United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

23 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

Carson Says U.S. is Boosting Efforts to Back Peace (AllAfrica.com)

(Pan Africa) U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson this week is visiting Addis
Ababa for talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi before going on to
Kampala, Uganda, for the African Union Summit next week. Prior to his departure, he
was interviewed on a range of policy issues by AllAfrica's Reed Kramer.

Africom, the Kleptocratic State and Under-Class Militancy (Pambazuka News)

(Pan Africa) Since 2001 renewed religious riots, outbursts of alleged 'terrorism' in the
Sahara-Sahel and northern Nigeria, and militant threats to African oil exports have
spurred the US to establish US African Command (AFRICOM).

Kampala blasts a consequence of faulty US foreign policy (The Citizen)

(Pan Africa) We in East Africa, and Africa in general, ought to pose and think critically
about how we may extricate ourselves from getting too deeply involved in the affairs of
American foreign policy choices and processes that do not serve Africa’s interests.

Sudan gov't condemns U.S. stance over al-Bashir's visit to Chad (Xinhua)
(Sudan) Sudan government on Thursday condemned the U.S. stance over the visit of
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to Chad and U.S. request of Chad to explain its
stance for not arresting al-Bashir who is taking part in the Sahel and Sahara summit in
N'djamena.

Over 40 African Leaders to Attend AU Summit in Uganda (Voice of America)

(Pan Africa) A top official with Uganda’s foreign ministry says several African heads of
state and government will begin arriving Friday and Saturday to participate in the
African Union (AU) heads of state summit scheduled to begin this Sunday.

Guards for Somali Leader Join Islamists (New York Times)

(Somalia) Somali officials acknowledged on Thursday that members of Somalia’s
presidential guard had defected to the Shabab, the radical Islamist insurgent group that
claimed responsibility for the recent bombings in Uganda that killed more than 70
people watching the final game of the World Cup.
Somali Refugees Fear Loss of Ugandan Haven (New York Times)
(Uganda) Recent developments could endanger the attraction of Uganda as a precious
transit point or final destination for the droves of people fleeing the many dangers of
Somalia, including the brutality of insurgent groups like the Shabab.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
 UN official sees signs of progress on cooperation ahead of Sudanese referenda
 In DR Congo, UN official pledges support to help displaced people return home
 Security Council calls on Guinea-Bissau to improve rule of law
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, July 29, 8:15 a.m., Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars
WHAT: African Growth and Opportunity Act Civil Society Forum 2010 “A Decade of
Progress in Bridging the U.S.-Africa Trade Gap”
WHO: Keynote Speakers include Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Senate Foreign
Relations Committee; Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson, African Union*
Info: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?
fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=629709
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Carson Says U.S. is Boosting Efforts to Back Peace (AllAfrica.com)

Washington — Conflict in Sudan has been a thorny issue for President Barack Obama
and his administration since he took office. This week, a leading voice for a more
vigorous American approach declared, "U.S. policy is not contributing in a meaningful
way to peace and justice in Sudan." John Prendergast, who worked on Africa conflict
prevention at the National Security Council and the State Department during the
administration of former president Bill Clinton, warned of potential consequences in a
broadside critique issued by the Enough Project which he co-founded. He said that the
administration's "largely hands-off approach to critical negotiations" is endangering
prospects for peacemaking in Sudan's troubled Darfur region and for avoiding a return
to the civil war that raged for more than three decades between the North and the
South.

Asked about Sudan during an appearance on the American network ABC, Vice
President Joseph Biden said, "we're doing everything in our power" to make sure the
referendum in January that will give southerners the chance to chose independence is
viewed as free and fair. Biden's three-nation visit to Africa last month was largely
dominated by discussions concerning Sudan, according to the U.S. Assistant Secretary
of State Johnnie Carson, who accompanied the vice president to Egypt, Kenya and
South Africa, where they watched the American team's World Cup match. Carson, the
Obama administration's top Africa policymaker, this week is visiting Addis Ababa for
talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi before going on to Kampala,
Uganda, for the African Union Summit next week. Prior to his departure, he was
interviewed on a range of policy issues by AllAfrica's Reed Kramer. In part one, he
refutes the charges that U.S. government efforts to promote peace in Sudan are lagging.
Excerpts:

First, let me ask your impressions from being at the World Cup.

