United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

28 December 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Sudan — A nation divided: The United States and Britain (Afrik News)
Washington and Britain are not against the weakening and removal of the Beshir
regime. A big Islamized Sudan, in the volatile Horn of Africa region, is considered a
threat to Western interests. Secession of South Sudan has therefore become an attractive
option and is funded and supported by overt and covert means.

West African Leaders to Urge Ivorian Leader to Step Down (Voice of America)
(Ivory Coast) A spokesman for former Ivorian Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara has
welcomed as a positive development the scheduled visit by three West African heads of
state, who intend to urge embattled President Laurent Gbagbo to step down or be
forced from office.

Cote d'Ivoire leader defends stand (Al Jazeera)

(Ivory Coast) Cote d'Ivoire's president has said the electoral body that declared his
rival winner of the November runoff vote "does not have jurisdiction" and "gives
provisional results".

Somali Islamist insurgents threaten U.S. attack (Associated Press)

(Somalia) A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America
during a broadcast speech. Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but
Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-
Americans for recruitment.

Wikileaks Revelations Open a Window On Worsening Graft Problem (The East

African)
(Tanzania) Revelations from the WikiLeaks cables that anti-graft czar Edward Hosea
had received death threats opened a rare window into Tanzania's growing struggle
against corruption in the government.

Morocco arrests six planning terror attacks (AFP)

(Morocco) Moroccan authorities said Monday they recently arrested six extremists
suspected of using the Internet to plan acts of sabotage involving the use of car bombs
both inside and outside the country.
Police arrest 6 in central Nigeria violence (Associated Press)
(Nigeria) Police have arrested six people in connection with deadly unrest following a
series of bombings that killed 32 people in the central Nigerian region's worst violence
in months, authorities said Monday.

Boreh Eyes Djiboutian Presidency (Addis Fortune)

(Djibouti) Abdourahman Boreh, Djibouti’s prominent businessman-cum-politician,
announced his candidacy for the top political position in the country, last week.

Major cabinet reshuffle expected in Ghana before year end (Xinhua)

(Ghana) Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills would announced a major reshuffle
of his cabinet before the end of the year, a reliable source told Xinhua on Monday.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN peacekeeping chief arrives in Côte d'Ivoire, confers with president-elect
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, January 6, 2011; Brookings Institution

WHAT: Waging Peace in Sudan: The Inside Story of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement and the Prospects for Sudan’s Future
WHO: Hilde F. Johnson, author and former Minister of International Development of
Norway; Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ); Gayle Smith, National Security Council senior
director for development and democracy; Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Rich
Williamson
Info: https://www.cvent.com/EVENTS/Register/IdentityConfirmation.aspx?
e=998af087-00b2-4e56-a2b7-9e9b46877662

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday and Wednesday, February 8-9, 2011; National Defense

Industrial Association, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
WHAT: Defense, Diplomacy, and Development: Translating Policy into Operational
Capability
WHO: Keynote Speakers include ADM Michael Mullen, USN, Chairman, Joint Chiefs
of Staff; BG Simon Hutchinson, GBR, Deputy Commander, NATO Special Operations
Forces Headquarters; ADM Eric T. Olson, USN, Commander, U.S. Special Operations
Command; Gen Norton A. Schwartz, USAF, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
Info: http://www.ndia.org/meetings/1880/Pages/default.aspx
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Sudan — A nation divided: The United States and Britain (Afrik News)
Washington and Britain are not against the weakening and removal of the Beshir
regime. They consider the Sudan a terrorism haven, notwithstanding Khartoum’s role
in the handing over of the former internationally acclaimed assassin Carlos the Jackal to
France; its proposal to arrest Osama bin Laden and send him to Saudi Arabia; and its
collaboration with the CIA, especially under Nafi Ali Nafi.

Conversely, a big Islamized Sudan, in the volatile Horn of Africa region, is considered a
threat to Western interests. Secession of South Sudan has therefore become an attractive
option and is funded and supported by overt and covert means. The breakup of the
Sudan, now conveniently being presented as a creation of greedy British amalgamation
during the colonial era (and rightly so), is expected and desired by the Western bloc.

