AFRICOM Related-Newsclips 2 Feb 12

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U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Office +49(0)711-729-2687 [email protected]

United States Africa CommandPublic Affairs Office2 February 2012

Please find attached news clips for February 2, 2012, along with upcoming events of interest and UN News Service briefs.

Of interest in today¶s clips:

-Reuters offers a special report on Boko Haram, using forensics to track these terroristsand explaining the group's origin.- Al Jazeera offers a profile of Abdoulaye Wade, the man some say is responsible for

ongoing violent protests in Senegal.- Recent kidnappings in Sudan and Egypt are forcing the Chinese government to contendwith worker safety issues. China currently has 5.5 million overseas workers, many ininhospitable locations.- Several legal issues from Qadhafi's daughter appealing to the ICC over her jailed

brother.- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS faces funding challenges that will affect the Africancontinent.

In football news:

- Gabon defeats Tunisia, 1-0, making them the top of the Africa Cup of Nations Group C.

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U.S. Africa Command Public AffairsPlease send questions or comments to:

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Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa

Special Report - Boko Haram: between rebellion and jihad (Reuters)http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/uk-nigeria-bokoharam-idUKTRE80U0KB20120131 January 31, 2012By Joe Brock




MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - At about 10.40 one morning last August, MohammedAbul Barra rammed his ash-coloured station wagon into a security gate outside theUnited Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, knocking it off its hinges.Barra's 1996 Honda Accord then crashed through the main building's glass doors andslammed against the reception desk.

P rotests in Senegal turn violent (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/201213118362459859.html February 1, 2012By an unattributed author Senegal riot police have fired tear gas and sprayed protesters with water to break up a

thousands-strong rally in Dakar demanding that President Abdoulaye Wade drop plans toseek a third term.

P rofile: Abdoulaye Wade (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/2012127162041955479.html

January 28, 2012By an unattributed author Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's president, has ruled over the West African nation since 2000.

Residents clash with police near Algerian capital (Reuters)http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE81000K20120201 February 1, 2012By an unattributed author CHERAGA, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian security forces used water cannon and tear gason Tuesday to disperse rioting residents in a suburb of the capital who accused theauthorities of failing to investigate properly the fatal stabbing of a local man.

Kidnappings of Workers P ut P ressure on China (New York Times)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/world/africa/china-says-29-workers-still-missing-in-sudan.html?_r=1&ref=africa January 31, 2012By Andrew Jacobs and Jeffrey GettlemanBEIJING ² China¶s government, grappling with the kidnapping of a construction crewin Sudan, is facing heightened pressure over the safety of the country¶s citizens abroadafter a group of cement plant employees in Egypt was briefly abducted by Bedouintribesmen on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe¶s president slams African leaders over Libya, calls some ³fronts´ for theWest (A P )http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/zimbabwes-president-slams-african-leaders-over-libya-calls-some-fronts-for-the-west/2012/02/01/gIQAzFFDhQ_story.html February 1, 2012By an unattributed author




HARARE, Zimbabwe ² Zimbabwe¶s president has condemned the continentwide AfricaUnion for recognizing Libya¶s National Transitional Council at a recent summit, stateradio reported Wednesday.

Wave of arrests in Sudan targets nonviolent student activists (Christian Science

Monitor)http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2012/0131/Wave-of-arrests-in-Sudan-targets-nonviolent-student-activists January 31, 2012By Tracy Fehr, Guest blogger Sudan¶s ruling National Congress Party¶s grip on power seems to be tightening to the

point of suffocation. In the past week, Sudan¶s National Intelligence and SecurityServices, or NISS, has targeted non-violent, pro-democratic student activists in a wave of arrests and harassment.

Gaddafi daughter applies to ICC over jailed brother (Reuters)

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE81000G20120201 February 1, 2012By Christian LoweALGIERS (Reuters) - The daughter of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi asked onTuesday to make representations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to help her

brother Saif al-Islam, who is in a Libyan jail awaiting trial on rape and murder charges.

Rwanda genocide: ICTR seeks refuge for acquitted (BBC)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16816668 January 31, 2012By an unattributed author The court trying Rwandan genocide suspects is appealing for countries to give refuge for those acquitted, the UN tribunal's spokesman has told the BBC.

Rwanda: HIV P ositive Women Denied Inheritance Rights - Report (The New Times<Rwanda newspaper>)http://allafrica.com/stories/201201301759.html January 30, 2012By James TasambaWomen living with HIV/Aids in Gasabo and Nyanza districts are being denied their rights to inherit family property by their spouses and other relatives, a research conducted

by the Women's Network for Rural Development, commonly known by its Frenchmoniker Reseaux Des Femmes, has shown.

Kenya doctor fights mental health stigma in 'traumatized continent' (CNN Health)http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/31/health/frank-njenga-mental-health/index.html?hpt=wo_t4 January 31, 2012By an unattributed author




(CNN) -- As Kenya's leading psychiatrist, Frank Njenga has been championing the causeof better mental health care on the east African country and the continent for more thanthree decades.

Nigerian Sani Abacha aide Mustapha appeals over hanging (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16810996 January 31, 2012By an unattributed author An aide to former Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha has appealed against his hangingsentence for killing the wife of politician Moshood Abiola.

Africa: Global Fund - Challenges Ahead (allAfrica)http://allafrica.com/stories/201202010094.html January 31, 2012By Sue ValentineCape Town ² In its short 10-year history, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis

and Malaria has saved millions of lives, but as it marks its anniversary it finds itself thesubject of questions and concern, rather than celebration.

