Media Review for August 7, 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

Military: 19 Killed at Central Nigeria Church
Gunmen fire on a worship service in a church in central Nigeria, killing at least 19 people — including the pastor — and wounding others in a nation often divided by religion, the military said Tuesday. AP

South Sudan: whose great idea was this anyway?
[...] Sudan as a whole has been, for at least a decade, one of the African countries that a bigger-than-average constituency of outsiders have known about, cared about and consistently manufactured humanitarian and political campaigns on (see Save Darfur). Owing to the long-running North-South civil war, which it was hoped had been ‘fixed’ through the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the easily vilified Khartoum-based government and high-profile campaign figures, its has maintained an elevated position in the reporting of African current affairs. African Argument on allAfrica

South Sudan Kiir apologises to US Obama for denying his support to Sudanese rebels
South Sudan President Salva Kiir had to write an apology letter to U.S. President Barack Obama to explain him why he had to deny twice his support to the Sudanese rebels. US officials publically demanded Juba to stop its support to the Sudanese rebel groups fearing that such behavior would empoison the strained relations between the two country and lead to an all-out war between the two countries affecting regional stability. Sudan Tribune

Violent clashes continue in Sudan’s Darfur
Four people have been killed after gunmen attacked a market and set fire to a police station during several days of violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, international peacekeepers have said. Gunmen surrounded a camp for displaced people in Kassab in North Darfur state, burnt down a police station and looted the main market, African Union/United Nations peacekeepers UNAMID said in a statement on Monday. Al Jazeera

Arrested, beaten and tortured: young Briton describes year of terror in Sudan
It started out as an adventurous plan to open a restaurant in Sudan. But by the time Magdy el-Baghdady, a young Briton from north London, left the country, he had been imprisoned for more than two months, beaten, tortured, tried and even subjected to mock execution, and finally prevented from leaving the country for almost a year. “It was a brutal experience that has changed my life,” he reflected. “At times I thought I would not get out alive.” The Guardian

Hillary Rodham Clinton visits ailing icon Nelson Mandela in South Africa
Nelson Mandela, retired from public life and largely confined to his house, smiled when he saw Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, but the 94-year-old Nobel laureate appeared very frail. “That’s a beautiful smile!” Clinton exclaimed after she and a small group of aides flew from Johannesburg to pay respects to Mandela in his home village, Qunu. Clinton is on an eight-nation African visit. The Washington Post

Ivory Coast violence: Gbagbo allies ‘attacked Abidjan’
Fighters loyal to ex-Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo carried out recent attacks in Abidjan, killing 11 soldiers, a minister has said. Hamed Bakayoko told Radio France International (RFI) he believed the attackers received their orders from Gbagbo loyalists in neighbouring Ghana. One assailant was also killed in the gun battle on Monday in the Riviera district of Abidjan, the main city. BBC

Drug Trafficking and the Crisis in Mali
Mali has until recently been regarded as one of the most politically stable countries in West Africa. However, since the fall of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year and the coup d’état on 22 March against former Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré, the situation in Mali, and especially in the north, has dramatically deteriorated. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) and the Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) forces have strengthened their presence in the north and some intelligence reports even indicate a growing link between AQIM and the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram. ISS

Mali Islamists agree to talks on north’s fate
Mali’s Islamist rebels agreed Monday to start talks on the fate of the desert north they seized this year but mediators Burkina Faso said the group should sever all ties with its Al-Qaeda backers. AFP

DRCongo, Rwanda leaders to meet on neutral force
The presidents of Rwanda and DR Congo will take part in a regional summit in Uganda Tuesday to agree on a neutral force tasked with policing their border and neutralising rebel groups, officials said. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will host the two-day summit of 11-member International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) at a lakeside resort outside Kampala. AFP

African Leaders Discuss Sending Troops Into DRC
Leaders of Africa’s Great Lakes region are meeting in the Ugandan capital to discuss sending an international force into the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The leaders of the eleven countries that make up the African Great Lakes region gathered in Kampala, Uganda today to address the latest crisis in eastern Congo, where the government has been battling rebel groups for years. VOA

