Africa Center for Strategic Studies

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.

• Hasan Sheikh Mahmoud elected Somali president

• Who is the newly elected President Hassan Sheikh?

• African militants learn from Al Qaeda in Yemen

• In Somalia, battle looms for militants’ last major stronghold

• Are Egyptians Africans or Arabs?

• Spanish drug enforcement chief: Africa a preferred route for South America cocaine

• Mali Islamists say army killing of preachers declaration of war

• Mauritania denounces ‘barbaric massacre’ by Mali troops

• Islamists conduct amputations in Mali

• In Mali, Al Qaeda now controls an area the size of France

• Al-Qaeda’s ‘Emir of Sahara’ Makhloufi dies in Mali

• Namibia: No more oil, gas exploration licenses

• Sierra Leone takes 10 Iranian ships off register

• Congo-Kinshasa: DRC Summit Ends Without Breakthrough

• Zambia: ‘2 generals paid K100m to kill Sata’

• Sierra Leone: AFRICOM Commander Makes First Visit to Sierra Leone

• South Africa: Marikana murders: The world now believes

• Air Nigeria ends international flights

• OP-ED: Learning Europe’s Lessons in Africa

• On the road from Freetown to Bamako

Today’s News

Hasan Sheikh Mahmoud elected Somali president
Somalia’s presidential elections have been marred by allegations of bribery, with up to $50,000 said to have changed hands among members of parliament, Al Jazeera has learnt. Senior diplomatic sources deployed in the region to ensure honest and fair election, have confirmed that the process of vote buying has been under way over the last few days. Al Jazeera

Who is the newly elected President Hassan Sheikh?
Somali MPs meeting in the Mogadishu have elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the country’s new president, in the latest step to end decades of war. The academic beat President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in a run-off poll by 190 to 79 votes, officials said. No candidate secured the required two-thirds majority in the first round of voting, conducted by secret ballot. BBC

African militants learn from Al Qaeda in Yemen
Yemen, a stone’s throw from Somalia, has for years been the destination of choice for impoverished Somalis fleeing their troubled state. Now, another kind of Somali is heading to Yemen, and it appears to be swelling the ranks of Al Qaeda. Somalis belonging to the militant group Al Shabaab have been coordinating with Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for several years. Globalpost

In Somalia, battle looms for militants’ last major stronghold
Air and sea attacks around the key Somali port city of Kismayo this week point to a long-awaited offensive by the African Union Mission in Somalia against seasoned Al Shabab fighters. CS Monitor

Are Egyptians Africans or Arabs?
[...] For centuries, the Sahara Desert has been viewed as a vast impenetrable barrier dividing our continent into two distinct areas : Northern “white” and sub-Saharan “black” Africa. The countries south of the Sahara have long been considered authentically “African” while those to the north have been perceived as Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or Islamic. While most anthropologists refute this perception of Africa as “inaccurate”, it has nevertheless, influenced the way people think about the continent and our region in particular. Apparently, it has also impacted the way Egyptians view themselves. Many Egyptians are oblivious to their “African-ness “, failing to identify themselves as Africans. When confronted with the reality of their African roots, some Egyptians are stunned, others reluctant to acknowledge the fact. Though I hate to admit it, we are a racist people. Al Arabiya

Spanish drug enforcement chief: Africa a preferred route for South America cocaine
Africa is becoming one of the main bases in the international cocaine trafficking network, particularly because the cartels are using countries there as storage locations or waystations via which the illicit product is being shipped on fishing boats from South America to Europe, Spanish Drug and Organized Crime Unit, or UDYCO, chief Eloy Quiros said in an interview with Efe. The Colombian cartels see Africa and its lengthy western coast as an ideal entry route to the European market, Quiros said. Drug War 101

Mali Islamists say army killing of preachers declaration of war
Mali Islamic militant group MUJWA said on Sunday the killing of 16 Muslim preachers including eight Mauritanians and eight Malians by an army patrol in Mali was a declaration of war. The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) is one of the Islamic groups that has hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali since April with the intention of imposing sharia law in the country. Reuters

Mauritania denounces ‘barbaric massacre’ by Mali troops
Mauritania demanded Monday to be part of investigations into the killing of 16 Muslim preachers by Malian army troops over the weekend, describing the murder as “a barbaric act carried out in cold blood”. France 24