Hershey to invest $10 million in Ivory Coast to reduce child labor, improve cocoafarming (A P )http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/hershey-to-invest-10-million-in-ivory-coast-to-reduce-child-labor-improve-cocoa-farming/2012/02/01/gIQATGcThQ_story.html February 1, 2012By an unattributed author ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast ² The Hershey Company says it will invest $10 million in IvoryCoast to reduce child labor and improve the cocoa supply in the West African nation.

African Union summit: disunity on display (Christian Science Monitor)http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0131/African-Union-summit-disunity-on-display January 31, 2012By Scott Baldauf For sheer murkiness, the African Union is in a world of its own.Established back in 2002 to replace the older, less-organized Organization of AfricanUnity, the African Union has ambitions of creating a common policy front so that 54different African countries can confront what they see as an exploitative and richer worldwith one voice««

P erfect group stage for co-hosts Gabon (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/2012/01/2012131192931494970.html January 31, 2012By an unattributed author Co-hosts Gabon defeated Tunisia 1-0 on Tuesday to finish top of Africa Cup of NationsGroup C with a perfect nine points from three matches.




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UN News Service Africa Briefshttp://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA

(Full Articles on UN Website)

Refugee children in Tanzania learn art basics in UN-sponsored workshop1 February ± In a novel way to impart new skills to children while improving their socialinteraction, the United Nations refugee agency has sponsored an arts workshop for refugee pupils from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Tanzania, wherethey were introduced to the basics of painting with water colours, pastels and acrylics andmaking collages.

Kenyan court jails men who killed UN aid worker

1 February ± The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) JosetteSheeran welcomed today the decision by the Kenyan High Court to sentence five men to56 years in prison each for the murder of a WFP staff member in 2008.

Somalia: UN envoy deplores murder of radio station director 1 February ± The United Nations envoy for Somalia has strongly condemned the recentmurder of radio station director Hassan Osman Abdi and called on the authorities to carryout an investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Power of books celebrated by UN chief as new library opens in Ethiopian capital 31 January ± Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon celebrated the benefits that books can bringto young people as he opened a library at an Ethiopian primary school that has beenestablished under an innovative United Nations scheme.

Security Council calls for multilateral action to address challenges in the Sahel 31 January ± The Security Council today called for a coordinated and inclusive approachto ensure a solution to the problems facing the Sahel region, which include an ongoinghumanitarian crisis, lack of socio-economic development, insecurity and the threat of terrorism.

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Upcoming Events of Interest:

FEBRUARY 02

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human RightsChristopher H. Smith (R-NJ)U.S. Policy Toward Post-Election Democratic Republic of the Congo




You are respectfully requested to attend the following open hearing of the Subcommitteeon Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights to be held in Room 2172 of the RayburnHouse Office Building.Date Thursday, February 02, 2012Time 2:00 PM

Location Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office BuildingWitnesses: Mr. Donald Y. Yamamoto, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Bureau of African Affairs U.S. Department of StateDaniel B. Baer, Ph.D. Deputy Assistant Secretary Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights,and Labor U.S. Department of StateSarah E. Mendelson, Ph.D. Deputy Assistant Administrator Bureau for Democracy,Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance U.S. Agency for International Development

WHEN: 12:15 - 2:00 p.m.WHAT: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) Discussion on " Transitionin Libya: The Next Steps." Speakers: Azza Kamel Maghur, Fadel Lamen, and Marina

Ottaway.WHERE: CEIP, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NWCONTACT: 202-483-7600; web site: www.carnegieendowment.orgSOURCE: CEIP - event announcement at:http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2012/02/02/balancing-political-powers-in-libya-s-transition/968b

WHEN: 2:00 p.m.WHAT: House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on ³U.S. Policy Toward Post-Election Democratic Republic of the Congo.´ Witnesses: Mr. Donald Y. Yamamoto,Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Daniel B. Baer, Ph.D. Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, HumanRights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State; and Sarah E. Mendelson, Ph.D., DeputyAssistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance,U.S. Agency for International DevelopmentWHERE: Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office BuildingCONTACT: 202-225-5021; web site: http://foreignaffairs.house.govSOURCE: Committee ± event announcement at:http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1397

FEBRUARY 03

WHEN: 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.WHAT: New America Foundation (NAF) Discussion on "550 Challenge: WorldBorderless by February 3, 2018" - promotes the expansion of Internet access to includeeveryone on earth by the 550th anniversary of Johannes Guttenberg's death. Gutenberg,who invented modern book printing, died on February 3, 1468 before the printing pressgot credit for ending the Dark Age and setting in motion 200 years of accelerated

progress in art, literature, and learning known as the Renaissance. Speakers: ShaliniVenturelli, Professor, American University; Rebecca MacKinnon (@rmack); Bernard L.




Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation; John Perry Barlow (@jpbarlow), Co-founder, EFF; Moderator: Daniel Berninger, Founder, 550 ChallengeWHERE: NAF, 1899 L Street, NW, Suite 400CONTACT: 202-986-2700; web site: www.newamerica.netSOURCE: NAF - event announcement at:

http://newamerica.net/events/2012/550_challenge###

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FULLTEXT

Special Report - Boko Haram: between rebellion and jihad (Reuters)http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/uk-nigeria-bokoharam-idUKTRE80U0KB20120131

January 31, 2012By Joe Brock

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - At about 10.40 one morning last August, MohammedAbul Barra rammed his ash-coloured station wagon into a security gate outside theUnited Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, knocking it off its hinges.Barra's 1996 Honda Accord then crashed through the main building's glass doors andslammed against the reception desk.

