United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

10 January 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Africom's General Ward Arrives Today (The New Times)

(Rwanda) Gen. William E. Ward, the commander of the US Africa Command
(AFRICOM), is expected in Rwanda this Monday morning.

Mali City Rankled by Rules for Life in Spotlight (New York Times)
(Mali) Many residents of Djenné say they long for more modern homes, but Unesco
preservation guidelines limit alterations to original structures.

Tanzania: USAFRICOM chief visits Tanzania (Afrique en Ligne)

(Tanzania) US Africa Command (USAFRICOM) commanding general, Gen. William
'Kip' Ward, Thursday reinforced his country's commitment to assisting Tanzania in
fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean, combating the spread of HIV/AIDS and promoting
regional stability.

US AFRICOM commander coming to say ‘Bye’ (Rwanda News Agency)

(Rwanda) The out-going commander of the controversial US Africa Command
(AFRICOM) Gen William Ward is scheduled to be in Kigali on Monday next week – as
he makes his last trip before he is replaced.

Kenya should reset its foreign policy (The Standard)

(Kenya) It is at this poignant time that Kenya needs to reset its foreign policy and
determine its eternal friends and allies.

U.S. imposes sanctions to press Ivory Coast leader to step aside (Washington Post)
(Ivory Coast) The U.S. government is stepping up pressure on the leader of Ivory Coast
to leave office, imposing new sanctions after appeals by President Obama and Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to resolve an election crisis that is turning
increasingly bloody.

Obama team in strong push for peaceful split (The East African)
(Sudan) Having overcome months of inattention and internal disagreements, President
Barack Obama’s foreign policy team is making a strong, unified and, its members
predict, ultimately successful push for the peaceful breakup of Sudan.
Southern Sudanese in U.S. to vote on independence (USA Today)
(Sudan) Thousands of Southern Sudanese immigrants will cast votes in eight U.S. cities
starting Sunday to decide whether their region of the country will part ways with
northern Sudan and its government.

Southern Sudanese, in a Jubilant Mood, Vote on Secession (New York Times)

(Sudan) Starting in the cool hours of the night, long before the polls even opened,
people across this region began lining up at polling stations to cast their votes in a
historic referendum on whether to declare independence. Jubilant crowds made clear
which was the overwhelmingly popular choice.

Khartoum Appears Ready to Accept Referendum Result (Voice of America)

(Sudan) The head of Sudan’s governing National Congress Party’s delegation to the
permanent court of arbitration said his party is committed to living peacefully with a
newly-independent south Sudan if southerners choose secession over unity.

Militarization Of Energy Policy: U.S. Africa Command And Gulf Of Guinea

(OpEdNews.com)
(Pan Africa) The Pentagon was charged with taking responsibility to implement U.S.
energy strategy in the Gulf of Guinea: U.S. Africa Command, the first overseas military
command inaugurated since 1983.

Kenya should reset its foreign policy (The Standard)

(Kenya) At the top of our strategic allies has to be US. It being the world’s pre-eminent
economic and military power gives us few options.

Why Ghana's President said 'No' to U.S., France and Nigeria on military intervention
in Ivory Coast (Modern Ghana)
(Ivory Coast) Ghana's president John Mills has expressed his opposition to any military
intervention in Ivory Coast, led by the ECOWAS or the international community,
seeking to force controversial incumbent Laurent Gbagbo out of office.

Algeria Seeks to End Riots With Food-Price Moves, But 14 Die in Tunisia (Wall Street
Journal)
(Algeria) The Algerian government over the weekend said it will reduce tax and
import duties on some staples in a bid to end days of deadly clashes between police and
rioters protesting food prices in the North African country.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN envoy urges DR Congo authorities to probe recent allegations of mass rapes
 Joint UN-African Union envoy confers with Sudanese official on Darfur
 Horn of Africa could become new launch pad for global terrorism, Ban warns
  Côte d’Ivoire: UN agency seeks $20 million to assist those affected by crisis
 New Congolese law ‘significant’ step for indigenous rights – UN expert
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, January 13, 2011; Woodrow Wilson Center for

International Scholars
WHAT: A Lens into Liberia: Experiences from International Reporting Project
Gatekeepers
WHO: Sunni Khalid, Managing News Editor, WYPR, Baltimore; Ed Robbins, Video
Journalist, New York; Teresa Wiltz, Senior Editor, TheRoot.com, Washington DC
Info: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?
fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=646658

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, January 21, 2011; Council on Foreign Relations

WHAT: Separating Sudan
WHO: Francis Deng, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of
Genocide, United Nations; Richard Williamson, Principal, Salisbury Strategies, LLP;
Senior Fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Nonresident Senior Fellow,
Brookings Institution; Peter M. Lewis, Director, African Studies Program, Paul H. Nitze
School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Info: http://www.cfr.org/

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
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FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Africom's General Ward Arrives Today (The New Times)

Gen. William E. Ward, the commander of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), is

expected in the country, this Monday morning.

According to Army and Defence Spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jill Rutaremara, Gen. Ward will
arrive early Monday and visit the Ministry of Defense (MoD) headquarters before
jetting out later in the day.
At the MoD, Gen. Ward will meet with the Minister of Defence, James Kabarebe, and
the Chief of Defence Staff [CDS], Lieutenant General, Charles Kayonga.

"He will also visit the Genocide Memorial Centre at Gisozi before he leaves," said Lt.
Col. Rutaremara.

During his last visit, in April 2009, he held discussions with the then Minister of
Defence, Gen. Marcel Gatsinzi, as well as former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. James
Kabarebe and other senior officers in the Rwanda Defence Force(RDF), with whom he
discussed bilateral military issues.

In 2009, Gen. Ward praised the RDF's professionalism, and announced that the US army
learns a lot from the Rwandan military.

"The Rwandans don't need to be told how to be a professional force. They have that.
What they ask for are ways of how to enhance that professionalism, just as we (US
army) ask for that," Gen. Ward told reporters during his last visit.

"We learn from Rwandans, and can pick those lessons and adjust our own training
programmes."
------------------
Mali City Rankled by Rules for Life in Spotlight (New York Times)

Abba Maiga stood in his dirt courtyard, smoking and seething over the fact that his 150-
year-old mud-brick house is so culturally precious he is not allowed to update it — no
tile floors, no screen doors, no shower.

“Who wants to live in a house with a mud floor?” groused Mr. Maiga, a retired
riverboat captain.

With its cone-shaped crenellations and palm wood drainage spouts, the grand facade
seems outside time and helps illustrate why this ancient city in eastern Mali is an
official World Heritage site.

But the guidelines established by Unesco, the cultural arm of the United Nations, which
compiles the heritage list, demand that any reconstruction not substantially alter the
original.

“When a town is put on the heritage list, it means nothing should change,” Mr. Maiga
said. “But we want development, more space, new appliances — things that are much
more modern. We are angry about all that.”
It is a cultural clash echoed at World Heritage sites across Africa and around the world.
While it may be good for tourism, residents complain of being frozen in time like pieces
in a museum — their lives proscribed so visitors can gawk.

“The issue in Djenné is about people getting comfort, using the right materials without
compromising the architectural values,” said Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the chief of the
African unit of Unesco’s World Heritage Center.

Mr. Assomo ticked off a list of sites facing similar tension, including the island of St.-
Louis in neighboring Senegal, the island of Lamu in Kenya, the entire island of
Mozambique off the coast of the nation by the same name, or Asian and European cities
like Lyon, France.

Here in Djenné, the striking Great Mosque is what put the town on the map. It is the
largest mud-brick structure in the world, so unique that it looks as if it might have
landed from another planet, an imposing sand castle looming over the main square. The
architectural style, known as Sudanese, is native to the Sahel.

A trio of unique minarets — square, tapering towers topped by pointed pillars and
crowned by an ostrich egg — dominate the facade. Palm tree boards poked into the
mosque in rows like toothpicks create a permanent scaffolding that allows residents to
swarm over the building to replaster the mud, an annual February ritual involving the
entire town.

Djenné is the less famous but better preserved sister city to Timbuktu. Both reached
their zenith of wealth and power in the 16th century by sitting at the crossroads of
Sahara trade routes for goods like gold, ivory and slaves.

The town was also a gateway that helped spread Islam regionally. When the king
converted in the 13th century, he leveled his palace and built a mosque. Mali’s French
colonizers eventually oversaw its reconstruction in 1907.

