United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

12 August 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

AFRICOM's air component expanding missions (Stars and Stripes)

(Pan Africa) In the nearly two years since its inception, 17th Air Force and U.S. Air
Forces Africa has more than doubled its staff to 300 members, and increased its
missions to the continent from about 30 in 2009 to more than 60 in fiscal 2010.

DRC Welcomes US Support to Defeat LRA Rebels (Voice of America)

(Democratic Republic of Congo) A Cabinet minister in the Democratic Republic of
Congo says his administration will cooperate with U.S. President Barack Obama’s
administration as Washington develops a comprehensive strategy to deal with the
Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (LRA).

U.S. Works With Sudan on Gitmo (Wall Street Journal)

(Sudan) The U.S. has been working with the Sudanese government to repatriate
detainees from Guantanamo Bay, according to evidence presented Wednesday in the
case of a Sudanese prisoner.

Grenade Strikes Rwanda’s Capital Two Days After Election (New York Times)
(Rwanda) Two days after President Paul Kagame was overwhelmingly re-elected,
Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, was struck by a grenade attack on Wednesday night, rattling
the calm that had prevailed during the voting.

Morocco breaks up radical Islamist cell: report (Reuters)

(Morocco) Moroccan security forces broke up a radical Islamist cell that was planning
attacks in Morocco, including on foreign targets, official media quoted the interior
ministry as saying on Wednesday.

Ethiopia eyes end of food aid within five years: PM (Reuters)

(Ethiopia) Ethiopia may not need any food aid within five years thanks to an ambitious
development plan that targets a heady average economic growth of 14.9 percent over
the period, its prime minister said Wednesday.

Norway pledges to work for reform in Swaziland (Associated Press)

(Swaziland) Norway pledged Wednesday to work for democracy in Africa's last
absolute monarchy — tiny Swaziland — while comparing the initiative to its role in the
fight against apartheid in neighboring South Africa.

Africa, Small Firms Can Benefit from Trade (The Washington Informer)
(Pan Africa) Ambassador Ron Kirk, US Trade Representative, said that it is the goal of
the Obama administration to use trade to encourage Africa to become more
economically independent and to sustain growth in its commerce.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Situation in Darfur camp for displaced persons tense and insecure, UN reports
 Peru: UN health agency helps respond to outbreak of plague
 Seychelles becomes latest country to join International Criminal Court
 UN launches massive feeding drive for children in drought-stricken Niger
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AFRICOM's air component expanding missions (Stars and Stripes)

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — In the nearly two years since its inception, 17th Air
Force and U.S. Air Forces Africa has more than doubled its staff to 300 members, and
increased its missions to the continent from about 30 in 2009 to more than 60 in fiscal
2010.

Taking the reins in the midst of this exponential growth is Maj. Gen. Margaret
Woodward, the second commander of the air component for U.S. Africa Command.
AFRICOM also has recently added Navy and Army components.

Woodward, who replaced Maj. Gen. Ronald Ladnier this summer, said the command’s
focus will continue to be on a “shape and deter,” strategy that calls on working with
other U.S. government and non-governmental agencies on the continent as well as the
command’s African partners “to help the Africans solve African problems.”

It’s a way of thinking espoused by AFRICOM and once described by Defense Secretary
Robert Gates as “to shape the security environment in ways that obviate the need for
military intervention in the future.”

Helping African nations improve air safety and security is a priority, Woodward said.
“Not only does that help with security for both our partner nations and for our nation
as well … but it actually helps them economically, because you need that type of
infrastructure to be able to grow.”

In the past year, Air Forces Africa has worked with Uganda, Ghana, Botswana,
Rwanda, Ethiopia, Morocco, Mali, Senegal, and other African countries.

Last fall, for example, AFAFRICA oversaw a mission to Uganda to show its military
how to prepare for and execute a humanitarian air drop. Uganda requested the
assistance after parts of the country were devastated by flooding and Uganda’s military
had no way to airdrop food, supplies or medicine.

“I really believe in the concept that, by our actions, we can help prevent … problems
from becoming crises and crises from becoming conflict,” Woodward said. “I think the
opportunities outweigh any challenges that are out there and that is phenomenally
exciting.”

