United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

28 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

US says Kampala Bombings a 'Wake-Up Call' on Somali Extremists (Voice of

America)
(Somalia) The Obama administration's chief Africa diplomat says the suicide bombings
by the Somali militant group al-Shabab earlier this month in the Ugandan capital,
Kampala, were a "wake-up call" for the world community about the Islamic radicals.

Africa readies troops for Somalia; US funds effort (Associated Press)

(Somalia) African leaders are pledging thousands of new troops for Somalia to fight al-
Qaida-linked militants responsible for the twin World Cup bombings that killed 76
people, and the U.S. says it will help bankroll the military campaign.

US alarmed by deteriorating security in Darfur (AFP)

(Sudan) The United States is alarmed by the deteriorating security in Sudan's Darfur
region and wants the situation to be "effectively addressed," its ambassador to the UN
said Tuesday.

Guebuza Receives U.S. Assistant Secretary of State (Agencia de Informção de

Moçambique)
(Mozambique) Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Monday granted an
audience to US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, in
Kampala, where Guebuza is attending the heads of state summit of the African Union.

U.S. hostage in Darfur says conditions desperate (Reuters)

(Sudan) An American woman abducted by armed men in western Sudan more than
two months ago said on Tuesday that food and drinking water were scarce and her
living conditions had become desperate.

EU pledges more support to Kenya for piracy trials (Xinhua)

(Somalia) The European Union has pledged more support for Kenya to continue to
prosecute suspected Somali pirates who have been hijacking foreign vessels along the
Horn of Africa nation's coast.

Africa Advocates to Obama: Don't Recognize Kagame's Election (San Francisco Bay
View)
(Rwanda) On Aug. 3, in Washington D.C., Africa advocates, will gather at the National
Press Club to call on President Obama and the U.S. State Department not to recognize
the legitimacy of Rwanda’s upcoming Aug. 9 election results and to stop militarizing
Africa and supporting repressive regimes.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN envoy welcomes African decision to reinforce Somalia mission
 UN-backed conservation project helps save Tanzanian forest
 Floods kill two and destroy scores of homes in southern Sudan – UN agency
 Darfur peace process reaches ‘critical juncture,’ Security Council warned
 UN agency chief pledges support for Africa’s efforts to boost food security
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

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 says Kampala Bombings a 'Wake-Up Call' on Somali Extremists (Voice of

America)

The Obama administration's chief Africa diplomat says the suicide bombings by the
Somali militant group al-Shabab earlier this month in the Ugandan capital, Kampala,
were a "wake-up call" for the world community about the Islamic radicals. Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson is in Kampala for the African
Union summit.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson says the July 11
bombings at two Kampala viewing sites for the World Cup finals show al-Shabab's
ability to use terror tactics far beyond Somalia, and should yield greater African and
world support for the AU's AMISOM peacekeeping force in the troubled Horn-of-
Africa country.

The assistant secretary spoke to reporters in a telephone hook-up from Kampala, where
he led a high-level U.S. delegation to the AU summit. He said the bombings, which
killed nearly 80 people, established al-Shabab as a force to be reckoned with throughout
much of Africa.

"If al-Shabab can strike Kampala, it also is a threat to all of Somalia's regional neighbors,
from Djibouti and Ethiopia and Kenya all the way down to Tanzania," Carson said.
"This is the first time that we have seen Shahab use suicide tactics outside of the south-
central area of the country. This constitutes a threat and I think the regional states are
genuinely concerned about the capacity of Shabab to do this."

The AU summit endorsed plans by the East African regional economic bloc IGAD to
send another 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Somalia, to bolster the contingent of more
than 5,000 Burundian and Ugandan soldiers.

The United States has provided logistical support for the AMISOM force and Carson
said he hopes al-Shabab's newly-demonstrated terror potential will prompt countries in
Africa and beyond to make good on existing pledges of help for AMISOM and the
struggling Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu.

Carson said there was a heavy focus at the AU summit on the need to reduce civilian
casualties attributed to AMISOM in Somalia.

He said helping AMISOM improve its battlefield intelligence capabilities, and

providing it with more accurate artillery and other weapons will ease the problem. He
also said some civilian deaths can be attributed to the way al-Shahab operates.

