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US military in Africa faces uncertain year after Benghazi, sequestration
As US Africa Command (AFRICOM) prepares to transition from the leadership of General Carter Ham to that of General David Rodriguez, it faces some critical decisions on how to develop a more robust posture to conduct crisis response operations while also bracing itself for the impact of sequestration. This fundamental tension was apparent during General Ham's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) last week regarding the programs and budget needed to meet the command's current and future requirements. (Watch an archived webcast of the hearing here and read General Ham's prepared testimony.). CS Monitor
Kenya vote: how the west was wrong
[...] Last week Elkim Namlo, in the Kenyan paper The Daily Nation, wrote a piece satirising that kind of reportage. The first sentence in the aptly titled, "Foreign reporters armed and ready to attack Kenya," reads in part that the country is "braced at the crossroads...amidst growing concern that the demand for clichés is outstripping supply" and that "Analysts and observers [have] joined diplomats in dismissing fears that coverage of the forthcoming poll will be threatened by a shortage of clichés." That particular CNN footage certainly supplied the high demand of clichés and stereotypes. The Guardian
Washington faces Kenya dilemma
Kenya has elected a president accused of crimes against humanity by the ICC. The US now walks a tightrope in its relations with Nairobi, a key ally in the war against Islamist militants in Somalia. Deutsche Welle
Mali: UN reports serious escalation of retaliatory violence by government troops
The recent military intervention in northern Mali has been followed by a serious escalation of retaliatory violence by Government soldiers who appeared to be targeting members of various ethnic groups perceived to be supportive of the armed groups, a senior United Nations official warned today. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that members of the Peuhl, Tuareg and Arab ethnic groups were being targeted. UN
Mali media strike over editor Boukary Daou's arrest
Malian media outlets fell silent on Tuesday in protest at the recent arrest of The Republican newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Boukary Daou (pictured), who challenged the salary of the country's coup leader in an open letter. France 24
The remaking of Mali
The French intervention gathered support in its swift retaking of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in February, but several challenges remain. Both militarily and politically, Bamako is still shaky on its feet as it attempts to rebuild stability and democracy. Africa Report
Stabilising northern Mali: different approaches to peace operations
[...] In spite of the explanations provided by United Nations (UN) officials, who emphasised that MONUSCO's mandate is to protect civilians and not take part in fighting between warring parties, this situation generated an outcry both within and outside the country. Many failed to understand why the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the world, deployed under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, was not making use of its capabilities to stop the advancing rebels. ISS
Algeria dismantles Mali terror cell
Algerian security services on Saturday (March 9th) broke up an al-Qaeda terror cell in the town of Bordj Badji Mokthar along the Mali border, Echorouk reported. Seven people, including two Malians, were arrested for facilitating the infiltration of a number of terrorists who fled the war in northern Mali. An eighth suspect reportedly managed to flee to Mali. The Algerian security authorities and army forces stepped up their movements along the southern border in the last few weeks to prevent militants fleeing the battles in northern Mali from infiltrating into Algeria. These security measures have helped the authorities arrest a number of terrorists as they tried to cross into Algerian soil. Magharebia
Mali faces food crisis as refugees return
Tethered to the roof of a crowded bus in Gao's former "Sharia Square", suitcases and boxes carry what few belongings the Maiga family could take as they fled when the town was overrun by jihadists. Nine months later Bibata and her children are back, after northern Mali's largest city was liberated by a French-led intervention that drove the Islamist occupation out of the region's main cities and back into the vast desert. Khaleej Times
Mali: France Will Seek U.N. Force to Replace French-Led Coalition
France has told fellow United Nations Security Council members it intends to introduce a resolution this month that would authorize a peacekeeping force in Mali to replace the current contingents of African and French soldiers deployed in that country, diplomats said Tuesday. France, which has said publicly it wants to scale down its forces in Mali, plans to schedule a vote on such a resolution in April, with the goal of transferring peacekeeping responsibilities by July, the diplomats said. The New York Times
Insight - Islamist inroads in Mali may undo French war on al Qaeda
Residents who slipped into a non-descript mud-brick house after Islamist fighters fled Mali's desert town of Timbuktu uncovered a trove of arms, ammunition and documents - the workings of the local al Qaeda recruitment office. Reuters
Ambassador Rice at U.N. Security Council on Sudan, South Sudan
"Good morning, everyone, or is it afternoon already? It's just afternoon. We of course had a discussion today in the Council on Sudan and South Sudan. Members of the Council - and the United States among them - welcomed the recently signed agreements between South Sudan and Sudan in Addis Ababa, which we hope, if fully implemented, will begin the process long overdue of establishing a secure border demilitarized zone and a joint verification monitoring mechanism and get the other key elements of the September 27th agreements underway, including the resumption of the flow of oil, both of which are manifestly in the interests of each country." State.gov
Ethiopian major general named new commander of UN force for Abyei
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday named a major general from Ethiopia to head the UN mission and peacekeeping force for Abyei, a disputed oil-rich region which straddles the border between Sudan and South Sudan. "The secretary-general has appointed Major General Yohannes Gebremeskel Tesfamariam of Ethiopia as the head of mission and force commander of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA)," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing here. Global Times
Have U.S. relations with Somalia improved since stronger maritime security measures have decreased piracy?
