United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

10 August 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Gates proposes cutting Joint Forces command from defense budget (CNN)
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced some far-reaching proposals Monday for
restructuring the massive budget at his agency, including getting rid of the U.S. Joint
Forces Command.

How a Kagame win in Rwanda election could destabilize region (Christian Science
Monitor)
(Rwanda) Mr. Kagame is widely expected to win by a landslide, at least in part because
several of his opponents have been forbidden from participating and others have been
killed in what rights groups and analysts suspect were assassinations. This is leading
some to see Kagame as a destabilizing force in the region, even as he has promoted
business and economic growth.

Rwandan president plans victory party ahead of early election results (Washington
Post)
(Rwanda) Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front had sent a text message to
thousands of supporters and local journalists inviting them to a massive party Monday
evening, when the Rwanda's electoral commission is scheduled to release preliminary
results.

US goes high-end to boost export trade with Africa (Business Daily)

(Pan Africa) The US is moving higher up the products advancement ladder to keep its
share of trade with Africa where competition for the low-end market has intensified
with availability of cheap goods from emerging economies such as China and India.

U.N. Back to Somalia After 17 Years (Reuters)

(Somalia) The United Nations plans to move its foreign missions and organizations
back inside Somalia after an absence of more than 17 years, a senior United Nations
official said Sunday.

Hostility Toward Workers Cools Angola-China Relationship (Wall Street Journal)

(Angola) Cracks are showing in the relationship between Angola and China at a time
when China is already showing a new interest in other regions—notably, ones where
Western nations are reluctant to do business.

Constitutional Changes Could Extend President's Rule in Burkina Faso (Voice of

America)
(Burkina Faso) The ruling party in Burkina Faso has called for changing the
constitution so its leader and the country's president, Blaise Compaore, can run for
office again in November.

Somali Islamist group bans three international aid agencies (Xinhua)

(Somalia) Somalia's Islamist group Al Shabaab has banned the operation of three
international relief agencies they accused of "actively propagating Christianity" in the
war-torn country.

African ministers in Zimbabwe on gem fact-finding mission (AFP)

(Zimbabwe) Ministers from Africa's diamond producers arrived in Zimbabwe on
Monday to assess operations at the controversial Marange fields ahead of a limited
gems sale, officials said.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
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Gates proposes cutting Joint Forces command from defense budget (CNN)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced some far-reaching proposals Monday for
restructuring the massive budget at his agency, including getting rid of the U.S. Joint
Forces Command.

The cuts could mean a loss of up to 3,000 jobs.

The current Defense Department budget totals more than $530 billion a year, and
defense officials believe they need increases of 2 to 3 percent a year to sustain the force
structure and meet modernization needs.
However, the recession caused the department to propose a 1 percent budget increase
for next year, and the cuts announced Monday were intended to help hold down
overall costs.

"We must be mindful of the difficult economic and fiscal situation facing our nation,"
Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. "As a matter of principle and political reality, the
Department of Defense cannot expect America's elected representatives to approve
budget increases each year unless we are doing a good job, indeed, everything possible
to make every dollar count."

Gate's acknowledged the plan was "politically fraught," and congressional criticism
began even before Gates was finished announcing the moves.

The proposal to eliminate the Joint Forces Command, which is based in Norfolk,
Virginia, met with opposition from both the state's U.S. Democratic senators.

Sen. Jim Webb released a statement saying getting rid of it "would be a step backward
and could be harmful" to the military, while Sen. Mark Warner said: "I can see no
rational basis for dismantling" the Joint Forces Command.

The command, which has an annual budget of $240 million and 2,800 military and
civilian employees, is one of the department's 10 "combatant commands." Unlike most
of the others, it does not have a particular global region of responsibility, such as
Central Command that is responsible for the Middle East.

The command is made up of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who are trained and
equipped to work together in response to the needs of other combatant commands. It
grew out of the old Atlantic Command and became the Joint Forces Command in 1999.

Gen. James Mattis had been commander until he was recently picked to become
Centcom commander. Gen. Raymond Odierno, currently head of U.S. forces in Iraq, has
been picked to run the Joint Forces Command.

