United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

13 August 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

U.S. General Lauds Nation's HIV/Aids Fight Strides (The Times of Zambia)
(Zambia) Visiting United States of America (US) senior army officers have said they are
impressed with Zambia's strides in HIV/AIDS intervention programmes.

Kampala bomb suspect's 'rage against US' (AFP)

(Uganda) The suspected mastermind of the July 11 bomb attacks in Kampala said on
Thursday he was motivated by "rage against the Americans", as he was presented to
journalists by the Ugandan authorities.

Film-Making - Collaborating with U.S. (This Day)

(Nigeria) Nigeria and the United States (US) are to collaborate on film-making process
as a way to ensure the exchange of cultural experiences among citizens of both
countries.

EU says to help ex-combatants in Cote d'Ivoire in run-up to elections (Xinhua)

(Cote d’Ivoire) The European Union has vowed to provide financial support to Cote
d'Ivoire to help keep ex- combatants in barracks in the run-up to the Oct. 31 presidential
elections in the West African country.

Uganda's LRA Abducts 700 People to Replenish Its Ranks, Rights Group Says
(Bloomberg)
(Uganda/Congo) Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army abducted about 700 people, a
third of them children, over the past 18 months as the group seeks to replenish its ranks,
Human Rights Watch said.

Zimbabwe restarts diamond sales amid 'blood diamond' accusations (Christian

Science Monitor)
(Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe reentered the legal diamond market this week with Tuesday's
$72 million sale of 900,000 carats of the gems. The sale was supervised by an
international 'blood diamond' watchdog group amid ongoing allegations that the
Zimbabwean military is abusing gem miners and forcing them to work at gunpoint.
Madagascar: Election call lacks key support (Associated Press)
(Madagascar) Madagascar's coup leader is making another attempt at elections, but still
lacks key support.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN raises fears of diseases at Darfur camp as aid workers remain cut off
 UN envoy spotlights regional and global impact of Somalia conflict
 Madagascar’s farms threatened by locust plague, UN agency cautions
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, August 17, 9:00 a.m., Fedex Corporation, 1700 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
WHAT: Business Council for International Understanding
WHO: Breakfast Briefing with The Honorable Bisa Williams, U.S. Ambassador to Niger
Info: http://www.bciu.org/wip01/online_event_invitation.asp?
continent=0&country=0&currentorpast=current&eventsorprograms=events&IDNumbe
r=1427&ProgramIDNumber=0&Keycode=9840509
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

U.S. General Lauds Nation's HIV/Aids Fight Strides (The Times of Zambia)

Visiting United States of America (US) senior army officers have said they are
impressed with Zambia's strides in HIV/AIDS intervention programmes.

Delegation leader Robin Akin said the American people were happy with the spirit of
unity Zambians had exhibited in tackling issues on the pandemic.

Brigadier-General Akin said Americans would continue helping Zambians by

supporting HIV/AIDS projects aimed at reducing challenges caused by the pandemic.

She said this in Lusaka on Tuesday when she and her entourage comprising senior
army officers toured Jon Hospice and Kara Counselling Centre in Kamwala Township
and donated assorted toys, balls and other items for children.

"The American people are very happy with all efforts made by the Zambian people to
fight HIV/AIDS which has left millions of children orphaned. We really need to work
together to address challenges posed by this disease," she said.

Kamwala Jon Hospice provides palliative care and support to HIV/AIDS patients,
education to orphans and vulnerable children, and outreach services.
Brig Gen Akin said the American Congress stipulated that newly-appointed generals
should have a case study of a chosen continent as part of their continued training
programmes.

The delegation had been to Botswana, Mali, and Morocco and was expected to leave
today for Djibouti and Uganda would be the last destination.

Brig-Gen Akin said they wanted to assess HIVAIDS projects including those in military
and learn challenges faced by those countries they visited.

She described Zambia as a beautiful nation and commended citizens for maintaining
peace amid boosting developmental projects aimed at eradicating poverty.

Kamwala's Kara Counselling executive director, Judith Kumwenda thanked the US

government for supporting various HIV/AIDS programmes in Zambia. Delegation
leader Robin Akin said the American people were happy with the spirit of unity
Zambians had exhibited in tackling issues on the pandemic.

Brigadier-General Akin said Americans would continue helping Zambians by

supporting HIV/AIDS projects aimed at reducing challenges caused by the pandemic.

She said this in Lusaka on Tuesday when she and her entourage comprising senior
army officers toured Jon Hospice and Kara Counselling Centre in Kamwala Township
and donated assorted toys, balls and other items for children.

