AFRICOM Related News Clips 18 April 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office18 April 2011

USAFRICOM - related news stories

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

Report says U.S, allies seeking refuge for Gaddafi (Xinhua)(Libya) The United States and its allies have started an intense search for a countrywilling to accept Muammar Gaddafi once the Libyan leader is forced out of power byNATO-led military operations, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Libya Fighting Rages Amid Conflicting Reports on Rebels Fleeing (Bloomberg)(Libya) Shelling in Misrata, the main rebel-held city in the west and Libya·s third-largest city, has killed five people and injured 47 since yesterday, Al-Jazeera reported.Qaddafi·s forces have fired rockets and cluster bombs into residential areas, accordingto the New York Times and Human Rights Watch.

Gaddafi·s son: We will deal with terrorists first and then talk reform (WashingtonPost)(Libya) Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the influential second son of Moammar Gaddafi who wasonce seen as the great hope for reform in Libya, is clear on two points: He and hisgovernment have done nothing wrong, and they are not going to back down.

Besieged city weathers continued attacks (Washington Post)(Libya) The street that leads to the port of this strategic city in western Libya is knownas the road of death. Dozens have been killed here as Moammar Gaddafi·s forces battleto retake the area·s only lifeline.

In a Medical Tent in Libya, a Grim Procession (NYT)(Libya) Jinan Hussein Jweil rested on her back on a gurney inside the triage tent. Eithera bullet or a piece of whizzing shrapnel had struck the 5-year-old high on the right side

of her head. As the ugly math of a midsize city suffering a siege would have it, Dr. Juwid was both a doctor in an overcrowded triage tent and an uncle of this woundedchild. He had no time to dwell on her case.

Ouattara Moves to Restore Security to Ivory Coast (VOA)(Côte d·Ivoire) President Alassane Ouattara is moving to restore security in Ivory Coastone week after his country's political crisis ended with the arrest of former president



Laurent Gbagbo. Mr. Gbagbo held on to power with the help of the military, refusing torecognize that he lost November's vote.

Sudan shrugs off concerns of U.S lawmakers (Sudan Tribune)(Sudan) Sudan has dismissed an attempt by a trio of US lawmakers to stonewall the

ongoing process of removing its name from the US blacklist of countries sponsoringterrorism.

Nigeria's president leads election vote (CNN)(Nigeria) Nigeria's incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan looked likely Sunday towin the election, a CNN tally of preliminary results showed.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Websitey Côte d·Ivoire: UN steps up humanitarian aid to ease widespread suffering

-------------------------------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, April 19th at 2:00 p.m.; U.S. Institute of PeaceWHAT: The Future of Two Sudans: A Conversation with former Presidents ThaboMbeki, Pierre Buyoya and Adulsalami Alhaji AbubakarWHO: President Thabo Mbeki, Former President of South Africa, Head of the AfricanUnion High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan); President Pierre Buyoya, FormerPresident of Burundi, Member, African Union High Level Implementation Panel(Sudan); President Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar, Former President of Nigeria,Member, African Union High Level Implementation Panel (Sudan)Info: http://www.usip.org/events/the-future-two-sudans-conversation-former-presidents-thabo-mbeki-pierre-buyoya-and-adulsalami

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, April 20th at 2:00 p.m.; U.S. Institute of PeaceWHAT: H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union CommissionWHO: H.E. Dr. Jean Ping, Speaker, AU CommissionInfo: http://www.usip.org/events/he-dr-jean-ping-chairperson-the-african-union-commission ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Report says U.S, allies seeking refuge for Gaddafi (Xinhua)By Unattributed AuthorApril 17, 2011WASHINGTON - The United States and its allies have started an intense search for acountry willing to accept Muammar Gaddafi once the Libyan leader is forced out ofpower by NATO-led military operations, the New York Times reported on Sunday.



The move came even though Gaddafi has shown defiance in recent days, declaring thathe has no intention of yielding to demands that he leave his country, and intensifyinghis bombardment of the rebel-held city of Misrata in western Libya.

"The effort is complicated by the likelihood that he would be indicted by theInternational Criminal Court in The Hague for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 overScotland in 1988, and atrocities inside Libya," the report said.

One possibility, the report quoted three administration officials as saying, is to find acountry, possibly in Africa, that is not a signatory to the treaty that requires countries toturn over anyone under indictment for trial by the court.