"I think that some of the tactics employed by al-Shabab are responsible for some of the
civilian casualties that have been reported in the press," added Carson. "Al-Shabab
moves in and out of market areas, in and out of civilian residential areas, with the clear
intent of using those markets and those residential units where civilians reside, as a
place where they can launch their mortars and fire their weapons."

AMISOM has been accused of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas. Carson said he
believes there have been no deliberate attacks on civilians, but acknowledged the
problem has the potential of turning the Somali population against the AU force.
--------------------
Africa readies troops for Somalia; US funds effort (Associated Press)

KAMPALA, Uganda — African leaders are pledging thousands of new troops for
Somalia to fight al-Qaida-linked militants responsible for the twin World Cup
bombings that killed 76 people, and the U.S. says it will help bankroll the military
campaign.

But internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show that that African Union
forces and Somali troops don't trust one another, and that Somalia's government "lacks
consistency, coherence and coordination," raising questions about whether more AU
troops can solve the Somali impasse.

African leaders and U.S. officials called for stepped-up efforts in Somalia as an African
Union summit here concluded Tuesday. The summit opened only days after the July 11
bombings in Kampala, an attack that prompted Uganda's president to call for Africa to
band together against Somalia's militants.

Al-Shabab, Somalia's most-feared militant group, claimed responsibility for bombing

two sites where people were watching the World Cup final game on television, and said
the blasts were in retaliation for civilian deaths caused by African Union troops in
Mogadishu. They also have vowed to attack Burundi, the other African country that has
been providing troops to the AU.

At the summit, Africa's leaders voted to immediately dispatch 2,000 more Ugandan and
Burundian troops to the African Union mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM,
boosting levels from 6,000 to the maximum mandate of 8,000.

The AU has commitments of 4,000 troops — 2,000 from IGAD, a bloc of East African
nations, and one battalion each from both Guinea and Djibouti, AU commission
chairman Jean Ping said at the summit's closing news conference. The AU is
considering a request to raise the ceiling number for the total number of troops, he said,
without giving a figure for the rise.

America's top official for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson,
said that with a stronger AU force the African Union force could defeat al-Shabab,
which intelligence officials say has been bolstered by foreign fighters from Iraq,
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We believe that it is necessary to have more troops on the ground and we in
Washington have committed ourselves to support additional troops on the ground in
the same fashion that we have supported the existing Burundi and Ugandan troops,"
Carson said Monday.

Since 2007, the U.S. has given training, logistical support and equipment worth more
than $176 million to AMISOM, and Carson has promised additional resources to
Burundian and Ugandan troops without giving a precise figure.

But an internal report written last month by military experts from IGAD, the bloc of
East African nations, cast doubt on the efforts being made by AMISOM troops. The
report said there is a lack of trust between AU and Somali forces, and that the
effectiveness of AMISOM troops is hindered by the Somali government's many
weaknesses.
"The team found out that there is a misunderstanding and lack of trust between
AMISOM and (Somali) security forces and this has caused poor coordination of tasks
amongst them," said the report, which was obtained by the AP. The report also said the
Somali government's approach to its duties "portrays a government with no clear
vision."

Despite that, African Union leaders said they are considering a plan to give the force a
stronger mandate and had requested helicopters from Western donors to allow the AU
troops to take offensive action against the al-Qaida-aligned insurgents. Currently the
peacekeeping forces can only respond to attacks or when they see militants.

That, though, could sour relations with Somalis even more. Internal documents
obtained by the AP earlier this month showed that the AU knows the civilian casualties
its troops cause in battle are turning Somalis against it.

The U.S. call for more troops comes as members of Congress are taking an increasing
interest in the violent Horn of Africa nation, the site of a failed early 1990s U.S.
deployment that ended shortly after the military battle chronicled in the book and
movie "Black Hawk Down."

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, 13 House Democrats compared
the situation with al-Shabab in Somalia to the Taliban's in Afghanistan when it allowed
sanctuary for al-Qaida to plan the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"Al-Shabab-controlled territory in Somalia is becoming a safe haven for terrorists from

around the world," the 13 members said. "The United States must not sit back. ...
Extremists in Somalia have already made clear their intentions to harm us, and if they
have not done so already, they will soon seek capabilities to carry out attacks in the
United States."

The letter said the U.S. should offer regional states "extensive financial, material and
logistical support" to improve security.

Some analysts, though, said that simply sending in more troops was unlikely to solve
the problem.