"The American people are very happy with all efforts made by the Zambian people to
fight HIV/AIDS which has left millions of children orphaned. We really need to work
together to address challenges posed by this disease," she said.

Kamwala Jon Hospice provides palliative care and support to HIV/AIDS patients,
education to orphans and vulnerable children, and outreach services.

Brig Gen Akin said the American Congress stipulated that newly-appointed generals
should have a case study of a chosen continent as part of their continued training
programmes.

The delegation had been to Botswana, Mali, and Morocco and was expected to leave
today for Djibouti and Uganda would be the last destination.

Brig-Gen Akin said they wanted to assess HIVAIDS projects including those in military
and learn challenges faced by those countries they visited.

She described Zambia as a beautiful nation and commended citizens for maintaining
peace amid boosting developmental projects aimed at eradicating poverty.
Kamwala's Kara Counselling executive director, Judith Kumwenda thanked the US
government for supporting various HIV/AIDS programmes in Zambia.
--------------------
Kampala bomb suspect's 'rage against US' (AFP)

KAMPALA — The suspected mastermind of the July 11 bomb attacks in Kampala said
on Thursday he was motivated by "rage against the Americans", as he was presented to
journalists by the Ugandan authorities.

Issa Ahmed Ruyima said he was a member of Somalia's Islamist insurgent group
Shebab, which has claimed responsibility for the double suicide blasts that killed 76
people on the evening of the football World Cup final.

"I joined Al Shebab in 2009," said Ruyima, 33, who stated that he was responsible for
sourcing bomb-making material, and added that he had been motivated by his "rage
against the Americans".

"I am very sorry for the loss of life that happened because of my actions," he said.

Ruyima was among four suspects -- all Ugandans -- presented to the media in Kampala
at a press conference where the authorities declared that all suspects in East Africa's
worst bomb attacks in nearly 12 years had been arrested.

"We promised the public that we would hunt down the perpetrators... We have kept
our promise," James Mugira, head of military intelligence, told reporters.

"We have apprehended all those responsible for the planning and execution of these
cowardly attacks."

The Shebab, who pledge allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said the blasts
were intended to punish Uganda for deploying troops for the African Union forces in
the Somali capital Mogadishu.

A second suspect at Thursday's press conference, Idris Nsubuga, 30, stated that one of
the suicide bombers was Kenyan and the other Somali.

He alleged that he had been recruited by Ruyima. "To be honest, I was used in this
thing," he said. "I think these people have magic spells."

The Shebab, which controls much of southern and central Somalia, have been fighting
to topple Somalia's Western-backed interim government, which is protected by a 6,000-
strong African Union force.
At a summit in Kampala two weeks after the attacks, African leaders pledged to
reinforce the AU deployment by 4,000 soldiers.

The July attacks were the worst in East Africa since the August 1998 bombing of US
embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
--------------------
Film-Making - Collaborating with U.S. (This Day)

ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria and the United States (US) are to collaborate on film-making
process as a way to ensure the exchange of cultural experiences among citizens of both
countries.

American Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Robin Renee Sanders, while speaking in Abuja
recently said there are a lot of similarities between the average American and his
Nigerian counterpart because of the communality, which exist in both societies.

Sanders, in her opening address at the viewing of an America documentary at the

Cyprian Ekwensi Centre in Abuja, added that the impression Nigerians get about
America from movies is different from what America really is. Cities like San Francisco
and New York, she noted, are made up of small towns and communities where
"everyone knows each other and are familiar with one another".

Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, who was the Special
Guest of honour, said film making has become a huge revenue spinner for Nigeria, and
other African countries like Ghana, have started to emulate Nigeria's film industry

Mohammed, who was represented by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Nosike
Ogbuenyi, added that the good parts of Nigerian culture can be glimpsed through
Nollywood.

The film titled, 'Welcome to Shelbyville' tells the story of a small town in America
where old and new residents struggle to come to terms with the region's growing
diversity and one another.

Directed by Bart Weiss, the film follows Somali and Latino newcomers who are making
their homes in Shelbyville, and portrays a reporter who documents the new arrivals
with a handful of citizens who are supporting immigrants' integration.

It demonstrates the intimacy of lives intertwined against the backdrop of a crumbling

economy and also captures the hopeful campaign of Barack Obama, portraying
America as an ever-changing place, which evolves daily as new generations of
immigrants arrive.
--------------------
EU says to help ex-combatants in Cote d'Ivoire in run-up to elections (Xinhua)
ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire - The European Union has vowed to provide financial support
to Cote d'Ivoire to help keep ex- combatants in barracks in the run-up to the Oct. 31
presidential elections in the West African country.

