United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

8 September 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Obama's Message On Constitution (Daily Nation)

(Kenya) US President Barack Obama hopes Kenya will embark on the process of
implementing the new Constitution smoothly. His message was delivered by former
US Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, who accompanied former Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright to Parliament on Monday.

UN peacekeepers 'failed' DR Congo Rape Victims (BBC)

(Congo) UN peacekeepers have "failed" the victims of mass rape in eastern DR Congo, a
senior UN official has said.

Balancing Counterterrorism and Democracy in Uganda (Time)

(Uganda) Just as the 9/11 attacks drew the U.S. closer to autocratic Arab regimes
whose security services were needed to help fight al-Qaeda, so have the July 11
bombings of two Kampala nightspots by the Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group
reminded the Obama Administration of Uganda's importance in the battle against
extremism in the Horn of Africa.

Somali war takes heavy toll on trapped civilians - U.N. (Reuters)

(Somalia) More than 230 civilians have been killed in a worsening of fighting in
Mogadishu over the past two weeks that has increasingly trapped residents in the
Somali capital, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Kenyan Court Jails Somalis for Piracy (Associated Press)

(Kenya/Somalia) A Kenyan court convicted and sentenced seven Somalis to five years
in jail for piracy, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.

Nigerian presidential vote scheduled for January 22 (AFP)

(Nigeria) Nigeria will hold presidential elections on January 22, a spokesman for the
national electoral commission said on Tuesday, after intense speculation over when the
vote would go forward.

Niger pushes presidential vote back to Jan. 31 (Associated Press)

(Niger) Niger's electoral commission says the West African country's presidential vote
is being pushed back by about a month.

Global news agencies uneasy over South Africa's press freedom (Christian Science
Monitor)
(South Africa) The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Agence France-Presse
sent a letter to South African President Jacob Zuma to express concern about a proposed
law that could limit press freedom in South Africa.

Delta makes historic flight to Roberts International Airport. Sirleaf cuts ribbon
(Running Africa)
(Liberia) The first direct international flight to Liberia in more than twenty years has
landed at the main and refurbished national terminal Roberts International Airport
(RIA), some 32 miles outside of the capital Monrovia over the weekend.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN outlines steps to boost civilian protection in DR Congo in wake of mass
rapes
 Ban arrives in Rwanda to discuss upcoming report on DR Congo rights
violations
 UN salutes Cape Verde’s full ownership of free school meals programme
 Fresh clashes in Darfur kill dozens of civilians, UN-African Union mission
reports
 UN refugee agency alarmed at civilian loss of life in Somalia’s capital
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, September 23, 9:00 a.m.

WHAT: Breakfast Briefing with The Honorable Robert P. Jackson, New Ambassador of
the United States to Cameroon
WHO: Business Council for International Understanding with Chevron Corporation
Info: http://www.bciu.org/wip01/online_event_invitation.asp?
continent=0&country=0&currentorpast=current&eventsorprograms=events&IDNumbe
r=1431&ProgramIDNumber=0&Keycode=8031275
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Obama's Message On Constitution (Daily Nation)

Nairobi — US President Barack Obama hopes Kenya will embark on the process of
implementing the new Constitution smoothly.
His message was delivered by former US Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, who
accompanied former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Parliament on Monday.

Mr Daschle said: "President Obama is hopeful that Kenya can now embark on the
process of implementation smoothly."

He spoke when Ms Albright paid a courtesy call on House Speaker Kenneth Marende.
Ms Albright, who is the chairperson of the National Democratic Institute (NDI)- led
board members in promising assistance to the Kenya National Assembly.

The US, the delegation said, was happy to see Kenya come out of the referendum
peacefully and now it was time for Kenya to put in place the new laws.

Ms Albright said: "We would like to help you as much as possible ... we will be happy
to help in organisational aspects."

She also promised to lobby for support from the House Democratic Assistance to help
the Kenya Parliament meet demands of a bicameral institution.

The institute will direct part of its assistance to Parliament staff who are core in running
a functional institution, she added.

The NDI group toured Parliament's old chamber, which MPs currently use, to see how
it would be transformed into the Senate.

They also toured the chamber that will host the National Assembly, which is being
refurbished.

NDI president Kenneth Wollack said Kenya should not set its sights too high with the
Constitution but should deal with pragmatic areas instead.

Mr Marende said the current Parliament required exposure on how to deal with a
bicameral institution.