On security tapes of the incident seen by Reuters, a guard peers into the car, evidentlyunaware that it is packed with explosives. The grainy footage shows a dozen or so peoplein the reception edge towards the vehicle. Over 10 seconds pass in confusion before oneman seemingly realises what is about to happen. He grabs the person next to him anddarts towards the lift. But it's too late. Barra steadies himself, leans forward and thesecurity screens blur into white fuzz.

The suicide strike left 25 people dead and the U.N. headquarters in tatters. It also drewglobal attention to Boko Haram, the militant group from northern Nigeria which hasclaimed responsibility for the attack and a string of bombings since then that has killedhundreds.

As the bombings have grown in frequency in recent months, the Nigerian governmentand Western security officials have begun to grapple with the exact nature of the threat. IsBoko Haram just the latest in a long list of violent spasms in Nigeria, or is it the next

battalion of global jihadists, capable of thrusting Africa's most populous nation into civilwar?

The answer to that is not simple. There is evidence - some of it detailed in this story for the first time - that elements of Boko Haram have received training from foreign militant




groups, including North Africa-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM). TheAugust attack was far more sophisticated than anything linked to Boko Haram before.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan calls the group a terrorist organisation with globalambitions. In an interview in his presidential villa last week, Jonathan said there was "no

doubt" Boko Haram has links with jihadist groups outside Nigeria. General Carter Ham,the head of the U.S. military's Africa Command, said last year Boko Haram posed athreat to U.S. and Western interests.

At the same time, Boko Haram remains firmly focused on domestic Nigerian issues.When its secretive spokesman claims responsibility for attacks, he almost always listslocal grievances that have little to do with the core ideologies of al Qaeda. The group'sname means "Western education is sinful" in Hausa, the language spoken in northern

Nigeria, the country's Muslim heartland. But its anger is directed not at America or Europe but at Nigeria's elites: at their perceived arrogance, their failure to deliver services, and the brutality of their security forces. Many Boko Haram members say their

focus is on targeting officials who have locked up its members or misused state funds.Even Nigeria's national security adviser, General Owoye Azazi, who sees a link betweenBoko Haram and AQIM, urges caution in defining the group.

"We need to tackle Boko Haram from several perspectives," Azazi said in an interview."If you go back to history, there are religious concerns, there are concerns aboutgovernance, and of course, political implications. It's a combination of so many things."

FORENSIC TRAIL

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived in Abuja within days of last August'sattack to help with forensic analysis of the bomb site. A report authored by those agents,

Nigerian authorities and independent security teams, paints a portrait of a sophisticatedoperation.

Barra was chosen because he was "low profile (and) well trained" and his attack was"well planned," says the confidential report, seen by Reuters. The car was packed with125 kg (276 pounds) of manufactured explosives, including the plastic explosive

pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and triacetone triperoxide (TATP) - both highly powerful and volatile, and more potent than easier-to-build fertiliser-based explosives.

The explosives were used in a "shaped charge," which increases damage from a blast.Investigators believe the bomb probably consisted of both stolen factory-made explosivesand home-made materials.

"The only form of PETN that is commonly available is the core explosive in detonatingcord," said Sidney Alford, a British explosives expert. "You can get detonating cord fromthe manufacturers, the army, or from blasting contractors in the demolition or quarryingindustries."




The failed 'underpants' bomber Faroup Abdulmutallan, a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day 2009 in an al Qaeda-style attack, usedTATP. Another would-be plane bomber, Richard Reid, had PETN in his shoe in hisunsuccessful effort to blow up a flight between France and the United States in 2001.

President Jonathan said Nigeria has evidence that Boko Haram members have heldmeetings in North Africa. Azazi, the national security adviser, said the advancement inBoko Haram's weaponry and tactics points to help and training from outside groups.

"We have evidence of meetings between Boko Haram leadership and outside groups,"Azazi said, declining to give details. "We have evidence that some Boko Haram leadersare trained outside of Nigeria. Their methods, their bomb-making technologies - whotaught them?"

MILITANT BEGINNINGS

Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, survived a brutal civil war in the late 1960s in whichmore than 1 million people died. Repeated rounds of violence since then, often betweenMuslims in the north and Christians in the south, have killed thousands more.

The violent spasms are often fuelled by politics, and so it is with Boko Haram.

The group's official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad, meaning"People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad." It earned itsnickname from the teachings of its founder Mohammed Yusuf in the early 2000s, in therestive northeastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

Yusuf argued that Western education, or "boko," had brought nothing but poverty andsuffering to the region and was therefore forbidden, or "haram," in Islam. He began

peacefully - mostly preaching - and quickly gained a following among disaffected youngmen in the northeast. But his anti-establishment rhetoric and hints that Boko Haram was

building an arsenal of weapons also caught the attention of the authorities.

In 2009, the police clamped down on sect members who were ignoring a law requiringmotorcyclists to wear helmets. That sparked a furious backlash. Police stations andgovernment offices in Borno were burned to the ground, and hundreds of criminalsreleased in a prison break, as the violence spread across northern Nigeria.

The government and army reacted with force; Yusuf was captured and shot dead in policecustody. Five days of fighting left some 800 people dead.

Boko Haram leaders still cite Yusuf's death as one of the main factors driving theinsurgency. The group remains fiercely anti-government and anti-authority, and resentfulof the decades of corrupt, poor governance that have impoverished its home region.




