United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

9 June 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Biden praises Kenya, discusses E.Africa stability (AFP)

(Kenya) US Vice President Joe Biden praised Kenya's progress on internal reforms
Tuesday and discussed means of stabilising the region, amid concerns over the situation
in neighbouring Sudan and Somalia.

What Country Wants from Obama's Man (Daily Nation)

(Kenya) US Vice-President Joe Biden flies into Nairobi on Monday amid unprecedented
security and quiet despair in the corridors of power over what is seen as failure by the
Obama administration "to be helpful" in finding a solution in Somalia.

US assails Sudan for repression, lack of rights (AFP)

(Sudan) The United States voiced new criticism Tuesday against Sudan for an increase
in repression and a "deteriorating environment" for civil and political rights in the
African nation.

U.S. court dismisses 1998 Sudan missile strike suit (Reuters)

(Sudan) An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a $50 million lawsuit
against the United States over then-President Bill Clinton's 1998 decision to order a
missile attack on a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant.

African Union Praises Eritrea, Djibouti Border Mediation (Voice of America)

(Pan Africa) The African Union has welcomed an agreement between Eritrea and
Djibouti that calls on Qatar to mediate their long-standing border dispute.

UN refugee agency says being expelled from Libya (Associated Press)

(Libya) The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday it is being expelled from Libya without
explanation despite being responsible for thousands of refugees in the North African
country.

Angola Shifts Away From Oil (Wall Street Journal)

(Angola) As oil-rich Angola seeks to raise at least $2 billion from Western investors
with its first international sovereign bond, the key question for investors is the extent to
which the country can diversify its economy away from its dependence on crude.
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website
• Ban welcomes deal between Eritrea and Djibouti to resolve border conflict
• Ban names new head of UN mission in Central African Republic and Chad
• UN rights chief calls for special tribunal for Kenya’s post-election violence
• UN refugee agency requested to cease operations in Libya
• UN gets set for World Cup kick-off and renewed push on anti-poverty targets
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

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

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, June 15, 9:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Media as a Tool for Social Change
in Africa
WHO: John Marks, President and Founder, Search for Common Ground; John Siceloff,
Executive Producer NOW on PBS, CEO of JumpStart Productions; Sylvia Vollenhoven, Knight
Development Journalism Fellow, International Center for Journalists; Steve McDonald,
Consulting Director, Africa Program, Wilson Center
Info:
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=623411
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Biden praises Kenya, discusses E.Africa stability (AFP)

NAIROBI, Kenya — US Vice President Joe Biden praised Kenya's progress on internal
reforms Tuesday and discussed means of stabilising the region, amid concerns over the
situation in neighbouring Sudan and Somalia.

Washington has applied unprecedented pressure on its top regional ally Kenya to
overcome its political disputes and implement a reform agenda decided in the
aftermath of post-election chaos more than two years ago.

Most recent public comments by US officials had been openly critical of the Kenyan
government's performance in tackling the long list of reforms it agreed to but Biden's
assessment was more positive.
"Thank you ... for making me more optimistic than I had been about the prospect of this
reform occurring," Biden said after meeting Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Prime
Minister Raila Odinga and other cabinet members.

The coalition formed in 2008 by the formerly feuding Kenyan leaders had looked on the
brink of collapse earlier this year but the uneasy partners eventually agreed on a draft
constitution.

The document, a key demand of the United States and other international players who
sponsored Kenya's power-sharing deal, is to be submitted to a referendum in early
August.

Biden said he was "truly impressed by the mutual cooperation" between Odinga and
Kibaki and added that a new constitution would appease foreign concerns over Kenya's
political climate and stimulate a fresh wave of investments.

"Putting in place a new constitution and strengthening your democratic institutions and
rule of law will further open the door to major US development programmes" and
investment from US corporations, he said.

Biden, who said that "Kenya's best days are yet to come", predicted that fresh US
investment in Kenya would also boost confidence from other parts of the world.