"I told Ray that his assignment at JFCOM is essentially the same as his assignment in
Iraq, and that is working himself out of a job." Gates said.

Eliminating the Joint Forces Command is just one of a wide-ranging series of proposals
presented by Gates. Others include:

-- Eliminating some of the 65 military boards and commissions to cut the budget for
them by 25 percent in fiscal year 2011;

-- A review of all Defense Department intelligence to eliminate needless duplication;

-- Eliminating the Defense Department's Business Transformation Agency, which has
day-to-day oversight of acquisition programs that would be handled by others in the
department;

-- Reducing funding for service support contractors by 10 percent a year for each of the
next three years;

-- Freezing the number of jobs in the Officer of the Secretary of Defense, the Defense
Agencies and Combatant Commands at current levels;

-- Seeking to stop "brass creep," a term former Sen. John Glenn used for situations when
higher-ranking officers were doing jobs that lower ranking officers could handle. To
address that problem, Gates is ordering a freeze on the number of generals, admirals
and senior civilian officials at current levels.

Gates was adamant that the Pentagon must change its way of thinking about money.

"The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of
savings and restraint," Gates said. "Toward this end, I am directing that any new
proposal or initiatives, large or small, be it policy, program or ceremony, come with a
cost estimate. That price tag will help us determine whether what we are gaining or
hope to gain is really worth the cost."
--------------------
How a Kagame win in Rwanda election could destabilize region (Christian Science
Monitor)

More than 5 million Rwandans cast their votes today to choose their leader, with
current President Paul Kagame – the former Tutsi rebel leader credited with ending the
1994 genocide of more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus – expected to be
reelected for his second consecutive seven-year term.

Labeled a staunch economic reformer by Western governments, but also called a

ruthless dictator by his opponents and by human rights groups, Mr. Kagame is widely
expected to win by a landslide, at least in part because several of his opponents have
been forbidden from participating and others have been killed in what rights groups
and analysts suspect were assassinations.

This is leading some to see Kagame as a destabilizing force in the region, even as he has
promoted business and economic growth.

Yet Pacome Bizimungu, a physiotherapy student at Kigali Health Institution, says he

voted for Kagame secure in the belief that the former rebel will continue the pro-
business policies that have led to more than a decade of steady economic growth.
“He is a strong man, he can perform better than the other candidates,” says Mr.
Bizimungu, after casting his vote at Rugunga School polling station in central Kigali.
“He has done so many things for this country in terms of economics and reconciliation
and we want him to carry on so that he can finish what he started.”

“We make our decision according to the strength of the candidates – there is no issue of
ethnicity,” he adds, denying that Kagame favors his own minority Tutsi ethnic group.
“We are in a process. We have not reached real democracy yet, but I think this is the
first step to democracy.”

The election in the tiny mountainous Republic of Rwanda could hardly be more
significant as a signal for how far “real democracy” has spread here, and Kagame’s
reelection would have far-reaching effects not just in the East Africa region, but through
the continent and beyond.

Seen by the US, Britain, and increasingly by France as a reliable strategic partner in
Africa, Kagame would appear to have a secure position. But a string of defections and
arrests of top Rwandan military and government officials, and assassination attempts
against Kagame’s critics, are starting to leave a bad taste in the mouth of even those
African leaders who once voiced their solidarity and support.

Relations between Rwanda and Uganda – former allies in the 1990s – have become
increasingly strained because of personal clashes between Kagame and Uganda's
leader, Yoweri Museveni. That, in turn, has strained relations with the Democratic
Republic of Congo. And South Africa recently recalled its ambassador to Rwanda for
consultations, in protest at the apparent assassination attempt on South African soil of a
top Rwandan dissident.

Such apparent disregard for democracy and rule of law has analysts questioning the
West's continued economic dealings with Rwanda and support for Kagame. “My
concern is not what the West has done in Rwanda, it’s what [it] didn’t do, and [how it]
didn’t think about the consequences of [its] actions” for not taking a harder line on
Kagame's anti-democratic practices, says Henri Boshoff, a military analyst for the
Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, as South Africa's capital of Pretoria is now
called.

