Al Shabab, who control much of Somalia are looking to extend their operations and carry out attacks abroad.

"The threat from Al-Sahbab to the US and Western intrests in the Horn of Africa and to the US homeland is significant and on the rise," CIA chief Leon Panetta says in written resonses to the Senate Armed Services committee.

Panetta warns that Somalia, which has had no effective government since dicatator Siad Barre was desposed in 1991, could become a new haven for al Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/09/somali-militants-aiming-to-attack-abroad-cia-chief.html

Traveling to Somalia? Think again...

The United States doesn't have an embassy, or any other diplomatic outposts, in Somalia, putting American citizens who travel here entirely out of reach of assistance from the U.S.Inter-clan fighting and attacks on relief worker and journalists are frequent, and especially in the Mogadishu area. Territorial demarcations are arbitrary and change often.

http://ioframe.com/somalia

Al Shabab Militants Kill 4 Ugandan Soldiers

Somalia's al Qaeda-inspired al Shabab militants killed four Ugandan troops over the weekend, including a senior army officer, in one of the deadliest days since the country deployed peacekeeping troops in the war-torn country.

The al Shabab claimed responsibilty of the July terror attacks in Kampala in which at least 79 people, including one American, were killed.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201106061346dowjonesdjonline000219&title=somalias-al-shabab-militants-kill-4-ugandan-soldiers---updf

Somalia Government Postpones Elections

Feuding politicians at the head of Somalia's tranistional governemtn have postponed elections for at leas a year, effetively extending thier mandate under pressure from Uganda.

The Somali president and parliamentary speaker signed the deal Thursday in Kampala as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni looked on.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201106090429dowjonesdjonline000355&title=somalia-government-postpones-elections-extends-mandate

Libya is not Rwanda

Libya is not Rwanda
Posted By Paul D. Miller Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - 3:21 PM Share

The president made it clear in his speech that the U.S.-led war against Libya is primarily motivated to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. "We were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale," he said. "To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and - more profoundly - our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different."

This gives credence to the reports that Hilary Clinton, the secretary of state, Susan Rice, the U.S. permanent representative to the U.N., and Samantha Power, N.S.C. senior director for multilateral affairs, led the charge to war specifically to avoid "another Rwanda." The latter two especially have been outspoken in their belief that the United States was wrong not to intervene to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which the ethnic Hutu Interahamwe militia slaughtered some 800,000 fellow Rwandans in a few weeks while the world watched. One diplomat told Power she shouldn't let Libya become "Obama's Rwanda," according to the New York Times. Rwanda looms darkly in the liberal conscience as a powerful prod of guilt, whispering "Next time, do something. Do anything. Anything is better than nothing."

Liberals have a point about Rwanda. It was grotesque that troop-contributing countries actually withdrew their forces from the U.N. Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR), rather than beef it up with more resources and authority, as the genocide unfolded. (However, Power betrays her ignorance of military realities when she argued in her book, A Problem From Hell, that the U.N. could have stopped the genocide with the assets it had on the ground at the time).

But Libya is not Rwanda. Rwanda was genocide. Libya is a civil war. The Rwandan genocide was a premeditated, orchestrated campaign. The Libyan civil war is a sudden, unplanned outburst of fighting. The Rwandan genocide was targeted against an entire, clearly defined ethnic group. The Libyan civil war is between a tyrant and his cronies on one side, and a collection of tribes, movements, and ideologists (including Islamists) on the other. The Rwandan genocidiers aimed to wipe out a people. The Libyan dictator aims to cling to power. The first is murder, the second is war. The failure to act in Rwanda does not saddle us with a responsibility to intervene in Libya. The two situations are different.

Advocates of the Libyan intervention have invoked the "responsibility to protect" to justify the campaign. But R2P is narrowly and specifically aimed at stopping genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity on a very large scale. It does not give the international community an excuse to pick sides in a civil war when convenient. Qaddafi has certainly committed crimes against humanity in this brief war, but R2P was designed to stop widespread, systematic, sustained, orchestrated crimes. If Qaddafi's barbarity meets that threshold, the administration hasn't made the case yet, and I'm not convinced. If R2P justifies Libya, then it certainly obligates us to overthrow the governments of Sudan and North Korea and to do whatever it takes to prevent the Taliban from seizing power in Kabul.

