United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

25 August 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

U.S. Envoy Hopes for Fair Polls (The Citizen)

(Tanzania) The US ambassador in the country, Mr Alfonso Lenhardt, has expressed his
hopes that this year General Election will be peaceful and fair.

Attack at Mogadishu Hotel Kills at Least 31 (Wall Street Journal)

(Somalia) Two Islamic militants on Tuesday attacked a hotel less than a mile from
Somalia's presidential palace, killing as many as 31 people, including members of
parliament, in a fresh blow to a Western-backed government already reeling from an
insurgency allied with al Qaeda.

Sudanese official: referendum not to be recognized without bringing peace (Xinhua)

(Sudan) Sudanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Hassan said here on
Tuesday if the result of the referendum in southern Sudan does not bring about peace
and stability, it will not be recognized.

The heart of al-Qaeda in the Sahel (AlJazeera.net)

(Pan Africa) The US and its AFRICOM have established three main poles of US military
control over Africa - Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa.

Attacker attempts to blow up Mauritian barracks (Associated Press)

(Mauritania) A military official says a suicide bomber has attempted to drive a truck
loaded with explosives into an army barrack but was shot and killed when he refused
to stop the car.

Senegalese Debate Whether President Too Old For Third Term (Voice of America)
(Senegal) Senegal’s 84- year old President, Abdoulaye Wade, is considering running for
a third term in the West African country’s 2012 general elections.

Chinese Company in Talks on South Africa Rail Project (Bloomberg News)

(South Africa) The China Railway Group, a construction company, said Tuesday it was
in talks with South Africa’s government for a $30 billion high-speed rail project between
Johannesburg and the eastern port city of Durban.
Nigeria tailor-makes a yam-packed 'Sesame Street' (Associated Press)
(Nigeria) "Sesame Street," once a mainstay for a generation of Nigerian children who
grew up with the U.S. show on the state-run TV network, will return to screens in
Africa's most populous nation this fall, funded by American taxpayers but distinctively
Nigerian.

Senate panel to hold hearing on Gates's decision to close Joint Forces Command (The
Hill)
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Defense Secretary Robert
Gates’s proposal to close the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) based in Virginia.

South Sudan plans mass return ahead of referendum (BBC)

South Sudan is preparing to repatriate some 1.5 million southerners from the north and
Egypt, ahead of a referendum due next January on whether the south should secede.

At Least 30 Killed in Somalia Hotel Attack (NYT)

(Kenya) Somali insurgents disguised in government military uniforms stormed a
Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and killed at least 30 people, including 6 lawmakers,
laying bare how vulnerable Somalia’s government is, even in an area it claims to
control.

Somalia rebels looking increasingly like Taliban (AP)

(Somalia ) Men are forced to grow beards. Women can't leave home without a male
relative. Music, movies and watching sports on TV are banned. Limbs are chopped off
as punishment, and executions by stoning have become a public spectacle.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN voices outrage at mass rape by rebels in eastern DR Congo
 Troubled camp for displaced in Darfur focus of talks between UN, AU officials
 UN deplores deadly attack on Somali hotel
 Lack of funds may force UN agency to cut food aid in Central African Republic
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

U.S. Envoy Hopes for Fair Polls (The Citizen)

Zanzibar — The US ambassador in the country, Mr Alfonso Lenhardt, has expressed his
hopes that this year General Election will be peaceful and fair.
He made the remarks in Chukwani, just outside Zanzibar town, when talking to
reporters after inspecting a new building for House of Representatives which was
inaugurated recently by President Aman Abeid Karume.

Mr Lenhardt said he is happy that the recent move to reconcile Chama Cha Mapinduzi
(CCM) and Civic United Front (CUF) has gone well and there are indication that
October 31 General Election would result into a government of national unity.

He noted that without peace there was no democracy which can be practiced. He said if
it is held under peaceful atmosphere, the election would create a conducive atmosphere
for the resultant government to implement the development agenda.

He said the recent referendum has shown that Zanzibaris were ready and able to make
decisions without fighting.

"My message and a message from American people is to wish you peaceful and fair
elections. Even President Barack Obama has told President Jakaya Kikwete that he
wishes Zanzibaris peaceful elections," he said.

He noted that Zanzibaris were duty bound to ensure they cherish the peace and
tranquility even after the election.

He said the new building for House of Representatives should save as a catalyst in
building true democracy in the Isles.

Ambassador Lenhardt also congratulated journalists for their hard work to educate
wananchi on the importance of maintaining peace during the referendum process.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of a six member committee formed by the House of
Representatives to oversee the referendum, Mr Ali Mzee Ali, congratulated US
government for its assistance to Zanzibar.

He said US government contribution to Zanzibar was immense in various sectors of

economy, social and political.
--------------------
Attack at Mogadishu Hotel Kills at Least 31 (Wall Street Journal)

Two Islamic militants on Tuesday attacked a hotel less than a mile from Somalia's
presidential palace, killing as many as 31 people, including members of parliament, in a
fresh blow to a Western-backed government already reeling from an insurgency allied
with al Qaeda.
On Tuesday morning, two fighters wearing Somali government uniforms entered the
Muna Hotel—where several members of parliament reside—and began firing
randomly, according to Abdirahman Omar Osman, the minister of information. As
government security forces rushed to the scene, the fighters detonated themselves, Mr.
Osman said.

