United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

27 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

US envoy says more troops needed in Somalia (AFP)

(Pan Africa) More troops are needed on the ground in Somalia in order to defeat the
extremist forces there that pose a regional and international threat, said US Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson said on the sidelines of the African Union
summit in Kampala.

U.S. and Mozambican Officials Announce SHARED ACCORD 2010 (Marine Forces
Africa)
(Mozambique) Spokespersons from the U.S. Embassy in Maputo, along with
Mozambique military officials, jointly announced plans for Exercise SHARED
ACCORD 2010 during a press briefing at the Mozambique Ministry of Defense here,
July 23.

US, Norway pledge aid to rebuild Somalia: African Union (AFP)

(Somalia) The United States and Norway have pledged reconstruction aid to Somalia's
transitional government, an African Union official said Monday on the sidelines of the
AU summit in Uganda.

U.S. to Seize Money Stolen From Africans (The Monitor)

(Pan Africa) The United States will not provide a safe haven for money stolen from
Africa by its corrupt leaders, US President Barack Obama said yesterday.

The threat from East Africa (Washington Post)

(Pan Africa) The recent terrorist attacks in Kampala, Uganda, and the court hearing
Monday of an American charged with trying to join the jihad in Somalia, are worrisome
signs that a new transnational terrorist network is taking shape in East Africa -- one that
may have its sights set on the United States.

Al Qaeda kills French hostage in Mali, says Sarkozy has 'opened the doors of hell'
(Christian Science Monitor)
(Pan Africa) A 78-year-old French aid worker is dead, a 95-day-long hostage crisis may
be over, and the governments of Europe and West Africa may have more to fear from
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Sahelian franchise that US officials say is
in the midst of a recruitment boom.

Africa seeks greater role in international affairs (Xinhua)

(Pan Africa) Following decades of playing an observatory role and unfair conditions on
the international scene, Africa is now pushing for greater involvement especially on
issues that affect its economic development.

Raising Coffee in Ethiopia, With Help From Harlem (New York Times)
(Ethiopia) The Abyssinian Fund, the only nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia
formed by an African-American church, is an international aid and development arm of
the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. It will soon be joining forces with a co-op of
700 coffee farmers in the ancient Ethiopian city of Harrar, with a mission to improve the
quality of the farmers’ lives by helping them improve the quality of their coffee beans.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN agency pledges to double food purchased in Millennium Villages
 Ban speaks out against killing of French aid worker in the Sahel
 Darfur: UN-African Union peacekeepers step in after shooting at camp for
displaced
 Deputy UN chief issues calls to African leaders to make maternal health a
priority
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
US envoy says more troops needed in Somalia (AFP)

KAMPALA – More troops are needed on the ground in Somalia in order to defeat the
extremist forces there that pose a regional and international threat, a top US diplomat
said Monday

"There is no doubt there is a need for more troops on the ground," US Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson said on the sidelines of the African Union
summit in Kampala.

Carson made the remarks after a meeting involving representatives from 15

governments and organisations concerned with the crisis in the Horn of Africa nation.

The AU's peacekeping mission in Somalia, also called AMISOM, currently has more
than 6,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi.

Carson said any additional troops deployed will receive US support.

"We in Washington have committed ourselves to support additional troops on the

ground in the same fashion that we have supported Burundi and Ugandan troops," he
said.

Following the July 11 bombings in Kampala claimed by Somalia's Shebab group,

Ugandan officials have called for the AMISOM mandate to be changed allowing
peacekeepers to attack the Islamists.

Carson suggested there was no concensus yet on the mandate issue.

"We heard from the new (UN) Secretary General's special representative who was also a
part of this (meeting). His interpretation was that the mandate was sufficiently strong
right now," Carson said.

"There was some wide discussion on this but it was his view that under the existing
mandate the forces on the ground could act in a more responsible but robust fashion."

A change of AMISOM's mandate requires a directive from the UN Security Council.

