United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

26 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

U.S. to step up efforts to train, equip African peacekeepers in Somalia (Stars and
Stripes)
(Pan Africa) U.S. forces will step up efforts to train and equip African Union
peacekeepers engaged in a fight against Islamic militants in Somalia, the commander of
AFRICOM said.

US Africa Command digs in, plans to give more aid to Amisom (East African)
(Pan Africa) The United States military command for Africa (Africom) is gaining
acceptance on the continent and is planning to increase its support for the African
Union force in Somalia, the command’s leader said last week.

U.S. Attorney General on Visit to Underscore Anti-Terror Cooperation

(AllAfrica.com)
(Pan Africa) Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Kampala to address African
heads-of-state during the opening day of the Africa Union summit on Sunday.

Officials say little about raid on terrorist camp in Sahara (Washington Post)
(Mauritania) Mauritanian commandos backed by the French military carried out the
raid in the dead of night, guns blazing as they pounced on a small terrorist campsite in
a desolate stretch of the Sahara Desert.

Al-Qaida in N. Africa says French hostage killed (Associated Press)

(North Africa) The leader of al-Qaida's offshoot in North Africa said in a message
broadcast Sunday that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in
April.

Uganda president calls for Africa to fight terror (Associated Press)

(Pan Africa) A top U.S. official on Sunday pledged continued support for African
peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia, as Uganda's president urged African leaders
to unite against terrorism just weeks after Somali militants set off deadly twin bombings
in Uganda.

Kampala twin attacks expose US uncertainty over Somalia (East African)

(Somalia) The terror attacks in Kampala have highlighted the Obama administration’s
uncertainty over how to respond to the Al Shabaab insurgency, a leading US Africa
policy analyst says.

Al-Qaeda in the Sahel (Al Jazeera)

(Algeria) A Saharan front in the GWOT was planned by the US and Algeria in 2002 and
launched in early 2003.

Uganda bombings overshadow African Union summit (CNN)

(Pan Africa) Heads of 35 African nations observed two minutes of silence Sunday to
honor more than 70 people killed in terrorist bomb blasts in Uganda earlier this month
as the African Union summit opened.

Guineans Will Bolster Peace Efforts in Somalia (New York Times)

(Somalia) Guinea has agreed to send hundreds of troops to Somalia to bolster the
African Union’s peacekeeping force in the country after Somali insurgents claimed
responsibility for bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final that killed 76
people.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 ICC puts release of DR Congo warlord on hold pending prosecution appeal
 UN agency sounds alarm on deteriorating treatment of uprooted Somalis
 Top UN officials voice hope that refugees can return home to DR of Congo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, July 28, 2:00 p.m., Rayburn House Office Building
WHAT: National Security, Interagency Collaboration, and Lessons from SOUTHCOM
and AFRICOM
WHO: Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Witnesses by invitation
only.
Info: http://www.oversight.house.gov/index.php?
option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=1&extmode=view&extid=195

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, July 29, 8:15 a.m., Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars
WHAT: African Growth and Opportunity Act Civil Society Forum 2010 “A Decade of
Progress in Bridging the U.S.-Africa Trade Gap”
WHO: Keynote Speakers include Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Senate Foreign
Relations Committee; Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson, African Union*
Info: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?
fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=629709
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

U.S. to step up efforts to train, equip African peacekeepers in Somalia (Stars and
Stripes)

STUTTGART, Germany — U.S. forces will step up efforts to train and equip African
Union peacekeepers engaged in a fight against Islamic militants in Somalia, the
commander of AFRICOM said.

Gen. William “Kip” Ward, in a speech Tuesday at a Washington-based think tank, said
U.S. policy would remain on course as his command looks for ways to lend more
support to African Union soldiers deployed in Somalia to prevent the country’s weak
transitional government from being toppled.

However, more than five years after a Transitional Federal Government was installed in
Somalia with international backing, there has been little progress in ending the chaos
and anarchy that has gripped the country on the strategic Horn of Africa since the
government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in January 1991. Al-Shabab,
the home-grown Islamic militant group, has increased in strength and recently boasted
it had spread its fight beyond Somalia’s borders, claiming responsibility for a bombing
in Uganda.

Meanwhile, the turbulence on land has left Somali pirates free to wreak havoc offshore
in the important shipping lanes off the country’s coastline.

In the six years since the U.S. adopted its containment strategy, there have been few
signs of progress, prompting critics to ask if it’s time to find a new plan. Will more
weapons, training and logistical support for peacekeepers make a difference? Are there
alternatives that U.S. policy makers should be considering? Or is the current strategy
the best choice among a series of unattractive options?

Somalia’s U.S.-backed government still depends on African Union soldiers, mainly

from Uganda, for protection from al-Shabab. Amid the daily back-and-forth fighting in
Mogadishu, thousands of civilians have been killed by small-arms fire and
indiscriminate mortar rounds fired by both sides, according to humanitarian groups.

For the U.S., the fear is that the anarchy in Somalia could turn the country into a
destination point for groups like al-Qaida, who could take refuge and train for future
terror strikes abroad. While there is debate about the likelihood of Somalia serving as a
safe haven, the twin bombings in Uganda claimed by al-Shabab also has U.S. officials
concerned that al-Qaida’s tactics are now being imitated by Somali terrorists.
Nearly two years into the Obama administration, U.S. policy in Somalia remains mostly
unchanged since the Bush era: bolster the failed state’s federal government with the
idea that the clannish society will one day coalesce.