And the officials hope that such a prospective could give Gaddafi "an incentive" toabandon his stronghold in Tripoli, the capital.

The NATO-led coalition has stated that Gaddafi must leave power though his ouster isnot part of the military mission. The UN Security Council has authorized "all necessarymeasures" to protect the Libyan civilians but not to oust the leadership.

Of NATO's 28 member states, only six are joining the air raids on the ground targets ofLibyan government forces with some 60 aircraft. As a stalemate continues on theground, the military bloc is seeking at least eight additional warplanes from itsmembers to sustain a longer-term operation and relieve strain on pilots flying repeatedcombat missions.

As the U.S. and its allies are seeking a refuge for Gaddafi, a new wave of intelligencereports suggest that no opposition leader has emerged as a credible successor to him,the New York Times said.

U.S. officials conceded that the opposition leaders have not settled on who mightsucceed Gaddafi if he is ousted, and some fear that tribal warfare could break out ifthere is no consensus figure who could bind the country together.

U.S. envoy Chris Stevens is still in the opposition's stronghold of Benghazi in easternLibya to get a firsthand assessment of the opposition.-------------------------------Libya Fighting Rages Amid Conflicting Reports on Rebels Fleeing (Bloomberg)By Peter S. GreenApr 17, 2011 6:01 PM ETShelling in Misrata, the main rebel-held city in the west and Libya·s third-largest city,has killed five people and injured 47 since yesterday, Al-Jazeera reported. Qaddafi·s



forces have fired rockets and cluster bombs into residential areas, according to the NewYork Times and Human Rights Watch.

´The rebels don·t have the logistics or organization to move forward with majorobjectives at this time,µ said Andrew Terrill, a Middle East specialist at the Strategic

Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. ´Unless wesee large scale surrender from Qaddafi loyalists, I don·t see too many cities changinghands.µ

With NATO air attacks on Qaddafi·s troops and supplies slowly crippling his warmachine, ´time is much more on the rebels· side,µ said Terrill. ´The rebels are gettingstronger and Qaddafi is getting weaker; I don·t see the urgency of mounting anoffensive.µ

Heavy Weapons

Libyan rebels expect to receive heavy weapons in their battle to overthrow Qaddafi, aspokesman for the rebels· National Transitional Council, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, said April17. The rebels have struggled for weeks to take and hold cities in central Libya, whichhave been the focus of most of the fighting since the uprising began in February.

´We have to ask ourselves, what more can we do to protect civilian life and to stopQaddafi·s war machine unleashing such hell on his own people,µ U.K. Prime MinisterDavid Cameron said in a television interview yesterday.

´This is more difficult in many ways because we can·t fully determine the outcome with

what we have available, but we·re very clear, we must stick to the terms of the UNSecurity Council resolution, we must keep the support of the Arab world,µ Cameronsaid in the interview with Sky News.

Allied aircraft enforcing the United Nations-mandated no- fly zone and sanctions onLibya carried out 42 strike sorties yesterday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organizationsaid in a statement from its operational headquarters in Naples, Italy.

Near the Qaddafi-held capital Tripoli, aircraft under NATO command destroyed twoammunition bunkers and an anti-aircraft missile site, the alliance said. Two tanks, anarmored personnel carrier and a number of other pieces of equipment and ammunitiondumps were knocked out by NATO planes. None of the reported strikes were nearAjdabiya.

¶Crusader· AggressionLibya·s state-run Al-Jamahiriyah television, loyal to Qaddafi, reported that Sirte,Qaddafi·s birthplace, was bombed by ´the colonialist crusader aggression.µ In a newsbulletin, the station said that ´every missile and bomb that the crusaders drop on



Libyans is paid for by the governments of Qatar and the Emirates at the cost of $2million,µ according to the BBC, which monitors the newscasts.

As concern grows for the 300,000 civilians trapped in the port city of Misrata byQaddafi·s troops, the U.K.·s International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell,

said he will discuss plans to increase aid and medical supplies and ensure better accessto civilians at a meeting at the UN today, the BBC reported.

Qaddafi Can Be OustedEven without putting troops on the ground, Qaddafi can be forced out, French DefenseMinister Gerard Longuet said in an interview with the Parisien newspaper.

Ćoalition aircraft can destroy Qaddafi·s supply chain as they move east in the open,but in urban combat I have to concede that while air power can avoid a tragedy, it can·tsolve the problem.µ

While the coalition has the planes it needs, it lacks identifiable targets on the ground.Áll fighting is a combination of air and ground combat and in Libya we are fighting anair war without ground information.µ

He said Qaddafi·s forces number no more than 10,000 men.

