United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

15 June 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Changing Life in Zimbabwe 'Difficult': Clinton (AFP)

(Washington) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday acknowledged it was
"extremely difficult" to change the "very sad" situation in Zimbabwe.

Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia (New York Times)
According to Somali human rights groups and United Nations officials, the Somali
government is fielding hundreds of children or more on the front lines. Officials also
revealed that the United States government was helping pay their soldiers.

West African Qaeda earns millions from hostages (Middle East Online)
(West Africa) An Al-Qaeda branch has raked in millions of dollars from ransoms,
funding a tiny but well-oiled army whose influence spans large parts of west Africa
now too dangerous for tourists, say experts.

Representatives of African Armies in Kigali to Plan Joint Exercise (The New Times -
Rwanda)
(East Africa) Close to 150 participants from 33 African nations are meeting in Kigali
preparing for a joint military exercise dubbed Africa Endeavour (AE) 2010, slated for
August in Accra, Ghana.

US Military Not Intending To Control Africa (Rwanda News Agency)

(Rwanda) A new US military program training African armies including Rwanda is not
a US move to dominate the African continent, a senior Rwanda military chief said
Monday.

Guinea Army Arrests 'Not Linked To Election' (BBC News)

(Guinea) The arrest of several army officers in Guinea is not linked to elections due in
two weeks' time, the army chief has said.

Faceless Bombers Sow Insecurity (IRIN)

(Swaziland) No individual or group in Swaziland has admitted responsibility for a
spate of recent bombings against government and opposition party targets, but their
actions are creating a sense of instability in the aid-dependent southern African state.
Sudan's Beshir Forms New Government (AFP)
(Sudan) Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Monday formed a 35-member
government two months after multi-party elections, according to an official decree
distributed to the media.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
Top UN officials in Sudan call for more political support in year ahead
Majority of children in Djibouti threatened by poverty, UN agency warns
Ban wraps up Africa trip with stop in Sierra Leone
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, June 16, 4:00 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: A Critical Moment in
Sudan: Views from President Thabo Mbeki and SRSG Haile Menkerios
WHO: President Thabo Mbeki, Former President of South Africa, Head of the African
Union High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan); Haile Menkerios, Special
Representative of the Secretary General in Sudan, Head of the United Nations Mission
in Sudan (UNMIS)
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/critical-moment-in-sudan

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, June 17, 2:30 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs: Horn of Africa:
Current Conditions and U.S. Policy
WHO: Mr. Ted Dagne, Specialist in African Affairs, Congressional Research Service;
Ms. Leslie Lefkow, Senior Researcher, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
Info: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1191

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, June 18, 1:00 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: New America Foundation: South Africa 2010
WHO: Peter Beinart, Senior Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation; Franklin Foer,
Editor, The New Republic; Charles Kenny, Development Economist, World Bank; Dayo
Olopade, Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation; Nicholas Schmidle, Schwartz
Fellow, New America Foundation; Andres Martinez, Director, Bernard L. Schwartz
Fellows Program
Info: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/south_africa_2010
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Changing Life in Zimbabwe 'Difficult': Clinton (AFP)

WASHINGTON Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday acknowledged it was
"extremely difficult" to change the "very sad" situation in Zimbabwe.

"It's a very sobering situation, it's a very sad one indeed because the ruling party, the
ruling clique within that party continues to benefit from aid, benefit from the diamond
trade, benefit from corruption to a very significant degree," Clinton told a seminar at the
State Department.

"People are suffering," she stressed.

"We're trying to walk a line between supporting the people, keeping the pressure on the
(Robert) Mugabe leadership, working with South Africa to try to get that message
across," Clinton said.

"But I'm not going to stand here and say we have some perfect formula, because it's
extremely difficult to try to do what we're doing, and (make) a difference for the people
of Zimbabwe, but we're going to persist in doing so," the top US diplomat said.

In March, President Barack Obama's administration extended for a year sanctions on

Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, controls the military
under Zimbabwe's power-sharing regime.

