United States Africa Command

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26 May 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

NGOs Call on Obama to Move Swiftly Against LRA (IPS)

(Central Africa) A coalition of nearly 50 Western and African human rights and
humanitarian groups is calling on President Barack Obama to "move swiftly" in
implementing a law he signed Monday committing Washington to step up U.S. and
regional efforts to defeat Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Obama Ignores Sudan's Genocide (Wall Street Journal)

(Sudan) The American people should urge Mr. Gration and the Obama administration
to lead a diplomatic offensive to convince the world to isolate Mr. Bashir as a fugitive
from justice, and to wholeheartedly support the only body offering Darfur's people a
measure of authentic justice: the International Criminal Court.

New AGOA: Merely Recycling Old Ideas? (This Day)

(Pan Africa) The AGOA Action Committee - a group consisting primarily of U.S.
companies, U.S. academics, and Washington-based NGOs - recently released its six-
pronged policy proposal that allegedly signifies a new U.S. policy approach toward
Africa.

U.S. says Ethiopa vote not up to international standards (Reuters)

(Ethiopia) The United States said on Tuesday Ethiopia's election failed to meet
international standards and called for stronger democratic institutions in the country, a
key U.S. ally in Africa.

UN agrees to pull UN peacekeeping force from Chad (Associated Press)

(Chad) Chad's government succeeded Tuesday in forcing a 3,300-strong U.N.
peacekeeping force operating in Chad and the Central African Republic to pull out by
the end of this year.

Delta to add service to Liberia (Associated Press)

(Liberia) Delta Air Lines Inc. said Tuesday it will begin once-a-week service between
Atlanta and Monrovia, Liberia, in September.
German ex-soldiers to work in Somalia (Associated Press)
(Somalia) A private security firm's plan to deploy more than 100 German ex-soldiers to
Somalia to work for a warlord has triggered intense media coverage and was harshly
criticized by lawmakers on Tuesday, some of them calling it a possible violation of U.N.
sanctions against the war-ridden East African country.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
Security Council votes to end UN mission in Chad and Central African Republic
Zimbabwe launches UN-backed drive to immunize children against measles
Lack of funding threatens relief efforts in Chad, warns UN agency
Ban urges stronger efforts to help Africa consolidate peace and development
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Thurday, May 27, 9:00 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Brookings Institution: Ending Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS Pandemic
WHO: Ernest Aryeetey, Senior Fellow and Director, Africa Growth Initiative; Layi Erinosho,
President, African Sociological Association; Uche Isiugo-Abanihe, Professor of Demography
and REACH Chair, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Gbenga Sunmola, Principal Researcher,
REACH, Research Coordinator, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Nigeria; Oka Obono,
Principal Researcher, REACH, University of Ibadan; Jacques van der Gaag, Senior Fellow and
Co-Director, Center for Universal Education; Phillip Nieburg, Public Health Epidemiologist,
REACH, Senior Associate, Center for Strategic & International Studies; Nkem Dike, Associate
Project Director, REACH, Northwestern University; Gbenga Sunmola, Principal Researcher,
REACH, Research Coordinator, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Nigeria; Richard
Joseph, Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, Principal Investigator, REACH;
John Evans Professor, Northwestern University
Info: http://www.brookings.edu/events/2010/0527_nigeria_aids.aspx

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, June 2, 9:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: Threats to Maritime Security
WHO: Donna Hopkins, Director, Office of Plans, Policy and Analysis, Bureau of Political
Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Bruce A. Averill, Ph.D., Founder and Senior Partner,
Strategic Energy Security Solutions; Michael Berkow, President, Altegrity Security Consulting;
Robert M. Perito, Moderator, Director, Initiative on Security Sector Governance, U.S. Institute
of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/threats-maritime-security

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, June 11, noon; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Cato Institute: Sudan After the Elections: Implications for the Future and American
Policy Options
WHO: Sean Brooks, Save Darfur Coalition; Marc Gustafson, Marshall Scholar, Oxford
University; Jon Temin, U.S. Institute for Peace; moderated by Justin Logan, Associate Director
of Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute
Info: http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=7192
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

NGOs Call on Obama to Move Swiftly Against LRA (IPS)

WASHINGTON - A coalition of nearly 50 Western and African human rights and

humanitarian groups is calling on President Barack Obama to "move swiftly" in
implementing a law he signed Monday committing Washington to step up U.S. and
regional efforts to defeat Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

"For years civilians in central Africa have suffered immensely from LRA violence," said
Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"This legislation gives President Obama a clear mandate to work with international and
national partners to apprehend indicted LRA commanders as part of a comprehensive
strategy to permanently stop LRA atrocities," she added.