"You would never have believed the Boko Haram phenomenon came from these beginnings," said Shettima Dikwa, a doctor at the University of Maiduguri. Dikwa is oneof a number of professionals in the city frustrated at the way Nigeria's government andmilitary have allowed the insurgency to escalate. Like others, he says local politicians

sponsored armed thugs to help disrupt the 2007 election and then abandoned them,creating a fertile recruitment field. The governor of Borno state has denied theseallegations.

Boko Haram's attacks have intensified since President Jonathan took power last April, inthe country's cleanest election since the end of military rule in 1999. Jonathan pledged tofight graft and attract investment. But he is a Christian southerner, and in the eyes of many Muslim northerners it was a northerner's turn to rule.

CATCH-ALL LABEL, LOCAL STRUGGLES

That backdrop doesn't explain how the group went from drive-by shootings and crude petrol bombs to shaping explosives for suicide missions against the United Nations.

A video posted on YouTube on January 11 suggests the group's leadership would like to be seen as part of a global jihad. Abubakar Shekau, who has run the group since Yusuf was killed, appears in the 15-minute tape wearing a camouflage bullet-proof jacket,sitting in front of two Kalashnikov rifles. His beard, headscarf and hand gestures recallthe style of video pronouncements made by the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.But Shekau's message hits local notes.

"The reason why I am giving this broadcast is the recent comments of Goodluck Jonathanabout us and that of the leader of the Christians and other statements by others, describingus as a cancer to Nigeria. We are neither a cancer nor a disease. If people don't know us,God knows us," Shekau says. He then goes on to cite common complaints about Nigerian

politics.

Most of the public evidence about what Boko Haram wants and how it operates comesfrom its avowed spokesman, Abu Qaqa, a mysterious figure who often pops up after anattack to claim responsibility and explain the motives.

Speaking by phone to a handful of reporters in Maiduguri in November, Abu Qaqa spokeof the links between al Qaeda and Boko Haram. "We are together with al Qaeda," he said."They are promoting the cause of Islam, just as we are doing. Therefore they help us inour struggle and we help them, too."

But Qaqa offered no concrete details of those ties; the rest of the conversation focused onlocal issues. He said the group isn't affiliated with Nigerian political parties and describedthe sect's anger at the governor of Borno state. In claiming the recent Kano attacks, whichkilled at least 186 people, he cited the killing and arbitrary arrest and detention of BokoHaram members.




GLOBAL OR LOCAL?

Nigerian and Western security experts believe a small, increasingly ambitious andsophisticated group of extremists controls the very top of the group. A handful of those

members have received training outside Nigeria, including from AQIM. Nigeria-based security sources who track Boko Haram told Reuters that members of thegroup have been going to training camps with brigades of Algerian AQIM for the past sixyears. Small units of five or six members train at a time; no more than a few dozen have

been trained in total, the sources said.

The foreign minister of neighbouring Niger told Reuters last week that members of BokoHaram received explosives training at AQIM camps in the Sahel region, which runsalong the southern edge of the Sahara desert. The U.N. Security Council said this monththat it had been told that Boko Haram members had received training in AQIM camps in

Mali.Experts say the group has become a convenient cover for opportunists. Criminals,

political thugs and gangs hide beneath the umbrella of Boko Haram, making it hard to judge its size and scope.

Most of its foot-soldiers are disillusioned young men who have only loose ties toreligious ideology, and are easily drawn in because there are little or no opportunitieselsewhere. Jonathan has begun to acknowledge this, telling Reuters last week that thegovernment would "revitalise" northern agriculture to provide jobs for youths who mightotherwise be "recruited" by Boko Haram.

Aisha Alkali, a human rights campaigner in Maiduguri, says young men in northern Nigeria feel forced to adopt violence to defend themselves. "If you push people to thewall, if you leave them with nothing and take everything, where will they go?" asksAlkali, shrouded in a traditional black abaya and burka with only her eyes andimpeccably manicured hands showing. "You make people something they were not."

GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN

Soldiers patrol the streets of Maiduguri in large numbers these days. By day, they hunchin roadside bunkers; at night, they regularly fight with Boko Haram units. Bomb blastsand gunshots punctuate the dark.

Amnesty International says the joint military task force (JTF) in the city has been behinddozens of unlawful killings there, further stirring the unrest. A report by the human rightswatchdog says houses have been raided and burned by the JTF.

One of the JTF commanders in Maiduguri told Reuters there had been "excesses," butsaid mostly the military were doing a good job under difficult conditions.




Yirami Bwala, a 42-year-old shop owner, lost his 18-year-old son Markus in a BokoHaram bomb attack in Maiduguri in January. "Most Boko Haram members are just a

bunch of illiterates who have been misled about their religion and what tolerance is allabout," he said a day after the attack. "The military only make things worse by robbing

people and attacking innocent, peaceful people."More than a quarter of Nigeria's 2012 budget has been allocated to security spending. Butwith the number of attacks up - at least 250 people have been killed in the first threeweeks of 2012 alone, according to Human Rights Watch - criticism of the way Jonathanhas handled the violence is growing.

FACELESS ENEMY

President Jonathan told Reuters that Boko Haram militants have infiltrated the military, police and his own government. He sacked the chief of police and his six deputies last

week, after the key suspect in the Christmas Day bombings escaped less than 24 hoursafter being arrested, in what Nigerian security sources said were "unusual and suspicious"circumstances.

