United States Africa Command

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25 April 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Qaddafi: NATO tried to assassinate me (CBS News)

(Libya) NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Muammar Qaddafi's seat of power early
Monday, destroying a multi-story library and office and badly damaging a reception
hall for visiting dignitaries, in what a press official from Qaddafi's government said was
an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.

Libyan Rebels Say They Have Control of Misurata (NYT)

(Libya) Rebel leaders said they had consolidated their control of the western city of
Misurata on Sunday, taking over the last two government outposts there even as
government forces continued to shell the city from its outskirts.

Lawmakers urge Obama to take stronger action to oust Kadafi (LA Times)
(Libya) A trio of U.S. senators redoubled calls on the Obama administration Sunday to
step up U.S support for Libyan rebels in their battle against the regime of Moammar
Kadafi, even targeting Kadafi directly if necessary.

Fears of a military stalemate in Libya grow (USA Today)

(Libya) The United States recently stepped up pressure on the regime of Moammar
Gadhafi with drone strikes and a decision to send non-lethal supplies to rebels. But
critics say these are only incremental steps that won’t turn the tide.

Attempt to hijack plane to Libya thwarted: report (Xinhua)

(Libya) A man on a flight from Paris to Rome on Sunday night attacked a hostess and
tried to divert the flight to Tripoli, but he was stopped thanks to the rapid reaction of
some flight attendants and passengers on board, Italian media reported.

I. Coast embarks on daunting security purge (AFP)

(Côte d’Ivoire) Ivory Coast's messy removal of over-staying leader Laurent Gbagbo has
left the new government with the daunting task of wiping out remaining pockets of
resistance.

Southern Sudan Ready to Negotiate With Militias to End Violence (VOA)

(Sudan) South Sudan’s chief of mission to the United States and United Nations has
called on militia groups to lay down their arms and join his government. He says
continued fighting risks destabilizing the region, ahead of south Sudan’s independence
scheduled for July.

Accused Somali pirate negotiator faces US charges (Reuters)

(Somalia) A Somali man accused of negotiating a ransom after pirates seized a
merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden has been brought to the United States to face
criminal charges, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Nigeria: Fresh Security Concern Over Guber Polls (Vanguard)

(Nigeria) The Federal Government is reviewing internal security ahead of Tuesday's
governorship and state assembly elections following intelligence report about plans by
some people to derail the elections.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 Côte d''Ivoire: UN peacekeepers begin clearing explosives after election conflict
 Sudan: Security Council urges parties to peace pact to resolve outstanding issues
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, April 27th, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm.; The Brookings

Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, WDC
WHAT: Africa’s Education Financing Challenge
WHO: Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Director of Africa Growth Initiative; Albert Motivans, Head
of Education Indicators and Data Analysis at UNESCO Institute for Statistics;
Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of Africa Region at World Bank; Jacques van
der Gaag, Senior Fellow at the Global Economy and Development, Center for Universal
Education
Info: http://www.brookings.edu/events/2011/0427_africa_education.aspx

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

Qaddafi: NATO tried to assassinate me (CBS News)

By Unattributed Author
April 24, 2011
TRIPOLI - NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Muammar Qaddafi's seat of power
early Monday, destroying a multi-story library and office and badly damaging a
reception hall for visiting dignitaries, in what a press official from Qaddafi's
government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.
Qaddafi's whereabouts at the time of the attack on his sprawling Bab al-Azizya
compound were unclear. A security official at the scene said four people were lightly
hurt.

A press official, who asked not to be identified, said 45 people were injured, including
15 who were seriously hurt, and some were still unaccounted for after the attack. There
has been no independent verification of those figures as yet.

CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the strike was part of a pre-
planned attack against command and control facilities, and it is extremely unlikely that
NATO would know Qaddafi's location that far in advance.

Authorities say between two and four large missiles or bombs exploded in the
compound early Monday. The buildings, described as locations where Qaddafi holds
meetings, were badly damaged with the roof of one of the structures caved in.

The attack comes a day after Qaddafi's forces unleashed a barrage of shells and rockets
at Misrata in an especially bloody weekend, and also falls on the heels of fresh calls for
more aggressive NATO action by some American politicians.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said over the weekend: "My recommendation to NATO
and the administration is to cut the head of the snake off, go to Tripoli, start bombing
Qaddafi's inner circle, their compounds, their military headquarters in Tripoli."