The U.S. should be doing more, said Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. NationalSecurity Adviser. He said America should be more assertive in getting rid of MuammarQaddafi.

Í·m glad the British and French are taking the lead, but time is of the essence, andrequires a more decisive input than the French and British are capable of generating ontheir own,µ Brzezinski said, adding that he ássumes we·re doing more than we·resaying, but we should be doing even more.µ

Libyan Oil ExportsThe fighting has nearly halted oil exports from Libya, which holds Africa·s largest oilreserves.

Saudi Arabia·s oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the global oil ´market is oversuppliedµand that his country will pump á bitµ more crude in April than it did in March.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in OPEC, pumped 8.3 million barrels a day of crudein March, down from 9.1 million barrels a day in February, he said in Kuwait ahead ofan industry conference.



Crude oil prices may increase on speculation that unrest in the Middle East will curbexports as Saudi Arabia reduces production, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Prices have advanced 18 percent this year as unrest spread from Tunisia to Egypt,Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. Iran may be helping Syria·s government suppress

political protests, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said April 14 inWashington. Human Rights Watch said in an April 12 report that at least 130 peoplehave been killed in the Syrian crackdown.

´There are no signs that the situation in the Middle East is getting any better,µ said BillO·Grady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis.´Syria is looking downright ugly right now.µ----------------------Gaddafi·s son: We will deal with terrorists first and then talk reform (WashingtonPost)

By Simon DenyerApril 17, 5:40 PMTRIPOLI, Libya ³ Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the influential second son of MoammarGaddafi who was once seen as the great hope for reform in Libya, is clear on two points:He and his government have done nothing wrong, and they are not going to backdown.

In an interview that reflected the defiance of the Gaddafi family more than two monthsinto its efforts to put down a rebellion supported by the United States and its allies, the38-year-old said the world had gone to war with Libya based on nothing more than

rumor and propaganda.

In Saif Gaddafi·s telling, he has been betrayed by his ´best friend,µ who defected to jointhe rebels. His father·s government is besieged by al-Qaeda. And President Obama hasproved no different from his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The comments underscore the uncompromising stance of the Libyan government at atime when the fighting has stale-mated and NATO faces internal squabbling. Althoughthere had been indications this month that Saif Gaddafi was interested in a diplomaticsolution to the crisis that has divided his nation, his tone during an hour-long interviewsuggested that the core decision-makers in Tripoli are in no hurry to find a political wayout.

As if to bolster that point, forces loyal to the Gaddafi regime on Sunday heavily shelledthe besieged city of Misurata, the only rebel outpost in western Libya. A city councilspokesman said 17 people were killed and more than 100 were injured. Governmenttroops also attacked rebel positions in the strategically critical eastern city of Ajdabiya,sending some opposition fighters fleeing back to their de facto capital, Benghazi.



One month after the uprising, the United Nations authorized a no-fly zone over Libyain March to counter the government·s attacks on civilians. Obama has said thatinternational military action saved countless Libyan lives, by preventing MoammarGaddafi·s men from carrying out a massacre in Benghazi.

But in Saif Gaddafi·s view, Obama has it all wrong.

´We want the Americans tomorrow to send a fact-finding mission to find out whathappened in Libya. We want Human Rights Watch to come here and to find out exactlywhat happened,µ he said. ´We are not afraid of the International Criminal Court. Weare confident and sure that we didn·t commit any crime against our people.µ

Relaxing on a lounge chair in a turtleneck sweater this weekend, Saif Gaddafi spokeconfidently in fluent English without any advisers present. Every word was uttered

with the passion of absolute conviction, every question parried with a version of eventsthat contradicts conclusions reached by observers.

He says his father·s opponents are brutal terrorists and gangsters, led by al-Qaeda, whowill soon collapse under their internal divisions. He deems evidence that his forces firedon peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators and killed hundreds of them as categoricallyfalse.

The younger Gaddafi drew a comparison to the reports of weapons of mass destructionthat Bush cited in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Ít·s exactly like the WMD,µ Saif

Gaddafi said. ´WMD, WMD, WMD, go and attack Iraq. Civilians, civilians, civilians, goand attack Libya. It·s the same thing.µ

Libya·s fall from grace

Libya, once a pariah state, had worked hard to repair its international image in the pastdecade. Saif Gaddafi, who at one time had called for democracy for his country,expressed surprise at Libya·s swift fall from grace.