In an interview this month with the South African Broadcasting Corp., President Barack
Obama indicated that remained the policy when he told the network that al-Shabab
needs to be countered.

“The transitional government there is still getting its footing,” Obama said. “But what
we know is that if al-Shabab takes more and more control within Somalia, that it is
going to be exporting violence the way it just did in Uganda.”

However, some Somalia experts — while conceding there is no surefire strategy for
success — say the U.S. and others in the international community need to become more
flexible in how they deal with Somalia.

Bronwyn Bruton, a Council of Foreign Relations scholar, said in a speech at AFRICOM

headquarters on Monday that the U.S. policy in Somalia is badly flawed and attempting
to prop up an unpopular transitional government actually could be contributing to the
escalation of violence in the country.

The solution in Somalia isn’t a military one, according to E.J. Hogendorn, a Kenya-
based scholar with the International Crisis Group.

“What needs to be done is the TFG must do much more to reach out and reconcile with
different local actors on the ground, including moderate elements of al-Shabab, who are
not necessarily proponents of the regional expansion of this jihadi activity,” Hogendorn
said. “The international community needs to send clear signals that if they (TFG) do not
do this, it will be done for them.

“Rather than only dealing with the TFG, the international community should start
dealing directly with some of the more successful administrations in central and
southern Somalia. Don’t channel all the money to the capital.”

Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, agrees that the U.S. needs to look for other players in Somalia to
work with and not focus exclusively on the transitional government. But implementing
such a strategy is complicated, she said.

“We’ve been absent from Somalia for so long we’ve lost the ability to identify partners,”
Cooke said.

And while U.S. strategy revolves around the transitional government and the African
Union soldiers who protect it, there is little support in Africa for the African Union
Mission in Somalia, which involves 6,000 Ugandan and Burundi troops. Following al-
Shabab’s bombings in Uganda earlier this month, Ugandan officials said they would
consider sending more forces to Somalia. However, no other nation has offered help,
and the mission remains well short of the AU’s 8,000-troop goal. Other assessments,
both by the U.N. and other experts, estimate a peacekeeping force between 20,000 and
100,000 would be required to secure Somalia — a country about the size Texas.

“This mission is grossly understaffed for a peacekeeping mission,” Hogendorn said.

With no international interest in making a serious military investment, some Somalia

scholars say the time has come for a radically different approach: abandon all efforts
and let the Somalis figure it out on their own.

“The more we intervene the more damage we do,” Bruton, author of the recent Council
on Foreign Relations special report: “Somalia: A New Approach,” told AFRICOM staff
members Monday.

During her visit to AFRICOM headquarters, as part of the command’s guest speaker
program, Bruton argued for a U.S. policy that disengages from dealing with the TFG.
Bruton says the approach is too limited and indecisive to reverse the military stalemate.
Increased civilian casualties, largely attributed to foreign troops, also have turned the
population against the African Union mission, she said.

“The African Union is even more toxic (in Somalia) than the United States,” she said. “It
will be impossible for the TFG to win hearts and minds,” she said.

In addition, the U.S.’s continued backing of the mission could actually strengthen al-
Shabab, which uses the foreign presence as a rallying point, Bruton said.

That critique goes to the heart of the challenge facing U.S. policy makers, who view the
AU force in Somalia —AMISOM — as the best option in Somalia. Even before her visit
to the Stuttgart headquarters, Bruton’s call for a “constructive disengagement” from
Somalia had gotten the attention of AFRICOM leadership. Her paper has been widely
distributed and is provoking discussion about U.S. policy in Somalia.

“What you’ve said… is that an increase in the size of AMISOM, in your view, is going
to be counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve?” AFRICOM’s civilian deputy
commander Anthony Holmes asked Bruton on Monday. “There is such a stark
contradiction.”

While al-Shabab would likely seize control of Mogadishu if AMISOM pulled out,
Bruton argues that the terror group would split apart under the burden of governing a
place as complex and splintered as Somalia.
“Leave Somalis to solve the problem because this has been caused by external
intervention,” she said. “I don’t think their solutions include a government right now.”

But in the aftermath of the twin bombings in Uganda earlier this month, concern is
mounting within the U.S. government that al-Shabab will become more expeditionary
in its deployment of terror.

To leave Somalia to its own devices, and hope Shabab disintegrates, requires a risky
leap of faith, argues Hogendorn.

“That’s a big if, that al-Shabab is going to fall apart. Then what you have is something
similar to the Taliban in Somalia,” he said. “There are elements of Shabab quite willing
to export their jihad.”
--------------------
US Africa Command digs in, plans to give more aid to Amisom (East African)

The United States military command for Africa (Africom) is gaining acceptance on the
continent and is planning to increase its support for the African Union force in Somalia,
the command’s leader said last week.

In a speech to a group of Africa specialists at a think tank in Washington, Gen William

Ward emphasised that Africom is engaged in “a sustained, long-term endeavour.”

Saying “we have turned a corner,” Gen Ward suggested that African leaders are
growing less sceptical of the purposes of the three-year-old command which is
headquartered in Germany.

