United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

3 May 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

GIs retrain Congo troops known for being violent (Stars and Stripes)
STUTTGART, Germany — At a remote military base in the jungle city of Kisangani, an
elite team of U.S. troops is attempting to retrain a battalion of Congolese infantrymen to
serve as a model for an unruly force that has a reputation for using rape as a weapon of
war.

Marine Corps builds partnerships in Africa (Marine Corps Times)

Since February, Security Cooperation Marine Air Ground Task Force (SCMAGTF)
Marines have been training African military forces in Senegal, Ghana and Liberia, and
conducting humanitarian and medical relief operations.

U.S. expresses concern over terrorist activities in Africa (Xinhua)

ABUJA, Nigeria - The United State Naval Forces has expressed concern over terrorist
activities in Africa. Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, commander of U.S. Naval in Africa and
Europe, disclosed this in Abuja on Friday when he visited Nigeria's Chief of Defense
Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike in his office.

Amnesty urges UN peacekeepers to stay in Chad (AFP)

LIBREVILLE, Gabon – Amnesty International appealed Friday for UN peacekeeping
forces to remain in Chad, after a recent spate of bloodshed in the east of the landlocked
Central African country.

AU envoy meets Cote d'Ivoire election officials amid stalled process (Xinhua)
ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire - The special representative of the African Union (AU) in Cote
d'lvoire, Ambroise Nyomsaba, met with President of the Independent Electoral
Commission (CEI) Youssouf Bakayoko here on Thursday to discuss the stalled election
process.

Lawyers vs. Pirates (Foreign Policy)

Last week, 11 pirates charged with firing on two U.S. Navy warships were hauled into a
U.S. federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, where they could be sentenced to life
imprisonment. Other Navies have also captured their share of buccaneers, including the
French, who nabbed six, and the Spanish, who took another eight. But the problem of
what to do when the pirates land in the United States and other countries is turning
every pirate-hunter into a scholar of international law.

Somali militants increasing use of child soldiers (Associated Press)

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The recruitment of child fighters in Somalia is on the rise,
both by the government and particularly by the country's most powerful Islamist
militia, al-Shabab, whose name means "the youth."

UN reports massacre of 100 villagers in Congo (Associated Press)

NIANGARA, Congo —U.N. officials on Saturday announced a previously unreported
massacre that occurred two months ago: up to 100 people were killed when the rebel
Lord's Resistance Army attacked a village.

Rwanda Pursues Dissenters and the Homeless (New York Times)

IWAWA ISLAND, Rwanda —Nearly 900 beggars, homeless people and suspected petty
thieves, including dozens of children, have recently been rounded up from the nation‘s
neatly swept streets and sent — without trial or a court appearance — to this little-
known outpost. They will spend up to three years here being ―rehabilitated,‖ learning
skills like bricklaying, hairdressing and motorcycle maintenance.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
UN envoy speaks out against deadly attack on Somali mosque
UN relief chief speaks out against Ugandan rebel violence in DR Congo
UNDP chief embarks on African tour to promote development goals
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mahmoud Kabil backs African anti-polio
efforts
UN aid chief urges DR Congo authorities to enhance protection of civilians
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, May 5, 10:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Senate Committee on Appropriations: Defense Subcommittee
WHO: General David Petraeus, USA, Commander United States Central Command; Admiral
Eric T. Olson, USN, Commander United States Special Operations Command; General William
E. Ward, USA, Commander United States African Command
Info: http://appropriations.senate.gov/news.cfm?method=news.view&id=e7f247c8-c14f-48dc-
8452-bc4cef996c4c

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, May 5, 1:30 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: Planning Military Responses to Mass Atrocities
WHO: Col. John Kardos, U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute; Lawrence
Woocher, United States Institute of Peace; Sarah Sewall, MARO Project Founder and Faculty
Director, Harvard Kennedy School; Andrew Loomis, Office of the Coordinator for
Reconstruction and Stabilization, U.S. Department of State; Col. William Flavin (Ret),
Directing Professor, U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/planning-military-responses-mass-atrocities

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, May 13, 9:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: Threats to Maritime Security
WHO: Donna L. Hopkins, U.S. Department of State; Bruce Averill, Ph.D., Strategic Energy
Security Solutions; Michael Berkow (invited), Altegrity Security Consulting; Robert Perito,
Moderator, U.S. Institute of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/threats-maritime-security
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

GIs retrain Congo troops known for being violent (Stars and Stripes)

STUTTGART, Germany — At a remote military base in the jungle city of Kisangani, an

elite team of U.S. troops is attempting to retrain a battalion of Congolese infantrymen to
serve as a model for an unruly force that has a reputation for using rape as a weapon of
war.