He also asked NDI to assist political parties to embrace the spirit of democracy in
sharing seats in parliamentary committees.
--------------------
UN peacekeepers 'failed' DR Congo Rape Victims (BBC)

(Congo) UN peacekeepers have "failed" the victims of mass rape in eastern DR Congo, a
senior UN official has said.

Atul Khare told the Security Council that the scale of systematic rape by armed rebels
was far worse than feared.
He said that up to 500 women and children were now believed raped in recent weeks -
more than double the previously reported figure.

He called for the prosecution of Rwandan and Congolese rebels who are blamed for
many of the attacks.

"At the same time a concerted response from the government, from the international
community is needed to maintain pressure on the perpetrators of these rapes and to
bring them to justice," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

Mr Khare, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, was sent to DR Congo by

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the attacks in July and August.

He reported to the Security Council that although 242 rapes had earlier been reported in
and around Luvungi, a village not far from a UN peacekeepers' camp, 260 more rapes
had come to light in the Uvira area and other regions of North and South Kivu.

Mr Khare said he had learned of 74 attacks in a village called Miki, in South Kivu. The
victims included 21 children - all girls aged between seven and 15 - and six men.

All the women in another village, Kiluma, may have been systematically raped, he said.

"While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lies with the state, its
national army and police force, clearly, we have also failed," he said.

"Our actions were not adequate, resulting in acceptable brutalisation of the population
of the villages in the area. We must do better."

Atul Khare: "Our actions were not adequate...we must do better"

"Graphic examples were provided to me by the victims themselves when I met them in
Luvungi and in other parts where I travelled. And I must say that this is why I feel that
we have a responsibility, we owe a responsibility to the victims to make their lives
better but also we owe them the responsibility of making DRC better," Mr Khare told
the BBC.

Mr Khare and the UN's special envoy on sexual violence, Margot Wallstrom, suggested
that Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebel chiefs might be among those responsible for organising
the rapes in Luvungi.

"I would recommend... for consideration by the (Security) Council, imposition of

targeted sanctions on the leaders of the FDLR, both within and outside the country, if a
chain of command is proven," Mr Khare said.
He added that UN peacekeepers will make more night patrols and perform more
random checks on communities.

Mr Khare said the UN was also looking into ways of providing peacekeepers with
mobile phones by installing a high frequency radio in Luvungi.
The BBC's Thomas Hubert, in Goma, said the Congolese government was pleased to see
the UN shoulder some of the responsibility for failing to stop human rights abuses, but
disappointed that there was no stronger commitment to tackle rebel groups.

Government spokesman Lamert Mende called on the UN to support its national army
more directly against the militias.

He urged peacekeepers to "do the dirty work" and "move to the front".

The latest mass rapes - during July and August - were first reported by the International
Medical Corps, which treated many of the victims.

Mr Ban sent his envoys to the country to learn why UN peacekeepers had apparently
been unaware of the attacks.

DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence, and rape is commonly used as
a weapon of war.

The UN says at least 8,300 rapes were reported in 2009 and it is believed that many
more attacks go unreported.
--------------------
Balancing Counterterrorism and Democracy in Uganda (Time)

U.S. President Barack Obama took office promising to make good governance the
cornerstone of his African policy, and Uganda came to typify the shift in priorities.
Repeated attempts by President Yoweri Museveni to meet with Obama were denied,
apparently in response to Uganda's sluggish pace of political reform ahead of
presidential elections in February. President Obama also directly challenged Museveni
to lift his support for a draconian bill persecuting gays.

But just as the 9/11 attacks drew the U.S. closer to autocratic Arab regimes whose
security services were needed to help fight al-Qaeda, so have the July 11 bombings of
two Kampala nightspots by the Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group reminded the
Obama Administration of Uganda's importance in the battle against extremism in the
Horn of Africa. And that strategic interdependency challenges the U.S. democracy
agenda.
"Washington is now forced to do a balancing act," says Livingstone Sweanyana,
executive director at the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative in Kampala. "If the
U.S. is going to work with Museveni on al-Shabab, the U.S. can't afford to see or treat
him as an unfriendly force."

U.S. officials insist that democratic reform still figures at the top of Washington's
agenda in Uganda. But as Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has used
the July 11 terror attacks as a pretext to shrink the political space, Washington's critique
hasn't kept pace. Three days after the bombings, parliament passed a bill enabling
phone-tapping. Weeks later, nationwide demonstrations demanding an independent
election commission were violently suppressed on grounds that they could be exploited
by terrorists. And the media have since been banned from commenting on the twin
bombings.