A new report from campaign group Global Witness meanwhile said Monday
Zimbabwe's political and military elites are using violence and their links to companies
to exploit the country's diamond wealth.

The campaigners also criticized the Kimberley Process (KP) certification scheme,
created to prevent the sale of "blood diamonds," for what they said was its weak
response to Zimbabwe's diamond industry problems.

The report, released in London, came ahead of a Kimberley meeting next week in Israel
where Zimbabwe is set to dominate talks.

Mugabe has threatened to pull out of the diamonds-trade-monitoring Kimberley

Process if the country is not allowed to sell its gems.
--------------------
Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia (New York Times)

MOGADISHU, Somalia Awil Salah Osman prowls the streets of this shattered city,
looking like so many other boys, with ripped-up clothes, thin limbs and eyes eager for
attention and affection.
But Awil is different in two notable ways: he is shouldering a fully automatic, fully
loaded Kalashnikov assault rifle; and he is working for a military that is substantially
armed and financed by the United States.

You! he shouts at a driver trying to sneak past his checkpoint, his cherubic face
turning violently angry.

You know what Im doing here! He shakes his gun menacingly. Stop your car!

The driver halts immediately. In Somalia, lives are lost quickly, and few want to take
their chances with a moody 12-year-old.

It is well known that Somalias radical Islamist insurgents are plucking children off
soccer fields and turning them into fighters. But Awil is not a rebel. He is working for
Somalias Transitional Federal Government, a critical piece of the American
counterterrorism strategy in the Horn of Africa.

According to Somali human rights groups and United Nations officials, the Somali
government, which relies on assistance from the West to survive, is fielding hundreds
of children or more on the front lines, some as young as 9.

Child soldiers are deployed across the globe, but according to the United Nations, the
Somali government is among the most persistent violators of sending children into
war, finding itself on a list with notorious rebel groups like the Lords Resistance Army.

Somali government officials concede that they have not done the proper vetting.
Officials also revealed that the United States government was helping pay their soldiers,
an arrangement American officials confirmed, raising the possibility that the wages for
some of these child combatants may have come from American taxpayers.

United Nations officials say they have offered the Somali government specific plans to
demobilize the children. But Somalias leaders, struggling for years to withstand the
insurgents advances, have been paralyzed by bitter infighting and are so far
unresponsive.

Several American officials also said that they were concerned about the use of child
soldiers and that they were pushing their Somali counterparts to be more careful. But
when asked how the American government could guarantee that American money was
not being used to arm children, one of the officials said, I dont have a good answer for
that.
According to Unicef, only two countries have not ratified the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, which prohibits the use of soldiers younger than 15: the United States and
Somalia.

Many human rights groups find this unacceptable, and President Obama himself, when
this issue was raised during his campaign, did not disagree.

It is embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land, he

said.

All across this lawless land, smooth, hairless faces peek out from behind enormous
guns. In blown-out buildings, children chamber bullets twice the size of their fingers. In
neighborhoods by the sea, they run checkpoints and face down four-by-four trucks,
though they can barely see over the hood.

Somali government officials admit that in the rush to build a standing army, they did
not discriminate.

Ill be honest, said a Somali government official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject, we were trying to find anyone who
could carry a gun.

Awil struggles to carry his. It weighs about 10 pounds. The strap digs into his bony
shoulders, and he is constantly shifting it from one side to the other with a grimace.

Sometimes he gets a helping hand from his comrade Ahmed Hassan, who is 15. Ahmed
said he was sent to Uganda more than two years ago for army training, when he was 12,
though his claim could not be independently verified. American military advisers have
been helping oversee the training of Somali government soldiers in Uganda.

One of the things I learned, Ahmed explained eagerly, is how to kill with a knife.

Children do not have many options in Somalia. After the government collapsed in 1991,
an entire generation was let loose on the streets. Most children have never sat in a
classroom or played in a park. Their bones have been stunted by conflict-induced
famines, their psyches damaged by all the killings they have witnessed.

What do I enjoy? Awil asked. I enjoy the gun.

