United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

16 August 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

USAF command seeking airmen for brief deployments to Africa (Stars and Stripes)
(Pan Africa) U.S. Air Forces Africa is looking for a few good airmen. The command
recently launched an initiative seeking volunteers for short deployments to Africa in an
effort to build a cadre of experienced airmen, while also addressing some staffing
shortages.

US special envoy to Sudan may soon depart: report (Sudan Tribune)

(Sudan) The United States special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration could be moved from
his current position to serve as the U.S. Ambassador in Kenya, according to
administration officials in a news report.

‘Disturbing Events’ Marred Rwanda Leader’s Re-election, U.S. Says (Reuters)

(Rwanda) The United States has expressed concern about “disturbing events”
surrounding last Monday’s presidential election in Rwanda in which the incumbent
drew 93 percent of the votes.

Somalis in U.S. Flooding Into 'Deadly Pipeline' to Al Shabaab (The East African)
(Somalia) A growing number of Somalis living in the United States are being accused
of joining or aiding an Islamist group that is fighting to overthrow the US-backed
government in Somalia.

Rebel group captures 700 people in central Africa, report says (Stars and Stripes)
(Central Africa) As the Obama administration continues to devise a strategy for
eliminating one of Africa’s most wanted rebel leaders, Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance
Army continues to fill its ranks with abducted child soldiers, according to a new
Human Rights Watch report.

Sudan Referendum commission calls for vote delay (Associated Press)

(Sudan) A northern Sudan party official said Saturday the commission organizing the
crucial southern independence referendum has requested the vote be delayed on
technical grounds, while the chief negotiator for the south insisted that is not an option.
Activist group Girifna aims to educate voters in Sudan (Washington Post)
(Sudan) Girifna has more than 7,000 members on its Facebook page, a YouTube
channel and an online radio station. But members have been tear-gassed, beaten and
tortured, the group's leaders say. Faced with these challenges, Girifna's success at
conducting voter education and election monitoring campaigns before the vote was a
hopeful sign, suggesting that a lively civil society could emerge in one of Africa's most
repressive dictatorships, the group and its supporters say.

'12 die in Algerian desert' in bid to reach Europe (AFP)

(Pan Africa) Twelve African nationals trying to illegally enter Europe have died from
thirst and hunger in the Algerian desert, survivors of the failed journey who returned to
northern Mali told AFP on Sunday.

Aid workers warn of famine disaster in Niger (Associated Press)

(Niger) Niger is now facing the worst hunger crisis in its history, with almost half the
country's population in desperate need of food and up to one in six children suffering
from acute malnutrition, aid officials say.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Darfur: probe underway into abduction of two UN-African Union peacekeepers
 UN humanitarian chief urges full and unhindered access to Darfur camp
 UN agency distributes emergency supplies as floods strike Chad
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WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, August 17, 9:00 a.m., Fedex Corporation, 1700 Pennsylvania
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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?
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USAF command seeking airmen for brief deployments to Africa (Stars and Stripes)

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — U.S. Air Forces Africa is looking for a few good
airmen.

The command recently launched an initiative seeking volunteers for short deployments
to Africa in an effort to build a cadre of experienced airmen, while also addressing some
staffing shortages.
Creating a volunteer pool might help AFAFRICA avoid postponing or canceling future
events, said Col. Catherine Chin, AFAFRICA director of manpower, personnel and
services. At the start of fiscal 2010, the command had about 100 events planned for the
African theater. But because of logistical challenges including the lack of staffing, the
number of missions was scaled back to 60.

Without any assigned wings, the command has to request troops through the Air Force,
a process that can take up to four months. And on occasion, the command doesn’t get
the airmen they request, or in time, which forces them to cancel or postpone missions.

Plus, the command never gets the same airmen twice, which can slow relationship-
building on the continent, officials said.

“We’re trying to build an experienced pool of volunteers who can deploy to Africa,”
Chin said.

AFAFRICA officials say the program, believed to be a first for the Air Force, is a
creative solution to not having its own troops. Most volunteers will participate in 8-to-
10-day “theater security cooperation” events in Africa, missions aimed at helping
nations improve their air infrastructure, safety and security. Examples of past events
include a military working dog demonstration in Ghana, the sharing of C-130 flight
tactics in Algeria, and flight medicine training in Mali.

