United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

12 May 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Equipment offload kicks off Exercise African Lion '10 (Defence Web)
AFRICAN LION, a US Africa Command-sponsored exercise which commences May 15,
will include various types of military training to include a command post exercise,
intelligence capacity building, a field training exercise with live-fire, peace operations
training, aviation training, medical exchange training, as well as humanitarian civic
assistance programs.

U.S. Threatens Severe Consequences (New Democrat - Monrovia)

A United States official has warned of severe consequences if funds donated here are
not used for their intended purposes, noting that the U.S. would like to see a positive
impact on the lives of citizens in ensuring accountability and transparency.

Rwanda military court postpones Nkunda release hearing (AFP)

KIGALI, Rwanda – A military court in Rwanda Tuesday postponed the hearing of a
plea seeking the release of Laurent Nkunda, a former rebel chief in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, one of his lawyers said.

Telecom Firms Thrive in Somalia Despite War, Shattered Economy (Wall Street
Journal)
MOGADISHU, Somalia — The competition to supply phone service has stoked the
nascent revival of Somalia's shattered economy, and it shows that some complex
businesses can thrive even in one of Africa's least developed markets.

President for Life, and Then Some (New York Times)

With increasing frequency, leaders are scheming to modify the rules governing the
transfer of power with the aim of hanging on as long as possible, and in an increasingly
common twist, Africa’s presidents are positioning their children to assume the reins of
power after their demise.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Darfur blue helmets to take ‘robust’ defensive action if attacked, says UN-AU
envoy
Development targets top UN official’s talks with Tanzanian leader
UN Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow witnesses plight of Guinea’s children
DR Congo will eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission, President tells UN
UN agency urges bolstered protection for Somali refugees
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, May 14, 9:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: Responsive and Accountable Leadership for a Peaceful and
Prosperous Congo
WHO: Dr. George Alula – Macroeconomy, Movement of the Congolese Unity, UNIC; Engineer
Agnes Dimandja – Mining, Former Minister of Public Works, Urban and Housing; Dr. Patience
Kabamba – Microeconomy, Emory University; Dr. Malonga Miatudila - Foreign Aid, Retired
World Bank Senior Health Specialist; Professor Kitenge N'Gambwa – Education, Montgomery
College; Dr. Raymond Gilpin, Moderator, U.S. Institute of Peace; Ms. Nita Evele - Peace,
Justice & Security, Congo Global Action; Mr. Victor Ilunga – Leadership, Stable and Prosperous
Democratic Republic of Congo Foundation; Mr. Jacques Muzusangabo – Elections, Solidarity
International Foundation, Inc., Dr. Stephan Tubene - Good Governance, University of Maryland,
Eastern Shore
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/responsive-and-accountable-leadership-peaceful-and-
prosperous-congo

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, June 2, 9:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: Threats to Maritime Security
WHO: Donna Hopkins, Director, Office of Plans, Policy and Analysis, Bureau of Political
Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Bruce A. Averill, Ph.D., Founder and Senior Partner,
Strategic Energy Security Solutions; Michael Berkow, President, Altegrity Security Consulting;
Robert M. Perito, Moderator, Director, Initiative on Security Sector Governance, U.S. Institute
of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/threats-maritime-security
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Equipment offload kicks off Exercise African Lion '10 (Defence Web)

Under a blazing North African sun, US Marines and soldiers worked to offload 276
vehicles and pieces of equipment from the USS Arc in preparation for AFRICAN LION
2010 in Agadir, Morocco.

AFRICAN LION, a US Africa Command-sponsored exercise which commences May 15,

will include various types of military training to include a command post exercise,
intelligence capacity building, a field training exercise with live-fire, peace operations
training, aviation training, medical exchange training, as well as humanitarian civic
assistance programs.

"We've got a little bit of every [type of gear]," said Warrant Officer One Richard Charest,
a mobility officer with Marine Wing Support Squadron 273.

Heavy construction equipment, Humvees and eight M-1A1 tanks were among the gear
included in the offload. The bulk of the gear will be used for exercise-related
construction, Charest said, while the rest will be used for transportation and military-to-
military exchanges.