Small, but strong

Rwanda’s size belies its strength, and the West and many of Rwanda’s backers didn’t
anticipate the effects of having a strong, unassailable military ruler in Rwanda on the
rest of the region, says Mr. Boshoff.
Rwanda has intervened several times in the civil conflicts of the larger but weaker
Democratic Republic of Congo, fueling wars that killed millions in the past decade
alone.

Closer to home, Kagame has maintained control by cracking down hard on critics and
journalists. By doing so, he may be forcing his opponents to seek other means of
expression, including violent ones.

“How long can he keep a lid on the opposition?” says Boshoff. “That’s the question.”
--------------------
Rwandan president plans victory party ahead of early election results (Washington
Post)

KIGALI, RWANDA -- Even before the polls had closed Monday, the supporters of
Rwandan President Paul Kagame were celebrating.

Outside this capital city's national stadium, several large white trucks carrying crates of
beers waited at the gate. "It's for the victory party," declared a soldier at the stadium's
gate. "The president will arrive later this evening."

The night before, Kagame's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front had sent a text message to
thousands of supporters and local journalists inviting them to the massive party
Monday evening, when the Rwanda's electoral commission is scheduled to release
preliminary results. The party promised all its supporters food, drinks and music, the
message read.

No one here doubts that Kagame will win another seven-year term by a landslide in
only the second elections since the 1994 genocide that killed more than 800,000 people.
The elections have been tainted by charges of political repression, murders and
censorship, charges that Kagame has denied. On Monday, shortly after he cast his vote
at a local school here, the 52-year-old guerrilla leader turned politician declared that the
elections were democratic. "I see no problems, but there are some people who choose to
see problems where there are not," Kagame told reporters.

Many Rwandans interviewed Monday chose to ignore the controversies surrounding

their president, who his critics say is nothing but another strongman on the continent.
His supporters tout Kagame's many accomplishments, such as a growing economy and
more rights for women. But they said they were voting for him chiefly because of the
stability he has brought to a country that was on the brink 16 years ago and that is still
haunted by its horrific past. Today, Rwanda is among the least corrupt nations in
Africa, attracting praise for its economic reforms.
"I voted for Paul Kagame because he has brought economic development and political
maturity to Rwanda," said Jane Mukamfizi, 52, an accountant. "He has a vision to lead
Rwanda to further development."

"I wish I could vote many more times for Kagame," gushed Esperance Mukamurangwa,
43, a housewife. Her vote was partly based on a dark experience: During the genocide,
soldiers from Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front army saved her from being killed by
Hutu extremists. She was her family's only survivor, she said.

When asked if she was concerned about the charges against Kagame, Mukamurangwa
shook her head and said: "They are lying."

"We have peace only because of Kagame and God," said her friend Annonciat
Dusabimana, 29, a housewife.

None of the nearly dozen people interviewed said they had voted for the opposition.

To be sure, Rwandans had few choices aside from Kagame. The government banned
two opposition parties from taking part in the elections, leaving three former allies of
Kagame, who support his views and were hardly credible opponents. Critics have
called them "sham candidates" designed to create the veneer of democracy. Even
visiting diplomats expressed surprise at the lack of competition.

Anil Gayan, a former Mauritius foreign minister and the head of a 20-nation African
Union mission that observed the elections, recalled his discussions with members of the
three opposition parties allowed to run. He said he was expecting some disgruntlement,
as is normal in any hotly contested election. "I was expecting something like, 'Look, we
have been denied access to this and that, or there is an overwhelming disparity between
the means of the president and us,' " said Gayan. "But I got the answer, 'We are happy
with this. There is no problem.' "

Other opposition leaders have been arrested or intimidated. Last month, the deputy
leader of one of the parties not permitted to take part in Monday's elections was
brutally murdered, his head nearly severed from his body. An American lawyer for a
jailed opposition candidate was also arrested and later released.

