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23654 – Africa Research Bulletin
DR CONGO – RWANDA
Ceasefire Agreement
Efforts are made to de-escalate regional
tensions.
DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and
his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame
have agreed on an immediate ceasefire to
resolve the conflict in the volatile eastern
DR Congo region, the UN-sponsored
Radio Okapi website (6/7) reported.
The decision was announced by Ango-
lan President Joao Lourencßo – who is
the African Union mediator in the
conflict – at the end of a tripartite
summit on July 6th in the Angolan
capital, Luanda.
The summit sought to settle the armed
conflict in eastern DR Congo, Radio
Okapi website cited the Angolan news
agency (Angop) as saying.
According to the report, the parties
agreed on the immediate withdrawal of
positions occupied by the March 23
(M23) rebels in the area.
“I am happy to announce that we have
made progress, since we have agreed on
a ceasefire,” announced President
Lourencßo at the end of the meeting.
He added that the parties also decided to
create an ad hoc observation mechanism
that will be headed by an Angolan
general officer.
The mechanism will be in force simulta-
neously with that of the International
Conference on the Great Lakes Region
(ICGLR), Lourencßo added.
DR Congo has blamed Rwanda for
supporting the M23 rebels in the eastern
Nord-Kivu Province, while Kigali
accuses Kinshasa of backing the Demo-
cratic Forces for the Liberation of
Rwanda (FDLR).
In June, the East African Community
(EAC) leaders agreed to deploy a regio-
nal force in eastern DR Congo to
counter rebel activities (p. 23617A).
They called for an immediate ceasefire in
the region, following a resurgence in
violence. (Radio Okapi 6/7)
The African Union (AU) chair and Sene-
galese President Macky Sall welcomed the
agreement between Rwandan and DR
Congo leaders for an immediate ceasefire.
“I welcome the positive results of the
dialogue held today in Luanda between
the Presidents @PaulKagame and
#Tshisekedi with the mediation of Pres-
ident @jlprdeangola.
“I congratulate and encourage all parties to
continue their efforts on the path to peace,”
he said on Twitter. (twitter.com 7/7)
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Meanwhile, Virunga Business radio (14/
7) reported that the M23 rebel group
had received a fresh supply of arms and
“manpower” from Rwanda and Uganda
as it seeks to take more positions from
Congolese troops.
The station quoted Jean Claude Baam-
baze, the president of a civil society
group in Rutshuru territory, as saying
on July 14th that the rebels continued
“to grow stronger in terms of manpower
and ammunition”.
“They are visibly preparing for another
attack because we have information con-
firming the reinforcement of their troops
from Uganda and Rwanda,” Baambaze
said, without providing evidence.
On July 6th, the rebels had rejected the
ceasefire deal agreed between the two
countries’ presidents.
A spokesperson for the M23, Willy Ngoma,
claimed the rebels were fighting for the
“noble and just cause” of defending the
rights of Kinyarwanda-speaking Con-
golese, who he said were marginalised by
DR Congo’s government. (Virunga Business
radio 14/7) Cross-border clashes p. 23617C
Ethiopia – Sudan
Committing to Dialogue
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said
he met Sudan’s coup leader Abdel Fattah al-
Burhan in Nairobi on July 5th and that both
committed to “dialogue” to resolve any
differences.
Their talks followed a clash in a volatile
border region in June in which Khartoum
said that Ethiopian forces had captured and
killed Sudanese troops – claims denied by
Addis Ababa.
“We have both agreed that our two coun-
tries have plenty of collaborative elements
to work on peacefully,” Abiy said in a
Twitter post, accompanied by a picture of
the two men.
Both leaders were in the Kenyan capital for
a summit of the Intergovernmental Author-
ity on Development (IGAD) regional body.
Sudan’s ruling sovereign council said only
that there had been a “closed-door meeting”
between Burhan and Abiy.
IGAD and the African Union had both
voiced alarm earlier over the escalating
tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan fol-
lowing the incident in the disputed Al-
Fashaqa border area.
Khartoum said the Ethiopian army had
executed seven Sudanese soldiers and a
civilian in a clash on June 22nd in Al-
Fashaqa, and announced it was recalling its
ambassador.
