United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

18 May 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

GAO: Force needs cultural training (Stars and Stripes)

(Horn of Africa) Troops with the Combined Joint Task Force—Horn of Africa need
better cultural training to avoid making mistakes that have the potential of alienating
the people whose support they aim to win, according to a Government Accountability
Office report released on Friday.

Utah National Guard joins African Lion exercise in Morocco (MorrocoBoard.com)

(Morocco) More than 150 members of the joint task force conducting Exercise African
Lion 2010 arrived here to mark the beginning of the exercise May 14.

U.S. Embassy Regrets ACC Boss' Resignation (Concord Times)

(Sierra Leone) The United States Embassy in Freetown has lauded the efforts of the
former Anti-Corruption Commission boss at combating corruption in Sierra Leone but
registered its regrets that Mr. Abdul Tejan-Cole had quit the position.

MONUC mandate in DR Congo to be renewed (Xinhua)

(Democratic Republic of Congo) The mandate of the UN mission in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DR Congo) will be renewed by the end of May, local press reported
on Sunday.

Central African villagers kill Ugandan rebels (AFP)

(Central African Republic) Villagers at Guerekindo in eastern Central African Republic
killed two Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army in a self-defence initiative, the
Red Cross at nearby M'boki town reported Monday.

Niger Delta militant backs Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan (BBC)

(Nigeria) A former Niger Delta militant has said Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan
is the best person to solve the crisis in the oil-producing region.

For Rwandan Students, Ethnic Tensions Lurk (New York Times)

(Rwanda) Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide, ethnicity remains an inescapable
part of growing up for the young people who will determine the nation’s future. And if
the universities, where the government has focused its efforts on building a post-ethnic
society, represent the great hope of coexistence, they have so far succeeded only in
burying ethnic tensions just beneath the surface.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
Back from DR Congo, Security Council set to review mandate of UN force
Somalia: UN supports President’s efforts to form new cabinet
UN forum focuses on how to better meet humanitarian needs in Darfur
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, May 19, 10:00 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: Displacement, Violence and Peace in the Democratic Republic
of Congo
WHO: Mohamed Boukry, Regional Representative for DRC, United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees; Elisabeth Roesch, Gender-Based Violence Advocacy Officer,
International Rescue Committee; Mvemba Dizolele, Peter J. Duignan Distinguished Visiting
Fellow 2009-2012, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University;
Dorina Bekoe, Senior Research Associate, U.S. Institute of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/displacement-violence-and-peace-in-the-democratic-republic-
congo

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, May 25, 8:30 a.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Council on Foreign Relations: A Conversation with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
WHO: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President, Republic of Liberia
Info: http://www.cfr.org/

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, May 26, 2:00 p.m.; Washington, D.C.

WHAT: U.S. Institute of Peace: The Nigerian Predicament: Strategies for Advancing Growth,
Governance and Security
WHO: Richard Joseph, Professor, Northwestern University; Oka Obono, Senior Lecturer,
University of Ibadan; Layi Erinosho, President, African Sociological Association; Dorina Bekoe,
Moderator, Senior Research Associate, U.S. Institute of Peace
Info: http://www.usip.org/events/the-nigerian-predicament-strategies-advancing-growth-
governance-and-security

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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

GAO: Force needs cultural training (Stars and Stripes)

STUTTGART, Germany — Troops with the Combined Joint Task Force—Horn of Africa
need better cultural training to avoid making mistakes that have the potential of
alienating the people whose support they aim to win, according to a Government
Accountability Office report released on Friday.

Furthermore, the task force needs a more reliable funding system if the Defense
Department wants to maintain U.S. Africa Command’s largest operational mission on
the continent, the report says.

The GAO said that while activities such as counterpiracy initiatives and training of
African peacekeeping troops support U.S. foreign policy objectives, civil affairs and
humanitarian projects are sometimes ill-conceived.

"The [U.S.] embassy officials cited a past example where CJTF-HOA had proposed
drilling a well without considering how its placement could cause conflict in clan
relationships or affect pastoral routes," the GAO stated.

The report also cited a proposal for a one-day veterinary vaccination event that could
have harmed the livestock by having them travel when they were weakened from a
recent drought.