Like many other children here, the war has left him hard beyond his years. He loves
cigarettes and is addicted to qat, a bitter leaf that, for the few hours he chews it each
day, makes grim reality fade away.
He was abandoned by parents who fled to Yemen, he said, and joined a militia when he
was about 7. He now lives with other government soldiers in a dive of a house littered
with cigarette boxes and smelly clothes. Awil does not know exactly how old he is. His
commander says he is around 12, but birth certificates are rare.

Awil gobbles down greasy rice with unwashed hands because he does not know where
his next meal is coming from. He is paid about $1.50 a day, but only every now and
then, like most soldiers. His bed is a fly-covered mattress that he shares with two other
child soldiers, Ali Deeq, 10, and Abdulaziz, 13.

He should be in school, said Awils commander, Abdisalam Abdillahi. But there is

no school.

Ali Sheikh Yassin, vice-chairman of Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in
Mogadishu, said that about 20 percent of government troops (thought to number 5,000
to 10,000) were children and that about 80 percent of the rebels were. The leading
insurgent group, which has drawn increasingly close to Al Qaeda, is called the Shabab,
which means youth in Arabic.

These kids can be so easily brainwashed, Mr. Ali said. They dont even have to be
paid.

One of the myriad dangers Awil faces is constant gunfire between his squad and
another group of government soldiers from a different clan. The Somali government is
racked by divisions from the prime ministers office down to the street.

Ive lost hope, said Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siad, a defense minister who abruptly quit
in the past week, like several other ministers. All this international training, its just
training soldiers for the Shabab, he added, saying defections had increased.

Go ask the president what hes accomplished in the past year, Sheik Yusuf said,
laughing. Absolutely nothing.

Advisers to President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed say they have fine-tuned their plans
for a coming offensive, making it more of a gradual military operation to slowly take
the city back from the insurgents.

Awil is eager for action. His commanders say he has already proven himself fighting
against the Shabab, who used to bully him in the market.

That made me want to join the T.F.G., he said. With them, I feel like I am amongst
my brothers.
--------------------
West African Qaeda earns millions from hostages (Middle East Online)

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - An Al-Qaeda branch has raked in millions of dollars

from ransoms, funding a tiny but well-oiled army whose influence spans large parts of
west Africa now too dangerous for tourists, say experts.

There may be only around 300 of them, but Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is
highly mobile, well-equipped and omnipresent.

The kidnapping of tourists, which began in 2003 when 32 German and Swiss travellers
were seized in southern Algeria, has become big business for local thugs.

"The word gets out: 'we are buying hostages'", says AQIM expert Louis Capriolo,
deputy director of the French internal intelligence service from 1998 to 2004.

"Kidnappings are now carried out by local groups, thugs... who sell their catch," he said.

"The AQIM men leave their shelters in northern Mali to fetch their prey and move on.
Next, the negotiations begin and millions (of dollars) are obtained, allowing large
premiums to be paid to the original kidnappers."

French researcher Pierre Boilley from the Sorbonne in Paris, a specialist in Sahelian
nomads, has been unable to carry out fieldwork in nearly two years.

"My Moorish and Touareg friends who are powerful tribal leaders warn me: 'Don't
come, even we cannot protect you.'"

"They tell me 'the youth have become uncontrollable. For some you have become
walking gold. And even if you are with us, if it is necessary to catch you and sell you to
Al-Qaeda, they will," he said in an interview in Paris.

Currently AQIM is holding two Spanish nationals kidnapped in Mauritania in

November 2009 and a 78-year-old Frenchman kidnapped in northern Niger in April.

In return for their release, they want ransoms of millions of dollars and the release of
their members from jail. Many more have been seized and released.

The threat extends beyond kidnappings however.

Four French tourists were killed in Mauritania in 2007; an American was killed in
Nouakchott in 2009 and a string of car bombings and attacks in Algeria since 2002 has
killed scores.
"We must take them seriously," said Anthony Holmes deputy commander for the
United States Africa Command (Africom) and American ambassador to Stuttgart where
the headquarters of the US military's Africa branch is based.