The new law, the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda
Recovery Act of 2009, passed with overwhelming support from both Republican and
Democratic lawmakers in Congress earlier this month, just one year after it was first
introduced.

In an unusually lengthy statement issued by the White House, Obama himself praised
the many NGOs and activists - many of them students - who mobilised in response to
what he called "this unique crisis of conscience".

"This legislation crystallises the commitment of the United States to help bring an end to
the brutality and destruction that have been a hallmark of the LRA across several
countries for two decades, and to pursue a future of greater security and hope for the
people of Central Africa," he said, citing the 2005 indictment by the International
Criminal Court of LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his lieutenants, for crimes
against humanity.

"I signed this bill today recognising that we must all renew our commitments and
strengthen our capabilities to protect and assist civilians caught in the LRA's wake, to
receive those that surrender, and to support efforts to bring the LRA leadership to
justice," Obama said.
In recent years, the group has operated primarily in northeastern Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR), as well as
northern Uganda, from whence it first arose primarily among members of the Acholi
ethnic group in the late 1980s.

Just last week, HRW investigators reported that the LRA killed nearly 100 civilians and
abducted dozens more between January and early April this year in the Manziga region
of the DRC. U.N. peacekeeping forces (MONUC) in the nearby town of Niangara were
unable to stop the mayhem because they were too few in number and poor roads in the
area, according to HRW.

HRW and other NGOS have called for MONUC to substantially increase its presence in
the region.

The three-month campaign followed a deadly LRA rampage in December in which

more than 300 civilians were killed and 250 others - mostly women and children -
abducted in the DRC's Makombo region, also in the northeast. The group has gained
particular notoriety for forcing abducted children to bear arms and abducted girls and
women to become sexual slaves.

In an appeal addressed to Obama published last week, human rights defenders in

Niangara complained that "our suffering seems to bring little attention from the
international community or our own government. We live each day with the fear of
more LRA attacks. What chance do we have if no one hears our cries and if no one
comes to our aid?"

Under both Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, Washington has provided
"non-lethal" and logistical support to the Ugandan army in its efforts to subdue the LRA
and its leadership, particularly after Kony failed twice to sign a peace accord in 2008.
The U.S. subsequently listed the LRA as a terrorist group.

In December 2008, the Ugandan, DRC, and south Sudanese armies launched "Operation
Lightning Thunder", a joint effort backed by U.S. intelligence and logistical support via
Washington's newly created Africa Command (AfriCom), to track down Kony and his
armed followers.

Kony and much of his army escaped, however, and responded later that month by
carrying out their own attacks against defenceless villages and civilians, in the DRC and
southern Sudan, killing more than 850 civilians and forcing as many as 1.8 million
people in the region to flee their homes, according to human rights monitors.

The new law authorises U.S. efforts "to protect civilians from the (LRA), to apprehend
or remove Joseph Kony and his top commanders from the battlefield in the continued
absence of a negotiated solution, and to disarm and demobilize the remaining LRA
fighters".

It also requires Obama to develop a comprehensive, multilateral strategy to protect

civilians in central Africa from LRA attacks and to increase humanitarian aid to
countries currently affected by the group's violence, as well as to support economic
recovery and transitional justice initiatives in northern Uganda.

In an analysis published this week in worldpoliticsreview.com, Ledio Cakaj, a Uganda-

based consultant with the Washington-based Enough Project, warned that any new U.S.
strategy should "avoid the twin pitfalls of underestimating the LRA and overestimating
the Ugandan Army (UPDF)".