The World Cup was an enormous triumph for South Africa and a tremendous image
booster – and not only for South Africa's capacity to organize and run a successful
global sporting event but as an image booster for Africa as a whole. The South Africans
should feel gratified by the way the Cup turned out. The stadiums were beautiful; the
organization was extraordinarily good; there were no major incidents or mishaps;
people from around the world were well received; the games ran on time, they were
orderly. Probably the greatest damage done during the games was to people's eardrums
with the vuvuzelas! One has to applaud this success.

And the vice president devoted a lot of his time to Sudan?

The trip was in reality an opportunity to focus on Sudan. The thing that featured
prominently in all three stops was the impending referendum. In Sharm el-Sheikh, with
President [Hosni] Mubarak of Egypt and with the foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul
Gheit, and other senior Egyptian officials, he had major conversations about issues
related to the Middle East and to the state of affairs around the world. But he spent a
great deal of time talking about Sudan.

In Kenya, the longest stop on that visit, he met a whole host of Kenyan officials and
gave a very important speech at the Kenyatta Conference Centre. But he also had a
lengthy meeting with Sudan's first vice president and the president of South Sudan,
Salva Kiir, [who] brought with him to the meeting six other senior southern leaders.
There was an extended discussion about the preparations underway in the south for the
referendum which will be held on January 9, 2011.

Then on to South Africa where one of the first things that the vice president did after
landing was to speed directly from the airport to the home of the former South African
president, Thabo Mbeki, where he engaged for nearly two hours on President Mbeki's
role as the high representative responsible for Sudan issues in the African Union (AU).
So the trip had a very heavy Sudan focus throughout.

What did the vice president mean when he said in the ABC interview that the United
States is committed to a referendum that is viewed as free and fair?
We are committed to the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA) that ended 20 years of violence between north and south. The agreement, signed
in Naivasha in January 2005, calls for a referendum to be held on the 9th of January
2011. So we have only some five months and three weeks before that referendum is
actually held.

The United States, as the vice president said, wants to see the referendum carried out on
time in an orderly, creditable, peaceful fashion in which the people of the south of
Sudan are able to go to the polls and exercise their rights to say whether they want to
remain as part of a unitary state or whether they want to have an independent state.

We are encouraging both the government in Khartoum as well as the southern

government in Juba to put in place a process that will be creditable. Our point person
on all of this is Special Envoy Scott Gration.

We have augmented our diplomatic representation in South Sudan in order to work

more closely with the United Nations, with the government of South Sudan, with Thabo
Mbeki, and with others who are working on this issue to ensure that everything is done
to make the referendum go well. We have put a senior diplomat into our consulate in
Juba, an officer who has tremendous experience, and we have augmented our
diplomatic representation in the South by 10 individuals. We will increase our
representation in the South to be able to monitor developments, to respond to requests
and assist in the engagement process, and to be generally helpful to those who are
responsible for organizing the process - to influence a positive outcome.

What is the United States doing to prepare for the aftermath, to help avert a resumption
of fighting?

The best way to avoid catastrophe is to see a free, transparent and open referendum, to
ensure that both sides are committed to accepting a credible process and a credible
outcome. Second, it is to work on the resolution of the post-referendum issues: working
out a solution to issues related to citizenship, wealth sharing and oil, demarcation of
borders, and how international obligations are going to be handled amongst two states
if the people decide that they want to have an independent southern state.

