Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Media Review for May 23, 2013

Please note: The following news items are presented here for informational purposes. The views expressed within them are those of the authors and/or individuals quoted, not those of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, or the Department of Defense.

Today’s News

Car bomb attacks in Niger target French uranium mine, army barracks
Attackers in Niger detonated two car bombs at dawn on Thursday, one in the city of Agadez where a military barracks was targeted and one in Arlit where a French company operates a uranium mine, injuring more than a dozen people. Paris-based nuclear giant Areva said in a statement that 13 employees were hurt in the attack in Arlit, in the northern part of Niger where in 2010, al-Qaida’s branch in Africa kidnapped five French citizens working for the mining company. AP on The Washington Post

France beefs up Africa, Middle East embassy security
France will invest about 20 million euros ($25 million) to increase security for diplomats and embassies in the Middle East and Africa after its mission in Libya was targeted by a car bomb in April, the Foreign Ministry said. Spokesman Philippe Lalliot confirmed an email sent by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to staff on Tuesday saying the measure had to be taken following the rising number of serious international crises and threats emanating from them. “This plan takes into consideration the change in threats,” Lalliot told a daily news briefing, Reuters reports. DefenceWeb

US to continue supporting French air force ops in Mali
Although France is withdrawing its ground troops from Mali, there is no indication its air force will stop requesting U.S. aid in support of operations there. The Department of Defense announced Friday that the U.S. will continue to provide mid-air refueling to French planes. The refueling operation has been going on since January, almost immediately after the French intervened in Mali to halt the advance of militant forces connected with al-Qaida. To support French air power used in that operation, the 351st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron was deployed to Morón Air Base, Spain, to fly KC-135 Stratotankers over Mali and refuel French planes. Stars and Stripes

Midterm Challenges in Nigeria: Elections, Parties, and Regional Conflict
Nigeria is by far the largest country in the world with a population evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. The political party system, as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, requires that a presidential candidate achieve not only a plurality of votes but also at least 25 percent of the votes in two-thirds of the thirty-six states. Given Nigeria’s great ethnoreligious diversity, creating “national unity” in Nigeria is a challenge, especially between its “Muslim north” and “Christian south.” The aftermath of the last national elections in 2011 witnessed extreme violence in the country ‘s north. United States Institute of Peace

Security Vacuum Threatens Central African Republic’s Political Transition
Since late-March, when the rebel coalition Seleka took power in the Central African Republic (CAR), security has broken down in the country. United Nations Representative Margaret Vogt recently stated that CAR has entered “a state of anarchy”; in April, rebel-appointed Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye called for French and African help in restoring order. With Seleka struggling to turn military triumph into durable rule, CAR’s neighbors will likely see an increase in the circulation of refugees, fighters and weapons. World Politics Review

Nigeria: War, Amnesty and Oxymoron
Nigeria’s Federal Government has agreed to release, rehabilitate and grant amnesty to arrested terrorists and secessionist in its custody. This offer of peace is balanced with a continuous war against those who persist with a secession and terror agenda. Boko Haram leaders have often demanded the release of their arrested members. The Nigerian government has agreed to oblige, while it continues its war against the rebellious movement. The war against insurgents in the nation’s restive northeast remains, even as a presidential panel explores a possible amnesty deal for insurgents who surrender. The Africa Report

Remember That Historic Arab Spring Speech?
[...] President Barack Obama, in a major speech on May 19, 2011, during the heady early months of the Arab Spring. The president argued that concentrating mainly on longstanding U.S. security interests was no longer enough. Obama declared that encouraging transitions to democracy was now a “top U.S. priority that must be translated into concrete actions and supported by all of the diplomatic, economic, and strategic tools at our disposal.” He announced a three-pronged strategy for the transitioning countries: standing up firmly for democratic values, helping troubled economies, and expanding engagement beyond Arab regimes to newly-emboldened citizens. [...] But soon enough, after a series of tragic and discouraging developments, the United States began to pull back. Atlantic Council

The Myth of the Arab State
[...] For the past fifty years, America dealt with an Arab world composed of two kinds of authoritarian leaders: First, there were the adversarials—the PLO’s Yasser Arafat, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Syria’s Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi. Then there were the acquiescents—Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia’s Zine Ben Ali, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the kings of Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. For the most part the United States opposed the first group and cooperated with the second. Together, these leaders represented a regional order that, while volatile at times, offered a general stability in a critically important part of the world. The National Interest