"The current situation in Somalia just does not call for a large peacekeeping operation,"
said David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. "AU troops cannot police all of
Somalia."

Shinn, a professor at George Washington University and one of the coordinators of U.S.
policy in Somalia in the early 1990s, said that the failure of U.S. and U.N. involvement
in the country showed large-scale foreign intervention would not work. "That was not
the solution then and it will not be now," Shinn said.
Somalia's weak transitional government welcomed the commitment of more troops but
said that long-term peace in Somalia depends on building up the government's security
forces.

"We really believe strongly that if the Somali government army were given the support
they need then AMISOM would only be a kind of supporting force," Somali Foreign
Minister Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim said.

The internal IGAD report, though, showed how far Somalia's forces have to go. The
Somali troops do not have a physical headquarters. Equipment and weapons held by
Somali forces, including ammunition, are not accounted for.

Somali "forces are not assigned barracks or camps and are staying wherever they can
get accommodation," said the report, adding that there is "no formal and effective
system of receiving and accounting for returning trainees from neighboring countries."

In an ominous sign of what international forces in Somalia might face, the opposition
group Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia warned against new troop deployment.

"The Somali people will be united to defend their country forcefully and fiercely from
any foreign aggression or military occupation," the statement said.
--------------------
US alarmed by deteriorating security in Darfur (AFP)

UNITED NATIONS — The United States is alarmed by the deteriorating security in

Sudan's Darfur region and wants the situation to be "effectively addressed," its
ambassador to the UN said Tuesday.

"We are alarmed and gravely concerned," Susan Rice told reporters following a United
Nations Security Council briefing on the situation in the western Sudanese region.

Commenting on a UN report describing May as the deadliest month -- with 400

civilians killed -- since the United Nations-African Union (UNAMID) force was set up
in 2007, she said the deteriorating situation in Darfur "is unacceptable and needs to be
effectively addressed."

She welcomed the fact that UNAMID is nearing full deployment, with over 17,000
troops and more than 4,000 police now on the ground.

But Rice stressed that Khartoum's "continued restrictions on UNAMID movements, (on)
its ability to fly helicopters in defense of its mission including protection of civilians and
evacuation of UNAMID peacekeepers under attack is absolutely unacceptable and
needs to be halted."
She urged the Sudanese government to allow "full freedom of access and movements to
UNAMID and for humanitarian workers."

In his latest report to the 15-member Security Council, UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed
to Khartoum and the Justice and Equality Movement, Darfur's largest rebel group, "to
immediately cease their ongoing military confrontation and commit to the peace
process."

He said that JEM's withdrawal from peace talks in Doha "has undermined the goal of an
inclusive and rapid resolution of the Darfur conflict."

Without such a deal in Darfur and with south Sudan likely to opt for independence in a
referendum scheduled for January, "there is a risk of increasing instability in Sudan,"
Ban warned.

UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari for his part urged the Security Council to renew its
appeal to all Darfur rebel groups to join the Doha peace talks "without any pre-
conditions" to finalize a peace deal before the end of the year.

He also pressed the council to appeal to all parties in Sudan "to demonstrate restraint
and refrain from actions likely to further complicate the security situation."

Darfur has been gripped by civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and
2.7 million displaced, according to the United Nations. Khartoum says 10,000 have been
killed in the conflict.
--------------------
Guebuza Receives U.S. Assistant Secretary of State (Agencia de Informção de
Moçambique)

MAPUTO, Mozambique — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Monday

granted an audience to US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie
Carson, in Kampala, where Guebuza is attending the heads of state summit of the
African Union.

Speaking to Mozambican journalists at the end of the half hour meeting, Carson said it
had been an opportunity to review matters of interest to the two countries, but he gave
no details as to what had been discussed.

"As you know, Mozambique and the United States maintain cordial relations of
cooperation", he said. "For me, it was important to be received by President Guebuza to
analyse these matters".
The summit, held under the theme "Mother and Child Health and the Development of
Africa", is due to end on Tuesday, and it is expected that the African leaders will adopt
a declaration on the subject.

On the first day of the summit, the envoy from US President Barack Obama, Attorney
General Eric Holder Jr, expressed the willingness of the US to continue cooperating
with African countries, stressing that the future of the partnership between the USA
and Africa depends on what they do today - on "the targets we establish, the relations
we forge, the commitments we make, and the actions we undertake".