What is important is not only having a successful referendum - and one which is
accepted by everyone - but also that there be progress on post-referendum issues and
that solutions that are acceptable to both sides are agreed upon. It is differences over
these issues of citizenship, wealth sharing, demarcation, international obligations and
security issues which could be the source of post-referendum friction. We want to make
sure that these issues are handled correctly.
We have said to the South that we're prepared to help them find international advisers
to help them work through these difficult questions. If they need advice from lawyers
or economists or geologists who are expert on these issues, we might be able to provide
some for them.

By being present in the South, we can also serve a useful purpose by encouraging
continued South-South cooperation and reconciliation. There have been points of
friction between groups in regions of the South. We think we can be helpful in trying to
get government officials to pay attention to anything that might internally cause
friction.

Many people question the North's intentions, and particularly their willingness to
accept an independent south. What can the United States do to make sure the
referendum outcome is implemented?

It is important to trust, but verify. We know there have been times when it has
appeared that there has been a reneging on agreements made, but it's absolutely
important that as we come down to the wire, everyone move forward on the
implementation of their aspect of the agreement. Those who fail to live up to their
international obligations under the CPA will be judged harshly by history and probably
judged harshly by the international community.
--------------------
Africom, the Kleptocratic State and Under-Class Militancy (Pambazuka News)

West Africa was of secondary military-economic interest to the US in the mid-1990s,

compared to North Africa (Libya) and the Horn of Africa, but continuing difficulties in
Middle Eastern oil supplies encouraged the US to seek petroleum providers elsewhere -
the Caucasus, the south Atlantic ocean, and West Africa's oil rich Gulf of Guinea states,
especially Nigeria.

Twenty years ago China was just beginning to prospect in West Africa for business and
construction contracts, and so was not viewed then as a serious contender for access to
and control over important African resources as oil and gas (Obi 2008). Today, nearly
750,000 Chinese are resident in Africa; 300 million emigrants to Africa may be planned
(Michel and Beuret 2009: 4-5). The terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 11
September 2001 opened US eyes to the strategic advantage of relatively 'safer' West and
West-Central African, especially Nigerian, sources of high quality crude oil rapidly
transportable across the Atlantic ocean to refineries in populous cities on the North
American eastern industrial seaboard. This major shift in US policy regarding West
Africa took place at a time when arms sales by the world's top arms exporters - the US,
Russia and Germany - rose by a further 22 per cent between 2005-2010 (Norton-Taylor
2010).
Since 2001 renewed religious riots, outbursts of alleged 'terrorism' in the Sahara-Sahel
and northern Nigeria, and militant threats to African oil exports have spurred the US to
establish US African Command (AFRICOM) in collaboration with NATO's Special
Forces (Keenan 2009). From 2006 onwards the US has carried out military and naval
exercises in selected African states, including the Cape Verde archipelago proximate to
oil blocks off Senegal, targeted for leasing to US multinational corporations (MNCs).
AFRICOM was fully operational from 2008 (AFRICOM 2009; AFROL 2009a).

The Pentagon appears to be intensifying plans in 2010, partnering with selected West
African states (e.g. Senegal, Cape Verde, Ghana, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe,
Mali, Niger), for further military exercises, training programmes and sales at
discounted prices of modern fighter aircraft, automatic machine guns, and possible
robotic aerial vehicles (US AFRICOM 2010). AFRICOM has in view certain locations in
northern (e.g. Kano, Bornu, Bauchi, Yobe, Jos, Kaduna states), and southern Nigeria,
principally the Niger Delta core oil producing states (Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta) as well as
Lagos, the country's sprawling commercial capital - estimated population 15 million,
headquarters of MNC oil corporations, banks, and major Nigerian companies as
Dangote Ltd and new light industries in partnership with Chinese companies.