The Grand Mosque was again near collapse when the Agha Khan Foundation arrived to
begin a $900,000 restoration project, said Josephine Dilario, one of two supervising
architects. The annual replastering had more than doubled the width of the walls and
added a yard of mud to the roof. It was too heavy, even with the forest of thick pillars
inside the mosque supporting the high ceiling — one for each of the 99 names of God.

In 2006, the initial restoration survey ignited a riot. Protesters sacked the mosque’s
interior, attacked city buildings and destroyed cars. The uprising was apparently rooted
in the simmering tension among the 12,000 townsfolk, particularly the young, who felt
forced to live in squalor while the mosque imam and a few prominent families raked in
the benefits from tourism.
The frustration seems to have lingered. While the mosque graces the national seal,
residents here appear markedly more sullen about tourism than in many other Malian
cities. They often glower rather than smile, and they tend to either ask for money or
stomp off when cameras are pointed in their direction.

With the mosque restoration nearing completion, the town is focusing attention on
other critical problems — raw sewage and the restoration of the nearly 2,000 houses.

“There is a kind of tension, a difficulty that has to be resolved by not locking people into
the traditional and authentic architecture,” said Samuel Sidibé, the director of Mali’s
National Museum in Bamako, the capital.

“We have to find a way to evolve this architecture, to provide the basic necessities the
community needs to live, and to do it in such a way that doesn’t compromise the
quality of the mud-brick architecture, the characteristic at the heart of the city’s
identity.”

Elhajj Diakaté, 54, and his brother inherited three houses from their father. Mr. Diakaté
hates bending over to navigate the cramped entryways, he said, and no room is big
enough to accommodate a double bed. Worse, his wives and his brother’s wives all
want armoires, he said.

But a Dutch-led restoration team working to save more than 100 houses ruled out
expanding any rooms for armoires, he said. So Mr. Diakaté evicted them and tore down
a fat interior wall graced by two narrow arches. The entire house collapsed. The Dutch
restorer wept when she saw it, he said.

Collapses are the main threat, because mud brick requires regular upkeep. Just four
rainstorms washed away much of the newly restored plaster at the Grand Mosque,
exposing the underlying cylindrical bricks, each about the size of a mayonnaise jar.

But the natural materials needed — like rice husks or tree paste to make the bricks
impermeable — have become so expensive that the art of hand-shaping the bricks
almost died out.

Djenné occupies a small island amid the inland delta of the Niger River and its
tributaries. The water was a rich source of mud, until it receded during an extended
drought in the 1970s. Masons used more sand, weakening the bricks. Hungry residents
also ate rice husks rather than build with them.

Urban problems multiplied. A project to pipe water into the city failed to include
drainage, so raw sewage fouls the unpaved streets. Trash dumps mar the river
embankments. Garbage has even made its way into the bricks, with black plastic bags
jutting from house walls. A faint rotting odor hangs in the background.
Tourists complained, and in 2008 Unesco warned the city that something had to be
done, said Fane Yamoussa, director of the city’s cultural mission. Trash and sewage
alone is not cause to be kicked off the World Heritage list, until they start affecting the
architecture.

The problem, said N’Diaye Bah, Mali’s tourism minister, is modernizing the town
without wrecking its ambiance. “If you destroy the heritage which people come to see,
if you destroy 2,000 years of history, then the town loses its soul,” he said.

Djenné residents take pride in their heritage and recognize that the Unesco list helped
make their city famous. Yet they wonder aloud about the point of staying on it, given
the lack of tangible gains, if they are forced to live literally in mud.

Many homeowners want to keep the distinctive facades, but alter the interiors. Unesco
guidelines prohibit the sweeping alterations they would like, however.

Mahamame Bamoye Traoré, the leader of the powerful mason’s guild, surveyed the
cramped rooms of the retired river boat captain’s house, naming all the things he would
change if the World Heritage rules were more flexible.

“If you want to help someone, you have to help him in a way that he wants; to force
him to live in a certain way is not right,” he said, before lying on the mud floor of a
windowless room that measured about 6 feet by 3 feet.

“This is not a room,” he said. “It might as well be a grave.”

------------------
Tanzania: USAFRICOM chief visits Tanzania (Afrique en Ligne)

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - US Africa Command (USAFRICOM) commanding general,

Gen. William 'Kip' Ward, Thursday reinforced his country's commitment to assisting
Tanzania in fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean, combating the spread of HIV/AIDS
and promoting regional stability.

In his talks with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, he also lauded the strong
partnership between the United States and Tanzania.

Gen. Ward, who was here on a two-day (5-6 January) visit as part of his trip to the East
African region, met with Lt.-Gen A. A. Shimbo, Chief of Staff of the Tanzania People's
Defence Forces (TPDF), and commended the professionalism of the Tanzanian military.

He praised the TPDF for its support to peacekeeping missions and openness to
partnering with the United States in security cooperation.
The United States assists Tanzania in bringing its capabilities and influence to bear on
resolving conflicts in Africa, in addition to strengthening its borders and addressing
maritime insecurity, illicit trafficking in arms, drugs, and persons, and other
transnational challenges.

US support for Tanzanian peacekeeping capacity includes military education and

training.
------------------
US AFRICOM commander coming to say ‘Bye’ (Rwanda News Agency)

Kigali: The out-going commander of the controversial US Africa Command (AFRICOM)

Gen William Ward is scheduled to be in Kigali on Monday next week – as he makes his
last trip before he is replaced.

Gen Ward will meet Defense Minister Gen James Kabarebe, with whom they have
worked closely since the American came to office in October 2008. The AFRICOM chief
will also meet the Army boss Gen. Charles Kayonga.

AFRICOM has been helping train Rwandan soldiers – as part of a wider US

government military support program for Rwanda. This week, the State Department
announced it had awarded a multi-million dollar contract for training of Rwandan
soldiers in peacekeeping operations.

Gen Ward is to step aside with the appointment of Gen. Carter Ham in December. If
confirmed by the US Senate, Gen Ham would be only the second officer to head the
nascent command, which has struggled to gain a foothold on the sprawling continent
that houses some of the world’s growing terror threats.

Launched in Oct. 2008, Africa Command is the newest of the military’s six regional
headquarters and is based in Stuttgart, Germany. The US government abandoned
efforts to base the command on the continent after it hit resistance among the African
nations, and instead posted about two dozen liaison officers at embassies.

AFRICOM, as it’s called, has had to convince African leaders that the U.S. is there to
assist the countries, and is not planning to build military bases there. The U.S. military
currently has a base at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti.

Over the past two years, the command has worked to set up training programs,
promote development and stability, and establish stronger military ties with the
countries and island nations.
------------------
Kenya should reset its foreign policy (The Standard)
No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in
the minds of few and carried in the hearts of none." - Henry A Kissinger, US Diplomat

Today, the people of Southern Sudan are exercising their inviolable and immutable
right of self-determination. Every group of people, united by common culture,
language and interest has this right that no law can take it away. It is at this poignant
time that Kenya needs to reset its foreign policy and determine its eternal friends and
allies. We need core allies whose friendship and alliance will not be wavered by time or
circumstances.

Foreign policy of nations is an across-cutting field and thus the failure to have a
common definition. It is, however, generally accepted that a nation’s foreign policy is
dictated by its national self-interest that includes economic advancement, defence of its
borders and ideological goals. Our politicians have showed us during times of general
elections, referenda and parliamentary proceedings, that our foreign relations are
tempestuous and fickle. We turn on-and-off our foreign relations depending on which
side the ambassadors based here seem to support.

For us to achieve Vision 2030 and other goals intended to make us a middle-income
country, we have to choose our friends and stick with them through all seasons. Of the
192 UN-member states, we can have diplomatic and trading relations with all; relations
that are nimble and zigzag. But we can only have permanent and eternal relations with
few. Choosing friends is our sovereign right and we have no obligation to please any
nation-state that feels slighted.

For permanent strategic relations, I suggest that we enter into it with these countries:
US, United Kingdom, Turkey, Singapore, Israel, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Southern Sudan and
South Africa. Of these nine countries I have chosen, each has unique attributes that are
germane to our strategic interests. At times, these attributes overlap. And these
countries cover the entire globe.

At the top of our strategic allies has to be US. It being the world’s pre-eminent economic
and military power gives us few options. The US leads the world in every sector of
human development and underpinned in its economy that is massive $14 Trillion. US
has long been searching for a place in Africa to locate its Africa Command (AfriCom)
headquarters which is currently housed in Stuttgart, Germany. In allowing US to build
the AfriCom HQ in Lamu or any other place of their choice in Kenya, we are
guaranteed permanent friendship with immense advantages. US annual military
budget is in excess of $700 billion. With AfriCom HQ, we are sure to get a slice of this
budget.