The exact death toll from the hotel attack isn't yet known. Mr. Osman said 31 people
had been killed, six of whom were members of parliament. Another minister said that
33 had died.

"They have no regard for civilians," Mr. Osman said of al Shabaab, the Somali militant
group blamed for the attack. Mr. Osman said that government security forces had since
secured the hotel.

Abdi Siyad, a 28-year-old man who lives near the hotel, said he had seen pools of blood
and body parts at the scene. "It was a disgusting image," he said.

The attack comes the morning after al Shabaab declared a "final war" against the
government. Late Monday, militants attacked positions for the African Union mission
in Somalia, which defends the government and recently promised to increase troop
levels.

The fighting presents perhaps the stiffest challenge Somalia's one year-old government
has faced. It also signals what has become an increasingly ferocious foe determined to
topple a government that the U.S., Europe and member states of the African Union have
sought to support.

Al Shabaab is believed to have as many as 12,000 members scattered across its area of
control—which is most of southern and central Somalia, and vast swaths of Mogadishu.
In recent months, however, militants have flocked to the capital in anticipation of a
long-promised government offensive. The government launched that attack in July, but
failed to gain any significant territory.

Al Shabaab, meaning "the Youth" in Somali, has declared its allegiance to the global
terror group al Qaeda and absorbed flows of foreign fighters from South Asia and the
Middle East, Western and Somali officials have said. These al Qaeda-linked fighters are
believed to have brought new techniques, such as suicide bombs, which hadn't
previously been used in Somalia.

Over the weekend, at least seven foreign militiamen were killed when a bomb they
were building exploded prematurely in a Mogadishu house, the Somali government
said. Among them were three Pakistanis, two Indians, an Afghan and an Algerian,
On Friday, the Ugandan military began sending reinforcements to bolster the Amisom
mission, which now numbers more than 6,000, in an effort to push al Shabaab out of
Mogadishu.
--------------------
Sudanese official: referendum not to be recognized without bringing peace (Xinhua)

Sudanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Hassan said here on Tuesday if the
result of the referendum in southern Sudan does not bring about peace and stability, it
will not be recognized.

After his meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul- Gheit in Cairo, Hassan
stressed that the referendum on the self- determination of south Sudan must be fair and
transparent and express the desires of the people there.

Peace and security is a top priority for the Sudanese government, and if the result of the
referendum is war rather than peace, "we will not recognize it," he said.

He reaffirmed that all disagreements and conflicts that could trigger a war must be
resolved between Sudan's ruling National Congress Party and the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM) before the referendum, and the most important issue is
the demarcation of the north and south Sudan border.

For his part, Egypt's Abul-Gheit underscored the importance of agreement between the
two parties on a clear-cut approach toward holding the referendum fairly and
transparently.

The two sides held talks on the latest developments of key issues in Sudan and ongoing
preparations for the referendum scheduled for January 9. Abul-Gheit renewed Egypt's
support for Sudan in all fields.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated on Tuesday his government's

commitment to conducting a fair, credible and transparent referendum in south Sudan.

The envoy of the Arab League for Sudan also said on Tuesday the pan-Arab body hopes
the referendum scheduled in southern Sudan will be held on time.

The referendum, set by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ( CPA), will
determine the relationship between the north and south Sudan. The CPA is meant to
end the civil war in Sudan, develop democratic governance and share the country's oil
revenues.
--------------------
The heart of al-Qaeda in the Sahel (AlJazeera.net)
Following my article on France's disastrous raid into Mali on July 22, ostensibly to free
the 78-year old French hostage Michel Germaneau, many questions still remain
unanswered. Here, I throw more light on:

• Why Algeria's intelligence service (the DRS) ensnared France into this ill-fated
operation.

• Why France appeared to make a greater effort to achieve the liberation of another
French hostage held by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Pierre Camatte, in
February.

• Why France chose Mauritania as its 'partner' in preference to Mali or Niger.

• What other Western powers, if any, were involved in the operation.

• And why, almost three weeks after the raid, AQIM killed a Tuareg guide in the
region.

Ensnaring France

Given the uniqueness of Franco-Algerian relations, many reasons could be suggested as

to why Algeria's DRS ensnared France into its ill-fated raid into Mali. But one stands
out: Algeria's relationship with the US.

The US and its AFRICOM have established three main poles of US military control over
Africa - Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa.

Algeria is the major military force in north-west Africa. Its emergence as America's
security proxy in the Sahara-Sahel region began in 2002-2003 with their collusion in the
fabrication of the El Para-P2OG 'terrorist' operation that legitimised the launch of the
Sahara-Sahelian front in the global war on terror. (See my article Al-Qaeda in the
Sahelfor more on this).

