United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

3 November 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

US assails Sudan over reported arrest of Darfur activists (AFP)

(Sudan) The United States on Tuesday condemned the reported arrests of Darfur
activists over the past days by Sudanese security agents and said it would raise the
issue with Khartoum.

Sudan rejects extension of US economic sanctions (AFP)

(Sudan) Sudan on Tuesday rejected US President Barack Obama's decision to extend
economic sanctions on Khartoum ahead of the country's January referendum on
southern independence, saying it was not justified.

Anti-Obama Wave Likely to Sweep Away Africa's Friends (The East African)
(Pan Africa) Two of Africa's best friends in the US Congress appear likely to be pushed
out of powerful posts following the November 2 elections.

Jesse Jackson calls for Africa reconstruction plan (Associated Press)

(Pan Africa) U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson called Tuesday for an African
version of the Marshall Plan, saying the continent deserved reconstruction and
assistance, similar to that given to postwar Europe, after the years of "colonial rape" it
suffered.

Djibouti to train 600 Somali police (Africa News)

(Djibouti/Somalia) The Djibouti republic is training 600 Somali police to support the
Somali government bring peace in Somalia.

Lord's Resistance Army troop numbers dwindling, leader Kony enters Sudan,
official says (Canadian Press)
(Uganda) The number of soldiers in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has dwindled to
the low hundreds, and without external support the ultraviolent group could soon
cease to exist, Uganda's military spokesman said Tuesday, echoing the findings of a
new report.

Tension in Ivory Coast as first poll results trickle in (AFP)

(Ivory Coast) First results in Ivory Coast's historic election began to trickle in late
Tuesday, after a day when many shops and businesses in the capital Abidjan closed out
of fear of fear violence.

Initial Results Show Approval of Niger's New Constitution (Voice of America)

(Niger) Partial results from Sunday's referendum in Niger show overwhelming
support for constitutional changes that would lessen the president's power.

How a residency dispute in one key town could lead Sudan back to war (Christian
Science Monitor)
(Sudan) On Jan. 9 2011, when southern Sudanese vote in a referendum on whether to
become an independent nation, Abyei residents are supposed to vote in a separate
referendum on whether they want to be part of the north or south. But less than three
months until the vote there is no agreement on who constitutes a resident of Abyei for
voting purposes.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Benin: as waters continue to rise, UN and partners get aid to neediest
 Deadly animal virus could spread to Southern Africa, UN agency warns
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, November 5, 9:30 a.m.; U.S. Institute of Peace

WHAT: Women in War Conference: The Trouble with the Congo
WHO: Severine Autesserre, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Barnard College,
Columbia University; Raymond Gilpin, Associate Vice President, Sustainable
Economies, Centers of Innovation, U.S. Institute of Peace; Christine Karumba, Women
for Women International; Howard Wolpe, Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars; Diane Orentlicher, Deputy Director, Office of War Crimes, U.S. Department of
State
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/woman-and-war
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

US assails Sudan over reported arrest of Darfur activists (AFP)

WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday condemned the reported arrests of

Darfur activists over the past days by Sudanese security agents and said it would raise
the issue with Khartoum.

"The United States is deeply concerned by the reported arrests of several human rights
activists and the closure of the Darfuri radio station's offices in Khartoum," State
Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.
"Radio Dabanga is a very important source of information, real time information in
Darfur," Crowley said.

The special US envoy to the region, Scott Gration, "will express these concerns directly
with senior Sudanese officials during his meetings tomorrow (Wednesday)," Crowley
said.

Separately, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Washington
"strongly condemns" the arrests and the reported shutdown of the Khartoum office of
Radio Dabanga.

"These arrests indicate an emerging pattern of harassment and intimidation by the

government of Sudan against civil society in advance of the scheduled January 9
referenda," Rice said.

She was referring to votes on independence for southern Sudan and Abyei, part of a
2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade old civil war in Sudan which left an estimated
two million dead.

Human Rights Watch called on the Sudanese government Tuesday either to charge or
immediately release 10 Darfur activists that security agents have recently arrested in
Khartoum.

Members of the group, which reports to international organizations and diplomats on

the situation in Sudan's war-torn western region, have complained of increasing
scrutiny by Sudanese security officials in recent months, the rights watchdog said.

Darfur has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and
displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people
have died in the conflict.

Voter registration starts in southern Sudan on November 14.