The leader of the nation of 160 million people has also said that tackling Boko Haramcould be worse than Nigeria's civil war, if only because the enemy is faceless andunknown. Some analysts believe Boko Haram may be targeting Christians to trigger areligious conflict.

Nigeria has been here before. In 2009 it ended a militant insurgency in the southeastern Niger Delta by offering an amnesty. The government hints that a new broad politicalsettlement may be on the cards. But dealing with a splintered and secretive group likeBoko Haram will be difficult.

Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president and a southern Christian, visited the family of Boko Haram founder Yusuf last September for peace talks. Days later, gunmen killedYusuf's brother-in-law. Boko Haram denied involvement in the killing. But someonewanted the dialogue to end.

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P rotests in Senegal turn violent (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/201213118362459859.html February 1, 2012By an unattributed author

Senegal riot police have fired tear gas and sprayed protesters with water to break up athousands-strong rally in Dakar demanding that President Abdoulaye Wade drop plans toseek a third term.




Private radio station RFM said a man was run over by the police's armoured-personnelcarrier on Tuesday.

A reporter for the Associated Press news agency saw the young man fall to the groundafter the carrier forced its way through the protesting crowd.

Police chief Harona Sy confirmed the death of the youth, but denied police responsibility.Sy said he had checked all of their vehicles and found no traces of blood, according to thestate news agency.

"If there was the death of a man, then maybe we should talk about an accident, and wehave opened an investigation,'' Sy said.

"I spoke to an older woman and asked her why she was there. She said that Wade neededto leave. She said she had a large family, and when I asked her if she was there for themshe said: 'I am here for me, I am here for everyone!' "

- Megan Radford, journalist in Daka

The AFP news agency reported that angry youth had taunted security forces, throwingstones at police who stood some 300 metres away from the square where thedemonstration was being held. They burnt tyres and engaged in running battles with

police in side streets after the square emptied out.

The demonstration, organised under the umbrella activist organisation M23 comes just aday after two civilians were killed by paramilitary police in a similar demonstration in thenorthern town of Podor.

Thousands of people gathered, held up signs and chanted slogans in protest against thedecision taken by the country's top legal body to allow President Wade's candidacy innext month's election.

Wade is seeking a third term, even though the constitution was changed soon after hetook office in order to impose a two-term limit.

Megan Radford, a journalist based in Dakar, told Al Jazeera the demonstrations took some time to begin as crowds trickled into the square into the late afternoon and earlyevening.

"People only started arriving late but within the next few hours, the number of protestershad increased dramatically. I spoke to an older woman and asked her why she was there.She said that Wade needed to leave. She said she had a large family, and when I askedher if she was there for them she said: 'I am here for me, I am here for everyone!'"

Authorisation granted




Earlier on Tuesday, Mor Ngom of the M23 movement said that authorities had"accepted" their application to hold a mass rally. The statement came after the interior ministry had earlier said that that the opposition had not gained authorisation to hold arally.

"Today's bloodshed marks a dramatic escalation in the violence that has plagued Senegalin the run-up to its elections."

- Salvatore Sagues, Amnesty International

Serigne Mbacke Ndiaye, Senegal's presidential spokesman, said: "The real combat is theone we must lead to hold a transparent election... being a candidate means nothing."

"We deplore the will (of the opposition) to lead the country into chaos... We don't wantSenegal to go up in flames."

The constitutional council on Monday dismissed all appeals against Wade's candidacy,leaving no legal recourse for opponents who accuse him of carrying out a constitutionalcoup.The opposition has vowed to continue mass resistance to force Wade to step aside

prior to the February 26 presidential vote.

Rights group Amnesty International urged the government to halt a clampdown on protesters following the reported deaths in Podor.

"Today's bloodshed marks a dramatic escalation in the violence that has plagued Senegalin the run-up to its elections," Salvatore Sagues, the UK-based rights body's West Africaresearcher, said.

'Too late' to stop Wade

The US urged 85-year-old Wade to allow power to pass "to the next generation".

"While we respect the process, the political and legal process in Senegal, the fact that he'snow been cleared to run, our message to him remains the same: that the statesmanly-likething to do would be to cede to the next generation, and we think that would be better,"Victoria Nuland, a state department spokeswoman, said.

"Our view is that Senegalese democracy is strong enough to move to the nextgeneration."

Senegal, which some see as a beacon of democracy among troubled neighbours, is theonly country in West Africa not to have had a coup since the end of the colonial era.

El Hadj Amadou Salla, minister of state and a senior Wade campaign official, said it was"too late" to prevent Wade running since his candidacy had already been validated.




The opposition argues that the constitution allows a president to serve only twoconsecutive terms, but Wade says the law, which was amended in 2008, does not applyretroactively and cannot take into account his previous two terms.

Wade has dismissed opposition protests as "temper tantrums".

In a recent interview with a local news website, Wade said he needed three more years tocomplete his projects, fuelling speculation that he wanted to line up a successor.

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P rofile: Abdoulaye Wade (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/2012127162041955479.html January 28, 2012By an unattributed author

Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's president, has ruled over the West African nation since 2000. Nicknamed "Gorgui" ("Old Man" in the West African language Wolof), Wade has triedto stamp his legacy on Africa, and has been a staunch supporter of the idea of a UnitedStates of Africa pushed by fallen Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The 85-year-old had competed in four elections over a period of 25 years before winningthe presidential elections when he dislodged the Socialist Party from office after 40 yearsof uninterrupted rule.

His victory was met with hope in the West African state. The manner in which hisdefeated rival, Abdou Diouf bowed out, graciously accepting Wade's victory, the former French colony was hailed as a model of democracy in Africa.