African nations have been reluctant to host Africom due to suspicions of American
intentions as well as fears that a US military installation would invite attacks

At the same time, Africom is moving to expand its operations — not in the form of
uniformed US troops, but through private contractors who will assist in efforts to
safeguard American interests in Africa.

A Paris-based newsletter reported last month that Africom is soliciting bids for an air
reconnaissance programme as part of the State Department’s Trans-Sahara Counter-
Terrorism Partnership.

Under this initiative, Africom works with 10 countries in the Maghreb and West Africa
to monitor and disrupt Al Qaeda’s activities in those areas.

The surveillance operation outlined in Africom’s call for bids will involve two
unmarked reconnaissance aircraft as well as a drone, or “unmanned aerial vehicle,”
according to Maghreb Confidential, a publication of the Africa Intelligence group.
Three teams of private contractors serving as pilots, analysts and technicians will
conduct intelligence missions in coordination with the militaries of the countries where
they will be based, the newsletter reported.

Africom will also buy 83 four-wheel-drive vehicles that “must be able to drive
unnoticed on African roads,” according to the Maghreb Confidential account.

The unmarked vehicles are to be delivered to countries taking part in the Trans-Sahara
counter-terrorism programme.

Africom’s move to contract with private firms for counter-terrorism operations

coincides with a $375 million State Department initiative involving use of US profit-
making companies to train the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Sudan and other African countries.

This African Peacekeeping Programme (Africap) also involves construction work on

behalf of selected countries’ militaries.

Private US military contractors have also worked with the Ugandan and Burundian
troops assigned to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

And Gen Ward indicated last week that Africom will be seeking ways to bolster
Amisom’s capabilities in the wake of the recent terror bombings in Kampala carried out
by Somalia’s Al Shabaab insurgents.

He ruled out direct US military involvement in Somala on the grounds that it would
represent “an irritant and a distraction.”

The US is also worried about the presence of Al Qaeda and other militant Islamist
groups in the trans-Sahara region.

The instability they breed there as well as in East Africa can lead to “attacks against US
persons and interests around the world, or, in the worst case, against the US
homeland,” Gen Ward warned last week.

In his speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the general depicted
Africom as a force for stability and good governance in Africa.

He said its purpose is to help African leaders achieve their stated aim of developing
“self-sustaining, accountable” security forces in their countries.

Gen Ward added that Africom’s long-term commitment to assisting African forces will
be implemented “on an African, not an American, time-line.”
Some analysts argue that Africom’s main aim is to help secure the oil and gas supplies
that the United States relies on receiving from Africa.
--------------------
U.S. Attorney General on Visit to Underscore Anti-Terror Cooperation
(AllAfrica.com)

Washington, DC — Attorney General Eric Holder will travel to Kampala to address

African heads-of-state during the opening day of the Africa Union summit on Sunday.

Holder's trip, which includes two days in Cairo, comes two weeks after twin bombings
in the Ugandan capital caused 74 deaths and scores of injuries. The attorney general
will meet African leaders "to discuss joint U.S.-Africa efforts to promote peace,
development and justice, including cooperation on fighting terrorism," a Justice
Department advisory says. He is expected to be joined in those discussions by the U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Johnnie Carson, who arrived in in Kampala after
a stopover in Addis Ababa.

The timing of the Africa visit by Holder, who as head of the Justice Department
oversees the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement
Agency, underscores high-level concern within the Obama administration over the
growing threat posed by insecurity in Somalia and the actions of the Somali insurgent
movements, particularly al-Shabaab, which claimed to have carried out the Kampala
attacks. The movement is waging a fierce battle inside Somalia to overthrow the
Transitional Federal Government, which enjoys international recognition and U.S.
backing but controls limited territory in the capital, Mogadishu.

Immediately after the July 11 bombings, which occurred during the final match of the
2010 World Cup, an FBI team was dispatched to Kampala to help with the
investigation.

"We are making whatever assistance available to the Ugandan government as they deal
with the aftermath of this attack," a senior administration official told reporters in a
White House briefing on July 14. "We've also made sure that other countries in the
region understand that the United States stands with them against these types of attacks
that are carried out by groups such as Al Shabaab."

Several leaders of Shabaab, which was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the
United States in 2008, are reported to have ties to Al Qaeda. Executive Order 13536
issued by President Obama in April "targets those who threaten peace and stability in
Somalia and those who interfere with humanitarian assistance there," the official said.
"We have designated an Al Shabaab military commander, frozen the assets of a major
Al Shabaab financier, and increased the tools available to support international efforts
to weaken this group."

Holder travels to Cairo on Tuesday, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Public
Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, Minister of the Interior General Habib Ibrahim al-
Adly, Minister of Justice Mamdouh Merei and Minister of Legislative and
Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Mufid Mahmoud Shehab, the Justice Department said.

The attorney general will also host a round table with reporters at the U.S. Embassy on
Wednesday before returning to Washington.
--------------------
Officials say little about raid on terrorist camp in Sahara (Washington Post)

PARIS - Mauritanian commandos backed by the French military carried out the raid in
the dead of night, guns blazing as they pounced on a small terrorist campsite in a
desolate stretch of the Sahara Desert.

The troops killed six members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Osama bin Laden's
loosely organized North African affiliate, but four militants escaped into the
surrounding wastelands, Mauritanian Interior Minister Mohamed Ould Boilil said
Friday.