Despite major delays, which have led to fears of new conflict in Sudan, the UN Security
Council is still hoping that the votes in southern Sudan and Abyei region will go ahead
on January 9.
--------------------
Sudan rejects extension of US economic sanctions (AFP)

KHARTOUM — Sudan on Tuesday rejected US President Barack Obama's decision to

extend economic sanctions on Khartoum ahead of the country's January referendum on
southern independence, saying it was not justified.
"The US president's decision to extend economic sanctions is not new to us. We were
not surprised by the decision, we reject it," Moawiya Osman Khalid, a spokesman for
the foreign ministry, told reporters.

"We see no reason for the decision of the American administration which continues
with its failed policy towards Sudan," he said, adding that the United States had "lost
the chance to play a constructive role" in Africa's largest country.

The White House said on Monday that Obama was extending economic sanctions on
Sudan for at least one year.

In a letter sent to members of Congress, Obama informed US lawmakers that the

sanctions on Khartoum, which were due to expire on Wednesday, would be extended
because circumstances which led to their imposition some 13 years ago have "not been
resolved."

Sudan's actions and policies, Obama wrote, "are hostile to US interests and pose a
continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy
of the United States."

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said later on Monday that Sudan was on the
US sanctions list "as an alleged supporter of Islamic militant groups and over the
situation in its war-torn western region of Darfur."

The United States has banned virtually all trade with Sudan since 1997.

"For 20 years, Sudan has managed to survive without the United States, and we can
continue to manage for years to come," the Sudanese official said.

The sanctions are considered a form of pressure against the Khartoum government
ahead of the January 9 referendum, in which southerners will vote on whether they
want independence or to remain part of a united Sudan.

Officials from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and from the former southern
rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) are currently discussing key issues
such as outstanding debts, oil, citizenship and security in order to ensure a smooth
transition should the south choose independence.

On October 20, the US administration eased some sanctions against Khartoum by

authorising, on a case by case basis, the commercial exportation of agricultural
equipment.
The purpose is to "benefit the Sudanese people by enhancing local food production and
strengthening the agricultural sector in a chronically food insecure country," the US
department of treasury said at the time.

Agriculture is a pillar of the Sudanese economy, along with oil.

Sudan produces around 500,000 barrels of oil per day, of which three quarters comes
from the south, a potential problem for the north should the south secede.

Khartoum is banking on an improvement in the agricultural sector in the hope of

maintaining revenue flows after the referendum.

The referendum is a key provision of the 2005 peace deal that put an end to Africa's
longest-running civil war between north and south.
--------------------
Anti-Obama Wave Likely to Sweep Away Africa's Friends (The East African)

Nairobi — Two of Africa's best friends in the US Congress appear likely to be pushed
out of powerful posts following the November 2 elections.

One of them -- Donald Payne -- will lose his chairmanship of the House of
Representatives' Africa subcommittee if predictions of a Republican Party takeover of
the House prove accurate.

Representative Payne, an African-American Democrat, would likely be replaced in the

chairman's seat by a white Republican who has accused President Barack Obama of
violating US law by funding the "Yes" side in Kenya's recent constitutional referendum.

Mr Payne, now serving his 11th two-year term in Congress, is in no danger of losing his
seat in the House.

The same cannot be said for Senator Russell Feingold, a Democrat who chairs the
Senate's Africa subcommittee. Polls showed Mr Feingold trailing his Republican
opponent by about five percentage points in the closing days of the campaign.

Mr Feingold has been the Senate's leading advocate on Africa-related issues for the past
decade.

In the course of a 17-year career in the upper chamber of Congress, he has pressed for
US funding to combat malaria and Aids in Africa while also urging a stronger US
response to chaos in Somalia and the Great Lakes.

Senator Feingold is the author of a law committing the United States to actively
assisting efforts to eliminate the Lord's Resistance Army.
His Republican opponent, Ron Johnson, heads a packaging materials company and is
making his first run for elected office.

Mr Johnson, who says human activity is not responsible for climate change, has the
support of many activists associated with the right-wing, anti-Obama Tea Party
movement.

The likely replacement for Mr Feingold as head of the Africa subcommittee would be
Republican Johnny Isakson, regarded as one of the most conservative of the 100
senators. Mr Isakson visited Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Sudan last year.