Qaddafi's forces had unleashed a barrage of shells and rockets at Misrata on Sunday in
an especially bloody weekend, countering Libyan government claims that the army was
holding its fire into the western city.

Because of the escalating violence in Misrata, which doctors say killed 32 and wounded
dozens in two days, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that ships taking
civilians away from the besieged city have become an all-important lifeline. Food and
medicine have become scarce in the city, and the only way for most people to help
themselves is to leave.

Rebels said Sunday they drove the last pro-government forces from the center of Libya's
third-largest city. Morale among Qaddafi's troops fighting in Misrata has collapsed,
with some abandoning their posts, said one captured Libyan soldier.

The battle for Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two months, has
become the focal point of Libya's armed rebellion against Qaddafi since fighting
elsewhere is deadlocked.
-------------------------
Libyan Rebels Say They Have Control of Misurata (NYT)
By ROD NORDLAND
April 24, 2011
BENGHAZI, Libya — Rebel leaders said they had consolidated their control of the
western city of Misurata on Sunday, taking over the last two government outposts there
even as government forces continued to shell the city from its outskirts.

Government spokesmen asserted that Libyan forces had withdrawn from the city
voluntarily on Saturday to allow for a 48-hour cease-fire, during which tribal leaders
could negotiate the rebels’ surrender.

There was no sign of a cease-fire, however, or negotiations.

In Tripoli, the capital, two bombs were seen falling in the vicinity of Colonel Qaddafi’s
compound shortly after midnight and the blasts were heard a mile away, part of what
Libyan officials complain is an intensifying NATO campaign in recent days. Journalists
taken to the Qaddafi compound by government officials found a small complex of office
buildings and a meeting space destroyed by the bomb blast, with a tangle of wires and
antennae protruding from the smoldering wreckage.

A normally stoic Foreign Ministry official watching the coverage of the blasts in the
lobby of the Rixos Al Nasr Tripoli Hotel exclaimed that the bombing had gone too far,
and in evident exasperation warned that Libya would be justified in launching terrorist
attacks against the cities of NATO members.

The shelling diminished Sunday, but it still killed eight people and wounded 38,
according to a rebel spokesman in Misurata, reached by Internet telephone and
identified only as Mohammed for his security. On Saturday, as government forces
withdrew, he said, 36 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded.

Mohammed said that among those killed Saturday night was his father, Ali. He said his
father died along with a cousin who was trying to rescue him when their neighborhood
came under heavy shelling.

“The shelling was unprecedented yesterday, both in the intensity and the size of the
shells,” he said Sunday, describing the bombardment as using heavy artillery, Grad
missiles and Katyusha rockets.

Mohammed said he continued to work as a spokesman after burying his father on

Sunday. “It is very tough, but we are in a war and it’s my duty, it’s my way of taking
revenge for my father,” he said.

Rebel leaders disputed claims that forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had
withdrawn voluntarily, insisting that they had been defeated in battle.
Misurata, which has been besieged by government forces for the past two months, is the
third largest city in Libya and the only major rebel stronghold in the west. Mohammed
said the rebels had captured 180 government soldiers in the past week of fighting and
were treating them as prisoners of war.

“They even left their wounded behind,” said Jalil el-Gallal, spokesman for the rebels’ de
facto governing body, the Transitional National Council. “They were fleeing, not
withdrawing.”

Mr. Gallal and Mohammed said rebel forces had taken complete control of the city, and
accounts from journalists there generally confirmed that. “There are none and
absolutely none of them in the city now,” Mohammed said of Colonel Qaddafi’s troops.

A reporter for the British newspaper The Guardian reported seeing six destroyed tanks
in the vegetable market, the scene of particularly heavy fighting last week. The market
was where the first American Predator strike in Libya took place on Saturday.

The Guardian also confirmed that the last two buildings held by Qaddafi forces in the
city on Saturday had been cleared, and that green Libyan military uniforms had been
found that were discarded by retreating troops.

A ship chartered by the International Organization for Migration arrived in Benghazi

on Sunday from Misurata, carrying 995 more stranded migrant workers, most of them
from Niger, as well as 17 wounded civilians.

The organization said it planned to make at least two more trips into Misurata to rescue
1,500 more migrants, many of whom have been camped near the port in hopes of
fleeing. The group said that it expected that other migrants who had been hiding in
parts of the city previously controlled by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces might swell that
number, now that they could move safely.