Details of the attack, mounted early Thursday near the border of Mali and Mauritania,
were tightly held by the governments concerned. But as reports filtered out, it seemed
another inconclusive chapter in the little-noticed struggle by several North African
nations to snuff out a tiny al-Qaeda-style movement hiding in the Sahara far from the
headline-making events of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

The French Defense Ministry said Friday that the Mauritanian military carried out the
raid "with technical and logistical support" from France, without further defining the
support. In Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, Ould Boilil said the raid was designed
to prevent a planned attack on a military base in Mauritania.

French officials declined to comment on reports that the commandos and the French
military had engaged in a joint operation to free a French hostage, Michel Germaneau, a
retired engineer who was kidnapped April 22 in neighboring Niger. The terrorist group
threatened last week to execute Germaneau if several of its imprisoned members were
not released by Monday.

In a video distributed by the group in May, Germaneau complained of poor health and
asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to find a solution to his abduction. Six weeks
later, the group published the execution threat.
The Web site of El País, a Madrid newspaper, quoted diplomatic sources as reporting
that French special forces were directly involved in the raid. El País said that the
unspoken goal was to liberate Germaneau but that he was not at the campsite, contrary
to electronic intelligence supplied by the United States. Bernard Valero, a French
Foreign Ministry spokesman, declined to confirm or deny the El País report. "From the
beginning, we have been fully mobilized to get our fellow citizen liberated," he said.

Operating in small groups believed to total no more than 500 combatants, al-Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb has remained largely in the isolated desert region where Mali,
Mauritania, Niger and Algeria come together.

But terrorism specialists said some of its units have raised large amounts of money
through ransom and duties imposed on cigarette and drug smugglers passing through
the remote desert.
--------------------
Al-Qaida in N. Africa says French hostage killed (Associated Press)

The leader of al-Qaida's offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast Sunday
that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in April.

In an audio message broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Abdelmalek Droukdel said the group

killed the 78-year-old French hostage in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaida
members in a recent raid by Mauritanian forces aided by the French military.

The hostage, Michel Germaneau, was abducted April 22 in Niger and officials believed
he was subsequently taken to Mali. Al-Qaida demanded in several Internet messages
addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France help negotiate the release of
the group's prisoners in countries in the region.

"Sarkozy has (not only) failed to free his compatriot in this failed operation, but he
opened the doors of hell for himself and his people," Droukdel said.

"As a quick response to the despicable French act, we confirm that we have killed
hostage Germaneau in revenge for our six brothers who were killed in the treacherous
operation," he said.

French government officials would not immediately comment on Sunday's audio

message.

The precise circumstances of the recent military raid in northwest Africa remain a
mystery. In announcing the operation on Friday, the French Defense Ministry would
not say when or where the raid took place.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais and other media have reported that the raid took place
early Thursday and was an attempt to free the French hostage. But El Pais said the
troops did not find Germaneau, who had worked for Algeria's oil industry.

The offshoot of the terror network, known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, had
given France until Monday to help secure the release of its jailed members in the region,
warning that the aid worker would be executed if Paris failed to comply.

The group is also holding two Spanish aid workers, Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta,
who were taken hostage in Mauritania in November.

Amid increasing concerns about terrorism and trafficking in northwest Africa, four
countries — Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger — in April opened a joint military
headquarters deep in the desert. The goal has been to establish a collective response to
threats from traffickers and the al-Qaida offshoot.

The United States is also trying to help and has provided U.S.-run training sessions for
African troops in the area.
--------------------
Uganda president calls for Africa to fight terror (Associated Press)

KAMPALA, Uganda -- A top U.S. official on Sunday pledged continued support for
African peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Somalia, as Uganda's president urged African
leaders to unite against terrorism just weeks after Somali militants set off deadly twin
bombings in Uganda.

President Yoweri Museveni told some 35 heads of state who convened in Uganda's
capital for an African Union summit that the continent needed to step up its efforts
against terror.

"Let us work in concert to sweep (terrorists) out of Africa," he said.

The July 11 bombings in Kampala were claimed by an al-Qaida-linked militant group in

Somalia. The group, al-Shabab, said the attacks were in retaliation for civilian deaths
caused by AU peacekeepers in Somalia. Al-Shabab has also called on Somalis to fight
AU peacekeepers.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the top U.S. representative at the summit, said the
U.S. will continue to support AU peacekeeping efforts in Somalia.

The AU mission in Somalia has about 6,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi, but the
force is expected to rise after Guinea and Djibouti pledged additional forces.
"The United States applauds the heroic contributions that are being made on a daily
basis by Uganda and Burundian troops," Holder said. "We pledge to maintain our
support for the AU and the AU Mission in Somalia."

Holder condemned the bombings in Uganda and said a forensic team from the FBI is
helping Ugandan authorities with the investigation.

"Make no mistake, these attacks were nothing more than reprehensible acts of
cowardice inspired by a radical and corrupt ideology," Holder said.

Museveni also told leaders his government had arrested suspected organizers of the
bombings and that interrogations were yielding "good information."

The bombings were al-Shabab's first attack outside Somalia where last year they
claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack, among others, on a base of AU troops
protecting the weak U.N.-backed Somali government.

Both men spoke at a summit that planned to focus on health issues, peace and security,
infrastructure, energy and food security. But the twin bombings two weeks ago and the
conflict in Somalia are likely to dominate many discussions at the three-day summit.