Republican control of the House would in general make it more difficult for Mr Obama
to achieve his foreign policy goals. But there are members of the president's own party
who say Obama has accomplished little on the world stage during his first two years in
office.

Apart from delivering a well-received speech in Ghana last year, these critics complain,
the first African-American president has paid scant attention to African countries other
than Sudan.
--------------------
Jesse Jackson calls for Africa reconstruction plan (Associated Press)

LAGOS, Nigeria -- U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson called Tuesday for an
African version of the Marshall Plan, saying the continent deserved reconstruction and
assistance, similar to that given to postwar Europe, after the years of "colonial rape" it
suffered.

However, Jackson later acknowledged designing a plan on such a large scale would
require increased accountability in nations like oil-rich Nigeria. There, experts estimate
as much as $380 billion has been embezzled from crude oil revenues since Africa's most
populous nation gained its independence from Britain in 1960.

"In order for countries to overcome disparities, they need to get fair trade and favored-
nation trade status to cover the ravages of war and occupation and colonization,"
Jackson told a legal gathering called the Kuramo Conference. "The formula was good
for European reconstruction - it should apply to Africa."

The Marshall Plan, put forward by the U.S. to rebuild Europe after the war with the
Axis Powers, cost roughly $13 billion at the time. Jackson offered no estimate on what a
similar program aimed at road, sewer and building construction would cost across the
continent, but said Western nations had an obligation to the countries they once
occupied.
After his speech, Jackson told reporters that Nigeria had to demand accountability from
its leaders. Its 50 years of independence was marred by coups and military dictators
before the first president was democratically elected in 1999. Even elected leaders today
face allegations of embezzling the OPEC nation's oil money.

"Nigeria needs allies and help," he said. "Look at the impact of its oil-trading partners,
who have benefited so handsomely from a relationship that is not mutually beneficial."

Jackson acknowledged that he once benefited from Nigeria's largesse: he toured South
Africa to protest apartheid in the 1980s with the financial backing of then-military
dictator and current presidential aspirant Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida left power in
1993 as a reported $12 billion in oil revenues went missing.

Nigeria, home to 150 million people, is one of the top crude oil suppliers to the U.S.
--------------------
Djibouti to train 600 Somali police (Africa News)

The Djibouti republic is training 600 Somali police to support the Somali government
bring peace in Somalia. The African Union commission deputy special representative
Wafula Wamunyinyi told reporters in Nairobi on Monday that two hundred police men
will take three months training in Manyani, Kenya.

Mr Wamunyinyi who was accompanied by African Union Mission to Somalia police

commissioner Hudson Benzu, said 80 senior officers will be trained in Rwanda and
South Africa from January, next year.

Hudson said all 7000 police officers currently working in Somalia also require training
to confirm to have a strong and capable police force conforming to international
standards.

“We intend to ensure that areas falling under Amisom control will be under police, not
soldiers, to ensure law and order in Somalia,” Wamunyinyi said.

The officials said the relation between officers and members of the public was
important in bring back order and law.

However the two officials said the AU forces now control 50 percent of the Somali
capital Mogagadishu, where it was reported that mostly runs islamist rebels.

“Since April, AMISOM troops have been taking ground from armed opposition groups
in the city by establishing series of combat outposts in areas previously in the hands of
insurgents,” Mr Wamunyinyi said in the neighbouring Kenya capital Nairobi.
He noted that life in Mogadishu is returning to normalcy with people moving around.
Local Human rights and business community in Mogadishu accused AU force for
destroying Somali business in the main market of Bakara in Mogadishu.

AMISOM were also accused for indiscriminately shells to civilian’s village in

Mogadishu. The African Union mission to Somalia is also waiting UN mandate to
increase AMISOM forces form 8, 000 to 20,000.

Mr Wamunyinyi said 12,000 troops, up from the current 8,000, will be in Mogadishu
and remaining ones deployed to other parts of the country.

Last week, AfricaNews had published an exclusive report which shows that unpaid
Somali soldiers offered their guns to Islamist rebels.

“The biggest source for rebels’ arms is government forces. Unpaid soldiers get money
from rebels and then hand to their arms”, said a former Chief of Staff of Somalia's
Military, Maj.General Osman in an exclusive interview with AfricaNews.

Those who sell their guns to Islamist insurgents are part of hundred of Somali soldiers
trained with U.S. and EU funds in the neighbouring countries. The soldiers were
trained in Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan.