In a region where intimidation is used by soldiers and the rebels they fight, the U.S.
Special Operations Command Africa troops offer plenty of traditional soldiering
instruction. For now, the team of about 25 Americans is focused on small-unit tactics,
medical care, logistics support and communications. Soon they also will enlist
alternative methods to reform a military in disarray.

U.S. Africa Command is drafting curriculum for dealing with the sexual violence issues
that plague the Congolese military and will incorporate those findings into training this
summer.

"That‘s something that we didn‘t know how to do. We don‘t have those textbooks," said
a Special Forces officer at AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart.

The new sex- and gender-based violence-prevention programs will likely be integrated
into missions in other parts of the continent, the officer said, speaking on the condition
of anonymity.

AFRICOM has deployed an expert in sexual violence to the Congo to conduct

interviews and help develop the sexual violence program for military leaders who are
untrained in this area, according to Special Operations Command Africa.

AFRICOM, along with contractors hired by the U.S. State Department, began working
with the Congolese battalion in March as part of an evolving six-month program. The
hope is to field more than 700 Congolese troops capable of deploying as part of a quick-
reaction force to protect the country‘s borders and the people who call those volatile
regions home.

Vital to U.S. national security

The effort to establish an elite Congolese unit is the latest push by the U.S. to
professionalize armed forces in this strategically important region, where problems
persist despite millions of dollars in U.S. aid over the years.

There are economic and strategic incentives to bringing more security to the Congo,
which is rich in natural resources such as cobalt, a key component in the manufacturing
of cell phones and other electronics. The country contains 80 percent of the world‘s
cobalt reserves.

An April 2009 report to Congress by the National Defense Stockpile Center made clear
that ensuring access to mineral markets around the world is of vital interest to national
security.

"The global growth in demand for scarce raw materials and the industrial surges in
China, India, Russia, Brazil and other developing countries require that the U.S. employ
a new, integrated and responsive strategy for identifying and ensuring, on a continual
basis, an adequate supply of strategic and critical materials required for U.S. security
needs," the report stated.

The Democratic Republic of Congo also possesses 50 percent of Africa‘s forests and a
river system that could provide hydro-electric power to the entire continent, according
to a U.N. report on the country‘s strategic significance and its potential role as an
economic power in central Africa.

However, the land‘s development has lagged while the country of 67 million people has
struggled in a near-constant state of war and crisis since 1998, resulting in more than 5
million deaths — making it the deadliest documented conflict zone since World War II,
according to the International Rescue Committee.

The magnitude of the problem was captured in a study released April 15 by the British
aid group Oxfam. Of the 4,000 rape victims surveyed between 2004 and 2008, more than
half were assaulted by soldiers or members of other armed militia groups. Acts of
civilian rape in eastern Congo also increased 17-fold during that time, which raises
concerns about the population becoming desensitized to such acts of violence,
according to the report.
"The mind-set of an entire society will have to be reset to recognize rape as morally
unacceptable," the report stated.

Corruption stalling reform

Thierry Vircoulon, the International Crisis Group‘s director of Central African affairs, is
skeptical about the effort to reform the Congolese armed forces.

In a country with a long history of conflict, this attempt to transform the military will
likely have little impact unless there are changes in the country‘s political leadership, he
said. Corruption at the highest levels of the government and military is impeding
attempts at reform.

"If we get involved in restructuring, we should make sure the government also is
willing to restructure in a professional sense," he said. "Otherwise, I don‘t think human
rights instruction by the U.S. or anyone else is going to make a big difference."

One of those structural obstacles: In remote parts of the country, troops frequently go
unpaid or commanders take an unfair cut as the money moves down the chain. Such
mismanagement has led to disgruntled troops lashing out in villages, stealing food and
brutalizing the population.

Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, AFRICOM‘s director of strategy, plans and programs, said
the political leadership has given assurances that the new battalion being trained will be
paid and better equipped than other units, avoiding some of these ripple effects. But
solving those problems will take time, Sherlock said, adding that the U.S. is only one
player in an international effort to reform the country‘s security sector.

Because soldiers in the Congolese army often are not properly paid by the government,
they are unable to take care of family members, which results in a train of dependents
tagging along on missions, Sherlock said.

"And instead of being able to focus on what their mission is and what they‘re supposed
to do, the soldiers‘ principal focus has been ‗How do I care for the people that I have to
care for?‘ And that causes a variety of problems," he said.

While the U.S. works on new logistical, recruitment, military health and justice
programs, pressure is being applied to the political leadership in the country to take
stronger steps toward instituting reforms, State Department officials said.

Sherlock said the next phase of the partnership is in development.