So far, interest from airmen in the volunteer program has exceeded expectations, Chin
said.

Within the first few weeks of putting out the call for volunteers in late May, more than
60 people signed up. An additional 50 have either been approved or are in the
application process, she said.

To qualify, an airman must be in good standing, meet Air Force fitness requirements,
complete 10 hours of online cultural training, and be recommended by their squadron
commander. And they must be outside their Air Expeditionary Force window of
deployment.

“Ultimately, commanders have the stick,” Chin said. “They get to decide whether their
people are available or not.”

AFAFRICA is looking for airmen across all career fields and ranks. Some applicants
have extensive African experience, Chin said, such as growing up in Africa with
missionary parents. Others are fluent in languages spoken in Africa, such as Arabic and
Amharic, she said. “Then there are just people really enthusiastic about the mission,
who think it’s cool …who want to support AFAFRICA,” she said. “And there’s a place
for them too.”

U.S. Africa Command, AFAFRICA’s parent command, has faced similar challenges
finding troops for their missions.

A Government Accountability Office report released last month described AFRICOM’s

lack of assigned troops as a handicap.

“From AFRICOM’s and some military service components’ perspective, having to

formally request forces for all activities may affect AFRICOM’s effectiveness if there are
greater DOD priorities,” the GAO reported. “Furthermore, the special operations
command component stated that, without assigned forces, it cannot act as a crisis-
response force, which is the role of special operations commands in other combatant
commands.”

But officials at command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, said of the hundreds of

activities the command carries out each year, only a handful get cancelled or delayed
because of staffing issues, and those tend to be specialized missions that require
specialized staff.

For more information on the Air Force program, airmen can go to the “17th AF Theater
Security Cooperation Volunteer Initiative” on the Air Force portal homepage,
www.my.af.mil, and click on Air Force Announcements.
--------------------
US special envoy to Sudan may soon depart: report (Sudan Tribune)

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The United States special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration could
be moved from his current position to serve as the U.S. Ambassador in Kenya,
according to administration officials in a news report.

On Friday, the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy quoted multiple sources as saying that
Gration “is considering taking the job of U.S. Ambassador in Nairobi.”

However, the sources said that Gration is lobbying to keep his Sudan portfolio even as
ambassador to Kenya which the magazine said will likely become an uphill battle
doomed to fail.

One administration source said that the plan had been to nominate Gration during the
congressional recess, as to avoid a lengthy confirmation debate, but that plan was no
longer operative and Gration would be nominated and confirmed through the usual
process. Gration’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Gration, a retired Air Force General, was appointed to his current position by Obama in
March 2009. The decorated fighter pilot, was raised in Africa and is fluent in Swahili.
He is a close Obama adviser and often travelled with him during the presidential
campaign.

They got to know each other when Obama visited Africa in 2006 while still a senator.
During that trip they visited Darfur refugees in Chad.

But Gration came under fire from Sudan advocacy groups over the past year after
making remarks minimizing the conflict in Darfur to "remnants of genocide" and calling
for relaxing sanctions on the East African country.

The U.S. special envoy also criticized Sudan being on the list of countries that sponsor
terrorism saying there was “no evidence” to support that designation saying that
Khartoum helped US efforts against key member of Al-Qaeda extremist group.

Washington unveiled a new Sudan policy last year which offers incentives in return for
concessions on the part of Khartoum but also threatens sanctions should situation
worsens with regards to violence in Darfur and the semi-autonomous south.

"Assessment of progress and decisions regarding incentives and disincentives will be

based on verifiable changes in conditions on the ground. Backsliding by any party will
be met with credible pressure in the form of disincentives leveraged by our government
and our international partners," Secretary Clinton said when announcing the policy.

Foreign Policy magazine said that news of Gration’s removal came in the wake of a
meeting at the White House last week, in which the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan
Rice objected to the envoy’s proposed plan on Sudan.