Only United States spent $6.8 million to train almost 2,100 Somali soldiers in Djibouti
and Uganda over the past year.

The European Union also paid €5 million ($6 million) for the training 2,000 Somali
forces in Uganda.
--------------------
Lord's Resistance Army troop numbers dwindling, leader Kony enters Sudan, official
says (Canadian Press)

NAIROBI, Kenya — The number of soldiers in the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has
dwindled to the low hundreds, and without external support the ultraviolent group
could soon cease to exist, Uganda's military spokesman said Tuesday, echoing the
findings of a new report.

The Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, has about 400 fighters, less than half the number
the group had two years ago, according to a report from the Enough Project, which was
based on interviews with more than five dozen former LRA troops.

Uganda's army spokesman, Felix Kulayigye, told The Associated Press on Tuesday he
thinks the current LRA strength is even lower — 200 fighters. That's far below the
strength the LRA had at its height in 2003, when it had 3,000 armed troops and 2,000
people in support roles. Still, the group is extremely dangerous. As recently as May, the
LRA killed 36 people and drove 10,000 from their homes in Central African Republic,
the U.N. said.

The LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court,
entered the Darfur region of Sudan last month, said Kulayigye. Ugandan forces have
been pursuing Kony across central Africa since the launch of a U.S.-supported
operation in December 2008, but Ugandan troops cannot follow Kony into Sudan.

Uganda believes that Sudanese officials know Kony is there but don't know whether he
is receiving support from the Khartoum government. Khartoum once backed Kony but
severed the relationship in 2005, at the signing of a peace agreement between north and
south Sudan.

Darfur, Kulayigye said, is a difficult place to operate for Kony, and "he can only stay
there if he gets support from the Sudan Armed Forces."

In late 2008 the Ugandan government launched Operation Lighting Thunder, a hunt for
Kony's group that forced LRA fighters to scatter in small groups. Pockets of fighters are
believed to be operating in Sudan, Congo, and Central African Republic.

The new report, "The Lord's Resistance Army of Today," said that Kony no longer has
complete and direct command and control over each LRA unit because they scattered.
The LRA is now at its weakest point in 15 years, and Kony has less influence over his
troops than ever before, said the report, which was released Monday.

The Ugandan army says its forces have killed almost 400 LRA fighters since the start of
Operation Lightning Thunder, according to the report, while warning that "the LRA's
propensity for violence remains undiminished."

The LRA is known for vicious attacks against civilians and for abducting and forcing
children to become members of the group. The U.N. reported in December that the LRA
had killed 1,200 people in northeastern Congo from September 2008 to June 2009. The
LRA has cut off lips and ears of survivors.

A team of American doctors from Kansas City was in northern Uganda last week and
operated on LRA victims. Dr. David Kriet, a reconstructive surgeon, told AP that the
primary LRA-inflicted injuries he operated on were mutilated or amputated ears. The
rebels commonly mutilated the ears of those who refused to obey their orders," said
Kriet, who travelled to Uganda with the Medical Missions Foundation.

U.S. legislation that was signed into law in May requires the U.S. to develop a strategy
by late November to protect civilians from the LRA and to "eliminate" the threat to
civilians. The law calls for co-ordination of U.S. diplomatic, economic, intelligence and
military efforts.
Kulayigye said Ugandan forces have long received "invaluable" support from the U.S.
military, including intelligence sharing. The report released Monday says U.S.
intelligence sources pass on information to Uganda's army about satellite phone calls
made by the LRA, but that LRA callers often walk 10 miles (16 kilometres) from their
base before placing a call. The U.S. intercepts are passed on about 24 hours after the
calls, leaving the LRA time to evade pursuing forces.

Kulayigye said it is possible Sudan could begin supporting the LRA once more,
especially if tensions rise between Sudan's north and south ahead of a January
independence referendum that could see the south vote to become a new country. But
without new support, he said, the LRA's two-decade rampage could soon be finished.

"Minus any external factor the LRA is dying," Kulayigye said.

--------------------
Tension in Ivory Coast as first poll results trickle in (AFP)

ABIDJAN — First results in Ivory Coast's historic election began to trickle in late
Tuesday, after a day when many shops and businesses in the capital Abidjan closed out
of fear of fear violence.

The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) began to announce partial results from
rural areas on national television, after two days of swirling rumours in the absence of
official results.