"But what we do next, whether it‘s a continued relationship with this one unit or
something different, is part of a much larger overall international effort that we need to
contribute to and be supportive of."
--------------------
Marine Corps builds partnerships in Africa (Marine Corps Times)

With close to nine years of war gone by and the drawdown in Iraq complete, the Marine
Corps is starting to see a return to missions that combine humanitarian disaster relief
and amphibious training operations with foreign nations.

One such mission has unfolded in the form of a 130-man Security Cooperation Marine
Air Ground Task Force, the third of its kind under an African Partnership Station
program stood up in 2006.

Since February, SCMAGTF Marines have been training African military forces in
Senegal, Ghana and Liberia, and conducting humanitarian and medical relief
operations.

The mission isn‘t new, but doing it in Africa is, and it is part of a national priority that is
rapidly gaining importance for the Corps.

―This is the cutting edge of phase zero counterinsurgency. It‘s making friends before
they become enemies,‖ said SCMAGTF commander Lt. Col. John Golden, who
described the four-month mission as partnership building through ―military-to-military
training in a very austere environment in areas where there hasn‘t been a lot of U.S.
military presence in the last 235 years.‖

After concluding the Africa portion of the deployment in mid-May, the SCMAGTF will
transition its operational control to Marine Forces Europe and conduct one of the first
amphibious operations in Europe since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Golden said.

―We‘re returning to Marine Corps amphibious operations roots in conducting

humanitarian disaster relief and kinetic operations as well,‖ he said.

On the way to Africa, the SCMAGTF also conducted an unexpected humanitarian

disaster relief operation.

Upon sailing Jan. 15 from Little Creek, Va., aboard the dock landing ship Gunston Hall,
the task force was immediately diverted to Haiti to help in the wake of the devastating
Jan. 12 earthquake.

The task force left Haitian waters Feb. 11 and, after a stop in Rota, Spain, arrived in
West Africa.
Pfc. Anthony Clark said training African forces feels like a breath of fresh air compared
with his rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He‘s not getting shot at, or even wearing body armor, and he‘s training people who are
eager to learn.

―It‘s a lot different, and the language barrier isn‘t there,‖ said Clark, of Weapons
Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. Clark served as a member of a police training
team on each of his two rotations to the war zone.

―The Iraqis are in a combat mindset, and the Africans are more thinking of
humanitarian missions rather than combat missions. Once you teach them, they‘re
actually happy to do it.‖

The SCMAGTF stood up in November, manned with Marines from 10 units, mostly
based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., but also from Marine Corps air stations New River
and Cherry Point as well as reservists. More than 50 percent of the Marines on the task
force have combat deployments.

The task force comprises a rifle company reinforced with an amphibious assault vehicle
platoon with six vehicles, supply, administrative and public affairs elements.

The Marines have taught the African forces infantry tactics, martial arts, motorized
operations, patrolling, convoy, entry control and vehicle control point operations,
leadership and intelligence classes.

But they‘ve also had time to play sports together, tour the countryside and socialize.

For Lance Cpl. Keith O‘Quinn, who has never been to the war zone, the Africa
deployment is an adventure.

―I love it. It‘s cool to travel so much and see places like Europe and Africa when most
Marines don‘t get to. Usually it‘s to Iraq or Afghanistan,‖ said O‘Quinn, 19, a truck
driver with Combat Logistics Battalion 2, who joined the Corps in January 2009.

Planning for a 2011 SCMAGTF will begin in May. While some Marines volunteered for
the 2010 mission and others were ―voluntold,‖ Golden said, interested Marines are
encouraged to inquire through Marine Corps operational channels.

French speakers will be favorably considered.

The job is fun, but at this point in the game, may not yet be a career enhancer.
―I think it‘s personally and professionally rewarding. It‘s still very new, and in the short
term, the Afghanistan combat deployments will still be more career enhancing than the
Africa deployments,‖ Golden said.

Still, over the course of the next 10 to 20 years, theater security cooperation missions
and phase zero counterinsurgency operations, like the one in West Africa, will be an
important focus for the Corps, and Marines looking for that kind of experience may
want to consider getting some exposure.

―Anybody who has a background in phase zero counterinsurgency and military-to-

military partnership building will have a place in the Marine Corps for a very long
time,‖ he said.
--------------------
U.S. expresses concern over terrorist activities in Africa (Xinhua)

ABUJA, Nigeria - The United State Naval Forces has expressed concern over terrorist
activities in Africa.

Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, commander of U.S. Naval in Africa and Europe, disclosed
this in Abuja on Friday when he visited Nigeria's Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Air
Chief Marshal Paul Dike in his office.

Fitzgerald called for collective efforts to combat the ugly phenomenon of terrorism.

He said the U.S. government would assist Africa in solving its problems, stressing those
African problems would be given African solutions because each of the sub regions had
its peculiar problems.