The vice president, whose tour of Africa started in Egypt and will also take him to
South Africa, also said he was in Nairobi to discuss the eastern African region's
stability.

"We recognise that Kenya?s long term stability and development are tied to regional
security and development, and the United States is committed to work with Kenya to
achieve both those objectives," he said.

Biden was expected to expand on his government's strategic partnership with Kenya
during a keynote speech on Wednesday.

He was also scheduled to meet Salva Kiir, the president of Sudan's semi-autonomous
south, which is due to hold a referendum on self-determination in January 2011.

A widely-predicted decision by the southern oil-rich half of Sudan to acquire

independence would have wide-ranging effects on the region.

Biden was scheduled to hold a special meeting Wednesday dedicated to the situation in
Somalia, where moderate Islamist President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has been mustering
support for a major offensive against an Islamist insurgency.
Washington has repeatedly voiced concerns that one of Kenya's other troubled
neighbours, Somalia, two thirds of which is controlled by the insurgents, was becoming
a new haven for Al Qaeda operatives.

Kibaki for his part reiterated his concerns over the threat posed to Kenya's border by
Somalia's Islamist rebels and to the impact of growing Somali piracy.

"This matter must be addressed with greater urgency. We have asked the US
government to provide the leadership to forge a concerted international effort to
stabilise Somalia," he said.
--------------------
What Country Wants from Obama's Man (Daily Nation)

NAIROBI, Kenya - US Vice-President Joe Biden flies into Nairobi on Monday amid
unprecedented security and quiet despair in the corridors of power over what is seen as
failure by the Obama administration "to be helpful" in finding a solution in Somalia.

Mr Biden will be in the country for two days as part of a three-nation visit, which
includes attending the opening ceremony of the Fifa World Cup in South Africa on
Friday.

He is the third top-ranking US official to visit Kenya since the election of Mr Barack
Obama, whose father was Kenyan.

Special message

Mr Biden is expected to deliver a special message from Mr Obama on reforms and the
constitution review.

Mr Obama used an interview with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation to say some
supportive things about Kenya but also to put across what he believed should be fixed
for Kenya to realise its potential: corruption, tribalism, and human freedoms.

But top Office of the President officials, speaking on the customary condition of
anonymity, appeared exasperated by what they termed Washington's "lack of political
appetite" to help deal with an issue they see as equally dangerous to Kenya's stability
and future: Somalia.

The officials said they would like to see the Obama administration take "Somalia as a
threat to regional and international peace" and to use it's leverage in the Security
Council to get the United Nations to be more engaged in fixing the lawless country.
Without a government for nearly 20 years, Somalia is overrun by clan and Islamist
militias, some of them allied to al Qaeda, and have been used to launch attacks against
US interests in the region.

Limousines

On Sunday, the US Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigations were deployed
and armoured limousines flown in for Mr Biden's use.

The Nation

Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, arrive in Nairobi with his
granddaughter, Maisy.

The US Vice-President is expected to meet President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila
Odinga, National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende, and members of the
Parliamentary Caucus on Reforms together with the chairman of the Parliamentary
Select Committee on reforms.

On Sunday, a member of the Parliamentary Caucus on Reforms, Mr Olago Aluoch, said

his group was scheduled to meet Mr Biden on Tuesday and the constitution was top on
the agenda of the meeting.

"The most likely message that Mr Biden is bearing from President Obama is just to
reiterate the issues of reforms and constitution review and how they are important to
Kenyans," said Prof Amukowa Anangwe, a political scientist.

During the interview in Washington with KBC, President Obama spoke of his wish to
see a more prosperous Kenya. He urged Kenyans to "seize the moment" offered by the
referendum to put the post-election violence behind them.

The US President sent the strongest indication yet that he wanted to see Kenya's
constitution review process come to a successful conclusion and announced plans to
visit the country before his term ends.

But he clarified that the US was not pushing for the Yes vote at the referendum, slated
for August 4.

President Obama said the decision to vote Yes or No at the referendum was up to
Kenyans themselves.