More than a decade later, however, the mood has soured towards Wade.

His attempt to seek a third term in office on a constitutional technicality comes on the back of growing discontent over corruption, nepotism and financial scandals.

The country's current constitution was adopted in 2001. It reduced terms to five yearsafter the completion of Wade's term at office. In 2008, however, the National Assemblyapproved a constitutional amdendment that increased his term to seven years.

Criticism

Recognised as a decisive leader who developed the nation's infrastructure, Wade's presidency has also been marred by a series of allegations of fraud, nepotism and limitingthe freedom of the press.




In 2010, Wade unveiled a 50-metre bronze African Renaissance statue that cost $20mn.The artwork was poorly received by countrymen facing severe financial trouble.

Many were baffled at Wade's decision to run for a third term, rather leaving with a stronglegacy of development and infrastructure-building.

A merchant's son, born on May 29, 1926, Wade studied law in France where he met hiswife Viviane. He also holds degrees in economics and applied mathematics.

In 1974, Wade convinced Senegal's father of independence, the poet-cum-presidentLeopold Sedar Senghor, to let him create an opposition party, the Senegalese DemocraticParty.

Under Diouf's rule, Wade became known as the "president of the street" and wasimprisoned several times. He was finally elected in 2000 for a seven-year term and in2007 for a five-year term.

'Dynastic succession'

Wade says he needs three more years to complete his projects, fueling speculation that hewants to line up a successor.

He has long been accused of trying to position his 44-year-old son Karim Wade to takeover from him.

A US diplomatic dispatch published by WikiLeaks in 2010 slammed corruption andwarned that Senegal was "a weakening democracy".

It alleged that Wade was looking to "open a path to a dynastic presidential succession".

In June 2011, the usually peaceful nation was shaken by violent riots in the seasidecapital Dakar when Wade tried to change the constitution. He scrapped these plans under

pressure at home as well as abroad.

The United States has repeatedly urged Wade to drop his presidential bid, fearing a blowto the country's democracy and further violence.

He wanted to reduce the proportion of votes needed to win a presidential election frommore than 50 per cent to 25 per cent and also create an elected post of vice president.

This post was seen as designed for his son, whose appointment as a "super-minister" in2009 drew widespread anger.

Wade's son currently oversees the portfolios of energy, international cooperation,regional development, air transport and infrastructure.




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Residents clash with police near Algerian capital (Reuters)http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE81000K20120201 February 1, 2012

By an unattributed author CHERAGA, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian security forces used water cannon and tear gason Tuesday to disperse rioting residents in a suburb of the capital who accused theauthorities of failing to investigate properly the fatal stabbing of a local man.

Riots have become a regular occurrence in Algeria, a big exporter of energy to Europe,and it has many of the same problems, including unemployment and a lack of trust in theauthorities, that last year sparked revolts in several of its neighbours.

Hundreds of people threw stones and petrol bombs at gendarmes, or paramilitary police,

in Cheraga, about 10 km (six miles) west of Algiers. The protesters briefly blocked amain road through the suburb, Reuters journalists at the scene said.

The gendarmes forced residents off the main road, but only shifted the rioting into theSidi Hassan neighbourhood, where the clashes were continuing.

The unrest in Algeria has so far been localised and uncoordinated, but analysts say theclashes could swell into a national movement, as happened in other north Africancountries rocked by last year's "Arab Spring" upheavals.

Residents in Cheraga said they took to the streets to demand a thorough investigation intothe murder of a local man who, they said, was stabbed to death by a gang. They said 10suspects had been arrested but several of them had been released.

Some local people accused prosecutors of releasing them because they were fromwealthy, well-connected families.

"We want justice to prevail," said Nouredine Ait Ouareth, the father of the stabbed man."The government must do its job and put in jail those who killed our son."

"There is a suspect. He is well known, he is rich, and the boss of the gang. He has beenreleased. This is not acceptable."

There was no immediate comment by officials on the investigation or the clashes.

###

Kidnappings of Workers P ut P ressure on China (New York Times)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/world/africa/china-says-29-workers-still-missing-in-sudan.html?_r=1&ref=africa




January 31, 2012By Andrew Jacobs and Jeffrey Gettleman

BEIJING ² China¶s government, grappling with the kidnapping of a construction crewin Sudan, is facing heightened pressure over the safety of the country¶s citizens abroad

after a group of cement plant employees in Egypt was briefly abducted by Bedouintribesmen on Tuesday.

Although the Chinese workers in Egypt were later released, the two abductions havehighlighted the increasing perils that China¶s 5.5 million overseas workers face asChinese companies expand their operations in some of the world¶s least hospitable

places.

The engineers and technicians seized in Egypt¶s Sinai region were taken away bygunmen as they rode a bus to work. The assailants had reportedly demanded the freedomof fellow tribesmen convicted in deadly bombings at the Red Sea resorts of Taba and

Sharm el Sheik, according to the state-run Nile News.The Chinese workers were released on Wednesday and were reportedly unharmed, theofficial Xinhua news agency said.

The fate of the missing road construction employees in Sudan remains uncertain. OnWednesday, China continued to press the Sudanese government to secure the release of the 29 men and women who were abducted last weekend in South Kordofan Province.³China calls on all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint, ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and quickly release the Chinese personnel out of humanitarianconcerns,´ the Foreign Ministry said on its Web site, adding that a group of Chineseofficials had been sent to Sudan to help defuse the crisis.