Following the crackdown on protests calling for an election commission, U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson did say that security concerns were
no justification for squelching dissent. Curiously, however, the previous day he told a
reporter on the sidelines of an African Union (A.U.) summit in Kampala that Museveni
had been "elected openly and transparently in free and fair elections," contradicting a
2006 State Department assessment that the polls had been "marred by serious
irregularities."

The about-face may be driven by growing desperation. At the same A.U. summit, U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder said that "ending the threat of al-Shabab to the world will
take more than just law enforcement" and that Washington was therefore going to work
closely "to support the African Union's [military] mission in Somalia [AMISOM]."
Washington is looking to boost current troop levels from 8,000 — most of them from
Burundi and Uganda — to 20,000. The problem is that few member states other than
Uganda have volunteered to step up. Museveni, a former rebel leader, is reportedly
prepared to mobilize that many troops on his own and has been leading calls to switch
AMISOM's mandate from peacekeeping to peace enforcement.

"The U.S. is depending on Uganda to play a role in Somalia to rein in extremist forces,"
says James Tumusiime, managing editor of the opposition-leaning Observer weekly.
"And in light of the attacks, the U.S. is probably beginning to think they're better off
with a stable, functioning style of leadership in Uganda — someone who's not
necessarily a democrat but a guy in control — rather than support change for
democracy's sake."

U.S. diplomats in Kampala say much of their democracy-promotion work is low-key.

One example is their success in persuading Uganda to put voter-registration lists online
to allow the validation of voter identities. USAID invested around $2 million on
democracy and governance programs last year, and that figure is expected to hit $10
million this year. Officials argue that security and democracy are mutually reinforcing.
But support for the key opposition demand of an independent election commission
appears to be waning, says Wafula Oguttu, spokesperson for the leading opposition
party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). Recalling Washington's silence after the
recent suppression of demonstrations — in which 80 people were arrested and some
claimed to have been tortured — Oguttu says, "The U.S. likely would have spoken out
against that prior to al-Shabab." Now the opposition is anxiously awaiting U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's quarterly report on Uganda, due late this month,
after Congress ordered the State Department to tightly monitor Uganda's election
process. "A lot of bad things have happened since May," says Oguttu, and he expects
the report to reflect that fact.

The last such report, issued in May, irritated NRM leaders, but prompted no
constructive action. Indeed the party's primary polls on Monday were marred by
confusion and allegations of ballot-stuffing. Opposition groups hope that Washington
will use its leverage as one of Uganda's leading aid donors to press for change. But they
fear the U.S. lacks the resolve to press the issue, leaving Uganda's election process
heavily skewed toward the ruling party.

Challenges to the legitimacy of the electoral process raise the danger of large-scale
political violence, analysts warn. Last September, riots in Kampala left 17 people dead
after the king of Buganda kingdom was prevented by Museveni from visiting a nearby
district.

"We have shown restraint so far," says the FDC's Oguttu. But if the mechanisms for free
and fair elections fail to materialize, he says, "we're going to have a little bit of trouble."
He predicts the youth will grow more vocal and could target the destruction of election-
commission offices. Meanwhile, the opposition is mulling the option of boycotting
February's elections. Whatever the case may be, he says, "expect fireworks." And a new
round of political turmoil, of course, is unlikely to help promote either democracy or
security.
--------------------
Somali war takes heavy toll on trapped civilians - U.N. (Reuters)

GENEVA - More than 230 civilians have been killed in a worsening of fighting in
Mogadishu over the past two weeks that has increasingly trapped residents in the
Somali capital, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Another 400 people have been wounded in the war zone of Somali government forces
and hardline Islamist rebels, and many civilians are no longer able to reach safety in
neighbouring countries, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.
Around 23,000 residents have fled Mogadishu over the past two weeks, many on foot,
others forced to give away their last possessions to buy a seat on a small bus out of
town, she said.

The streets of Mogadishu were deserted with people too afraid to leave their homes due
to heavy shelling, according to Somali refugees reaching the semi-autonomous Somali
enclave of Puntland in the north, or neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya.

"One woman who escaped told us, 'All you see in the streets are bodies of people killed
by bullets or mortars'," Fleming told a news briefing in Geneva.

"People are increasingly becoming trapped in a war zone -- fleeing Mogadishu has itself
become more dangerous and difficult," she said.