Sources privy to the meeting said that Rice was "furious" when Gration proposed a plan
that prioritizes the South Sudan referendum on independence, deemphasizes the
ongoing crisis in Darfur, and is devoid of any additional pressures on the government
in Khartoum. The sources also said that Gration’s plan was endorsed by almost all the
other participants, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Analysts have long pointed to a schism between two currents within the US
administration over Sudan policy. On one hand, Susan Rice advocates a tougher
approach towards Sudan. Gration on the other hand, leads a faction in favour of
engagement with the Sudanese government led by the National Congress Party (NCP)
of President Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court
for war crimes and genocide in the western region of Darfur.
The genesis of discord between the two dates back to the early days of the
administration when Rice was infuriated over Gration’s labelling of the situation in
Darfur.

Administration officials played down the conflict between Rice and Gration, saying that
such meetings are supposed to be deliberative. "This is a policy debate. People often
disagree. If they didn’t, what’s the point of having the meeting?" one White House
official said.

Gration’s approach has been welcomed and acknowledged by senior Sudanese officials.
Speaking about the US policy on Sudan under Gration, President Al-Bashir was quoted
on as saying:

“The US position is ambivalent. Gration is able to see the facts in Sudan and he has
begun to influence leading people within the administration. Even [US Vice-President]
Biden has begun to review his position and [even President Barak] Obama.”

Bashir added that, “the trouble with the US administration is the pressure groups which
have vested interests and we are going to suffer from this for a long period of time.”

A number of Darfur rebel groups shared a negative view of the U.S. special envoy.

"Instead of playing a positive role in the resolution of Darfur conflict in order to stop the
ongoing violence against Darfur people, the special envoy of President Obama to Sudan
abandoned his mission and has become a problem and an obstacle due to his non-
neutral position," Abdel Wahid Al-Nur, the leader of Darfur rebel faction Sudan
Liberation Movement, told Sudan Tribune on 23 August 2009.

Similarly, the leader of Justice and Equality Movement, Khalil Ibrahim, has excoriated
Gration, saying that he "is acting like a foreign minister for Al-Bashir and with that he’s
harmed the unjustly treated in Darfur and is only strengthening the government."

In August 2009, Darfur advocacy groups sent a letter to Gration accusing him ‘failing to
acknowledge human rights violations" and holding Khartoum accountable for its "lack
of commitment to peace and justice.’

John Prendergast, who leads the Enough Project, was quoted by Foreign Policy as
saying, "During the last year and a half, we’ve seen increased violence in Darfur and the
deadliest months in five years, we saw an election that was completely compromised
without any resulting sanctions, we’ve seen a deepening of the rifts that could cause a
resumption of war between the north and the south. None of these have elicited from
the Obama administration anything more than an occasional statement. This has given
a clear green light to the regime in Khartoum to pursue its warmongering as usual.
Gration has overseen this policy.”
--------------------
‘Disturbing Events’ Marred Rwanda Leader’s Re-election, U.S. Says (Reuters)

WASHINGTON — The United States has expressed concern about “disturbing events”
surrounding last Monday’s presidential election in Rwanda in which the incumbent
drew 93 percent of the votes.

The National Security Council said in a statement on Friday that progress has been
made in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

“We remain concerned, however, about a series of disturbing events prior to the
election, including the suspension of two newspapers, the expulsion of a human rights
researcher, the barring of two opposition parties from taking part in the election, and
the arrest of journalists,” said the statement, which was issued by the council’s
spokesman, Mike Hammer.

The statement did not congratulate the incumbent, Paul Kagame, for his re-election. His
nearest rival, Jean Damascene Ntawukuliryayo of the Social Democratic Party, won 5
percent of the vote, according to final election results released Wednesday.

Rwanda’s stability and prosperity will be difficult to sustain without broad political
debate and open political participation, Mr. Hammer said.

Critics say the Rwandan election campaign was marred by government repression.
Human rights groups pointed to mounting violence during the period before the
election after the fatal shooting of a local journalist and the killing of an opposition
official who was found nearly beheaded in July. The government denied involvement.

“Democracy is about more than holding elections,” Mr. Hammer said. “A democracy
reflects the will of the people, where minority voices are heard and respected, where
opposition candidates run on the issues without threat or intimidation, where freedom
of expression and freedom of the press are protected.”