Journalists critical of Kagame have also been targeted. Two independent newspapers
were suspended; the deputy editor of one of them was shot to death in front of his
house after he had written an article that alleged the government was behind an
assassination attempt in South Africa of Kagame's former army chief of staff, who had
defected from his fold.
Critics say that a key reason for the official repression is that Kagame is facing dissent
within his own ranks. Kagame and key officials in his party have denied playing any
role in the recent assaults.

For now, Rwandans are waiting to usher in the next era of Kagame's rule.

When asked if she would attend the victory party, Mukamurangwa declared:

"I wouldn't miss it."

--------------------
US goes high-end to boost export trade with Africa (Business Daily)

The US is moving higher up the products advancement ladder to keep its share of trade
with Africa where competition for the low-end market has intensified with availability
of cheap goods from emerging economies such as China and India.

US assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson says America is tightening its
grip of the high-tech segment of the market to secure its top position in global
commerce that has come under serious attack from the industrialising economies
commonly known as BRICs.

“America will not compete at the low-end of Africa’s consumer goods market with
Brazil, Russia, India or China (BRIC),” he said on the sidelines of the 2010 Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) in Kansas City.

Production and export of cheap toys, mobile phones, radios, television sets and clothes
has fuelled China’s booming economy in the past decade, propelling it to the world’s
second largest and sparking debate over how best America should respond.

While China’s cheap goods have flooded the streets and supermarkets of all major cities
and small towns in Africa, America has deepened its presence in the high-tech goods
market such as planes, medicine and medical equipment.

Mr Carson, who is President Barack Obama’s chief advisor on US policies in Africa,

shed light on a question that has lingered since the 2000 China-Africa Forum that set in
motion “a new era of economic co-operation” between the continent and the Asian
nation.

Over the last 10 years, the sales of Chinese goods in sub-Saharan Africa rose more than
eight times and Chinese firms have won major construction deals in the region.

China’s main interest in Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, has been in
infrastructure that also helps open untapped markets and vast natural resources tucked
away in neighbouring Uganda, Sudan, and parts of the DRC.
Africa-China trade rose nearly tenfold in eight years to $93 billion in 2008, according to
the 2010 UNCTAD report.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s June 2010 report says
China now accounts for 11 per cent of Africa’s external trade - and is the continent’s
largest source of imports.

The EU is still Africa’s biggest trading partner — as a result of past colonial ties — but
has ceded significant ground to the Chinese. EU’s share of African trade reduced to
below 40 per cent as per 2008 figures from about 55 per cent in the mid 1980s.

The United States’ share of Africa’s trade has hovered between 10 and 14 per cent in
that period, says the report.

But even though you are not likely to find cheap American motorbikes on display the
next time you walk into a supermarket, Carson promises one thing: “America will
continue to be a major seller of aircraft and engineering products, we know where our
competitiveness is.”

In May 2000, when Carson was still on diplomatic duty in Nairobi, former US president
Bill Clinton signed into law the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The AGOA trade policy was a popular legislation that won bi-partisan support of both
Republicans and Democrats in America’s legislature.

It offered an unprecedented chance to boost Africa’s economy by allowing more than

6,500 goods into the US market without charging any taxes on them.

AGOA agreement

Ten years later, trade between US and Africa under the AGOA agreement has
flourished, putting to work thousands of people across the continent employed in the
agro-processing and apparel manufacturing industry.

AGOA exports to America soared to $86 billion in 2008 from $50.3 billion in 2005,
according to latest numbers from the US Department of Commerce.

But the sweetheart deal is set to expire in 2015, unless the US Congress votes to extend
its life.

Mr Carson, who talks passionately about the trade policy, fears the window could close
before achieving its core objective of putting African goods on the global trade map.
“Unfortunately African countries are not doing enough to take advantage of this
provision, it was meant to improve their competitiveness in the global markets,” says
Carson.
--------------------
U.N. Back to Somalia After 17 Years (Reuters)

NAIROBI, Kenya — The United Nations plans to move its foreign missions and
organizations back inside Somalia after an absence of more than 17 years, a senior
United Nations official said Sunday.