Ńobody in the Middle East, and especially in Libya, thought that one day PresidentObama will attack Libya or an Arabic country,µ he said. Ít was a big shock, a big shockfor everybody, even for my father.µ

Saif Gaddafi·s international image has collapsed just as quickly. The Gaddafi scion, whowas awarded a doctorate in governance and international relations at the LondonSchool of Economics in 2008, had many friends in the West before the crisis erupted inFebruary. But then he delivered an extraordinary televised address vowing to fightuntil ´the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.µ



The speech destroyed any lingering hope in the West that the son would break with hisfather·s government, and he voices no regrets about it today.

Í told them, ¶You listen, Libyans. There is a big conspiracy against Libya. You will have

a civil war, you will destroy your country, you will destroy the oil, and you will have aforeign intervention.· And those four points happened,µ he said.

Ironically, he had brought many reformers into the government in the past decade,while promising that Libya would move toward democracy and freedom of expressionunder a new constitution.

Several of those men have since defected and play leading roles in the rebel TransitionalNational Council, a fact that could help explain the younger Gaddafi·s keenness toemphasize his nationalist credentials.

´They were my friends ³ we drink together, we eat together, we sit together, we traveltogether. They were my own people,µ he said. Ńow this is my biggest problem inLibya. I get messages from volunteers on the front. They told me: ¶After the victory,you, Saif, have no place here in Libya. Everything is because of you. Because thosecriminals, these traitors were your friends, and you brought them here.· µ

Mahmoud Jibril, a U.S.-educated professor brought back to Libya by Saif Gaddafi tohelp run the nation·s economic policy, is the rebels· foreign affairs representative. ´Hewas my best friend. He changed completely. I don·t know why,µ Saif Gaddafi said, his

voice lowering with a tinge of hurt. Ńow he is sitting with Hillary Clinton, with[British Foreign Secretary William] Hague, and with [French President Nicolas] Sarkozyin the Elysee. Excuse me, he said, ¶Saif, you are too small for me now.· µ

Jibril and other top defectors have said that they could no longer support a governmentthat uses such extreme violence against its citizens.

Dismissing accusations

The Gaddafi government has been accused by the United Nations, human rightsgroups, doctors and foreign journalists of raining down mortar shells, rockets andsniper fire on civilians in Misurata, killing more than 280 people.

But in Saif Gaddafi·s version of events, the army is merely rooting out terrorists hidingin the city, just as the Russian army did in the Chechen capital, Grozny, just asAmericans did in Fallujah in Iraq.



Ít·s exactly the same thing,µ he said. Í am not going to accept it, that the Libyan armykilled civilians. This didn·t happen. It will never happen.µ

Instead of attacking Libya, he said, the United States should be helping it fight al-Qaeda. Then, once the ´terroristsµ are removed from Misurata and Benghazi, he said, it

will be time to talk of national reconciliation and democracy, under a new constitutionthat would reduce Moammar Gaddafi·s role to a ´symbolicµ one.

´The biggest issue is the terrorists and the armed militia,µ Saif Gaddafi said. Ónce weget rid of them, everything will be solved.µ-------------------------Besieged city weathers continued attacks (Washington Post)By Leila FadelApril 17, 7:18 PMMISURATA, Libya ³ The street that leads to the port of this strategic city in western

Libya is known as the road of death. Dozens have been killed here as MoammarGaddafi·s forces battle to retake the area·s only lifeline.

Misurata has been besieged for two months, and its residents are trying to flee, unableto cope with the terror of life amid random shelling and daily killings. Gaddafi isfighting hard to regain this rebel holdout, which is just east of Tripoli.

Misurata, a relatively wealthy merchant town with an estimated 500,000 people, standsbetween Tripoli and Gaddafi·s home town of Sirte. Rebel control of the city forces hisfuel supply trucks to go through the mountains in a costly loop. It also undermines his

assertion that the east is alone in its opposition to his rule.

Residents and doctors say the past two days were agony as rockets and artillery firebarraged the port. The death toll across Misurata on Sunday was 17, the highest sincethe first two weeks of fighting in late February.

Hikma hospital, a private facility that has become a makeshift trauma center, wassprayed with bullets Sunday, but doctors continued to work.