The statement also said that the council had “expressed our concerns to the government
of Rwanda, and we hope the leadership will take steps toward more democratic
governance, increased respect for minority and opposition views, and continued
peace.”
--------------------
Somalis in U.S. Flooding Into 'Deadly Pipeline' to Al Shabaab (The East African)

A growing number of Somalis living in the United States are being accused of joining or
aiding an Islamist group that is fighting to overthrow the US-backed government in
Somalia.
Earlier this month, 15 Somalis who are either US citizens or residents were charged with
terrorism-related crimes because of their alleged association with Al Shabaab, which the
Obama administration lists as a terrorist organisation.

Several other Somalis who have lived in the United States are believed to have gone to
Somalia to fight in Shabaab's ranks.

Most of these young men, as well as two women recently charged as Shabaab
fundraisers, lived in the state of Minnesota in the north-central US.

A large Somali immigrant community has taken root during the past 20 years in and
around Minneapolis, the largest city in Minnesota.

A significant number of these immigrants live in poverty and have not been assimilated
into the US society. Some have "quite likely experienced prejudice and hostility," says
Thomas Mockaitis, a professor at DePaul University in Chicago who studies terrorist
groups.

In addition to fighting against the weak government in Somalia, radicalised Somalis

with links to the United States might try to carry out an attack inside the US, Prof
Mockaitis says.

"It wouldn't be that difficult. They could find some support within the Somali
community here," he suggests, adding, however, that "99.9 percent of Somalis [in the
US] have nothing to do with Shabaab."

In announcing the indictments of 12 Somalis living in the United States and another two
who are now believed to be in Somalia, US Attorney General Eric Holder said on
August 5, "We are seeing an increasing number of individuals, including US citizens,
who have become captivated by extremist ideology and have taken steps to carry out
terrorist objectives, either at home or abroad."

Mr Holder described the US support link to Shabaab as "a deadly pipeline."

--------------------
Rebel group captures 700 people in central Africa, report says (Stars and Stripes)

STUTTGART, Germany — As the Obama administration continues to devise a strategy

for eliminating one of Africa’s most wanted rebel leaders, Joseph Kony’s Lord’s
Resistance Army continues to fill its ranks with abducted child soldiers, according to a
new Human Rights Watch report.

The Uganda-based LRA has captured nearly 700 people in the Central African Republic
and the northern Democratic Republic of Congo in the past 18 months, according to the
report released Wednesday. Nearly a third of those abducted are children, many of
whom are forced to serve as soldiers or used for sex by LRA fighters, according to the
humanitarian group.

The Human Rights Watch investigation also found that at least 255 captives were killed
during the 18-month period. Frequently, it said, the abducted children are forced to use
clubs to crush the skulls of fellow abductees who attempt to escape.

“The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing
children from their villages and forcing them to fight,” Anneke Van Woudenberg,
senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in the release.

Human Rights Watch called on the affected governments and their allies to do more to
protect civilians and rescue abducted children.

In May, President Barack Obama signed into law the LRA Disarmament Act, which
mandates a strategy be developed to eliminate the LRA. The legislation calls for a
“regional strategy to support multilateral efforts to successfully protect civilians and
eliminate the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army.”

For more than 20 years, the LRA has operated in remote jungles and borderlands,
roving from Uganda to areas in southern Sudan, Congo, and the Central African
Republic.

So far, the U.S. has only played a limited role in efforts to neutralize the LRA.

U.S. Africa Command is training an elite battalion of Congolese infantrymen who will
serve as a quick-reaction force to protect volatile border regions where the LRA
operates. AFRICOM, along with contractors hired by the U.S. State Department, began
working with the Congolese battalion in March as part of a six-month program that will
field more than 700 Congolese troops.

Because the strategy continues to be reviewed, AFRICOM officials say it is premature to

speculate about what role the U.S. military may have in support of Uganda’s hunt for
LRA leadership.

Several humanitarian groups have long called for more U.S. involvement, though some
advocates say support should be focused on intelligence gathering. In a recent study on
the LRA, the International Crisis Group recommended the U.S. deploy a team to the
region to run an intelligence platform that centralizes “all operational information from
the Ugandan and other armies, as well as the U.N. and civilian networks, and provides
analysis to the Ugandans to better target military operations.”