United Kingdom and Turkey will give us a foothold in Eurasia. UK was our colonial
ruler and by it, we have much in common including language and mannerisms. English
expertise and leadership in mercantile trading and finance is unsurpassed and London
is accepted as the World’s finance capital. Turkey on the other hand is a fast-rising
student of capitalism. In less than 10 years, Turkey’s ruling party, AKP has transformed
the country from a backwater to being touted as a member of the world’s emerging
economies besides Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Israel and Singapore are tiny enclaves with even tinier populations, and ensconced in
hostile territories, yet both are economic powerhouses. Israel is just 22,072 sq km with
seven million people and Singapore is mere 697 sq km with five million people, but
their annual GDPs are $206 billion and $251 billion respectively. Compare this with our
country which is 580,367sq km, 40 million people and a GDP of $30 billion. Israel and
Singapore will teach us how to make use of our vast land and big population. Both
countries so far have no natural resources of value. Rather, they rely on their human
resources in building their economies.

In Africa, we have limited choice for friends and thus the selection of South Africa,
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Southern Sudan only. South Africa is a natural choice as it is
Africa’s biggest economy. With its myriad tribes and races, South Africa has shown that
there is unity in diversity and that creating a rainbow nation is possible. Ethiopia is a
huge country with immense potential. That it is landlocked and we share a common
border makes it a strategic ally. And we both have a common interest in wanting a
pacified Somalia.

Rwanda is the Singapore of Africa and our gateway to the eldorado of Central Africa.
One day, when we become truly industrialised and middle income country, we will
need unfettered access to the minerals that lie buried in the Congo Basin. The people of
Southern Sudan are our kin and kindred and we have a moral obligation to help them.
Beneath the soils of Southern Sudan are huge fields of oil and fertile land for
agriculture. Our growing population and economy will need the oil and food of
Southern Sudan.

Of the above countries, we will realise that of the developed countries of US, UK, Israel
and Singapore, there is massive investment in infrastructure and education. UK which
is mere 243,610 sq km has 394,428 km of tarmac road. A thread running through
developed economies is that, there be a kilometer of tarmac road in every sq km. The
emerging economies of Turkey and South Africa are following same model. This means
that for us to be on our way up, we need to start constructing a minimum of 100,000
kilometres of tarmac road.

In forging close and permanent relationships with Washington, London, Ankara, Tel
Aviv, Singapore, Addis Ababa, Juba, Kigali and Pretoria, we will be guaranteed
military umbrella and economic co-operation and assistance. When we are developing
our economy with the assistance and expertise of the old economies of US and UK, we
shall be learning from Turkey and South Africa. We will not re-invent the wheel again.
Having these permanent friends mean that in international fora like UN, we will always
have a big brother watching over us, and in the local neighbourhood, territorial
disputes will never arise. For the first time, let us have a foreign policy fixed on stone
that will not sway to the emotional beats of politicians. It is the only way we will be an
emerging economy.

It is at this poignant time that Kenya needs to reset its foreign policy and determine its
eternal friends and allies.
------------------
U.S. imposes sanctions to press Ivory Coast leader to step aside (Washington Post)

The U.S. government is stepping up pressure on the leader of Ivory Coast to leave
office, imposing new sanctions after appeals by President Obama and Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to resolve an election crisis that is turning increasingly
bloody.

The standoff in the African nation threatens to reignite a civil war that killed thousands
of people in 2002 and 2003. In addition, Obama administration officials worry that a
botched election could set a dangerous precedent, with Africans in several other
countries set to go to the polls this year.

The Treasury Department announced the new sanctions Thursday, as President Laurent
Gbagbo continued to refuse to hand off power to his old rival, Alassane Ouattara, who
has been internationally recognized as the winner of the Nov. 28 election.

The measures freeze U.S. property belonging to Gbagbo, his wife and three of his
advisers, and prohibit Americans from doing business with them. Such actions have an
echo effect internationally, since major financial institutions often suspend dealings
with U.S.-designated targets.

The sanctions follow a U.S. ban on travel by Gbagbo and his associates, and similar
targeted measures by European and African countries.

"Essentially what we've wanted to present from the beginning of the crisis . . . is a
choice, so on the one hand, [Gbagbo] sees there's a way out for him, should he choose to
do the right thing and step down," said Ben Rhodes, the deputy U.S. national security
adviser for strategic communications. "If he doesn't, there is going to be a steady
ratcheting up of pressure."

At least 200 people have been killed in post-election violence, according to the United
Nations.

Ouattara is holed up at a hotel in the country's business capital, Abidjan, protected by

U.N. peacekeepers.
 The international community has been unusually united on the Ivory Coast crisis. The
16-nation West African group known as ECOWAS has threatened military intervention
if Gbagbo doesn't step down, and the U.N. Security Council sent a powerful signal by
recognizing his rival's victory.

None of that, however, has moved the recalcitrant Ivorian. And on Friday, the
possibility of a military operation seemed to diminish as Ghana said it couldn't
contribute troops.

"The problem is, the U.S. and everybody else can do everything right, but if Gbagbo is
willing to bring the country down around him and relaunch a conflict, he can probably
do that," said Jennifer G. Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.

Most nonhumanitarian U.S. aid to Ivory Coast was suspended after a 1999 coup.
Washington has sought to work with European and African countries, the United
Nations and international financial institutions to pressure Gbagbo to step down.

The financial noose could further tighten at an upcoming meeting of the Central Bank
of West African States, which handles the currency used by Ivory Coast.

A decision could be taken on which of the two declared presidents "gets to control Cote
D'Ivoire's currency," said a State Department official, using the country's French name.
The official was not authorized to comment on the record.

The November election was supposed to resolve years of political instability that
followed the north-south civil war. Gbagbo has been in office for a decade, staying on
beyond a mandate originally set to expire in 2005.

Obama tried unsuccessfully to call Gbagbo twice after the election. In early December,
Obama sent a letter inviting Gbagbo to Washington to discuss his future and warning of
consequences if he clung to power, aides say.

A more detailed letter from Clinton followed, suggesting Gbagbo could move to the
United States or receive a position in an international or regional institution if he left
peacefully, according to U.S. officials. Similar inducements were offered by France and
other African countries.

"They're not endless," the State Department official said of the offers. "The more that
things on the ground turn ugly . . . you can't ignore that."
------------------
Obama team in strong push for peaceful split (The East African)
Having overcome months of inattention and internal disagreements, President Barack
Obama’s foreign policy team is making a strong, unified and, its members predict,
ultimately successful push for the peaceful breakup of Sudan.

A sharp turnaround in Washington’s handling of the secession issue began to occur

about six months ago.

Until then, high-level US officials had failed to develop a coherent, effective policy on
Sudan, and activists were warning that the Obama administration risked undoing the
Bush administration’s achievements in brokering an end to the 20-year civil war
between the central government based in Khartoum and the oil-rich South.

Scott Gration, Obama’s special emissary to Sudan, openly disagreed with the American
UN ambassador Susan Rice, on how to deal with the regime of President Omar al
Bashir.

Mr Gration favoured a pragmatic approach to a head of state indicted for war crimes in
Sudan’s Darfur region.

He urged that priority be placed on persuading Bashir to accede to the South’s secession
and that the US simultaneously downplay the Khartoum government’s violence in
Darfur.

Ms Rice, who was reported to be “furious” with this stance, argued that the US should
slap additional sanctions on Khartoum.

Long listed by the United States as “a state sponsor of terrorism,” Sudan has been hit
with a variety of financial punishments as part of a US effort to isolate and discredit the
government.

The drift and the rifts within the Obama team came to an end in August when Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton sided with Mr Gration.

Demanding that there be “one team, one fight,” Ms Clinton recommended to President
Obama that the US intensify its diplomacy toward Sudan with the aim of helping
engineer a peaceful secession referendum.

Bashir was then promised a phase-out of US sanctions as well as assistance from the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund in exchange for his acceptance of South
Sudan’s independence.

Obama also ordered much more active and direct diplomatic involvement in both
Khartoum and in the South’s capital, Juba.
Princeton Lyman, a former ambassador to South Africa, was appointed to reinforce
ambassador Gration’s work, while Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Party
presidential candidate, became another de facto special envoy to Sudan.

Overall, the United States has increased its diplomatic presence in Sudan and
neighbouring countries fourfold in the past six months.

Even as President Bashir was being constantly cajoled and courted, Southern Sudanese
leaders were being encouraged to adopt a non-belligerent attitude toward Khartoum
and to make compromises on mechanical aspects of carrying out the referendum.