Officials have been frustrated by the Sudanese government, which falsely claimed onMonday that its military had ³liberated´ 14 of the workers. Xinhua reported that XieHangsheng, the vice foreign minister, had summoned a top Sudanese diplomat in Beijingto express his displeasure with the way the episode was being handled. ³The Chinese sideurged the Sudanese side to keep in mind the overall situation of bilateral friendship andcooperation,´ Xinhua reported.

The conflicting accounts about the plight of the workers in Sudan may stem fromconfusion surrounding the kidnapping and its aftermath. According to Xinhua, in additionto the 29 Chinese workers seized from an encampment, 18 had evaded the rebels duringthe attack on Saturday and fled to surrounding areas.

All but one of those workers was later found, and there was speculation on Tuesday thatthe Sudanese military had confused their fate with that of those still missing. Thegovernment in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, has not provided further details about the³rescue´ mission it had previously announced. A Sudanese Army spokesman did notanswer his phone on Tuesday.




Most of the available information has come from the Chinese news media, which have been closely following the drama. On Monday, 17 of the men who had escaped captureflew into Khartoum and described how they had sought cover as gunfire rang out onSaturday morning. Some hid in a mango grove, they said, while others crawled beneath

shipping containers. One of the men, Han Zhangliang, told the state-run People¶s Dailythat the rebels, in addition to leading away a group of Chinese and Sudanese workers, hadconfiscated the valuables of everyone they came upon. Of the missing man, he said,³unfortunately he was probably shot.´

Luo Xiaoguang, China¶s ambassador to Sudan, told the state broadcaster CCTV thatofficials had little information about the captive workers. ³They are still being held,´ hesaid, ³but as far as we know, none of them have been injured or killed.´

The abducted workers were part of a larger contingent of Chinese who are helping theSudanese government build a road through South Kordofan, an oil-rich region that has

been the scene of intense fighting between the Khartoum government and the SudanPeople¶s Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group that is allied with the newlyindependent South Sudan.

China has been trying to mediate the mounting crisis between the countries, which havedeadlocked in recent weeks over how to share oil revenues from South Kordofan and thesurrounding area.

The seized Chinese workers were employed by the Chinese state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China, affiliated with the Sinohydro Corporation. Sinohydrois building the $63 million road, a project financed by the Export-Import Bank of China.Rebels claim the road is largely aimed at helping facilitate the movement of governmenttroops battling the insurgency.

The Sudan People¶s Liberation Movement-North has acknowledged holding the Chineseworkers, but it has suggested that they were spirited away from the battle zone for their own protection. It said rebel leaders had met with three Chinese diplomats and hadassured them that the workers would be safe ² unless the Sudanese government tried arescue by force. The group¶s secretary general, Yasir Arman, said it had ³asked theChinese delegation to convey to Khartoum that they should stop any military operationsin the area where the Chinese are present until their safe evacuation.´

The kidnappings have challenged Beijing¶s traditional noninterference approach toforeign affairs and increased pressure, much of it expressed online, to protect its citizensmore aggressively abroad. Last year, the plight of 36,000 Chinese workers trapped inLibya during that country¶s civil war prompted the government to orchestrate a massevacuation aided by the military.

Sudan, rich in oil but perennially unstable, has proved to be an especially dangerous placefor the Chinese. Last October, a worker in South Kordofan was shot dead by unidentified




gunmen, and in 2008 five oil company workers were killed after they were abducted fromthe same region.

In recent days, users of China¶s popular microblog service Sina Weibo have expressedfrustration with the government¶s inability to rescue the workers. ³If it was the United

States or Russia, they would have air dropped in special commandos by now,´ one posting said.

###

Zimbabwe¶s president slams African leaders over Libya, calls some ³fronts´ for theWest (A P )http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/zimbabwes-president-slams-african-leaders-over-libya-calls-some-fronts-for-the-west/2012/02/01/gIQAzFFDhQ_story.html February 1, 2012By an unattributed author

HARARE, Zimbabwe ² Zimbabwe¶s president has condemned the continentwide AfricaUnion for recognizing Libya¶s National Transitional Council at a recent summit, stateradio reported Wednesday.

President Robert Mugabe returned to Harare late Tuesday from the gathering of Africannations in Ethiopia.

At the airport, he accused unnamed African countries of being ³fronts´ for Western powers whose ³criminal´ NATO bombardment of Libya helped lead to the killing of Col.Moammar Gadhafi, a former Mugabe ally, state radio said.

The continental body didn¶t even protest the NATO action, Mugabe said. He also said itwas ³unprocedural´ for the AU¶s Peace and Security Council to make the decision torecognize the NTC instead of the whole summit of leaders.

Zimbabwe itself has not officially recognized Libya¶s NTC and expelled the Libyanambassador when he defected to the rebel cause during the uprising against Gadhafi.

State media said Wednesday that Mugabe complained the African Union should havetaken more action to protest NATO bombings: ³We said absolutely nothing. Even if wecould not raise a force, at least we could have protested. How did we fail to say even no´to killings that included civilians in the NATO bombings?

Gadhafi became the first chairman of the African Union when it was founded in 1999 at asummit in the Libyan city of Sirte to succeed the Organization of African Unity thatcampaigned against colonialism for nearly four decades.




Mugabe said the continent had long fought oppression but the AU council appeared tohave ³felt intimidated´ to recognize Libya¶s transitional authority, the state broadcaster reported.