Other top-ranking US officials who have visited Kenya include Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson. Mr
Obama snubbed Kenya during an African tour, visiting Egypt and Ghana instead.
Bush era

During his visit in 2008, Mr Carson said the Obama administration would adhere to the
same policies that were pursued during the Bush era.

Mr Carson, a former US ambassador to Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, said

Washington's Africa policy had traditionally reflected consensus among Republicans
and Democrats and Mr Obama wanted to continue that bipartisan approach.

During the visit, Mr Carson said the US Government feared for the stability of Kenya's
coalition and asked President Kibaki and Mr Odinga to move to implement the
National Accord.

And during Mrs Clinton's visit last year, the US government repeated the message and
also called for the total overhaul of the criminal justice system and the removal of four
key public officials in what they viewed as the first crucial step to reform the
institutions they head.

Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chairman Boni Khalwale, who attended one
of the closed-door meetings with Mrs Clinton, said she was concerned about lack of
reforms to help end impunity and promised to name, shame, and ban violence and
corruption suspects from visiting the US.

Mrs Clinton, in her speeches and interviews published by the State Department, said a
local tribunal was preferable but that The Hague option was inevitable if Kenyans did
not move fast.

US ambassador Michael Ranneberger has on several occasions warned that the US

Government would take tough action to pressure Kenya on the reform agenda.

Mr Ranneberger was summoned by Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula for

talks over letters that the American Government had sent to 15 Kenyans.

On the Somalia issue, Nairobi would like Washington to add Mogadishu to its list of
priorities in the region and to stop paying lip service to the risk that the "reservoir of
terrorism" that Somalia has become presents.

Officials here now see al-Shabaab, the most powerful Islamic Somali militant group, as
an immediate security threat, not because of its capacity on the battlefront, but because
of it's influence on moderate Muslim populations throughout the Eastern coast of
Africa.
Officials are watching with puzzled anxiety the efforts of world powers, the European
Union, the US, the United Kingdom and others, ineffectually try to deal with piracy,
which is slowly squeezing regional economies.

Some 150 warships from navies across the world are patrolling the seas off Somalia.
However, piracy has increased despite their presence.

World powers are not dealing with the problem and are content to try and attack the
symptoms, Nairobi feels.

"Once there is an effective government in Somalia, the problem of piracy is solved," an

official told the Daily Nation.

In addition to piracy and terrorism, Kenya is dealing with other consequences of state
failure in Somalia. Arms pouring across the border, more than a million legal and illegal
immigrants, and rising social tensions, a natural consequence of rapid migration.

"The US and the UK hold the key in Somalia," the official told the Nation.

Asked what kind of US intervention Nairobi would like to see, the official said only the
UN system has the capacity to rebuild war-ravaged country. And the UN will not move
without prompting from influential members of the Security Council.

"Somalia is more strategic than Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Darfur," the official said,
referring to the countries where international intervention has been strong.

War-ravaged

Nairobi would like the African Union force in Somalia expanded into a full-fledged UN
peace keeping operation, providing cover for the reconstruction of the country.

Although officials were adamant that there would be no need for US or Kenyan boots
on Somali soil, they also lamented a lack of US enthusiasm for proposals to stabilise the
Somali regions bordering Kenya.

Some self-governing regions of Somalia, such as Puntland and Somaliland, are stable
and relatively secure and Nairobi would have liked international support in
encouraging the sprouting of stable, self-governing regions along its border to act as a
buffer zone.

The US is reportedly wary of such an approach, believing it could have "unintended

consequences", meaning that it is worried that it could provoke terrorist attacks against
its interests in the region by groups such as al-Shabaab.
But some in Nairobi are hoping that Mr Biden, a foreign policy expert, will be curious
about Somalia and possibly lend his support in finding a solution for it.
--------------------
US assails Sudan for repression, lack of rights (AFP)

WASHINGTON – The United States voiced new criticism Tuesday against Sudan for an
increase in repression and a "deteriorating environment" for civil and political rights in
the African nation.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said a number of incidents in recent

weeks have increased US concern, including the arrest of opposition leaders, the
censoring of opposition newspapers and violence against its employees.