Carson said South Africa was present at the meeting. On Friday, AU chief Jean Ping
said he had personally asked South Africa to contribute troops to the Somalia mission.
--------------------
U.S. and Mozambican Officials Announce SHARED ACCORD 2010 (Marine Forces
Africa)
MAPUTO, Mozambique — Spokespersons from the U.S. Embassy in Maputo, along
with Mozambique military officials, jointly announced plans for Exercise SHARED
ACCORD 2010 during a press briefing at the Mozambique Ministry of Defense here,
July 23.

“This exercise is part of a solid, long-term, multi-faceted partnership between the U.S.
and Mozambican militaries,” said Lt. Col. Andrew Olson, defense attaché at the U.S.
Embassy here. “Hundreds of members of both our armed forces will participate
together in various types of military training, including command post, live-fire
training, and peace operations, as well as sharing their experience.”

The troops will also jointly provide free medical and dental care to three local
communities, and rehabilitate two schools during the course of the 15-day exercise,
according to Olson.

“We are confident that this exercise will help develop Mozambique’s capabilities to
offer additional security for its neighbors, keep Mozambique itself more free from
threats to its own security, such as illegal fishing, trafficking in drugs or other illegal
activities, or even the threat of piracy, and enhance its ability to effectively fight against
poverty here at home,” Olson added.

SHARED ACCORD is an annually scheduled, combined, bi-lateral U.S.-partner nation

event. This year, Mozambique is host for the event, which is designed to build partner
nation capacity for conducting peace and stability operations, according to Capt. Kate
Vanden Bossche, public affairs officer for the exercise. Previously, SHARED ACCORD
has taken place in locations such as Benin, Ghana, and Senegal.

Members of Mozambique’s Armed Forces for the Defense of Mozambique (FADM) also
met with exercise planners July 23, to coordinate logistical and security support for
SA10.

The exercise, which is coordinated for U.S. Africa Command by its Marine component,
U.S. Marine Forces Africa, is scheduled to conclude Aug. 13. All U.S. service members
will return to their home bases in Europe and the United States at the conclusion of the
exercise.
--------------------
US, Norway pledge aid to rebuild Somalia: African Union (AFP)

KAMPALA, Uganda – The United States and Norway have pledged reconstruction aid
to Somalia's transitional government, an African Union official said Monday on the
sidelines of the AU summit in Uganda.
The aid would be for "the reconstruction of the Somalian state and the performance of
its services so that the population can feel there is a light at the end of the tunnel," AU
peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said.

Lamamra did not give an amount for the aid.

The Kampala meeting has drawn together African countries affected by the conflict in
Somalia, where Islamist rebels are trying to topple the Western-backed government, as
well as international delegates.

US Assistant Secretary for African affairs, Johnnie Carson, did not mention aid in his
comments to the media at the end of a session in which he participated.

"The US and Norwegian governments have indicated that they are going to directly
help the Somalian government," said Lamamra. "This aid will be financial so the
government can reorganise state services to become more effective."

The summit, which ends Tuesday, is expected to confirm a reinforcement of the AU's
military presence in Somalia to support the government against Islamist insurgent
Shebab militants who control most of the country.

Diplomats and experts say the fragile administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
should also be trying to gain the support of the population by convincing people it can
improve their living conditions.
--------------------
U.S. to Seize Money Stolen From Africans (The Monitor)

Munyonyo — The United States will not provide a safe haven for money stolen from
Africa by its corrupt leaders, US President Barack Obama said yesterday.

Addressing at least 23 African leaders attending the African Union summit in

Munyonyo, Obama's Secretary General Eric Holder said Washington would seize
money stolen by corrupt leaders and hidden in America and the West.

Mr Holder is part of the American delegation to the Kampala summit led by Mr Johnnie
Carson- America's top diplomat on Africa. In a wide ranging speech which touched on
the terror attacks and America's help to Uganda in Somalia, Mr Holder delivered a
stinger on the touchy issue of corruption.

The Kleptocracy recovery effort, he said, would target large-scale corruption

perpetrated by foreign nationals.