´The international community has to assume responsibility,µ said Khaled Abu Falgha,head of the hospital·s medical team in Misurata. Í see civilians dying every day.µ

One of the wounded on Sunday was a 10-year-old boy named Mohammed. He layunconscious in the intensive care unit, shot to the head. The only sound was thebeeping of heart monitors.

In the past week, many victims have lost limbs because of cluster bombs, Abu Falghasaid. Since the start of the conflict, the hospital has recorded at least 300 fatalities. He



said the overall death toll is probably closer to 1,000. At least 3,000 have been wounded,he said.

Éighty percent of the dead are civilians,µ he said, exhausted from his 24-hour days,which are broken up by small naps on a cot in the hallway.

The deaths, injuries and food shortages have left residents begging for internationalhelp. NATO planes fly above, but the echoes of artillery fire through the city are farmore common than the sound of airstrikes.

The International Organization for Migration has made two runs to evacuate residentsand bring in supplies. The 132-member group has cobbled together the funding foranother run as humanitarian conditions in the city worsen, said Jeremy Haslam, wholeads the Misurata mission.

Íf we·re going to protect civilians, there needs to be more emphasis on thehumanitarian assistance,µ he said.

The city·s streets are full of the signs of urban warfare. Barriers are fashioned out oflarge pieces of water pipe and filled with sand to protect checkpoints. The city·s mainroad is hotly contested.

Pro-Gaddafi towns surround the city, and the only help Misurata residents receivecomes from the sea.

Ali Hannoush, a rebel fighter and guard at the port, said that he has lived in fear for 60days. He pointed out the gnarled cargo crates of chocolate and chewing gum that werehit by rockets.

´For every Gaddafi soldier we kill, we lose three or four of our fighters,µ he said.´We·ve suffered since the beginning.µ

But he said he is determined to stay and fight.

´We can·t leave,µ he said. Íf we leave, who will protect the city?µ-----------------------In a Medical Tent in Libya, a Grim Procession (NYT)By C. J. CHIVERSApril 17, 2011MISURATA, Libya ³ Jinan Hussein Jweil rested on her back on a gurney inside thetriage tent. Either a bullet or a piece of whizzing shrapnel had struck the 5-year-old highon the right side of her head.



A Libyan and Italian medical team worked to save her. It was not certain they could.´Her brain is out,µ said Dr. Abdullah Juwid, a surgeon.

As the ugly math of a midsize city suffering a siege would have it, Dr. Juwid was both adoctor in an overcrowded triage tent and an uncle of this wounded child. He had no

time to dwell on her case.

A pickup truck skidded to a stop outside. Several rebel fighters carried their bullet-riddled friend through the entrance flap. The man appeared to have been in his 20s. Hehad been shot through both legs and squarely in his chest and mouth. His pupils werefixed.

´Maybe he is dead,µ another doctor said, as their assistants cut away the man·s clothes.The assistants stopped. There was no point in searching for more wounds. ´He iskilled,µ one of them said.

In the battle for Misurata, a rebel holdout city under attack by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi·s forces for months, the tally of those killed and wounded rises daily, and oftenby the hour. It can be only partially assessed at one of the several treatment centersscattered around the rebel-controlled portions of the city. But where it is counted, it isgrim.

The wounded arrive at this triage tent throughout the day and sometimes deep into thenight, a population formed by circumstance and number into a procession of wartimetrauma.

Mustafa Madhoun, a physiotherapist who had never seen injuries nastier than thosesuffered by the victims of vehicle accidents, had just participated in the amputation ofthe lower left leg of a fighter, Mustafa Youssif.

Mr. Madhoun summed it up. ´Yesterday was a very bad day,µ he said. ´I had hopedtoday would be different. Today is a very bad day, too.µ

In clinical terms, this triage tent has seen a catalog of the effects of modern weapons onhuman life ³ gunshot wounds, blast wounds, shrapnel wounds, the occasional burns.People arrive with wounds as mild as a bullet·s graze, to wounds as life-changing as asevered spinal cord. A few arrive dead.

On average, 50 or 60 wounded people pass through this tent each day. About 10 ofthem die, according to the medical staff and the flow of patients observed.

´Most of them, for sure, are civilians,µ said Dr. Paolo Grosso, an anesthesiologist who ispart of a seven-member team in Misurata from Emergency, the Italian aid organization,



and was among those working to save young Jinan. The organization has been helpingMisurata·s doctors.