Militarisation is taking place in selected West African states whose pre-industrial

economies are still geared, as in the colonial era, to export raw materials with little
value added to the advantage of Western and Asian industrialised economies. For
example, partial modernisation in Nigeria reflects the country's status as a rentier state
relying on oil revenues (Karl 1997). Its late emergence in the 1970s as West Africa's
potential industrial power was aborted by a military regime in the mid-1980s, following
pressure by international financial and trade institutions (e.g. International Monetary
Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organisation) that West African states remove tariff
barriers on consumer and light industrial goods. An emerging Nigerian working class
largely lost its economic base in factories producing clothing, shoes, matches, iron and
steel products, buses, lorries, etc, that fostered class identity and action.

Abortive economic modernisation in Nigeria, and Francophone Sahelian states such as

Niger and Mali, seems to have sustained perceived 'traditional', i.e. customary
community values and identities. Until recently, when mobilising in political protest
subalterns did so, by and large, through religious or ethnic, rather than class, identities
(c.f. Laclau 1977: 155 ff). Many dissident youth movements based on 'customary' ethnic
and/or religious identities have a long tradition in rural communities; they seek to
reclaim land, water, resource management, rental incomes, and to purify 'governance'
in favour of just land reform and resource distribution (Parker & Rathbone 2007: 91ff)
Yet militant groups may also be referred to locally by globalising tags that suggest
community familiarity with struggles elsewhere; for example, northern Nigerian
communities nickname Islamic fundamentalists 'Taliban' or 'al-Qaeda', indicating
(hearsay) knowledge of the US 'War on Terrorism'. Equally, there are stories of
politically alienated educated young males training in al-Qaeda camps, though the 25
December 2009, Nigerian ('Detroit') suicide bomber's field training appears inadequate.

When resisting repression, youth coalesce around kin-based ethno-religious and clan
identities that cohere around two dominant poles - 'us, small people' (clients) and 'them,
big men' (patrons/godfathers) (Ifeka 2001b, 2006; Smith 2007). The 'people'/'power'
opposition draws on a repertoire of customary representations and practices (e.g.
initiation rituals, war gods, charms against bullets, juju 'medicine', language, religious
texts, shrines) that authorise subaltern militant organisation. More recently, since the
return to democracy in 1999, the growth of poverty and shared meanings of suffering,
and on-going political violence between rulers and ruled, is contributing to a revival of
representations of class identity and consciousness that elderly working men, peasant
farmers, traders, teachers and petty clerks knew in the 1970s.

Adopting a political economy approach, I disaggregate that over-used neoliberal

concept of 'the people' into social classes; that is, groups differentiated by their unequal
relationship to the means of production (capital) and power as owners/workers, but
who yet express their socio-political worlds through customary institutions of patron-
clientship. For example, subalterns and rulers construct the social formation in terms of
unequal relations of power expressed in terms of relations between client (subordinate)
and patron (dominant)- almost everyone is a patron and/or a client to someone else.
Clientelistic relations cross cut but do not erase economic class divisions: For instance,
on one level ministers and senior civil servants in command of the state and its
revenues are the top patrons or men of mega-power, those lacking such access are their
clients, but on another level middle ranking civil servants, company administrators,
junior army officers are themselves patrons to many lesser others. Thus, power relations
between patrons and clients defined in terms of upward and downwards informal and
illicit flows of money/services constitute the country's 'real' political economy (Joseph
1987; Ifeka 2001a, 2006, 2009; c.f. Laclau 1977). Fundamentalist religious movements or
ethnic nationalists may draw on a mix of 'traditional' cultural symbols as well as those
of economic inequality ('big'/'small' men) to express under-class frustration and a
strong desire, backed by force, for cleaner, more just governance with improved
'dividends of democracy' for the masses.
--------------------
Kampala blasts a consequence of faulty US foreign policy (The Citizen)

The blasts in Kampala at two leisure joints when people were watching the World Cup
final on television were a gross travesty of justice. Innocent souls were reluctantly sent
to heaven or hell as they watched the peaceful soccer contest between two European
nations staged on African soil.