"Our Marines are looking forward to the chance to operate in their military
occupational specialties," he added. "They'll be working to set up a field mess, field
showers and GP medium tents."

Because the exercise, coordinated by US Marine Forces Africa, is sourced mainly by

personnel from US Marine Forces Reserve and US Army and Air National Guard units,
it offers valuable real-life experience to reserve personnel, according to Charest.

"My main goal here is to offload the ship in an organized manner and to act as a safety
officer," said Lance Cpl. Ryan Moszcienski, a landing support specialist with 2nd
Landing Support Platoon, 4th Landing Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group.
"We're working to track the gear as it comes off [the ship], stage it, and ensure it is
accessible to each unit."

Experience and prioritization are the keys to a safe, swift offload, according to Gunnery
Sergeant Steven Gagnon, logistics chief with 2nd LSP, 4th LSB, 4th MLG.

"We have 10 Marines who have been here before, and some Marines who are coming
straight from school," Gagnon said of his team of 33 Marines. "The senior Marines have
been looking forward to the chance to teach; the junior Marines have a large learning
curve."

In addition to the offload, Gagnon's team is responsible for staging the gear and
providing security for it until the main body arrives to claim it, he said.

The offload did not occur without its challenges. A runaway forklift, flat tires on
offloading vehicles belonging to the port, and empty fuel tanks on the Marine's gear
were just some of the snags, Gagnon said. Shipping requirements call for vehicles to be
run with low fuel; a faulty gauge can result in a vehicle arriving in port without enough
fuel to drive it off the ship.
"You can plan all you want," he said, "and have the plan incorporated into your
mission, but you're always going to have change. You just have to work around it to get
the mission accomplished."

Elements of the 1175th Transportation Company from the Tennessee Army National
Guard were also on hand to assist with the offload.

Marines from 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division will conduct a command post
exercise, and various service members from the 4th Marine Division will conduct bi-
lateral training at the unit level, weapons qualification training and peace operations
training with units from the Royal Moroccan armed forces. Marines from the Marine
Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234, Marine Aircraft Group 41, and instructors
from the Army 11th Tactical Air Command will conduct aerial refuelling, low-level
flight training and provide classes on helicopter operations with their counterparts in
the Royal Moroccan air force.

Concurrent with the exercise, US military professionals from the Utah Air National
Guard will provide medical, dental and veterinarian humanitarian assistance to local
residents in and around the community of Taroudant.

AFRICAN LION 2010 is an annually scheduled, joint, combined US-Moroccan exercise.

It brings together nearly 1000 US service members from 16 locations throughout Europe
and North America with more than 1000 members of the Moroccan military. It is the
largest exercise within the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) area of responsibility, and
is designed to promote interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation's
military tactics, techniques and procedures. The exercise is scheduled to end on or
around June 9. All US forces will return to their home bases in the United States and
Europe at the conclusion of the exercise.
--------------------
U.S. Threatens Severe Consequences (New Democrat - Monrovia)

A United States official has warned of severe consequences if funds donated here are
not used for their intended purposes, noting that the U.S. would like to see a positive
impact on the lives of citizens in ensuring accountability and transparency.

"...There will be severe consequences if funds donated here are not used for their
intended purposes, " said Ms. Pamela White, USAID Country Representative.

The U.S. official's warning came in the wake of massive reports about "corruption" and
the "misappropriation" of funds granted by donors including the U.S. government for
the post war recovery and development of Liberia. Speaking Wednesday at the USAID
office at the U.S. Embassy during a round table conference with journalists, Ms. White
announced a US$6.6 million grant to Liberia, adding that the fund is intended to
address some of the constraints in the health and educational sectors of the country. She
explained that the fund was from the supplementary budget of the United States
government put aside to assist developing countries like Liberia.

The USAID Country Representative also revealed that Washington has for the past
years shunned a direct budgetary support to Liberia due to what she termed "lack of
specifics" in the utilization of US-donated funds.

Meanwhile, she said if Liberia proved well in the utilization of funds donated by the
U.S. government, "we will do all to ensure successful implmentation of policies"
undertaken by the Liberian government, adding; "we will look for other ways of
working with the government for the government itself to improve on its development
activities."
--------------------
Rwanda military court postpones Nkunda release hearing (AFP)

KIGALI, Rwanda – A military court in Rwanda Tuesday postponed the hearing of a

plea seeking the release of Laurent Nkunda, a former rebel chief in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, one of his lawyers said.