On its part, the Obama team promised to provide nation-building assistance in the
aftermath of the referendum.

As a result of this diplomatic offensive, US officials are expressing confidence that the
January 9-15 voting will proceed peacefully.

“The United States has invested a great deal of diplomacy to ensure the outcome of this
referendum is successful and peaceful,” Johnnie Carson, the State Department’s top
Africa official, told reporters on January 5.

Team Obama is also cautiously optimistic that Khartoum will accept the outcome and
play a constructive role in the ensuing negotiations on critical issues such as
demarcation of borders, division of oil revenues and the status of the disputed territory
of Abyei.

But activists are warning that the hardest part of the process will begin after the
referendum votes are tabulated.
------------------
Southern Sudanese in U.S. to vote on independence (USA Today)

NASHVILLE — Thousands of Southern Sudanese immigrants will cast votes in eight

U.S. cities starting Sunday to decide whether their region of the country will part ways
with northern Sudan and its government.

At stake is whether Africa will see its first new country form in more than 20 years
while avoiding the kind of violence that has seen Sudan fight two bloody civil wars
since it won independence from the United Kingdom in 1956.

Polling will take place through Jan. 15 in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, Omaha,
Phoenix, Seattle and Washington.

African foreign policy experts say the vote and its aftermath will serve as an important
test for U.S. policy in the region, specifically the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
The agreement, signed by both Sudan's north and south, established that after a six-year
interim period the south would get a vote for self-determination, said Andrew Blum, a
senior program officer with the United States Institute of Peace, a non-partisan
institution that helps prevent and resolve conflicts. Juba would be the south's capital.

The referendum was a cornerstone of that accord, which ended two decades of civil war
that had claimed more than 2 million lives.

"The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was a key U.S. peace building accomplishment,"
Blum said. "This is the crux moment for it. The question is, does what it sought to
accomplish come to fruition."

Sudanese immigrants in the U.S. are eager for the referendum and for seeing the south
win its freedom. Ensuing violence that could affect family and friends back home is on
their minds, too.

"I think it is a bad time that we have been going through," said John Majiok, a Sudanese
immigrant in Nashville who supports the vote. "We are going to solve it without
bloodshed, given the time. Hopefully, our people will get freedom."

The international Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, which is running the

balloting, reports almost 8,800 Sudanese immigrants in the U.S. have registered to vote.

Recent U.S. Census Bureau data show that slightly more than 35,000 people in the U.S.
identify themselves as born in the Sudan.

Should Southern Sudan choose to secede, there is a danger of violence. The most likely
flash points are along the north-south border, particularly around the oil-rich region of
Abeyi, Blum said.

Many Sudanese in the U.S. are from the southern region, including refugees from the
last civil war. The area does not include Darfur, where the north has been accused by
the United Nations of crimes against humanity.

Gatluak Thach, 38, was a child when the second civil war erupted in Sudan. He
eventually fled the war and came to the USA.

In Nashville to register for the referendum, Thach noted this would be the first time he
would get to vote for anything concerning his country. "This is the first time that many
get to vote for Sudan," he said. "First time to have a voice for Sudan."
------------------
Southern Sudanese, in a Jubilant Mood, Vote on Secession (New York Times)
Salva Kiir, the president of southern Sudan, which has been semi-autonomous since a
peace treaty was signed in 2005, cast his ballot Sunday morning as the polls opened.
Starting in the cool hours of the night, long before the polls even opened, people across
this region began lining up at polling stations to cast their votes in a historic referendum
on whether to declare independence. Jubilant crowds made clear which was the
overwhelmingly popular choice.

“I feel like I’m going to a new land,” beamed Susan Duku, a southern Sudanese woman
who works for the United Nations.

As the sun cleared the horizon and the voting began, the streets of Juba, the capital of
southern Sudan, broke into a street party. Women were literally skipping around the
polls. Young men thumped on drums. Others were wrapped in flags.

People were hollering, singing, hugging, kissing, smacking high-fives and dancing as if
they never wanted the day to end, despite the sun beating down and voting lines that
snaked for blocks.

Southern Sudan has suffered a lot, and after years of civil war, oppression and
displacement, many people here saw the vote as an unprecedented chance at self-
determination. The referendum ballot offered two choices, unity with northern Sudan
or secession. Unity was represented on the ballot by a drawing of two clasped hands.
Secession was a single open hand. Many people rely on these symbols: more than three-
quarters of southern Sudanese adults cannot read.

The referendum is a result of a conflict that lasted for decades and an American-backed
peace treaty in 2005, which granted the south the right to self-determination.

For Mrs. Duku, the choice was simple. “Separation,” she said. “One hundred percent,
plus.”

Many people here spoke in almost biblical terms about lifting themselves out of
bondage. Sudan is a deeply divided country, and for decades, the southern third, which
is mostly Christian and animist, has been dominated by Arab rulers from the north.

The Arab government prosecuted a vicious war against southerners, who have been
chafing for their own separate state even before Sudan’s independence in 1956. The
government forces and their proxy militias burned down villages, slaughtered civilians
and even kidnapped southern children and sold them to slave traders for a life of
involuntary servitude in the north. More than two million people were killed and many
of the tactics used to suppress the insurrection in the south would be repeated in
Darfur, in Sudan’s west.
Voters on Sunday spoke of this legacy, and the poverty that has accompanied it. That
was in evidence all around. Most polling places were shoddily built schools or
government offices with bald concrete floors, no lights, crumbly walls and rusted metal
roofs. If southern Sudan becomes independent, it will be one of the poorest countries on
earth.

“But better to be free,” said Simon Matiek, a student.

The voting will continue for the next week. Preliminary reports indicated that it was
going smoothly.

“I would say it’s very orderly and very enthusiastic,” said former President Jimmy
Carter, in Juba to monitor the election.

The votes are expected to take at least a week to count. And if 60 percent of the
registered voters cast ballots and the majority choose secession, then the hard work
begins. Before Sudan can amicably split into two — the south plans to declare
independence in July — several sticky issues need to be resolved. The top two are
sharing Sudan’s oil and demarcating the border, including the Abyei area, which both
the north and south claim.

“A successful agreement could prevent conflict, whereas if Abyei and other issues
remain unresolved, war becomes much more likely,” said John Prendergast, of the
antigenocide Enough Project.

Northern and southern forces have skirmished before in Abyei, and United Nations
officials said nomads aligned to the north ambushed several southern soldiers on
Saturday, though no casualty figures were available.

In Juba, though, things stayed peaceful — rowdy, but peaceful. One man, who clearly
had been celebrating with fortified beverages the night before, staggered around a
polling station blowing an instrument fashioned from a cow’s horn and rubber tubing.

Most polling places were packed, with lines thousands of people long. Election officials
said the turnout was enormous. Many voters had been standing in place since 2 a.m.,
even though the polls did not open until 8.

“Today will go down in history,” said William Lukudu, who arrived before dawn
decked out in a natty gray suit, bright green shirt and purple tie. “I didn’t want to be
left out.”

Suits, dresses, high heels, plastic pearls — voters were dressed in their Sunday best.
At the tomb of John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash in 2005 and is considered
the father of southern Sudan’s modern liberation movement, the atmosphere was
carnival-like, with troupes of dancers jumping around in faux leopard-skin loincloths
and politicians, soldiers and celebrities celebrating together.

“Who is that man talking?” a Sudanese journalist asked, gesturing to a white man with
a group of reporters around him. When told it was George Clooney, a movie star, the
Sudanese journalist looked confused and walked away.

Some voters, though, seemed contemplative. They spoke of family members who had
died. Some spoke of potential future problems within the south.

Laraka Machar, who had just finished college in Uganda and was looking for work in
Juba, explained how he had deep reservations about the leadership in the south and the
rise of ethnic politics. The south has been semiautonomous and running most of its own
affairs since 2005.

“The people in the government give opportunities to their own friends, their own
people,” he said.

Mr. Machar is a Nuer, considered the second most powerful ethnic group in southern
Sudan, behind the Dinka. “Corruption is the order of the day,” he continued.

Still, he said, he was voting for secession. “This is my own country, my own land,” he
said. “And I can’t sell out my own land because of this.”

Jacob Garang, 27, was a former child soldier who joined the rebellion when he was 12.
On Sunday, he voted for secession.