These poor souls were surely not to blame for whatever legitimate grievances elements
of the Somali radical Islamic movement may have with the government of Uganda for
agreeing to station troops in Somalia on the invitation of the African Union. It does not
matter whether those killed and injured were Ugandans or Americans. They simply
were not to blame for the set of foreign policy choices that may have led to Ugandan
troops being stationed in Somalia.

But in dealing with the aftermath of those deadly suicide bomb attacks, we in East
Africa, and Africa in general, ought to pose and think critically about how we may
extricate ourselves from getting too deeply involved in the affairs of American foreign
policy choices and processes that do not serve Africa’s interests. The leaders of the AU
and Uganda’s President Museveni ought to have resisted the temptation to get
militarily involved in the affairs of Somalia without carefully reflecting on the
consequences of such an involvement at the material time.

They ought to have recognised that they were being sucked into the Somalia civil war
quagmire only to end up acting as surrogates of USA hegemonic foreign policy
interests. They ought to have sought to align themselves with patriotic Somali forces,
including elements of the Somali Islamic movement, rather than aligning themselves
and acting as a tool of faulty USA policy decisions and processes. It may be in USA
interest to consider that all elements in the Somali Islamic movement, including the
patriotic Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), are so-called terrorist radical Islamic
fundamentalists who ought to be taken out. This cannot be in Africa’s interest.

The misfortunes of post-colonial Somalia reflect on the misfortunes of much of post-

colonial Africa. In an insightful study of the political history of Somalia published in
2008 by Swedish Defense Research Agency, titled Somalia: Failed State or Nascent
States-System, the process by which the immediate post-colonial multiparty
dispensation degenerated into a failed state is traced. Major-General Mohammed Siad
Barre, ruled Somalia pretty much as King Leopold of Belgium had ruled so-called
Belgian Congo, as a personal fiefdom! Barre had came to power on a wave of popular
sentiment against the misrule and lack of headway in tackling mass poverty by post-
colonial Somali leaders of the golden age of so-called multiparty democracy from
independence in July 1960 to the day of the Barre coup in October 1969. However, he
squandered that popular support away with his increasing reversion to dictatorial and
personalised methods of resolving legitimate intra-societal rivalries and grievances. The
regime, starting of by mouthing Marxist-Leninist slogans, ended up embracing USA
hegemonic foreign policy stances that further drove popular Somali national sentiments
into an Islamic revolutionary mould.

No wonder, after the collapse of the post-colonial unitary Somali state, coupled with the
external meddling by the USA in bitter and prolonged civil war that followed the
aftermath of the overthrow of the Siad Barre dictatorship, one eventually witnessed the
emergent in 2006 of the popular Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). All independent
observers of Somali political history agree that the emergency of the UIC was a ray of
hope for the establishment a truly indigenous democratic dispensation in a united
Somali republic ever since independence.
The Union of Islamic Courts, modeled on principles similar to those underpinning the
Revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran, did stem the then alarming rising wave of
crime and banditry in the poor neighborhoods in the north of the capital, Mogadishu. It
slowly rose to assume control of the entire capital and large parts of south and central
Somalia. The USA was not happy with this because forces in the Somali civil war that
were US-backed were booted out Mogadishu. First Ethiopia, and later, Uganda, on so-
called behalf of the AU, were hurriedly brought in to stop the Union of Islamic Courts
from taking over the country and establishing another Islamic Revolutionary Republic
close to oil wells in the Middle East. The sad Kampala ought not to be responded to by
hastily beating jungle drums clamoring for more war. It ought to occasion careful
reflection on how we may disentangle the AU foreign policy stance on Somali from
misguided USA foreign policy interests.
--------------------
Sudan gov't condemns U.S. stance over al-Bashir's visit to Chad (Xinhua)

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan government on Thursday condemned the U.S. stance

over the visit of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to Chad and U.S. request of Chad to
explain its stance for not arresting al-Bashir who is taking part in the Sahel and Sahara
summit in N'djamena.