"I have assembled a team of prosecutors [to deal exclusively with this]" he said adding
that the US was also willing to support the development of African judiciaries to deal
with the monster of corruption. International cooperation over money leaving national
treasuries and entering tax havens and western banks- has long been a sticking issue.

The United Nations in 2005 pioneered the Convention Against Corruption - that sought
to cast a wider net against criminality across borders. Many African leaders have long
been accused of personal extravagance at the expense of their populations- whose
excesses like that of former Congolese leader- Mobutu Sese Seko have become legend.
Governments in Africa- including Uganda, which lose close to Shs500 billion million in
corruption each year, have also been accused of cosmetic attempts at fighting the vice.

Money recovered

For countries like Nigeria however, authorities worked with Switzerland to recover
some money stolen by Gen. Sani Abacha. He was accused of stealing £3 billion from
government coffers. While the move is a good initiative, it will require a more global
effort to solve the problem.

Yesterday Mr Holder, however, promised more support for the African Union force in
Somalia saying America was bound "not only by friendship and partnership" but loss
from the July 11 terrorist attacks in Kampala that also claimed the life of a US citizen.

At least 76 people were killed in the twin attacks at the Kyadondo Rugby grounds in
Lugogo and the Ethiopian Village Bar and Restaurant in Kabalagala. Mr Holder said
AU forces were making "heroic contributions" on the ground in Somalia and described
attempts to justify the attacks as "unambiguously shameful".
--------------------
The threat from East Africa (Washington Post)

The recent terrorist attacks in Kampala, Uganda, and the court hearing Monday of an
American charged with trying to join the jihad in Somalia, are worrisome signs that a
new transnational terrorist network is taking shape in East Africa -- one that may have
its sights set on the United States. That's the bad news. The worse news is that President
Obama ordered the killing of the man who could have helped us to disrupt and destroy
this network.

Responsibility for the blasts in Kampala has been claimed by al-Shabab. The State
Department designated the group in March 2008 as a foreign terrorist organization,
noting that al-Shabab included "individuals affiliated with al-Qa'ida" and citing its
efforts to "undermine the Somali government" and "destabilize the Horn of Africa
region." But the truth about al-Shabab is far more sinister. In the summer of 2008, the
group merged with al-Qaeda. Last year, al-Shabab released a video showing its fighters
chanting "Here we are O' Osama. We are your soldiers O' Osama," while the group's
leader, Abu Zubair, promised bin Laden that "Allah willing, the brigades for Global
Jihad will be launched from [Somalia] to deprive the disbelievers of sleep and destroy
their interests around the world."

With the Uganda bombings, the group seems to have made good on this promise,
carrying out its first large-scale attack outside Somalia. Where else have they set their
sights? One clue: al-Shabab is actively recruiting Americans. On Monday, a 20-year-old
Northern Virginia man, Zachary Adam Chesser, will appear in federal court on charges
of attempting to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab as a foreign fighter. Before his
planned departure, Chesser had been in direct communication with Anwar al-Aulaqi,
the cleric in Yemen who reportedly helped to guide the men behind the attempted
Christmas Day bombing over Detroit and who also had been in contact with the Fort
Hood shooter.

Chesser is not the first American to try to join al-Shabab. In June, two New Jersey men
were similarly arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for
allegedly planning to fight with the terrorist group. And about 20 young Somali
Americans have reportedly left Minnesota over the past few years to join the group. Not
only is the group recruiting American fighters, one of the group's leaders is an
American citizen; Omar Hammami, who grew up in Alabama, has justified the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks and affirmed his group's allegiance to bin Laden.

The fact that al-Qaeda's new East African affiliate is seeking out Americans is an
ominous sign. After all, you don't need fighters with U.S. passports if your only intent is
to conduct operations in Africa. We overlook these warnings at our peril. The United
States failed to anticipate the Christmas Day attack because, as a May 2010 Senate
Intelligence Committee report put it, "Intelligence analysts were primarily focused on
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) threats to U.S. interests in Yemen, rather
than on potential AQAP threats to the U.S. homeland." We must not repeat this mistake
with al-Qaeda in East Africa.