"The court pushed the date back to June 11 to leave time to find an interpreter to
facilitate the hearing," Aime Bokanga told AFP.

Nkunda's other defence counsel, the Canadian lawyer Stephan Bourgon, does not
understand the local Kinyarwanda language that the military court has chosen for the
proceedings, Bokanga explained.

Nkunda has been held since January 2009.

His lawyers say General James Kabarebe, the former Rwandan army chief of staff who
was appointed defence minister last month, is responsible for the "arrest and illegal
detention" of their client.

In late March Rwanda's supreme court ruled that given Kabarebe's military status it
was not competent to hear the plea.

Nkunda was arrested in Gisenyi on January 22, 2009, when he was head of the rebel
National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) movement, according to
people close to him.

In October 2008, Nkunda's men routed the DR Congolese army in Nord-Kivu province
and threatened to take the strategic provincial capital, Goma, near the border with
Rwanda.
But after a shift in alliances, the Congolese and Rwandan armies in January 2009
launched an unprecedented joint operation targeting Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern
DR Congo which also resulted in Nkunda's arrest.
--------------------
Telecom Firms Thrive in Somalia Despite War, Shattered Economy (Wall Street
Journal)

MOGADISHU, Somalia—Banks barely existed in this war-torn African nation a decade

ago. Now, Somali residents can bank over their mobile phones.

The rapid evolution of technology in Somalia—and people's access to it—comes as

several telecommunications companies here jockey for customers amid the absence of
any government-regulated phone or Internet access. The competition to supply phone
service has stoked the nascent revival of Somalia's shattered economy, and it shows that
some complex businesses can thrive even in one of Africa's least developed markets.

Backed by expertise from China, Korea and Europe—and funded from their own
pockets—Somali telecom entrepreneurs are providing inexpensive mobile-phone
services. Users can conduct money transfers via mobile phones and gain Internet access,
both wireless functions that aren't widely available in many other parts of Africa.

The success of Somalia's telecom sector isn't all that unusual for a war-shattered
economy, experts say. In countries with shaky economic foundations, such as
Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, telecommunications companies
have stepped in to provide missing infrastructure.

In these environments, "the first ones who put in electricity generators in rural areas are
the telecom operators," says Svet Tintchev, a World Bank expert on the telecom industry
in developing countries. "In a way, their leverage goes beyond pure telecom service."

In Somalia, the telecom companies haven't competed only for customers. They have
also cooperated with each other to maintain their networks and set prices to ensure that
competition doesn't become too cutthroat.

One of the largest, Hormuud Telecom Inc., has sales of about $40 million a year,
substantial in a country where an estimated 70% of the population lives on less than $2
a day. Hormuud declined to disclose its profit.

Hormuud's chief executive, Ahmed Mohamed Yusuf, started his business selling bread,
spaghetti, sweets and other groceries. He later opened a popular supermarket.
But like his competitors, Mr. Yusuf saw huge gaps in the telecom sector. "Everyone
wants to get in touch with his brother or sister, whether inside or outside the country, to
hear the latest news" amid rising violence, says the 50-year-old CEO.

In 2002, he pooled money with friends and launched Hormuud, a cellphone and land-
line telecommunications company. It would later expand to include a bank and a
mobile money-transfer service, which Somalis now use to avoid being robbed in this
cash-based economy.

The World Bank's Mr. Tintchev says the sector has become among the country's biggest
revenue generators, and the service it provides has helped revive the economy. "They
became the economic enablers in Somalia," he says.

Four main telecommunications companies now operate in the country.

The first private telecommunications company to open in Somalia was Telecom Somalia
in 1994, a Hormuud rival that offers a range of wireless services. NationLnk Telecom
also offers land-line and mobile services, but it hasn't expanded into more advanced
services, such as Internet access. Despite their rivalry, the three companies signed an
interconnectivity deal in 2005 that allows them to set prices and expand their network
access. The cheapest mobile-phone service provider, called Somafone
Telecommunications Service Co., is a tiny upstart that operates outside the alliance.