"Despite the current challenges and uncertainties, one thing is certain: if your effort to
promote, peace, development, justice and opportunities continues, the United States
will work with you in partnership and, in a common cause, will help the African Union
to carry out its mission to the full", he said.

Holder pointed to four areas in particular on which this cooperation should rest -
namely the fight against global terrorism and international crime, the promotion of
good governance and respect for the law, the creation of conditions that promote
development, and the protection of African women and children against violence,
ensuring that their rights are upheld.
--------------------
U.S. hostage in Darfur says conditions desperate (Reuters)

KHARTOUM, Sudan – An American woman abducted by armed men in western

Sudan more than two months ago said on Tuesday that food and drinking water were
scarce and her living conditions had become desperate.

The woman works for the U.S.-based Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, which has
asked that her name be withheld, and is the last foreign captive held in Darfur. Two
German men were freed earlier in the day after nearly five weeks in captivity.

"Now I'm camping out in a wadi (dried river bed) with about 20 men," she told Reuters
by satellite phone. "I'm no longer being fed, it's raining here and there are a couple of
tarps (tarpaulins) but we are sleeping in the rain with no clean water -- I drink rain
water when I can collect it."

She said she was surviving by drinking camel's milk. "The situation has become a living
nightmare," she said.

The hostage sounded calm but her voice cracked as she described missing her family
and said she hoped her ordeal would soon be over.

She said her captors had become more hostile to her in recent days, a tactic often used
by kidnappers to put pressure on the government to pay ransoms. The woman's
kidnappers have demanded a ransom from the Sudanese government, but the amount
has not been disclosed.

Two female hostages, one Irish and one Ugandan, who were held for more than three
months in Darfur last year said they were subjected to terrifying mock executions in an
attempt to intimidate them.

The woman's kidnappers contacted Reuters in Khartoum, gave a satellite phone

number and asked the correspondent to telephone her.

Sudan's security and intelligence services have freed all the foreigners taken hostage
since the kidnappings began in 2009, shortly after the International Criminal Court
issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur.

Aid workers have tightened security since the abductions began. Most expatriate staff
have moved into towns and limited their movements.

A revolt broke out in Darfur in 2003 in protest against alleged neglect by the central
government. Fighting between government troops and allied militias and the rebels has
caused widespread disruption and heavy loss of life.
--------------------
EU pledges more support to Kenya for piracy trials (Xinhua)

NAIROBI, Kenya -The European Union has pledged more support for Kenya to
continue to prosecute suspected Somali pirates who have been hijacking foreign vessels
along the Horn of Africa nation's coast.

A statement from the EU Delegation in Kenya said since May last year EU and its
member states like Germany, France, the Netherlands, as well as Canada and the
United States have so far provided a total of over 10 million U.S. dollars to the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) program, designed to support trials and related
treatment of piracy suspects in the region.

"Out of this, 1.6 million dollars have already been spent in Kenya, with a similar
amount earmarked for the subsequent period," the EU said.

The EU said the contribution to the Kenyan justice system clearly exceeds by far any
direct cost that arises for Kenya due to the additional piracy trials.

Piracy is a threat to the East African region and to international transport. The crime
damages Kenyan economic interests and the position of the port of Mombasa.

The Kenyan Shipping Council estimates that piracy has increased the monthly cost for
imports by 23.8 million dollars and for exports by 9.8 million dollars. "Although long
term solutions need to be found to address the root causes of piracy on land, in the
short term the problems need to be tackled by detention and prosecution of the the EU
said. "Left untouched, piracy networks might gain influence and further undermine the
state, also on Kenyan ground. Kenya needs a stable Somalia and therefore has interest
in joining international efforts to counter piracy," they warned.

Kenya's proximity to Somalia prompted insurance companies to hike up their

premiums for ships travelling to the East African nation's ports to mitigate the increased
insecurity.

This led shipping companies to take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope
while travelling to the Kenyan ports, with cost of doing business on the Kenyan coast
going up by over 40 percent.

Kenya has memoranda of understanding with the EU, the United States, Canada,
Denmark, Australia and Britain whereby it takes in suspects intercepted at sea and
prosecutes them in courts in Mombasa.