While the LRA's lines of communication were disrupted and its main contingents
forced to disperse into neighbouring countries as a result of the 2008 operation, it
"remains a potent adversary", he wrote, noting that that its troops were well trained in
tactics and significantly more mobile than the UPDF.

Although the U.S. has provided training - notably for UPDF units who have been
deployed to Somalia and subsequently returned home - as well as logistical and
intelligence support (in the form of sporadic satellite images of LRA encampments),
"(h)elicopters and fuel needed to cover the vast areas where LRA rebels operate are
lacking".

"While policymakers should be encouraged by the progress achieved so far with

nominal U.S. help, decisive U.S. involvement will significantly improve outcomes,"
according to Cakaj, who stressed that Washington's diplomatic clout was also needed to
persuade regional governments and the U.N. missions in the area to "do their share in
protecting civilians and fighting the LRA".

The geographical spread of the LRA's area of operation should also be a growing
concern to the U.S. and its allies, according to the NGOs.

"If left unchecked, the LRA leadership will continue to kill and abduct throughout
Central Africa, threatening stability in four countries and potentially undermining next
year's scheduled referendum in southern Sudan," said John Prendergast, co-founder of
Enough.

"The LRA is a clear threat to international peace and security, and the U.S. is now
tasked with leading a global effort to end this threat once and for all," he said.
In addition to HRW and Enough, U.S.-based NGOs that joined the appeal to Obama
included Refugees International, the Genocide Intervention Network, and Citizens for
Global Solutions.

African groups included the Uganda-based Foundation for Human Rights Initiative
and Grassroots Reconciliation Group; DRC-based Commission Paroissiale Justice et
Paix, Centre de Recherche sur L'Environnement, la Democraties et les Droits de
L'Homme, Fondation Mere et Enfant, Action Sociale Pour la Paix et le Developpement,
Collectif des Organisations des Jeunes Solidaires du Congo; and Episcopal and Catholic
dioceses and the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), among a dozen
groups based in South Sudan.
--------------------
Obama Ignores Sudan's Genocide (Wall Street Journal)

Last week U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that although he remains supportive of "international efforts" to bring
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to justice, the Obama administration is also
pursuing "locally owned accountability and reconciliation mechanisms in light of the
recommendations made by the African Union's high-level panel on Darfur."

Mr. Bashir is indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and
crimes against humanity, but the African Union Panel on Darfur has clearly aligned
itself with Khartoum. One panel member, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Al
Sayed, said in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper, "The prosecution of an
African head of state before an international tribunal is totally unacceptable. Our goal
was to find a way out."

The African Union panel is led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who in
2008 dismissed the ICC indictment, saying that it is "the responsibility of the Sudanese
state to act on those matters." Then, late last year his panel proposed a counter initiative
to the ICC in the form of a hybrid, Sudan-based court with both Arab and African
judges to be selected by the African Union.

But all this is moot since Mr. Bashir swiftly rejected Mr. Mbeki's proposal. Perversely,
Mr. Gration has now thrown U.S. government support to a tribunal that does not and
probably will never exist. Even if it did, the "locally owned accountability" he refers to is
not feasible under prevailing political conditions, as any Sudan-based court will be
controlled by the perpetrators themselves.

For seven years, the people of Darfur have been pleading for protection and for justice.
They do not believe either peace or justice can come while Mr. Bashir—orchestrator of
their suffering—remains president of Sudan. Nor do they believe "locally owned
accountability" is remotely possible under the current regime.
When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, hope abounded, even
in Darfur's bleak refugee camps. Darfuris believed this son of Africa could understand
their suffering, end the violence that has taken so much from them, and bring Mr.
Bashir to justice. The refugees hoped that "Yes we can" was meant for them too. They
believed President Obama would bring peace and protection to Darfur and would settle
for nothing less than true justice.