The investment in telecom businesses is one of the clearest signs that Somalia's
economy has continued to grow amid the ruins of war. Few reliable figures exist for the
overall economy. The United Nations estimates that in 2007 the East African nation's
economy expanded 2.7%. Per-capita GDP, at $291 a year, remains among the lowest on
the poverty-stricken continent.

Since its last strong federal government fell in 1991, Somalia has been beset by warring
clans and militias. The 1991 violence destroyed every phone line in the country,
according to a World Bank assessment, forcing people to communicate by military
radios, if at all.

To navigate Somalia's tangled web of clan alliances, Hormuud sells shares to all
interested parties. In this way, the connection to Hormuud cuts across the country's
warring groups, leading Somalis from nearly every clan to feel vested in the company,
says Mr. Yusuf, who often surfs satellite news channels in his Mogadishu office.

Operating in Somalia remains hazardous. Mr. Yusuf says he is reluctant to invest in the
very latest technology because Hormuud's land lines, painstakingly laid down, have
been blasted by mortars in the past two years during heightened violence.
Last year, a mortar shell crashed into the gate of the company's headquarters in the
main Bakara market in Mogadishu, killing one employee and wounding another. Asked
who might have fired the mortar or whether he thinks it was meant to hit the company,
Mr. Yusuf shrugs, indicating there are simply too many explosions to tell them apart.

In some Somali villages, Hormuud no longer offers service because all the people have
fled the militant groups. The most formidable force in Mogadishu is al Shabaab, a
violent group linked to Al Qaeda that has banned beards, school bells and tractors
because, it says, they violate Islamic law.

Al Shabaab has also punished telecom operators, threatening employees who sell
scratch cards for cellphone use and demanding "taxes" from any companies that operate
in their territory.

But Hormuud has also profited in this war economy. Calls—and revenue—go up when
fighting erupts and people need a way to get in touch with friends and relatives. In
militant-controlled areas, young men and women are banned from socializing, so they
tend to stay home and send text messages to each other instead. The militants use
Hormuud's service too, relying on the company's mobile-phone network to coordinate
attacks and call for reinforcements.

The new Somali government, installed last year, has begun to try to tax the lucrative
telecom businesses. Government officials grumble that some companies aren't
contributing their share, but Mr. Yusuf says that businessmen like him will pay
whoever happens to be in power.
--------------------
President for Life, and Then Some (New York Times)

In the months before his death in 1993 at the age of 88 (or, as widely rumored, as old as
100) and after 33 years in power, the president of Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny,
fondly repeated a formula he had once announced publicly to the nation.

―A king of the Baoulé has no right to know the identity of his successor,‖ he is reported
to have said.

Mr. Houphouët-Boigny may have belonged to royal lineage, but critics said he seemed
to be forgetting that the Baoulé were only one of Ivory Coast’s 50 or so ethnic groups,
and that he was the president of a would-be modern country. Few were fooled about
the old leader’s real intention to rule as president for life, come what may in his
aftermath. And the aftermath in Ivory Coast has indeed been grim.

West Africa’s most prosperous country has been ripped apart by a civil war whose
roots trace directly back to the contested circumstances of his succession, and the old
regime has been replaced by a predatory authoritarianism under new leaders
determined to hang on at all costs.

If discouraging African plotlines like these were limited to Ivory Coast, few would
dwell on these circumstances nearly two decades later.

Unfortunately, the muddled and forestalled succession story of Ivory Coast has become
a prevalent narrative across much of the continent, symptomatic of what political
analysts increasingly regard as a kind of African disease.

With increasing frequency, leaders are scheming to modify the rules governing the
transfer of power with the aim of hanging on as long as possible, and in an increasingly
common twist, Africa’s presidents are positioning their children to assume the reins of
power after their demise.

The latest African country to be visited by this leadership crisis is Nigeria, Africa’s most
populous nation by a big margin, and one of the world’s 10 largest oil exporters.
Nigeria walked a tightrope for the last six months as its elected president, Umaru
Yar’Adua, who finally died last week, disappeared from public view, while being
treated for a number of serious ailments. During most of that time, he was hospitalized
in Saudi Arabia and silent, save for a few words weakly uttered into the microphones of
the BBC, in a bid to quell rumors that he had died or was comatose.

