militia.

Manodje Munubai said that a U.N. peacekeeper from Ghana was fatally shot Sunday
while in a car, while a U.N. civilian personnel died Sunday during fighting with a
traditional militia in northern Congo known as the Enyele.

At least eight others, including policemen, an army officer and militiamen, also died in
the clashes Sunday, according to the information minister in the northwest town of
Mbandaka.

The Congolese army started battling Enyele militiamen in November after fighting
started between the Enyele and Munzale tribesmen reportedly over farming and fishing
rights.
--------------------
U.N. sees Congo troops withdrawn over three years (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations has prepared a plan for a three-year phased
withdrawal of the world body's biggest peacekeeping force from the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, according to a U.N. report released on Monday.

The government of the sprawling, mineral-rich Central African country has called for
the 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers in the country, known as MONUC, to depart Congo
sooner -- in 2011.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's latest report to the Security Council says President
Joseph Kabila had asked the United Nations to submit a proposal by June -- the 50th
anniversary of the country's independence from Belgium -- for withdrawing MONUC.

U.N. diplomats have said privately that Kabila is eager to demonstrate before next
year's elections that he is not dependent on U.N. blue helmets to provide security. But
Ban made clear that Congo's army and police are not yet up to the task in the country's
turbulent east.

"The (U.N.) technical assessment mission came to the conclusion that a continued
significant presence of the MONUC force was essential in the Kivus and Orientale
provinces" in eastern Congo, the report said.

The recommendation comes despite the improvement of relations between Kinshasa

and neighboring Rwanda, which have been conducting a proxy war in eastern Congo
for years.

U.N. troops are backing government operations to oust Rwandan Hutu rebels from
eastern provinces. There are also elements of the feared Ugandan rebel group known as
the Lord's Resistance Army in Congo.

The U.N. plan would focus on training Congo's troops and includes a three-year phased
withdrawal of MONUC, Ban said. He called for extending MONUC's mandate for
another year.

In a clash in northern Congo on Monday that was apparently unrelated to the conflicts
with rebels in the east, U.N.-backed Congolese troops retook a Congolese provincial
airport from rebels, following heavy weekend fighting in which at least three U.N.
workers died.

PROBLEMS WITH CONGO'S ARMY

The blue-helmeted peacekeepers are deployed throughout the Congo, maintaining a

U.N. presence launched in 1999 when a six-year war drew in neighboring countries and
claimed an estimated 5 million lives.

Human rights groups say massacres, rape, looting and other attacks on civilians
continue in Congo's east, and that armed ex-rebel groups control artisanal mining of
lucrative tin and tantalum, used in telephones and camera lenses.

Ban offered a bleak assessment of the Congolese army.

"FARDC still face structural weaknesses and a lack of capacity which will continue to
limit the government's ability to adequately protect its citizens, if not effectively
addressed," the report said.

Ban described the Congolese army as "an amalgamation of unvetted, untrained former
militia groups," among others.
"Successive waves of integration of armed (rebel) groups have resulted in poor loyalty,
indiscipline, and disruptions in the chain of command," Ban said.

This difficult situation, he said, has been made worse by a lack of equipment, problems
with paying soldiers and a weak military justice system.

Much of the Congo, however, is now relatively stable, the report said, adding that the
Congolese army and police would be in a position to provide security in those areas.
--------------------
Somali refugees recruited to fight Islamist militia (Washington Post)

The U.S.-backed government of Somalia and its Kenyan allies have recruited hundreds
of Somali refugees, including children, to fight in a war against al-Shabab, an Islamist
militia linked to al-Qaeda, according to former recruits, their relatives and community
leaders.

Many of the recruits were taken from the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps in
northeastern Kenya, which borders Somalia. Somali government recruiters and Kenyan
soldiers came to the camps late last year, promising refugees as much as $600 a month
to join a force advertised as supported by the United Nations or the United States, the
former recruits and their families said.

"They have stolen my son from me," said Noor Muhamed, 70, a paraplegic refugee
whose son Abdi was recruited.

Across this region, children and young men are vanishing. All sides in Somalia's
conflict are recruiting refugees to fight in a remote battleground in the global war on
terrorism from which they fled, community leaders say.

It is unclear whether recruiting by the governments of Kenya and Somalia is ongoing.

But their military officers continue to train refugees at a heavily guarded base near the
northern Kenyan town of Isiolo as the Somali government prepares for a long-planned
offensive against the Shabab.

A second camp is in Manyani, a training station for the Kenya Wildlife Service in
southern Kenya, according to former recruits, relatives, community leaders and U.N.
investigators.

"They told us we were going to Somalia soon," said Hassan Farah, 23, who escaped
from the Isiolo camp last month.