The United Nations left Somalia for Nairobi in 1993 because of security concerns and
near-daily gun battles and mortar attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Most
embassies and foreign charities had withdrawn for Nairobi years earlier for that reason.

The Somali government has been urging the United Nations to reconsider its
withdrawal.

Somalia has had no effective central authority since 1991, and its Transitional Federal
Government controls only a small section of the capital. Augustine Mahiga, the United
Nations special representative for the Horn of Africa, said an increase in African Union
troops to 8,100 from 6,200 had improved security for the move, which could happen
within 60 days. The African Union assigned more troops to Somalia after the Shabab, an
Islamist insurgency in Somalia, claimed responsibility for deadly bombings in Uganda
last month.

Mr. Mahiga also said the United Nations hopes to establish a presence in the breakaway
Somali republic of Somaliland and the enclave of Puntland.

His announcement came as a pro-Shabab militia in Puntland fought with Puntland

security forces for the second time this month. Gen. Abdisamad Ali Shire, Puntland’s
vice president, told reporters there that his forces had killed 18 militants.
--------------------
Hostility Toward Workers Cools Angola-China Relationship (Wall Street Journal)

Here, the love affair between China and Africa is on the wane. Oil-rich Angola, the
recipient of at least $8.5 billion in infrastructure loan agreements from China, has
become a symbol of the Asian nation's strategy in Africa. But cracks are showing in the
relationship between the two countries, at a time when China is already showing a new
interest in other regions—notably, ones where Western nations are reluctant to do
business.
Human-rights activists say Chinese workers and companies have been singled out for
physical attacks. Meanwhile, staff and facilities have been targeted by antigovernment
forces.

A central issue is growing resentment that companies are importing their own Chinese
workers rather than employing Angolans to rebuild the country after its 27-year civil
war. According to the Angolan government, 70,000 Chinese people work in Angola,
ranging from crane and bulldozer operators to more-skilled railway technicians.

China importing "its own labor…does not sit comfortably with locals," says Andrew
Leung, a Hong-Kong-based consultant advising Chinese companies moving to Africa.

On some projects, the majority of staff is Chinese. For instance, the work restoring the
505-kilometer Mocamedes Railway in southern Angola employs 160 Chinese workers
and 60 Angolans, according to state news agency Angola Press.

Lucy Corkin, a research associate at the Africa-Asia Centre of London's School of

Oriental and African Studies, says the trouble is that, in Angola, as elsewhere in Africa,
"Chinese companies and politicians collectively have leaned heavily on high-level
political relations rather than informed risk analysis and research," meaning they are ill-
prepared for the conditions on the ground.

In statements made in Portuguese to the Angolan media last year, the Chinese embassy
in Luanda insisted relations with the African nation are "excellent." But in the Mandarin
section of the Chinese Commerce Ministry's website, the ministry speaks frankly about
the difficulties of operating in Angola. Chinese companies are facing "abuse from
government agencies and bureaucracy, an imperfect legal system, arbitrary, high
customs fees and local businessmen don't speak in good faith," the ministry says.

An incident witnessed in December in a leafy neighborhood of the capital, Luanda,

where many Chinese companies are based, shows the hostility Chinese workers face.

A crowd of Angolans gathered outside the offices of a Chinese engineering and

construction company. They shouted angrily, demanding compensation for a moped
driver whose vehicle was damaged when he collided with a dog that had escaped from
the Chinese company's building. "It's getting harder and harder" for the Chinese
community in Angola, says a young Chinese man in T-shirt and jeans as he rushes to
talk to the angry crowd.

Francisco Tunga, executive secretary of the Center for Human Rights Coordination in
Luanda, concurs, saying there is "discrimination against the Chinese. They are regularly
beaten up or kidnapped."
Neil Atkinson, director of energy and utilities research and analysis at consultancy
Datamonitor in London, says the Chinese "are high-profile because they bring down
their own people. It's a sore thumb," as foreign contractors from other countries tend to
bring in very few expatriates.