The EU is ready to continue its involvement in the process to end the political crisis in
the country, the bloc's emissary Yves Gilletan said on Wednesday.

"We are in talks with the government, and we are ready to help face the recurrent
expenses concerning the barrack lodging," Gillet said, adding the EU intervention
centers on "the budget of function."

The EU support came after the country unveiled the election date recently, a sign of
relief after a series of postponements.

The EU-backed operation to keep ex-combatants in barracks is deemed a key step to

disarmament and reunification of the army.

In a separate development of the day, the ex-rebel New Forces (FN) said its military
wing had entered the central city of Bouake to "consider" demobilization and
reinsertion.

"We have the preoccupations linked with the aspect of the demoralization of our
combatants and the reinsertion of those who are already demobilized," announced FN
spokesman Bamba Sinima.

The regrouping operation involves the integration of 5,000 ex- rebels into the national
army and the demobilization of nearly 20, 000 others under a "program of national civil
service".

According to FN army chief Soumaila Bakayoko, an estimated 5.5 billion FCFA (11
million U. S. dollars) is needed for the operation. The FN said a previous move to camp
the ex-combatants in the northern town of Korhogo met with financial and logistical
problems.

Cote d'Ivoire plunged into war following an attempted coup by the FN in 2002. The
country has been divided ever since with the government controlling the south and the
FN holding the north, although the civil war lasted only one year. The country was
expected to hold its first post-war election on 2005, but failed to do so amid differences
over disarmament and reunification.

A voter list crisis in February became the latest in a series to postpone the vote, with the
government and the electoral commission dissolved in the month. The situation
returned to normal weeks later.
--------------------
Uganda's LRA Abducts 700 People to Replenish Its Ranks, Rights Group Says
(Bloomberg)

Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army abducted about 700 people, a third of them
children, over the past 18 months as the group seeks to replenish its ranks, Human
Rights Watch said.

A military campaign against the LRA in northeastern Congo by the Congolese and
Ugandan armies has forced the rebels into remote regions of Central Africa, where they
are kidnapping people, the New York-based rights group said in an e-mailed statement
late yesterday. The rebels killed more than 250 people in the region over the same
period.

“The protection of civilians under LRA attack across central Africa is woefully
inadequate,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights
Watch, said after a monthlong trip to the affected areas. “National governments, the
Ugandan army, and the United Nations need to take urgent steps to protect people
from these LRA attacks.”

The LRA has killed about 1,900 Congolese civilians since 2007, according to the UN’s
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Nearly 300,000 Congolese have
been displaced by the group, it said.

Human Rights Watch said some of the children abducted by the LRA become soldiers
and are forced to kill other children as part of an induction ceremony into the group.

In a separate report released on Aug. 10, the Washington, D.C.-based Enough Project
said there had been 105 deaths and 570 abductions by the LRA in northern Congo in the
past 15 months.

Offensive

An offensive against the group, supported by UN peacekeepers, has spread the LRA
through Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, making it harder to track them.

Uganda’s army has battled a two-decade insurgency in the north of the country by LRA
members. The group, led by Joseph Kony, rose up against the government after
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the 1980s purged the army of members of the
Acholi community, whose interests the LRA says it is defending.

Kony, a former Catholic altar boy who says the LRA is inspired by the Ten
Commandments, faces International Criminal Court charges of murder, mutilation,
rape and the abduction of thousands of children for use as soldiers.
The U.S. enacted a law in May requiring President Barack Obama to create a strategy
“to eliminate the threat to civilians and regional stability” posed by the LRA.

The Enough Project said the strategy is still in the planning stages. The U.S. is already
providing training and logistical support to the Ugandan army.
--------------------
Zimbabwe restarts diamond sales amid 'blood diamond' accusations (Christian
Science Monitor)

Zimbabwe reentered the legal diamond market this week with Tuesday's $72 million
sale of 900,000 carats of the gems. The sale was supervised by an international 'blood
diamond' watchdog group amid ongoing allegations that the Zimbabwean military is
abusing gem miners and forcing them to work at gunpoint.

CNN reports that it was Zimbabwe's first sale of diamonds since being barred from the
market when its military seized control of the country's Marange diamond fields in
2008. BBC News reports that diamond sales could bring the impoverished country some
$1.7 billion per year.

The World Diamond Council in mid-July authorized Zimbabwe to carry out two
supervised exports of rough diamonds by September with oversight from the
Kimberley Process, a watchdog group.