“This is one of the unique days in my life,” he said. “I have to thank God that I am alive
and that I found this day and I found myself in it.”
------------------
Khartoum Appears Ready to Accept Referendum Result (Voice of America)

The head of Sudan’s governing National Congress Party’s delegation to the permanent
court of arbitration said his party is committed to living peacefully with a newly-
independent south Sudan if southerners choose secession over unity.

Ambassador Dirdiery Mohamed Ahmed, who is also a member of the NCP negotiating
team with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), said his party will live up
to its commitment of respecting the outcome of the referendum.

“The NCP is very much encouraged about the peaceful beginning of the referendum.
The voting has been, in fact, very successful throughout the country. The turnout was
very much encouraging and we think that, if this trend continues, we will see a very
peaceful and successful referendum process,” he said.

Over three-million registered southern Sudanese began voting Sunday in a referendum

that will determine if the semi-autonomous south secedes and becomes an independent
nation.

Voting appeared to be proceeding smoothly, although officials reported clashes

between Misseriya and Ngok Dinka tribesmen in the disputed, oil-producing Abyei
region. Early reports say several people may have been killed.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement Sunday that he is

“extremely pleased” the voting has started. He said the international community is
determined that all parties in Sudan live up to their obligations.

Observers have expressed concern that there is a need to quickly resolve the
outstanding issues between the NCP and the SPLM in order to ensure peace and
stability after the referendum.

“We have the border issue...which has to be agreed upon; we are having also the
citizenship issue and whether the southern Sudanese will be voting for secession will
still be enjoying the nationality of the Sudan, or they will be having their own
nationality in the south,” said Ahmed.

“As the NCP meets, will we also continue sharing the oil revenues as per the old
formula, or are we going to agree on a new formula, having in mind that most of the oil
is produced in the south, but is now exported through the pipelines and refineries that
are installed in the north.”

Ambassador Ahmed also said the NCP is encouraged with the “peaceful nature” of the
referendum.
------------------
Militarization Of Energy Policy: U.S. Africa Command And Gulf Of Guinea
(OpEdNews.com)

At the beginning of the century, while the United States was still embroiled in military
interventions in the Balkans and had launched what would become the longest war in
its history in Afghanistan with the invasion of Iraq to follow, it was also laying the
groundwork for subordinating the African continent to a new military command.

With 4.5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. accounts for approximately 30
percent of crude oil consumption. Although the world's third largest producer of crude,
it imports over 60 percent of what it consumes (12.4 of 20.7 million barrels it uses daily).
A decade ago 15 percent of those imports came from the Gulf of Guinea region on
Africa's Atlantic Ocean coast, mainly from Nigeria, and it is projected that the
proportion will increase to 25 percent in the next four years.

The National Energy Policy Report issued by the Office of Vice President Richard
Cheney on May 16, 2001 stated: "West Africa is expected to be one of the fastest-
growing sources of oil and gas for the American market. African oil tends to be of high
quality and low in sulfur...giving it a growing market share for refining centers on the
East Coast of the U.S."

The following year, the Washington, D.C.-based African Oil Policy Initiative Group
conducted a symposium entitled "African Oil: A Priority for U. S. National Security and
African Development," with the participation of American legislators, policy advisers,
the private sector and representatives of the State Department and Defense Department,
at which Congressman William Jefferson said:

"African oil should be treated as a priority for U.S. national security post 9-11. I think
that...post 9-11 it's occurred to all of us that our traditional sources of oil are not as
secure as we thought they were."

As is customary in regards to American foreign policy objectives, the Pentagon was

charged with taking responsibility. It immediately went to work on undertaking three
initiatives to implement U.S. energy strategy in the Gulf of Guinea: U.S. Africa
Command, the first overseas military command inaugurated since 1983. The U.S.
Navy's Africa Partnership Station as what has developed into the major component of
the Global Fleet Station, linked with worldwide maritime operations like the 1,000-ship
navy and the Proliferation Security Initiative and piloted in the area of responsibility of
U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. Fourth Fleet reactivated in 2008: The Caribbean
Sea and Central and South America. The NATO Response Force designed for rapid
multi-service (army, air force, navy and marine) deployments outside of the bloc's
North American-European area of responsibility.

In recent weeks Ghana joined the ranks of African oil producers, pumping crude oil for
the first time from an offshore field in the Gulf of Guinea.

"The Jubilee oil field, discovered three years ago, holds an estimated 1.8 billion barrels
of oil, and will begin producing around 55,000 barrels per day in the coming weeks. Oil
production is expected, however, to rise to about 120,000 barrels over the next six
months, making the country Africa's seventh largest oil producer." [1]

The Ghanaian oil exploitation is run by a consortium led by Tullow Oil plc, which is
based in London and has 85 contracts in 22 countries.

The same source quoted above added:

"The Gulf of Guinea increasingly represents an important source of oil, with the US
estimating that it will supply over a quarter of American oil by 2015. It has already sent
US military trainers to the region to help local navies to secure shipping.

"Nearby Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo Republic are already exporting oil from
the Gulf, while Liberia and Sierra Leone remain hopeful of joining the club."

In March of 2010 95 U.S. Marines led by General Paul Brier, commander of U.S. Marine
Forces Africa, deployed to the Bundase Training Camp in the Ghanaian capital of Accra
for a three-week exercise with the armed forces of the host country, "part of the Africa
Partnership Station," which also included the participation of the USS Gunston Hall
dock landing ship and "embarked international staff" in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to the government of Ghana, "The US and Ghana [are] at the highest level,
work together and at the military level inter-operate, train together, share ideas and
skills and...it is important for the two countries' militaries to come together so that
Ghana can be at par with the US Army." [2]

Washington's energy strategy in regards to West Africa is a reflection of its international

policy of not only gaining access to but control over hydrocarbon supplies and delivery
to other nations, in particular to those countries importing the largest amount of oil and
natural gas next to the U.S. itself: China, Japan, India, South Korea and the nations of
the European Union.

While, for example, Chinese companies are expanding oil exploration in the African
nation of Chad and are embarked on a program to build the country's first refinery and
a 300-kilometer pipeline, a U.S-led consortium has been extracting oil in the south of
Chad and sending it by pipeline through Cameroon to the Gulf of Guinea, paralleling
U.S. strategy in the Caspian Sea Basin vis-a-vis Russia and Iran.

Late last year the Atlantic Council, the preeminent pro-NATO think tank on either side
of the Atlantic [3], co-released a report entitled "Advancing U.S., African, and Global
Interests: Security and Stability in the West African Maritime Domain." It proceeds from
the fact that "The Gulf of Guinea is at the brink of becoming a greater supplier of energy
to the United States than the Persian Gulf and is therefore of far higher strategic
importance than has historically been the case."

The report recommends enhanced U.S. government concentration on "a vital region to
maintaining U.S. energy security, prosperity, and homeland security."

It also calls for a higher level of integration between U.S. and European nations - that is,
NATO and European Union member states - in respect to Africa, and promotes the
following programmatic goals:
The establishment of "an interagency coordinating body to conduct strategic planning,
oversee implementation and track progress in West African maritime security
assistance and performance."

Working with local security organizations like the Economic Community Of West
African States (ECOWAS) and its affiliated African Standby Force brigade on "a
comprehensive proof of concept pilot project...to develop the capabilities and conditions
necessary for securing the maritime domain as a model for the region."

Setting up a Gulf of Guinea coastal naval operation, "including the sharing of assets,
establishment of joint operations centers, and assignment of key functions and centers
of excellence."

And to expand and deepen the work of the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission
established by the U.S. State Department last April "as a vehicle for security
cooperation, including maritime security." [4]

Three months after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton inaugurated a strategic dialogue
with Nigeria, she met with Foreign Minister Ansuncao Afonso dos Anjos of Angola (on
the southern end of the Gulf of Guinea) in Washington to sign the U.S.-Angola Strategic
Partnership Dialogue, "which formalizes increased bilateral partnerships in energy,
security, trade and democracy promotion."

On the occasion, Clinton recounted that after her visit to Angola in August of the
preceding year "a bilateral group on energy cooperation met in November 2009 to
outline shared U.S. and Angolan objectives in developing Angola's oil and gas reserves,
promoting greater transparency in its oil sector and developing renewable energy
sources." [5]

The security and defense agreements with Nigeria and Angola, and demands by the
Atlantic Council and like-minded parties that they be qualitatively and
comprehensively expanded to the entire region, are the inevitable culmination of efforts
by the Pentagon over the past nine years.