How many people have been fatally wounded since the siege began in February is notreadily known. Rebels say more than 1,000 people have been killed. That number is not

verifiable in the current conditions.

The hospital records available so far indicate that at a minimum 313 people have beenkilled and 1,047 wounded through Sunday evening. But this count is most likely low, assome families do not take victims who have been killed outright to hospitals. Theysimply bury them instead.

(Eight people who were killed in a rocket strike last Thursday, for example, wereinterred in a small public park in the Qasr Ahmed neighborhood without being talliedby any medical staff.)

Some days, like Saturday and Sunday, in which 70 people were verified wounded eachday, have been worse than others.

Among those struck have been children, including Mohamed Hussein el-Faar, 10. Hearrived at the triage tent Saturday afternoon, howling. Blood trickled from the hairbeside his right ear. He fought the doctors as they tried to examine him, until severalassistants held him down.

At first it seemed he had been grazed by a bullet. But there was also a wound on the

opposite side of his head. After he was stabilized and moved into a facility with a CTscanner, the images provided a fuller view: a bullet had passed through Mohamed·sskull.

On Sunday he was still alive, though a doctor gave a discouraging prognosis. Ńotgood,µ he said. Ńever with this kind of injury is the prognosis good.µ

By late Sunday morning in the triage tent, there was little time to think of yesterday·spatients. The sounds of battle could be heard a few blocks away, and thick smokebillowed over part of Tripoli Street, one of the city·s main fronts. A hurried pace hadpicked up again.

At 11:20 a.m. the medical staff cut away the shirt of a man who had been peppered bylight debris in an explosive blast, his back busy with small holes. An ultrasoundtechnician scanned his torso while doctors watched.

Ńo problem,µ Dr. Grosso said. ´His chest is free.µ



Another ambulance arrived eight minutes later, with a man who was not so lucky. Abullet had struck him near his hip ³ a place where blood flow can be very difficult tostop. The crowd of men who saw him being carried off the ambulance, and saw thewide pool of blood he left behind, realized he was likely to die.

The men immediately began to chant: ´God is great,µ they shouted, over and over.

Throughout the afternoon the pace was unrelenting. At times four or five fresh patientswere treated at once. As each was wheeled out of the tent, it seemed another arrived.

The trauma center was in many ways well-provisioned. Its staff and the manyvolunteers who have come to support it had done the planning, and some of thenecessary scrounging, to make do. (At two sinks on Sunday, the staff washed handswith powdered laundry soap ³ anything to stay clean.)

Many of its principal needs have thus far been covered. It has a generator and runningwater, two things not available in much of the city. It serves its patients and those whowork here occasional bottles of water and small portions of food.

But it lacks some medicines, including opiates. For at least a week there has been nomorphine.

Some of the patients would in any other circumstance surely need it, including Mr.Youssif, a fighter brought down by ordnance that ruined his legs.

Mr. Youssif watched as his bloody pants were cut away, revealing shins that had beenblown open and feet that pointed in ways they were not meant to. It was obvious hislower right leg would need to be amputated. Keeping his lower left leg appeareduncertain, too. He flashed a victory sign, laid back on the gurney, and moaned.

He began to pray.

Later, in a lull after Mr. Youssif·s lower right leg had been removed, Mr. Madhounpaced away from the tent.

Assistants were washing bloodied stretchers and pushing them into ambulancesheaded back out. The smoke over Tripoli Street was getting thicker. Some said the rebellines risked being broken, which might allow the pro-Qaddafi forces to pushunimpeded into the city.

Asked if he was afraid, Mr. Madhoun·s answer was quick.



Ábsolutely not,µ he said. He added: ´We have a strong connection to God. All of ushere know that some day death will come. We know we will die. And we do not carehow we die.µ

He stood quietly as patients were moved by. A refrigerated truck in the lot held rotting

remains collected in the morning on the street. He amended his answer. Ít is anhonor,µ he said, ´to die in defense of freedom.µ

So many, though, have been wounded or killed defending nothing, resisting nothing, just trying to stay out of the conflict·s way.

As Sunday·s tallies rose, an aged woman joined the procession of the wounded, as did awafer-thin 92-year-old man, who was carried into the tent with bloodied face and feet.

He had been in his home, his son said, when a mortar or artillery round hit it, collapsing

the roof.

More and more fighters arrived, too, some in pickup trucks that now contained lakes ofblood. These men were in the last moments of life. By 5 p.m. the crowd around the tentwas chanting almost nonstop.