"We found that some of CJTF-HOA personnel’s lack of skills in the above issues may be
caused or exacerbated by limited training and guidance and further compounded by
the task force’s short tour lengths, which impose a steep learning curve," the GAO
reported.

AFRICOM says the task force is also "generally not setting specific, achievable, and
measurable goals for its activities that tie to specific missions or desired effects," the
GAO stated.

The task force’s long-term sustainability is now being called into question because the
Defense Department and AFRICOM have not developed methods to fund the task force
over the long term.

Instead, the task force continues to depend on unreliable overseas contingency

appropriations, the GAO reported.
Along with the funding uncertainties, insufficient follow-up on the task force’s many
activities in the 18 nations under its umbrella make it unclear if all CJTF-HOA’s
programs support U.S. Africa Command’s overall mission of security engagement.

"Until AFRICOM takes steps to examine feasible long-term funding options and
develops a solution to increase the effectiveness and continuity of efforts among CJTF-
HOA’s frequently-rotating staff, the command cannot ensure that its task force is
supporting U.S. efforts in Africa with the appropriate resources and trained personnel,"
the GAO stated.

AFRICOM is evaluating the task force but has made no decisions on its future,
according to the GAO. The results of AFRICOM’s review are pending and were not
included in the GAO analysis.

AFRICOM commander Gen. William "Kip" Ward is satisfied with the task force’s
current structure, the Defense Department said in a response to the report.

If the DOD decides to continue with the task force, the GAO recommended that
AFRICOM:

Conduct long-term assessments of its activities to determine whether they’re having

their intended impact and support AFRICOM’s mission.
Predict the costs of the task force’s mission and develop a realistic funding plan for the
task force’s sustainability.
Ensure that CJTF-HOA budget personnel have the expertise to make timely and
accurate funding decisions for activities. These actions could include some combination
of training and staffing changes.
Develop a mandatory training program that enhances the task force’s cultural
awareness of countries in the Horn of Africa. Steps should be taken to ensure
knowledge is institutionalized among CJTF-HOA personnel, promoting continuity as
personnel rotate frequently into and out of Camp Lemonnier.
Combined Joint Task Force- Horn of Africa includes about 1,650 personnel and
represents 52 percent of the personnel at Camp Lemonnier, which also hosts other U.S.
and international units. The U.S. Navy funds the majority of CJTF-HOA’s $80 million
budget.
--------------------
Utah National Guard joins African Lion exercise in Morocco (MorrocoBoard.com)

AGADIR, Morocco - More than 150 members of the joint task force conducting Exercise
African Lion 2010 arrived here to mark the beginning of the exercise May 14.

The Utah National Guard alog with Marines, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen will
participate in the largest exercise in U.S. Africa Command's area of activity.
"I know I have the best [service members] of what each unit can offer," said Col.
Anthony Fernandez III, the Combined Joint Task Force commander for the exercise,
while addressing the members of the task force. "This is a complicated exercise, and it is
a large exercise; I know we're going to be successful."

Exercise African Lion, a U.S. Africa Command-sponsored exercise, will include various
types of military training including command post, live-fire training, peacekeeping
operations, disaster response training, intelligence capacity building seminar, aerial
refueling/low-level flight training as well as a medical, dental, and veterinarian
assistance projects and exercise related construction to run concurrent with the training.

Various units from the Marine Corps Forces Africa and Marine Corps Forces Reserve
along with the Tennessee Army National Guard and Naval Forces Africa will conduct
bi-lateral training, weapons qualification training and peacekeeping operations training
with units from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.

Marines and aircraft from the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234 and 11th
Tactical Aviation Command will conduct various ground courses as well as aerial
refueling and low-level flight training with their counterparts in the Royal Moroccan
Air Force.

Concurrent with the exercise, U.S. military professionals from the Utah Army and Air
National Guard, which is joined with Morocco in the National Guard's State
Partnership Program, will provide medical, dental and veterinarian assistance to the
local residents in and around the community of Taroudant.