Historical analogies are sloppy thinking. U.S. policymakers went to war in Korea and Vietnam because they wanted to avoid another Munich. Liberals believe that Iraq is another Vietnam. Paleoconservatives worry that Libya is another Iraq, while liberals fear it is another Rwanda. These are rhetorical shortcuts that partisans use to excuse themselves from having to think very carefully or learn the details of each new case. One hopes the strategists in the White House will resist that temptation, but judging from Obama's speech, they aren't. TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images

Judgment Day for Rwanda - By James Traub | Foreign Policy

Judgment Day for Rwanda - By James Traub | Foreign Policy

What Qaddafi Said | Foreign Affairs

What Qaddafi Said | Foreign Affairs

Ending Africa's Wars | Foreign Affairs

Ending Africa's Wars | Foreign Affairs

AFRICOM's Libyan Expedition | Foreign Affairs

AFRICOM's Libyan Expedition | Foreign Affairs

Morphine in Africa

Morphine in Africa
Oct 1st 2010, 14:44 by J.D | LONDON
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..IN THE print edition this week we look at morphine in Africa. Ninety percent of the world's morphine is distributed in rich countries but in poor countries it is hard to get hold of. This means that Africans with AIDS, cancer and other diseases get little pain relief. In the business section, we look at Wal-Mart's efforts to expand in Africa after the Arkansas-based "Beast of Bentonville" offered over $4 billion for Massmar, a retailer with 288 stores in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

South African Strikes and Accusations Against Rwanda

South African strikes and accusations against Rwanda
Sep 3rd 2010, 16:33 by J.D. | LONDON
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..IN THE Africa section of this week's print edition we look at the leaked United Nations report that revisits the killing fields of central Africa. The report suggests that Paul Kagame's Tutsi Rwandan forces attempted a counter-genocide in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Rwanda's angry reaction to the accusations has prompted the UN to delay the release of the report for another month to allow Mr Kagame's government to comment on it. Elsewhere, Jason Stearns, an expert on Congo, worries that Congo's rejection of some of the key recommendations in the report also makes it less likely that the crimes detailed within it will ever be adequately addressed.

We also look at the strikes that have crippled South Africa in recent weeks and the damage they have done to President Jacob Zuma. In our leader on South Africa, we argue that Mr Zuma's attempts to buy off his political allies and quash the press are bad news for South Africa.

A fragile home threatened by war

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/archive/mountain-gorillas-1995/michael-nichols-photography


Brilliant photos and story in National Geographic Rwanda Apes and their people...

Zimbabwe: Church Officials Detained

Zimbabwe: Church Officials Detained
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: June 3, 2011
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Four Anglican priests and 11 church wardens were arrested Wednesday for trying to prevent people allied with a supporter of President Robert Mugabe from taking over the home of the rector of St. Mary’s Church in Harare. The 15 were released on Thursday. The Mugabe supporter, Nolbert Kunonga, an excommunicated bishop, is seeking control of thousands of church properties across four countries. “We are angry we are not being protected by the police,” the new bishop of the Harare diocese, Chad Gandiya, said Friday.

Health in Doubt, Mugabe, 87, Vows to Stay in Power

Health in Doubt, Mugabe, 87, Vows to Stay in Power
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: May 20, 2011
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CloseLinkedinDiggMySpacePermalink JOHANNESBURG — Some of his fellow autocrats may be struggling — with Hosni Mubarak detained in Egypt and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi hiding from NATO air bombardments in Libya — but Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, another of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, declared in an interview published Friday that he intended to run for president this year at the age of 87, and live to be 100.

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Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, center, on Friday at a summit meeting of southern African leaders held in Namibia.

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Times Topics: Robert Mugabe | Zimbabwe“The doctors say that I am O.K., and some are surprised by my bone structure,” Mr. Mugabe told an editor from the state-controlled news media. “They say they are the bones of someone who is 40. I suppose it’s the exercise. I also take calcium every day.”

Mr. Mugabe’s pronouncements about his good health and plans to stay in power beyond the three decades he has already governed Zimbabwe come at a time of rising concern within his own party, ZANU-PF, and among senior governing party officials in neighboring South Africa about what would happen if he died in office.