While the increasing destabilisation of the region has led to French-US talks about a
security 'alliance' against AQIM, Algeria is opposed to any such foreign 'intervention'
and claims the problem should be resolved by the countries of the region. By this
Algeria means itself as the major regional power. The Franco-Mauritanian operation to
free Germaneau has served to strengthen that view.

The DRS's construction of AQIM in the Sahel has created the current security problem
and afforded Algeria the opportunity to present itself as the US' indispensable ally in
the global war on terror and the West's regional 'gendarme'.
This role is also in keeping with Algeria's own hegemonic interests over the Sahel,
especially Mali, where Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has been using Libyan
investment finance to further Libya's presence and influence in the country.

Indeed, it was to incriminate Libya, and to get it out of the Kidal region, that the DRS,
backed by US special forces, encouraged and gave covert support to the short-lived
Tuareg Kidal rebellion in May 2006.

In order to play this ambitious role, Algeria wants freedom of movement and 'control'
across the Sahel, of which it feels bereft as long as France, the former colonial power,
regards the region as it own chasse privée.

By ensnaring France into its Mali adventure and so thoroughly discrediting it in the
process, the DRS has achieved a substantial victory that would have won it a rare
moment of popularity in Algeria - that is if it was not so deeply involved in the 'Dirty
War' within Algeria itself.

But, as Algeria's long-suffering people will soon realise, France, the 'old enemy', is being
replaced with a new one - the US. And the US is not likely to be too concerned with the
excesses of Algeria's 'mukhabarat' state. The reason for that, quite simply, is because the
DRS has Washington over a barrel: should the DRS ever reveal the details of
Washington's covert P2OG operation in fabricating terrorism in the region in 2003, the
US will have the making of a global problem on its hands.

Camatte's release

Mali initially insisted that it had no intention of releasing AQIM prisoners

While France's knowledge, or suspicion, of Germaneau's earlier death - possibly as a

result of his captors' failure to procure the medicinal drugs required for his heart
ailment - might explain its apparent lesser effort to achieve his release, Germaneau's
condition throws no more light on why Camatte was released.

The general presumption in the media is that Camatte's release was the result of French
pressure on Mali. It has even been suggested, without any firm evidence, that Camatte
was a French spy. That was certainly widely asserted in the Algerian media, although
without mentioning that the source of this supposition was the satirical website
bakchich.info.

While that may conceivably have been true, there is, however, another facet to
Camatte's release that has not hitherto been made public.
Camatte was abducted on November 25, 2009, in north-east Mali and passed on to local
AQIM emir Abdelhamid abou Zaïd, who made his release conditional on the release of
four AQIM members imprisoned in Mali.

After the first deadline passed, AQIM gave a 'final' ultimatum, saying that it would
execute Camatte on February 20, if its four members were not released. During last
minute visits by Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, and Claude Guéant,
the Elysée's general secretary, Mali insisted that it had no intention of releasing the
prisoners.

And yet, at 6.30am on Thursday, February 18 - just 48 hours before Camatte's

threatened execution was due to take place, a Bamako court ruled that the four AQIM
prisoners were 'judicially free'. The court found the men guilty of arms offences and
sentenced them to nine months. But as they had already been in detention for that
length of time, they were summarily freed.

So, what suddenly made the Mali authorities change their minds? Or was this theatre of
suspense planned all along? We will probably never know. However, I am able to
reveal that a letter was emailed to General Mohamed Mediène, the DRS chief, on the
morning of Wednesday, February 17, with copies also sent to Kouchner, Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, the Algerian president, and Ahmed Ouyahia, the Algerian prime minister.

The letter explained that copies of the letter had also been sent to selected global media
who were authorised to publish its contents if Camatte was executed on, before or after
February 20. The letter made clear that in the event of Camatte's death, the same media
would also receive detailed information explaining the DRS's relationship with AQIM
and details of the DRS's activities in Mali, thus demonstrating the role and
responsibility of the DRS in Camatte's murder.

'Mauritanianised'

Why did France choose Mauritania, in preference to other Sahelian countries, as its
partner in the July 22, operation? The answer is because it was effectively 'Hobson's
Choice'.

In Niger's case, the country's new military rulers are trying to 'tidy up' the country's
destabilised northern regions and are not enamoured with the role played by Algeria's
DRS in its promotion of AQIM in those parts.

As for Mali, France's intelligence services clearly know that AQIM/DRS links permeate
the highest levels of the country's security forces, with the result that any planned
Franco-Malian military operation would be 'unsecured'. As I mentioned in a previous
articlethe last publicly reported words of Colonel Lamana Ould Bou, of Mali's state
security and a double agent between the security service and AQIM/DRS, before he
was gunned down in Timbuktu last year were: "At the heart of AQIM is the DRS."

Moreover, Malian troops are 'spooked' at the prospect of engaging with AQIM, largely
because of the latter's acquisition and successful use of night vision equipment. How
they acquired night vision equipment is another matter.

Mauritania was therefore seen as a far safer bet, especially as its president, Mohamed
Ould Abdel Aziz, sees himself as a 'strong man' in the 'war on terrorism' and is doing
everything possible, in the light of his recent coup d'état, to ingratiate himself and his
country with the US and EU countries.