In all, the migration group has gotten 4,100 migrant workers from 21 nations out of
Misurata.

In Benghazi, the rebel capital, opposition leaders were upbeat about their financial
situation. While they have not yet gained access to $30 billion in Libyan money in
frozen accounts abroad, as some countries have suggested they should, they have found
donors to tide them over.

On Sunday, officials announced that Kuwait had donated about $180 million to the
governing council. And Wahid Bugaighis, the interim government’s oil minister, said
that while the rebels had not been able to pump any oil from fields in eastern Libya,
Qatar had stepped in with an open-ended commitment to finance their fuel and energy
needs “with whatever we need during this transition period, with no fees attached.”
-------------------
Lawmakers urge Obama to take stronger action to oust Kadafi (LA Times)
By Noam N. Levey
April 24, 2011, 8:24 a.m.
Washington — A trio of U.S. senators redoubled calls on the Obama administration
Sunday to step up U.S support for Libyan rebels in their battle against the regime of
Moammar Kadafi, even targeting Kadafi directly if necessary.

"I think the focus should now be to cut the head of the snake off. That's the quickest
way to end this," Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"Let's get this guy gone."

Graham was joined by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who just completed a visit to Libya,
and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in urging the U.S. to resume a leadership role in the air
campaign against Kadafi's forces.

Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats on Capitol Hill, also called on the U.S. to step
up support for the popular uprising in Syria, which has met with increasingly violent
reaction from the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"This is a moment of extraordinary opportunity for the cause of freedom in Syria, and it
has tremendous strategic significance for the region," Lieberman said, noting Syria's
close ties with Iran.

Lieberman called on the U.S. to freeze Assad's wealth and go to the United Nations to
place an arms embargo on the regime.

Several Democratic lawmakers urged a more cautious approach Sunday, emphasizing

the need to continue to work with other countries.

"We should encourage the democratic movement in Syria, but at the same time avoid
anything like an open-ended commitment," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said on
CBS' "Face the Nation."

Appearing on the same program, Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) urged patience in
Libya as well.

"We need to give it a little bit of time. I think the squeeze play that we are applying
more and more pressure on Kadafi with military action, with an embargo, will
eventually succeed."

But even while applauding the Obama administration for deploying drones in Libya,
McCain, Graham and Lieberman criticized the White House for removing other U.S.
attack aircraft from front line roles in the support of rebel forces.
"You can't get into a fight with one foot," said Lieberman.

McCain, who has been a leading advocate for a more aggressive U.S. action in Libya,
warned that a military stalemate there could provide an opening for Al Qaeda and he
called for more concerted efforts to arm the rebels using intermediaries the way the U.S.
helped Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet Union in the '80s.

But McCain and Lieberman signaled less confidence in targeting Kadafi specifically.

"We have tried those things in the past with other dictators, and it's a little harder than
you think it is," McCain said, warning of the danger of civilian casualties should the
U.S. strike at Kadafi and his inner circle.
------------------
Fears of a military stalemate in Libya grow (USA Today)
By Jim Michaels
April 24, 2011
WASHINGTON —The United States recently stepped up pressure on the regime of
Moammar Gadhafi with drone strikes and a decision to send non-lethal supplies to
rebels. But critics say these are only incremental steps that won’t turn the tide.

“We’re in great risk of a stalemate,” said Sen. John McCain, a leading Republican voice
on national security issues and critic of President Obama’s Libya policy. “I think we
need to do a great deal more in order to bring it to a successful conclusion.”

McCain made the remarks over the weekend after returning from a surprise visit to
Libya, where he met with rebel leaders in Benghazi, the opposition capital. He was the
first prominent U.S. politician to visit the rebels.

The criticism reflects an intensifying debate over whether the Obama administration is
getting sucked deeper into a war without a clear victory strategy.

On Sunday, rebel forces appeared to have driven Gadhafi’s forces from the center of
Misrata, a western city that has been the scene of bloody street fighting. Gadhafi forces
responded with a rocket barrage back into the city.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the Obama strategy last week, saying the
administration has set strict limits on involvement that will ensure the United States
will not be drawn endlessly into the conflict. The Obama administration has ruled out
the use of American troops, and the aid it will send will be non-lethal.