But Addis Ababa claimed that Sudanese
forces had crossed into Ethiopian territory
and that the casualties resulted from a
Continental Alignments
ETHIOPIA – SOMALIA
Volatile Border
Claims and counter-claims show confu-
sion over who controls the area.
Al-Shabaab fighters attacked a military
base on the Somalia-Ethiopia border on
July 29th, triggering fierce fighting that
caused an unknown number of casu-
alties, security officials said.
It was the latest strike in the area by
the Somalia-based jihadists in less than
two weeks, raising concerns about the
stability of the border and a possible
new strategy by the Al-Qaeda-linked
group.
Mortar shells hit the base in Ato,
sparking a gun battle that involved the
Ethiopian military and so-called Liyu
special police from the country’s Somali
region, the sources said.
Al-Shabaab claimed the attack in a brief
statement, saying its fighters had over-
run the base and killed over 100
Ethiopian police.
skirmish with a local militia, denying its
soldiers were in the area at the time.
Al-Fashaqa is a fertile strip of land that has
long been a source of friction between Addis
Ababa and Khartoum.
The region, which lies close to Ethiopia’s
war-torn northern region of Tigray, has
long been cultivated by Ethiopian farmers
but is claimed by Sudan.
The dispute has sparked sporadic clashes
between the two sides, some fatal.
Tensions were heightened further after
fighting erupted in Tigray in November
2020, sending tens of thousands of refugees
fleeing into Sudan. (© AFP; Sudan Tribune
5/7 2022)
IS Suspect Arrested: Sudanese authorities
have arrested an Islamic State-linked terror
cell at the border with Ethiopia, the private
Sudan Akhbar news website reported on
July 30th.
Two women and a man, aged 25-32 years,
were arrested by Sudan officials on July
27th at the Gallabat border crossing, the
website said. They were not carrying travel
documents.
The report said they were likely to cross to
Ethiopia and then to Yemen via Eritrea.
According to al-Harak al-Seyasi’s sources,
the cell has links to IS militants that killed
four Sudanese intelligence agents during
clashes in the capital, Khartoum, in Septem-
ber 2021. (Sudan Akhbar 30/7) Ambassador
recalled after clashes p. 23619B
C

July 1st–31st 2022
However, the official Ethiopian News
Agency quoted Major General Tesfaye
Ayalew of the National Defence Force
as saying al-Shabaab had tried to infil-
trate across the border but was repulsed
and had suffered heavy losses.
Ethiopia TV (26/7) reported the killing
of 85 al-Shabaab militants, days after
killing over 100 others who had crossed
over from Somalia.
The TV broadcast images that appeared
to show bodies presumably of al-Sha-
baab fighters and a number of burnt
vehicles, which it said belonged to the
Somali militant group.
On July 29th, the authorities in Somalia
said they had killed more than 100
militants who had made a cross-border
incursion on July 23rd.
The authorities said the armed group was
seeking to pass through El-Kere district in
the Somali region, more than 100 km
from the Somalia-Ethiopian border.
On July 21st, officials and residents of
Bakool region reported al-Shabaab
attacks on July 20th against bases host-
ing a special Ethiopian police unit which
helps protect the frontier.
Mohamed Malim, a local official in
Somalia’s Hudur district, told AFP that
“this was the heaviest fighting ever”
around the towns of Ato and Yeed in
the country’s west.
Somali regional president Mustafe Omer
reportedly said the authorities planned
to create a “security buffer zone” outside
Ethiopian territory to counter such
attacks, according to footage on Twitter.
Al-Shabaab has waged a bloody insur-
rection against Somalia’s fragile federal
government for 15 years and remains a
potent force.
The group’s cross-border attacks follow a
power shift in the troubled Horn of Africa
nation, with the election in May of new
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Internal Developments
CONSTITUTIONAL
CHANGES
LIBYA
New Initiative?
A fresh plan to resolve the elections
impasse is announced.
Libya’s Tripoli-based Presidential Coun-
cil on July 5th announced a plan to
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In separate incident in southern Somalia
on July 28th, a local government official
and his son were killed in a roadside
bomb blast, police said.
The justice minister for Southwest state,
Sheikh Hassan Ibrahim, was leaving a
mosque in the city of Baidoa after
Friday prayers “when the explosion
ripped through his car”, local police
officer Hussein Yerow said. (© AFP
23,29/7 2022; Radio Kulmiye 21/7)
ENA (30/7) claimed that the Ethiopian
military had killed a senior al-Shabaab
official in a Somali border operation.