Were other Western powers involved?

France and Mauritania are adamant that no other country was involved in the raid.
Algeria and Mali both claim not to have been given more than minimal notice, while
Daniel Benjamin, the US ambassador-at-large for counter-terrorism, has denied that any
US troops were involved.

These days, however, US help rarely comes in the form of troops - satellite surveillance
and drones are more effective.

On the day after the raid, El Pais, quoting diplomatic sources, confirmed that the "base
where Germaneau was believed to be held had been located with US help".

An even more pertinent admission of US help came in a August 14 New York Times
report on the Obama administration's new assault on terrorism, which confirmed that:
"The [Obama] administration has worked with European allies to dismantle terrorist
groups in North Africa, efforts that include a recent French strike in Algeria."

There was, of course, no recent French strike in Algeria. This is simply an editorial 'slip'.
What the New York Times should have said, if it was going for accuracy, was that the
strike was just over the border, in the Tessalit region of Mali, but conducted with the
logistical support of the Algerians.

While the US contribution would not appear to be in doubt, a question mark hangs over
the UK's role in this affair.

A British delegation to Mauritania, ostensibly to discuss bilateral cooperation in the

fight against terrorism and led by General Robin Searby, the head of UK counter-
terrorism in North Africa, was in Nouakchott on July 20 to 21, 24 hours before the
Franco-Mauritanian raid. Is it conceivable that such a delegation would have been in
Nouakchott if it was not complicit, in one way or another, in the operation? That is a
question which, for reasons of space, I will deal with in a future article.
Who killed 'Merzouk' and why?

Algeria's DRS gave covert support to a short-lived Tuareg rebellion in 2006 [EPA]

Around 4.00am on August 12, a Tuareg known as 'Merzouk' or 'Marzoug' whose proper
name is Sidi Mohamed ag Chérif, was executed by kidnappers, believed to be members
of AQIM, in the Tigharghar mountains - an AQIM stronghold, in north-east Mali.

Media speculation as to why he was killed has focused on two assumed motives. One is
that it was revenge for his involvement in an attack on the Groupe Salafiste pour le
Prédication et le Combat (GSPC)/AQIM emir Mokhtar ben Mokhtar (MBM) in 2006 in
which Mokhtar's right-hand man was killed. The other is that he was found to be
carrying documents from an unspecified Western embassy in Bamako and was
therefore presumably a spy.

The most authoritative account as to why he was killed is given on the local
kidal.infowebsite. From this account, it is evident that Merzouk had led a chequered
and dangerous life as a Tuareg rebel, a guide to the Malian customs service (with the
rank of lieutenant) and as an agent for Mali's state security service. He also had a long
history of association with MBM, the GSPC and AQMI.

However, one thing not mentioned is that Merzouk, according to another reliable local
source, was in regular communication with the US embassy in Bamako. It is therefore
possible that he was perceived by AQIM, not just as an agent for Mali's state security,
but also as a 'spy' for the 'infidel'.

Kidal.info mentions that shortly before Merzouk was kidnapped and assassinated, a
young friend of his had been captured in Tigharghar by AQIM on suspicion of spying
for Merzouk. This tallies with information from my source, which is that Merzouk had
given one of his 'cousins' (i.e. close relations) a motorbike and satellite phone and sent
him into Tigharghar to get information for him. The young man's captors ordered him
to call Merzouk and to arrange to meet him, upon which he was kidnapped and then
killed.

It is therefore quite conceivable that Merzouk was killed by AQIM both for spying on
them and for having identified and tracked down several of their members for crimes,
such as theft, committed in Mali.

However, informed opinion within Algeria is suggesting that his death may have been
ordered by the DRS, either because Merzouk, like Lamana Ould Bou before him, had
discovered the role of the DRS in AQIM, or as a warning to the Americans that if they
want information on the region and AQIM, then they must approach the DRS and not
try to operate independently of Algeria's intelligence service.
--------------------
Attacker attempts to blow up Mauritian barracks (Associated Press)

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania – A military official says a suicide bomber has attempted

to drive a truck loaded with explosives into an army barrack but was shot and killed
when he refused to stop the car.

The high-ranking officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to
speak to the media says the truck exploded just outside the barracks, damaging several
buildings in the town of Nema, located 1,200 miles (1,500 kilometers) from Nouakchott.

The attack early Wednesday morning comes two days after terror group al-Qaida of the
Islamic Maghreb, or AQMI, released two Spanish hostages they had kidnapped last
November. Several weeks ago, AQMI had said they planned to avenge a joint raid on
one of their bases led by Mauritanian and French commandos.
--------------------
Senegalese Debate Whether President Too Old For Third Term (Voice of America)

The director of African Studies at New York’s Columbia University has expressed shock
that Senegal’s 84- year old President, Abdoulaye Wade, is considering running for a
third term in the West African country’s 2012 general elections.

Mamadou Diouf said it is impossible to understand that a man over 80 will insist on
running as an incumbent seeking a second, seven-year term.