Ostensibly aimed at reassuring the public, Mr. Yar’Adua’s whispered mini-interview

did nothing of the sort. By that point, Nigerians and foreign diplomats alike were
worried about the maneuverings not of the president but of his handlers, who seemed
mostly determined to prevent the constitutional transfer of power to the vice president,
Goodluck Jonathan, who persevered for several months as an acting head of state, but
one with sharply limited powers, and a cabinet, bureaucracy and possibly even security
forces reluctant to accept his leadership.

These were vulnerable times for Nigeria. What was most dangerous about this stretch
was not the mere fact of a power vacuum, though. As with Ivory Coast, forestalled and
unresolved successions often invite ethnic polarization and heightened competition
along other identity lines, from geographic to religious to linguistic.

The Nigerian presidency has recently rotated between northerners (who are
predominantly Muslim) and southerners (who are often Christian). In this instance, in
Nigeria, that meant northern elites grumbling about the loss of their ―turn‖ at the
presidency with the disappearance before the end of his term of Mr. Yar’Adua, a
northerner, and his replacement by Mr. Jonathan, a southerner.
Nigerians have, of course, been down this road before. Their civil conflict, the Biafran
War, fought between 1967 and 1970, is one of the worst episodes of violent identity
politics in post-independence Africa.

―The pathology here is the failure of elites to transfer their loyalty from their precolonial
identities to the postcolonial state,‖ said Makau W. Mutua, the dean of the University at
Buffalo Law School. ―Instead of a tool for governance, the office of the president
becomes a tool for domination, in which the resources of the nation are husbanded for
the benefit of a family, a clan or an ethnic group.‖

Although war is the most spectacularly costly consequence of fudged presidential

transitions in Africa, it is far from alone in stunting the continent’s development. More
common than civil war, and yet quietly devastating, due to its atrophy of the state,
sycophancy and corruption, is the effective presidency-for-life.

Although few have openly proclaimed it since the days of Idi Amin in Uganda, it has
become the virtual quest of so many African heads of state that it ranks today as a near
standard.

Between 2005 and 2009, the presidents of three African countries, Togo, Guinea and
Gabon, died in office, after a cumulative 104 years in power; two of these leaders, Omar
Bongo of Gabon (42 years) and Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo (38 years), were
succeeded by their sons. Political analysts say that similar scenarios could unfold in
countries as diverse as Egypt, Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso, where long-
ruling African leaders appear to be grooming their children to follow them.

―What we’re seeing is what happens in places where the only way to get rich or to stay
rich is through political power,‖ said Patrick Keenan, a scholar at the University of
Illinois College of Law. ―This is not about resource wealth alone, but wealth in general.
The people in these regimes hang on for dear life.‖
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Darfur blue helmets to take ‘robust’ defensive action if attacked, says UN-AU envoy
11 May – The head of the joint African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur said
today that peacekeepers there will be more robust when defending themselves from
attacks, while recognizing that the primary responsibility for protecting staff lay with
the Sudanese Government.

Development targets top UN official’s talks with Tanzanian leader

11 May – Progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was
the focus of talks today between Tanzania’s leader and a senior United Nations official,
who praised the East African nation for the strides it has made in boosting primary
school enrolment.

UN Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow witnesses plight of Guinea’s children

11 May – Touring a maternity ward in Guinea where three newborns fight for their
lives in one incubator and a school where four pupils crowd onto a bench meant for
two, acclaimed actress and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill
Ambassador Mia Farrow has appealed for greater investment in youngsters.

DR Congo will eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission, President tells UN

11 May – President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has
assured top United Nations officials of his resolve to promote the emergence an AIDS-
free generation, ensure safer motherhood and eliminate mother-to-child transmission of
HIV in his own country and beyond.

UN agency urges bolstered protection for Somali refugees

11 May – The United Nations refugee agency issued new guidelines today, calling on
governments to enhance their protection of people escaping the ―unfolding
international tragedy‖ in Somalia.