His repeated trips to Singapore for medical care this year have led to feverish speculation about his health. He has admitted only to having cataract surgery there. In the interview printed Friday in the media he controls, he was not asked about the now common rumor that he has prostate cancer.

“My age says I am not yet old at 87,” he insisted. “My body is saying the counting does not end at 87 — at least you must get to 100.”

The subject of Mr. Mugabe’s mortality is suddenly no longer verboten. This week’s issue of A.N.C. Today, the newsletter of South Africa’s governing party, reported that South Africa’s mediators in “the Zimbabwean political debacle” were worried about what would happen if Mr. Mugabe died or retired before the country voted on a new constitution and resolved the question of his succession.

ZANU-PF officials privately confirm that Mr. Mugabe’s health is weakening and say there is already an ill-disguised power struggle over who will take over when he is gone. But they add that no one in his party is willing to openly call for him to step down. Analysts fear a military coup or violence within ZANU-PF in a fight over the spoils of power in a nation rich in diamonds, gold and platinum.

“There will be chaos,” said a senior cabinet official who has been close to Mr. Mugabe for decades. “Mugabe is the glue that holds ZANU-PF together. He rules by fear and by buying loyalty. Beyond him, there’s no one who can wield such authority over patronage.”

Historians who have studied Mr. Mugabe — who has dominated what was once one of Africa’s most promising countries and is now one of its poorest — say they believe he wants to stay in power until he breathes his last. Some of his closest allies agree.

Mr. Mugabe is pushing hard for elections this year. Regional leaders pressured him into sharing power with his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who won more votes than him in the 2008 presidential election, but dropped out of a runoff because of state-sponsored attacks on thousands of his supporters.

Asked if his party had found a “suitable successor” for him, Mr. Mugabe responded, “Well, well, well,” as though surprised anyone had the nerve to ask such a question.

He replied that every election was a crisis, and that in a crisis the man his party turned to was him. “The party needs me, and we should not create weak points, points of weakness within the party,” he said.

Senior ZANU-PF officials say party power brokers are debating the exact date of elections, which will probably be called for October or November. That is far too soon for Zimbabwe to put in place the safeguards to ensure that the next vote is not a repeat of the bloody, discredited 2008 elections that enabled Mr. Mugabe to cling to power, Mr. Tsvangirai said.

“The old man is the candidate,” said the cabinet official close to Mr. Mugabe, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential ZANU-PF deliberations. “He really wants to run the country, I suspect until death. The talk about a successor is not on the agenda.”

South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, was supposed to attend a summit meeting of regional leaders in Namibia on Friday to discuss Zimbabwe’s crisis, but he canceled at the last minute, claiming he needed to attend to local elections that were held Wednesday across South Africa.

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A Zimbabwean journalist contributed reporting.

Where Dissidents Are the Prey, and Honor Is a Weapon

Books of The Times
Where Dissidents Are the Prey, and Horror Is a Weapon
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: May 23, 2011
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CloseLinkedinDiggMySpacePermalink An authoritarian government willing to use the most brutal means to hold on to power; a dictator whose thugs have murdered, tortured, imprisoned or intimidated tens of thousands of civilians; and individuals who have risked their lives simply to exercise their most fundamental rights — this is the state of affairs not only in Libya today, but also in Zimbabwe, which has suffered the ravages of more than 30 years under the autocratic rule of President Robert Mugabe.

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THE FEAR

Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe

By Peter Godwin

371 pages. Little, Brown & Company. $26.99.

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Hugo Burnand
Peter Godwin
In his chilling new book, “The Fear,” the journalist Peter Godwin gives readers an unsparing account of the horrors that Mr. Mugabe’s regime has inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe. During his three decades in office the country’s economy has tanked: agricultural production has plummeted, unemployment and food shortages have multiplied, inflation has soared, and much of the country’s middle class has fled. AIDS cases have exploded, and medicine and medical help are in increasingly short supply.

Hopes that Mr. Mugabe’s days as president might actually be numbered were dashed in the weeks leading up to a runoff election in June 2008, when supporters of the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change came under violent attack, and Mr. Tsvangirai announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate, saying he could not ask people to come out to vote for him “when that vote would cost them their lives.”