The Horn of Africa country has been plagued by anarchy since warlords ousted military
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Aid distribution has become rare in Mogadishu, where at least 300,000 displaced are
struggling to survive, according to UNHCR, which lacks a current figure for the
capital's population.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have waged a three-year insurgency against the

fragile Western-backed transitional government and they now control much of
Mogadishu and huge tracts of southern and central Somalia.

They have vowed to intensify their jihad (holy struggle) against the African Union-
backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel who is
now regarded by militants as a Western puppet.

FORCED RECRUITMENT

Somalis fleeing Mogadishu face new risks and difficulties, reporting that they fear
forced recruitment and abuse by militias in southern Somalia, according to UNHCR.

More than 300,000 people are now staying in makeshift camps along the Afgoye
corridor 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the capital, an area deemed relatively safe.

"(Being) trapped within their own country is becoming more and more of a reality for
many Somalis," Fleming said.

"This conflict has been going on for over a decade and it used to be easy to get out. It's
becoming increasingly dangerous and increasingly difficult to escape," she said.
Somalis say they have to pass numerous checkpoints manned by armed groups before
reaching the Gulf of Aden coast in the north to board smugglers' boats bound for
Yemen, she added.

Only 7,300 Somalis have reached Yemen by boat so far this year, half of the figure
during the same period last year.

Some 37,000 Somali refugees reached Kenya through August, down by one-third
compared to the first eight months of 2009. Ethiopia is the only neighbouring country to
show a steady rise in Somali arrivals, with more than 20,000 this year.

"People are escaping in the directions that they hear are more safe, but some of them are
not making it," Fleming said.

In all, nearly 68,000 Somalis have fled their homeland this year to other countries in the
region. Somalia continues to generate the largest number of refugees in the world after
Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the UNHCR.

There are more than 614,000 Somali refugees worldwide and more than 1.4 million
Somalis displaced within Somalia.
--------------------
Kenyan Court Jails Somalis for Piracy (Associated Press)

NAIROBI, Kenya—A Kenyan court convicted and sentenced seven Somalis to five years
in jail for piracy, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.

A court in the port city of Mombasa found the Somalis guilty of attacking a German
naval-supply ship in the Gulf of Aden on March 29 last year, said Jared Magolo, their
lawyer.

Mr. Magolo said his clients plan to appeal the verdict, which was delivered on Monday,
because the conviction was "not proper" even though he thought the verdict was "not
very heavy."

The European Union's antipiracy task force welcomed the court's decision. The
"judgment marks an important step in the cooperation between EU and Kenya in the
repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia," said Maj. Gen.
Buster Howes, the force's operation commander.

Riding in a single skiff, the seven pirates opened fire on the FGS Spessart, a German
Navy tanker, after mistaking it for a commercial vessel. They were repelled by the
ship's security personnel and later captured by the German frigate FGS Rheinland-
Pfalz. The pirates were handed over to Kenyan authorities in April last year.
Before Monday, Kenyan courts had convicted 28 Somalis of piracy since 2006, when the
first piracy case was concluded in the East African nation.

Somalia has been mired in anarchy since 1991, and the lawlessness has allowed piracy
to thrive off its Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden coastlines. Somali pirates have been able
to make multimillion-dollar ransoms from their hijackings.
--------------------
Nigerian presidential vote scheduled for January 22 (AFP)

ABUJA – Nigeria will hold presidential elections on January 22, a spokesman for the
national electoral commission said on Tuesday, after intense speculation over when the
vote would go forward.

Solomon Adedeji Soyebi also said national assembly elections would be held January
15, while governorship and state assembly ballots were set for January 29.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who came to power following the death of Umaru
Yar'Adua in May, has yet to declare whether he will run, though he is widely expected
to do so.

There is deep disagreement within his ruling Peoples Democratic Party over whether it
should abandon Jonathan, a southern Christian, in favour of a candidate from the
country's mainly Muslim north.

The electoral commission faces a monumental task in preparing a new voter list for
Africa's most populous nation ahead of the January election, which was pushed
forward from April through a constitutional amendment.

Voter lists in 2007 elections were riddled with false entries, and the election was widely
viewed as marred by rigging and violence.

The constitutional changes pushing the election dates forward have also sparked debate
over whether the president has to sign off on them.

Soyebi did not address those issues on Tuesday and instead simply read off the list of
dates to reporters. He took no questions.