Despite a lack of resources — both in the U.S. military and in Africa — and the sheer
size of a continent with 53 nations, the command can point to some early success,
Woodward said.

The command, for example, helped Rwanda improve its air traffic control system, as
the country is striving to become a hub for increased commerce and cargo in central
Africa.
--------------------
DRC Welcomes US Support to Defeat LRA Rebels (Voice of America)

A Cabinet minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo says his administration will
cooperate with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration as Washington develops
a comprehensive strategy to deal with the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (LRA).

Information minister Lambert Mende said the government needs intelligence support in
its effort to defeat the LRA rebels, who are accused of killing, mutilating and abducting
unarmed Congolese in the northeastern part of the country.

“This is [a] situation we have been experiencing for a very long time, I think for 10
years. And, we are ending this situation because we have attacked the LRA one time
together with our neighbors, the Ugandan army. But now, we are doing it ourselves
and we are succeeding. I think a lot of them have fled to Central African Republic,
others have met death during combat operations and their actions against our people
and against our army are reducing these days,” he said.

In its latest report, the Washington-based Enough Project documented 51 attacks by the
LRA in Bas Uele, Congo, resulting in at least 105 deaths and 570 abductions during the
last 15 months.
The report also said the LRA rebels have used Bas Uele territory region (northeastern
Congo) as a base and transit point to the Central Africa Republic and beyond.

It also stated that the threat against unarmed Congolese civilians is increasing, since
there is no meaningful military force to challenge the LRA in the area.

“The Congolese army remains a threat to its own population, and the United Nations is
drawing down its peacekeepers in this region,” the report said.

Information Minister Mende said his government needs help to fight the rebels.

“We welcome this move positively because we needed really to be assisted with all the
wars, as not only Congo [is] under threat by those people [rebels] but also Uganda,
Central Africa Republic and southern Sudan. So, we need people to assist,” Mende said.

The LRA rebels originally began their insurgency in northern Uganda, but the group is
believed to have killed, mutilated, and displaced thousands of civilians across central
Africa for more than two decades.

The rebels abduct thousands of children and turn them into child soldiers.
--------------------
U.S. Works With Sudan on Gitmo (Wall Street Journal)

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The U.S. has been working with the Sudanese
government to repatriate detainees from Guantanamo Bay, according to evidence
presented Wednesday in the case of a Sudanese prisoner.

A military commission recommended late Wednesday that the prisoner, former al

Qaeda cook Ibrahim al-Qosi, receive a 14-year sentence, but his actual sentence is likely
to be much shorter because of a separate plea bargain.

2004 charges against Ibrahim al-Qosi Final set of charges against Mr. Qosi Stipulation of
fact to which the U.S. government and Mr. Qosi agreed Letter from Sudan's foreign
minister pledging cooperation with the U.S. Letter from Sudan's intelligence service
describing rehabilitation program for Guantanamo detainees After his sentence, he is
set to be repatriated to Sudan, joining nine other Sudanese Guantanamo detainees sent
home there.

The U.S. talks with Sudan suggest that the goal of closing Guantanamo may sometimes
conflict with Washington's other priorities. The International Criminal Court, with U.S.
assent, has issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and
accused him of genocide.
Seeking to assure the commission that Mr. Qosi wouldn't threaten the U.S. once
repatriated, Maj. Todd Pierce, one of his military defense attorneys, introduced
correspondence from the Sudanese government promising to keep the former cook
under strict watch.

In a document transmitted via the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, the Sudanese National
Intelligence and Security Service said it would put Mr. Qosi in mandatory
"rehabilitation," monitor his phone calls and email, and deploy "informants" to ensure
he "no longer [adheres] to a radical ideology." The agency said its program is "85%
effective."

In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sudanese Foreign

Minister Deng Alor Kuol praised "the positive engagement of the Obama
administration" and added that "Sudan is ready to cooperate with President [Barack]
Obama in his effort to close down the Guantanamo facility" by accepting additional
detainees.