A so-called power-sharing government has been in place since 2008, but Mr. Mugabe has remained firmly in control; more than a quarter of his opponents in Parliament have been arrested, according to the Movement for Democratic Change and human-rights lawyers. Despite rumors about his health, Mr. Mugabe declared last week that he intended to run for president this year at the age of 87, and political violence is reportedly already increasing.

In “The Fear” Mr. Godwin chronicles the savagery of Mr. Mugabe’s regime in harrowing detail. Some observers, he notes, call what has happened in Zimbabwe “politicide”: “As genocide is an attempt to wipe out an ethnic group, so politicide is the practice of wiping out an entire political movement.”

The murders carried out by the president’s supporters and riot police around the time of the 2008 election, Mr. Godwin says, were “accompanied by torture and rape on an industrial scale, committed on a catch-and-release basis”: “When those who survive, terribly injured, limp home, or are carried or pushed in wheelbarrows, or on the backs of pickup trucks, they act like human billboards, advertising the appalling consequences of opposition to the tyranny, bearing their gruesome political stigmata. And in their home communities, their return causes ripples of anxiety to spread.” The people have given this time of violence and suffering its own name, chidudu — meaning “the fear.”

In reporting this book Mr. Godwin traveled back to the country where he grew up, despite the dangers: “not only from Mugabe’s banning of Western journalists, but also because I was once declared an enemy of the state, accused of spying.” He uses his intimate knowledge of Zimbabwe to introduce readers to opposition leaders, church authorities, foreign diplomats and ordinary people who have ended up in hospitals or as refugees — beaten, mutilated, raped and terrorized, their houses burned to the ground.

This volume lacks the intimacy of the author’s two affecting memoirs about Zimbabwe (“Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa” and “When a Crocodile Eats the Sun”), and it sometimes assumes a little too much familiarity on the part of the lay reader with that country’s tragic history. But it remains a document that should be read by anyone interested in the sacrifices that people are willing to make for the sake of democracy — a timely document, indeed, given the democratic uprisings taking place this spring in northern Africa and the Middle East. Not only is “The Fear” a valuable work of testimony — filled with firsthand accounts of witnesses to the most horrific crimes — but it is also a haunting testament to those survivors’ courage and determination.

Mozambique: Government Threatens to Close University

Mozambican Education Minister Zeferino Mampula, 15 days to sort out a range of  Martins has given the Mussa Bin Bique University, based in the northern city of Nampula, 15 days to sort out a range of irregularities, or face closure.  Mussa Bin Bique is owned by the Islamic Training Center.  it is recognized by the Ministry of Education, but is has been opening delegations without the Ministry's autorization.

From its beginning in Nampula, it has opened what are claimed to be university facilities in Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Zambezia provices, and in Maputo.  All of which lack basic facilities for an institution of higher education, and which were somehow set up without the knowledge of the senior university management itself.  It was found that the university library consisted of three small shelves which contained a total of about 15 books. 

Mozambique: Munene River "Not Critically Polluted"

The Mozambican Health Ministry has concluded that the Munene river, in the central provice of Manica, has not been seriously polluted by a rubbish dump established in the Zimbabwean city of Mutare, near the river's source.  Fears of the impact of the rubbish dump on the river led the manica provincial government to order labortorary analyses of the river water.  These analyses were undertaken by the National Food and Water Hygiene Laboratory, and a technical commission of the Ministry declared that the laboratory results showed the levels of contamination detected are not critical.

The analyses showed along the course of the river a high concentration of faecal coliforms.  This was not surprising,l given that people living near the river use it for bathing, washing clothes and other domestice activity.  Human excrement thus easily finds its way into the water.  The water samples also showed a relatively high concentration of ammonia. 

Only a small amount of common garbage was found in the river " which for the moment is not a reason for alarm".  Local people said that larger amounts of garbage are washed into the river during the rainy season.  As for the hospital wast supposedly deposited in the Mutare dump, there were no traces of this anywhere along the river.  The officials said that the river is not critically contaminated and that the Munene water that passes through the Chicamba water treatment station is perfectly safe to drink. 