Islamists conduct amputations in Mali
Islamic police said they used a stage in a public square to amputate the right hand and left foot of five accused thieves in a city of Mali on Monday, in the latest application of Sharia law in the country’s north. That region of Mali, an area the size of Texas or France, was overrun by rebels allied with al-Qaida five months ago. The Huffington Post

In Mali, Al Qaeda now controls an area the size of France
Just eight months ago, Mali was held up as a model of democracy in Africa. Today, it is practically a failed state with much of the north governed by a consortium of militant groups sympathetic to Al Qaeda. This new territory has enlarged the global terror organization’s footprint in Africa — which now stretches from Somalia, across to Nigeria, Algeria and now Mali — at a time when it’s influence is waning elsewhere in the world. Globalpost

Al-Qaeda’s ‘Emir of Sahara’ Makhloufi dies in Mali
An al-Qaeda-linked commander known as the Emir of the Sahara, Nabil Makhloufi, has died in a car crash in Mali, an Islamist spokesman has said. Makhlouf was a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), accused of abducting and killing foreigners across the Sahara Desert. A spokesman for Mali’s Ansar Dine Islamist group said the crash happened near the northern city of Gao. BBC

Namibia: No more oil, gas exploration licenses
Namibia’s government says it will stop issuing licenses for companies to explore for oil and gas toward the end of this year. The government news agency NAMPA quotes Mining Commissioner Immanuel Mulunga as saying he still expects major oil companies to come to Namibia using existing licenses. Mulunga said his office still is processing a large number of new applications for areas with low prospects. CBS News

Sierra Leone takes 10 Iranian ships off register
Sierra Leone has removed the registration of 10 ships suspected to be Iranian. Alhaji Wuroh Jalloh, executive director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration told The Associated Press Saturday that ships ‘‘hiding’’ under the Sierra Leonean flag ‘‘have recently been removed from the register.’’ The Boston Globe

Congo-Kinshasa: DRC Summit Ends Without Breakthrough
Great Lakes leaders met in Uganda on Saturday on ensuring peace in the east of the country. A summit of leaders of the 11-member International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) that was hosted by Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, ended in the capital, Kampala on Saturday September 8 without any appreciable progress. The summit was called to find ways and means of restoring peace to some eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Cameroon Tribune on allAfrica

Zambia: ‘2 generals paid K100m to kill Sata’
INVESTIGATIONS into the planned assassination of President Michael Sata have revealed that two retired army generals have been paid K100 million each by a named opposition political party to implement the plot. Defence Minister Geoffrey Mwamba disclosed to the Times of Zambia in an interview yesterday that he had information from security investigative wings that two retired generals received K100 million from an opposition political party. Times of Zambia

Sierra Leone: AFRICOM Commander Makes First Visit to Sierra Leone
General Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) based in Germany, visited Sierra Leone between September 5 and 6. It is the first time that Gen. Ham has visited Sierra Leone since taking command in March 2011. Concord Times on allAfrica

South Africa: Marikana murders: The world now believes
Our nation is standing on the brink. The events at Marikana and its immediate aftermath are no longer in doubt, nor are Rustenburg’s massive mining issues. We face a national emergency – the greatest one facing President Zuma, Mangaung included. Daily Maverick

Air Nigeria ends international flights
Air Nigeria will make its final long-haul flights on Monday after announcing the suspension of all services and laying off 800 staff last week. Investors behind the airline have struggled to deal with $250m (£157m) of debt taken on when they bought the carrier from Virgin two years ago. In June, Air Nigeria was grounded by regulators amid safety concerns. BBC

OP-ED: Learning Europe’s Lessons in Africa
Even as the European Union’s sovereign debt crisis comes “back from vacation,” as a New York Times Magazine headline recently put it, a far less-known group of countries is following in the EU’s very footsteps. This is the East African Community (EAC), a five-country bloc that is moving headlong toward the same kind of economic and political union now in peril in Europe. Council on Foreign Relations

On the road from Freetown to Bamako
ON A recent afternoon deep in rural Guinea, Baobab asked the fellow passengers of his Citroën Xantia bush taxi whether the large tree by the side of the road was in fact his namesake. They confirmed that it was, and inquired whether the Baobab could be found in Baobab’s native land. The Economist

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