The Bashir regime has been waging a war in the country's Darfur region, and in 2005,
the United Nations Security Council referred the case to the International Criminal
Court. In 2008, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Mr. Bashir and other Sudanese
officials. In February, the ICC added genocide to the allegations against Mr. Bashir.

Mr. Bashir has rejected the charges and refused to surrender to the ICC.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley noted that the nine ex-detainees now in
Sudan were sent there by the Bush administration. He said the U.S. has "principled
engagement" with Sudan, but that engagement doesn't include Mr. Bashir. The U.S.
wants Mr. Bashir to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, Mr. Crowley said.

Mr. Qosi, about 50 years old, was captured in Afghanistan in the weeks following the
2001 U.S.-led invasion. He was one of four Guantanamo detainees the Bush
administration selected to inaugurate its military commissions plan in 2004, but those
trials bogged down amid legal challenges and internal disarray.

Military prosecutors initially described Mr. Qosi as the "deputy chief financial officer" of
an al Qaeda front company who funneled money to the terrorist network's operations
and "signed checks on behalf of Osama bin Laden."

When the Bush administration refiled charges in 2008, it dropped those allegations and
described Mr. Qosi as a cook at an al Qaeda camp near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, who also
worked as a driver and on a mortar crew.
Mr. Qosi agreed to a sentence under a secret plea bargain. He will receive that sentence
instead of the 14-year term recommended Wednesday by the military commission,
assuming the plea-bargain sentence is shorter.

The Arabic-language news channel al Arabiya, citing two unnamed people, said the
plea-bargain sentence is two years.

Human rights groups acknowledged the difficulty in resolving Guantanamo cases, but
cautioned against making a quid pro quo with the Bashir regime.

"Whatever help the U.S. gets from Sudan for the goal of closing Gitmo is a bad bargain,"
said American University visiting professor Juan E. Mendez, a special adviser on crime
prevention to the ICC prosecutor. "Bashir milks that collaboration for all it is worth in
his attempt to break the isolation in which he has been placed due to the arrest warrant
issued by the ICC."

Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame,
took another view. "Engaging with the Sudanese on this issue is more likely to have a
positive impact than a negative one. The United States is in a difficult position to press
Sudan on human rights violations, while holding Sudanese nationals at Gitmo," she
said. "And during the course of this repatriation, the U.S. may actually find some
opportunities to press for accountability and new policies for Darfur and southern
Sudan."
--------------------
Grenade Strikes Rwanda’s Capital Two Days After Election (New York Times)

KIGALI, Rwanda — Two days after President Paul Kagame was overwhelmingly re-
elected, Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, was struck by a grenade attack on Wednesday night,
rattling the calm that had prevailed during the voting.

The police said that three people had been arrested and that 20 had been taken to a
hospital, after the grenade exploded at a taxi park in downtown Kigali. Witnesses said
the attackers threw the grenade out of a moving car.

“I was driving my car when it was hit,” one witness, whose car was struck in the
middle of the road, said before giving a statement to the police. “I did not even
recognize what it was.”

The attack came on the day that results were released from Rwanda’s presidential
election, the second since the end of the genocide here. Mr. Kagame won 93 percent of
the vote, and the second-place finisher received 5 percent, according to the electoral
commission. Voter turnout was more than 98 percent.
“This has been one of the most successful and peaceful elections,” said Charles
Munyaneza, executive secretary of Rwanda’s National Electoral Commission.

Observers said the vote on Monday was safe and fair. But while observers said there
was no evidence of voter intimidation, some said the opposition might have done even
worse than was officially recorded.

Three potential candidates were unable to register; two of them have since been
arrested, and another has fled to Germany.

Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, who led the Commonwealth Observer Group that helped
monitor the elections, said that according to his own observations, no opposition figure
— or even the opposition altogether — had received 5 percent of the vote, as official
results showed.

Kigali is an especially orderly and peaceful capital, one of the hallmarks of Mr.
Kagame’s presidency, and the attacks seemed intended to undermine that.

“They must be dealt with,” a police spokesman, Eric Kayiranga, said of the attackers.
“They are here with bad intentions.”