The visiting U.S official praised the Nigerian military for its leading role in maintaining
peace in Africa and called for more future cooperation among the two nations.

Responding, the CDS expressed appreciation on the efforts of the U.S. government for
showing interest in improving the capacity of Nigeria's Armed Forces in the area of
training.

Dike called for more collective efforts in combating terrorism, which is a global
phenomenon.

The CDS was presented a Medal of Excellence by the U.S. High Command.
--------------------
Amnesty urges UN peacekeepers to stay in Chad (AFP)
LIBREVILLE, Gabon – Amnesty International appealed Friday for UN peacekeeping
forces to remain in Chad, after a recent spate of bloodshed in the east of the landlocked
Central African country.

The call came a day after the government said that clashes between the army and the
Popular Front for National Renaissance at the weekend claimed the lives of 105 rebels
and one soldier.

"Relentless violence in Chad means the UN should not be forced to withdraw", the
London-based rights organisation said in a statement.

"If MINURCAT (United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad) is
forced to withdraw, the level of violence, insecurity and grave human rights abuses ...
will almost certainly increase substantially".

Chadian President Idriss Deby has criticised the UN mission as "a failure", and accused
the troops of remaining behind the safety of their razorwire fences and not venturing
out to help refugees.

But on April 23 he and the UN force reached agreement for 1,900 blue helmets to
remain until October at the least, when they would meet for further talks.

Amnesty said the UN troops should stay in the country.

"Conditions in eastern Chad remain precarious for the hundreds of thousands of

Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians who are living there in camps. A premature
UN exit would expose them to further human rights abuses," it said.

The UN mission deployed in Chad and the neighbouring Central African Republic was
created in 2007.

It was designed to take over from a European force that looked after Chadians and
Central Africans displaced by insurgency in their own countries and refugees from
Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, across the eastern border of Chad and the
northeastern border of the CAR.
--------------------
AU envoy meets Cote d'Ivoire election officials amid stalled process (Xinhua)

ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire - The special representative of the African Union (AU) in Cote
d'lvoire, Ambroise Nyomsaba, met with President of the Independent Electoral
Commission (CEI) Youssouf Bakayoko here on Thursday to discuss the stalled election
process.
The presidential elections, which were postponed to late April and early May, are likely
to be put off again as time is running out amid continued disputes over the vote list and
disarmament.

After the meeting at the CEI headquarters, Nyomsaba said the AU was very much
interested in the election process in the West African country.

"The CEI president explained to me the work that is going on and I encouraged him to
carry on with the same zeal," he told media.

"It is important to have regular consultations among the actors in this process," said the
AU emissary, who has visited CEI twice in the past month.

The people of Cote d'Ivoire and the international community are waiting for the
holding of the elections, which have been postponed several times since 2005 and
expected to end the country's crisis following an attempted coup in September 2002.
------------------
Lawyers vs. Pirates (Foreign Policy)

Somali pirates have not exactly had a banner month. Last week, 11 pirates charged with
firing on two U.S. Navy warships were hauled into a U.S. federal court in Norfolk,
Virginia, where they could be sentenced to life imprisonment. Other Navies have also
captured their share of buccaneers, including the French, who nabbed six, and the
Spanish, who took another eight. Dozens of ships from various countries are currently
patrolling the Gulf of Aden and parts of the Indian Ocean, looking to round up
marauders.

Unfortunately though, better (albeit still very imperfect) enforcement is leading to its
own headaches. Yes, it looks great for the United States and other countries to be
tossing more and more pirates into the brig. But the problem of what to do when the
pirates land there is turning every pirate-hunter into a scholar of international law, and
may make all the heightened security look a bit useless.

At least in theory, there should be no legal ambiguity about putting pirates behind bars.
Pirates, after all, have been regarded from time immemorial by the Law of Nations (jus
gentium) as enemies of the entire human race, subject to the universal jurisdiction of
any state that could get its hands on them. That spirit was codified in the U.N.
Convention on the Law of the Sea, which has been ratified by 160 countries (albeit not
by the United States).

And the U.N. Security Council has worked to shore up the international legal
framework even further. Two years ago, a resolution authorized states cooperating with
Somalia's largely moribund Transitional Federal Government to "enter the territorial
waters of Somalia for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea,
in a manner consistent with such action permitted on the high seas with respect to
piracy."

But the devil is in the details. Many countries either lack the right legal code to dub
piracy a criminal offense or the procedural provisions to do so. Even in countries with
the right laws are on the books, conducting successful prosecutions can be extremely
difficult. There are few lawyers skilled in the minutiae of piracy law, gathering evidence
at sea is logistically very hard, and transporting witnesses from the Gulf of Aden is no
small task. The United States is about to learn this lesson now with the trial of
Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the sole survivor of the four-man pirate gang who
attacked the MV Maersk Alabama in April 2009 and held Captain Richard Phillips
hostage for nearly four days. In fact, to avoid a complicated trial, prosecutors may allow
him plead guilty to a lesser offense.