A religious panel of Christian and Muslim leaders earlier urged Ivorians to wait in
peace for the outcome, and called on leaders and people alike to "take precautions not
to slip and fall into the fire of violence."

After the poll, "peace is closer to us than ever," said the Roman Catholic archbishop of
Abidjan, Jean-Pierre Kutwa, and Muslim figurehead Cheikh Boikary Fofana, among
other heads of the faith, in a statement.

They said "though we can have the feeling that" the commission "is dragging its feet, if
we have waited all these years to come to elections, what have we to lose in still waiting
a few hours?"

The long-awaited vote, pitting President Laurent Gbagbo against two main rivals and
11 other contenders, is meant to mark the end of a crisis that has divided the formerly
wealthy west African country for a decade.

In Abidjan, fear of an outbreak of violence in the event of a contested result left some
districts with far less than normal traffic and people chose to stay off the streets.
Neither Ggagbo nor his two main rivals, former president Henri Konan Bedie and
former prime minister Alassane Ouattara, have said anything in public since Sunday.

But in spite of a call by CEI chief Youssouf Bakayoko on Monday night not to believe in
unofficial vote results, supporters of each of the three candidates have been unofficially
releasing their own counts.

While the prospect of a second round duel between Gbagbo and Ouattara took hold in
political and diplomatic circles during the first hours after the vote, the situation on
Tuesday was considerably less clear.

"Every kind of forecast is going around. Every party sees its man winning the first
round, or at least coming out first. The CEI must decide, this is nearing madness," a
diplomatic source said.

The United Nations and former colonial power France have each called on the three
frontrunners to respect the results and show responsibility. The UN special envoy to
Ivory Coast, Choi Young-jin, on Monday met all three men.

EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton on Tuesday said she was "delighted by the great
sense of responsibility demonstrated by Ivorian voters by going to the polls massively
in a peaceful way during the first round of presidential elections."

She urged "candidates, authorities and the independent elections commission to act
responsibly, guarantee the transparency of the process and respect the will expressed
by Ivorian voters."

The European Union observer mission in Ivory Coast, however, charged the CEI with
denying observers access to its premises.

"It is not acceptable that the Commission has denied access to its premises for the 14
observers of the mission in several parts of the country," the EU mission chief, Cristian
Preda of Romania, told a news briefing in Abidjan.

Bakayoko had sought to calm people down by reminding Ivorians that the law allows
the CEI until Wednesday to proclaim the official result.

Bakayoko also said voting papers had taken a long time to come in from rural areas.

The aim of the election is to install a strong, elected president and bring an end to the
politico-military crises that have divided Africa's leading cocoa producer for a decade.
Gbagbo's mandate expired in 2005, but he postponed polls six times over the issues of
who had Ivorian nationality and a right to vote and the progress of disarmament by the
former rebels.
--------------------
Initial Results Show Approval of Niger's New Constitution (Voice of America)

Partial results from Sunday's referendum in Niger show overwhelming support for
constitutional changes that would lessen the president's power.

With nearly a quarter of the ballots counted, it appears at least 80 percent of Niger's
voters voted "yes" on a referendum to change the West African country's constitution.

During Sunday's vote, military leader General Salou Djibo called for Nigeriens to vote
for the change in order to usher in a new democratic system.

He said the referendum would lead to a democratic system of political stability. Djibo
has served as head of the interim government in Niger since a February coup displaced
then-president Mamadou Tandja.

In August of 2009, Tandja pushed through a new constitution for Niger that abolished
term limits and increased the president's power. When Niger's parliament and
constitutional court said the vote was illegal, he dissolved both bodies and ruled by
decree.

The president's refusal to give up power at the end of his second five-year term sparked
widespread protests, and after military leaders toppled him, they named a consultative
counsel to draft a new constitution . The counsel settled on what is known as a semi-
presidential system where the chief executive's powers are limited.

But voter turnout to approve or disapprove this new constitution was low, said one
election official, Salif Boubacar.

He says he does not know what the people think or if the referendum was important for
them. He says there were a lot of people who came to get their voting cards, but did not
vote.

The alliance of political parties that supported former president Tandja says the new
constitution's weakening of executive powers is a mistake because Niger needs a strong
central authority to manage such a vast, underdeveloped country with huge population
growth.