I have held new babies named Obama and watched as Darfuris began to dream again.
Fatima Haroun, a 24-year-old widow and mother, told me the day was surely near
when the refugees could leave the filth and hunger of the camps and safely return to the
ashes of their villages. First, she said, they would honor their lost loved ones; they
would search the ashes for bones, wrap them in best cloths, and bury them with respect.
They would gather wood and tall grasses to rebuild their homes, they would sing new
songs and prepare their fields for planting. Hunger and terror would go away. Omar al-
Bashir would rot in jail.

Such hopes did not last long.

Nearly three million souls are still waiting in wretched camps across Darfur and eastern
Chad. Sudanese government bombs are still falling, murderers and rapists still roam
free, and the refugees have not felt safe for a very long time. United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed concern over increasing levels of violence in
Darfur.

In their darkest hours and through losses too grievous to fathom, the world has
repeatedly abandoned the people of Darfur. Over more than seven years, two American
presidents have used the word "genocide" to describe what has unfolded there, but they
have done little to end it.

It is past time for us to step up and accept our moral obligation to protect a defenseless
people. The American people should urge Mr. Gration and the Obama administration
to lead a diplomatic offensive to convince the world to isolate Mr. Bashir as a fugitive
from justice, and to wholeheartedly support the only body offering Darfur's people a
measure of authentic justice: the International Criminal Court.
--------------------
New AGOA: Merely Recycling Old Ideas? (This Day)

A few weeks ago, the AGOA Action Committee - a group consisting primarily of U.S.
companies, U.S. academics, and Washington-based NGOs - recently released its six-
pronged policy proposal that allegedly signifies a new U.S. policy approach toward
Africa. This comes at the time of the 10th anniversary of the passage of AGOA and
when a general stock-taking is underway in Washington. However, many of the policy
proposals put forth are merely the repackaged ideas of old and, more importantly,
reflect a failure to understand how both U.S. and African stakeholders need to and have
changed in this post-recession new world order.

The six proposed prongs are to (1) protect, extend, and expand AGOA, (2) revitalise
Africa’s agricultural sector, (3) make U.S. aid smart and effective, (4) expand and reform
the Millennium Challenge Corporation, (5) increase financing for U.S. exports to Africa
through the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and (6) increase support to the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation. However, these proposals are troubling for many reasons.
First, none of these ideas are new. All six proposals have been pitched to past U.S.
administrations and Congresses and the political will has been lacking to carry them
through. Where are the new, dynamic ideas that the Obama Administration is hungry
and asking for? This is supposed to be the era of change, yet we continue to be
presented with 20th century ideas in a 21st century world.
Second, throughout the proposal, one reads language about the enactment of tax
credits, loans to African businesses, increased funding for U.S. aid and development
programs, and increased financing and assistance to African stakeholders as possible
ways to carry out the proposal. All of these ideas require government funding, yet
there is little mention of where the money will come from. The United States is coming
off its worst economic period in decades. To stave off further financial difficulties and a
deepening and longer term recession, the Obama Administration had to inject several
trillion dollars into various sectors. In addition, the U.S. Congress recently enacted a
revised health care initiative in the United states that will require prolonged additional
funding prior to and during the implementation period.

Finally, the same U.S. Congress is currently contemplating additional financial

regulation to stave off a repeat of the activity that led to the financial crisis and is
entertaining the possibility of U.S. immigration reform – all of which, if enacted, will
require even more funding. Not to mention the fiscal obligations embedded in ongoing
U.S. activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It will take U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. Government, through different fiscal initiatives,
several years before any of this money is recovered and the United States returns to the
days of Clinton-era surpluses. The reality is that the United States has prioritised
getting its own house in order after years of neglect and it is not in a position to take on
any additional obligations at this time.
Third, while the idea of protecting, extending, and expanding AGOA is noble in intent,
it does not reflect the current political reality in Washington and economic reality in the
marketplace. As has been stated in prior Trade Hound missives, there is a strong and
determined legislative effort to simplify U.S. trade preference programs and extend
duty-free, quota-free access to all lesser developed countries, not just those in Africa.
The objection coming from U.S-based African policy proponents is that any past gains
made by African manufacturers, particularly those in textiles, will be eroded if opened
up to free and fair competition. Unfortunately, the economic reality that these policy
proponents are faced with is that this is the nature of competition in the free market
system. U.S. – as well as worldwide - consumers (whether individuals, distributors, or
downstream manufacturers) are generally unconcerned about their sources of supply,
as long as the supply is consistent, to specification, safe, on time, and within budget.
World suppliers like China, Japan, the EU, India, Brazil, Russia, Cambodia, Bangladesh,
South Africa, and Ghana all know this. African policy proponents should adjust to this
reality and make proper proposals with this in mind.