Up until now, Kenya and the Seychelles have taken the majority of the caught pirates,
thanks to memoranda of understanding they signed with the anti-piracy fleet. But over
the last year, they have simply reached their limit. Their judicial systems are
overburdened as it is. It's not just a matter of funding, although that has been one hold
up: The two countries simply don't have enough local prosecutors and defense counsels
capable of handling these complicated cases. And in the case of Kenya, the country's
own restive ethnic Somali and Muslim populations were growing antagonized by a
seemingly endless parade of Muslim Somali prisoners captured by Western warships.

All the legal hoopla meant that very few pirates actually made it to court. According to
one U.S. tally, some 706 individual pirates were encountered by naval vessels of the ad
hoc counter-piracy coalition between August 2008 and December 2009. Eleven of these
were killed resisting arrest and another 269 turned over for prosecution. Just 46 have
been convicted so far and 23 acquitted. All together, that means that nearly 60 percent
of the pirates encountered were simply released.

This week, the U.N. Security Council stepped in once again, unanimously adopting a
Russian-sponsored resolution on the matter. The resolution requires the secretary-
general to report back with options for prosecuting and imprisoning pirates, including
the creation of special international piracy courts. If countries can't or won't try the
pirates, then darn it, the U.N. will.

The United Nations proposal is well-meant, but it may never come to fruition -- or if it
does, it may be too late for the current crop of pirate-hunters to take advantage. The
secretary-general's recommendations are still three months away and their
implementation is still further in the horizon. And if past internationalized criminal
proceedings are any indication, the courts will take several years to actually set up --
and that's assuming that the political will and money can be found to do so. (The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, for example, cost $376
million just for 2008 and 2009.)

Meanwhile, despite all the international community's efforts, the pirates are still plying
their trade. Just last week, they pulled one of their most daring heists to date, sailing
some 1,200 nautical miles from the Somali coast -- right past the naval task forces led by
the United States, the European Union, and NATO, as well as the independently
commanded Chinese, Russian, and Indian flotillas -- to seize three Thai fishing boats
along with their 77 crew members. In terms of distance offshore and sheer number of
hostages taken, the raid broke all previous records.

For the buccaneers, the equation still works out in their favor: exceptionally high
rewards -- in January, a Greek-flagged tanker, the MV Maran Centaurus, was ransomed
for a record $7 million -- traded for an extremely low probability of ever being
prosecuted, much less convicted and sentenced. No wonder the pirates just keep on
coming.
--------------------
Somali militants increasing use of child soldiers (Associated Press)

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Sharif says he was 10 when his religious teacher led his class
into a poor neighborhood of Somalia's capital to pray for a sick relative. Suddenly
Islamist fighters jumped from the shadows and ordered the children onto buses, the
beginning of a terrifying two years as a child soldier.

The class was taken to a training base in the south of the anarchic country, Sharif says,
where Somali and foreign instructors showed them how to use weapons and set
ambushes. The boy says before battle he was sometimes given drugs that made him feel
like he could "pick up a tank and throw it aside like a telephone."

The recruitment of child fighters in Somalia is on the rise, both by the government and
particularly by the country's most powerful Islamist militia, al-Shabab, whose name
means "the youth." Al-Shabab's recruitment of children may partly stem from a lack of
willing adults, who have been alienated by Islamist attacks on traditional Sufi saints
and bans on everything from chewing qat, a mildly narcotic leaf, to school bells and
music.

"Better informed, smarter, older people are saying they don't want to join" al-Shabab,
said E.J. Hogendoorn, a Nairobi-based analyst at the International Crisis Group. "The
sad reality with modern infantry weapons is that all you really need is a kid to operate
them."

UNICEF, the section of the U.N. dealing with children's rights, said children as young
as 9 are being targeted and often taken through force or deception, said Denise
Shepherd-Johnson, a Nairobi-based spokeswoman, citing information received from
monitors in Somalia.

"Children are being systematically recruited and used in ever larger numbers for
military and related purposes by all of the major combatant groups," she said. "The
number of bases and camps used to train these children is commensurately widespread
and appears to be growing."

An aid worker in Kenya tracking child recruitment says cases verified by their partner
organizations in Somalia have risen from five in September to a high of 26 in January,
when Somalia was awash with rumors of an imminent government offensive. Since the
government toned down its rhetoric, the numbers have fallen slightly to 20 children
recruited in February and 18 in March.