Also worrisome has been a government ban on human rights workers leaving the
country to participate in a Kampala conference on the International Criminal Court, and
violence against demonstrators.

"The United States government expresses its concern over a pattern of increasing
political repression and the deteriorating environment for civil and political rights in
Khartoum, including the arrest of opposition leaders, journalists and peaceful
demonstrators," Crowley said.

Crowley also expressed Washington's concern over "the continued harassment of

journalists, human rights advocates and nongovernmental organizations in Sudan and
reminds the government of Sudan of its international obligations to respect human
rights, including freedoms of assembly and of the press."

"We call on the government of Sudan to ensure that those in custody are afforded due
process and receive access to medical care. We also call for the Sudanese security
agencies to cease any censorship of media," he said.
--------------------
U.S. court dismisses 1998 Sudan missile strike suit (Reuters)

WASHINGTON – An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a $50 million

lawsuit against the United States over then-President Bill Clinton's 1998 decision to
order a missile attack on a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant.

Clinton ordered the attack on the factory and a training camp in Afghanistan in
retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that had been
carried out days earlier by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Clinton said the El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries plant in North Khartoum was
believed to be associated with bin Laden's network and to be involved in the
production of materials for chemicals weapons.
The plant's owners denied it was a chemical weapons facility or in any way connected
to bin Laden or his network. They said the destroyed plant had been Sudan's largest
manufacturer of medicinal products.

The owners sued the U.S. government in federal court in Washington for unjustifiably
destroying the plant, for failing to compensate them for the facility's destruction and for
defaming them by saying the plant had ties to bin Laden.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit and the appeals court in a unanimous decision
agreed.

The appeals court ruled the case involved a political question covered by a legal
doctrine that means the suit cannot be reviewed by the judicial branch.

"If the political question doctrine means anything in the arena of national security and
foreign relations, it means the courts cannot assess the merits of the president's decision
to launch an attack on a foreign target," Judge Thomas Griffith wrote in the opinion.

"Under the political question doctrine, the foreign target of a military strike cannot
challenge in court the wisdom of retaliatory military action taken by the United States,"
he concluded.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote a separate opinion agreeing with the majority in
dismissing the lawsuit but on different legal grounds.

He said the suit could have been dismissed because it was completely without merit
and that the court did not need to address the political question doctrine.
--------------------
African Union Praises Eritrea, Djibouti Border Mediation (Voice of America)

The African Union has welcomed an agreement between Eritrea and Djibouti that calls
on Qatar to mediate their long-standing border dispute.

AU chief executive Jean Ping said Tuesday that he hoped the talks would have a
positive impact on the overall situation in the Horn of Africa, especially in Somalia.

Qatar's news agency said Monday that Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Djibouti's
President Ismail Omar Guelleh had signed the mediation deal.

It reported that Eritrean troops had already withdrawn from at least one disputed area
as a result of the agreement.
Djibouti and Eritrea both claim Ras Doumeira, an area on the Red Sea coast. The
dispute came to a head in 2008 when more than 35 people were killed during three days
of fighting.

The U.N. Security Council blamed Eritrea for the fighting, and has repeatedly called on
the country to withdraw its troops to their previous positions.

The U.N. imposed sanctions on Eritrea last year for refusing to resolve its dispute with
Djibouti and for allegedly backing insurgent groups in Somalia.

Oil-rich Qatar has made efforts to mediate in various conflicts recently, most notably
the war between Sudan's government and rebels in the Darfur region.
--------------------
UN refugee agency says being expelled from Libya (Associated Press)

GENEVA – The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday it is being expelled from Libya
without explanation despite being responsible for thousands of refugees in the North
African country.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees received a note from Libyan authorities last
week ordering it to cease its work and leave the country, said the agency's
spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.