The government has blamed two dissident high-ranking soldiers in South Africa for a
series of grenade attacks preceding the elections; one recently denied the accusation, but
threatened violence nonetheless.

“There cannot be any change through election but through violent means,” said Col.
Patrick Karegeya, in exile in South Africa.
--------------------
Morocco breaks up radical Islamist cell: report (Reuters)

RABAT, Morocco – Moroccan security forces broke up a radical Islamist cell that was
planning attacks in Morocco, including on foreign targets, official media quoted the
interior ministry as saying on Wednesday.

The cell had 18 members, including three Islamists who had been detained in the past
over related offences, the official MAP news agency said, quoting a ministry statement.

The statement did not specify which targets the detained Islamists planned to attack or
name the foreign countries whose interests were threatened by the cell members.

"The members of the cell were getting ready to carry out terrorist attacks and sabotage
inside the national territory and against foreign interests in Morocco," the statement
said.
Islamist-linked violence is rare in Morocco, a staunch Western ally with a reputation for
stability that has helped to entice millions of tourists to visit the country.

The last big attack was a series of suicide bombings in the economic capital, Casablanca,
in 2003 that killed 45 people, and since then security services say they have rounded up
more than 60 radical cells.
--------------------
Ethiopia eyes end of food aid within five years: PM (Reuters)

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia may not need any food aid within five years thanks to an
ambitious development plan that targets a heady average economic growth of 14.9
percent over the period, its prime minister said Wednesday.

The Horn of Africa nation is still one of the world's poorest countries, with nearly 10
percent of the population relying on emergency food aid last year.

But the government has posted high economic growth figures over the past five years,
averaging about 11 percent, although the opposition says they are inflated to attract
investment.

"In the future, we will feed ourselves and we will be able to manage our own forms of
social security," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told reporters. "I don't think that is
impossible. I think it's quite achievable over the next five years."

Ethiopia is one of the world's biggest recipients of foreign aid, receiving $3.3 billion
worth of help in 2008, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development.

The country's new five-year plan predicts a "base-case" scenario of 11 percent average
growth and a "high-case scenario" of 14.9 percent average growth.

Ethiopia hopes to exploit growing business ties with China, India and Turkey and is
also trying to attract visitors from those countries to boost its largely untapped tourism
sector.

China has this year invested in road building, hydropower and windfarm projects in
the impoverished nation, including almost $1 billion in two dam projects.

INFRASTRUCTURE BOOST

Ethiopia says the agricultural output upon which the country's economy
overwhelmingly relies will be doubled by 2015 by encouraging investment and large-
scale farming. Ethiopia is Africa's biggest coffee exporter and the world's fourth largest
exporter of sesame.
"I think that this is a very ambitious plan but at the very least the base-case scenario is
doable," Meles said. "The high-case scenario is not unimaginable."

The Ethiopian government predicts growth of about 10 percent for 2010/2011. The
International Monetary Fund says the economy will grow by 7 percent.

Ethiopia's economic climate is watched by foreign investors interested in commodity

exports and its potential oil and gas reserves.

The country is one of Africa's largest potential markets -- with a population of about 80
million -- and most of its people have no telephones or bank accounts.

Meles, who was returned to power for five more years in a disputed May election
victory, has ruled out privatizing the banking and telecommunications sectors despite
pressure from Western donors to do so.

The former rebel told Reuters in an interview on election day that improving Ethiopia's
energy supply and expanding its industries would be his priorities for the next five
years, after which he would retire.

The plan, called "Growth and Transformation," also predicts a huge expansion of
infrastructure, with the country's power production set to increase from 2,000MW to
10,000MW and the construction of 2,395 km of railway lines.

Ethiopia plans to spend $12 billion over 25 years on realizing its ambition of become a
power exporter on a continent where shortages are common and cost industry dear.
--------------------
Norway pledges to work for reform in Swaziland (Associated Press)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Norway pledged Wednesday to work for democracy

in Africa's last absolute monarchy — tiny Swaziland — while comparing the initiative
to its role in the fight against apartheid in neighboring South Africa.