The EU is reportedly seeking to forge similar agreements with other five countries in
the region, including South Africa and Tanzania.

To date more than 100 suspects have been transferred to Kenya by the Western
warships patrolling the Indian Ocean to combat piracy.

It is only Kenya and the Seychelles in the region that have agreed to take in suspects for
prosecution, but both have recently complained about the burden of trying and jailing
pirates in their countries.

The agreements allowing foreign naval powers to hand over suspects to Kenya instead
of taking them back home for prosecution include financial support from the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime.

Early this year, Nairobi formally announced it wished to stop the prosecution of
suspected Somali pirates and cancel the agreements it has to that effect with several
countries from Asia and Europe.

The foreign ministry had sent "cancellation notes" to at least two of those powers'
diplomatic representations in Nairobi, arguing it could no longer bear the burden on its
prison and court systems.

Kenya had also accused the international community of failing to keep up its
obligations in sharing the burden in prosecuting and imprisoning the detained pirates.
But during last week's meeting, participants welcomed the resolve of the Kenyan
government to continue its cooperation, and expressed their determination to take into
account any outstanding Kenyan concerns in future cooperation against piracy.

According to the statement, the international partners are looking forward to receiving
the government's recommendations on this issue which are expected within the next
few weeks. "The minister underlined his intention to subsequently meet with MoU
signatory countries to discuss areas where the MoUs could be confirmed and enriched,
possibly through an addendum to the existing MoUs," it said.

Sources said the EU nations are reluctant to try suspects captured by the force in busy
shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden but the bloc cannot send them to any country where
they might face abuse or the death penalty.

According to the EU, the challenge of piracy to the region has been recognized by the
UN and its International Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), as
well as major regional organizations including EAC, IGAD and the new Djibouti Code
of Conduct under the International Maritime Organization. "With active Kenyan
involvement, the CGPCS is providing practical support to States and organizations in
their efforts to ensure prosecution of piracy suspects," they said.

This, the bloc said, has led to concrete actions to build the capacity in the region,
including maritime information exchange, training centers, Trust Funds among others.

The EU said there are no indications that piracy suspects are in any way linked to
terrorism or Al Shabaab, a militant group which has waged an onslaught on the
transitional government of Somalia. "On the contrary, they are equally despised by
Somali extremists, as piracy is considered un-Islamic. The captured pirates in Kenyan
prisons are merely "foot soldiers" of criminal gangs," the EU said.

Kenya shares its southern border with Somalia, whose coastline has been infected with
piracy in recent years. More than 160 pirate attacks have been reported in the waters off
Somalia from the beginning of last year.
--------------------
Africa Advocates to Obama: Don't Recognize Kagame's Election (San Francisco Bay
View)

In mid-July in Spain, Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero refused to meet with
Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was visiting for a U.N. conference, after human
rights defenders urged him not to and protesters took to the streets chanting “Kagame!
War Criminal!”President Obama said, in his 2009 speech in Accra, Ghana, that America
should support strong institutions and not strong men. However, in the case of
Rwanda, this has been no more than rhetoric. Rwandans, like most Africans, cheered
Obama’s election, hoping that it might signal a new, more peaceful and cooperative
relationship between the U.S. and Africa, but Obama has expanded AFRICOM, the U.S.
Africa Command, and now he remains silent as Rwanda’s strongman, President Paul
Kagame, prepares a sham presidential election to retain his brutal grip on power.

On Aug. 3, in Washington D.C., we, Africa advocates, will gather at the National Press
Club to call on President Obama and the U.S. State Department not to recognize the
legitimacy of Rwanda’s upcoming Aug. 9 election results and to stop militarizing Africa
and supporting repressive regimes.

“The U.S. policy has been to support strongmen,” says Maurice Carney, executive
director of Friends of the Congo. “And at the head of the class is Paul Kagame, who has
received military support, weapons, training and intelligence and as a result has been
able to invade its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and sustain proxy
militia fighting there to rob the Congolese people of their natural resources. He has
contributed to the death of over 6 million people in Congo and to the destabilization of
Africa’s whole Great Lakes region.”

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greeted representatives of
U.N. member countries at the Metropolitan Museum in New York on Sept. 23, 2009.
Here, Rwandan President Paul Kagame stands between them. – Photo:
irwanda1.comAssassinations, arrests, disappearances, imprisonment and torture of
both politicians and press critical of Kagame have led up to Rwanda’s Aug. 9
presidential polls, and now the question is not “Will Rwanda’s August 2010 election be
free and fair?” but “How much more violence will the population suffer from Rwandan
police, military and security operatives?”