Citing Ethiopian army official Major
General Tesfaye Ayalew, ENA said Fuad
Shongole was killed in an operation
“carried out in collaboration with the
Ethiopian Air Force”.
In 2012, the US State Department
announced a reward of up to $5m for
information on his location.
ENA described Shongole as al-Sha-
baab’s “propaganda chief”, saying that
a spokesman for the group it identified
as Abdulaziz Abu Musa and another
militant operative, Ubeda Nur Isse, were
also killed in the operation on an
unspecified date. (ENA website 30/7)
IN BRIEF
East African Community: Burundian President
Evariste Ndayishimiye has been elected chair-
person of the East African Community
(EAC), succeeding Kenya’s President Uhuru
Kenyatta, privately-owned The Citizen web-
site reported (22/7). He was elected during
the 22nd Ordinary Summit of EAC heads of
state. (The Citizen website 22/7)
Kenya – Somalia: A police officer was
wounded in a militant attack on security
forces in the north-eastern Kenyan county of
Mandera, a website affiliated to the Somali
group al-Shabaab has reported.
The attack took place in El-Qalow, a village
close to the Somali border, Somali Memo
(23/7) said.
extract the country from its latest polit-
ical crisis and hold elections.
The council did not provide details but said
the plan would “preserve Libya’s national
unity, end the spectre of war (and) put an
end to foreign intervention”.
Abdallah al-Lafi, the deputy head of the
three-member council, was charged with
holding “urgent consultations with polit-
ical actors to reach an agreement on the
details then lay out a clear roadmap to
end the transitional phase via elections”.
1467825x, 2022, 7, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-825X.2022.10605.x by su ci - Texas A&M University Libraries , Wiley Online Library on [24/02/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Africa Research Bulletin – 23655
It reported that militants also targeted a
Kenyan government convoy in Finow and
Sheikh Barow villages in Mandera but gave
no details of any casualties.
The group regularly claims attacks in areas
along the Kenyan-Somali border which have
large ethnic Somali populations, usually with
a high element of exaggeration.
Somali Memo website (26/7) reported that al-
Shabaab had launched another attack on a
Kenyan military base in Mandera on July 25th.
“Armed fighters last night attacked a Kenyan
military base in El Ram area of El Galow
town. Sources say the jihadist forces bom-
barded the base with rocket-propelled gre-
nades, destroying a military vehicle,” the
report said.
“Area residents said they could see flames
rising from the military base,” it added.
Meanwhile, privately-owned Goobjoog news
website reported a separate attack on Kenyan
security forces by suspected militants in the
same region.
Two military vehicles ran over explosive
devices between Fino and Sheikh Barow areas
in Mandera, according to the report.
Officers in the two vehicles survived the attack
and exchanged fire with the militants, “who
then fled to the Somali border”, it said.
(Somali Memo website 23,26/7; Goobjoog
news 26/7)
South Sudan – Sudan: At least 18 people,
including a six-year-old child, were killed after
youths attacked a village in Abyei region,
which is disputed by South Sudan and Sudan,
the Netherlands-based Radio Tamazuj website
reported.
“Local authorities in Abyei Administrative
Area on Sunday [June 26th] said youths
suspected to be from Warrap’s Twic county
attacked Mading-Acueng village near Abyei
town and killed 18 people and wounded 11
other people,” the website said.
Abyei’s paramount chief, Bulabek Deng
Kuol, confirmed the attack and said that the
assailants came at night when it was raining.
The attack was the latest intercommunal
violence to rock Abyei despite the presence
of a UN peacekeeping force. (Radio Tamazuj
website 27/6)
Presidential and legislative elections
were originally scheduled for December
2021 to cap a UN-sponsored peace
process following the last round of
large-scale fighting.
But they were postponed indefinitely due
to sharp differences over controversial
candidates and the rules for participat-
ing.
The initiative by the Presidential Coun-
cil, itself a product of the UN-backed
peace process, came in response to
repeated calls by Libyan political actors
for it to intervene to find a solution to
the crisis and hold elections “as soon as
possible”, according to the statement.
(© AFP 5/7 2022)
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