“The first version of the constitution was saying that the president should be elected for
two, five-year terms. But, two or three years later, the constitution was amended and
the amendment actually created the confusion people are fighting about now,” he said.

Mr. Wade’s opponents have questioned the rationale behind his decision and have
described it as a constitutional coup d’état aimed at ensuring the president’s son is
groomed to succeed him.

President Wade has denied he is grooming his son, Karim Wade, to succeed him,
despite saying that his son is qualified to run as a presidential candidate in future
elections.

President Wade was quoted as saying, “I have no intention of putting my son in my

place before I go. But, he is a citizen of Senegal and he is free to stand in elections when
he wants to.”

Professor Diouf said there are indications the Senegalese leader is grooming his son to
succeed him in the near future.
“The political problem is that it seems he (President Wade) is running in order to
restructure again the whole political system among the constitution to allow his son to
succeed him,” Professor Diouf said.

President Wade named his 41-year-old son as a minister in the government in May and
is believed to be a close and influential adviser to the president.

Some Senegalese constitutional lawyers contend that President Wade’s second term
expires in 2012 and is thus, constitutionally, barred from running again.

But, supporters of the Senegalese leader insist Mr. Wade is entitled to seek another term
despite his controversial stance.

Diouf said that Mr. Wade will be too old in 2012 to either exercise the functions of a
sitting president or completely finish his term of office.
--------------------
Chinese Company in Talks on South Africa Rail Project (Bloomberg News)

The China Railway Group, a construction company, said Tuesday it was in talks with
South Africa’s government for a $30 billion high-speed rail project between
Johannesburg and the eastern port city of Durban.

Discussions are at an early stage and no financing is in place, China Railway’s

chairman, Li Changjin, said in an interview in Beijing. China Railway has signed an
agreement with the Standard Bank Group, Africa’s biggest lender, Mr. Li said.

Standard Bank and China Railway will “cooperate across a broad spectrum of
opportunities,” the bank’s spokesman, Erik Larsen, said in an e-mailed response to
questions. This will include “working together to develop infrastructure and funding
solutions for African rail and infrastructure projects.”

South Africa’s government said in April it was studying the feasibility of a high-speed
railway link between Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa’s busiest harbor. Driving
the 352 miles between the two cities takes five to seven hours, while a high-speed train
would complete the trip in about three hours, according to the Transport Ministry.

South Africa is hoping Chinese state-owned banks can provide loans for the project, Mr.
Li said on the sidelines of a China-Africa investment forum, while China Railway wants
South Africa to contribute up to 40 percent of the capital. Standard Bank sold a 20
percent stake to the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China in 2008 as part of a plan to
profit from growing trade between Africa and China.
-------------------
Nigeria tailor-makes a yam-packed 'Sesame Street' (Associated Press)
LAGOS, Nigeria – It looks a lot like "Sesame Street," only that's no Cookie Monster.

"What is so exciting about yams? Everything!" Zobi, a taxi-driving muppet, shouts in a

Nigerian lilt to anyone who will listen. "I can fry the yam. I can toast it. I can boil it. I
love yams!"

"Sesame Street," once a mainstay for a generation of Nigerian children who grew up
with the U.S. show on the state-run TV network, will return to screens in Africa's most
populous nation this fall, funded by American taxpayers but distinctively Nigerian.

Produced and voiced by Nigerians in formal — if squeaky — English, the show aims to
educate a country nearly half of whose 150 million people are 14 or younger. Its issues
focus on the same challenges faced by children in a country where many have to work
instead of going to school: AIDS, malaria nets, gender equality — and yams, a staple of
Nigerian meals.

"Nigeria is diverse; we have 250 different ethnic groups, so many different languages.
We don't have the same customs; we do think differently," executive producer Yemisi
Ilo said. But "children are children. All children love songs and all children love furry,
muppety animal-type things."

Renamed "Sesame Square," the show will air 26 episodes in the first of its scheduled
three seasons, with one show for each letter of the alphabet.

The lead muppets are Kami, whose yellow fur matches the dandelion on her vest, and
Zobi, who resembles a mint-green shag carpet. Kami is an orphan with HIV who
explains blood safety to children through her own story. Zobi, whose yellow cab lacks
an engine, teaches by ineptness, getting entangled in a mosquito net while explaining
malaria prevention.

They live not on a fictional U.S. city street but in "Sesame Square," whose concrete
homes and slatted windows mirror those found in Nigerian villages.

"A village square is somewhere where people gather around, it's the news and
information," Ilo said. "It's all across Nigeria."

The muppets' adventures take place between original recorded "Sesame Street"
segments, re-dubbed with Nigerians voicing the parts of familiar characters like Bert
and Ernie. One live-action scene shows hijab-wearing girls in the Muslim-majority
north kicking a soccer ball and proudly saying they can do anything a boy can do.

The Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that oversees "Sesame Street," received a five-year,
$3 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. That comes after
the government agency funded a 2007 pilot project featuring Kami and Big Bird
discussing HIV infections and AIDS.

The new series underscores the ever-broadening reach of "Sesame Street" since it
debuted in the U.S. in 1969. The Sesame Workshop has overseen short- and long-term
productions of country-specific shows in more than 140 nations, ranging from "Rechov
Sumsum" in Israel to South Africa's "Takalani Sesame," where Kami first appeared.