Fourth, the desire of certain U.S. Congressmen to reform the trade preference programs
has been around and known for years. However, the response over the years from
African (both businesses and governments) and U.S. stakeholders has been tepid at
best. The facts demonstrate that there has been limited utilisation of AGOA over the
past 10 years and a failure to take advantage of the existing capacity building and
financial opportunities being offered. Yet African policy proponents plead for
additional time. This is the same plea made when AGOA was first extended in 2004. It
begs the question that if, after 10 years of special and near exclusive U.S. market access,
one fails to sufficiently utilise what decision-makers have been told is a necessary
benefit, then why should those extending the benefit not consider extending it to
others? Rather than let the watering hole suffer from neglect, it may be better to open it
up to those that want to drink from it.
All of this culminates in one final point. The last 10 years of AGOA have demonstrated
an important lesson: as much as African policy proponents have and are failing to
come up with any new and dynamic proposals, African stakeholders still have no one
to blame but themselves. The same problems that plagued them prior to AGOA are the
same problems that plague them today – high input costs, poor infrastructure, lack of
access to financing, and failure to meet international quality standards. Rather than
object to the near-certain changes coming, it may be more beneficial in both the short
and long term to embrace them and use them as a mechanism to compel needed
improvements to be a more competitive participant in the world market.

After 10 years of limited success under AGOA, there is no question that a new policy
approach with and from Africa is in order. However, having policy proponents request
post-recession funding and recycling old ideas, coupled with African stakeholders
failing to take responsibility for their own fate, is not the way forward.
The post-recession new world order has presented a new and enticing opportunity for
all those involved, but it remains to be seen whether and how this opportunity will be
seized. For now, the band plays on . . .
--------------------
U.S. says Ethiopa vote not up to international standards (Reuters)

WASHINGTON - The United States said on Tuesday Ethiopia's election failed to meet
international standards and called for stronger democratic institutions in the country, a
key U.S. ally in Africa.
"While the elections were calm and peaceful and largely without any kind of violence,
we note with some degree of remorse that the elections there were not up to
international standards," Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told a House of
Representatives panel.

Carson, the Obama administration's top diplomat for Africa, said Ethiopian Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi's government had taken "clear and decisive" steps to ensure it
won a landslide victory in Sunday's vote. The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front and allied parties won nearly every seat in the country's 547-member
parliament.

A European Union observer mission said on Tuesday the polls had been marred by
reports of violence and intimidation, as well as the ruling party's use of state resources
for campaigning, but that this did not invalidate the results.

"It is important that Ethiopia move forward in strengthening its democratic institutions
and when elections are held that it level the playing field to give everyone a free
opportunity to participate without fear or favor," Carson said.

The United States regards Ethiopia as a crucial ally in the fight against hardline
Islamism in the Horn of Africa, and has provided some $4.7 billion in aid to the country
between 1999-2009, including $862 million in 2009, according to State Department
figures.

But Washington has also noted opposition accusations of repression by Meles, who has
been in power since 1991.

The two countries traded sharp words in March after Meles accused the U.S.-funded
Voice of America broadcaster of spreading "destabilizing propaganda" and said it
would explore jamming the broadcaster's Amharic language service.

Carson indicated that the United States would continue to press Meles to make
democratic changes, but not at the price of endangering the alliance.

"We appreciate the level of collaboration that we receive from Ethiopia in a number of
areas, but we also believe that Ethiopia must do better in strengthening its democratic
institutions," he said.
--------------------
UN agrees to pull UN peacekeeping force from Chad (Associated Press)
UNITED NATIONS – Chad's government succeeded Tuesday in forcing a 3,300-strong
U.N. peacekeeping force operating in Chad and the Central African Republic to pull out
by the end of this year.