Somalia has not had a functioning government for 20 years. The current administration
holds a few blocks of the capital and has been hampered by squabbling and corruption.

The president recently reshuffled the Cabinet but many of the same officials remain and
it is unclear how the new administration intends to provide services or security.

The U.S. and the European Union have spent millions of dollars to train 2,000 Somali
government soldiers at bases in Uganda, but the program's success was questioned
after a group of Somali soldiers trained in Djibouti deserted because they were not paid.

Holder also announced Sunday that his office is forming a new initiative to combat
large-scale foreign official corruption. African countries are frequently criticized for
corruption, and Somalia has been named the world's most corrupt country by
Transparency International.

Somalia's weak government is fighting an Islamist insurgency that is itself riven by

divisions. Al-Shabab, the strongest insurgent group, has pledged allegiance to Osama
bin Laden, and the U.S. State Department says some of its leaders have links to al-
Qaida.

Intelligence sources say hundreds of extremist foreign fighters are operating in the
failed state. Many of them are Somalis with dual nationalities and diplomats fear they
may one day launch an attack on the West.
Many of the fighters have experience in the battlefields of Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Iraq, international officials say.
--------------------
Kampala twin attacks expose US uncertainty over Somalia (East African)

The terror attacks in Kampala have highlighted the Obama administration’s uncertainty
over how to respond to the Al Shabaab insurgency, a leading US Africa policy analyst
says.

“I don’t think the administration knows what to do about Somalia,” comments

Princeton Lyman, a former US ambassador to South Africa and now a scholar at the
non-governmental Council on Foreign Relations.

The United States “can’t just walk away from a government it recognises,” Mr Lyman
says, but adds that the current US approach is not succeeding.

He suggests Washington could try to apply “an Iraq-type strategy in Somalia,” whereby
some clans would be persuaded to fight against Al Shabaab.

Unlike in Iraq, however, the US has almost no presence on the ground in Somalia, Mr
Lyman notes.

It is thus unlikely that US policy will change much in the short-term, he says.

A State Department official meanwhile told The EastAfrican that Al Shabaab’s attack in
Kampala “furthers our resolve” in backing the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)
and the African Union military mission in Somalia (Amisom).

A senior Obama administration official added in a press briefing last week that the US
needs to “build up the capabilities of Amisom as well as the TFG.”

The State Department official said separately, however, that “it may be premature to
start translating these attacks into an increase” in Amisom’s strength.

The African Union’s recent call for a four-fold expansion of Amisom’s current 5,000-
troop level will be discussed at an AU summit in Kampala later this month, this official
added.

A spokesman for the US National Security Council meanwhile told The EastAfrican that
US Attorney General Eric Holder and the State Department’s top Africa specialist
Johnnie Carson are scheduled to attend the AU summit.
The Obama administration is unequivocal in ruling out the option of withdrawing
support for the TFG.

Reporters taking part in last week’s White House-organised press briefing were told by
one of two US officials on hand the Kampala bombings show that “what we’ve seen in
Kampala is a good example of why that’s not a viable way forward.”

The official was referring specifically to a Council on Foreign Relations report earlier
this year by Somalia expert Bronwyn Bruton, who called for “constructive
disengagement” from Somalia on the grounds that the TFG does not deserve continued
US underwriting.

To Ms Bruton, the Kampala bombings validate her view that the TFG is incapable of
defeating Al Shabaab.

Increasing US aid to the TFG would amount to “rewarding incompetence,” Ms Bruton

said.

The Kampala attacks should be taken as a warning of the futility of escalating

Amisom’s involvement in Somalia, she added.

Al Shabaab’s killing of World Cup fans in the Ugandan capital was meant as “direct
retaliation for the plan to increase the number of peacekeepers on the ground in
Somalia,” Ms Bruton said.
--------------------
Al-Qaeda in the Sahel (Al Jazeera)

A Saharan front in the 'global war on terror' was planned between the US and the
Algerian government in 2002 and launched in 2003.

In November 2009, Richard Barrett of the UN's al-Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team said
that while attacks by al-Qaeda and its operatives were decreasing in many parts of the
world, the situation was worsening in North Africa. He was referring specifically to the
Sahel region of southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Mauritania.

While the UN statement fits the catastrophic image being portrayed of the Sahara-Sahel
region by the US, European and other Western interests, the truth is not only very
different, but even more serious in that both the launch of the Saharan-Sahelian front in
the 'global war on terror' (GWOT) and the subsequent establishment of al-Qaeda in the
region have been fabricated.

These two deceptions have one key feature in common, namely that they were both
implemented by Algeria's secret military intelligence service, the Département du
Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS), with the knowledge and complicity of the US.
I will explain each in turn.

Militarising Africa

A Saharan front in the GWOT was planned by the US and Algeria in 2002 and launched
in early 2003.

The pivotal incident that justified the launch of the new front was the abduction in
February-March 2003 of 32 tourists in the Algerian Sahara, ostensibly by Islamic
extremists of Algeria's Groupe Salafiste pour le Prédication et le Combat (GSPC) under
the leadership of Amari Saifi (aka El Para). However, it transpired that El Para was an
agent of Algeria's DRS and his false flag operation had been undertaken with the
complicity of the US department of defence.

