Media Review for July 27, 2012

By Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Updated: 07/27/2012

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

US official: US may offer military assistance to drive al-Qaida from coup-wracked Mali
The U.S. is likely to weigh options ranging from military assistance to direct strikes to drive a growing al-Qaida presence out of the coup-wracked African nation of Mali, a Pentagon official said Thursday. “We cannot allow al-Qaida to sit in an ungoverned space and have a sanctuary and impunity,” said Michael Sheehan, the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for special operations. The Washington Post

Al Qaeda’s richest faction dominant in north Mali: U.S.
Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa is the militant organization’s richest faction and the dominant Islamist force among those controlling northern Mali, the head of the U.S. military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) said on Thursday. General Carter Ham said the international community and the Malian government now faced a complex challenge to try to deal with the strengthened presence in Mali’s largely desert north of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the militant group’s North African franchise. Reuters

Is this al Qaeda’s ‘last chance’ for a country?
Islamic radicals linked to al Qaeda have seized the northern half of Mali, one of Africa’s largest nations, and there are widespread concerns that the region could soon become a terrorist haven. The militants have been able to capitalize on the instability of the country, which has seen a rebellion and a government coup within the past few months. CNN

A Mystery Airstrike and Mali’s “Inevitable” War
In late June two Salafist militant groups took over the cities of Gao and Timbuktu in northern Mali, wresting control of the cities from the ethnic Tuareg separatist group MNLA, who want an independent homeland in Mali’s north. The Salafist militant groups, Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), are both allied with Al Qaeda and demand an Islamic state. Shortly before the takeover, a curious article appeared on a news website sponsored by the US Army’s Africa Command. Claiming that “a mystery airstrike” killed Al-Qaeda operatives north of Timbuktu, the article insinuated that Western drones were likely responsible for the attack… GuernicaMag

Panetta to travel to North Africa, Middle East
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta next week will visit newly elected leaders in two of the countries where the Arab Spring unfolded, followed by consultations with close U.S. allies in the region. Panetta will travel first to Tunisia, the country that led the series of popular revolts that have rocked North Africa and the Middle East over the last 18 months, followed by a stop in Egypt, where the regime of President Hosni Mubarak collapsed last year. Stars and Stripes

The Nature of the U.S. Military Presence in Africa
On July 12th, TomDispatch posted the latest piece in Nick Turse’s “changing face of empire” series: “Obama’s Scramble for Africa.” It laid out in some detail the way in which the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has, in recent years, spread its influence across that continent, establishing bases and outposts, sending in special operations forces and drones, funding proxy forces on the continent, and so on. As last week ended, TomDispatch received a “letter to the editor” from Colonel Tom Davis, director of the U.S. Africa Command Office of Public Affairs, disputing in some detail a number of Turse’s points. (Colonel Davis also sent a copy of the letter to the Nation Institute, which supports this website.) The Huffington Post

Madagascar rivals fail to agree on leader’s return from exile
Rivals for Madagascar’s presidency, in talks to end political turmoil, failed to agree terms under which the island’s former leader could return from self-imposed exile, officials at the talks said on Thursday. Madagascar has been in crisis since 2009 when then-opposition leader Andry Rajoelina ousted president Marc Ravalomanana, who was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the killings of demonstrators by elite troops in the coup. Reuters

Boko Haram: Fighting Fire with Fire
In June, suspected members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram attacked Yobe prison freeing over 40 inmates and concluding a week of violence in which around 150 Nigerians were killed in attacks. Frustrated by the government’s inability to check such attacks, President Goodluck Jonathan sacked both Minister of Defence Bello Haliru and National Security Adviser General Andrew Owoye Azazi. Think Africa Press

Nigeria’s booming illegal oil refineries
The vegetation ended abruptly and the colour of the landscape turned from green to black. I was getting a rare look at the booming trade in refined stolen crude oil in southern Nigeria. BBC

Sudan: : Who’s who in the opposition
[...] Bashir has derided the demonstrators as “elbow-lickers”, an allusion to the supposed futility of their protests. “They talk of an Arab Spring – let me tell them that in Sudan we have a hot summer, a burning hot summer that burns its enemies,” the president declared in mid-July. Here is a brief overview of anti-government forces which, despite some alliances, lack strong cohesion or coordination among their various elements: IRIN