The campaign over the Darfur conflict, with its somewhat inflated figures on the
number of persons affected coupled with a divisive misrepresentation as being one
between African Arabs and Black Africans, indicates a concerted drive to demonize and
isolate the Beshir regime. Not that the Beshir regime has not committed atrocities, but
one cannot lose sight of the infamous double standard at work.

It must be noted that more than four million Congolese have been killed, and yet no
Darfur-type concern has been raised by the same Western bloc. And whilst genocide by
Meles Zenawi in Gambella against the Anuaks was ignored, Idris Deby and Obiang
Nguema have become two untouchables. Is it because the latter two have more or less
handed over their oil to Western companies?

Furthermore, Western policy towards the Sudan and the region has consistently failed
to get the overall picture and the implications that affect and would impact on most of
the countries in the region.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) drive against Beshir is as much a miscalculation
as the joint military drive against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) sponsored and
backed by the USA.

"It is no secret that American policy and action as concerns the Sudan have been
influenced by the IGAD, by the UN representative for the Sudan" — Eritrean-born
Haile Merkerios, a longtime pro-American.

This policy has not, however, been consistent with several factions advocating either
aggressive hardline policy or preaching the carrot-and-stick approach. It should again
be noted that the new US embassy in Khartoum would be the biggest in Africa and
would be the center for the whole Horn of Africa region.

What is happening in South Sudan has and will have its impact on Darfur, and the
Darfur reality is expected to lead to the “Darfurization of Chad,” for example. And will
the secession bug spread all over Africa? In other words, by reckless support for the
breakup of the Sudan, without considering the dynamics of the Horn of Africa region,
the West may be unleashing a dangerous and divisive virus all over the region and
Africa. But should Southern Sudanese be denied their inalienable right to decide on
their destiny?

China

In the case of China, a question begging for an answer is: "Has China turned
imperialist?"

Be that as it may, China is involved to a high extent in the Sudan, as well as neighboring
countries including Ethiopia, trying to quench its thirst for oil and other mineral
resources.

Beijing has backed Omar Beshir all the way, armed his forces, given him diplomatic
support and even at one point been involved directly and militarily in South Sudan.

And as the situation stands, the Asian giant would prefer for the status quo to continue,
but cunningly, China has also started courting the Government of South Sudan and bid
for building the pipeline from Juba to Lamu to bypass the pipelines in the North.

However, an independent South Sudan may be more inclined to ally with the West than
with China. And this makes the secession of South Sudan unattractive to China.
------------------
West African Leaders to Urge Ivorian Leader to Step Down (Voice of America)

A spokesman for former Ivorian Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara has welcomed as a
positive development the scheduled visit by three West African heads of state, who
intend to urge embattled President Laurent Gbagbo to step down or be forced from
office.

Patrich Achi, who is also Minister of Infrastructure in Mr. Ouattara’s administration,

told VOA regional leaders should force President Gbagbo to step down as a deterrent to
other African leaders who, he said, harbor the ambition of “perpetually” holding onto
power.

“He (Mr. Ouattara) has been very positive about this decision from the West African
region to come here. We’ve tried everything we could, the whole international
community, starting with the United Nations, the African Union and ECOWAS to press
him (Mr. Gbagbo) to accept the results of the last election, but he wouldn’t do it,” said
Achi.
“Today, I think they (ECOWAS leaders) are going to give him the last message that this
is the last chance for him to be reasonable and to come down to reality and to
understand that the only way to peacefully leave office is to go now.”

Three West African presidents are expected in Abidjan Tuesday to persuade Mr.
Gbagbo to step down and hand over power to his rival, Mr. Ouattara. The leaders of
Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde are expected to offer Mr. Gbagbo political asylum
in exchange for his resignation.

But, supporters of President Gbagbo say the embattled Ivorian leader will not step
down despite increasing international pressure and isolation.

Both Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Ouattara claim they won last month's presidential election.
The international community has recognized Mr. Ouattara as the winner and ECOWAS
has threatened to use force to get Mr. Gbagbo to leave.

Achi said President Gbagbo, in his words, is acting crazy by refusing to step down. He
said it is unlikely that President Gbagbo will adhere to calls to step down and hand
over power to Mr. Ouattara.