The figures represent a small fraction of child fighters, the aid worker said, because they
only record new recruits and many cases could not be fully documented due to
insecurity. Staff often reported seeing scores of children in camps but were only able to
verify the details of one or two, she said. She asked for her name and her organization's
name to be withheld to protect staff from retribution.

Human Rights Watch documented several cases of children fighting in militias in a

report released last week. A mother said her 14- and 12-year-old sons had been seized
by militants from an Islamic school. Her uncle was killed for trying to find them and
she stopped trying after receiving death threats, the report said.

Sharif escaped last month, waiting until nightfall and then sneaking past the guards
with six friends. Now the slender, dark-eyed boy is too afraid to go home. If he does, his
family could be killed by the insurgents who control their neighborhood.

As he talks about his fears, his quick smile disappears and his eyes drop to the floor.
His voice slows to a mumble. There are many things he doesn't want to talk about: the
weapons training; the battles he says he was in; what happened to his classmates.

"I don't know," he says at first when asked what happened to the children taken along
with him. Then later, so quietly the translator asks him to repeat himself, "I think they
are dead."

Sharif's parents, whom he hasn't seen for two years, don't know their son is being cared
for by African Union peacekeepers, who allowed The Associated Press to talk with
Sharif on the condition his last name wasn't used in order to protect him and his family.

Children have been used by militants across Africa because they are easier to
indoctrinate than adults and easier to care for. They also make up the bulk of the Somali
population — more than half the country's estimated 7.5 million residents are under 18.

One al-Shabab fighter, Abuhamza Abul-kadir, admitted the movement used child
fighters but said they were volunteers.

"We have many young fighters, I do not want to say a figure," Abul-kadir said. "Some of
them are as young as 13 but we never force them to join us, they are driven by their
own will for the ongoing jihad."

The Islamists are not the only group with child fighters. Col. Ahmed Aden Dhayow
says the government also has under-18s among its ranks.

"I have seen number of child soldiers recruited by the government but all of them chose
the profession to shift for their lives and as survival," Dhayow said. "We never
intentionally recruit children."

Government-allied militia Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama and government forces also use child
fighters.

Mohamed Ahmed Ali, a 14-year-old recruit from the government-allied militia, said he
chose to join after his religious teacher urged him. He said a couple of hundred children
fought in the militia. At 14, he and some of his clan consider that he is already an adult.
Some fighters with the militia were as young as 10, he said.
--------------------
UN reports massacre of 100 villagers in Congo (Associated Press)

NIANGARA, Congo — The young woman with the hacked-off lips and stitches where
one ear used to be shakes her head when asked why rebels did this to her, then
whispers that the attackers who came from across the river were angry because she kept
crying for mercy and calling on God for help.

Cornelia Yekpalile, a 23-year-old mother of four children, was mutilated 18 days ago
when she went to the fields near her village of Kpizimbi, set in dense forest in northeast
Congo, to collect spinach-like pondu leaves to cook for lunch.

It's an area so difficult to reach that U.N. officials on Saturday announced a previously
unreported massacre that occurred two months ago: up to 100 people were killed when
the rebel Lord's Resistance Army attacked a village.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said he learned of the killings on Saturday when
he visited Niangara, the nearest town which he reached by helicopter, and met with
local officials and victims who escaped. U.N. investigators said they have spoken with
witnesses but so far have been unable to reach the remote scene in the Haut-Uele
district of Congo's Oriental province.

It comes two months after one of the worst massacres recently committed by the LRA,
the killings of more than 300 civilians in the area in the second week of December.
Rebels also kidnapped more than 250 people including 80 children, according to the
U.N.

"In this district, the Lord's Resistance Army has continued to commit horrific atrocities
against civilians, who are now displaced with no prospect of going back home any time
soon", Holmes said Saturday, on the third day of a four-day tour from his New York
headquarters.

The latest attacks highlight the need for the continued presence in Congo of the U.N.
military mission, Holmes said. Congo's government wants MONUC — the largest U.N.
peacekeeping mission with some 20,000 troops — to leave before September 2011.

"We are worried by the prospect of a premature withdrawal because MONUC is very
important to our humanitarian activities," Holmes said in an interview with The
Associated Press on Saturday. "If you withdraw that element of stability that is
MONUC then other conflicts contained by the presence of MONUC may get out of
control and you could find yourself in a much more dangerous situation."

Earlier, Holmes visited eastern Congo, where Rwandan rebels who helped perpetrate
their countries 1994 genocide and fled across the border continue to attack civilians,
killing, burning homes and driving some 1.4 million from their homes.

Villages in eastern Congo are routinely looted and burned by the Rwandan rebels and a
host of tribal militiamen as well as ordinary armed criminals.