"Sudan government condemns the U.S. stance, which was expressed by the spokesman
of the U.S. State Department, demanding the Chadian government to explain its stance
for not arresting the president of the Republic besides demanding the president to turn
himself to the so-called International Criminal Court (ICC)," said a statement by the
Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a copy of which was obtained by Xinhua.

"The United States does not recognize the ICC. The U.S. has even reached agreements
with other countries so as not to hand over any U.S. soldier or citizen to this court," the
statement said.

The statement added, "therefore, America's exercise of its hegemony and its demands
for governments and countries of sovereignty to abide by the decisions of the ICC is just
a political hypocrisy."

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry further criticized U.S. silence towards the massacres
and crimes committed by the Israeli entity.

"The world has never heard before America demanding Israel to commit to the
international law or the decisions of the international legitimacy, instead, America
always rejects any decision by the UN Security Council condemning the Israeli
violations," the statement added.
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry called on the free nations and governments to stand in
the face of the U.S. hegemony.

"Sudan government maintains the right to respond to the American stance in a way that
preserves dignity and sovereignty of Sudan together with dignity of its president and
leadership," the statement added.

In the meantime, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry in its statement praised the stance of
the Chadian government and President Idris Deby Itno and the Chadian people who
warmly welcomed the Sudanese president.

The United States on Wednesday called on Chad to meet its obligations to the ICC. State
Department spokesman Philip Crowley earlier said the U.S. left it to the government of
Chad to explain why it did not arrest al-Bashir.

On March 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against al- Bashir, accusing him of
committing war crimes in Darfur.

The Sudanese president on Wednesday arrived in the Chadian capital of N'djamena to

take part in the summit of the Sahel and Sahara grouping in his first visit to a country
signatory to the ICC statutes.

Chad said it would not arrest Omar al-Bashir during his current visit to its territories.

Chadian Minister of Interior Ahmed Mohamed Bashir said his country recognized the
ICC, but added that Chad was a sovereign state that does not take its decisions
according to decisions by international organizations.
--------------------
Over 40 African Leaders to Attend AU Summit in Uganda (Voice of America)

A top official with Uganda’s foreign ministry says several African heads of state and
government will begin arriving Friday and Saturday to participate in the African Union
(AU) heads of state summit scheduled to begin this Sunday.

Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary James Mugume said Ugandans expect the African
Union to take a firm stance against the recent twin-bombings in the capital, Kampala.

The attacks, which were inspired by the hard-line Somali insurgent group, al-Shabab,
killed over 70 people including foreign nationals who were watching the finals of the
2010 FIFA World Cup.

“The foreign ministry and the organizing committee, working with the AU commission,
have been ready for the last one month. And we started the meeting on Monday with
the permanent representatives. Yesterday and today (Friday) we are having a meeting
of the Executive Council. So, we are ready,” Mugume said.

Described by Washington as a terrorist organization with strong links to Al Qaeda, al-

Shabab has been battling almost daily the internationally backed Somali government.

The group has refused to recognize President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s
government and has vowed to overthrow the administration and implement the
strictest form of the Sharia Law.

Analysts expect the escalating conflict in Somalia as well as a possible troop surge in
that restive country to be high on the agenda for discussion.

Permanent Secretary Mugume said that over 40 heads of state and government have
confirmed that they will attend the 15th ordinary session of assembly of African heads
of state and government summit.

“In the agenda of the assembly, they will be looking at the report of the AU Peace and
Security Council. And in that report, there will be issues to do with Somalia, Sudan and
other conflict areas in Africa. The Council, I think will be looking at the bombings in
Kampala on July 11th by the al-Shabab,” Mugume said.

Observers say the official theme for the summit which is "Maternal, Infant and Child
Health and Development in Africa" has been overshadowed by the heightened security
following last week’s Uganda bombings.