During that period U.S. naval vessels, troops and major military officials have been in
Gulf of Guinea littoral states continuously, solidifying relations with Liberia (where the
Pentagon has built a military from scratch), Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Angola, and Sao Tome
and Principe. [6] All except for Ivory Coast, which is currently in turmoil and facing the
prospect of armed intervention by ECOWAS African Standby Force troops and the
armed forces of assorted NATO states.
Until AFRICOM achieved full operational capability on October 1, 2008, Africa was
assigned to U.S. European Command (EUCOM) except for Egypt, the nations of the
Horn of Africa and four Indian Ocean island states that were under Central Command
and Pacific Command.

The top commander of EUCOM is jointly NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
AFRICOM, then, was created as the Pentagon's first post-Cold War foreign military
command under the tutelage of Marine General James Jones from 2003 to 2006 and
Army General Bantz John Craddock from 2006 to 2009.

AFRICOM and the Africa Partnership Station (APS) have been envisioned since their
inception as U.S. military operations that included the involvement of NATO, especially
its member states that are the former colonial masters in the Gulf of Guinea area:
Britain, France, Portugal and Spain. [7] In 2005 the U.S. submarine tender Emory S.
Land led naval exercises in the Gulf of Guinea with naval officers from Benin, Gabon,
Ghana, and Sao Tome and Principe along with counterparts from Britain, France,
Portugal and Spain.

APS deployments include military officers from other NATO states and the African
Standby Force is modeled after the NATO Response Force.

In 2002 U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanded the creation of a new
NATO rapid reaction force, a 21,000-troop strike group that could "deal swiftly with
crises outside its traditional area of operation." [8] He won support for the concept at a
meeting of Alliance defense chiefs in September and two months later what became the
NATO Response Force was endorsed at the NATO summit in Prague.

At the next summit of the U.S.-controlled military bloc in Istanbul, Turkey in 2004,
Rumsfeld stated, "The reality is that NATO is a military alliance that has no real
relevance unless it has the ability to fairly rapidly deploy military capabilities." [9]

In 2005 the Washington, D.C.- based Center for Strategic and International Studies' Task
Force on Gulf of Guinea Security released a report reiterating and updating U.S.
strategy in West Africa which stated that "The Gulf of Guinea is a nexus of vital US
foreign policy priorities."

The Task Force consisted of "oil executives, academics, diplomats and retired naval
officers under the chairmanship of Nebraska's Senator
Chuck Hagel and received briefings from serving US ambassadors, oil companies, the
CIA and US military commanders." [10]

In the same year U.S. Naval Forces Europe announced that it had embarked on "a 10-
year push to help 10 West African nations either develop or
improve maritime security." The nations are Angola, Benin, Cameroon,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and
Príncipe, and Togo, all on the Gulf of Guinea.

When the above report appeared, in July, U.S. European Command had already
"conducted 18 military-to-military exercises in Africa so far in 2005." [11]

The following month a U.S. Coast Guard cutter visited the waters off petroleum-rich
Sao Tome and Principe, travelling "through the seas of West Africa's Gulf of Guinea,
where an oil boom could outpace Persian Gulf exports to America in a decade." [12]

In 2002 the president of Sao Tome and Principe, Fradique De Menezes, reportedly
agreed to host a U.S. naval base, disclosing that "Last week I received a call from the
Pentagon to tell me that the issue is being studied." [13]

In 2006 the Ghanaian press wrote that "Marine General James L. Jones, Head of the US
European Command, said the Pentagon was seeking to acquire access to two kinds of
bases in Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Kenya and other African countries." [14]

Later in the year Jones was cited confirming that "Officials at U.S. European Command
spend between 65 to 70 percent of their time on African issues...Establishing [a military
task force in West Africa] could also send a message to U.S. companies "that investing
in many parts of Africa is a good idea.'" [15]

In his other capacity, that of top NATO military commander, Jones asserted that
"NATO was going to draw up [a] plan for ensuring security of oil and gas industry
facilities" [16] and "raised the prospect of NATO taking a role to counter piracy off the
coast of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, especially when it threatens energy
supply routes to Western nations." [17]

Also in 2006, while still Supreme Allied Commander Europe, he announced that
"NATO is developing a special plan to safeguard oil and gas fields in the region,"
adding that "a training session will be held in the Atlantic oceanic area and the Cabo
Verde island in June to outline activities to protect the routes transporting oil to
Western Europe" and "the alliance is ready to ensure the security of oil-producing and
transporting regions." [18]

As Jones had alluded to, in June the NATO Response Force (NRF) was first tested in
Exercise Steadfast Jaguar war games on and off the coast of the African Atlantic Ocean
island of Cape Verde with 7,100 Alliance military personnel, including French and
German infantry, American fighter pilots and Spanish sailors, along with warplanes
and warships. "The exercise [was] the first to bring together the land, sea and air
components of the NRF. Once operational, it will give the Alliance the ability to deploy
up to 25,000 troops within five days anywhere in the world." [19]
A Western news agency at the time described the exercise in these terms: "The land, air
and sea exercises were NATO's first major deployment in Africa and designed to show
the former Cold War giant can launch far-flung military operations at short notice."

It also quoted then-NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer boasting that "You
are seeing the new NATO, the one that has the ability to project stability." [20]

In September of 2007, Captain John Nowell, commodore of the Africa Partnership

Station, travelled from Sao Tome and Principe to Ghana "to lay the groundwork for
upcoming Africa Partnership Stations with local government and military officials from
both countries." [21]

Late in the following month the U.S. activated the Africa Partnership Station by
deploying the USS Fort McHenry amphibious dock landing ship and the embarked
Commander Task Group 60.4 (later joined by High Speed Vessel Swift) to the Gulf of
Guinea. The APS deployment included stops in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon,
Ghana, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal and Togo. USS Fort McHenry had staff
from other NATO nations on board.

In November of 2007 Associated Press reported that with ships assigned to the U.S.
Sixth Fleet patrolling the Gulf of Guinea, "U.S. naval presence rose from just a handful
of days in 2004 to daily beginning this year." [22]

On October 1 U.S. Africa Command was launched as (in Pentagon lingo) a temporary
sub-unified command under U.S. European Command.

Voices of concern were raised throughout Africa, typified by these excerpts from
commentaries in the Nigerian press:

"The issue of Africa Command is...because of the oil interest on the Gulf of Guinea,
going out to the coast of Liberia and so on. Americans are
finding an easy place where they can extract oil, and you know is a much shorter route
than going around from the Middle East." [23]

"From the current data on production capacities and proven oil reserves, only two
regions appear to exist where, in addition to the Middle East, oil production will grow
and where a strategy of diversification may easily work: The Caspian Sea and the Gulf
of Guinea.

"Some of the problems linked to Caspian oil give the Gulf of Guinea a competitive edge.
Much of its oil is conveniently located off shore.

"[T]he region enjoys several advantages, including its strategic location just opposite the
refineries of the US East Coast. It is ahead of all other regions in proven deep water oil
reserves, which will lead to significant savings in security provisions. And it requires a
drilling technology easily available from the Gulf of Mexico.

"Curiously, the newly formed NRF [NATO Response Force] carried out its first exercise
codenamed STEADFAST JAGUAR in Cape Verde, here in West Africa, from 14-28 June
2006." [24]

"I am normally a fan of the United States of America....But over this matter of plans by
the United States to establish what it calls the Africa Command or Africom in the Gulf
of Guinea, it is time to call for deep caution and to agree with Nigerian officials that we
should take the American initiative with a pinch of salt.

"The Gulf of Guinea has emerged as the second largest pool of commercial petroleum
resources in the world, next only to the Persian Gulf and its territorial environs.

"In fact, it has recently surpassed the Persian Gulf as America's highest supplier of
crude oil.

"Not satisfied with only a small piece of the new oil destination of the world, America
stepped up its formation of Africom, making open moves to extend the kind of
cohabitation it enjoys with Sao Tome and Principe to Nigeria." [25]

"The whole thing about this Africa Command by the US is all borne out of their
interests in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, which they have...been angling to take over. The
Nigerian government should not fold its arms to allow the US government re-colonise
it.

"[T]he US had concluded plans to establish a military base in Africa with the intent of
protecting the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea and also to forestall the economic incursion of
China into Africa, especially Nigeria.

"The US has completed all the groundwork and has moved into the offshore of Sao
Tome and Principe, Angola and Guinea to secure positions for their
submarines and other security facilities." [26]

"The gulf's oil and gas deposits are put in the region of 10 billion barrels. Statistics show
that as of 2004 Africa as a whole produced nearly 9 million barrels of oil a day, with
approximately 4.7 million barrels a day coming from West Africa.