"We very much regret this decision," she said. "We have not been given any reason by
the Libyan authorities for why we should leave the country."

Libya's Foreign Ministry accused the agency of operating illegally in the country.

Fleming said the refugee agency is trying to negotiate with Libya and hopes the
expulsion is only temporary. The agency, which has been working in Libya since 1991,
screens people fleeing to Libya because the country has no procedure for registering
asylum seekers or refugees.

Many desperate Africans come to Libya to try to sneak into the European Union by
getting on a rickety boat headed for Malta or Italy.

"UNHCR is the asylum system in Libya and this will leave a huge vacuum for the
thousands of refugees and asylum seekers who are there already and of course those
who continue to arrive steadily on boats," said Fleming.

The agency has already registered about 9,000 refugees from the Palestinian territories,
Iraq, Sudan, Somalia and other African countries. In addition, there are about 3,700
asylum seekers in Libya, mostly from Eritrea, some of whom are being held in
detention centers, she said.
UNHCR also provides refugees and asylum seekers with shelter, medical care and
other aid. It has 26 staff members in the country, mostly local employees.

The agency tries to find new homes in other countries for all the refugees because it says
staying in Libya is not an option. Libya has not signed the global refugee convention,
which forbids nations to deport refugees to countries where they may face persecution.

UNHCR appealed for help to the Libyan President of the U.N. General Assembly, Ali
Abdessalam Treki.

His spokesman, Jean-Victor Nkolo said Treki received a letter from UNHCR chief
Antonio Guterres regarding the agency's situation in Libya. But he declined to comment
on the content.

Libya has significantly increased its presence at the U.N. in recent years and held the
presidency of the Security Council in January 2008 and in March 2009.

Last year, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's speech before the General Assembly, his
first there in 40 years, was a diatribe lasting more than an hour and a half.

He compared the U.N.'s most powerful arm, the Security Council, to a 'Terror Council',
protesting its domination by five permanent members. He also offered a number of
conspiracy theories regarding matters ranging from swine flu to the assassinations of
former President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In a separate statement, UNHCR said it was worried about some 20 Eritreans who were
rescued at sea trying to reach Malta from Libya. The passengers made distress calls
Sunday and were finally rescued late Monday by Libyan authorities.

Fleming said Maltese and Italian maritime authorities ignored the distress calls and
relied on Libya to rescue the people.

Also Tuesday, the UNHCR urged four European governments to reconsider deporting
Iraqi citizens to Baghdad, citing ongoing turmoil in the city. The agency said it believes
that Britain, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands are planning deportations for later
this week. It did not say how many people were facing deportation.

The agency said people from several areas in Iraq, including Baghdad, should continue
to be protected by refugee status because of "the volatile security situation and the still
high level of prevailing violence, security incidents, and human rights violations taking
place."
Matthew Coats, head of immigration at the U.K. Border Agency, said Britain only
deports people that both the government and the courts are satisfied do not need
protection but who also refuse to leave voluntarily.

The security situation in Iraq is "significantly better" than it was in 2008, and voluntary
returns to the country have been increasing, he said in a statement.
--------------------
Angola Shifts Away From Oil (Wall Street Journal)

MABUIA, Angola—As oil-rich Angola seeks to raise at least $2 billion from Western
investors with its first international sovereign bond, the key question for investors is the
extent to which the country can diversify its economy away from its dependence on
crude.

For some underdeveloped economies, oil can be a curse rather than a blessing, as a lack
of alternative economic opportunities often fuels discontent over the allocation of oil
wealth.

In Angola, oil provides 90% of the country's export revenue but employs less than 1% of
the population. About 63% of the population still depends on agriculture for a
livelihood, mostly subsistence farming. A 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002,
devastated its agriculture industry, cutting access to seed and fertilizer and severing
export routes to sell its products. Once the world's fourth-biggest coffee exporter and
self-sufficient in most crops, the country now is a net importer of food.

The war also left Angola with up to 6 million buried landmines, making almost half its
land too dangerous to walk on, let alone to farm.