"We estimate they are no more than 300 but they are in the six Sahel countries.

"We know they have relations with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan/Pakistan and we have
good reason to believe that they would like to strike against the US."

The organisation, which started in the late 1990s, linked to Al-Qaeda in 2006.

"AQIM terrorists have long benefited from logistical support networks of desert
traffickers," said Mauritanian Minister of Defence, Hamadi Ould Baba Ould Hamadi.

AQIM expert Caprioli said Al-Qaeda's presence "suits many people."

"Desert trafficking represents wealth, broadly shared. I am not certain the

disappearance of AQIM is desired by everyone."
--------------------
East Africa: Representatives of African Armies in Kigali to Plan Joint Exercise (The
New Times Rwanda)

KIGALI, Rwanda Close to 150 participants from 33 African nations are meeting in
Kigali preparing for a joint military exercise dubbed Africa Endeavour (AE) 2010, slated
for August in Accra, Ghana.

According to the conference's coordinator, Maj. Christophe Semuhungu, AE is a US-

Africa Command (AFRICOM)-sponsored, multinational initiative that seeks to improve
communications between African armies by establishing a network linking their
command and control structures to better prepare for joint operations.

The week-long conference follows similar meetings in Kampala, Uganda, and Accra.
According to Semuhungu, the conference will be attended by over 146 participants
from 33 African nations and representatives from EAC and ECOWAS.

"It is about improving communication in the armed forces - local area network, wide
area network and radio communication. They try to set standards so that African
countries can communicate well," Maj. Semuhungu said on phone.

"Normally, every country will have an opportunity to host a planning conference or an

exercise".
Past field training exercises took place in Pretoria, South Africa (2006), Abuja, Nigeria
(2008) and Libreville, Gabon in 2009.
--------------------
US military not intending to control Africa (Rwanda News Agency)

KIGALI, Rwanda - A new US military program training African armies including

Rwanda is not a US move to dominate the African continent, a senior Rwanda military
chief said Monday.

We are not blind. We know what we want, said RDF Chief of Staff for Land Forces,
Lt. Gen. Caesar Kayizari, at a press briefing on the sidelines of a continental conference
on the Africa Endeavor 2010 program.

Close to 150 participants from 33 African nations - from East Africa and the ECOWAS
sub-regions are meeting in Kigali for a four-day conference preparing for a joint
military exercise dubbed Africa Endeavour (AE) 2010, scheduled for August in Accra,
Ghana.

The Africa Endeavor exercise is one of the key elements that will build a foundation
for a strong and a sustainable cadre for African interoperability capabilities, said Lt.
Gen. Kayizari.

According to Lt. Gen. Kayizari, the challenges such as incompatibility in

communication channels or frequencies, communication equipments, policies and
procedures are major reasons of failures in joint and multinational operational
environments.

Information sharing through interoperable communication and information systems is

one of the major components that need special consideration, said Lt. Gen. Kayizari.

Representing the AFRICOM, the controversial US command for Africa, is Lt. Col. David
Shillington who said that the African Endeavor exercise seeks to strengthen
communication across borders.

Doing so can empower peacemakers and dissuade forces that could spark conflict, he
told journalists. It will help ensure effective rescue missions and timely, coordinated
responses to humanitarian crises.

Lt. Col. Shillington recalled that US President Barack Obama, in Ghana last year,
affirmed that the countries and the people of Africa are a fundamental part of our
interconnected world, promising that America would continue with the continent in
support of a future we want for all our children.
We are proud to work shoulder to shoulder with the African Union, said Lt. Col.
Shillington, adding, because it is in all of our interests to see the realization of a strong,
secure, prosperous, well-governed Africa, unified to achieve positive common goals.

Major Caple Karangwa, the RDF Acting Head of Communication and Information
Systems (foreground), is leading the Rwandan technical delegation at the high-level
continental meet (Photo: MINADEF)

The Conference in Kigali is a final phase of a series of planning conferences which

started with the Initial Planning Conference (IPC) that took place in Kampala (Uganda)
in January this year and the Mid Planning Conference (MPC) that took place in Accra
(Ghana) in last April.