"Dates of elections: national assembly elections, 15th January 2011; presidential

elections, 22nd January 2011; governorship/state assembly elections, 29th January
2011," he said.
--------------------
Niger pushes presidential vote back to Jan. 31 (Associated Press)
NIAMEY, Niger – Niger's electoral commission says the West African country's
presidential vote is being pushed back by about a month.

According to an announcement Tuesday from the commission, the vote to restore

civilian rule after this year's military coup will now be held Jan. 31, 2011 instead of Jan.
3.

It's not the first time officials in Niger have delayed the election.

Junta spokesman Col. Goukoye Abdoulkarim had said in May the election would be
held by Dec. 26, but electoral officials said they needed more time to prepare.

The military junta ousted the country's dictatorial and unpopular president, Mamadou
Tandja, in February after he refused to step down when his mandate expired last year.
--------------------
Global news agencies uneasy over South Africa's press freedom (Christian Science
Monitor)

The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Agence France-Presse sent a letter to
South African President Jacob Zuma to express concern about a proposed law that
could limit press freedom in South Africa.

In their letter, sent to President Jacob Zuma last week and made public this week, top
editors from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and Bloomberg
wrote, “We fear the proposed law on protecting information could restrict the free flow
of information, even though it stipulates it is not intended to allow officials to conceal
information simply because its publication might be embarrassing.”

The bill that proposes stiff penalties of up to 25 years in prison would give a broad
array of officials the ability to classify information, the editors added, noting, “We fear
this could conflict with South Africa’s constitutional commitment to freedom of the
press and other media.”

The editors also expressed concern about plans for a media appeals tribunal, which the
editors said “would undermine the media’s independence if the tribunal were to
answer to Parliament or any arm of government.”

Relations between South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress
(ANC), and the press have been on a downslide for years now, largely because of the
tendency of newspapers to highlight corruption scandals tied to top government
officials. But since August, they have taken a definite turn for the worse, when the ANC
unveiled its plans to put two media bills before parliament in the next session.
Coming just weeks after the end of this summer’s successful World Cup – when South
Africa and its government won plaudits for a job well done – the negative attention
from these media bills have come as a hard shock.

Government officials have justified their media appeals tribunal in part because of their
own personal experiences with media misreporting. In a panel discussion at
Witwatersrand University, ANC leaders and media professionals seemed to talk past
each other.

Jackson Mthembu, meeting with reporters at an ANC briefing held at the historic farm
where Nelson Mandela was arrested for treason, said, “In whatever we do, there is no
interest on the part of the ANC to limit the freedom that all of us enjoy, including the
press. There shouldn't be one group of people called the media who can rubbish you,
who can defame you and you have no recourse.”

Yet in this debate, there have been voices calling for “common ground.”

Clearly, South Africa’s media could afford to improve their professionalism, said
Donald Gips, the US ambassador to South Africa, in a recent speech at the South
African Institute for International Affairs.

“Having served in two White Houses, I know how members of government feel when
leaders are attacked by the media, sometimes unfairly,” he said. But freedom of the
press “serves as the front line in the defense of democracy,” Ambassador Gips added.

Since the initial flurry of reports, the ANC government has indicated that it may take
another look at the media bills before submitting them to parliament.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko told reporters in mid-August that the ANC
found foreign media reports about media bills “worrying” and this month told
reporters the government is open to suggestions.

“Government, through the minister of state security, is considering the valuable

submissions and representations made during the public hearings and is committed to
accommodating the views expressed as far as practicable and reasonable," Mr. Maseko
said.
--------------------
Delta makes historic flight to Roberts International Airport. Sirleaf cuts ribbon
(Running Africa)

The first direct international flight to Liberia in more than twenty years has landed at
the main and refurbished national terminal Roberts International Airport (RIA), some
32 miles outside of the capital Monrovia over the weekend.
The maiden flight of Delta Airlines was temporarily delayed about 3 months ago due to
security and safety concerns registered by the US Department of Homeland Security’s
Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) which oversees such arrangements.

Liberia’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the TSA in April, 2009 signed an
agreement to enhance aviation security.

According to a TSA press statement issued at the time, “The two entities signed a Joint
Statement of Intent for the development and enhancement of aviation security
initiatives, including plans to conduct assessments, develop aviation security programs
and share best practices. To support this partnership, TSA has deployed an Aviation
Security Sustainable International Standards Team (ASSIST), a group of veteran
security experts, to collaborate with local security officials.”