But Nigeria represents the first effort to bring a long-term "Sesame Street"-styled
program to West Africa, said Naila Farouky, an international program director for the
workshop. Discussions continue about potentially expanding into Ghana and Southern
Africa, she said.

Nigerian grown-ups like producer Jadesola Oladapo can still hum "Can You Tell Me
How to Get to Sesame Street?" The show marked the start of the broadcast day on state-
run television into the 1980s and whenever the theme song came on, "I would run to
make sure my chores were done," she said.

"Sesame Square" still faces the challenge of winning a mass audience in a country where
most people earn under a dollar a day. TV sets and DVD players aren't enough;
organizers bring generators to power them, in an oil-rich country whose national power
grid is in shambles.

Still, for children gathered on the worn floors of community centers and rundown
schools, "Sesame Square" offers a glimpse of something beyond crushing poverty.

"We had comments from children asking if these muppets are from heaven," said
Ayobisi Osuntusa, who oversees outreach for the program.
-------------------
Senate panel to hold hearing on Gates's decision to close Joint Forces Command (The
Hill)

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Defense Secretary Robert
Gates’s proposal to close the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) based in Virginia.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the committee’s chairman, granted the full committee
hearing at the request of Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). The date for the hearing has yet to be
set.

Webb and several members of the Virginia-delegation are fighting Gates’s decision to
close Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk, Va., as a part of the secretary’s effort to
save billions of dollars within the Pentagon’s budget.
Webb, who chairs the committee’s subcommittee on military personnel matters, called
on the Pentagon and White House to suspend any actions related to the sweeping
savings initiative until Congress had “ample opportunity to review the full scope of the
Secretary’s actions.”

Levin said in a letter to Webb this week that he would confer with Sen. John McCain
(Ariz.), his panel’s ranking Republican, about the hearing when the Senate returns from
recess in September.

“I share the Secretary’s objectives of reducing ‘duplication, overhead, and excess in the
defense enterprise,’ and instilling ‘a culture of savings and restraint’ across the
Department of Defense,” Levin wrote. “At the same time, I agree that the far-reaching
initiatives announced by the Secretary deserve close scrutiny from our Committee.”

Webb, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Virginia Reps. Glenn Nye (D), Bobby Scott (D),
Rob Wittman (R) and Randy Forbes (R) wrote to Gates on Aug. 13 urging him to
conduct a review of JFCOM’s mission and activities without a predisposed intent to
close the command.

“The Department of Defense has declined for two weeks to provide any additional
details regarding the decision to close JFCOM,” Webb said in a statement Tuesday.
“The committee’s hearing will afford us the opportunity to receive answers to the many
questions that, for whatever reason, Secretary Gates has declined to provide since he
announced his initiatives.”

JFCOM is one of 10 combat commands, which include Central Command, European

Command and Africa Command. JFCOM was previously the U.S. Atlantic Command.
With the Soviet submarine threat diminished at the end of the Cold War, the command
in 1999 was turned into a training, concepts and experimentation combatant command
that spans all armed services.
-------------------
South Sudan plans mass return ahead of referendum (BBC)

South Sudan is preparing to repatriate some 1.5 million southerners from the north and
Egypt, ahead of a referendum due next January on whether the south should secede.

The proposals suggest returnees will travel on trains and buses, as well as boats down
the River Nile.

Some two million people have already returned to the south since the end of a two-
decade conflict in 2005.

However, some aid workers have questioned the plan's feasibility.

The BBC's Peter Martell in the southern capital, Juba, says if the proposals are
implemented, thousands of people could be arriving each day to a grossly
underdeveloped region struggling to cope with its current population.

He has seen a copy of the plan entitled "Come Home to Choose", drawn up by the
south's humanitarian affairs and disaster management ministry.

It lists 11 different return routes.

The proposals stipulate that necessary requirements for returnees must include
sufficient resources and security to make the movement possible, with an estimated
budget of $25m (#16m).

The return of some 12,200 Sudanese living in Egypt is covered in its own plan.

Tension is high as the referendum draws near on whether Africa's largest country
should be split in two.

There have been warnings of possible violence against southerners living in the north if
the south, where most people are Christian or follow traditional religions, does vote to
secede from the largely Muslim and Arab north.

On Monday, the Southern Sudan government accused the north of switching payments
of oil revenue from US dollars to the local currency in violation of their peace accord.

The change deprives the south of its major source of foreign currency, restricting the
goods it can import.

Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa's third biggest oil producer, and when the authorities in
the north and the south signed their landmark peace agreement five years ago they
agreed to split revenues from the industry.

However, while the bulk of the oil lies in the south, the north controls the refineries, the
ports and the payments.
-------------------
At Least 30 Killed in Somalia Hotel Attack (NYT)
NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali insurgents disguised in government military uniforms
stormed a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and killed at least 30 people, including 6
lawmakers, laying bare how vulnerable Somalia’s government is, even in an area it
claims to control.