Past Africa Endeavor field training exercises took place in Pretoria, South Africa (2006),
Abuja, Nigeria (2008) and Libreville, Gabon in 2009.
--------------------
Guinea army arrests 'not linked to election' (BBC News)

Guinea - The arrest of several army officers in Guinea is not linked to elections due in
two weeks' time, the army chief has said.

Col Nouhou Thiam said the detentions were over allegations of financial impropriety.

Several of those detained were close to the former military ruler, Capt Moussa Dadis
Camara, who was shot in the head in an assassination attempt last year.

The army has promised to step down after the poll on 27 June.

The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Conakry says the arrests had led to wild rumours
circulating in the capital.

But Col Thiam now says the officers were picked up following the publication of an
internal audit report on the armed forces that implicated them in the alleged misuse of
funds running to tens of thousands of US dollars.

Col Thiam said the management of the funds had been "opaque".

"You know, when you're managing the funds of others, you have to keep and show
accounts," he told French radio.

"In the Guinean army, we grew used to embezzlement, we have accused our elders of
financial mismanagement, and now that transparency rules, we need to show
accounts."
A junta has ruled Guinea since the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte in
December 2008.

Interim junta leader General Sekouba Konate took over in December 2009 from Capt
Camara, who is currently in voluntary exile in Burkina Faso.

Guinea is a country rich in mineral wealth, although its people are among the poorest in
the world.
--------------------
Swaziland: Faceless Bombers Sow Insecurity (IRIN)

MBABANE, Swaziland No individual or group in Swaziland has admitted

responsibility for a spate of recent bombings against government and opposition party
targets, but their actions are creating a sense of instability in the aid-dependent
southern African state.

"The bombings have not caused any casualties as yet, but they are so frequent now and
all over the place that we are asking, 'What is happening in Swaziland?'" an NGO
programme officer, who declined to be identified, told IRIN. So far the bombing
campaign has not disrupted the activities of aid organizations.

Sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch rules Swaziland, where a growing pro-
democracy movement has demanded political reform but received little support from
democratic neighbours South Africa and Mozambique.

King Mswati III currently serves on the Troika on Politics, Defence and Security Co-
operation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and has been
leading the regional body's efforts to re-establish democratic norms in the Indian Ocean
island of Madagascar after the unlawful transfer of power there in 2009.

Swazi police said commercial explosives were detonated on 10 June in the bathroom at
the Magistrate's Court in the commercial hub, Manzini, and that in the past month the
residences of two members of parliament had been petrol bombed, as well as the homes
of three police officers in separate attacks.

Political activist Alex LaNgwenya's home in Bhunya, 80km south of the capital,
Mbabane, was bombed on 8 June; the explosives were so powerful that damage was
caused to homes in an adjacent workers' compound.

LaNgwenya is a leader of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) of the People's

United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), pro-democracy group. He and family
members all survived the attack, and have denied allegations that the bomb was made
by PUDEMO and exploded inadvertently on the premises.

In 2008 two PUDEMO members were killed by an explosion at a bridge about a

kilometre from one of Mswati's palaces. Police alleged that the three men involved -
Musa Dlamini and a South African, Jack Govender, who were killed, as well as another
South African, Amos Mbedzi, who survived the blast - had planned to destroy the
bridge.

The Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008 was enacted soon after the incident, and
PUDEMO and SWAYOCO were banned as terrorist organizations. Several members of
PUDEMO and SWAYOCO were alleged to have carried out a bombing campaign and
detained. Anyone found guilty of belonging to a terrorist organization is liable to a
prison sentence not exceeding 10 years.

Bombings have increased in intensity since 1995, when a petrol bomb extensively
damaged the Houses of Parliament in Lobamba, 20km east of Mbabane. No person or
organisation has ever acknowledged any involvement in a bombing incident.

Death in police custody

Sipho Jele, 34, one of several PUDEMO members on bail after being arrested in 2006 on
various bombing charges, was again arrested on May Day 2010 for wearing a PUDEMO
T-shirt. He died in police custody.