Sexual violence has become a weapon of war and the U.N. reports at least 8,300 rapes
were committed against women in eastern Congo last year, averaging 160 rapes a week.

When Holmes visited the village of Mwenga on Friday, he was met by women singing a
poignant song. "We are the living dead. They rape us! There's no life without women.
There can be no Congo without women," they sang. Tears ran down the faces of some of
the chanting women.

On Sunday, Holmes visits Mbandaka in northwest Congo, where a new rebellion has
erupted. Enyele militiamen this month attacked U.N. peacekeepers guarding the
airport, killing a Ghanaian peacekeeper and a South African pilot along with some 20
civilians.
That rebellion, in Equateur province, began between tribesmen fighting over farming
and fishing rights. But the Enyele militiamen, in an Easter Sunday attack, targeted
strategic and government locations. It took Congolese troops and U.N. peacekeepers
two days' fighting to retake the airport.

The U.N. peacekeepers "provide stability, they provide security for humanitarians
(workers) they provide protection for civilians," Holmes said.

But the U.N. forces are stretched thinly across this vast Central African nation the size
of Western Europe and challenged logistically in a country that has few paved roads
and is covered by near-impenetrable forest where fighters take refuge.

At Niangara Hospital, where she is being cared for by Doctors Without Borders from
Belgium, Yekpalile said she would not be going home when her wounds mend.

"There's no security in the villages," she said. "Here there are soldiers."

She said she had no idea why the rebels hacked off her lips and her right ear. "I was
crying for mercy and crying 'Oh my God, oh my God, help me.' They said they would
kill me if I carried on making a noise and then they did this," she said, pressing a
bandage to a mouth covered in plaster.

Mattia Novella, field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said they see few
wounded patients. "As I understand it, they do not wound, they kill, that's why we
don't received many injured people."

The LRA launched its attacks in northern Uganda more than 20 years ago, saying its
aim was to uphold the 10 commandments. Uganda's army drove out but did not defeat
the rebels, who crossed the border and also have attacked villagers in neighboring
Sudan and Central African Republic.

The Ugandan rebels have no known agenda except killing and kidnapping mainly
children to swell their ranks. Leader Joseph Kony has several times agreed to surrender
and then reneged, apparently fearing trial at the International Court in The Hague,
where he is wanted for crimes against humanity.
--------------------
Rwanda Pursues Dissenters and the Homeless (New York Times)

IWAWA ISLAND, Rwanda — A few months ago, Gasigwa Gakunzi was hanging
around a ramshackle house where poor children pay to watch television when the
Rwandan police arrested him for loitering. The next thing he knew, he said, he was
taken away from his family and carted off to this remote island in the middle of Lake
Kivu.

Gasigwa, 14, now spends his days learning patriotic songs and how to march like a
soldier. At night, he sleeps in a huge sheet-metal shed with hundreds of men and boys
packed mattress to mattress.

―Please call my father,‖ he whispered. ―He has no idea where I am.‖

Nearly 900 beggars, homeless people and suspected petty thieves, including dozens of
children, have recently been rounded up from the nation‘s neatly swept streets and sent
— without trial or a court appearance — to this little-known outpost. They will spend
up to three years here being ―rehabilitated,‖ learning skills like bricklaying,
hairdressing and motorcycle maintenance.

It is one of the country‘s newest self-improvement projects, and it seems a fitting

symbol for what many political analysts and human rights groups say Rwanda has
become: orderly but repressive.

Under President Paul Kagame, this country, which exploded in ethnic bloodshed 16
years ago, is now one of the safest, cleanest and least corrupt nations on the continent.
The capital, Kigali, is not ringed by sprawling slums, and carjackings — a deadly
problem in many African cities — are virtually unheard of here. The roads are smoothly
paved; there is national health insurance; neighborhoods hold monthly cleanups; the
computer network is among the best in the region; and the public fountains are full of
water, not weeds. All of this has been accomplished in one of the world‘s poorest
countries.

But while the nation continues to be praised as a darling of the foreign aid world and
something of a central African utopia, it is increasingly intolerant of political dissent, or
sometimes even dialogue, and bubbling with bottled-up tensions. Recent grenade
attacks in Kigali and a shake-up in the army showed that even one of the cornerstones
of the new Rwandan state — personal security — might be in danger.

―Kagame‘s strategy for stability is a dangerous, long-term gamble,‖ said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch. ―By stymieing a political opposition, an
independent press or a critical civil society — in short, by not allowing democratic
institutions to form — Kagame is leaving people little to identify with but their ethnic
group.‖

With less than four months to go before national elections, few of the major opposition
parties have been allowed to register. Some opposition supporters have been attacked
inside government offices; others have been jailed. Several prominent government
officials who recently broke ranks with Mr. Kagame defected to other African nations,
saying they feared for their lives. The BBC local-language radio service was shut down
for a time because the Rwandan government did not like the way it was talking about
the genocide of 1994.