Another Libyan fighter had died, and his body was to be carried to his grave. A gantletof men formed, some of them weeping, and walked with the wooden casket containinghim overhead toward another waiting pickup truck. The body was wrapped in a greenblanket, prepared for the earth.

Ten minutes later, the same dirge started anew. It was another man·s turn.

Dr. Grosso watched. He had been a portrait of composure throughout the day. Now hestood among the blood-splattered ambulances.

Ít is a shame on Western nations,µ he said, and slipped back inside to work.

A short while later, the word moved from the medical staff, then through the crowd.There was another victim. Jinan Hussein Jweil, 5 years old, was dead.---------------------------Ouattara Moves to Restore Security to Ivory Coast (VOA)Scott StearnsApril 17, 2011Abidjan - President Alassane Ouattara is moving to restore security in Ivory Coast oneweek after his country's political crisis ended with the arrest of former presidentLaurent Gbagbo. Mr. Gbagbo held on to power with the help of the military, refusing torecognize that he lost November's vote.



The dramatic capture of Mr. Gbagbo, who was holding out in an underground bunkerat the presidential compound, brings to an end more than four months of politicaluncertainty in Ivory Coast where Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Ouattara both claimed thepresidency.

Mr. Ouattara has ordered his justice minister to prepare charges against Mr. Gbagboand his wife, Simone, who ran the country for ten years and tried to hold on to powereven when the African Union and the international community recognized Mr.Ouattara as the duly-elected leader.

More than 1,000 people died in the battle between rival presidents as pro-Ouattaraforces fought their way south toward Abidjan where United Nations and French attackhelicopters bombed Gbagbo heavy artillery and rocket launchers.

Jaqueline Yin and her daughter hid in their home. "We were shut inside for three days.We could not eat, could not eat. We had to move to another neighborhood, but thefighting was somewhere else, so we were OK. After three days we got out and now Iam walking around to see how things are," she said.

Modest Danon says the fight for Abidjan was the only way to remove Mr. Gbagbo frompower and respect the will of voters. "The last week was hard for the Ivorian peoplebecause of the fight between pro-Gbagbo and pro-Ouattara forces. But the victory byPresident Ouattara is a good thing because he is recognized by the internationalcommunity and was elected by the Ivorian people. Everyone wants to see their lives

improve and the country be better organized," he said.

Life is quickly returning to something closer to normal within days of Mr. Gbagbo'scapture. Produce from the interior is once again reaching Abidjan markets now thatroads are cleared of combat. Most of the big grocery stores and pharmacies are open.Fuel is readily available.

Jaquiline Yin is hoping for a better future for her daughter. "In the future, now that wehave a president, life will better. Now that it is all over and we have a new president,life will be good," she said.

Modest Danon says President Ouattara has what it takes to make a difference. "Myhope is that we will have a good president here. He is an economist who should be ableto make Ivory Coast better because everyone wants enough work and enough to eat toend the suffering of our country," he said.

President Ouattara says the challenges are considerable but can be overcome ifeveryone stays calm and treats one and other with respect. "We are still in a delicate



situation. We still need to secure the country, especially Abidjan, these steps areessential and will still take a few months," he said.

President Ouattara is giving himself two months to completely restore security in IvoryCoast. In that time, he intends to renew cocoa exports, restart the oil refinery, and

reopen banks to get the economy moving again while restoring essential public servicesto improve conditions for a society disrupted by nearly 10 years of civil war, instability,and political violence.------------------------Sudan shrugs off concerns of U.S lawmakers (Sudan Tribune)By Unattributed AuthorApril 16, 2011KHARTOUM ² Sudan has dismissed an attempt by a trio of US lawmakers to stonewallthe ongoing process of removing its name from the US blacklist of countries sponsoringterrorism.

The US Administration started in February the process of removing Sudan·s name fromthe list of countries sponsoring terrorism, in which Sudan remained since 1993 over itsgovernment·s support for trans-national Islamists in its early days.

The removal comes as a reward for the Sudanese government on the successfulimplementation of South Sudan·s referendum on independence held in January thisyear.

In due course, the administration was criticized for its decision to de-couple the conflict

in Sudan·s western region of Darfur from the process of removing the country·s namefrom the terrorism-sponsoring list.

Co-chairs of the Congressional Sudan Caucus, Michael Capuano, Frank Wolf, DonaldM. Payne on Friday sent a letter to US President Barack Obama citing a list of reasonswhy they were ´deeply concernedµ about the US policy towards Sudan.

´[We] are deeply concerned that the current approach toward Sudan is heading in thewrong direction and that the policy ² if consistent with that approach ² will fail toachieve our objectives to support peace and alleviate the suffering of the people ofSudan,µ the letter read.

The letter said that the reason for their concern was the administration·s failure toaddress what it called as the Sudanese government·s efforts to undermine peace as wellas the ongoing abuses it commits.

´The NCP·s primary motivation is to remain in power at all costs,µ the letter said.



The unhappy congressmen urged Obama to include in his Sudan police a ´transparentµplan that emphasizes protection, accountability, and a meaningful peace process inDarfur, as well as ´robust pressuresµ and ´appropriate incentivesµ to press parties toadhere to their commitments.

But the Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs has dismissed the congressmen as´representing pressure groups hostile to Sudan,µ according to the ministry·s officialspokesman Khalid Musa.

Musa told reporters in Khartoum yesterday that Sudan ´did not officially receiveanything indicating that the US administration had adopted the conditions [proposedby the congressmen] or decided to renege on the agreement to remove Sudan·s from thelist of countries sponsoring terrorism.µ

´What concerns Sudan is that the U.S Administration had renewed commitment to

implement its promises.µ

Sudanese officials have repeatedly expressed frustration over keeping their country·sname in the terrorism-sponsoring list despite sustained counter-terrorism cooperationprovided by the Sudanese intelligence authorities to their U.S counterparts.-------------------Nigeria's president leads election vote (CNN)By Christian PurefoyApril 18, 2011Abuja, Nigeria - Nigeria's incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan looked likely

Sunday to win the election, a CNN tally of preliminary results showed.

The Independent National Electoral Commission posted on its website the count from28 of the country's 36 states and its capital, showing Jonathan with more than 19 millionvotes, compared to his main challenger -- Muhammadu Buhari -- who had close to 9million votes.

A formal announcement of the results could come as early as Monday.

To avoid a runoff, Jonathan must get at least a quarter of the vote in two-thirds of the 36states and the capital.

Nigerians voted Saturday for their president, a week after parliamentary elections weremarred by violence and accusations of fraud in Africa's most populous nation.

Jonathan is the front-runner despite a poor performance in those elections by hisPeople's Democratic Party. He is popular in the Christian and animist south.



The former vice president assumed office after President Umaru Yar'Adua died lastyear following treatment for a kidney ailment in Saudi Arabia.

Jonathan has led the nation of about 150 million people since May. About 73 millionpeople were registered to vote.

His main challenger, Buhari, is a former military ruler and was a contestant in the 2003and 2007 elections. He is the candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change andenjoys support from the mostly Muslim north.

Other candidates included Nuhu Ribadu and current Kano state Gov. IbrahimShekarau.

A CNN iReporter in Lagos, who gave her name as Jan Young, said Saturday sheexpected the race to be tight.

"If the incumbent president wins, it won't be a landslide victory but a fair split betweenthe ruling and opposition parties who campaigned for our votes. I also expect ournation would demand accountability from whoever wins at the end of the day," shewrote.

Saturday's voting was largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that characterized thecountry's parliamentary elections on April 9. During that vote, separate bomb blastsripped through a polling station and a collation center in northeastern Nigeria.

Human Rights Watch has estimated that at least 85 people have been killed in politicalviolence so far.

A new election chief promised free and fair elections, but the electoral commission wasforced to put off elections earlier this year by a week after logistical problems, includingparty logos missing from ballot papers, were reported nationwide.

It was a major setback reminiscent of the nation's 2007 elections, which the EuropeanUnion described as filled with rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes andintimidation.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and its largest oil producer, is a major supplierof crude oil to the United States, and hosts many Western oil companies and workers.

Nigerians voted April 9 for 360 House of Representatives seats and 109 Senate seats. Agubernatorial vote will be held on April 26.------------------------ UN News Service Africa Briefs



Full Articles on UN Website

Côte d·Ivoire: UN steps up humanitarian aid to ease widespread suffering

15 April ² United Nations agencies are stepping up their efforts to ease the suffering ofcivilians in Côte d·Ivoire who bore the brunt of the post-election crisis that was marked

by ethnic tensions, human rights violations and the displacement of an estimated onemillion people.

AFRICOM Related News Clips 18 April 2011

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