Sudan and South Sudan: covering Africa’s longest war
On a faint telephone line to the border war zone between South Sudan and Sudan, the line crackles: our correspondent is screaming quotes as she dictates her story, but the boom of bombs are louder. “They are bombing us on the bridge,” AFP’s South Sudan reporter Hannah McNeish shouts, lying in a muddy ditch as Sudanese war planes droned overhead, after dropping crude bombs of explosive and metal-packed oil drums metres away. Blog – AFP

Khartoum rejects South Sudan’s “last” offer on oil, Abyei
Sudanese negotiators on Monday dismissed as “nothing new” what their South Sudanese counterparts have termed as the “last offer” to resolve the two countries’ disputes over oil transit fees and the status of Abyei, in the latest setback to talks bound by a UN deadline due to end in nine days. Sudan Tribune

Cancer ‘curtailed Mills’ performance’
Ghana’s ex-leader Jerry Rawlings has said late president John Atta Mills was suffering from cancer and could only work for a few hours per day before his death earlier this week. In comments to the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme while attending an event in Congo, Rawlings said Mills’ death on Tuesday “was not unexpected” and suggested the late president may have lived longer had he focused on treatment. News 24

Dutch suspend Rwanda aid
The Netherlands has suspended €5m in aid to Rwanda over its reported support for rebels in DRC, a spokesperson said on Thursday, hours after Kigali said a similar move by the United States was regrettable and would be proved wrong. The Dutch reaction to a report from United Nations experts saying Kigali was backing insurgents in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo follows Washington’s $200 000 cut in military aid at the weekend. News 24

Rwanda: Paul Kagame’s problem
It is hard now to recall how high were the hopes invested in what was called “the new generation” of African leaders. Men like Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia, Isaias Afewerki in Eritrea, and Paul Kagame in Rwanda were seen as ushering in a harmonious era of democracy, clean government, and peaceful inter-state relations in sub-Saharan Africa. The US and Britain in particular were enthusiastic supporters of the new men, not least because they saw their governments as reliably pro-western. The Guardian

Mastermind of plot to kill Mandela ‘guilty’
A South African supreme court judge has ruled that the leader of a small, white extremist organisation is guilty of treason after he plotted to violently overthrow the country’s African National Congress-led government in the 1990s. Al Jazeera

Swaziland royals cause anger with Las Vegas trip
Africa’s last absolute monarch has been criticised for another display of extravagance after it emerged that three of his wives are to go on a lavish holiday to Las Vegas. The revelation came days after King Mswati III of Swaziland reportedly told his impoverished subjects: “God warned the Swazi people not to love money.” The Guardian

Guinea Bissau coup set to halve cashew production: U.N.
Guinea Bissau’s cashew production – the poor West African state’s top revenue earner – will drop by half this year due to turmoil following April’s military coup, while drug trafficking is on the rise, the United Nations said on Thursday. Reuters

UK troops in Somalia ‘aiding Africa Union force’
The UK has established a small military presence in Somalia, the British Ministry of Defence has confirmed. A team of 10 military advisers is based at the headquarters of the African Union force in the capital, Mogadishu. They do not have a combat role; their job is to help the AU with planning, communications and medical support. BBC

Will Eritrean Athletes Defect During Olympics?
As athletes from around the world convene in London, Africa watchers are looking at competitors from the small coastal nation of Eritrea — not for their skills, but because Eritrean athletes have been defecting in droves from the increasingly restrictive nation. Dozens of athletes have defected in the last decade due to what critics say is to escape an authoritarian regime. VOA

Genetic Data and Fossil Evidence Tell Differing Tales of Human Origins
After decades of digging, paleoanthropologists looking for fossilized human bones have established a reasonably clear picture: Modern humans arose in Africa some 200,000 years ago and all archaic species of humans then disappeared, surviving only outside Africa, as did the Neanderthals in Europe. Geneticists studying DNA now say that, to the contrary, a previously unknown archaic species of human, a cousin of the Neanderthals, may have lingered in Africa until perhaps 25,000 years ago, coexisting with the modern humans and on occasion interbreeding with them. The New York Times

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This entry was written by Africa Center for Strategic Studies, posted on July 27, 2012 at 7:40 am, filed under Media Review and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.