Rwanda: ‘Rwanda Will Survive Without Aid’
The Rwanda government has said even without donor aid, Rwanda will survive. Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told the press that Rwanda has proven over time that it can withstand the toughest of conditions and this will be no different albeit with difficulties. “With or without aid, Rwandans will not give up, we shall fend for ourselves as we have always done, in any case, we have done so before,” she said. allAfrica

Egypt Closes Sinai, Gaza Border After Deadly Attack
President Mohammed Mursi has promised a swift response to an attack at the Rafah border post that left 15 dead and several injured. allAfrica

France has finally got tough on corruption by seizing a dictator’s Paris mansion
In these times of financial crisis when the mega-rich are somehow getting ever richer, it’s hard to choose one single symbol of mind-blowing, cash-scorching wealth and ostentation. There are plenty of possibilities in Paris, but none quite as disconcerting as 42 Avenue Foch. The Guardian

US drought could pinch world’s poor, says think tank IFPRI
Drought in the U.S. farm belt may result in higher prices for poor people around the world, according to the head of an agricultural think tank who on Monday also recommended a halt to ethanol production from corn. Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, said the global spike in food prices in 2008 showed how poor crops and tight supplies have wide impact. IFPRI is the analytical arm of a coalition of agricultural research facilities. Reuters

Deadly Aid: How U.S. foreign assistance is helping human rights violators — and how to stop it
[...] For decades, the human rights community has raised concerns about military support directed at abusive security forces, but it has paid relatively little attention to softer forms of assistance. This aid, however — which is provided largely through USAID and the State Department, adding up to approximately $47 billion in 2011 — can also play a significant role in either abetting or addressing human rights violations. Foreign Policy

Video shows ‘intimidation’ by Mugabe’s party ahead of election cycle
A video has emerged showing what appears to be evidence of intimidation on the part of members of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. With an election expected in the coming year, this video – along with reports of similar incidents – has stoked fears that the party is returning to the same intimidation tactics used in the run-up to the 2008 election. France 24

Libya’s interim rulers to hand over power
Libya’s interim authorities said they will hand over power to a newly elected congress on Wednesday, less than a year after its fighters overthrew the regime of Muammar Qaddafi. “We affirm that August 8, 2012 will be the day that power will be transferred peacefully,” Saleh Darhoub, spokesman for the outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC), told journalists in Tripoli early Monday. Al Arabiya

Uganda in trouble: Museveni should now enjoy a well-earned retirement – By Richard Dowden
Three tell tale signs. Firstly it was discovered that the 16-strong Uganda Olympic team was outnumbered by the officials accompanying it, many of whom are paid five times what the athletes receive. Much of the money that was supposed to be spent on training was ‘eaten’. If you don’t care if your national sports team wins, then you probably won’t care if your country becomes a winner. African Argument

Fracking Debate Racks South Africa
Africa’s biggest economy is running dangerously short of energy, even as the country sits atop what geologists say could be substantial gas reserves. South Africa, like the U.S. and other countries, is caught in a debate over hydraulic fracturing, the process of shooting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into underground rock to release hard-to-access deposits. Multinational energy companies want to use fracking to release shale-gas reserves in this country’s Karoo region. The Wall Street Journal

Lopez Lomong: From war child to U.S. Olympics star
From escaping bullets in Sudan as a young boy to becoming a track and field Olympics star, U.S. athlete Lopez Lomong has been running and defying odds nearly all of his life. Lomong, who carried the American flag into the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing, was among the thousands of refugees known as “The Lost Boys,” victims of Sudan’s long and brutal civil war. At the age of six, Lomong, who is competing for a medal in the 5,000-meter race at the London Games on Wednesday, was separated from his family when he was kidnapped by soldiers during a Sunday morning mass in his native country. Lomong was taken along with several other children to a prison where they would be trained to become child soldiers. CNN


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