“I hope that he (Mr. Gbagbo) will understand, but I have some doubts. But, I think that
it was a necessary move, (by regional leaders to demand he step down). And, he (Mr.
Ouattara) is really hoping that former President Gbagbo will understand.”
------------------
Cote d'Ivoire leader defends stand (Al Jazeera)

Cote d'Ivoire's president has said the electoral body that declared his rival winner of the
November runoff vote "does not have jurisdiction" and "gives provisional results".

Laurent Gbagbo, who has scoffed at calls to quit, told Al Jazeera in an interview that
giving provisional results is "how [the electoral commission] should normally function".

"In addition ... the electoral commission didn't give any results. It had a three-day
mandate to give results, but failed to do so," he said.

"On the fourth day, when they were out of their mandate, the ambassadors of France
and the US went to take the chair of the electoral commission and [were] brought in to
the Golf Hotel, which is the campaign headquarters of my opponent, which of course
discredited what was going to be said there."

Gbagbo refused to step down after the constitutional court rejected the results of the
electoral commission which declared Alassane Quattara winner, plunging the country
in a political crisis with the two men laying claim to the presidency of the former Ivory
Coast.
The international community - including the UN, France, the US and the West African
regional bloc ECOWAS - have called on him to step down after recognising Quattara as
the winner.

Asked whether he does not feel diplomatically isolated, Gbagbo said: "Yes [I do], but it
is not the first time."

He said he was willing to co-operate with an international monitoring committee to

investigate allegations of killings and abductions in the West African nation, where the
UN says nearly 200 people have been killed in post-election violence.

"I want this monitoring committee - which is composed of the African Union,
ECOWAS, the EU, the US, Russia, China, from all over; the Arab League - I want this
committee to come here and review all the electoral documents and seek the truth," he
said.

Gbagbo also said that power sharing with his rival "is not a good solution" to the crisis.

"The solution is that we must discover the truth about who won the election and once
we have determined who won, then we'll give him power," he said.

Strike call

For their part, Quattara's allies have called for a general strike they say will begin on
Monday and last until the incumbent concedes defeat.

The planned strike is the latest form of pressure to try to force Gbagbo from the
presidency nearly a month after the runoff vote.

Djedje Mady, who heads Ouattara's electoral coalition, said it called on "all Ivorians and
those who live in Cote d'Ivoire and believe in peace and justice to cease all their
activities on Monday, December 27, 2010, until Laurent Gbagbo leaves power".

Patrick Achi, Ouattara's spokesman, said: "We are saying to people: 'He has to leave.'
We should stop everything instead of going to streets to march and get killed."

But Ama Boateng, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Abidjan, said the strike call appears to
have been ignored.

"If there's a stay at home; if there's a strike, it's not clear from the indications of traffic
that we have seen this morning," she said.
The call for the strike came as a spokesman for Gbagbo warned that civil war could
break out in the country if ECOWAS carries out threats to force the disputed leader
from power.

Ahoua Don Mello also called threats of military action from the bloc "a Western plot
directed by France" against Gbagbo.

Yao Gnamien, Gbagbo's special adviser, told Al Jazeera from Abidjan: "I think that the
use of force is forbidden in the international relation of any country."

He said: "It [force] is against the charter of the United Nations. The UN cannot use force
against the president. The AU cannot use force against our president."

Pressure to force out Gbagbo intensified on Sunday with Switzerland impounding the
president's plane at an airport in the Swiss city of Basel, the French foreign ministry
said.

A spokesman for the Switzerland's civil aviation authority confirmed the aircraft is
being prevented from flying back to Cote d'Ivoire following requests from the French
government and Ouattara to seize it.

"Cote d'Ivoire's legitimate authorities (Ouattara's party) have asked us to ground the
aircraft and it is precisely what we have done," Bernard Valero, France's foreign
ministry spokesman, told the Reuters news agency.
------------------
Somali Islamist insurgents threaten U.S. attack (Associated Press)

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to

attack America during a broadcast speech.

"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his
country," Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf said Monday.

Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has
long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for
recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used
as suicide bombers inside Somalia.