Swazi King Mswati III is accused of repressing human rights and harassing and jailing
pro-democracy activists. Pro-democracy activists say a monarchy is ill-equipped to
combat the poverty and AIDS that trouble the kingdom of 1 million wedged between
South Africa and Mozambique.

At a Norwegian-sponsored meeting held in South Africa Wednesday and featuring

diplomats and Swazi pro-democracy groups, Norwegian Ambassador Tor Christian
Hildan said his government was not alone in noting "with growing concern the difficult
situation regarding human rights, freedom of speech" in Swaziland.
The powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions co-sponsored Wednesday's
meeting. Political parties are banned in Swaziland, so trade unions there play an
important political role and have reached out to their counterparts around the world.

Representatives from the international Red Cross and envoys of the Netherlands and
European Union also attended the forum. Amadou Traore, the top EU diplomat in
Swaziland, assured the audience "Swaziland is very much on the EU radar."

He said in June, the EU condemned the death in police custody of a young man arrested
at a May Day rally, reportedly for wearing a T-shirt with the logo of Swaziland's
People's United Democratic Movement. Swazi authorities say the man hanged himself.
The EU demanded an official inquest and the government promised a report at the end
of June, EU envoy Traore said.

"We are still waiting," he said.

Bheki Dlamini, the spokesman for King Mswati, referred questions to Prime Minister
Barnabas Dlamini. The prime minister's office did not immediately comment
Wednesday. In the Swazi media last week, when Norway announced it planned to hold
the forum, a top Swazi foreign ministry official accused the Nordic country of "poking
its nose in the affairs of the country."

Swazi pro-democracy activist Skhumbuzo Phakathi said Mswati was "using legal
instruments to suppress human rights and freedom." At Wednesday's meeting, he
called on Norway to continue raising international awareness.

"Talk to your neighbors, talk to your allies, and say, 'There is a crisis in Swaziland.'"

Another activist, Vincent Ncongwane, went further, calling for "smart sanctions"
against key government figures to force them to open a dialogue with the opposition.

Norwegian Ambassador Hildan, comparing the initiative in Swaziland to work that

Norway undertook in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, said it was too early
to consider such a step against a government his country saw as friendly. He said
Norway would instead encourage "constructive dialogue" and talk to both the
government and the opposition.

"We do take the liberty to express concern because ... we care," Hildan said. "A true
friend has the courage to raise the more challenging questions."

Mswati has ruled for nearly a quarter century, since the death of his father, King
Sobhuza II. While Sobhuza was revered as a benevolent traditional leader, his son has
been accused of being an autocrat.
Swaziland has a National Assembly that is subservient to the king. Political parties have
been outlawed in Swaziland since 1973, at a time when many other African country's
were still under colonial rule.

Swazi authorities have banned political meetings. Security agents in the kingdom —
from police to game park guards — have been accused of killing suspects with
impunity.

Last year, a Swazi court acquitted an anti-monarchist who was jailed for a year while
awaiting trial under sweeping anti-terror laws passed in 2008.

Currently, two members of a banned opposition group are jailed on charges of being
behind a spate of small bomb attacks. Critics accuse Swazi police of staging the
bombings to discredit Mswati's opponents.
--------------------
Africa, Small Firms Can Benefit from Trade (The Washington Informer)

Increased trade between nations that is fair and profitable for the United States is one of
the components for the country's economic recovery, a key advisor to President Obama
said recently. Ambassador Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative, in an interview
conducted by the Washington Informer on Tue., Aug. 3 at his office in Northwest, said
that foreign trade has emerged as an important facet of Obama’s economic and foreign
policy.

"The president recognizes that our ability to sell products, goods and services to our
markets abroad is a great way to create jobs," Kirk, 56, said. "Ninety-five percent of the
exports in this country are done by small businesses and we are looking into new
markets for these businesses to grow and expand."

Kirk oversees the Office of the United States Trade Representative which is responsible
for developing and recommending trade policy to the president, conducting trade
negotiations with foreign countries, and coordinating trade policy within the U.S.
government. His office also enforces U.S. trade policy and serves as the U.S.
government's representative on matters before such international trade organizations
such as the World Trade Organization.