The exercise is an annually scheduled, joint, combined U.S.-Moroccan exercise. It brings

together nearly 1,000 U.S. service members from 16 locations throughout Europe and
North America with more than 1,000 members of the Moroccan military.

African Lion 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 U.S. forces will return to their
home bases in the United States and Europe at the conclusion of the exercise.

The last African Lion exercise occurred in May 2009 and involved about 1,400 Moroccan
and U.S. military personnel.
--------------------
U.S. Embassy Regrets ACC Boss' Resignation (Concord Times)
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The United States Embassy in Freetown has lauded the
efforts of the former Anti-Corruption Commission boss at combating corruption in
Sierra Leone but registered its regrets that Mr. Abdul Tejan-Cole had quit the position.

A statement released by the embassy yesterday referred to Tejan-Cole's stance on graft

as "truly exceptional", thus congratulating him "for his outstanding contributions to the
wellbeing of Sierra Leone".

"As we look to the future, the United States Embassy strongly encourages the Anti-
Corruption Commission to persevere through its change in leadership, and to remain
committed to Mr. Tejan-Cole's legacy. We are confident the government of Sierra Leone
is committed to selecting a new Commissioner who demonstrates the same level of
integrity, dedication, and professionalism exemplified by Mr. Tejan-Cole," the embassy
stated.

It observed that the battle against corruption in Sierra Leone was nothing less than a
battle for stability--economic, democratic, and political--and that the US embassy
looked forward to working with the next ACC commissioner "to follow Tejan-Cole's
example to fight tirelessly in the face of tremendous challenges, for the good of the
nation".
--------------------
MONUC mandate in DR Congo to be renewed (Xinhua)

KINSHASA, DR Congo -- The mandate of the UN mission in the Democratic Republic

of Congo (DR Congo) will be renewed by the end of May, local press reported on
Sunday.

Gerard Araud, head of a UN delegation, told reporters that the decision was made after
discussions with the authorities and members of the civil society, as well as
representatives of both local and international organizations on the security situation in
DR Congo.

"MONUC will not stay in DR Congo forever. It will be withdrawn when the situation
has become stable. At the moment, the security situation in DR Congo remains fragile
and therefore there is need to keep MONUC on the Congolese territory," Araud
declared.

He pointed out that the departure of the UN mission MONUC needs to be done
gradually in a peaceful environment.

"We are not talking about artificial time frames. We are acting according to the reality
on the ground," he noted.
The MONUC chief praised the productive discussions with the Congolese authorities as
well as the civil society.

"The objective of our visit to DR Congo is to hold dialogue with the Congolese
authorities, the civil society, the population and Congolese and foreign humanitarian
agencies on the future of MONUC in DR Congo. And according to these discussions, it
is clear that the situation remains fragile in DR Congo, even though we know efforts are
being undertaken by the Congolese authorities in collaboration with MONUC to bring
about peace. As a result, the withdrawal of MONUC needs to be done after appropriate
analysis of how the situation develops on the ground," Araud said.

The UN Security Council delegation arrived in Kinshasa on Friday with an aim of

holding discussions with different actors in the socio-economic and political life in DR
Congo.
--------------------
Central African villagers kill Ugandan rebels (AFP)

BANGUI, CAR – Villagers at Guerekindo in eastern Central African Republic killed two
Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army in a self-defence initiative, the Red Cross
at nearby M'boki town reported Monday.

"The LRA men launched an attack at around 4:00 pm (on Friday) when most of the
inhabitants were returning to the village from their work in the fields. Alerted by those
who fled, men armed themselves with knives, bows and arrows, machetes and locally
made guns to organise a riposte," the Red Cross said.

"During the fighting that followed, two members of the rebel group were killed and
others were injured. The remainder took to their heels, vowing to come back to take
their revenge," the Red Cross added.

Faced with repeated LRA attacks, the local authorities in March urged the local
population to set up self-defence groups to protect the villages. The CAR government
had already given the Ugandan army a green light in June 2009 to pursue the LRA on
its territory.

The LRA took up arms against the government in northern Uganda in 1988 but in
recent years has moved into remote areas of nearby countries after coming under
pressure from the Ugandan army.