More world news British court holds 9 in U.S. Embassy terror plot
Nine men suspected of plotting attacks on the U.S. Embassy and the London Stock
Exchange were charged with terrorism-related crimes Monday and jailed until their
next court appearance. Full story
Al-Shabab holds most of southern and central Somalia and has the support of hundreds
of foreign fighters, mostly radicalized East Africans. It seeks to overthrow the weak
U.N.-backed government, which is protected by 8,000 Ugandan and Burundian African
Union peacekeepers.

The al-Shabab militia launched coordinated suicide attacks in Uganda in July that killed
76 people. It has also announced its allegiance to al-Qaida and is believed to be
harboring a mastermind of the twin 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania that killed 224 people.

The radio message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital, during
a meeting of Shongole and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, formerly the leader of insurgent
group Hizbul Islam. The two insurgent groups had clashed several times previously but
announced a merger last week. Aweys said his group will fight under al-Shabab's
command.

"We have united for the sake of our ideology and we are going to redouble our efforts
to remove the government and the African Union from the country," said Aweys on
Monday.

In an unrelated development, the Somali information minister said the new Cabinet had
approved the use of a private security contractor to train forces in the capital of
Mogadishu and the program would start "soon."

Saracen International would train forces for VIP protection, said Abdulkareem Jama. He
said he did not know exactly when training would start, what the men's duties would
include or how many men would be trained but he said the program included the
renovation of a hospital and government buildings.

Somali officials are frequently killed by insurgents, both in single assassinations and en
masse in suicide bombings and attacks. The Somali ambassador in Kenya previously
said that up to 1,000 men could be trained in the capital for an anti-piracy force and 300
for a presidential guard.

Saracen is already training 1,000 men for an anti-piracy force in the semiautonomous
northern region of Puntland.

The program has been criticized by U.S. officials who say it is unclear who is funding it,
what its objectives are and whether it breaks a U.N. arms embargo.

Jama said the Somali cabinet had discussed those issues and were satisfied the embargo
was not being broken but he did not say who was funding the program.
"There is a need for training," he said. "There was an effort to slow down the project (in
Mogadishu) because of those concerns."

The arid Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government since a socialist
dictatorship collapsed in 1991. Its position on the Horn of Africa means pirates can use
its long coastline to capture shipping.

Analysts fear that al-Qaida linked insurgents are also gaining ground across the Gulf of
Aden in the unstable nation of Yemen. If Yemen fell, that would mean failed states on
either side of the shipping route leading into the strategically vital Suez Canal, the route
taken by a substantial portion of the world's oil shipments.
------------------
Wikileaks Revelations Open a Window On Worsening Graft Problem (The East
African)

Nairobi — Revelations from the WikiLeaks cables that anti-graft czar Edward Hosea
had received death threats opened a rare window into Tanzania's growing struggle
against corruption in the government.

It also captures the growing frustration within the international community and donors
that corruption in Tanzania is as pervasive as it is in Kenya and Uganda and points at
how President Jakaya Kikwete has been held hostage by a political and business elite
that is starting to lose its grip on power.

In the just concluded election, analysts attributed the cracks within the ruling Chama
cha Mapinduzi and the growing popularity of opposition candidates to the public's
frustration with the Kikwete government's commitment to fighting corruption.

It is expected that the Wikileaks revelations -- the substance of which Mr Hosea has not
denied, instead saying some of his remarks were taken out of context and that he had
never contemplated fleeing the country -- will see President Kikwete facing more
pressure both from donors and the population, to clean up his government and the
ruling party to secure his legacy in his second term.

Such donor pressure, more associated with Tanzania's neighbours, would be a major
break from the kid gloves with which major powers use on President Kikwete.

This could lead to more division within CCM during his second term.

One of the scandals the cable referred to involved the sale of an overpriced radar
system to the Tanzania government by Britain’s largest arms company, BAE.
According to cables written by American diplomats in Tanzania, Mr Hosea confided in
US diplomats in Tanzania that he had received threatening text messages and letters
"and was reminded everyday that he was fighting the rich and powerful."
The cable dated July 2007, leaked by whistleblower website, Wikileaks, quotes US
embassy's deputy chief of mission Purnell Delly as saying that Mr Hosea had made it
clear in one of their meetings that if the threats on his life reached a certain point, he
would not hesitate to seek refuge in another country.