In the past, AFRICOM provided limited intelligence and logistical support for troops
working against the LRA. In December 2008, AFRICOM deployed a small team of
advisers who worked with Ugandan soldiers leading the campaign know as Operation
Lightening Thunder. That effort, which resulted in a ripple of LRA violence against
civilians in the region, failed to capture the rebel group’s leaders.

“Instead, the LRA spread out across the central African region and have continued their
campaign against civilians,” Human Rights Watch said in its report.
--------------------
Sudan Referendum commission calls for vote delay (Associated Press)

JUBA, Sudan – A northern Sudan party official said Saturday the commission
organizing the crucial southern independence referendum has requested the vote be
delayed on technical grounds, while the chief negotiator for the south insisted that is
not an option.

Only five months remain until the referendum that could split Africa's largest country
in two. But preparations have fallen far behind due to a deadlock between Sudan's
north and south over the appointment of the secretary-general of the referendum
commission.

Fathi Sheila, spokesman for the northern National Congress Party headed by President
Omar al-Bashir, said the commission in charge of organizing the vote has asked the two
parties to approve a delay. He would not say by how long the commission wanted the
vote pushed back.

"The commission doesn't see that it practically has enough time" to prepare for the
referendum expected in January. "The two parties have to agree to a delay."

The chief negotiator for Southern Sudan on the upcoming independence referendum,
meanwhile, said Saturday that postponement of the vote is not an option despite calls
from the referendum commission. He said that his party would pursue "other options"
instead of accepting a delay.

Pagan Amum, Secretary General of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, said in an
interview that his party would continue to engage the north to overcome obstacles to
the scheduled Jan. 9 vote.

But Amum said that if the referendum "process is obstructed, (there) will not be
postponement."

Instead, he said the SPLM would "look for other mechanisms than the referendum," and
he cited a provision in the internationally brokered 2005 accord that ended decades of
north-south civil war that killed more than 2 million people and called for the southern
referendum.
The 2005 peace deal has been tested a number of times, and violence has flared on a
limited scale along border areas.

In 2007, the southern ministers walked out of the government in protest of what they
consider Khartoum's foot-dragging in implementing key points of the deal. It took two
months to resolve the differences after the SPLM accused the northern government of
not sharing the country's oil wealth, not pulling troops out of southern Sudan, and
remilitarizing contested border zones where the main oil reserves are located.

Amum declined to discuss the possibility of a military response by his party's former
guerrilla movement, now the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army. He said that his party
will "choose the mechanism through which people will express their vote" because "we
want to ensure that there is peace, no war."

Tensions are rising over the stalled preparations for the southern vote, and the SPLM
has suggested that the northern government is deliberately delaying the process to
negatively impact or even derail the referendum.

The first official round of negotiations between the north and south on post-referendum
arrangements took place in Khartoum over the last week.

Amum told reporters in the southern capital on Friday that talks on issues such as
wealth sharing are set to resume after one week.

A central dispute between the northern National Congress Party and southern SPLM is
whether the contested, 1,300-mile (2,100 kilometer) border must be demarcated before
the referendum. Voter registration also still needs to take place and it's not yet clear if
southerners living in the north can cast ballots.
--------------------
Activist group Girifna aims to educate voters in Sudan (Washington Post)

KHARTOUM, SUDAN -- Like any aspiring pro-democracy movement, the young

Sudanese activists needed a name. They picked Girifna, Arabic for "We are fed up."
They chose orange for their color and the V-for-victory sign as a logo, then began
distributing their first pamphlet.

Challenging the ruling party was risky in a country where political dissent is rarely
tolerated, the activists said. But they saw a small opening before elections in April, as
the United States and the European Union pressed the government to ensure a free and
fair vote.

Girifna now has more than 7,000 members on its Facebook page, a YouTube channel
and an online radio station. But members have been tear-gassed, beaten and tortured,
the group's leaders say. "We know they can put us in jail at any time," said co-founder
Nagi Musa, 23.

Faced with these challenges, Girifna's success at conducting voter education and
election monitoring campaigns before the vote was a hopeful sign, suggesting that a
lively civil society could emerge in one of Africa's most repressive dictatorships, the
group and its supporters say.