Poor workers from rural China are attracted to jobs in Angola as a way of saving up
money for their families—a Chinese worker earns considerably more in Angola than
back home. Nonetheless, they are paid one-third less than workers at other foreign
companies in Angola, and work 11 hours a day, six days a week, according to people
who have worked for Chinese companies. Employees at other private businesses in
Angola work an average of 44 hours a week, according to data from the International
Labor Organization.

Silvano Mazunda, a human-rights activist who works under the umbrella of Luanda's
Center for Human Rights Coordination, points out that "bringing the Chinese was part
of the contract with the [Angolan] government. But people fear the government, so they
protest against the Chinese instead."

Critics of the Angolan government are routinely jailed under the charge of "crimes
against the security of the state." According to human-rights group Amnesty
International, this law "is vague and does not enable individuals to foresee whether a
particular action is unlawful. It basically means that any act which the authorities say is
a crime will be a crime even if this was not stated in law at the time the act was
committed."

Bento Bembe, secretary of state in charge of human rights in the Angolan cabinet,
declined to comment on the law.

In late 2009, the Chinese embassy in Angola took the unprecedented step of issuing a
Chinese-language warning on its website on the mounting security risks faced by its
nationals. It said a rise in armed robberies is targeting "Chinese people in particular,"
citing a case in which a businessman was robbed of $180,000 worth of goods by a dozen
armed men, and another robbery on a company in Luanda in which one employee died
of gunshot wounds. The Angolan government doesn't publish crime statistics, but
Luanda's deputy governor for social affairs, Juvelina Imperial, admitted in February
that crime rates in the capital are worrying.

Since then, both the Chinese and Angolan governments have denied there is crime or
violence specifically targeting Chinese citizens. China's ambassador to Angola, Zhang
Bolun, told The Wall Street Journal that "over the past few years, crime was a major
problem," but, he argues, Chinese people aren't being targeted because of their
nationality.
Eduardo Cerqueira, the director of the Criminal Investigation Department of the
Angolan government, acknowledges that "in Angola, we have some criminality but not
worse than in other countries." He says that Chinese people may be victims of crime—
for instance, merchants with goods—but, he says, Chinese people aren't being singled
out. "Every nationality is affected," he says.

In Cabinda, the province of Angola with the most oil, Chinese contractors have become
a proxy for the government for separatist rebels seeking independence for the enclave.
With the exception of a deadly attack on the Togolese national football team in January,
the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, or FLEC, has exclusively targeted
Chinese projects and workers in the past 12 months.

"They [the foreigners attacked] were all Chinese," says Rodrigues Mingas, a spokesman
for an FLEC faction. "They are not our guests. They work for the Angolan government."

The group has claimed responsibility for three confirmed attacks on Chinese workers.
In November, an ambush on Chinese workers at seismic contractor BGP Inc., a unit of
China National Petroleum Corp., interrupted the first effort to search for oil for several
months in the north of the enclave. FLEC and the Angolan government disagree on the
number of casualties.

With close to a third of Angola's oil output coming from Cabinda's offshore wells, and
expectations of significant reserves onshore, the enclave is vital to the country's oil-
dependent economy. Though there isn't yet any onshore production, "the Chevron
[Corp.] base in Malongo and the services hub that Cabinda has become... make it an
important part of the [Angolan] oil economy," says Ms. Corkin of SOAS.

There have also been disputes over pay. While some companies receive direct funding
from Chinese banks, others are paid by the Angolan government with the proceeds of
loans from China.

Some Chinese projects in Angola have been interrupted or come to a complete standstill
since last year because of payment delays after Angola's oil and diamond revenue fell
amid a global crisis, the Chinese ambassador, Mr. Zhang, says. But despite the global
economic recovery, many Chinese companies are still facing huge overdue payments
from the Angolan government, he says, while noting that other foreign companies are
also facing delays.