The United States restored official relations with Somalia in January 2013 after years of civil unrest there, reflecting an increasingly stable Somali political environment. Better relations with Somalia, however, have little to do with the decrease in piracy, and the drop in offshore piracy cannot be attributed to Somali government efforts. Council on Foreign Relations
Western Ivory Coast Remains Vulnerable to Violence
A new report from the peacebuilding body Interpeace warns western Ivory Coast continues to be vulnerable to the type of violence that killed at least 1,000 people during the 2010-11 post-election conflict. The Interpeace report draws from more than 300 interviews and focuses on the western regions of Guemon and Cavally, which were home to the worst massacre of the post-election violence. The violence began after former President Laurent Gbagbo failed to admit defeat in the November 2010 presidential runoff vote, sparking six months of fighting the United Nations says claimed more than 3,000 lives. VOA
Is Ivory Coast zeal to prosecute former bad guys setting up war in West Africa?
[...] Over the last two months, Ghanaian authorities have pounced on three prominent former supporters of Mr. Gbagbo, including former youth leader Charles Blé Goudé, accused of running a deadly Ivory Coast youth militia. All three figures were extradited swiftly to Ivory Coast to face trial in a court presided over by the government of President Alasaane Ouattara, who replaced Gbagbo. "We think that Ouattara has people ready to go at any time to catch you and take you to Cote d'Ivoire," Evrard says, using the French name for the West African state. "We think that they know us. They know maybe where we live. We think we are not in security." CS Monitor
Liberia: Dismissals, Reshuffle in Government
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has begun her long awaited cabinet reshuffle here, dismissing one cabinet minister and several deputy ministers, while announcing a new Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Axel Addy. Minister Addy replaces Madam Miatta Beyslow, whose performance to the public has left much to be desired. Also appointed at the Commerce Ministry are Ms. Candace Eastman, Deputy Minister, Commerce and Industry, and Mr. Cyril Allen, II, Deputy Minister for Administration. The New Dawn
Al Qaeda chief's kin, other Salafis push for a puritanical Egypt
[...] Once at the edges of Egypt's political spectrum, puritanical Islamists known as Salafis have been emboldened by the nation's revolution. While the Muslim Brotherhood, now the nation's dominant political force, is monolithic and relatively moderate, Salafis include militants fighting for an Islamic caliphate in the Sinai peninsula as well as the Nour Party, which has spliced religion with shrewd political pragmatism. LA Times
Egypt blames media for plot to topple Morsi
As Egypt lurches from crisis to crisis, the country's media is proving unable to help find a way forward. Far from serving as forum for discussing differences and proposing solutions, analysts and officials said, the media has become a weapon in the war over Egypt's future, diminishing the possibility of reaching any political accommodation. Conspiracy-mongering about the media's role is rampant. Islamist-run newspapers and broadcasters, along with Muslim Brotherhood government officials, allege that secularist media moguls have put in motion a plot to topple the country's first democratically elected president. The National
Resentment as South Africa Speaks Business for Continent
There is growing resentment in Africa about the way in which South Africa professes to speak for the rest of the continent in its role as a member of key developing nation blocs, researchers and experts have warned. South Africa is a member of the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) developing nations grouping, as well as the fledgling Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) club. But international relations and trade consultant John Maré told IPS that South Africa might be walking "a political tightrope." IPS
Attacks on Albinos Surge in Tanzania
The United Nations is expressing alarm at a spate of recent attacks in Tanzania against people with albinism. The body parts of albinos - people who are born without skin pigmentation - are used by witchdoctors in ritual potions meant to bring power and wealth. Four such attacks took place in a 16-day period this year - three of them against children. Police in Tanzania say they are investigating the attacks, and also are appealing to the public to come forward with any information. The U.N. human rights agency called the latest attacks on albinos "abhorrent." It urged the Tanzanian government to do more to end the violence and discrimination against the group. VOA
My search for a smartphone that is not soaked in blood
[...] There are dozens of issues, such as starvation wages, bullying, abuse and 60-hour weeks in the sweatshops manufacturing them, the debt bondage into which some of the workers are pressed, the energy used, the hazardous waste produced. But I will concentrate on just one: are the components soaked in the blood of people from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo? For 17 years, rival armies and militias have been fighting over the region's minerals. Among them are metals critical to the manufacture of electronic gadgets, without which no smartphone would exist: tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold. The Guardian
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