The idea of creating false flag incidents to justify military intervention is not new in US
history. In 1962, for example, the US joint chiefs of staff drew up and approved plans,
codenamed Operation Northwoods, that called for CIA and other operatives to commit
acts of terrorism on innocent civilians in US cities and elsewhere, thus giving the
appearance of a Communist Cuban terror campaign in Miami, other Florida cities and
even Washington that would create public support for a war against Fidel Castro's
Cuba. The plan was ultimately rejected by President Kennedy.

Forty years later, in the summer of 2002, a very similar plan was presented to Donald
Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, by his Defence Science Board (DSB). The Defence
Science Board recommended the creation of a 'Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group
(P2OG)', a covert organisation that would carry out secret missions to "stimulate
reactions" among terrorist groups by provoking them into undertaking violent acts that
would expose them to "counterattack" by US forces, along with other operations which,
through the US military penetration of terrorist groups and the recruitment of local
peoples, would dupe them into conducting "combat operations, or even terrorist
activities". The first 'pilot' test of the P2OG was El Para's operation in Algeria.

I explained how and why this complex relationship between the US and Algerian
security services developed in my book, The Dark Sahara. But to explain it in a nutshell:
for the US, the presence of terrorism, fabricated or real, in the Sahara-Sahel region
would legitimise the launch of a new front in the GWOT in Africa. This, in turn, and as
explained subsequently by numerous US government officials, would justify the
'militarisation' of Africa (seen in the authorisation of AFRICOM in 2006 and its
establishment in 2008) and the securement for the US of African oil resources.

For Algeria, its new relationship with the US would hopefully enable the procurement
of modern high-tech military equipment for Algeria's run-down military and a return
from pariah status (after its Dirty War of the 1990s) to international acceptability as
Washington's key ally in the GWOT.

The Saharan front

Within two months of El Para's hostage-takings, the US' top military commander in
Europe (with responsibility for Africa), General James Jones spoke of "large ungoverned
areas across Africa that are clearly the new routes of narco trafficking, terrorist training
and hotbeds of instability".

Even before the hostages had been released, the administration of George Bush had
designated the Sahara as a new front in the GWOT. Bush referred to El Para as 'bin
Laden's man in the Sahel', while Jones' deputy commander described the Sahara as a
"swamp of terror", a "terrorist infestation", which "we need to drain". The US military
even produced a series of maps designating the Sahara-Sahel as a 'Terror Zone'.

In January 2004, Bush's Pan-Sahel Initiative (PSI) saw US troops, special forces and
'contractors' being deployed into Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad. In 2005, the PSI
was expanded through the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) to
include Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, thus linking two of Africa's
main oil and gas-producing regions, Algeria and Nigeria, into a military security
arrangement whose architecture was American.

With no 'real' terrorism in the region, the US, through the region's repressive regimes,
sought to provoke what it called 'putative terrorists'. Algerian police, acting as agents
provocateurs, provoked riots in the city of Tamanrasset; in Niger, a trumped up murder
charge against a Tuareg minister was designed to trigger a Tuareg rebellion, while in
May 2006, the DRS, accompanied by some 100 US special forces, flown covertly from
Stuttgart to Tamanrasset, crossed into northern Mali to support a short-lived Tuareg
rebellion.

Increasing political instability and insecurity, generated primarily by this fabricated

front in the GWOT, the increasing repression of US-backed regimes and the associated
damage to local economies and livelihoods, led to the outbreak of Tuareg rebellions in
Niger in February 2007 and in Mali a few months later.

The problem for the US was that the Tuareg rebellions were proof that political unrest
in the Sahel, contrary to Washington's disinformation, had nothing to do with Islamic
extremism, but was the outcome of the US' own duplicitous policy in the region - what
Americans call 'blow-back'.

All in a name

Hostage-taking has been used to justify launching the Saharan front [AFP/SITE]
However, US embarrassment at the Tuareg rebellions was spared by the concurrent re-
emergence in the region of the name 'al-Qaeda'. In January 2007, two weeks before the
start of the Niger rebellion in Niger, the GSPC, which had been insignificant in the
region since El Para's operation, changed its name to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM).

AQIM is structured into three 'components': the 'real' AQIM, AQIM cells that have been
created by the DRS and AQIM cells that have been infiltrated by the DRS.

In the case of AQIM in the Sahara-Sahel, now known as al-Qaeda in the Sahel (AQIS) or
the 'Sahara Emirate' ('Imarat Essahra'), it is difficult to distinguish between the latter
two. Of the AQIS's alleged leaders, Abdelhamid abou Zaïd, Yahia Djouadi (and their
many aliases) and Mokhtar ben Mokhtar (MBM) all have linkages to the DRS.
Abdelhamid abou Zaïd is closely associated with the DRS, being El Para's 'number two'
in the 2003 operation; Djouadi was also a member of El Para's team, while MBM has a
more 'freelance' relationship with the DRS.

In short, the AQIS is the latest manifestation of the DRS' successful creation and
infiltration of Islamic 'terrorist' groups, in much the same way that the GIA leadership
was infiltrated by DRS agents Djamel Zitouni and Antar Zouabri in the 1990s. In the
case of the GIA's successor, the GSPC founder Hassan Hattab now lives under the
protection of the DRS.