For example, China Railway 20th Bureau Group Co., or CR-20, is owed nearly $800
million, according to Mr. Zhang. CR-20 is working to restore a stretch of the 1,300-
kilometer railroad that links the copper belt of the Democratic Republic of Congo to
Angola's Atlantic coast. CR-20's parent company, China Railway Construction Corp.,
declined to comment.
And with companies unable to pay their employees, some workers have been forced to
return to China. For example, a translator working in Southern Angola for a Chinese
construction company had to go home after the company for which she was working
wasn't paid late last year, according to a compatriot interviewed in Luanda. "Her
company stopped being paid. She had to go back home. It happened to many of my
friends," the friend, a fellow translator, said, speaking on the condition her name
wouldn't be disclosed.

In a statement released in March by Hywai, a Chinese company operating in Angola,

Mr. Zhang hinted he had discussed the payment problem with Angolan President
Eduardo Dos Santos. "I had a deep discussion with Mr. President with regards to the
ongoing projects and projects payment," he said, according to the statement.

A spokesman for the Angolan economy ministry referred calls to a finance ministry
representative, who didn't return a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the Angolan government's enthusiasm for new Chinese-run infrastructure

projects has cooled.

After signing a raft of contracts between 2005 and 2008, it hasn't finalized any
significant deal with China in two years.

According to the China International Contractors Association, Angola—previously in

the top-three biggest buyers of Chinese contracts—was outpaced by Iran and Venezuela
last year, with India remaining in the top three. Total bilateral trade between China and
Angola was $17 billion in 2009, down 33% on the year, in line with a drop in oil prices,
according to China's bureau of statistics.

Late last year, Angolan state oil company Sonangol blocked the $1.3 billion sale of a
20% stake held by Marathon Oil Corp. to China's Cnooc Ltd. and Sinopec because it
wanted to buy it itself, and subsequently signed a deal to boost its existing cooperation
with India.

Experts say Angola's cooler approach to China is the result of its burgeoning
relationship with Western investors. In November, the IMF decided to resume lending
to Angola, but asked the country to cut its deficit. Experts say Angola's cooler approach
to China is the result of its burgeoning relationship with Western investors. In
November, the IMF decided to resume lending to Angola, after it agreed to make big
cuts to its budget. This was followed swiftly by its first ever credit rating from
international agencies, easing the way for a $2 billion sovereign bond sale in Europe
and the U.S. later this year.

The U.S.—through a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year—has also
promised to ramp up investment in both oil and agricultural projects.
As a result, experts say, China is also cooling on Angola, even as it is increasing
investment in countries with which Western investors are reluctant to do business. In
Iran, China National Petroleum Corp. signed a $4.7 billion deal to help develop a
natural-gas field last year after Total SA of France refused to commit to the project. And
it has plowed more than $2.7 billion into acquisitions in Syria over the past 18 months.

The Chinese are also "more interested in Venezuela and Brazil, where energy resources
are so much bigger," Mr. Atkinson of Datamonitor adds.

In late May, China made its first sizeable foray into Brazil's offshore when Sinochem
agreed to buy a 40% stake in a heavy oil field from Norway's Statoil ASA for $3.1
billion.

China's oil imports from Brazil rose by more than 60% to about 160,000 barrels a day
during the first quarter, and the country's largest refiner, Sinopec, expects a 43% rise in
oil imports from Brazil next year. The Asian nation is even upgrading its refineries to
process its heavier, harder-to-process crude.

"China's relationship with Angola has plateaued," says Mr. Atkinson of Datamonitor.
"There is a limit to how much they can do in Angola, because there is a degree of
resentment against them" from the local population.
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Constitutional Changes Could Extend President's Rule in Burkina Faso (Voice of
America)

The ruling party in Burkina Faso has called for changing the constitution so its leader
and the country's president, Blaise Compaore, can run for office again in November.
The Congress for Democracy and Progress wants to lift two-term limit so the 59-year-
old can again be its candidate for head of state.

Mr. Compaore took power in a coup in 1987 when then-president Thomas Sankara was
killed. When Mr. Compaore was elected as president in 1991, a restriction of two seven-
year terms was set, only to be lifted six years later. President Compaore was re-elected
in 1998 and again in 2005.