Liberia is the second nation to participate in TSA's ASSIST following the island of St.
Lucia.

The Delta Airline flight to Liberia represents the resumption of direct air flight between
Liberia and the United States since cancellation due to the civil war in Liberia. Efforts
had been underway since 2008 to restore direct flights to Liberia but this was delayed
while Liberia was required to upgrade its safety, security and airport systems to meet
international standards.

The Liberian President has been lobbying the US Government for approval to re-open
direct air links between the two countries. A major black American business mogul Mr.
Robert (Bob) Johnson, who owns and operates a 78 room luxurious beach-side tourist
resort and spa outside of Monrovia, in an area formerly known as Kendeja, has also
been quietly lobbying his Government to sign off on the direct flight between the US
and Liberia.

Business watchers say the resumption of flights to Monrovia will spur tourism to
Liberia for which the first class resort is well positioned to accommodate business
travelers and tourists.

In her remarks at the arrival of the Delta flight the Liberian Chief Executive Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf said, “Delta Airlines’ inaugural flight from Monrovia to the United
States opens the skies over Liberia for business, commerce and tourism.”

The now defunct American airline Pam American (PanAm) was the last American
carrier to depart Liberia in May, 1990 with scores of international and some fortunate
Liberian passengers who were fleeing the country and the encroaching rebels led by
then insurgent leader and former President Charles Taylor.
PamAm filed for bankruptcy protection in 1991 and its assets were subsequently sold.
Delta purchased the assets including some of the planes which are in service today.

The Liberian President disclosed that Government, will, in the coming months,
rehabilitate the airport storage facilities to allow for secure, high value cargo capacity. “
The airport will also be able to practice cold chain management in order to preserve
temperature sensitive products,” she said.

Senior Vice President Perry Cantarutti in his remarks said Delta airline was the leading
carrier between the US and Africa and Liberia represents the seventh destination in
Africa.

One passenger who was onboard Delta’s maiden flight and identified herself as Theresa
Gadegbeku registered her “dissatisfaction” with the airline’s customer service process
and called for an improvement.

With the dynamism in global security affecting the interest of the US and as part of
leveraging its influence around the world, the United States Defense and State
Departments are undertaking a program which will utilize its civilian efforts -‘soft
power” instead of its military might especially in countries and regions which may
threaten its strategic interests.

According to a report carried in March 2010 in the Wall Street Journal newspaper,
Lockheed Martin Corporation, a major US military contractor is also training Liberian
prosecutors as part of the US Government’s assistance to the re-building of Liberia.

Lockheed Martin, which currently manages the RIA, spent nearly half a million dollars
in an “assessment study” of the main airport and is hoping this investment will
ultimately pay off with more lucrative contracts in Liberia and Africa.

Major international businesses are eyeing the emerging Liberian market for investments
especially once security, reliable air link and communication systems are improved and
available.

Scores of Liberians resident in the USA have said they intend to take advantage of the
ease of new direct flights to Monrovia and visit home for the upcoming holidays.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN outlines steps to boost civilian protection in DR Congo in wake of mass rapes

7 September – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) has taken several measures to improve the protection of civilians in the
east of the country following the recent incidents of mass rape, but establishing State
authority in conflict-affected areas would be the most effective way to end lawlessness
and violence, a senior UN official said today.

Ban arrives in Rwanda to discuss upcoming report on DR Congo rights violations

7 September – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived today in Kigali, where he plans
to meet with Rwandan leaders to discuss the soon-to-be-released United Nations report
on serious human rights violations committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) between 1993 and 2003.

UN salutes Cape Verde’s full ownership of free school meals programme

7 September – Cape Verde’s Government took full ownership of its free meals
programme for schoolchildren today after more than three decades of collaboration
with the World Food Programme (WFP), with the United Nations agency voicing hope
that it will set an example for other developing countries to follow.

Fresh clashes in Darfur kill dozens of civilians, UN-African Union mission reports
7 September – More than 50 people have been killed and many more have been injured
in clashes in Darfur amid rising tensions in the troubled region of western Sudan, the
joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force reports.

UN refugee agency alarmed at civilian loss of life in Somalia’s capital

7 September – The United Nations refugee agency today voiced alarm over worsening
security in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where fighting between forces of the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and armed Islamists has killed more than 230
civilians and wounded at least 400 others during the past two weeks.