"Also, African oil production accounted for approximately 11 percent of the world's oil
supply, while the continent supplied approximately 18 percent of US net oil imports.
Both Nigeria and Angola were among the top 10 suppliers of oil to the US." [27]
The apprehensions were not without foundation. On October 3 U.S. ambassador-
designate to Gabon and to Sao Tome and Principe, Eunice Reddick, issued the
following statements:

"Mismanaged, an oil boom could threaten Sao Tome and Principe's young democracy,
security and stability."

"The United States has trained Gabonese forces under the African Contingency
Operations Training Assistance (ACOTA) program....To promote the security of the
strategic Gulf of Guinea region, origin of a growing share of U.S. oil imports, U.S.
military engagement with Gabon has developed in several areas....If confirmed, I will
work closely with the Gabonese civilian and military leadership, our European
Command and the new Africa Command...." [28]

As noted above, the month after AFRICOM's preliminary activation the U.S. Navy
dispatched its first Africa Partnership Station mission to the Gulf of Guinea, described
by the Pentagon as a multinational maritime security initiative.

The guided missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman visited Cape Verde for three days in
early November "to consolidate a growing sense of partnership between the U.S. Navy
and the Caboverdian armed forces" [29] at the same time USS Fort McHenry began the
Africa Partnership Station's maiden mission with a visit to Senegal en route to the Gulf
of Guinea.

In 2008 the NATO secretary general at the time, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, visited Ghana,
meeting with the country's president and defense minister "on deepening the
cooperation between NATO and Africa," and delivered a speech on the topic at the Kofi
Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra. [30]

In July of that year U.S. European Command conducted the Operation Africa Endeavor
2008 multinational interoperability and information exchange exercise in Nigeria with
the participation of the armed forces of Nigeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso,
Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal,
Sierra Leone and Uganda. General William Ward, commander of AFRICOM, attended
the closing ceremonies at Nigerian Air Force Base, Abuja.

The following year's Africa Endeavor exercises were held in Gabon, with "more than 25
nations participating...the second largest communications exercise in the world." For the
first time run under the command of AFRICOM, it focused on "interoperability and
information sharing among African nations via communication networks and
collaborative communications links with the United States, NATO and other nations
with common stability, security and sustainment goals/objectives for the African
continent." [31] Participants included the Economic Community of West African States
and Gulf of Guinea nations Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sao Tome
and Principe.

At the time Associated Press reported:

"Just a few years ago, the U.S.military was all but absent from the oil-rich waters of
West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.

"This year, it plans to be there every day.

"Africa -- including Algeria and Libya in the north -- supplies the U.S. with more than
24 percent of its oil, surpassing the Persian Gulf at 20 percent, according to statistics
from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration. Of that amount, 17
percent comes from the Gulf of Guinea and Chad, which runs a pipeline to the Atlantic
Ocean through Cameroon." [32]

A spokesman for the U.S. Sixth Fleet said that in terms of "ship days" in the Gulf of
Guinea, U.S. naval presence had increased 50 percent from 2006 to 2007 and the U.S.
Navy was expected to have a daily presence in 2008.

The Pentagon and its NATO allies are firmly ensconced in the Gulf of Guinea, in part to
realize one of the decisions agreed upon at last November's NATO summit in Portugal:
To "develop the capacity to contribute to energy security," as the summit declaration
stated.

The Pentagon has forged both bilateral and regional military partnerships with every
African nation except for Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

What began in the Gulf of Guinea has now absorbed an entire continent.
------------------
Kenya should reset its foreign policy (The Standard)

Today, the people of Southern Sudan are exercising their inviolable and immutable
right of self-determination. Every group of people, united by common culture, language
and interest has this right that no law can take it away. It is at this poignant time that
Kenya needs to reset its foreign policy and determine its eternal friends and allies. We
need core allies whose friendship and alliance will not be wavered by time or
circumstances.

Foreign policy of nations is an across-cutting field and thus the failure to have a
common definition. It is, however, generally accepted that a nation’s foreign policy is
dictated by its national self-interest that includes economic advancement, defence of its
borders and ideological goals. Our politicians have showed us during times of general
elections, referenda and parliamentary proceedings, that our foreign relations are
tempestuous and fickle. We turn on-and-off our foreign relations depending on which
side the ambassadors based here seem to support.

For us to achieve Vision 2030 and other goals intended to make us a middle-income
country, we have to choose our friends and stick with them through all seasons. Of the
192 UN-member states, we can have diplomatic and trading relations with all; relations
that are nimble and zigzag. But we can only have permanent and eternal relations with
few. Choosing friends is our sovereign right and we have no obligation to please any
nation-state that feels slighted.

For permanent strategic relations, I suggest that we enter into it with these countries:
US, United Kingdom, Turkey, Singapore, Israel, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Southern Sudan and
South Africa. Of these nine countries I have chosen, each has unique attributes that are
germane to our strategic interests. At times, these attributes overlap. And these
countries cover the entire globe.

At the top of our strategic allies has to be US. It being the world’s pre-eminent economic
and military power gives us few options. The US leads the world in every sector of
human development and underpinned in its economy that is massive $14 Trillion. US
has long been searching for a place in Africa to locate its Africa Command (AfriCom)
headquarters which is currently housed in Stuttgart, Germany. In allowing US to build
the AfriCom HQ in Lamu or any other place of their choice in Kenya, we are
guaranteed permanent friendship with immense advantages. US annual military
budget is in excess of $700 billion. With AfriCom HQ, we are sure to get a slice of this
budget.

United Kingdom and Turkey will give us a foothold in Eurasia. UK was our colonial
ruler and by it, we have much in common including language and mannerisms. English
expertise and leadership in mercantile trading and finance is unsurpassed and London
is accepted as the World’s finance capital. Turkey on the other hand is a fast-rising
student of capitalism. In less than 10 years, Turkey’s ruling party, AKP has transformed
the country from a backwater to being touted as a member of the world’s emerging
economies besides Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Israel and Singapore are tiny enclaves with even tinier populations, and ensconced in
hostile territories, yet both are economic powerhouses. Israel is just 22,072 sq km with
seven million people and Singapore is mere 697 sq km with five million people, but
their annual GDPs are $206 billion and $251 billion respectively. Compare this with our
country which is 580,367sq km, 40 million people and a GDP of $30 billion. Israel and
Singapore will teach us how to make use of our vast land and big population. Both
countries so far have no natural resources of value. Rather, they rely on their human
resources in building their economies.
In Africa, we have limited choice for friends and thus the selection of South Africa,
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Southern Sudan only. South Africa is a natural choice as it is
Africa’s biggest economy. With its myriad tribes and races, South Africa has shown that
there is unity in diversity and that creating a rainbow nation is possible. Ethiopia is a
huge country with immense potential. That it is landlocked and we share a common
border makes it a strategic ally. And we both have a common interest in wanting a
pacified Somalia.

Rwanda is the Singapore of Africa and our gateway to the eldorado of Central Africa.
One day, when we become truly industrialised and middle income country, we will
need unfettered access to the minerals that lie buried in the Congo Basin. The people of
Southern Sudan are our kin and kindred and we have a moral obligation to help them.
Beneath the soils of Southern Sudan are huge fields of oil and fertile land for
agriculture. Our growing population and economy will need the oil and food of
Southern Sudan.

Of the above countries, we will realise that of the developed countries of US, UK, Israel
and Singapore, there is massive investment in infrastructure and education. UK which
is mere 243,610 sq km has 394,428 km of tarmac road. A thread running through
developed economies is that, there be a kilometer of tarmac road in every sq km. The
emerging economies of Turkey and South Africa are following same model. This means
that for us to be on our way up, we need to start constructing a minimum of 100,000
kilometres of tarmac road.

In forging close and permanent relationships with Washington, London, Ankara, Tel
Aviv, Singapore, Addis Ababa, Juba, Kigali and Pretoria, we will be guaranteed
military umbrella and economic co-operation and assistance. When we are developing
our economy with the assistance and expertise of the old economies of US and UK, we
shall be learning from Turkey and South Africa. We will not re-invent the wheel again.
Having these permanent friends mean that in international fora like UN, we will always
have a big brother watching over us, and in the local neighbourhood, territorial
disputes will never arise. For the first time, let us have a foreign policy fixed on stone
that will not sway to the emotional beats of politicians. It is the only way we will be an
emerging economy.
------------------
Why Ghana's President said 'No' to U.S., France and Nigeria on military intervention
in Ivory Coast (Modern Ghana)

Ghana's president John Mills has expressed his opposition to any military intervention
in Ivory Coast, led by the ECOWAS or the international community, seeking to force
controversial incumbent Laurent Gbagbo out of office.