The current limit of two five-year terms was put in place in 2002 after violent riots
occurred following the assassination of a prominent journalist. The president of the
Congress for Democracy and Progress party, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, recently
argued that term limits restrict democracy rather than serve it.

Kabore said that all political parties must ensure their candidates are on the ballot, so
that is what the Congress for Democracy and Progress is doing.
If the proposed amendment is passed, it would revise Article 37 of the country's
constitution and enable Mr. Compaore to run again in 2015 and extend his presidential
rule until 2020.
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Somali Islamist group bans three international aid agencies (Xinhua)

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's Islamist group Al Shabaab has banned the operation
of three international relief agencies they accused of "actively propagating Christianity"
in the war-torn country.

A statement posted on the radical group's website said the U.S.- based World Vision,
ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency), and Swedish agency of Diakonia,
were banned from working within Somalia. "The aforementioned organizations have
been found to be actively propagating Christianity in this Muslim country," said the
statement issued by Al Shabaab's Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign Agencies
(OSAFA).

The Islamist group which is waging a deadly insurgency against the Somali
government has previously banned a number of UN agencies as well as media outlets
operating in the war ravaged country after the group claimed the organizations were
involved in "anti-Islam activities."

Al Shabaab said in the statement that the three agencies which have been working in
Somalia, were "acting as missionaries under the guise of humanitarian work" while at
the same time spreading what they termed as "corrupted ideologies in order to taint the
pure creed of the Muslims in Somalia." "Along with their missionary work, the
proliferation of corruption and indecency has become prevalent as a result of their
presence," the statement added.

The Islamist group which controls much of south and center of Somalia warned of
prompt closure for other agencies found to be engaged in similar activities and those
trying to carry on the work of the banned organization will face unspecified
"appropriate disciplinary measure."

The propagation of the Christian faith is unacceptable in Islam as well as in the Muslim
society, the statement stressed.

The Islamist group, which is listed as a terrorist entity by several world governments
including the U.S., is fighting to topple the weak but internationally recognized
government of Somalia and establish an Islamic state in the east African country.
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African ministers in Zimbabwe on gem fact-finding mission (AFP)
HARARE, Zimbabwe – Ministers from Africa's diamond producers arrived in
Zimbabwe on Monday to assess operations at the controversial Marange fields ahead of
a limited gems sale, officials said.

"The delegation will be going to Marange to assess compliance issues," Lovemore

Kurotwi, managing director of Canadile, one of two firms operating at Marange, told
AFP.

The fact-finding mission comes ahead of a gems auction on Wednesday after the
Kimberley Process global watchdog last month allowed Zimbabwe two sales after
finding the country had complied with minimum standards for human rights.

"We have complied with the Kimberley Process (KP) regulations, but others were
saying we are yet to meet the set guidelines. This visit is meant to see how far we have
complied with the KP regulations," said Kurotwi.

The Kimberley Process had blocked sales from the alluvial fields in eastern Zimbabwe
after documenting forced labour and other abuses by the military.

The Association of the African Diamond Producing Countries delegation comprises

mining ministers from South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and
Namibia, according to a government schedule.

Also in the delegation are deputy ministers from Sierra Leone and Mauritania.

Kimberley scheme monitor Abbey Chikane is expected to certify and examine all
diamonds produced by the two companies operating in Marange from May 28 to
August 1, according to government officials.

Meanwhile, the government has refused to indicate how many buyers will attend
Wednesday's supervised sale or how much is expected to be raised.

"We are not going to name, or state how many buyers we have for Wednesday or how
many parcels we have for security reasons," Thankful Musukutwa, mines secretary told
AFP.

"Other buyers do not want to be known who they are and we will respect that."

The ministerial delegation will also visit the border post with Mozambique to assess the
issue of smuggling.
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UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website
Darfur: UN chief renews call on all parties to return to peace talks
9 August – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today renewed his call for all parties to the
conflict in Darfur to cease hostilities and participate in the ongoing efforts to bring
about a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the fighting that has wracked the Sudanese
region for over seven years.