"The government's harsh crackdown on Girifna's peaceful organizing activities is a

testament to the potential power of youth activism," said Olivia Bueno, associate
director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative, an organization that supports
human rights advocates across Africa.

Girifna was established two days before the voter registration process was to begin for
the country's first multiparty vote in nearly a quarter-century.

"We were looking forward to the election as an opportunity for peaceful change," Musa
said.

Part of Girifna's mission is to encourage Sudanese to learn about their rights and start
demanding them through nonviolent protest. The group is tapping into a history of
peaceful dissent: Twenty-five years ago, a dictator was forced to step down after a
popular uprising. But Girifna is the first effort of its kind under President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir.

About 5,000 Sudanese have helped spread the group's message throughout the country,
the founders said. Musa closely monitors volunteers' safety, raising the alarm by text
message or Skype whenever someone is arrested or abducted.

Ghazi Mohammed Abuzied, 22, joined Girifna on Facebook before the elections and
offered to volunteer his time. Like most members, he had never before engaged in any
political activity. "I thought: We are in the same fight, we are looking for the same
thing," said Abuzied, a chemical engineering student.

Today, he coordinates the movement's activities in Khartoum, arranging when

volunteers go to markets and bus stations to speak and hand out leaflets. His father told
him he was "wasting his time," but Abuzied said he believes he can help shape the
future. "Change will be slow, but we believe it will happen one day."

The activists say Sudanese living outside the country have played a big role in
facilitating their efforts. Many have made donations, sometimes financial but more
commonly in the form of expertise. Hisham Haj Omar, a Sudanese man living in New
York, helped build Girifna's multimedia Web site. Girifna members carry cellphone-size
video cameras to their activities so they can post images of the excited crowds, and
often of the police interrupting their activities.

U.S. activists have also offered their support. Musa said that Girifna appreciates the
solidarity, in particular from American students, but that Sudan's transformation from
dictatorship to democracy must come from the Sudanese people themselves.

The elections, which the International Crisis Group reported were rigged even before
voting began, extended Bashir's rule. The U.S. State Department said that the vote "did
not, broadly speaking, meet international standards" but that the United States would
work with the Sudanese government on the "difficult timetable" ahead -- a reference to
a January referendum in which southern Sudanese will vote on whether to become an
independent nation. The United States has long supported that vote, a key part of a
peace accord that ended Sudan's long-running civil war.

Musa and Abuzied say they want the international community "to stand with the
Sudanese people." They said the U.S. government sidelined the Sudanese people's
democratic concerns in the interest of ensuring that the 2011 referendum proceeds on
time. They are also frustrated that Sudan's opposition parties failed to provide a unified
challenge to Bashir, who is wanted on genocide and war crimes charges by the
International Criminal Court.

"Bashir is responsible for killing all around Sudan," Musa said. "Even if the election had
been free and fair, he should not even have been a candidate."

Three weeks before the elections, a crowd gathered around a Girifna volunteer
speaking at a market in Khartoum. The police arrived to stop her from talking, but in a
rare display of public defiance, the crowd began chanting for the police to let her
continue. She was able to finish, and the event continued for more than 40 minutes. The
same would not happen today, Musa said. "After the elections, the atmosphere is very
down."

It is a sentiment repeated by other activists in Khartoum. Opponents of the government

say the international community's acceptance of the election results has emboldened the
government. Press censorship, suspended in the run-up to the elections, has resumed.
Human Rights Watch reported that repression of activists and journalists has increased
since the elections.

Yet, for the moment at least, Girifna continues to operate.

On July 5, three Girifna activists were arrested while they were distributing the group's
first "magazine" in Khartoum North, a suburb of the capital. The two-page, double-
sided pamphlet, printed on bright orange paper, contained a statement of the
movement's nonviolent aims and photos of students it says have been murdered by
Sudan's internal security apparatus.

The activists were charged with calling for a violent opposition to the state and
breaching public safety.

What followed was a 48-hour ordeal in which the activists were twice removed from
the jail by security agents and taken to other locations, where they were beaten and
coerced into agreeing to spy on Girifna for the government, Musa said. The activists are
meeting with a lawyer to discuss what to do next.