Uganda’s government sharply condemned the twin bombings and has re-assured the
African heads of state and government as well as other delegates scheduled to attend
the summit of their safety.

Mugume said the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will also be

focusing on security issues on the sidelines of the AU summit.

“There will be a meeting of what they call EASBRIG (East African Standby Brigade),
one of the five standby brigades that is part of the new AU Peace and Security
(structure) which includes the Peace and Security Council and the standby force. So, we
will be also looking at the possibility of implementing the EASBRIG … and that will
also look at the possibility of handling the issue of Somalia,” Mugume said.
--------------------
Guards for Somali Leader Join Islamists (New York Times)

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali officials acknowledged on Thursday that members of

Somalia’s presidential guard had defected to the Shabab, the radical Islamist insurgent
group that claimed responsibility for the recent bombings in Uganda that killed more
than 70 people watching the final game of the World Cup.

The defection of some of the president’s best-trained men is the latest setback for
Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government, which has lost important pieces of
territory in the past few days. Insurgents are now 300 yards — a rifle shot away — from
the presidential palace.

The Shabab gleefully introduced three former members of the presidential guard at a
news conference in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday. The soldiers said
they quit working for the government because it was being protected by African Union
peacekeepers, who they said were killing Somali civilians with indiscriminate shelling.

More than 6,000 African Union peacekeepers are in Mogadishu to help protect the
government and stabilize Somalia, but they are coming under intensifying criticism for
firing mortars and heavy guns into crowded neighborhoods. African Union officials
have said that they are responding to enemy fire and that they try to avoid civilian
casualties.

But the Shabab are exploiting the issue of heavy shelling in an attempt to turn the
Somali public against the peacekeepers, who are from Uganda and Burundi (two
mainly Christian countries, in contrast to Somalia, which is nearly all Muslim).

Shabab officials have also used the shelling as a rationale for bombing a nightclub and
an outdoor gathering of fans in Uganda during the final game of the World Cup this
month, in a synchronized attack that has put the entire region on high alert.

Somali government officials had initially denied that any of the presidential guard had
defected. But on Thursday, Abdullahi Ali Anod, head of the presidential guard, told
Somali radio stations: “The soldiers who joined the Shabab asked us permission to leave
and visit their families, which they had not visited for so long, but later we were
informed they defected.”

The United States has helped arm the Somali government forces and pay their salaries.
But that has not stopped a stream of defectors — and American-bought weapons —
from flowing to the Shabab, who have grown increasingly close to Al Qaeda.

The Shabab and their allies rule much of Somalia, with the transitional government
controlling a small slice of Mogadishu. Government officials concede that if it were not
for the African Union peacekeepers, the government would quickly collapse.

In Uganda on Thursday, police officials said 20 suspects who had been arrested in
connection with the bombings had been released. Judith Nabakooba, a police
spokeswoman, said that several suspects remained in custody and that Shabab and
Qaeda “links are there, but we cannot confirm it.” She also said a Ugandan rebel group
based in eastern Congo might have been involved.
--------------------
Somali Refugees Fear Loss of Ugandan Haven (New York Times)

Mr. Uleh, 34, said he was kidnapped in Somalia last year by the Shabab, the militant
Islamist insurgent group that claimed responsibility for blowing up two gatherings of
soccer fans in Uganda during the final game of the World Cup this month, killing 76
people and putting East Africa on high alert.

Mr. Uleh’s captors tied his legs and arms behind a chair, he said, and beat him. After
being freed, Mr. Uleh said he donned a woman’s burqa, pretended to be a mother
carrying a baby in her arms and made his way past rebel checkpoints to Somalia’s
capital, Mogadishu, before catching a flight out.

He arrived here in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, last year, joining tens of thousands of
other Somalis who have fled decades of violence back home, to come live in a country
diplomats and United Nations officials call a refugee’s paradise.