‘Moving On’: Welcome to Kenya Inc – By John Githongo
When the Supreme Court decided against those who were contesting the election of Uhuru Kenyatta anticipated jubilation broke out in Jubilee’s ethnic strongholds. Gloom overcame other parts of Kenya. This was the natural reaction and continues to play out. The new government’s supporters both within and outside Kenya urged everyone to ‘move on’ and focus on the future. Essentially, forget the past, accept the new reality, find your space in it and get on with life. African Argument

Kenya truth report shows assassinations, land grabs, corruption plagued its past governments
Kenya’s president received a long-awaited Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report that names the president and his deputy as being among those suspected of planning and financing Kenya’s 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died and 600,000 were evicted from their homes. President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto already face trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity charges related to the election violence, but local attempts to prosecute the two have never taken off. The commission didn’t recommend prosecution for the two, and said they already face ICC action. AP on The Washington Post

With UN Troops Arriving, Congo Insurgents Have A Choice To Make.
Militias in the North Kivu region are facing desertions as the UN armed contingent begins to move into the embattled territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But fighting still flares. Worldcruch – SYFIA International

Zambia – Sata pack: Worries about politics are growing in one of Africa’s zippiest economies
[...] Lusaka’s bustle is a reflection of Zambia’s thriving economy. GDP has risen at an average rate of almost 6% a year in the past decade, while inflation has dropped from more than 20% to below 7%. Until quite recently Lusaka had no shopping malls. It now has ten and more are planned. The potential is enormous. Zambia is rich in arable land, water, gemstones, as well as copper, its main export, which China wants in abundance. A flaw is that this new-found prosperity has not been widely shared, which helped a populist veteran politician, Michael Sata, to an election victory in 2011. Zambia’s tax take from mining is poor. Its biggest export market is not China but low-tax Switzerland, where copper trades are booked. Prosperous Lusaka pulls in rural migrants but copper-belt towns are less of a draw because mining uses more machines than manpower; 61% of the population remain in the poorer countryside. President Sata presents himself as their champion. But his imperious style has lately left business folk nervous and others dismayed. The Economist

Shhh! Algeria’s president is ill, expect no details
The tight-lipped official response to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s latest health crisis sparked conflicting reports and rumours. But beneath the fracas, real fears are simmering about Algeria’s political future. The Twittersphere went berserk over the weekend amid conflicting reports on ailing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s health more than a month after the 76-year-old leader was last seen in public. “Bouteflika is fine. The proof: no wildlife documentaries on state TV,” said one tweet in French. The candour visible on social media sites was in stark contrast with the Soviet-style secrecy of Algerian authorities on the state of the Algerian president’s health. France 24

Somalia: A Terrorist-Piracy Nexus?
Piracy, like terrorism has been a scourge of mankind for centuries and, though its practitioners, real (Blackbeard, Anne Bonny and Henry Morgan) and mythical (Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribean movie stories) have achieved heroic stature in popular culture, its contemporary manifestations represent a major threat to the global economy and to national security. Significant strides have been made in recent years towards combating piracy, especially off the coast of Somalia, but a robust international grand strategy is urgently needed in order to forestall an ever more dangerous global threat as pirates develop ever more sophisticated organizational structures, many of which are already linked to criminal gangs and even, in some cases to terrorist groups. The Huffington Post

Nigerian Navy gets maritime surveillance equipment to monitor Gulf of Guinea
The Nigerian Navy has opened a maritime surveillance and intelligence fusion centre to monitor piracy and ship movements throughout the Gulf of Guinea from the Eastern Naval Command base in Calabar. Speaking at the centre’s inauguration ceremony, Flag Officer Commanding the Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral Joseph Aikhomu said the new facility, which is equipped with radar and satellite monitoring equipment, will enhance the navy’s intelligence gathering capacity as it continues to battle piracy and oil bunkering across the Gulf of Guinea. He said the long-range surveillance facility will also shorten the relay of information from ships in distress and shorten the reaction time for security forces on rapid deployment and rescue missions. DefenceWeb

Opposition Groups Call for Swaziland Election Boycott
The leader of Swaziland’s banned opposition People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) has called on citizens to boycott this year’s national elections. Mario Masuku says elections in Swaziland are part of the government’s plan to prevent the population from demanding multiparty democracy in the southern African kingdom. He says the administration in Mbabane has so far refused to adhere to both the United Nations and the African Union’s declaration of fundamental rights in elections, which allows citizens to freely elect their leaders. Voice of America

Togo bans opposition protests
Togo authorities on Wednesday banned two protests in the capital Lome planned by the opposition after windows were broken and cars were damaged after a demonstration the previous day. “Let’s Save Togo”, a coalition of opposition and civil society groups, had on Tuesday begun three days of demonstrations to protest the death in detention of an opposition member and to demand the release of others held in connection with fires last January at two markets. News 24