“I don’t think there’s mission creep at all,” Gates said.

What worries some analysts are precisely the limits the U.S. has put on its role in Libya.
It’s an approach that ramps up pressure incrementally without using overwhelming
force to shift momentum, they say. “I don’t know of any military operation where
incrementalism is a good thing,” said Reuel Marc Gerecht, an ex-CIA officer and senior
fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

America’s European allies have also raised the stakes. The British, French and Italians
said they would send several dozen military advisers to work with the rebels. They will
help to coordinate air strikes and to organize a rebel force that currently lacks structure,
analysts say.

“When you put in the force incrementally the enemy just adjusts,” said James Carafano
of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

In fact, the Pentagon said Obama authorized armed Predators in response to changes in
tactics by Gadhafi’s forces. They are trying to blend into the population, making it
difficult for coalition aircraft to strike them without harming civilians.

“The character of the fight has changed,” Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week. “You’re seeing a much more dispersed flight,
people that are … nestling up against crowded areas.”

The unmanned Predators can fly lower and hit targets with more precision.

The Pentagon has turned leadership of the air war over to NATO, but said it would
provide help when it had capabilities unavailable elsewhere.

McCain said the U.S. should play a bigger role in NATO’s air campaign, using AC-130
gunships and A-10 aircraft, both well suited to support ground forces in close-in
fighting.

“It’s very clear that NATO does not have the air assets that we do,” McCain told USA
TODAY in a telephone interview. “When we took the A-10 and the AC-130s out, we
took the most effective ground support capability out of the fight.”

The stated military goal of the coalition remains limited to protecting the population,
even though Obama and European leaders say Gadhafi must go.

Confusion about the mission makes it difficult to settle on a clear strategy, analysts say.
“It’s hard to know what mission creep is if you don’t know what the mission is,”
Carafano said.
Critics say that without decisive military power and stronger backing for rebels a
stalemate is likely. McCain said the U.S. should give the rebels communication gear and
recognize their provisional government.

Gates said the administration doesn’t have a clear picture of the rebels.

McCain said they are “ordinary people” united by a desire to overthrow Gadhafi: “I do
not see any al-Qaeda influence here. These are people who rose up against a brutal
dictator.”
-------------------
Attempt to hijack plane to Libya thwarted: report (Xinhua)
By Unattributed Author
April 24, 2011
ROME - A man on a flight from Paris to Rome on Sunday night attacked a hostess and
tried to divert the flight to Tripoli, but he was stopped thanks to the rapid reaction of
some flight attendants and passengers on board, Italian media reported.

According to the local news agency Ansa, the incident happened around 9:30 p.m. on
flight AZ329 linking the two European capitals. The attacker, who was in obvious
agitation but was not drunk at the moment, tried to assault a flight attendant using a
nail clipper blade and asked for a flight diversion to the Libyan capital.

The hostess, however, resisted, and thanks to the prompt help from some other flight
attendants and passengers, the man was brought under control and was pinned in his
seat, according to the report.

The flight, with 131 passengers aboard, landed safely at Rome's Fiuminico Airport. The
attacker has been handed over to the police, and the hostess, who only suffered minor
injuries to the neck, was sent to an emergency room at the airport.

According to the report, the attacker, identified as Valeriy Tolmachev, is a Kazakh

citizen and 48 years old. He is an adviser to the Kazakh delegation at UNESCO in Paris.
Investigation is being conducted by Italian police in close contact with French
authorities to find out the real intentions of the attacke
------------------------
I. Coast embarks on daunting security purge (AFP)
By Otto Bakano
April 23, 2011
ABIDJAN — Ivory Coast's messy removal of over-staying leader Laurent Gbagbo has
left the new government with the daunting task of wiping out remaining pockets of
resistance.
New President Alassane Ouattara, who took office nearly five months after winning
elections after his troops captured Gbagbo on April 11, has already demolished a
popular market in Abidjan that teemed with the fallen regime's followers.

The city's university, said to have been another hotbed of pro-Gbagbo elements, has
been closed indefinitely.

But defiant, diehard fighters who are clustered in Abidjan's northwestern Yopougon
district put up stiff resistance this week when government forces attempted to dislodge
them.

The west African country's Education Minister Kandia Camara told AFP the University
of Cocody campuses were shut down to "rehabilitate the students' residence and for
security reasons."