But as a matter of policy, Girifna speaks out publicly about the government's actions
against its members. "We all know if we don't say anything, it will just keep on
happening," Musa said.
--------------------
'12 die in Algerian desert' in bid to reach Europe (AFP)

BAMAKO, Mali – Twelve African nationals trying to illegally enter Europe have died
from thirst and hunger in the Algerian desert, survivors of the failed journey who
returned to northern Mali told AFP on Sunday.

"We left the (Malian) town of Kidal. We made our way (illegally) into Algeria. Between
the Algerian border and the town of Tamanrasset the truck broke down," said Ahmed, a
well-known transporter of clandestine migrants, who was driving.

"We ran out of water, and food. Twelve people died. Only myself and one passenger
survived."

Etienne, a former student who said he was trying his luck to reach Europe, said there
were three Cameroonians, three Malians, two Ivorians, two Senegalese, a Gambian and
a Guinean among the dead.

The route linking northern Mali and Algeria is popular with those migrants trying to
reach Europe, mainly illegally.
--------------------
Aid workers warn of famine disaster in Niger (Associated Press)

DAKAR, Senegal — Niger is now facing the worst hunger crisis in its history, with
almost half the country's population in desperate need of food and up to one in six
children suffering from acute malnutrition, aid officials say.

Malek Triki, West Africa spokesman for the United Nations' World Food Programme,
said villagers in Niger are describing the situation as worse than in 2005, when aid
organizations treated tens of thousands of children for malnutrition, and worse even
than 1973, when thousands died.

"What they are saying is that this is the worst crisis in living memory," Triki said.

National surveys conducted in May and June in the drought-stricken country on the
southern fringe of the Sahara desert indicate that 16.7 percent of children under the age
of 5 are acutely malnourished. That is well above the 15 percent threshold used by the
U.N. to declare an emergency, according to the WFP.

The WFP estimates that 7.3 million people — almost half the country's population —
are in desperate need of food. In rural areas like Diffa, Triki says he spoke to numerous
people who eat at most once a day.

"A woman I spoke to basically said, 'We're in a constant state of fasting. If we eat lunch,
we cannot eat dinner. If we eat dinner, we cannot eat lunch.'"

It's unclear if people have begun to die of starvation, he said, and mortality figures are
not available from either Niger's government or the U.N.

Aid workers, however, say that the high rate of malnutrition is obvious at the food
distribution points. Many of the children "look stunted," said Triki.

Niger's government, now being run by a military council after a February coup ousted
President Mamadou Tandja, had said it would provide more than 21,000 tons of food.
In 2005, Tandja played down the food crisis, dismissing it as "false propaganda" used by
the U.N., aid agencies and opposition parties for political and economic gain.

Niger has historically been susceptible to famine because the country is mostly not
irrigated. The success of its agriculture is heavily dependent on rain and when the rains
fail, so do the country's crops.

"This year was a double whammy," said Christy Collins, the country director for U.S.
charity Mercy Corps, which opened its Niger office at the height of the 2005 crisis.

In most years, even if the country's primary crop failed, at least the secondary crops
survived. This year there was so little rain that not only did the fields of millet not
bloom, but the secondary greens used for animal fodder also failed.

That means that not only do villagers not have enough to eat, but their livestock have
also died off. For many, animals are their only asset, so they do not have anything to
sell to be able to procure food, she said.
Many have turned to eating berries and leaves considered inedible in normal times, said
Lane Hartill, a Dakar-based spokesman for Catholic Relief Services who recently
returned from Niger.

In the northern and central sections of the country, aid workers say the landscape is
strewn with animal carcasses.

"I spoke to one woman who had three goats. Two of them died before she could reach
the market," said Triki.

Those that are able to get their cattle to market are pocketing only a fraction of the cost
of what their herd is normally worth because the animals are so skinny.

Hartill said he visited cattle markets where desperate farmers were selling off their
emaciated cattle at rock-bottom prices to traders that come across the border from
Nigeria.

At several of the cattle markets he visited, Hartill said the animals being sold were so
weak they could not stand up. They were simply carried into the bidding area. Then
their new owner carried them away.
-------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
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