Since 2008, 15 westerners have been taken hostage either directly by the AQIS or by
local criminals, and then handed over to the AQIS. Most have finished up in the hands
of Abdelhamid abou Zaïd. One of these, a Briton, was killed; three are still in captivity,
while the remainder have been released, allegedly for ransom payments.

Much publicity has recently been given by Western intelligence services and the media
to the assumed link between trans-Saharan trafficking of cocaine, flown into Sahel
states, especially Mali, from South America, and AQIS. While a complex network does
exist between the drugs traffickers and AQIS, Western intelligence services have failed
to point out in their briefings, reports and 'leaks' to the media that the leaders of both
AQIS and the drug trafficking operations are either agents of or closely linked to the
highest levels of state security in the countries concerned, namely Algeria's DRS and
Mali's state security.

American, British and other Western intelligence services are all aware of the way in
which the DRS has effectively constructed the AQIM/AQIS in the Sahara-Sahel, but
have failed to take action against it. This is because AQIS, far from being a threat to the
West, is more of an adjunct to the West's overall strategies in the region. It provides the
US with further justification for AFRICOM while providing European powers, notably
France whose nuclear industry is powered by the Sahel's uranium, with the justification
to intervene militarily in the resource-rich corridor of the Sahel. And, of course, the
'threat' of al-Qaeda so close to Europe, provides European countries, such as the UK,
Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, with justification for their immigration,
security and 'counter-terrorism' policies.

Self-fulfilling prophecy?

The key player, however, in this duplicitous strategy is probably no longer the US, but
the Algerian DRS. Since 2006, the DRS has been operating increasingly independently
of its US and European counterparts. It is also dangerously riven by internal divisions,
as reflected in Algeria's current political crisis.

The key focus of any further analysis should therefore be directed primarily at Algeria.
Through its DRS, Algeria is now operating increasingly autonomously in presenting
itself to the US and Europe as the indispensable ally of the West. This is, however, a
very dangerous game.

On the one hand, the DRS, through its infiltration and control of AQIS, is maintaining a
sufficient threat in the region to justify its military expansion - on behalf of both the
West and its own hegemonic designs in the region. On the other hand, some elements
within the Algerian regime are opposed to such a strategy and the possibility of
Western intervention in the region.

At the same time, the DRS' control of the 'Sahara Emirate' is by no means absolute. As
an increasing number of young Muslims in Mauritania, Mali and elsewhere look to the
'Emirate' to provide a solution to their own repressed lives, a purposeful ideology and
even adventure, there is a very real threat that it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy
and take on a life of its own.

While this is unlikely, the West would be better advised to question why Algeria is
making so much publicity about raising troop levels in the region to the absurd figure
of 75,000 by 2012. Who is the enemy they will fight? The DRS currently puts the number
of named suspected terrorists (including its own agents) in the Sahel at only 108, while
the less well informed CIA estimates 300 to 400.

The answer is not in the threat posed by al-Qaeda, but in the far more dangerous
political crisis emerging within Algeria itself.
--------------------
Uganda bombings overshadow African Union summit (CNN)

Munyonyo, Uganda - Heads of 35 African nations observed two minutes of silence

Sunday to honor more than 70 people killed in terrorist bomb blasts in Uganda earlier
this month as the African Union summit opened.
"Our condolences go to the people of Uganda for the tragic loss of lives following that
tragic incident," said Bingu Wa Mutharika, AU chairman and Malawian president.

"Terrorism has no place in Africa; it has no place in the developing world," he said. "Let
us all condemn these acts."

The summit, which formally opened Sunday following a week of conferences, is being
held at a resort hotel in Munyonyo, about 12 kilometers south of the Ugandan capital of
Kampala on the shore of Lake Victoria. On July 11, three bombs at two sites in Kampala
killed 74 people and injured more than 80. Many of the victims had gathered to watch
the World Cup finals.

The Al-Shabaab militant group, which is currently battling the weak transitional
government in war-torn Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying they
were in retaliation for Uganda's contribution of troops for peacekeeping operations in
Somalia. About 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops were deployed for the
peacekeeping mission more than two years ago in the Horn of Africa nation, which has
been at war for more than a decade.

Mutharika, in his remarks, stopped short of making any commitment toward AU

peacekeeping missions in Somali and the Darfur region of Sudan. However, AU
Commission Chairman Jean Ping said on Friday that Guinea and Djibouti have
battalions of soldiers ready to be be deployed to Somalia.

Forty-three heads of state have said they will attend the Summit. Thirty-five had
arrived by Sunday, including Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Nigerian president
Goodluck Jonathan.

"While people were enjoying the World Cup, Uganda was having the dark side of it,"
Jonathan told the conference. "Nigeria condemns that terrorist attack on innocent
people in totality and we stand in solidarity with Uganda."

While the theme of the three-day summit is maternal, infant and child health, the
subject has been overshadowed by the Ugandan attacks, the deteriorating security
situation in Somalia and the attacks by Al-Shabaab.

"We find the terrorist bomb attacks in Kampala despicable," Ping told attendees Friday.
"We welcome the pledges of other countries in providing the troops to Somalia,
including from Djibouti, which already has a battalion ready."

Ping said he has been discussing the issue throughout the week with various African
authorities and by the end of the summit, he expects more nations to pledge troops to
Somalia peacekeeping efforts.
The attacks are cause for Africa to change its stance on terrorism, Adris Piebalgs,
European Union commissioner for development, told reporters at the summit.