A leak in high places puts Ugandans on edge
Kampala is in an uproar. The Ugandan government has just shut down four private media outlets — a move that follows a crackdown on journalists from the Daily Monitor newspaper a few days earlier. The government’s anger was prompted by a story in the paper said to reveal details of a plan by senior officials to assassinate rivals opposed to a scheme by President Yoweri Museveni to arrange for his son to succeed him in office. By exposing deep rifts within the ruling establishment, the paper has shaken Uganda’s political establishment to the core. Foreign Policy

Missing oil revenue stirs discontent among Chad’s poor
[...] Ten years after the oil started to flow, Chad is still close to the bottom of the human development index, ranked 184th out of 187 by the UN in 2012. It may have started with a big handicap, but little has changed for most people, fuelling widespread discontent towards President Idriss Déby, in power for the past 22 years. In 10 years oil has earned the country $9.8bn. “On the international market oil prices have soared. We should not feel poverty so harshly,” says Delphine Djiraibe, one of the heads of the Chadian Civil Society Network for Peace and Reconciliation (CSAPR) coalition of NGOs, established in 2002, that has repeatedly criticised the poor management of this windfall. “The resentment,” she adds, “is particularly strong because oil revenue mainly benefits the elite.” The Guardian

Egypt’s 2011 jailbreaks still a mystery, carry potential embarrassment for Islamist leader
It was one of the most perplexing events of Egypt’s revolution: orchestrated attacks on prisons around the country that broke out more than 20,000 inmates while police were tied down with the massive popular protests that swept autocrat Hosni Mubarak from power. The prison breaks added to the chaos during the 18-day uprising in 2011, and the flood of criminals onto the streets fueled a crime wave that continues to this day. Also among those who escaped were around 40 members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as more than 30 leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood — including the man who is now president, Mohammed Morsi. AP on Fox News

How to deal with Tunisia’s Salafists
Critics of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist government, led by the Ennahda party, have in the past chided it for being a soft touch with followers of the ultra-conservative Salafi movement, treating them like wide-eyed, wayward children with a well-intentioned but simplistic view of religion. But times have changed. As a journalist based in Tunisia, I have watched relations between Salafists and Ennahda spectacularly crumple in recent weeks. This weekend was a turning point. Police clashed with the Salafi group Ansar al-Sharia in the central city of Kairouan and the Tunis suburb of Ettadhamen. The Salafists were trying to hold an annual conference without legal permission. The Guardian

African tribes losing ground to conservation
Trouble is brewing in northern Tanzania, where the government has recently designated a wildlife protection zone that threatens to displace tens of thousands of Maasai tribespeople, who live and graze cattle across the grasslands. In a rush to protect elephants, rhinos and other endangered animals from gun-toting poachers, governments are fencing off swathes of territory that have been inhabited and used by small ethnic groups for generations. Samwel Nangiria, who represents several Maasai groups, said his people have repeatedly lost out in the name of animal welfare and insisted it will not happen again. Al Jazeera

Sorry BBC, it’s blacks who have no future in South Africa
Sorry BBC, white South Africans are here to stay. This past Sunday, the BBC’s website asked a question which was disguised as a statement as one read further on: “Do white South Africans have a future?” The report, which appears as a video and written article on the broadcaster’s website, claims only certain white South Africans have a future in the country. “The people who are suffering now are the weakest and most vulnerable members of the white community,” it reads. Mail and Guardian

Barack Obama coming to Africa – a trip alive with possibilities
US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama are planning a three-nation tour to Africa, 26 June to 3 July. The visit is one that has long been anticipated by Africans, but has it come too late to generate the kind of enormous buzz that might have happened had this trip happened several years earlier? Daily Maverick

FOR THE RECORD – AFRICA – U.S. Government Events, Statements, and Articles.
A weekly compilation by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS)

Two California Men Sentenced for Rhino Horn Trafficking

The sentencing May 15 of two California businessmen in Los Angeles for trafficking in rhino horn will send both to prison and ensure that $800,000 of their illegally acquired “profits” end up helping protect rhinos in Africa. Vinh Chung “Jimmy” Kha and Felix Kha pleaded guilty in September 2012 to federal felony charges brought as a result of Operation Crash, an ongoing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigation of rhino horn trafficking. The two were ordered to spend 42 month and 46 months in prison, respectively. They also will pay $20,000 in criminal fines (plus $100,000 from Jimmy Kha’s company) and $185,000 in tax fraud penalties and assessments and forfeit seized rhino horns and other assets to the government.