The best way to uncover the terrorists' intent and capabilities would be to capture and
interrogate their top leaders. The Obama administration had the chance to do just that
last September, when the United States tracked down Saleh Ali Nabhan, al-Qaeda's
leader in East Africa and also a senior leader in al-Shabab, who was responsible for the
merger of the two groups. The Post reported that Obama was given three options for
Nabhan's disposition: U.S. Special Operations forces could kill him with an airstrike
while he was driving through southern Somalia. They could kill him by firing from
helicopters, then land and confirm the kill. Or they could try to take him alive. At least
some in the military wanted him alive. "We wanted to take a prisoner," a senior military
officer said. But the Obama administration chose the second option -- Nabhan was
killed by helicopter and his body recovered by Special Operations commandos. As a
result, The Post reported, "the opportunity to interrogate one of the most wanted U.S
terrorism targets was gone forever."
Nabhan might have provided the United States with invaluable intelligence --
information available nowhere else about his terror network, its American recruits and
its plans for new attacks. But thanks to a decision by Obama, all that intelligence was
vaporized. Why did the president choose to kill, rather than capture, Nabhan? U.S.
officials told The Post it was in part because of "the memory of the last time a U.S.
combat helicopter was on the ground in lawless Somalia, the 1993 Black Hawk debacle
that resulted in the deaths of 18 soldiers."

Since Nabhan's death, al-Shabab's Saleh Ali Nabhan Brigade (named for the deceased
leader) carried out its attacks in Kampala that resulted in the deaths of at least 74
people, including an American aid worker, and critically injured a 16-year-old
Maryland girl.

The next attack could be even more deadly -- and could come much closer to home.
--------------------
Al Qaeda kills French hostage in Mali, says Sarkozy has 'opened the doors of hell'
(Christian Science Monitor)

A 78-year-old French aid worker is dead, a 95-day-long hostage crisis may be over, and
the governments of Europe and West Africa may have more to fear from Al Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Sahelian franchise that US officials say is in the midst
of a recruitment boom.

Counterterrorism training to curb Al Qaeda threat in Africa Air Al Qaeda: Are Latin
America's drug cartels giving Al Qaeda a lift? Al Qaeda rises in West Africa Top AQIM
militant Abdelmalek Droukdel announced Sunday that the group had killed the French
engineer, first kidnapped in Niger in April, following a rescue attempt by French and
Mauritania soldiers. Six Al Qaeda militants died in the rescue raid, Mr. Droukdel said
in an audio recording broadcast by Al-Jazeera.

The engineer, Michel Germaneau, “was murdered in cold blood,” French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said today in a televised statement. “The crime committed will not go
unpunished.”

Reprisals and a growing menace

In authorizing the operation, Mr. Sarkozy "opened up the doors of hell for himself and
his people," Droukdel threatened in the tape.

Droukdel's bluster may have an edge of truth to it. AQIM is growing, US officials say,
issuing more threats in new places, including some of the world's most peaceful, idyllic
countrysides - like Burkina Faso and Mali.
Recruitment is up, and armies like Mali's, not to mention America's, are having to
reconsider their commitment to the farther-flung areas of Africa's immense Sahara.

It's the economy, stupid

But you'd be misguided, US officials say, to think that ideological opposition to the
former colonial powers like France are guiding the AQIM recruitment boom.

Cocaine, kidnapping, and the love of money, rather than the hatred of foreigners, US
Special African Operations Lt. Col. Chris Schmidt says, are the driving factors.

"In the deepest areas of the Sahara, the governments are under-represented and the
people are marginalized," the military planner said in a May interview. "I don't think
there's too many on their side with ideological reasons. It's a matter of convenience and
money making."

As the Monitor reported in several in-depth stories last winter, the US military is
expanding its presence throughout the region in order to combat what it says is the
rising threat of Al Qaeda activity. The focus is on training local militaries in
counterterrorism tactics.
--------------------
Africa seeks greater role in international affairs (Xinhua)

KAMPALA, Uganda - Following decades of playing an observatory role and unfair

conditions on the international scene, Africa is now pushing for greater involvement
especially on issues that affect its economic development.