Now that paradise is under threat. Since the attacks, the military and police presence
has heightened, some travelers from the Horn of Africa have been turned away at
borders and changes to asylum protocol have put Somalis like Mr. Uleh on edge.

Adding to the anxiety among refugees, an agency working here to help resettle them in
the United States abruptly left the country, raising fears that hundreds had been
stranded.

The developments could endanger the attraction of Uganda as a precious transit point
or final destination for the droves of people fleeing the many dangers of Somalia,
including the brutality of insurgent groups like the Shabab.

According to the United Nations, Somalia produces the third most refugees in the
world, behind Afghanistan and Iraq, and Uganda is a natural haven for them.

It has one of the most liberal refugee policies in Africa, granting approval to virtually all
asylum applicants from the region, except Rwanda, which seeks to have its refugees
returned.

Here in Kampala, Somalis have built a flourishing and assimilated community, selling
sheep, fixing cars, running restaurants and playing soccer in a neighborhood that many
here call Little Mogadishu.
Mr. Uleh himself dresses more like a trendy nightclub D.J. than an impoverished
refugee, and thousands of Somalis here are in the middle of an applications process to
be resettled in the United States.

The World Cup was supposed to be a celebration for Somalis, too, as one of the
tournament’s official songs was performed by a popular Somali-born rapper, K’Naan,
making him a hero to many young Somali men.

But then, in the second half of the final game, three explosions ripped through two
popular sites where fans were watching. The Shabab claimed responsibility a day later,
and for Uganda’s Somali community, a new reality was soon ushered in.

The police stopped registering new refugees immediately after the attacks. The process
has since reopened with new regulations and there has been a surge in registrations, but
community leaders said they believed that there were many who were too timid to
come forward.

They say a chill has descended on the once friendly streets of Kampala. Last week, an
Eritrean man was beaten to death by a mob that apparently thought he was Somali.

Community leaders say more than 20 Somalis have also been arrested from the
neighborhood, including a popular businessman, and many more have been picked up
and questioned.

“We have stepped up vigilance in all corners, but our people are very hospitable,” said
Musa Ecweru, Uganda’s state minister for disasters. “We don’t want xenophobia here.
There is a lot going on at the moment.”

Refugees in Little Mogadishu have a larger worry lurking in the back of their minds —
the dream of America.

Last week, the Joint Voluntary Agency, which processes resettlement applications of
refugees on behalf of the United States government, picked up and left the country days
before a major interview session. Refugees say they do not know why.

“I just hope they come back,” said Ahmed Adam, 21, who is one of hundreds who was
supposed to be interviewed last week.

American officials confirmed the agency’s withdrawal, describing it as a temporary

move because of the attacks. Security has been beefed up in town, and more than 60
agents from the F.B.I. are in the country investigating the bombings. What they find
could have a major impact on how liberal the environment for Somalis in Uganda
remains.
“Resettlement of refugees to the United States is a lengthy process,” said Joann Lockard,
a spokesperson for the State Department in Uganda. “At this time, the July 11 attacks
have not altered the process for Somali refugees in Uganda from the U.S. perspective.”

The United States resettles thousands of Somalis to America every year. More than
50,000 have been resettled since fiscal year 2004 alone, according to the State
Department.

From the perspective of some of the Somalis in Uganda, veterans of refugee life, the
attacks are another setback in a long and unpredictable line of interviews, security
checks and bulletin-board announcements.

Ali Mohammed Muse, 28, is one. He and his mother fled from Somalia to Uganda in
2004, and she was soon resettled to the United States. At his refugee camp in Uganda,
Mr. Muse worked as a youth leader and soccer coach.

Now he lives in Little Mogadishu, hoping to be reunited with his mother in Seattle. But
Mr. Muse fears that the terrorist attacks have dented his chances, and shakes his head
helplessly.

“I don’t know why, but I feel like I am guilty,” he said. “Maybe I look like one; maybe I
have the same name.”
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

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