Farah, who was injured in a 2008 bombing in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, first
spent more than two months at Manyani. "I saw 12-year-old children at the camp," said
Farah, who has a jagged scar on his left arm. He escaped by bribing a water truck driver
to sneak him out.

The Kenyan government has acknowledged that it is helping train police officers for
Somalia's weak interim government but said that the recruits were flown in from
Mogadishu. "No one is recruited from the refugee camps," said Alfred Mutua, a Kenyan
government spokesman.

But a recent U.N. report on Somalia confirmed the recruitment of refugees, including
underage youths, for military training. Kenya's training program, the report said, is a
violation of a U.N. arms embargo, which requires nations to get permission from the
U.N. Security Council before assisting Somalia's security efforts.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the United Nations' special representative to Somalia, said

he has not personally seen evidence to act on. "If this recruiting is happening, we have
to condemn it," he said.

Recruiting refugees is a violation of international law, and enlisting children under 15

constitutes war crimes, human rights groups say.

"They told me I would become a soldier and fight the Shabab," Ahmed Barre, a bone-
thin 15-year-old whose family fled Somalia's anarchy in 1991, when the central
government collapsed. He was born in Dadaab's camps and has never been to Somalia.
"I didn't want to go. But I was jobless. I wanted to help my family."

A State Department spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the

sensitivity of the matter, said, "We strongly condemn recruitment in the refugee camps
by any party." Senior U.S. officials, he added, "have stressed" to top Kenyan and Somali
government officials "the need to prevent any recruitment in refugee camps."

Human Rights Watch has also raised concerns about the force, which numbers roughly
2,500.

Once the recruits signed up, their cellphones and identification cards were taken. They
never saw the promised money. And they were denied access to their traumatized
families, which, fearing deportation, seldom complained to the authorities, local
officials and recruits said.

"These people ran away for their dear lives to seek refuge in Kenya," said Mohamed
Gabow Kharbat, mayor of Garissa, the provincial capital. "To recruit them and send
them back to the same situation they ran away from, this is terrible."
Kharbat said that "most of the youths have no parents, no family members to protest on
their behalf. And even if they have parents, these are people who are scared of the
government security organs. They can never have the confidence to complain."

The recruitment comes amid fears that Somalia's Islamist militants could extend their
reach into Kenya, Uganda and other neighboring countries. The Shabab has voiced
support for al-Qaeda and has attracted jihadists from around the world. The United
States and European nations are supporting the pro-Western Somalia transitional
government with arms, cash, training and intelligence.

Somali refugees have few opportunities in Kenya, which has imposed strict residency
rules and limits on travel, making it difficult for them to find jobs. Many youths are
uneducated.

"The Shabab and all other groups have representation here," said Abdul Khader, 35, a
refugee youth leader. "They give a lot of false hopes to the refugees."

Hassan Mukhtar, 16, was recruited to fight for the Somali government with a promise
of $300 a month and a $50 signing bonus. "If they suspected you looked too young, the
recruiter asked you to say you are older," he said. "I looked strong, so they didn't ask
me."

When he and other recruits did not get their signing bonus, they jumped out of the
truck on the way to Manyani.

A Shabab recruiter enticed Mukhtar Awliyahan, 16, by promising him $300 month. He
was taken to Somalia and given the nom de guerre "Mukhtarullah" -- the One Chosen
by God. In January, tired of fighting, he escaped. Today he keeps a low profile in the
camp. "They are still recruiting," he said.

Hezbi Islam, a rival militia, recruited Bare Ali Jama, 19. "I had nothing to substitute for
this offer," said Jama, who joined along with five other refugees. In February, Shabab
fighters pushed them out of their stronghold; he fled back to Kenya. Still jobless, he
wants to return to Somalia. "I will fight for anybody," he said.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Darfur: UN-backed training course held for local prison officers

5 April – Twenty prison guards in Darfur have undertaken a week-long United
Nations-run training course aimed at improving the treatment of inmates in the war-
scarred region of western Sudan.
UN peacekeeper, contractors killed by insurgents in north-western DR Congo
5 April – A United Nations peacekeeper and two contractors in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) were shot dead by insurgents who attacked the capital of
Equateur province, Mbandaka, yesterday, first striking at the governor’s mansion and
national assembly before temporarily occupying the airport.

Ban proposes drawdown of 2,000 UN peacekeepers from DR Congo by end of June

5 April – Despite continued violence and human rights abuses by both rebels and the
army, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has made sufficient progress over
much of its vast territory for the 20,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force to
withdraw up to 2,000 troops by June.

UN appeals for more funds to assist people facing food crisis in Niger
5 April – United Nations aid agencies and their partners in Niger today appealed for an
additional $132 million to fund humanitarian programmes in the West African country,
which is facing a severe food crisis following poor harvests caused by inadequate
rainfall last year.