The Mutare rubbish dump is not new it was established 60 years ago when Zimbabwe was under British colonial rule.  Only recently was it suggested that it poses a threat to the river.

South Africa Government and Mozambique Combine to Fight Somali Pirates

Mozambique and South Africa have agreed to cooperate in fighting piracy, which is spreading south from Somalia.  The two countries will operate joint patrols in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagasar and press the international community to finance beefing up the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.  An agreement was signed in Pretoria by the defense ministers of both countries.

The pirates attacked a ship off Mozambique last December.  The Mozambique channel carries 30 per cent of the world's oil and 99 percent of South Africa's maritime traffic.  South African Secretary of Defense says piracy is costing eight billion euros a year.  Prosecuting pirates costs 21 million euros a year and 104 million euros is spent paying ransoms. 

The Mozambique and South African navies will share patrols, training and information.

Zambia President Remains Confident

President Rupiah Banda has said he is confident that the economic development so far recorded in the last three years when he has been in office will translate into victory for him and the ruling party in this year's presidental and general elections.  President Banda said it was not possible for him to impress all the people and traditional leaders but was happy that the majority of them had made it clear that they would support him because of his deeds.  He said the development projects his Government had undertaken were being appreciated by the Zambian people and hoped they would retain him during the elections as a show of appreciation. 

President Banda said pressure was not on the ruling party but the opposition to attempt to conceal the successes that his Government had achieved since taking office.  He said his administration was aware that the public appreciated the many developmental programs and would not waste time to listen to opposition leaders who had failed to achieve similar development when they were in power.

President Banda said the Government was reconstructing roads in various parts of the country so that mobile hospitals were able to reach all the intended areas.  He said it was unfortunate that the opposition had made the hospitals a campaign issue but that the beneficiaries had flocked to the facilities to receive treatment.

Guebuza Attacks Superstition

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza attacked the superstition which leads some people to abandon their own elderly parents, accusing them of witchcraft.  Far from being witches, elderly people are those who know the history and traditions of Mozambicans and so should never be marginalized from society.  Guebuza also declared that the country has enormous human potential which is working to transform natural resources into wealth, to improve the life and well-being of all citizens.  He urged people to make use of the favourable agricultural conditions in this part of the country to produce more for their own consumption and for export. 

Guebuza pointed out that in Mozambique there are still people who do not know where their next meal is coming from, children who wake up with no idea what they are going to eat that day and seriously ill people, whose condition is made worse by lack of food.  Guebuza also stressed that when someone builds a school or a hospital or works on his or her farm, these are all ways of fighting poverty.  He declared that all Mozambicans are advancing in the struggle against poverty.

Iapala residents who spoke at the rally complained at the low prices which the buyers of their crops offer.  Workers from a defunct state tobacco farm asked Guebuza to intervene to solve their demand for back wages.  They claim that wages have been owed to them for the past 20 years.

Chiwenga Guns for Presidency

In a new twist to President Robert Mugabe's unpredictable succession battle, a group of generals in the army disgruntled by Zanu PF's failure to resolve the issue are reportedly pushing for Zimbabwe Defense Force Commander Constantine Chiwenga to take over from the ageing leader battling with ill-health.  Impeccable sources told the Zimbabwe Independent that a coterie of commanders working with Zanu PF politicians, want Chiwenga to retire from the army and enter the fray to succeed Mugabe.

Chiwenga who is referred to within military circles as "Zim 2" implying that he is effectively number two to Mugabe.  He is said to be open to the idea of an active role in politics after quitting the army.  Chiwenga has been studying in recent years and this has been seen as part of his preparation for a political career after his quitting the military.  He is studying for a Master of Arts degree in International Relations at the University of Zimbabwe. 

Mugabe in order to maintain control of both the party and the government, has been  appointing former military personnel to run the party.  Mugabe has also previously appointed retired soldiers to boards and top mangement posts.  The army has proved loyal to Mugabe and effective in the political assignments he gave them.  It has helped ensure Mugabe's continued rule, mainly during the presidental elections in 2002 and 2008.  Mugabe views military personnel as loyal to him and this has been shown through statements from top army and security chiefs, who have vowed not to support anyone without liberation war credentials.