LRA rebels have killed more than 200 people in the eastern CAR since 2008, according
to a local residents' association.
The rebels have been particularly active in the sector between M'boki and Zemio on the
border with the Democratic Republic of Congo since February 2010. In the last week of
March, three rebel attacks left 26 dead, including 11 civilians, according to a Central
African military source.
--------------------
Niger Delta militant backs Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan (BBC)

NIGER DELTA, Nigeria - A former Niger Delta militant has said Nigeria's President
Goodluck Jonathan is the best person to solve the crisis in the oil-producing region.

Victor Ebokawe, also known as General Boyloaf, told the BBC that, because President
Jonathan is from the region, he understands its problems.

Mr Ebokawe also said that Mr Jonathan should contest next year's elections.

Militants have carried out attacks which have cost Nigeria millions in lost oil revenue
over the years.

Last year, thousands of militants laid down their arms in return for promises of training
and jobs.

But this programme showed signs of started to unravel during the power vacuum while
former President Umaru Yar'Adua was sick.

He died earlier this month and Mr Jonathan was sworn in as president to replace him.

On Friday, President Jonathan visited the Niger Delta and said coordination of the
amnesty should be improved.

Mr Ebokawe, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta who
said he has spoken to Mr Jonathan, believes the Niger Delta's leaders will be patient
with the president as he tries to implement the amnesty.

Mr Jonathan has not said whether he wants to contest next year's polls and the
governing People's Democratic Party (PDP) has said its candidate will be from the
north, not a southerner like him.

"Nothing is going to stop him. He cannot tell us that he will not run," Mr Ebokawe told
the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"The presidency of Nigeria is not the birth right of a particular region," he said.

"[Mr Jonathan] is a man who is ready to rule Nigeria as one Nigeria."

The militants say they are campaigning for more of Nigeria's oil wealth to be used to
benefit local people but analysts say many attacks and kidnappings of oil workers are
carried out by criminals trying to extract ransom payments.
--------------------
For Rwandan Students, Ethnic Tensions Lurk (New York Times)

BUTARE, Rwanda — When Eva Mutoni’s boyfriend of three years broke up with her,
she realized she should have seen it coming.

Ms. Mutoni, 25, whose mother is ethnic Tutsi and whose father is Hutu, and her
boyfriend, a full-blooded Tutsi, were college sweethearts at the National University of
Rwanda in Butare.

―A year into the relationship, we had a big talk about me being mixed,‖ she said. They
weathered that discussion, aided by the fact that Ms. Mutoni identifies herself as Tutsi.
But as they got older, she recalls, his family and some of his friends refused to accept his
dating someone of mixed parentage.

―He knew he couldn’t stay with me forever in Rwanda,‖ she said. ―To some, I’m just a
Hutu girl.‖

Sixteen years after the Rwandan genocide, ethnicity remains an inescapable part of
growing up for the young people who will determine the nation’s future. And if the
universities, where the government has focused its efforts on building a post-ethnic
society, represent the great hope of coexistence, they have so far succeeded only in
burying ethnic tensions just beneath the surface.

As presidential elections approach and the nation has grown more repressive, the
campuses have become tense. Students say that they are being watched, and that the
laws aimed at suppressing ethnic differences have made them afraid to speak openly.

In many ways, college life in Rwanda is no different than it is anywhere else. In

hallways and dorm rooms at the elite campus at Butare, the country’s future leaders
cope with hormones and final exams, peer pressure and parents. But there is an added
element that tends to define all others, what students euphemistically call ― the
situation.‖

The 1994 genocide, when Hutu death squads massacred hundreds of thousands of
minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, is never far away. At the university, where Hutus
and Tutsis live and study side by side, many students are either relatives of the killers
or relatives of the victims.
But the Tutsi-dominated government teaches that there are no Hutus or Tutsis, only
united, patriotic Rwandans, part of a reconciliation policy enforced by laws
criminalizing certain kinds of speech to the contrary.

So the students live in a surreal state of imposed silence, never talking about the one
thing always on their minds: each other.