At the ongoing African Union (AU) summit here, African leaders are being urged to
push for Africa's interests on the international scene.

According to Jean Ping, chairperson of the AU Commission, Africa is increasingly

becoming a formidable force on the international scene.

"Africa is gaining strategic importance and is thus attracting attention from a diversity
of partners who are increasingly knocking at its doors and showing their interest in
cooperating with the continent in mutually beneficial partnerships," he said.

Major world economies are already forging partnership with the continent. A series of
summits between the continent and other parts of the world have taken place or are
being planned, signaling Africa's increasing importance.

A series of summits are lined up this year. The third Africa- European Union summit is
scheduled for later this year in Libya. The second Afro-Arab summit will also be held in
Libya this year, 33 years after the first summit was held.
Already other summits like the Sino-Africa summit have been held. The first high-level
bilateral with the United States of America-AU meeting was held in April this year.
--------------------
Raising Coffee in Ethiopia, With Help From Harlem (New York Times)

From a 542-square-foot office above a bustling intersection in Harlem, the Rev. Nicholas
S. Richards is building what he hopes will be a 7,000-mile bridge to the eastern
highlands of Ethiopia.

In that modest two-room office off East 125th Street, the Abyssinian Fund, the only
nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia formed by an African-American church, the
Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, finally has a home.

Mr. Richards, 26, an assistant minister at Abyssinian under the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III,
is the president of the recently formed Aby Fund, as he calls it, an international aid and
development arm of the church. It will soon be joining forces with a co-op of 700 coffee
farmers in the ancient Ethiopian city of Harrar, with a mission to improve the quality of
the farmers’ lives by helping them improve the quality of their coffee beans.

The Abyssinian Fund will pay for specialized training and equipment to help the co-
op’s farmers produce a higher-quality product so they can be more competitive on the
international coffee market. Once their income has increased, part of what they make
will then be set aside in a fund to support local development projects, like much-needed
roads, schools or clinics.

Mr. Richards, members of the fund’s board of directors and congregants of the church
said the mission was as much about social aid and economic development as it was
about the church’s desire to reach back and reconnect with its spiritual and ancestral
homeland.

Well woven into the fabric of Harlem, the Abyssinian Baptist Church has a connection
to Ethiopia that goes back to the church’s founding in 1808 by free blacks and Ethiopian
merchant seamen who refused to worship where blacks and whites were segregated.
(Abyssinia is a historical name for Ethiopia.)

Just a year and a half ago, the Abyssinian Fund was a dream that had sprouted from a
simple seed planted after Mr. Butts led a group of congregants to Ethiopia in 2007 to
celebrate the church’s 200th anniversary.

The fund was inspired by the group’s reaction to the struggle and resilience of the
impoverished Ethiopians they had encountered.
“Ethiopia touches your heart,” said Dori Brunson, a donor and congregant who made
the journey. “The villages were so simple, so lacking in the amenities that we are so
used to, and at one point I just had to walk away, and I stood there and cried.

“Even though we were born here in America, we are part of that African soil. And
because of what Africa has given the world and what they stand for, we must give
back.”

So far the organization has raised about $130,000, only slightly more than a third of its
year-end goal. Mr. Richards has not yet hired any salaried employees or opened a field
office in Harrar. Not a single training session has been held or piece of equipment
shipped.

Yet Mr. Richards said there was a sense among supporters and congregants that they
had crossed a threshold, having succeeded in formalizing the fund’s status in less than a
year to a recognized charity with a nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia and an
office in New York.

“To see our plan being transformed from just some pages to actual brick and mortar is
amazing,” said Mr. Richards, sitting in the sparsely furnished, seventh-floor office,
where Ethiopian art hung on the mustard-colored walls and leftover bottles of water
and wine from an opening reception a few days earlier were scattered on uncluttered
desktops.

The organization will operate as an independent but affiliated body of the church, much
like the Abyssinian Development Corporation, which has helped create housing and
prompt commercial development in Harlem, including a supermarket, schools and
homeless shelters.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, and the green beans the farmers grow there are
prized on the multibillion-dollar international coffee market.