But while oil is keeping Angola's economy afloat, ratings firms, the International
Monetary Fund and potential creditors also are focused on the long-term prosperity of
agriculture.

The Angolan government has vowed to revive agriculture, announcing last year that it
would invest $2 billion in the sector. It has asked oil companies, including Total SA of
France, to invest in areas that will boost Angola's farming sector, helping to diversify
the nation's economy.

U.K. oil major BP PLC, with partners, runs a microcredit program in Angola, where
small loans of as little as $100 can help turn a subsistence farmer into an entrepreneur,
and has separately financed a system to irrigate land in the Mabuia area. U.S. oil
company Chevron Corp. owns a stake in microcredit bank NovoBanco, which lent $5
million to farmers in 2009. It also has poured $3 million in a program, which it runs
with others, to train more than 5,500 farmers in agricultural techniques and help them
access international markets.
The diversification strategy is paying off. A May study on oil nations by the IMF singles
out Angola as a rare example of an economy where crude drove the nonoil sector
instead of destroying it. While Angola ranks second only to Libya as the world's most
oil-reliant economy, its nonoil sector has grown an average of 11.6% annually between
1997 and 2008, slightly faster than oil at 7.8%. Agriculture is by far the fastest growing
part of the nonoil sector, with its share of national income increasing by a third in
2009—compared with 10% for manufacturing and construction, according to the IMF.

The study also warned that a difficult business environment and poor infrastructure
means Angola could face growth issues, much like other oil countries do.

Angolan farmers pay nearly four times more for fertilizers than their U.S. counterparts
and triple that of farmers in neighboring Zambia, according to a World Bank report.

In May, Angola received its first set of credit ratings. Moody's Investors Service Inc.
assigned Angola a B1 rating, in line with peers Standard & Poor's Corp. and Fitch
Ratings, which both assigned the African nation a single B-plus rating. The solidly
speculative ratings came after the IMF agreed to provide the country a loan of $1.4
billion after interrupting talks two years earlier. Angola said at the time that it didn't
need any IMF support, but critics said it wanted to avoid scrutiny on its revenues.

Both the ratings agencies and the IMF focused not so much on Angola's oil wealth as on
its ability to tap its fertile land. Standard & Poor's said its rating "was constrained by
our view of the country's narrow economic base." In recent statements, the IMF said
Angola must "lay the foundation for the development of the non-oil sector as a source
of sustained growth."

Should Angola fail to broaden its economy, it risks becoming another Nigeria, which
vies with Angola as Africa's top crude producer. Nigeria's oil industry has replaced
agriculture as the main source of revenue. It employs very few people, and angry
residents have been disrupting production by sabotaging or stealing from pipelines.
And quarrels about the distribution of oil revenue have fueled civil unrest.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Ban welcomes deal between Eritrea and Djibouti to resolve border conflict
8 June – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the agreement signed by
Eritrea and Djibouti to resolve their two-year border dispute through a negotiated
settlement.

Ban names new head of UN mission in Central African Republic and Chad
8 June – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed veteran staffer Youssef
Mahmoud of Tunisia as the new head of the United Nations Mission in the Central
African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), which is due to wrap up by the end of the
year.

UN rights chief calls for special tribunal for Kenya’s post-election violence
8 June – The United Nations human rights chief today urged the Kenyan Government
to reconsider setting up a special tribunal to pursue accountability for the crimes
committed during the violence that followed the disputed December 2007 elections.

UN refugee agency requested to cease operations in Libya

8 June – The United Nations refugee agency reported today that Libyan authorities
have asked it to cease its work in the country and close its offices there, but have given
no reasons for the decision.

UN gets set for World Cup kick-off and renewed push on anti-poverty targets
8 June – The United Nations is gearing up for this week’s start of the soccer World Cup,
aiming to harness public excitement about the world’s biggest sporting event to
advance efforts to slash poverty, fight hunger and tackle other key social and economic
problems.