"If this is a victory for anyone, it is a victory for the Kimberley Process," Kimberley
Chair Boaz Hirsch said in a statement at the time. "The past several months have been
difficult, but they have clearly demonstrated that not only does the Kimberley Process
have teeth, it also is able to achieve results."

The Kimberley Process group, consisting of representatives from 75 countries involved

in the diamond trade, was set up in 2002 to prevent the global market from trading
diamonds mined by rebel groups to fund armed resistance against established
governments.

This week, the so-called "blood diamonds" have been a prominent topic in the United
Nations war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, as both British
model Naomi Campbell and American actress Mia Farrow have appeared as witnesses
concerning Mr. Taylor's alleged gift of blood diamonds to Ms. Campbell in 1997.

But while the Kimberley Process aims to stop abuses by rebel groups, Human Rights
Watch argues that the watchdog has consciously disregarded similar abuses by
governments themselves. In a June 22 report, HRW says that more than 200 people
were killed when the Zimbabwean military seized the Marange diamond fields in 2008.
Local villagers, including children, are now forced to mine the diamonds at gunpoint,
HRW says.

Despite HRW's publicity of these alleged human rights violations, the World Diamond
Council and the Kimberley Process still approved Zimbabwe's reentry to the diamond
market:

The governments who initially formed the Kimberley Process agreed only to exclude
diamonds that were financing rebel groups. They didn’t include diamonds that were
financing abusive governments – although obviously, as a practical matter, it hardly
matters who the soldier who is beating you is working for. But many members of the
Kimberley Process have questionable human rights records of their own, and they don’t
want to suspend Zimbabwe from the group.

Members of the Kimberley Process know what’s going on. They’ve read the reports
from Human Rights Watch and other groups, and their own fact-finding mission to
Zimbabwe last summer confirmed the basic story. But now, its own monitor on the
ground in Zimbabwe has stepped forward to muddy the waters. Deputized by the
Kimberley Process last fall to report back on whether Zimbabwe diamonds could be
certified as “clean,” the monitor, an eminent South African diamond expert named
Abbey Chikane, last week issued a report giving Zimbabwe the thumbs-up.

According to the independent news website Zimbabwe Online, two "little known"
South African companies, Mbada and Canadile, are running the Zimbabwe mines in
cooperation with the state-run Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. Critics
accuse the companies of being fronts for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
political and military allies.

Zimbabwe Online also reports that the military is still running mining operations in the
region "where soldiers are openly operating and they are using illegal miners to dig for
diamonds for a fee and then share the spoils," according to an illegal miner.

National Public Radio writes that the original investigators for the Kimberley Process
recommended that Zimbabwe be expelled from the group for its seizure of the diamond
fields, but that the group may have been forced into what a member of the Global
Witness watchdog group calls a "weak compromise."

The compromise was reached after a Zimbabwe court released human rights activist
Farai Maguwu, who was jailed for more than a month after publicizing abuses at the
diamond fields.

Human rights groups say the deal also helped avert a crisis in the international
diamond market, since President Robert Mugabe was threatening to sell stones without
certification.
--------------------
Madagascar: Election call lacks key support (Associated Press)

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar – Madagascar's coup leader is making another attempt

at elections, but still lacks key support.

About 100 small parties agreed Wednesday to Andry Rajoelina's proposal to hold
elections early next year. The agreement, to be formally adopted Friday, also calls for a
November vote on a new constitution.

But the ousted president and two other former presidents boycotted the negotiations
that led to the setting of those dates.

Rajoelina had unilaterally set election dates for this year, but was unable to keep to that
schedule because he lacked political support.

Rajoelina, a former disc jockey and mayor of the capital, has been internationally
isolated since ousting Marc Ravalomanana in 2009. Rajoelina's election plan is a bid for
legitimacy.
-------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN raises fears of diseases at Darfur camp as aid workers remain cut off
12 August – The United Nations is voicing concern that outbreaks of infectious diseases
such as malaria could soon erupt in a massive camp for internally displaced persons
(IDPs) in Darfur that has been the scene of recent deadly violence and is currently
closed off to humanitarian workers.

UN envoy spotlights regional and global impact of Somalia conflict

12 August – Last month’s deadly twin bombings which struck the Ugandan capital,
allegedly carried out by a Somali-based militant group, underscore how the effects of
the long-running conflict in Somalia are spreading beyond its borders, the top United
Nations envoy to the troubled Horn of African nation said today.

Madagascar’s farms threatened by locust plague, UN agency cautions

12 August – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today
warned that Madagascar is at risk of a crop-eating locust plague, potentially
jeopardizing the livelihoods of 460,000 rural families.