The South Africa-based Swazi Solidarity Network (SSN) said in a statement on 14 June
that the Swazi security forces were using the bombings as a screen to "conduct illegal
raids and arbitrary detentions of known political activists".

The SSN said police had detained more than 10 SWAYOCO members, arrested another
on charges of bombing the two MPs houses, and had raided the home of PUDEMO
president Mario Masuku on 14 June.

The question of who the perpetrators of the bombings are has sharply divided Swazis;
some insist it is the work of political opposition groups, while others maintain the
incidents are being coordinated by elements within the government to justify greater
use of the terrorism act against pro-democracy activists.

"We are confident that, working hand in hand with the entire security apparatus of the
nation, we shall have positive results," Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini told
Parliament recently. "We are confident that arrests would soon be made and a clear
message sent to everyone that terrorism in all its forms would not be tolerated."
--------------------
Sudan's Beshir Forms New Government (AFP)

KHARTOUM, Sudan Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Monday formed a 35-

member government two months after multi-party elections, according to an official
decree distributed to the media.

Beshir handed the key foreign ministry to Ali Karti from his ruling National Congress
Party while the strategic oil ministry went to Luwal Ashweil Deng, from the ex-rebel
South Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

The SPLM held the foreign ministry in the previous government which Beshir dissolved
at the end of May following his re-election victory in April during which his party
retained a majority of seats in parliament.

"President Omar Hassan al-Beshir has announced in a statement the nomination of

ministers and ministers of state," said the decree, a copy of which was received by AFP.

According to the text of the decree, the new government will have 35 cabinet ministers,
compared to 31 in the previous line-up, as well as 42 ministers of state.

Karti, known to be a conservative Islamist, was a minister of state for foreign affairs in a
previous administration and has also served in the past as minister of state for judicial
affairs.

Deng, a member of the ex-rebel SPLM, served as a minister of state for financial affairs
in the previous government.

Twenty-four ministers were chosen from Beshir's National Congress Party while eight
of the ministries went to SPLM members. Three small parties received each a
government ministry.

The ex-rebel SPLM joined the government after signing with the Khartoum government
in 2005 a peace deal that ended a devastating civil war that lasted more than two
decades.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended two decades of war in Sudan by
offering southern Sudan a measure of autonomy until the future of the country is
determined in a referendum set for January 2011.

Sudan produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day and has reserves estimated at six billion
barrels.
Most of it lies on the border between north and south and how to share the revenues
has been a major source of tension in the run-up to the promised referendum on
southern independence due in January.

Earlier this month Beshir warned of an "explosive" situation between north and south
Sudan if the south chooses to break away in the referendum, but he also said: "We have
no other choice but to work with the SPLM for the sake of the country's unity."

Beshir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in
Darfur, was sworn in last month.

At his swearing in ceremony the Sudanese president said he was committed to holding
the referendum on time.

"It is a commitment we will not renege on. We made a vow and we will adhere to it," he
said.

"We will accept, in good faith, the choice of the south, whatever the choice may be," he
said, but stressed he would work for unity.

Over the past few months several deadly clashes took place along the border between
north and south Sudan.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Top UN officials in Sudan call for more political support in year ahead
14 June The most senior United Nations officials in Sudan told the Security Council
today that the international community must take a more active role in promoting
democracy after the recent national elections, particularly ahead of next years
referendum on possible southern secession, and also focus on stabilizing the
increasingly violent Darfur region.

Majority of children in Djibouti threatened by poverty, UN agency warns

14 June As many as two out of three children in Djibouti are exposed to life-
threatening situations because of poverty, the United Nations Childrens Fund
(UNICEF) announced today, warning that urgent action must be taken to prevent the
country from reversing the progress in basic care it has made in recent years.

Ban wraps up Africa trip with stop in Sierra Leone

14 June Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with the leader of Sierra Leone and
survivors of the countrys brutal civil war today, capping off his five-country tour of
Africa.