And with the U.N. Security Council's unanimous vote to disband the peacekeeping
force known as MINURCAT, another troubled African nation concerned with looming
elections and 50-year independence celebrations has dealt a setback to U.N.
peacekeeping.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, too, has told the United Nations to pack up its
peacekeeping operations ahead of independence celebrations and elections scheduled
for next year.

The vote by the U.N.'s most powerful arm all but confirms the view advanced by
Chadian President Idriss Deby, who has called the force "a failure" — and in February
insisted his country did not want to renew the peacekeeping force's mandate — because
it hadn't improved conditions along the border.

"We trust that the government of Chad will do its utmost to fulfill its responsibilities
and use all available capabilities for the protection of the population in eastern Chad,"
said Austrian Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, the only diplomat to speak after the
council's show of hands.

Though it agreed to the resolution, he said, Austria "would have preferred a more
gradual approach in the drawdown" of forces and a continued U.N. role in protecting
civilians.

Also Tuesday, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said on the third day of his visit to
Chad that 1.4 million people suffer from hunger because of drought and crop failure in
the western part of the nation. He said 102,000 of those are severely malnourished
children.

The council adopted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's plan for a gradual
withdrawal of the 2 1/2-year-old peacekeeping force near the border with Sudan's
volatile Darfur region.

The Security Council authorized cutting the force by July 15 down to 2,200 soldiers —
1,900 in Chad, 300 in the Central African Republic — and 25 liaison officers. They are to
be accompanied by no more than 300 police.

Final withdrawal of the remaining troops is to begin on October 15. Nearly all
uniformed and civilian U.N. personnel are to be gone by December 31. Only "those
required for the mission's liquidation" may remain past then, the resolution says.
Earlier this year, the council tried to encourage Deby to negotiate with the U.N.
peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, who visited Chad in the last week of February. The
mission's mandate had been due to expire March 15.

Deby's government finally agreed to a phased withdrawal in keeping with U.N.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's recommendation.

U.N. officials privately acknowledged the development was a setback. Some expressed
disappointment the council's diplomats did not fight harder in the face of Chadian
demands for peacekeepers to leave.

The council's decision to withdraw from Chad, a country twice the size of France,
illustrates the limitations the U.N. faces when an unstable nation declines help.

The first military personnel, Ban said, are to begin pulling out Thursday.

Human Rights Watch says the withdrawal will expose civilians to more violence and
abuses, since Chadian forces failed to provide security in the past and the situation
remains volatile.

"It's an unhelpful development, both for civilians on the ground in Chad, and for
peacekeepers generally," said Peggy Hicks, the group's global advocacy director, in an
interview Tuesday. "The standard for when their mission should end should be when
the tasks set for it are completed, and we're concerend this decision is not being made
on this basis."

Ban sought to put a positive spin on it Tuesday, saying he welcomed the council's
action as it "will allow the civilian component of the mission to work with the
government to consolidate gains achieved so far." Ban also noted that Chad "assumes
full responsibility for the protection of civilians" as U.N. forces begin withdrawing later
this week.

Civil war broke out in Chad just five years after the nation won independence Aug. 11,
1960. Last year, the European Union's peacekeeping mission transferred its authority to
the U.N. mission.

But looking forward, Deby's government has its 50-year celebration in August and
parliamentary elections scheduled for November.
--------------------
Delta to add service to Liberia (Associated Press)
ATLANTA – Delta Air Lines Inc. said Tuesday it will begin once-a-week service
between Atlanta and Monrovia, Liberia, in September.

The flights between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Roberts

International Airport in Monrovia will stop in Accra, Ghana.

Delta, based in Atlanta, had planned to start the flights last June, but they were delayed
while the airport in Monrovia was brought into compliance with international aviation
standards.

Delta said the service will begin Sept. 4 and use Boeing 767 aircraft with 34 premium
seats and 181 seats in coach.