Mr Hosea, the director general of the Prevention of Corruption Bureau, said the
Kikwete administration was reluctant to implicate former president Benjamin Mkapa or
members of Mkapa's inner circle in corruption scandals.

"According to Hosea, President Kikwete is hesitant to pursue cases, which may

implicate former president Benjamin Mkapa. Kikwete is soft on Mkapa. He does not
want to set a precedent by going after his predecessor," the document said.

One of the scandals the cable was referring to involved the sale of an overpriced radar
system to the Tanzania government by Britain's largest arms company, BAE.

The military air defence radar was bought during the reign of Mr Mkapa for £28 million
($42 million).

The leaked cable, a narration of several meetings between Mr Delly and Mr Hoseah,
sardonically states that the BAE scandal was the only major case the Tanzania
government was trying to investigate since the UK's Serious Fraud Office "had a fully
developed case file, brimming with detailed evidence".

A case against BAE is ongoing in London. A judge has already suggested that part of a
secret £7.7 million ($11.2 million) payment made by BAE Systems to a businessman in
Tanzania was a bribe to help secure a radar contract.

Though he admits he met the US diplomat, Mr Hosea says the US official quoted him
out of context.

"For instance, at no time during our conversations, did I say that President Kikwete
wasn't willing to let the law take its course, in prosecuting all high profile individuals
within the government as claimed by the US embassy official," the PCB director general
told the Citizen.

The revelations come a few weeks after leaked cables on Kenya and Uganda spoke with
disdain of the Kibaki and Museveni administrations.

The report card on Kenya, for example, was dismal, with the East African country
described as "a swamp of corruption" and its bloated Cabinet one of the most corrupt
on the continent.
The cables also question President Museveni's commitment to expanding the
democratic space and promoting transparency and accountability in Uganda.

The US diplomats questioned the commitment of PCB, saying the anti-corruption

authority has never successfully prosecuted a high-level corruption case involving
either the public or the private sector.

It is not only the Tanzania mainland that the US diplomats focus on; the secret
documents also expressed concern about "unabated corruption" in Zanzibar and
President Amani Abeid Karume's reluctance to prosecute "big fish."

However, despite the criticism, Mr Hoseah, is reported to have explained the measures
the government was taking to tackle corruption.
------------------
Morocco arrests six planning terror attacks (AFP)

RABAT – Moroccan authorities said Monday they recently arrested six extremists
suspected of using the Internet to plan acts of sabotage involving the use of car bombs
both inside and outside the country.

"Ring members developed considerable expertise in bomb-making" through the

Internet and planned to "carry out acts of sabotage involving the use of car bombs,"
according to a statement issued by the interior ministry.

It said the suspects were targetting "some foreign interests in the kingdom as well as
several key national installations and security posts."

Authorities did not say exactly when the ring was dismantled, but an official speaking
on condition of anonymity said the six were arrested around December 10 in the
northeastern towns of Oujda and Nador as well as in Casablanca.

He said this marked the first time a cell "specializing in terrorism via the Internet is
hunted down and arrested" by Moroccan security.
------------------
Police arrest 6 in central Nigeria violence (Associated Press)

JOS, Nigeria – Police have arrested six people in connection with deadly unrest
following a series of bombings that killed 32 people in the central Nigerian region's
worst violence in months, authorities said Monday.

Plateau state police chief Abdurrahman Akano said that no arrests have yet been made
in connection with the Christmas Eve explosions, but that the suspects had participated
in street violence Sunday that left at least three dead and dozens wounded.
Angry youths had barricaded roads and attacked people passing by, and houses and a
truck also were set ablaze. Military patrolled the streets of Jos on Monday and security
officials cordoned off the areas where the violence had erupted.

It was not immediately clear whether the Christmas Eve attacks had a religious motive.
Two of the bombs went off near a large market where people were doing last-minute
Christmas shopping. A third hit a mainly Christian area of Jos, while the fourth was
near a road that leads to the city's main mosque.

The explosions came on the same day that members of a Muslim sect attacked two
churches in the northern city of Maiduguri, killing at least six people. Police have not
said whether they believe the bombings were related to the church attacks. The two
areas are about 320 miles (520 kilometers) apart.

The United Nations spokesman's office said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

condemned the violence in Nigeria "especially at a time when millions of Nigerians are
celebrating religious holidays."