And how much longer will President Obama continue to support the brutal Kagame
regime in the heart of Africa, even though 40 of Kagame’s top officers and officials have
been indicted in both Spanish and French courts for war crimes, crimes against
humanity and genocide? Kagame himself has not been indicted by these courts but only
because he is a sitting head of state and indictment would therefore be a declaration of
war.

Spanish protesters in mid-July want Kagame held accountable for genocide. Still
applauded by the mainstream press only a few months ago, Kagame's record is now
being questioned and condemned by some of the most influential media in the
world.“Kagame is doing everything he can think of, including killing journalists, jailing
and torturing political opponents and denying political opponents their constitutional
right to register their parties to exclude them from the election. Because as soon as he
loses the presidency, he is likely to be tried for all the mass killings he ordered,” says
Rwandan exile, writer and activist Aimable Mugara, who now lives in Toronto.

All the viable opposition has been kept out of the election, but four Kagame allies have
agreed to stand so as to make it appear that Rwanda is having a real election.
Victoire Ingabiré Umuhoza, Rwanda's leading challenger to Kagame, is under house
arrest and banned from the Aug. 9 ballot.Leading presidential candidate Victoire
Ingabire Umuhoza, who was arrested and indicted on trumped up charges to prevent
her from registering to run against Kagame, has said that she will not vote and has
urged other Rwandans not to vote either. “We know that the military and police will
use violence against the population,” Ingabire said, “but we have to fight for our rights.
There is no reason to vote if you don’t have a choice.”

In May, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson announced that
the U.S. government plans to send a dozen teams of election observers to Rwanda
before the Aug. 9 polls, but many Rwandans now say they will only be wasting U.S.
taxpayers’ money.

“There is no reason to vote if you don’t have a choice.” – Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza

“Why do people seriously think of going there to observe elections?” asked Charles
Kambanda, an American of Rwandan origin, former member of Kagame’s RPF Party
and former professor at Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda. “Which elections are
they going to observe? There is nothing to be observed, because what we have is a one-
man show. What we have is a situation where the government has created the so-called
opposition.

“The RPF has kicked out all the real opposition leaders. They are either under house
arrest, like Victoire Ingabire, or in prison or they are already dead or they are in exile.”

“Foreign election observers planning to go to Rwanda to observe the ‘election’ this

August are wasting time and money,” said Aimable Mugara. “I would recommend that
they stay in their countries and write their reports based on all the insane actions Gen.
Kagame’s ruling party has taken since the beginning of this year, actions that make this
so-called election null and void.”

The United States government has provided not only election observers but also over
$1,034,000,000 in United States taxpayer-funded foreign assistance to Rwanda since
2000. An additional $240,200,000 is proposed in the president’s fiscal year 2011 budget.
-------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN envoy welcomes African decision to reinforce Somalia mission

27 July – The United Nations envoy to Somalia today welcomed the decision by the
African Union (AU) to send an additional 2,000 peacekeepers to the troubled State,
saying there was heightened concern across the continent over the consequences of
continuing violence in the Horn of Africa country.
UN-backed conservation project helps save Tanzanian forest
27 July – Thousands of hectares of fragile mountainous forest in north-eastern Tanzania
have been preserved through a recently completed seven-year biodiversity project
managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Floods kill two and destroy scores of homes in southern Sudan – UN agency
27 July – Heavy rain in southern Sudan’s Jonglei state has caused floods that have killed
two people and destroyed more than 130 homes during the past 10 days, a United
Nations agency has reported, saying that those affected are in need of shelter material,
food and drinking water.

Darfur peace process reaches ‘critical juncture,’ Security Council warned

27 July – The peace process in Darfur has reached a critical point, with the security
situation deteriorating just as prospects for a negotiated settlement have slightly
improved, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council as he urged all
parties to the conflict to step up their efforts to reach a deal.

UN agency chief pledges support for Africa’s efforts to boost food security
27 July – The United Nations is committed to helping African nations combat hunger
and malnutrition as well as enabling the continent to feed itself, the head of the World
Food Programme (WFP) has pledged.