That dark period, when death squads from the Hutu majority massacred hundreds of
thousands of minority Tutsis, as well as moderate Hutus, remains the touchiest subject
of all. In the past three years, Rwandan officials have prosecuted more than 2,000
people, including political rivals, teachers and students, for espousing ―genocide
ideology‖ or ―divisionism.‖

Mr. Kagame and his disciplined military quickly restored order after the genocide, and
this stability has been the foundation for Rwanda‘s remarkable comeback. The foreign
minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, says that after all Rwanda has been through, the
government has to remain vigilant about ethnic divisions.

―Rwanda will not allow any politician, political party, any individual, to tamper with
the reconciliation and unity in Rwanda,‖ she said in an interview.

Instigators of violence have been prosecuted for divisionism, but so have people trying
to discuss the country‘s past or its current direction. Critics contend that the
government wields Orwellian-sounding laws that are intentionally vague to stifle any
inkling of opposition.

Even programs like the one on Iwawa Island, which the government says will give
street people a second chance, are not exactly what they seem.

As a boatload of officials recently glided onto shore, one police commissioner gestured
to the birds, the trees and the young men with uniformly shaved heads fetching water
and said, ―Welcome to our Hawaii.‖

But on the mainland, people describe it as an Alcatraz.

―We call it the island of no return,‖ said Esperance Uwizeyimana, a homeless mother of
four.

None of the vocational training programs had started by mid-March. Protais Mitali, the
youth minister, insisted there were no street children here, just adults. Yet squeezed in
with the men were many adolescents like Gasigwa, and employees confided that
several dozen boys were incarcerated here.

―This isn‘t a good place for children,‖ one employee said in hushed tones because the
minister was nearby. ―They could get abused.‖
Rwandan officials are prickly about complaints. President Kagame lashed out at foreign
critics this month, saying, ―Who should be giving lessons to Rwanda‘s 11 million people
about what is good for them?‖

He called opposition leaders ―hooligans‖ and said Rwandans were ―as free, as happy,
as proud of themselves, as they have never been in their lives.‖

Several leading opposition figures, like Victoire Ingabire, say it is impossible to

challenge the government, arguing that it is controlled by a cabal of Tutsis who were
refugees in Uganda before the genocide and now unfairly dominate the economy.

Mrs. Ingabire, a Hutu, was an accountant living in the Netherlands until she returned in
January to run for president. Today, she lives in a new housing development called
Vision 2020 Estate; her sturdy, two-story brick town house is indistinguishable from
dozens of others, except for the guards out front.

―There‘s no space to talk about what happened in our country,‖ said Mrs. Ingabire, who
has been charged with genocide ideology, being a ―divisionist‖ and collaborating with
rebels. It is not just Hutu politicians who feel persecuted. Charles Kabanda used to be a
leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi-dominated ruling party, but split with
it in the late 1990s, he said, because ―they were ruthless.‖

He recently worked with the Green Party, but said it had been repeatedly blocked from
competing in the elections. Government officials said the Green Party failed to meet
requirements like getting 200 valid signatures from all over Rwanda. Mr. Kabanda
simply shook his head.

― ‗Enemy, enemy, enemy‘ — that‘s what they call anyone who thinks differently,‖ he
said. ―This government‘s record is dreadful. It‘s only you, the international community,
who is showering them with flowering praise.‖
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN envoy speaks out against deadly attack on Somali mosque

2 May – The top United Nations envoy to Somalia today strongly condemned
yesterday's deadly attack on a mosque in the troubled country's capital, Mogadishu,
calling for an end to indiscriminate killings.

UN relief chief speaks out against Ugandan rebel violence in DR Congo

1 May – The top United Nations humanitarian official today condemned the ―horrific‖
atrocities committed by a notorious Uganda rebel group in the volatile northeast of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

UNDP chief embarks on African tour to promote development goals

1 May – The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) begins a
four-country visit to Africa today to accelerate progress towards the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), the eight anti-poverty targets agreed upon by world
leaders with a 2015 deadline.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mahmoud Kabil backs African anti-polio efforts

30 April – The Egyptian actor and United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF) Regional
Goodwill Ambassador Mahmoud Kabil has helped launch an anti-polio campaign in
Western and Central Africa where UNICEF and the UN World Health Organization
(WHO) are working with governments and partners to eradicate the virus.

UN aid chief urges DR Congo authorities to enhance protection of civilians

30 April – The top United Nations humanitarian official today visited the province of
South Kivu in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and
stressed that protecting civilians and ensuring they have access to aid remains
ultimately the responsibility of the national authorities.