The airline said Liberian aviation officials and have approved the flights, and U.S.
regulators have given preliminary approval. Delta has operated in Africa since 2006.

In a statement issued by Delta, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said her

government was enthusiastic about the first direct flights to the United States in several
years.

Delta said it will begin three weekly flights between Atlanta and Accra next month.
--------------------
German ex-soldiers to work in Somalia (Associated Press)

BERLIN — A private security firm's plan to deploy more than 100 German ex-soldiers
to Somalia to work for a warlord has triggered intense media coverage and was harshly
criticized by lawmakers on Tuesday, some of them calling it a possible violation of U.N.
sanctions against the war-ridden East African country.

Several lawmakers and special interest groups have criticized the deal, which has raised
concerns over modern Germany's military role in the wider world. Although German
law forbids foreign powers from recruiting its citizens, they are not barred from going
abroad to serve as mercenaries in war zones.

Still, given Germany's aggressive military past in the 20th century, most Germans today
prefer not to see their soldiers involved in any kind of armed conflict abroad — whether
in a NATO-sanctioned mission in Afghanistan, where about 4,000 soldiers currently
serve, or as mercenaries in foreign war zones.

Opposition lawmaker Omid Nouripour said his Green Party would also investigate
whether the deployment of former Bundeswehr soldiers by Asgaard German Security
Group violates U.N. sanctions against Somalia.
"What are we going to do if tomorrow another Somali war lord hires ex-soldiers — then
we have Germans fighting each other in a foreign war zone," Nouripour told The
Associated Press. "This is not the way one can solve the war in Somalia."

The head of the Bundeswehrverband, the German soldiers' interest group, called on the
government to ban ex-soldiers from participating in armed conflict abroad.

"This is not OK. We're absolutely opposed ... and we don't like it at all that former
German soldiers can be found doing this," Col. Ulrich Kirsch was quoting as saying by
German news agency DAPD.

Asgaard German Security Group confirmed the deal with Abdinur Ahmed Darman and
said the company would deploy the soldiers as soon as Darman had assumed control of
state affairs and had been approved by the United Nations.

Darman claims to have been elected as a president in 2003. He lives abroad, has few
followers in Somalia, and hardly visits there. Somalia has not had a functioning
government since 1991.

Private security companies have had less of an impact on the Somali conflict than in
other African wars, mostly because of the fragmented nature of Somalia's civil war.
However, private security companies were active in the semiautonomous region of
Puntland in the late 1990's and early 2000's.

Somalia expert Roger Middleton from Chatham House says that many of them taught
skills that were then transferred into piracy.

"There's nothing to guarantee that soldiers trained for one force will remain with that
force," he warned. The Somali politician employing the company could swap sides in
Somalia's civil war and the men trained by the Germans could desert to al-Qaida linked
insurgents or become pirates, he said.

"It's another complicating factor in a very complicated conflict already," Middleton said.

Unless the company had gained an exemption, the training and importation of military
equipment would be in violation of an international arms embargo imposed by the U.N.
and could see the company slapped with sanctions. Its directors could also have their
assets frozen.

As part of a joint-European Union mission, several German soldiers are currently

training around 2,000 Somali soldiers in Uganda in mine awareness and urban combat,
the German Defense Ministry said. Therefore, theoretically, German-trained Somali
soldiers could in the near future fight German mercenaries in Somalia — an unsettling
idea for many in Germany.

Germany's Foreign Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

German soldiers served in Somalia as part of a U.N.-led peace-mission from 1993 to

1994, but were pulled out, along with American troops, after 18 U.S. soldiers were
killed.

Thomas Kaeltegaertner, the head of Asgaard, said the company would be in charge of
providing security and protection for persons, buildings and convoys in Somalia as well
as educating Somali security personnel.

He rejected lawmakers' concerns Tuesday and told the AP there was nothing illegal
about his security firm providing jobs for former German soldiers.

"The soldiers are professional and have already collected experience in military
missions abroad," Kaeltegaertner said. "The politicians should not complain that I'm
providing work for unemployed soldiers."
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

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