Presidential and legislative elections in Niger are scheduled for January 31.
--------------------
How a residency dispute in one key town could lead Sudan back to war (Christian
Science Monitor)
Abyei, Sudan - Francis Nyok Koryom stands in front of the ruins of his former home in
the flashpoint Sudanese town of Abyei. It was just one of thousands destroyed in 2008
as Sudanese government forces rampaged through the strategically important town that
straddles the border between northern Sudan and the semiautonomous south, which
votes in January whether to secede.

The forces also razed the local market, and almost all the town’s inhabitants fled in
what remains the most significant breakdown in the tenuous North-South peace agreed
to in 2005. And now the people of Abyei fear more violence – this time potentially
leading to a resumption of the decades-long civil war that killed hundreds of
thousands.

The ostensible trigger? A political deadlock over the question of who is a resident of
Abyei.

Why Abyei is so key

Abyei was one of the frontlines in Sudan’s civil war, fought between the government in
the mainly Muslim north and rebels in the mainly Christian and animist south.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the war granted residents of
Abyei the right to self-determination.

On Jan. 9 2011, when southern Sudanese vote in a referendum on whether to become an

independent nation, Abyei residents are supposed to vote in a separate referendum on
whether they want to be part of the north or south. But less than three months until the
vote there is no agreement on who constitutes a resident of Abyei for voting purposes.

A river runs through the residency issue

Abyei, in the border region between northern and southern Sudan, is inhabited year-
round by the Ngok Dinka ethnic group. The land here is extremely fertile.

Just south of the town is a river which continues to flow even throughout the harsh dry
season, which starts next month. And this river is critical to understanding the local
dimensions of the debate over residency.

Each year, nomadic Misseriya Arabs travel down toward the river during the dry
season to graze their cattle, before returning north again some six months later when
the rains begin.

Traditionally the Ngok Dinka and the Misseriya coexisted peacefully. But during the
war years, successive governments in Khartoum recruited the Misseriya nomads,
arming them to fight as government proxies against the Ngok Dinka, who were aligned
with the southern rebels.
Today, the Ngok Dinka fear that if the nomads are counted as residents then the Abyei
referendum will come out in favor of the north, placing them under the rule of
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, separating them from their southern kin, and
making them a target of retaliation by both the Misseriya and the Sudanese
government.

The Misseriya nomads fear that if they are not counted as residents then Abyei will go
to the south and the seasonal access on which their livelihoods depend will be denied.
This fear remains strong, despite promises from the Ngok Dinka, and a ruling from the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, that Misseriya grazing rights will be
upheld regardless of the outcome of the referendum.

“The Misseriya nomads are being misled by the politicians” says Ngok Dinka chief,
Kuol Deng Kuol. “They are being told that even though the Hague ruling says it, they
won’t get their (grazing) rights.”

US envoy steps up efforts

Earlier this month, US envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, mediated talks in Addis Ababa in
an effort to move the referendum process forward.

Abyei Administrator, Deng Arop Kuol, who attended the talks, says that the proposals
discussed were unacceptable to the Ngok Dinka.

One proposal was for nomads who had spent at least 200 days in Abyei during each of
the past three years to be considered residents of Abyei.

“This 200 days, it could be very nice on the table, but how would you know if someone
has been living there for 200 days? There is no monitoring system. This will lead us into
chaos” says Mr. Kuol.

Reports of military build-up in the area, combined with the deadlock over residency, do
nothing to build confidence in Abyei where the charred remains of homes and market
stalls provide daily reminders of recent violence.

“The incident of 2008 has affected the thinking of the Ngok Dinka,” says Chief Kuol,
who fears Abyei is heading toward a repeat scenario. Except this time, says Kuol, it
would be different because the term of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is coming
to a close; the status of Abyei at the time of the Southern Sudan referendum on
independence will be permanent. “We know this will be the last time; either they wipe
us off our land or we get our rights.”
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website
Benin: as waters continue to rise, UN and partners get aid to neediest
2 November – United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations are providing
critical humanitarian aid to people affected by floods in Benin over the last month, as
rainfall continues to swell the Niger River in the north of the West African country.

Deadly animal virus could spread to Southern Africa, UN agency warns

2 November – A deadly animal virus which broke out earlier this year in Tanzania
could spread to Southern Africa, threatening the lives of more than 50 million sheep
and goats in 15 countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
warned today.