"These places were battle zones. There were arms and militia. The majority of the
people were not students," she said.

Just outside the university in a plush neighbourhood near the presidential residence,
informal shops have been razed, leaving their owners scrambling to salvage their
wares.

Students said the campus was virtually run by a powerful pro-Gbagbo students' union.

"This (closure) is in order because over the years we have witnessed atrocities. We were
frustrated as we witnessed what was happening and could not say anything," said 28-
year-old master's degree student Kain Blaise.

"It was no longer about education," he said. "Protests erupted at any time. Politics had
taken the centre stage and students became more political."

However, for freshman Gouene Ben Oumar, the closure just added more frustration on
top of the disruption to his studies.

"I don't see the real point of this closure. It is inconveniencing. I am disappointed. We
don't know when we will resume," Oumar said.

The students' union however last week pledged allegiance to Ouattara and urged their
militant comrades to lay down their weapons and help reconcile the crisis-torn country.

Since coming to power, Ouattara's forces have taken control of much of the seaside city,
the country's commercial hub, where they oversaw the demolition this week of the pro-
Gbagbo "Sorbonne" market in central Abidjan.
The mayor's office said the market was destroyed for reasons of "cleanliness and
security."

But purging popular social venues is the easy part in securing a country beleaguered by
years of political instability and violence. Rebel leaders with fleeting allegiances and
freelance gunmen are likely to be a long-term problem for the new authorities in the
world's leading cocoa producer.

The presence in Abidjan of coup-plotter Ibrahim Coulibaly with a pack of fighters is a

clear security concern for Ouattara. Coulibaly, who says he was behind the failed 2002
coup against Gbagbo, claims to command 5,000 men.

Coulibaly has said he helped topple Gbagbo and asked the new administration to
acknowledge him, without making other clear demands, but his fighters have already
clashed with Ouattara's in his stronghold in the north of Abidjan.

Ouattara on Friday ordered his senior military commanders to ask Coulibaly and other
militia leaders to put down their weapons or be disarmed forcefully.

"I instruct you to ask militia leaders, ask commander Ibrahim Coulibaly, to come to you
and lay down arms. This should be done immediately," Ouattara said.

"Nobody should illegally carry weapons," he added, warning that failure to heed meant
"they should be disarmed by force."
------------------
Southern Sudan Ready to Negotiate With Militias to End Violence (VOA)
Peter Clottey
April 24, 2011
South Sudan’s chief of mission to the United States and United Nations has called on
militia groups to lay down their arms and join his government. He says continued
fighting risks destabilizing the region, ahead of south Sudan’s independence scheduled
for July.

This came after South Sudanese officials say the army has killed at least 55 rebel fighters
during a clash in volatile Jonglei state. Hundreds have died in fighting between the
southern army and various armed groups since January, when southern Sudan voted to
split from the north.

Southern leaders accused the north of using the rebellions to destabilize the region
ahead of independence in early July.

Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, who is also a member of the ruling council of the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement (SPLM), says his government is ready to negotiate with the
militias.
“It has been our desire to have peace in Sudan and especially in southern Sudan. And
that is what we have been telling the militias to come and join us so that we can actually
build this new nation,” said Gatkuoth.

“We have plenty of natural resources including oil and a vast land. That is why we have
been calling upon them [militia groups] so that they can be integrated into the SPLA
[Sudan People’s Liberation Army] and become part of the new army we are going to
have come July 9,” he added.

The latest fighting raged for several hours Saturday, as soldiers battled gunmen led by
Gabriel Tanginya, the former head of a pro-Khartoum militia during Sudan's long
north-south civil war.

Tanginya agreed late last year to integrate his fighters into the southern army. Media
reports say Saturday's fighting began after the militiamen refused to report to the
southern capital of Juba. Officials say five of Tanginya's generals were killed in the
clash.

Gatkuoth says the Government of Southern Sudan is doing its best to integrate the
militias into the military.

“Their concerns are being addressed, because the concerns of a soldier are to be
recognized..and that’s [exactly] what we are doing,” said Gatkuoth.

He said there may be other factors motivating the armed groups to continue fighting in
the south:

“I don’t think it is [just about] their concerns [regarding integration into the larger
military]; it is about allowing themselves to be used by [outside forces] who are not
interested in having peace in southern Sudan,” he said.