"The benefits of trade are widely distributed in this country," he said. "Through trade,
we have access to things like cheaper clothes and the explosion of consumer electronics
is an example of a success of trade. But our trading partners have to be fair also."

Kirk said that the Obama administration wants countries to open up their markets to
American products as well.
"We live in a world that is now globally interconnected, we are an economic
community," he said. "We however have to play by the same rules and we will trade
with countries that support American values. That means that we trade with countries
that respect their workers right to organize and respect the environment."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative was established in 1962 with the support of
President John F. Kennedy who felt that the country's trade policy, implementation and
enforcement should be administered by an independent agency and not under the U.S.
State Department.
Kirk, who is the first Black to be the U.S. Trade Representative, manages a staff of 200
professionals with offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Brussels, Belgium.

Kirk has achieved many firsts throughout his career, including his selection as the first
Black male to serve as the Secretary of State of Texas in 1994; his election as the first
Black mayor of Dallas in 1995; and the first Black Texan to win nomination by a major
political party (Democratic) for a U.S. Senate seat in 2002.

Kirk is a native of Austin, Texas and attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas and the
University of Texas School of Law in his hometown. He has worked for the late Senator
and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and for the City of Dallas as an assistant city
attorney.

Kirk was a co-chairman of the Obama-Biden campaign in Texas in 2008. Kirk said that
he wanted to help businesses increase trade with Africa and that AGOA (African
Growth and Opportunity Act) is the chief vehicle for trade with the continent.

"We take seriously our relationship with Africa and that is why we have worked to
change that relationship from 'aid-based' to 'what can we do for Africa,' " he said.

"In the past, we have left large parts of Africa out of trade and we are reversing that. We
want to help Africa compete in the global marketplace."

Kirk said that AGOA has been a "tremendous success." He said that American trade
with African countries has doubled since the enactment of AGOA in 2000 and that
African firms doing business with American firms has quadrupled.

"AGOA has strengthened Africa's ability to trade with the rest of the world," he said.
"There are still some issues of corruption and political unrest but Africa has matured
and we are dealing with African countries on fair terms."

Kirk understands that the United States is in steep competition with China for business
opportunities.
"In the past, the United States would go to an African country and lecture to them about
their politics," he said.

"While we were doing this, China would come over with buckets of money and that
made the Chinese easier to deal with. However, two problems arose: one, the Chinese
would not hire African workers for projects and there has been huge environmental
degradation."

Kirk said that it is the goal of the Obama administration to use trade to encourage
Africa to become more economically independent and to sustain growth in its
commerce. Small, minority, women and disadvantaged firms will play a major role in
trade through the U.S. Trade Representative's Office of Small Business, Market Access
and Industrial Competitiveness.

"The president has repeatedly said that it will be the growth of small businesses that
fuels the economic recovery," he said. "We try to educate small firms on the advantages
of trade by teaching them how to access foreign markets and ways to raise capital. We
do this in partnership with the Department of Commerce and the Small Business
Administration."

Kirk said that he wants to debunk the myth that only large corporations can engage in
trade.

"Anyone that has a product to sell can engage in trade and we can help them," he said.

Kirk said that he is happy in his job as U.S. Trade Representative and sees exciting
opportunities ahead.

"I am happy that I am working with a president who values the importance of trade
and how it can help everyday people," he said.
-------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Situation in Darfur camp for displaced persons tense and insecure, UN reports
11 August – A camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur that has been the
scene of recent tensions remains on edge and insecure, with reports of gunfire
overnight, the United Nations said today.

Peru: UN health agency helps respond to outbreak of plague

11 August – The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) is working with
authorities in Peru to investigate and respond to an outbreak of plague in the northwest
of the Andean country.
Seychelles becomes latest country to join International Criminal Court
11 August – The Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles has become the latest country
to ratify the pact establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is tasked
with trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

UN launches massive feeding drive for children in drought-stricken Niger

11 August – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun a major
round of feeding for 670,000 children under the age of two and their families in
drought-stricken Niger, where as many as eight million people need assistance.