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his sympathy to the victims'
families and said the government will bring the perpetrators to justice.

"I assure Nigerians that government will go to the root of this," he said of the
explosions. "We must unearth what caused it and those behind it must be brought to
book."

Religious violence already has left more than 500 people dead this year in Jos and
neighboring towns and villages, but the situation was believed to have calmed down
before the weekend bombings. The explosions Friday were the first major attack in Jos
since the state government lifted a curfew in May.

The curfew had first been imposed in November 2008 during postelection violence but
it was extended in January following clashes between Christian and Muslim groups.
More than 300 people — mostly Muslims — were killed in the January violence in Jos
and surrounding villages.

Nigeria, a country of 150 million people, is almost evenly split between Muslims in the
north and the predominantly Christian south. The blasts happened in central Nigeria, in
the nation's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.

The violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local
politics, economics and rights to grazing lands. The government of Plateau state, where
Jos is the capital, is controlled by Christian politicians who have blocked Muslims from
being legally recognized as citizens. That has locked many out of prized government
jobs in a region where the tourism industry and tin mining have collapsed in the last
decades.

Police and the army have declined to identify suspects in the Jos bombings, and state
governor David Jang would only say "we believe some highly placed people
masterminded the attack." Authorities, though, already have blamed the radical Muslim
sect Boko Haram for the Christmas Eve church attacks.

The radical Muslim sect, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the
Hausa language, was thought to be vanquished in 2009. Nigeria's military crushed its
mosque into concrete shards, and its leader was arrested and died in police custody.

But now, a year later, Maiduguri and surrounding villages again live in fear of the
group, whose members have assassinated police and local leaders and engineered a
massive prison break, officials say. Western diplomats worry that the sect is catching
the attention of al-Qaida's North Africa branch. It remains unclear what, if any, formal
links al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has made with Boko Haram.
------------------
Boreh Eyes Djiboutian Presidency (Addis Fortune)

Abdourahman Boreh, Djibouti’s prominent businessman-cum-politician, announced his

candidacy for the top political position in the country, last week.

Although Boreh has been contemplating entering politics ever since he went into self-
exile in 2009, last week was his first official announcement of his intent to challenge
Ismael Omar Guelleh, his former ally, in the presidential election scheduled for April
2011.

It will be Djibouti’s third election since the country embraced a multiparty electoral
political system in the 1990s. A former chief of intelligence, the incumbent president
won the presidential race to first come to power, in April 1999. However, when he was
re-elected in 2005, it was unopposed.

Guelleh was meant to cede power at the end of his second term, for the constitution
limited the presidency to two terms.

“It is not in my nature to tear a constitution because it does not suit me,” Guelleh had
told Jeune Afrique, a French magazine specialising in African affairs, in 2007, about
why he was not interested in changing the constitutional provision to run for the
presidency for a third time.

Nonetheless, Djibouti’s Parliament voted in favour of changing this provision in March

2010, paving the way for the incumbent to run more than twice.
The electoral challenge comes from a man who was once Guelleh’s closest confidante.
Boreh had been the bankroller when the president first took power from Hassan Gouled
Aptidon, the founding leader of the nation after independence from France, in 1977.

As vice president of the Djiboutian Chamber of Commerce in the early 1990s, Boreh
gained prominence after the rise of his ally in this small nation of the Horn of Africa,
which also hosts the only US military base in Africa.

He was appointed chairman of Djibouti Ports and Free Ports Authority, and put in
charge of the nation’s prized asset which generates close to 70pc of its revenues from
transit services to Ethiopia. He has also been credited with persuading Dubai World to
invest hundreds of billions of dollars in developing both container and oil terminals at
the Port of Doraleh, and convincing Nakheel to open Kempinski Hotel, on the Red Sea.

Boreh’s eminence in Djibouti, where his family enjoys a place of honour in the nation’s
struggle for independence, diminished mid-2009, after falling out with the president’s
wife, and subsequently with the president himself. He left the country for France, where
he is a citizen. His previous declarations of interest to enter politics in exile have hardly
been taken seriously by pundits.

“He has always been looked upon as a successful businessman,” a close friend of Boreh
told Fortune. “Yet, it is very difficult for many even in the international community to
associate him with politics.”