He stated today January 7, 2011 that: ”I do not think the military operation will bring
peace to the nation.” This was a jolt to many of the leaders of the west African regional
bloc, ECOWAS and to the expectations of the U.S administration of President Barack
Obama. Two days earlier, on January 5, 2011, the U.S Assistant Secretary of State for
African affairs Johnnie Carson had called for increased pressure on Gbagbo with a
stronger demand for him to leave and making the point it is broad fight by the region
for democracy and should not be left as a domestic issue. President Mills is strongly
arguing the opposite position — to the surprise of the U.S and the international
community (supporting opposition candidate Outtarra against Gbagbo).

Mills who hosted the Obamas on July 11, 2009 in Accra, said today that “It is not for
Ghana to choose a leader for Cote D'ivoire. I have spoken to both Ouattarra and Gbagbo
and I cannot make it public.”

Diplomats, international security experts and interested parties are wondering: what
informed Ghana's blunt and clear position against a forced, military attack against
Gbagbo's outgoing, stalemated presidency?

I understand President Mills' position as: first, reflecting that west African country's
practical and immediate interests. Ghana is a neighbor of Ivory Coast's and has business
interests in the country.

Second, Ghana is likely to bear the brunt of a chaotic Ivory Coast, from refugees moving
into Ghana.

Ivory Coast has 19million citizens with 60 ethnic groups, a mix of Christians and
Muslims; the Baoule is the largest sub-group, the Senoufou, the Mande/Dioula, the
Krou, the Yacouba, the Akan (some of who draw their links from Ghana).

Third, Ghana seems mindful of the potential retaliation against its citizens and other
migrant workers across Ivory Coast. It will not be helpful to it, in the long run. Again,
on local interest, Mills said “We have about one million Ghanaians living in Ivory Coast
who could be victims of any military intervention. We do not want the influx of
Ivorians into Ghana, which obviously comes with its problems.”

A key adviser to Ghana's President Mills on international affairs informed me/USAfrica

that Ghana has also, understandably, “been under some pressure to take a more
aggressive position on this issue. But we're the ones who live next door to Ivory
Coast….”

Unlike Ghana, Nigeria has backed the use of military force — as an option — against
Gbagbo.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan is the current chairman of the ECOWAS. There
are as many Nigerians in Ivory Coast as there Ghanaians.
Ivory Coast has friendly relations with the U.S (one of the biggest importers of it cocoa
products) but Gbagbo loyalists argue that the Obama administration are working with
France and the UN against the former radical university professor and grassroots
mobilizer.

President Mills said his country has about 500 officially-designated troops in Ivory
Coast and that his military officers advised him Ghana could not contribute troops to
the much spoken military force against Gbagbo. Mills remains optimistic saying:
“Ghana is monitoring it very closely and will ensure that peace prevails,” he added.

But a senior member of the African desk of the U.S National Security Council in
Washington DC told me/USAfrica that: “it's obvious Mr. Gbagbo is overplaying his
hand. Unfortunately, we think he's trying to tie his personal agenda with those of his
country at such a critical and sensitive time. The presidential elections are not only
disputed but many in the international community say his opponent Mr. Ouattarra
won.” When I asked further as to what will be the next move by the U.S., the official
simply said: “The U.S supports free and fair results. We support democracy in Ivory
Coast.” Outtarra has called for a bloodless military intervention, especially a local coup.

Pierre Kablan, an activist in the capital city of Yamoussoukro informed USAfrica via
phone that ”Ouattarra is the man for France and U.S and the IMF-World Bank for
decades. They can control him but not President Gbagbo. That's the point.”

Any major slip and dangerous move in Ivory Coast by the typically patient Obama, the
usually brash Sarkozy of France and others in the international community in this once
peaceful, idyllic former colony of France with 18million people could be expensive for
the U.S and other west Africans.

Very telling is the latest warning from Notre Voie (the pro-Gbagbo newspaper) that any
military attack from the regional ECOWAS or the international community would
“endanger its citizens living here.”

Is there greater wisdom in Ghana's position?

Or is it unreasonable?
Or sheer self-interest?
------------------
Algeria Seeks to End Riots With Food-Price Moves, But 14 Die in Tunisia (Wall Street
Journal)

The Algerian government over the weekend said it will reduce tax and import duties on
some staples in a bid to end days of deadly clashes between police and rioters
protesting food prices in the North African country.
The eruption came amid widespread antigovernment protests over high unemployment
rates in nearby Tunisia in which at least 14 protesters died in clashes with police over
the weekend, according to state media there.

Top Algerian officials held an emergency meeting Saturday after several days of
widespread violence, triggered in part by a sharp rise in the price of cooking oil and
sugar.

Both countries suffer from high unemployment among an exploding youth

demographic. But the authoritarian regimes in Algiers and Tunis have mostly kept a lid
on political opposition and public protests, making the flare-up unusual.

Recently, rising global food prices have raised alarm among economists and
development experts who worry they could ignite unrest, much like they did in some
developing economies in 2008. But it is unclear to what extent global prices have
directly affected Algeria, a big importer of grains and other foodstuffs. The immediate
trigger to this month's protests appeared to be new regulations imposed by the
government this year intended to rein in Algeria's big unregulated informal sector.

Wholesalers and distributors tried to pass on the higher cost resulting from the new
regulations to consumers. That helped send prices for cooking oil and sugar, in
particular, up 20% this month, according to economists and local businessmen.

But the protests also have appeared to resonate more widely among Algeria's large and
unemployed youth. Young people under 25 make up almost 70% of the country's
population and face an estimated 30% unemployment rate, according to the
International Monetary Fund.

Starting in the middle of last week, protests and riots spread in waves across the
country, including in the capital, Algiers. Demonstrators burned tires, vandalized stores
and government buildings and clashed with armed antiriot police.

At least three protesters have been killed, while at least 300 police officers and some 100
demonstrators have been injured, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia told state media
over the weekend.

Algeria is one of the world's biggest energy producers. But President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika—who has run the country with an iron fist since 1999—has had mixed
success in reining in high unemployment among the country's youth, a problem across
much of the Middle East. For years, young Algerians have protested against a lack of
affordable housing, while civil-society groups have decried a lack of political freedom.

Despite the recent unrest, analysts say the government's healthy foreign-exchange
reserves, estimated at about $150 billion, would allow it the flexibility that poorer
countries lack, including the ability to boost already-hefty food-price subsidies. Indeed,
Algeria's cabinet met Saturday and agreed to "temporary and exceptional exemptions"
on import duties, value-added tax and corporate tax for sugar and food oils. A
statement issued by Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said the new measures are aimed
at cutting prices more than 40%.

On Sunday, there were no reports of fresh protests, but residents said roadblocks and a
heavy police presence around ministry buildings remained in place. Also on Sunday,
Trade Minister Mustapha Benbada met with food importers and related businesses to
discuss the new government measures.

The Algerian riots came amid weeks of instability in Tunisia, where on Sunday 14
people were killed during clashes in three Tunisian towns over the weekend, according
to a statement published by the country's official news agency.

Unrest in Tunisia Dec. 17 when an unemployed university graduate set himself on fire
after police confiscated his fruit and vegetable stand. Rare nationwide strikes and street
marches followed his funeral.
------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

UN envoy urges DR Congo authorities to probe recent allegations of mass rapes

8 January – The United Nations envoy dealing with sexual violence in conflict today
called on the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to immediately
investigate reports of a large number of rapes that occurred recently in the eastern
province of South Kivu.

Joint UN-African Union envoy confers with Sudanese official on Darfur

7 January – The head of the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission
in Darfur (UNAMID) held discussions with a senior Sudanese official on the security
and humanitarian situation following the recent fighting and heightened tensions
between the Government and armed groups in the region.

Horn of Africa could become new launch pad for global terrorism, Ban warns
7 January – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the international community to
provide urgent military and other support to Somalia’s Transitional Federal
Government (TFG) to stop “foreign fighters and other spoilers” turning the region into
the next stronghold of international terrorism.

Côte d’Ivoire: UN agency seeks $20 million to assist those affected by crisis
7 January – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking over $20 million
to enable the agency to respond to the humanitarian needs of people in Côte d’Ivoire
and five neighbouring countries over the next three months.
New Congolese law ‘significant’ step for indigenous rights – UN expert
7 January – An independent United Nations human rights expert today welcomed a
new law recently adopted in the Republic of Congo, calling it a “significant” step in
ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples.