AFRICOM Related News Clips 25 April 2011

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United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office25 April 2011

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Qaddafi: NATO tried to assassinate me (CBS News)(Libya) NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Muammar Qaddafi's seat of power earlyMonday, destroying a multi-story library and office and badly damaging a receptionhall for visiting dignitaries, in what a press official from Qaddafi's government said was

an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.Libyan Rebels Say They Have Control of Misurata (NYT)(Libya) Rebel leaders said they had consolidated their control of the western city ofMisurata on Sunday, taking over the last two government outposts there even asgovernment forces continued to shell the city from its outskirts.

Lawmakers urge Obama to take stronger action to oust Kadafi (LA Times)(Libya) A trio of U.S. senators redoubled calls on the Obama administration Sunday tostep up U.S support for Libyan rebels in their battle against the regime of MoammarKadafi, even targeting Kadafi directly if necessary.

Fears of a military stalemate in Libya grow (USA Today)(Libya) The United States recently stepped up pressure on the regime of MoammarGadhafi with drone strikes and a decision to send non-lethal supplies to rebels. Butcritics say these are only incremental steps that won·t turn the tide.

Attempt to hijack plane to Libya thwarted: report (Xinhua)(Libya) A man on a flight from Paris to Rome on Sunday night attacked a hostess andtried to divert the flight to Tripoli, but he was stopped thanks to the rapid reaction ofsome flight attendants and passengers on board, Italian media reported.

I. Coast embarks on daunting security purge (AFP)(Côte d·Ivoire) Ivory Coast's messy removal of over-staying leader Laurent Gbagbo hasleft the new government with the daunting task of wiping out remaining pockets ofresistance.

Southern Sudan Ready to Negotiate With Militias to End Violence (VOA)



(Sudan) South Sudan·s chief of mission to the United States and United Nations hascalled on militia groups to lay down their arms and join his government. He sayscontinued fighting risks destabilizing the region, ahead of south Sudan·s independencescheduled for July.

Accused Somali pirate negotiator faces US charges (Reuters)(Somalia) A Somali man accused of negotiating a ransom after pirates seized amerchant ship in the Gulf of Aden has been brought to the United States to facecriminal charges, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Nigeria: Fresh Security Concern Over Guber Polls (Vanguard)(Nigeria) The Federal Government is reviewing internal security ahead of Tuesday'sgovernorship and state assembly elections following intelligence report about plans bysome people to derail the elections.

UN News Service Africa Briefs Full Articles on UN Websitey Côte d''Ivoire: UN peacekeepers begin clearing explosives after election conflict y Su dan: S ecu rity Co u ncil u rges parties to peace pact to resolve o u tstanding iss u es

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

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, April 27 th, 10:30 am ² 12:00 pm.; The BrookingsInstitution, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, WDCWHAT: Africa·s Education Financing ChallengeWHO: Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Director of Africa Growth Initiative; Albert Motivans, Headof Education Indicators and Data Analysis at UNESCO Institute for Statistics;Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of Africa Region at World Bank; Jacques vander Gaag, Senior Fellow at the Global Economy and Development, Center for UniversalEducationInfo: http://www.brookings.edu/events/2011/0427_africa_education.aspx

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Qaddafi: NATO tried to assassinate me (CBS News)By Unattributed AuthorApril 24, 2011TRIPOLI - NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Muammar Qaddafi's seat of powerearly Monday, destroying a multi-story library and office and badly damaging areception hall for visiting dignitaries, in what a press official from Qaddafi'sgovernment said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.



Qaddafi's whereabouts at the time of the attack on his sprawling Bab al-Azizyacompound were unclear. A security official at the scene said four people were lightlyhurt.

A press official, who asked not to be identified, said 45 people were injured, including15 who were seriously hurt, and some were still unaccounted for after the attack. Therehas been no independent verification of those figures as yet.

CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the strike was part of a pre-planned attack against command and control facilities, and it is extremely unlikely thatNATO would know Qaddafi's location that far in advance.

Authorities say between two and four large missiles or bombs exploded in thecompound early Monday. The buildings, described as locations where Qaddafi holdsmeetings, were badly damaged with the roof of one of the structures caved in.

The attack comes a day after Qaddafi's forces unleashed a barrage of shells and rocketsat Misrata in an especially bloody weekend, and also falls on the heels of fresh calls formore aggressive NATO action by some American politicians.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said over the weekend: "My recommendation to NATOand the administration is to cut the head of the snake off, go to Tripoli, start bombingQaddafi's inner circle, their compounds, their military headquarters in Tripoli."

Qaddafi's forces had unleashed a barrage of shells and rockets at Misrata on Sunday in

an especially bloody weekend, countering Libyan government claims that the army washolding its fire into the western city.

Because of the escalating violence in Misrata, which doctors say killed 32 and woundeddozens in two days, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that ships takingcivilians away from the besieged city have become an all-important lifeline. Food andmedicine have become scarce in the city, and the only way for most people to helpthemselves is to leave.

Rebels said Sunday they drove the last pro-government forces from the center of Libya'sthird-largest city. Morale among Qaddafi's troops fighting in Misrata has collapsed,with some abandoning their posts, said one captured Libyan soldier.

The battle for Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two months, hasbecome the focal point of Libya's armed rebellion against Qaddafi since fightingelsewhere is deadlocked.------------------------- Libyan Rebels Say They Have Control of Misurata (NYT)



By ROD NORDLANDApril 24, 2011BENGHAZI, Libya ³ Rebel leaders said they had consolidated their control of thewestern city of Misurata on Sunday, taking over the last two government outposts thereeven as government forces continued to shell the city from its outskirts.

Government spokesmen asserted that Libyan forces had withdrawn from the cityvoluntarily on Saturday to allow for a 48-hour cease-fire, during which tribal leaderscould negotiate the rebels· surrender.

There was no sign of a cease-fire, however, or negotiations.

In Tripoli, the capital, two bombs were seen falling in the vicinity of Colonel Qaddafi·scompound shortly after midnight and the blasts were heard a mile away, part of whatLibyan officials complain is an intensifying NATO campaign in recent days. Journalists

taken to the Qaddafi compound by government officials found a small complex of officebuildings and a meeting space destroyed by the bomb blast, with a tangle of wires andantennae protruding from the smoldering wreckage.

A normally stoic Foreign Ministry official watching the coverage of the blasts in thelobby of the Rixos Al Nasr Tripoli Hotel exclaimed that the bombing had gone too far,and in evident exasperation warned that Libya would be justified in launching terroristattacks against the cities of NATO members.

The shelling diminished Sunday, but it still killed eight people and wounded 38,

according to a rebel spokesman in Misurata, reached by Internet telephone andidentified only as Mohammed for his security. On Saturday, as government forceswithdrew, he said, 36 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded.

Mohammed said that among those killed Saturday night was his father, Ali. He said hisfather died along with a cousin who was trying to rescue him when their neighborhoodcame under heavy shelling.

´The shelling was unprecedented yesterday, both in the intensity and the size of theshells,µ he said Sunday, describing the bombardment as using heavy artillery, Gradmissiles and Katyusha rockets.

Mohammed said he continued to work as a spokesman after burying his father onSunday. ´It is very tough, but we are in a war and it·s my duty, it·s my way of takingrevenge for my father,µ he said.

Rebel leaders disputed claims that forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi hadwithdrawn voluntarily, insisting that they had been defeated in battle.



Misurata, which has been besieged by government forces for the past two months, is thethird largest city in Libya and the only major rebel stronghold in the west. Mohammedsaid the rebels had captured 180 government soldiers in the past week of fighting andwere treating them as prisoners of war.

´They even left their wounded behind,µ said Jalil el-Gallal, spokesman for the rebels· defacto governing body, the Transitional National Council. ´They were fleeing, notwithdrawing.µ

Mr. Gallal and Mohammed said rebel forces had taken complete control of the city, andaccounts from journalists there generally confirmed that. ´There are none andabsolutely none of them in the city now,µ Mohammed said of Colonel Qaddafi·s troops.

A reporter for the British newspaper The Guardian reported seeing six destroyed tanks

in the vegetable market, the scene of particularly heavy fighting last week. The marketwas where the first American Predator strike in Libya took place on Saturday.

The Guardian also confirmed that the last two buildings held by Qaddafi forces in thecity on Saturday had been cleared, and that green Libyan military uniforms had beenfound that were discarded by retreating troops.

A ship chartered by the International Organization for Migration arrived in Benghazion Sunday from Misurata, carrying 995 more stranded migrant workers, most of themfrom Niger, as well as 17 wounded civilians.

The organization said it planned to make at least two more trips into Misurata to rescue1,500 more migrants, many of whom have been camped near the port in hopes offleeing. The group said that it expected that other migrants who had been hiding inparts of the city previously controlled by Colonel Qaddafi·s forces might swell thatnumber, now that they could move safely.

In all, the migration group has gotten 4,100 migrant workers from 21 nations out ofMisurata.

In Benghazi, the rebel capital, opposition leaders were upbeat about their financialsituation. While they have not yet gained access to $30 billion in Libyan money infrozen accounts abroad, as some countries have suggested they should, they have founddonors to tide them over.

On Sunday, officials announced that Kuwait had donated about $180 million to thegoverning council. And Wahid Bugaighis, the interim government·s oil minister, saidthat while the rebels had not been able to pump any oil from fields in eastern Libya,



Qatar had stepped in with an open-ended commitment to finance their fuel and energyneeds ´with whatever we need during this transition period, with no fees attached.µ-------------------Lawmakers urge Obama to take stronger action to oust Kadafi (LA Times)By Noam N. LeveyApril 24, 2011, 8:24 a.m.Washington ³ A trio of U.S. senators redoubled calls on the Obama administrationSunday to step up U.S support for Libyan rebels in their battle against the regime ofMoammar Kadafi, even targeting Kadafi directly if necessary.

"I think the focus should now be to cut the head of the snake off. That's the quickestway to end this," Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) said on CNN's "State of the Union.""Let's get this guy gone."

Graham was joined by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who just completed a visit to Libya,

and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in urging the U.S. to resume a leadership role in the aircampaign against Kadafi's forces.

Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats on Capitol Hill, also called on the U.S. to stepup support for the popular uprising in Syria, which has met with increasingly violentreaction from the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"This is a moment of extraordinary opportunity for the cause of freedom in Syria, and ithas tremendous strategic significance for the region," Lieberman said, noting Syria'sclose ties with Iran.

Lieberman called on the U.S. to freeze Assad's wealth and go to the United Nations toplace an arms embargo on the regime.

Several Democratic lawmakers urged a more cautious approach Sunday, emphasizingthe need to continue to work with other countries.

"We should encourage the democratic movement in Syria, but at the same time avoidanything like an open-ended commitment," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said onCBS' "Face the Nation."

Appearing on the same program, Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) urged patience inLibya as well.

"We need to give it a little bit of time. I think the squeeze play that we are applyingmore and more pressure on Kadafi with military action, with an embargo, willeventually succeed."



But even while applauding the Obama administration for deploying drones in Libya,McCain, Graham and Lieberman criticized the White House for removing other U.S.attack aircraft from front line roles in the support of rebel forces.

"You can't get into a fight with one foot," said Lieberman.

McCain, who has been a leading advocate for a more aggressive U.S. action in Libya,warned that a military stalemate there could provide an opening for Al Qaeda and hecalled for more concerted efforts to arm the rebels using intermediaries the way the U.S.helped Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet Union in the '80s.

But McCain and Lieberman signaled less confidence in targeting Kadafi specifically.

"We have tried those things in the past with other dictators, and it's a little harder thanyou think it is," McCain said, warning of the danger of civilian casualties should the

U.S. strike at Kadafi and his inner circle.------------------Fears of a military stalemate in Libya grow (USA Today)By Jim MichaelsApril 24, 2011WASHINGTON ³The United States recently stepped up pressure on the regime ofMoammar Gadhafi with drone strikes and a decision to send non-lethal supplies torebels. But critics say these are only incremental steps that won·t turn the tide.

´We·re in great risk of a stalemate,µ said Sen. John McCain, a leading Republican voice

on national security issues and critic of President Obama·s Libya policy. ´I think weneed to do a great deal more in order to bring it to a successful conclusion.µ

McCain made the remarks over the weekend after returning from a surprise visit toLibya, where he met with rebel leaders in Benghazi, the opposition capital. He was thefirst prominent U.S. politician to visit the rebels.

The criticism reflects an intensifying debate over whether the Obama administration isgetting sucked deeper into a war without a clear victory strategy.

On Sunday, rebel forces appeared to have driven Gadhafi·s forces from the center ofMisrata, a western city that has been the scene of bloody street fighting. Gadhafi forcesresponded with a rocket barrage back into the city.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the Obama strategy last week, saying theadministration has set strict limits on involvement that will ensure the United Stateswill not be drawn endlessly into the conflict. The Obama administration has ruled outthe use of American troops, and the aid it will send will be non-lethal.



Í don·t think there·s mission creep at all,µ Gates said.

What worries some analysts are precisely the limits the U.S. has put on its role in Libya.It·s an approach that ramps up pressure incrementally without using overwhelmingforce to shift momentum, they say. Í don·t know of any military operation whereincrementalism is a good thing,µ said Reuel Marc Gerecht, an ex-CIA officer and seniorfellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

America·s European allies have also raised the stakes. The British, French and Italianssaid they would send several dozen military advisers to work with the rebels. They willhelp to coordinate air strikes and to organize a rebel force that currently lacks structure,analysts say.

´When you put in the force incrementally the enemy just adjusts,µ said James Carafano

of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

In fact, the Pentagon said Obama authorized armed Predators in response to changes intactics by Gadhafi·s forces. They are trying to blend into the population, making itdifficult for coalition aircraft to strike them without harming civilians.

´The character of the fight has changed,µ Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week. Ýou·re seeing a much more dispersed flight,people that are « nestling up against crowded areas.µ

The unmanned Predators can fly lower and hit targets with more precision.The Pentagon has turned leadership of the air war over to NATO, but said it wouldprovide help when it had capabilities unavailable elsewhere.

McCain said the U.S. should play a bigger role in NATO·s air campaign, using AC-130gunships and A-10 aircraft, both well suited to support ground forces in close-infighting.

Ít·s very clear that NATO does not have the air assets that we do,µ McCain told USATODAY in a telephone interview. ´When we took the A-10 and the AC-130s out, wetook the most effective ground support capability out of the fight.µ

The stated military goal of the coalition remains limited to protecting the population,even though Obama and European leaders say Gadhafi must go.



Confusion about the mission makes it difficult to settle on a clear strategy, analysts say.Ít·s hard to know what mission creep is if you don·t know what the mission is,µCarafano said.

Critics say that without decisive military power and stronger backing for rebels astalemate is likely. McCain said the U.S. should give the rebels communication gear andrecognize their provisional government.

Gates said the administration doesn·t have a clear picture of the rebels.

McCain said they are órdinary peopleµ united by a desire to overthrow Gadhafi: Í donot see any al-Qaeda influence here. These are people who rose up against a brutaldictator.µ-------------------Attempt to hijack plane to Libya thwarted: report (Xinhua)

By Unattributed AuthorApril 24, 2011ROME - A man on a flight from Paris to Rome on Sunday night attacked a hostess andtried to divert the flight to Tripoli, but he was stopped thanks to the rapid reaction ofsome flight attendants and passengers on board, Italian media reported.

According to the local news agency Ansa, the incident happened around 9:30 p.m. onflight AZ329 linking the two European capitals. The attacker, who was in obviousagitation but was not drunk at the moment, tried to assault a flight attendant using anail clipper blade and asked for a flight diversion to the Libyan capital.

The hostess, however, resisted, and thanks to the prompt help from some other flightattendants and passengers, the man was brought under control and was pinned in hisseat, according to the report.

The flight, with 131 passengers aboard, landed safely at Rome's Fiuminico Airport. Theattacker has been handed over to the police, and the hostess, who only suffered minorinjuries to the neck, was sent to an emergency room at the airport.

According to the report, the attacker, identified as Valeriy Tolmachev, is a Kazakhcitizen and 48 years old. He is an adviser to the Kazakh delegation at UNESCO in Paris.Investigation is being conducted by Italian police in close contact with Frenchauthorities to find out the real intentions of the attacke------------------------I. Coast embarks on daunting security purge (AFP)By Otto BakanoApril 23, 2011



ABIDJAN ³ Ivory Coast's messy removal of over-staying leader Laurent Gbagbo hasleft the new government with the daunting task of wiping out remaining pockets ofresistance.

New President Alassane Ouattara, who took office nearly five months after winningelections after his troops captured Gbagbo on April 11, has already demolished apopular market in Abidjan that teemed with the fallen regime's followers.

The city's university, said to have been another hotbed of pro-Gbagbo elements, hasbeen closed indefinitely.

But defiant, diehard fighters who are clustered in Abidjan's northwestern Yopougondistrict put up stiff resistance this week when government forces attempted to dislodgethem.

The west African country's Education Minister Kandia Camara told AFP the Universityof Cocody campuses were shut down to "rehabilitate the students' residence and forsecurity reasons."

"These places were battle zones. There were arms and militia. The majority of thepeople were not students," she said.

Just outside the university in a plush neighbourhood near the presidential residence,informal shops have been razed, leaving their owners scrambling to salvage theirwares.

Students said the campus was virtually run by a powerful pro-Gbagbo students' union.

"This (closure) is in order because over the years we have witnessed atrocities. We werefrustrated as we witnessed what was happening and could not say anything," said 28-year-old master's degree student Kain Blaise.

"It was no longer about education," he said. "Protests erupted at any time. Politics hadtaken the centre stage and students became more political."

However, for freshman Gouene Ben Oumar, the closure just added more frustration ontop of the disruption to his studies.

"I don't see the real point of this closure. It is inconveniencing. I am disappointed. Wedon't know when we will resume," Oumar said.

The students' union however last week pledged allegiance to Ouattara and urged theirmilitant comrades to lay down their weapons and help reconcile the crisis-torn country.



Since coming to power, Ouattara's forces have taken control of much of the seaside city,the country's commercial hub, where they oversaw the demolition this week of the pro-Gbagbo "Sorbonne" market in central Abidjan.

The mayor's office said the market was destroyed for reasons of "cleanliness andsecurity."

But purging popular social venues is the easy part in securing a country beleaguered byyears of political instability and violence. Rebel leaders with fleeting allegiances andfreelance gunmen are likely to be a long-term problem for the new authorities in theworld's leading cocoa producer.

The presence in Abidjan of coup-plotter Ibrahim Coulibaly with a pack of fighters is aclear security concern for Ouattara. Coulibaly, who says he was behind the failed 2002

coup against Gbagbo, claims to command 5,000 men.

Coulibaly has said he helped topple Gbagbo and asked the new administration toacknowledge him, without making other clear demands, but his fighters have alreadyclashed with Ouattara's in his stronghold in the north of Abidjan.

Ouattara on Friday ordered his senior military commanders to ask Coulibaly and othermilitia leaders to put down their weapons or be disarmed forcefully.

"I instruct you to ask militia leaders, ask commander Ibrahim Coulibaly, to come to you

and lay down arms. This should be done immediately," Ouattara said."Nobody should illegally carry weapons," he added, warning that failure to heed meant"they should be disarmed by force."------------------Southern Sudan Ready to Negotiate With Militias to End Violence (VOA)Peter ClotteyApril 24, 2011South Sudan·s chief of mission to the United States and United Nations has called onmilitia groups to lay down their arms and join his government. He says continuedfighting risks destabilizing the region, ahead of south Sudan·s independence scheduledfor July.

This came after South Sudanese officials say the army has killed at least 55 rebel fightersduring a clash in volatile Jonglei state. Hundreds have died in fighting between thesouthern army and various armed groups since January, when southern Sudan voted tosplit from the north.



Southern leaders accused the north of using the rebellions to destabilize the regionahead of independence in early July.

Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, who is also a member of the ruling council of the Sudan People·sLiberation Movement (SPLM), says his government is ready to negotiate with themilitias.

Ít has been our desire to have peace in Sudan and especially in southern Sudan. Andthat is what we have been telling the militias to come and join us so that we can actuallybuild this new nation,µ said Gatkuoth.

´We have plenty of natural resources including oil and a vast land. That is why we havebeen calling upon them [militia groups] so that they can be integrated into the SPLA[Sudan People·s Liberation Army] and become part of the new army we are going tohave come July 9,µ he added.

The latest fighting raged for several hours Saturday, as soldiers battled gunmen led byGabriel Tanginya, the former head of a pro-Khartoum militia during Sudan's longnorth-south civil war.

Tanginya agreed late last year to integrate his fighters into the southern army. Mediareports say Saturday's fighting began after the militiamen refused to report to thesouthern capital of Juba. Officials say five of Tanginya's generals were killed in theclash.

Gatkuoth says the Government of Southern Sudan is doing its best to integrate themilitias into the military.

´Their concerns are being addressed, because the concerns of a soldier are to berecognized..and that·s [exactly] what we are doing,µ said Gatkuoth.

He said there may be other factors motivating the armed groups to continue fighting inthe south:

Í don·t think it is [just about] their concerns [regarding integration into the largermilitary]; it is about allowing themselves to be used by [outside forces] who are notinterested in having peace in southern Sudan,µ he said.

Ás a nation,µ he continued, ´we are committed to protecting our civilians, and we willconfront anybody who is jeopardizing the national security of southern Sudan.µ--------------------------Accused Somali pirate negotiator faces US charges (Reuters)By Unattributed Author



April 22, 2011 8:25am GMTWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Somali man accused of negotiating a ransom after piratesseized a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden has been brought to the United States to facecriminal charges, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

It said that Ali Mohamed Ali, 48, was charged with conspiracy to commit piracy, piracy,attack to plunder a vessel and aiding and abetting in the crimes. If convicted, he faces asentence of up to life in prison.

Ali and others were charged with conspiring to take over the M/V CEC Future, aDanish-owned vessel carrying American cargo, in a bid to hold the crew and cargo forransom.

Somali pirates seized the ship off the coast of Somalia on November 7, 2008, and held itfor more than two months. It was released on January 16, 2009, after the owner, Clipper

Group, paid $1.7 million in ransom.

Justice Department officials said Ali was scheduled to appear in federal court inWashington on April 26.

According to a federal grand jury indictment, Ali boarded the ship within two or threedays of the attack. He allegedly communicated with the ship's owners and demanded$7 million in ransom, and then agreed to accept $1.7 million.

This month another Somali man received a 25-year prison sentence for his role in

hijacking the vessel.Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia have hijacked vessels in the Indian Ocean andthe Gulf of Aden for years, making millions of dollars in ransoms by seizing shipsincluding oil tankers.

Ali was the latest of more than 25 Somalis who have been captured by the United Statesover the past year to face piracy and other criminal charges in U.S. courts.--------------------Nigeria: Fresh Security Concern Over Guber Polls (Vanguard)By Kingsley Omonobi23 April 2011The Federal Government is reviewing internal security ahead of Tuesday'sgovernorship and state assembly elections following intelligence report about plans bysome people to derail the elections.

The announcement of the result of the April 16th presidential election triggered massiveviolence in some Northern states that claimed many lives and left others injured.



Eleven states, according to security sources, are being targeted by the plotters.

These are: Kwara, Benue and Nasarawa in North Central; Imo and Anambra in SouthEast; Oyo and Ogun in South West; Sokoto, Kano and Kaduna in North West; andBauchi in North East.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that the decision of the Independent National ElectoralCommission, INEC, to reschedule the governorship/state assembly elections in Bauchiand Kaduna was partly in view of the security concern.

"The situation we find ourselves is very dicey. The danger is real and the experience ofthe last presidential election violence is a pointer that these plots should not be handledwith the kid glove any more," a source said.

"These guys are determined and the tools are readily available for them to use, but thePresident will not tolerate it."

Going into specifics, the source said: "In Imo State, intelligence reports show that thosecompeting against the sitting governor are not only formidable, there are fears thatsupporters of the ruling party and the opposition could take the law into their hands atthe slightest instigation".

In the case of Delta State, he said the songs coming from supporters of the maincontenders and ex_militants are frightening.

"In Oyo, we are envisaging a recurrence of violence of the past political era going by themanner the politicians are attacking and even swearing at one another. So the securityagencies will be extra_vigilant in that state".

The source said, the plotters were waiting for the elections in Sokoto, Kano, Bauchi,Kaduna, Benue, and Nasarawa to unleash further mayhem irrespective of the directionin which the pendulum swing because their mission is totally different from that ofpolitics."

Consequent upon the development, the Federal Government, yesterday, suspended theairlifting of soldiers for all international peace keeping operations until after theelections.

Three battalions are waiting to be airlifted to peace keeping operations in Dafur, Sierra-Leone and Liberia.



The decision has already been communicated to the United Nations and the AfricanUnion.

Besides, President Goodluck Jonathan has barred all ranks of the armed forces fromgoing on Easter break.-----------------------

UN News Service Africa Briefs Full Articles on UN Website

Côte d''Ivoire: UN peacekeepers begin clearing explosives after election conflict 22 April ² The United Nations peacekeeping force in Côte d''Ivoire has begun clearingexplosive devices that were left over by combatants during the bloody post-electionviolence that engulfed the West-African country following the runoff presidential polllast November.

Su dan: S ecu rity Co u ncil u rges parties to peace pact to resolve o u tstanding iss u es21 April ² The Security Council today urged both parties to the agreement that endedthe war between northern and southern Sudan to iron out outstanding issues beforeSouthern Sudan becomes a separate country in July, and encouraged then to enterdialogue with the United Nations on the future of its presence there.

AFRICOM Related News Clips 25 April 2011

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