In one way, Feliciano Nshiyimana, a 26-year-old Hutu law student, is a paradigm of

President Paul Kagame’s reconciliation efforts. At the crowded and competitive
campus, where students sleep four to a room, two to a bed, he shares a bed with a Tutsi
genocide survivor. Listening to MP3s on his laptop in his room, surrounded by
toiletries, course printouts and posters of the Manchester United soccer team, he says
that conversations among his roommates are delicate, but that they generally get along.

―Background is losing importance,‖ he said, but added, ―If you have an ideology, you
hide it.‖

While students make acquaintances based on their interests, he says, campus life
ultimately divides itself along linguistic lines, and friendships across those lines are
rare.

―Linguistic lines,‖ in this case, is code for the ethnic groups that dare not speak their
names. Although the linguistic differences are not cut and dried, for students ―French
speakers‖ means Hutu and ―English speakers‖ means Tutsi, specifically those who
returned from refugee life in English-speaking Uganda after 1994 and now run the
country.

Such code has evolved in the face of the governing party’s efforts to keep peace and
power by papering over ethnic identity and pushing a cult of nationalism.

The indoctrination starts before college at ingando, the solidarity camps most students
attend after high school. Among other activities, the campers learn that any problems
between Hutus and Tutsis were started by the Belgian colonists, and that Mr. Kagame’s
Tutsi rebels were a nationalist liberation movement that committed no significant
crimes against humanity when they took over after the genocide.

Colleges have reconciliation clubs, started on government advice ostensibly to combat

ethnic hatred, which reinforce the new non-ethnic narrative. Stickers posted on walls
urge unity and warn against ―divisionism‖ and ―genocide ideology.‖ Those broadly
defined activities have been banned, partly in response to government reports citing
high levels of ethnic hatred in the schools. ―Stirring up ill feelings‖ is proscribed by the
genocide ideology ban. Calling a student a name or wearing a T-shirt with the pre-1994
Rwandan flag may be enough to get arrested.
Students say the universities are crawling with spies. In the last year, at least 10
students have been arrested for a wide range of verbal slurs and provocative writing.
Six students were arrested last May for damaging a genocide survivor’s clothes. A
professor at a college in the east was sentenced to five years in prison last month after
one of his students alerted the police that he had insulted Mr. Kagame during class.

At Butare, direct elections for student leadership have been canceled since 2008, when
ethnic code words — francophone and anglophone — were deployed in campaigns.
The accused students were dismissed, and the student government dissolved.

According to the law, once a student is convicted of genocide ideology, the student can
face jail time and will not be readmitted to school, a policy that has students keeping
their opinions to themselves.

The ban on genocide ideology also encompasses accusations that the Tutsi rebels killed
civilians in 1994, despite the finding by a United Nations research team that the rebels
killed up to 45,000 people. A mention of those killings can land a jail term. The
genocide, the law says, was committed only against the Tutsis.

The official narrative, students say, amounts to a kind of denial of history. Or as Denise
Kajeniri, a 21-year-old Tutsi economics student, describes it, ―pretend and move on.‖

But the alternative, breaking the wall of silence, remains elusive. Alice Nishimwe, a 23-
year-old Hutu studying for her GMATs in Kigali, the capital, says it may simply be too
soon to talk.

―Only after talking about our differences can we bridge that gap,‖ she said. ―But that’s
individually.‖ As for the country, she said, ―Maybe in my granddaughter’s time.‖
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Back from DR Congo, Security Council set to review mandate of UN force

17 May – Members of the Security Council have wrapped up what they called an
―extremely intense‖ listening tour in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to
study options for the future of the United Nations mission there, whose mandate
expires at the end of the month.

Somalia: UN supports President’s efforts to form new cabinet

17 May – The top United Nations envoy for Somalia today declared full support for
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s efforts to form a new, ―more effective,‖ cabinet
following differences in parliament, and called on international donors to speed up
funding for the war-torn country.

UN forum focuses on how to better meet humanitarian needs in Darfur

17 May – Recent security and political developments, as well as boosting cooperation to
better serve the humanitarian needs of the people of Darfur, were on the agenda at a
meeting yesterday bringing together the United Nations and its partners working in the
strife-torn Sudanese region.