The insurgents methodically moved room to room, killing hotel guests who tried to bolt
their doors shut, Somali officials said. When government forces finally cornered the
insurgents, two blew themselves up with suicide vests.
The attack shows that “operational momentum has shifted to the insurgents, who can
go anywhere they want except where the African peacekeepers are deployed,” said J.
Peter Pham, senior vice president at the National Committee on American Foreign
Policy.

Several Somali politicians said that the government was so thoroughly under siege that
it could work only from behind fortified, sandbagged positions, and that the shrinking
government enclave in Mogadishu, the capital, could soon vanish altogether.

“The problem is the government is not working hard on security; it’s the same old
thing,” said Asha A. Abdalla, a member of Parliament who was in Nairobi during the
attack. Like many others in the 550-member Somali Parliament, Mrs. Asha often stays in
Kenya because of the dangers in Somalia.

“But I don’t know what the A.U. is doing, either,” she said, referring to the more than
6,000 African Union troops in Mogadishu. “If they are not protecting M.P.’s, who are
they protecting?”

The most powerful insurgents are the Shabab, a militant Islamist group that has stoned
civilians to death and pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. The Shabab seem to be constantly
two steps ahead of Somalia’s transitional government, analysts say, even though the
government receives tens of millions of dollars in security aid from the United States
and other Western countries.

American officials have said the government, however weak and disorganized, is the
best bulwark against a Shabab-ruled Somalia, though the Shabab already rule much of
Somalia.

The battle now seems to be turning to Mogadishu, specifically the few neighborhoods
that the government still marginally controls, like the areas around the presidential
palace, seaport and airport. This year, Somali government officials promised to sweep
the Shabab out of the capital and expand their zone.

But government forces have been plagued by defections and apathy, Somali
commanders concede, and it seems that the Shabab are the ones on the offensive. The
hotel raid followed intense shelling against government positions on Monday, which
killed dozens of people and sent shells crashing into camps for internally displaced
people.
“There’s been fierce fighting and the government is getting pushed back,” said
Abdirizak Farah, a shopkeeper who fled his home at 4 a.m. Tuesday to seek shelter
closer to government troops.

The three-story hotel that was attacked, the Muna, was popular among Somali
lawmakers because it was thought to be secure and was located less than a mile away
from the presidential palace in a breezy seaside neighborhood. Witnesses said that a
group of about three to five insurgents appeared at the gate at 10:30 a.m. wearing
government military uniforms, and that as soon as the hotel guards opened the way for
them, the gunmen opened fire.

They then rushed into the hotel corridors, shooting everyone in sight. Government
forces arrived a few minutes later and battled the insurgents room by room, eventually
pushing the gunmen to the upper floor. According to witnesses, several lawmakers
tried to lock themselves in their rooms, but they were hunted down and shot at close
range with assault rifles.

“They killed everyone they saw inside the hotel and then blew themselves up,” said
Abdirahman Omar Osman, Somalia’s information minister. He called the attack
“murder” and said it was “against Islamic religion,” especially during the holy month
of Ramadan.

Another Somali official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Shabab
were “using all tactics.”

“They don’t care about Ramadan,” the official said. “They are criminals. They are
terrorists.”

An 11-year-old shoeshine boy and a woman selling tea near the hotel were also killed,
African Union officials said.

The hotel raid seemed to have been planned well in advance, and several residents
living near the hotel said that Shabab fighters had been renting rooms for weeks in their
neighborhood, leading them to expect a major attack.

A Shabab spokesman on Tuesday said that Shabab “special forces” were the ones who
stormed the hotel. Earlier on Tuesday, the government claimed to have captured one of
the attackers.
The last time the government was dealt such a deadly blow was in December, when the
Shabab killed four government ministers in a suicide bombing at a medical school
graduation in another hotel in the government zone.

Then in July, the Shabab claimed responsibility for killing dozens of World Cup fans in
coordinated bombings in Uganda, saying it was revenge against Ugandan
peacekeepers.

Analysts said that Tuesday’s raid on the hotel, though, was something different, with
gunmen going toe-to-toe against government forces in an area teeming with
government troops, which seemed to be a sign of increasingly brazen and confident
insurgents.

Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since 1991, when the central government
collapsed. Several Somali officials have conceded that if it were not for the African
Union peacekeepers, the government would fall, most likely in hours.
-------------------
Somalia rebels looking increasingly like Taliban (AP)
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Men are forced to grow beards. Women can't leave home
without a male relative. Music, movies and watching sports on TV are banned. Limbs
are chopped off as punishment, and executions by stoning have become a public
spectacle.
Somalia is looking more and more like Afghanistan under the Taliban - two rugged
countries 2,000 miles apart, each lacking a central government, each with a hard-line
Islamist militia that cows the public into submission.
Al-Shabab in Somalia and the Taliban in Afghanistan - their tactics increasingly mirror
each other. Those tactics worked for the Taliban until the U.S. invasion overthrew it in
2001, and now they are making a comeback. Meanwhile, al-Shabab has gained control
over large swaths of this arid Horn of Africa country.
In the latest adoption of tactics long used by the Afghan militants, al-Shabab is ordering
households in southern Somalia to contribute a boy to the militants' ranks. Childless
families have to pay al-Shabab $50 a month. That's Somalia's per capita income.
An al-Shabab commander attributed the shared tactics and ideology to the fact that both
groups follow a strict form of Islam.
"One more thing we deeply share is the hatred of infidels," the commander, Abu Dayib,
told The Associated Press.
Some experts say the similarities are no accident.
"Al-Shabab is copying exactly whatever the Taliban was doing in the late 1990s, because
they think the strategies the Taliban employed in Afghanistan were successful," said
Vahid Mujdeh, the Afghan author of a book on the Taliban. "There is no doubt that the
Taliban are like heroes for al-Shabab."
U.S. and other security officials worry about another common thread: Both the Taliban
and al-Shabab have links to al-Qaida.
Until their overthrow, the Taliban gave Osama bin Laden and his group safe haven in
Afghanistan. Many analysts believe al-Shabab is now controlled by al-Qaida-linked
foreign fighters who honed their skills in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month Al-Shabab claimed its first international attack - twin bombings in Uganda
that killed 76 people watching the World Cup final on TV. Uganda said at least one of
the confessed participants belonged to al-Qaida. Simultaneous attacks are an al-Qaida
hallmark.
Both the Taliban and al-Shabab moved into a power vacuum left by inconclusive civil
war, and were initially welcomed by publics desperate for some form of law and order.
What they got was an extremely harsh penal code.
Now the Taliban is gaining ground despite NATO forces' efforts to push them back,
and brazenly advertised its clout this month by stoning a young couple stoned to death
in front of a crowd, allegedly for committing adultery.
In Somalia, two months ago, al-Shabab accused Ahmed Ali Shuke, a 27-year-old
laborer, of being a government spy and slashed his tongue.
"Both groups derive support from followers of their strict interpretations of Shariah
(Muslim law). Both groups also derive support by terrorizing the population," said
Letta Tayler, a counterterrorism specialist at Human Rights Watch. "The people of
Somalia, as in Afghanistan, have learned the hard way that if they speak out against
these groups' practices, they will get killed."
Both the Taliban and al-Shabab win some sympathy by positioning themselves as
defenders against invading infidels. Foreign forces - African Union troops in Somalia,
U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan - feed into that narrative when they kill civilians
during raids, Tayler said.
"Even many Somalis who don't like the Shabab's ideology are immensely thankful for
the drop in crime in many areas under the group's control. Their daughters are not
raped. Their crops are not stolen en route to market," she said.
But Human Rights Watch said in an April report that the stability was achieved by
"unrelenting repression and brutality."
Several women told Human Rights Watch that they had been flogged or jailed for
selling tea to support their families because the work brought them into contact with
men.
Somalia has had no functioning government since 1991, and militants with guns have
been filling the void ever since. Al-Shabab, which the U.S. branded a terror group in
2008, is believed to have several thousand members.
Hundreds of its fighters have died in battle, forcing al-Shabab to increase recruiting
among young men and boys, said Ali Mohammed, a retired Somali colonel.
They are "losing the hearts and minds of the ordinary people," he said.
In turn, families in militant-controlled areas of Somalia who can afford it to send their
sons away, several parents told the AP.
"I have lost one of my sons in a battle he was forced to join in central Somalia three
months ago. He was only 15," said Asha Mohamed Amin, who lives in a rebel-
controlled area of Mogadishu, the capital. "Again they say contribute the other (son) to
a senseless death. Is that acceptable?"
Amin said she sent her other son to Hargeisa in northern Somalia to live with friends.
A 26-year-old woman named Ubah felt al-Shabab's brutality firsthand.
She was visiting a moneychanger in the southern town of Kismayo with a male cousin
when two young militants accused them of engaging in an illicit relationship after they
couldn't show proof they were related. Hours later the militants whipped Ubah and her
cousin - 80 lashes for the man and 50 for Ubah.
"I was crying and I thought they would never release me," Ubah told AP, asking that
her last name not be used for fear of militant reprisals. "I couldn't move because there
were men with guns."
She said the militants warned that if the two were seen together again they would be
stoned to death.
-------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN voices outrage at mass rape by rebels in eastern DR Congo

24 August – The United Nations is dispatching a senior staff member to the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) as senior officials express outrage at the recent rape and
assault of more than 150 civilians by rebels based in the remote and troubled east of the
country.

Troubled camp for displaced in Darfur focus of talks between UN, AU officials
24 August – The situation in one of the largest camps for people uprooted by the
conflict in the war-ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur has topped talks between top
United Nations and African Union (AU) officials.

UN deplores deadly attack on Somali hotel

24 August – The United Nations strongly condemned today’s attack on a hotel in the
capital, Mogadishu, which reportedly killed at least 30 civilians, including Members of
Parliament.

Lack of funds may force UN agency to cut food aid in Central African Republic
24 August – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it
may have to cut its feeding programme in the Central African Republic (CAR), where
tens of thousands risk becoming malnourished unless new funding is secured.