Boreh now says he means business. Not only has he declared his candidacy for the
presidential election, but he also launched a website under the banner, “Reform
Program for Djibouti;” depicting the blue and green colours of the nation’s flag. The site
also incorporates a manifesto, wherein Boreh boldly declares his country is in “crisis
and decline.”

“Today there is no sense of national unity,” Boreh, a father of seven, writes on his
website. “The country is divided by tribe, which breeds mistrust. The middle class has
been decimated. Now there is only rich and poor, with the poor getting poorer.”

Nonetheless, this claim is in sharp contrast to what the IMF said about Djibouti’s
economy, which grew by 4.5pc in real GDP in 2010, while containing inflation to single
digits, at 3.9pc.

“Economic growth remains strong,” said the IMF mission in its latest statement,
released in November.

The IMF forecasts sound growth at 5.4pc in real GDP and an inflation rate of four per
cent for 2011.
Boreh highlights a deficit of 4.9pc of GDP in 2009 (against a targeted 1.8pc) and national
debt of 63pc of the GDP.

“Economic suicide is going on in Djibouti,” Boreh said during an exclusive interview

with Fortune on Friday, December 24, from his residence in London, where he claimed
the IMF has been pressured by the government to release a much more favourable
report last month than its grim assessment in July 2010.

The existence of Djibouti “as a viable nation-state” has been put at risk by the current
president; and the situation in Djibouti would also create a potential haven for
terrorists, “as it already is in banking terms,” he claims in his message posted on his
website. “Crisis and decline in Djibouti can be reversed. There is another way; another
vision.”

Reforms in economic policy, security, and overcoming poverty are platforms he said he
will use during his campaign.

“Sooner or later the people will want change,” Boreh said.

However, he will have to enter Djibouti in order for him and his supporters to
campaign; but, he will also face potential arrest to serve a 15-year sentence for tax
evasion and terrorism of which he was convicted in absentia in what he described as “a
10-minute political trial.”

“I am not afraid that I will be arrested,” Boreh told Fortune. “Given my unifying plan,
my steps to reduce tensions over the [military] bases, and my programme to improve
relations with neighbouring countries, I am confident that the current president will
have no choice but to allow a free and fair election.”

He is talking to the international community to put pressure on Djibouti’s government

in order for the electoral officials to accept his candidacy for the presidency, Boreh said.
He wants countries in the region to put pressure on the government to “ensure fair
play” in the election.

“I will continue to put pressure on them and lobby internationally,” said the Dire Dawa
born Boreh, who speaks seven languages, including Amharic and Oromiffa, of what he
will do if he is not accepted as a candidate.

Djibouti’s spokesperson, Ali Abdi Farah, who is also minister of Communications, was
not available for comment until press time on Saturday, December 25, 2010.
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Major cabinet reshuffle expected in Ghana before year end (Xinhua)
ACCRA - Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills would announced a major
reshuffle of his cabinet before the end of the year, a reliable source told Xinhua on
Monday.

Key government institutions including the Office of the Chief of Staff, the ministries of
justice, foreign affairs, energy, trade and industry, finance and economic planning and
youth and sports would be affected, said the source, who asked not to be identified.

President Mills wanted to make sure that the new team would pursue his promise that
the year 2011 would be "a year of action," the source disclosed.

The expected shake-up would be made in the context of attack by opposition New
Patriotic Party (NPP) on the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for its alleged
slow action towards social and economic development.

However, the ruling NDC rebuffed the allegation, saying through collaboration with
development partners including China, the Mills government had raised billions of U.
S. dollars in grants and concessionary loans for various developmental projects.

Empowered by the prospects of these huge sums, the president told the country that
actual construction of various projects would take place all over the country under the
"Better Ghana Agenda", a promise made by the NDC prior the national election
campaign in 2008.
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UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN peacekeeping chief arrives in Côte d'Ivoire, confers with president-elect

27 December – The head of the United Nations peacekeeping operations arrived in Côte
d'Ivoire today and met president-elect Alassane Ouattara, while stressing his
department's support for the UN mission in the West Africa country, which has
plunged into political uncertainty following the outgoing leader's refusal to stand down
after losing the election.