Coffee is the second most-traded commodity in the world, after oil, yet these farmers
earn an average of $1 a day, less than $400 a year, according to aid organizations.

There has been no shortage of aid money pumped into Ethiopia from international
organizations and other nations, including the United States, which, according to the
State Department, gave $4.7 billion in assistance from 1999 to 2009. But Mr. Richards
said the Abyssinian Fund would not function as a traditional charity, as the farmers
would share the responsibility for the project’s success.

“We are going to try to the best of our ability to provide the highest level of training and
the most necessary equipment that the farmers need,” he said. “But it will be the
farmers’ responsibility to reinvest. Reinvestment is going to be critical.”
Instead of providing financial aid or food to the farmers, the Abyssinian Fund will hire
coffee experts who are specialists in the processing and quality standards of companies
like Starbucks that are the chief buyers of Ethiopia’s beans. Substandard processing has
vexed the farmers’ efforts to command higher prices at market.

The trainers will also teach planting and harvesting techniques that help farmers grow
and select only the choicest coffee beans, and the fund will provide equipment like
scissors, shears and mechanized pickers to ensure that the beans are properly
harvested. Many of these farmers still harvest their crops with their bare hands, Mr.
Richards said.

Mr. Richards said the goal was for the farmers to double their income in five years.
Helping to improve the livelihoods of the 700 farmers in the co-op, he said, could result
in better conditions for as many as 3,000 people.

The fund has had to tread delicately in Ethiopia, where the government has been
skeptical of the motives of some foreign aid groups.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest and most aid-dependent countries in the world, and has
come under the scrutiny of human rights groups, the American government and the
World Bank for what has been described as a leaky aid system, with accusations of
governmental manipulation of food aid to reward political allies.

Reta Alemu Nega, a minister counselor with the Ethiopian Consulate in Manhattan,
said the criticisms were the work of political enemies of the state. Nongovernmental
organizations operating in Ethiopia “are not always what they present themselves to
be,” he said.

But Mr. Nega said the Ethiopian government supported the work of the Abyssinian
Fund. “We know the Abyssinian Church,” he said. “We know who they are.”

Mr. Richards said he had to assure the Ethiopian government that the fund would not
operate in a political capacity or meddle in local politics. If so, he said he was told, the
organization would be kicked out of the country.

“There’s very little concern for us about corruption because we have a direct
relationship to the farming community that we are working with,” Mr. Richards said.
“We know the farmers. I’ve visited the farmers. I’ve talked to them, and I’ve talked to
their leaders. We don’t provide any cash. And that’s a huge way that we mitigate our
exposure to corruption, because there is no cash that is being provided.”
So far, most of the money raised has come from Harlem, with donations ranging from
$25 a week to one for $10,000. Other money has come from an art sale and gala
featuring work by Ethiopian artists.

“Most of the people doing development work in Africa are not of African descent,” Mr.
Richards said. “To have a group of African-Americans concerned about a particular
nation in Africa, and doing something about it, is tremendous. This is black folk helping
black folk, and it is tremendous to me.”
-------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN agency pledges to double food purchased in Millennium Villages

26 July – A top United Nations official has promised to double the amount of food
purchased from women farmers living in a Millennium Village in Uganda, part of a
United Nations-backed initiative to help African communities lift themselves out of
poverty.

Ban speaks out against killing of French aid worker in the Sahel
26 July – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned the murder of
Michel Germaneau, a French national working on humanitarian projects in the Sahel
region who was reportedly killed by Al-Qaida militants.

Darfur: UN-African Union peacekeepers step in after shooting at camp for displaced
26 July – The joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur has
intervened in one of the world’s largest camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) to
resolve tensions after shooting broke out on Saturday night amid friction over the
current state of the peace process.

Deputy UN chief issues calls to African leaders to make maternal health a priority
26 July – Investing in maternal and child health results in outsized benefits, Deputy
Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said, urging African leaders to make the issue a
top priority and meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline of
drastically improving reproductive care across the continent.