“As a nation,” he continued, “we are committed to protecting our civilians, and we will
confront anybody who is jeopardizing the national security of southern Sudan.”
--------------------------
Accused Somali pirate negotiator faces US charges (Reuters)
By Unattributed Author
April 22, 2011 8:25am GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Somali man accused of negotiating a ransom after pirates
seized a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden has been brought to the United States to face
criminal charges, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
It said that Ali Mohamed Ali, 48, was charged with conspiracy to commit piracy, piracy,
attack to plunder a vessel and aiding and abetting in the crimes. If convicted, he faces a
sentence of up to life in prison.

Ali and others were charged with conspiring to take over the M/V CEC Future, a
Danish-owned vessel carrying American cargo, in a bid to hold the crew and cargo for
ransom.

Somali pirates seized the ship off the coast of Somalia on November 7, 2008, and held it
for more than two months. It was released on January 16, 2009, after the owner, Clipper
Group, paid $1.7 million in ransom.

Justice Department officials said Ali was scheduled to appear in federal court in
Washington on April 26.

According to a federal grand jury indictment, Ali boarded the ship within two or three
days of the attack. He allegedly communicated with the ship's owners and demanded
$7 million in ransom, and then agreed to accept $1.7 million.

This month another Somali man received a 25-year prison sentence for his role in
hijacking the vessel.

Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia have hijacked vessels in the Indian Ocean and
the Gulf of Aden for years, making millions of dollars in ransoms by seizing ships
including oil tankers.

Ali was the latest of more than 25 Somalis who have been captured by the United States
over the past year to face piracy and other criminal charges in U.S. courts.
--------------------
Nigeria: Fresh Security Concern Over Guber Polls (Vanguard)
By Kingsley Omonobi
23 April 2011
The Federal Government is reviewing internal security ahead of Tuesday's
governorship and state assembly elections following intelligence report about plans by
some people to derail the elections.

The announcement of the result of the April 16th presidential election triggered massive
violence in some Northern states that claimed many lives and left others injured.

Eleven states, according to security sources, are being targeted by the plotters.

These are: Kwara, Benue and Nasarawa in North Central; Imo and Anambra in South
East; Oyo and Ogun in South West; Sokoto, Kano and Kaduna in North West; and
Bauchi in North East.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that the decision of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, to reschedule the governorship/state assembly elections in Bauchi
and Kaduna was partly in view of the security concern.

"The situation we find ourselves is very dicey. The danger is real and the experience of
the last presidential election violence is a pointer that these plots should not be handled
with the kid glove any more," a source said.

"These guys are determined and the tools are readily available for them to use, but the
President will not tolerate it."

Going into specifics, the source said: "In Imo State, intelligence reports show that those
competing against the sitting governor are not only formidable, there are fears that
supporters of the ruling party and the opposition could take the law into their hands at
the slightest instigation".

In the case of Delta State, he said the songs coming from supporters of the main
contenders and ex_militants are frightening.

"In Oyo, we are envisaging a recurrence of violence of the past political era going by the
manner the politicians are attacking and even swearing at one another. So the security
agencies will be extra_vigilant in that state".

The source said, the plotters were waiting for the elections in Sokoto, Kano, Bauchi,
Kaduna, Benue, and Nasarawa to unleash further mayhem irrespective of the direction
in which the pendulum swing because their mission is totally different from that of
politics."

Consequent upon the development, the Federal Government, yesterday, suspended the
airlifting of soldiers for all international peace keeping operations until after the
elections.

Three battalions are waiting to be airlifted to peace keeping operations in Dafur, Sierra-
Leone and Liberia.

The decision has already been communicated to the United Nations and the African
Union.

Besides, President Goodluck Jonathan has barred all ranks of the armed forces from
going on Easter break.
-----------------------

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website

Côte d''Ivoire: UN peacekeepers begin clearing explosives after election conflict

22 April – The United Nations peacekeeping force in Côte d''Ivoire has begun clearing
explosive devices that were left over by combatants during the bloody post-election
violence that engulfed the West-African country following the runoff presidential poll
last November.

Sudan: Security Council urges parties to peace pact to resolve outstanding issues
21 April – The Security Council today urged both parties to the agreement that ended
the war between northern and southern Sudan to iron out outstanding issues before
Southern Sudan becomes a separate country in July, and encouraged then to enter
dialogue with the United Nations on the future of its presence there.