"The recent bombings in Kampala have changed things greatly. We have just witnessed
AU leadership during the opening of the summit today paying more attention on
terrorism coming (from) Somalia," Piebalgs said. "We are seeing real commitment, with
more countries contributing to the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia." The EU will
continue its support of the mission, he said, and urges more African nations to get
involved and "deal with the problem."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also spoke at the summit, saying the United States
"recognizes that ending the threat of al-Shabaab to the world will take more than just
law enforcement. That is why we are working closely with the AU to support the
African Union's mission in Somalia ... we pledge to maintain our support."

The United States also recognizes that ending the threat of al-Shabaab to the world will
take more than just law enforcement. That is why we are working closely with the AU
to support the African Union's Mission in Somalia. The United States applauds the
heroic contributions that are being made on a daily basis by Ugandan and Burundian
troops, and we pledge to maintain our support for the AU and the AU Mission in
Somalia.

Some 20 people have been arrested in connection with the Kampala blasts, Ugandan
leader Yoweri Museveni told the summit, and have been giving investigators "useful"
information about terrorist operations.

"The organizers of these attacks have been arrested. Their interrogations are yielding
useful information," Museveni said.

"I have great contempt for the authors of terrorism," he told the summit. "... They attack
innocent people. I recommend (to) the AU leaders not to accept this terrorist arrogance."

Museveni told the summit the mandate of the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia
should be changed, with troops able to beyond Mogadishu and hunt Al-Shabaab and
other militant groups. Piebalgs said he would support a wider mandate for the mission
from the United Nations Security Council, and urged AU leadership to seek it.

Somali insurgents reportedly killed two Ugandan peacekeepers this week in attacks on
AU and government military positions in Somalia's battered capital, Mogadishu.

"How can these people dare attack the AU flag?" Museveni said. "These terrorists can be
and should be defeated. Let us act in concert and sweep them out of Africa. Let them go
back to Asia and the Middle East where they came from."
--------------------
Guineans Will Bolster Peace Efforts in Somalia (New York Times)

KAMPALA, Uganda — Guinea has agreed to send hundreds of troops to Somalia to

bolster the African Union’s peacekeeping force in the country after Somali insurgents
claimed responsibility for bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final that killed
76 people.

The announcement, made on Friday, came during the 15th African Union summit
meeting in Kampala, the normally peaceful Ugandan capital, which was deeply shaken
by the attacks on July 11.

More than 50 heads of state are expected to attend the meeting, whose theme is
maternal and child health and development in Africa. But the attacks have threatened
to overshadow the gathering, and the troop announcement offered an early indication
of how the African Union intended to respond to the deadliest strike by Somali
insurgents on a neighboring country.

The troops from Guinea — a battalion in all — are expected to join a separate force from
Djibouti, making for the mission’s first deployments from predominantly Muslim
countries. Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, called the new troops
a “major boost” for the peacekeeping force in Somalia, and said it could push the
number of soldiers on the ground to close to 10,000.

The Shabab, Islamist insurgents who control much of Somalia, said the World Cup
attacks in Kampala were retaliation for the involvement of Ugandan troops as the
backbone of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. The peacekeeping
mission has been there since 2007, helping to prop up a Western-backed transitional
government that would almost certainly fall without the outside support.

The insurgents have been enforcing their harsh version of Islam in Somalia — banning
music, bras and soccer — and have been fanning a religious war against the
peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, two predominantly Christian nations.

The Shabab have at times called the peacekeepers infidels, and accuse the Ugandan
troops of committing crimes against Somali civilians. The African Union has been
widely criticized as shelling residential areas indiscriminately.

Since Guinea and Djibouti are predominantly Muslim nations, the choice to send their
troops to Somalia may have been an attempt to help neutralize tension.

“We welcome them,” said Felix Kuliagye, a Ugandan military spokesman. “Religion
plays a key in acceptability.”
The African Union summit meeting in Kampala is still officially supposed to focus on
maternal health and public policy. African Union member states pledged in 2001 to
increase health care spending to 15 percent of their national budgets, but this year only
three countries are expected to meet that goal, according to public health advocates.

Activists are using the attention of the meeting in Kampala to voice their concerns by
staging mock debates, perhaps the first at an African Union summit meeting and a
testament to the region’s passionate and creative civil society.

But in this city, now besieged by security forces, the original focus of the conference
may be lost.

“We are calling on leaders to be serious this time,” said Beatrice Were, a South African
public health advocate. “Look at how they react to the terrorist attacks here in Kampala.
Our leaders should act the same way towards AIDS.”
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

ICC puts release of DR Congo warlord on hold pending prosecution appeal

23 July – The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) today
suspended the decision by the trials chamber to release war crimes suspect Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), pending the
determination of the prosecution’s appeal of the verdict.

UN agency sounds alarm on deteriorating treatment of uprooted Somalis

23 July – In the wake of recent terrorist attacks by a Somali rebel group in Uganda, the
United Nations refugee agency today expressed its alarm over xenophobic incidents,
round-ups and deportations of displaced Somalis both within and outside their
country’s borders.

Top UN officials voice hope that refugees can return home to DR of Congo
23 July – The top United Nations food and refugee officials today expressed hope that
security will soon improve to allow people uprooted by years of conflict in the volatile
east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to return home and begin farming
their land.