Other independent accounts from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, said Mugabe told

fellow African leaders there Western countries now saw their organization as ³a toothless bulldog.´

He said Gadhafi was killed ³in broad daylight´ and his children were hunted like animals,the independent NewZimbabwe media agency reported.

³Then we rush to recognize the NTC´ without demanding an investigation in Gadhafi¶smurder, Mugabe said

He cautioned that Western powers suffering the effects of recession could target other African countries for their mineral wealth and resources.

³Who is next?´ he said, repeating warnings he gave his to own party at its nationalconvention in Zimbabwe in December that Western powers were not to be trusted.

###

Wave of arrests in Sudan targets nonviolent student activists (Christian ScienceMonitor)http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2012/0131/Wave-of-arrests-in-Sudan-targets-nonviolent-student-activists January 31, 2012By Tracy Fehr, Guest blogger

NOTE: Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services arrested at least nine peaceful student protesters in Khartoum last week, and the government has yet toacknowledge the arrests, reports guest blogger Tracy Fehr.

Sudan¶s ruling National Congress Party¶s grip on power seems to be tightening to the point of suffocation. In the past week, Sudan¶s National Intelligence and SecurityServices, or NISS, has targeted non-violent, pro-democratic student activists in a wave of arrests and harassment.

On January 25, following a forum on the human rights situation in eastern Sudan held incommemoration of the 2005 Port Sudan massacre of unarmed civilians by governmentforces, the NISS arrested five members of the non-violent, student-led, pro-democracygroup Girifna.

The five students arrested²Girifna Co-founder Nagi Musa, Amar Dirar, Ghazi Eltayen,Mohammed Mahjoub, and Sharif Kamal²have since been moved to Kober prison,notorious for brutal NISS interrogation tactics. News of the arrests sparked an explosion




in the Twitterverse, with Sudan influentials such as New York Times columnist Nick Kristof and author Rebecca Hamilton calling for attention to the NISS's actions,interspersed with real-time updates from Girifna members.

But the January 25 arrests are just the tip of the iceberg. Four more student activists have

been arrested in recent days²Mohamed Omer Al Amin, Girifna member Omar AhmadHamid, Youth for Change members Khalaf Saeed, and Taj Elsir Jafar. Girifna reports thata Youth for Change student leader, Gasm Allah, has been missing since Friday. Andmembers of Girifna reported the NISS tapping their phones and staking out youthactivists¶ homes.

In a statement to the Enough Project, Girifna said that the detention and abuse at thehands of the NISS is widespread and targets not only students, but also journalists andother activists. Girifna asks the media to focus on the detainment of its own members butto also highlight the wider issue of the NISS¶s detention and arrest policies.

Girifna told Enough that Sudan¶s National Security Forces Act allows NISS officers todetain suspects for up to six months without taking them to court.

³Several aspects of this act are troubling when viewed from the perspective of humanrights, in particular, the provisions that allow the NISS to hold individuals for extensive

periods of time without charge or trial and without notifying their relatives,´ said EnoughProject Sudan Policy Analyst Jennifer Christian.

Girifna, which translates into Arabic as ³We¶ve Had Enough,´ is one of several Sudanesestudent groups that have voiced public opposition against the Khartoum regime and beenmet with arrests, intimidation, and detainment.

So far, the government of Sudan has been silent on the issue, though that comes as littlesurprise. Violence and arrests of student protesters is becoming common practice inKhartoum, and this latest round of arrests demonstrates the standard protocol of the

NISS.

A round of protests slated for January 30 was canceled. But Girifna has tweeted, ³It is31/Jan/2012 and the fight for freedom, democracy, equality and social justice for allSudanese will be long and we are ready for it.´ For updates on the whereabouts of detained student activists, follow Girifna on Twitter.

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Gaddafi daughter applies to ICC over jailed brother (Reuters)http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE81000G20120201 February 1, 2012By Christian Lowe




ALGIERS (Reuters) - The daughter of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi asked onTuesday to make representations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to help her

brother Saif al-Islam, who is in a Libyan jail awaiting trial on rape and murder charges.

Aisha Gaddafi wants to hand information to the court about the welfare of Saif al-Islam,

who has also been indicted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity datingfrom Libya's civil war last year.

Supporters of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was captured disguised as a Bedouin in theSahara desert in November, say they doubt he will be given a fair trial in Libya. They sayhe should be tried instead by the ICC in The Hague.

If he is found guilty by a Libyan court, Saif al-Islam faces the death penalty while if thecourt in the Hague convicts him the most he can be given is a prison term.

A document submitted to the ICC for Aisha Gaddafi suggested that the Libyan authorities

were unwilling to let any foreign lawyer act for Saif al-Islam."Aisha Gaddafi wishes to protect the interests of her brother," said the document, whichwas seen by Reuters.

Saif al-Islam, the most high-profile of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, is the subject of wrangling between the new Libyan authorities and the ICC on where he should be tried.

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council says he should be tried at home and that hewill be given a fair hearing. But the ICC has reserved the right to insist that he be sent tothe Hague.

The ICC has jurisdiction over the case because it issued a warrant last year for the arrestof Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, and the Libyan leader's intelligence chief Abdullahal-Senussi.

All three were indicted on charges of crimes against humanity. The charges related tofailed attempts by Libyan security forces to put down a revolt last year which eventuallyended Gaddafi's 42-year rule.

Aisha Gaddafi asked the court to be able to give information to the ICC about attemptsshe has made to contact Saif al-Islam, and two telephone interviews with Libya's deputy

prosecutor, showed the document, which was signed by her lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.

"From these telephone conversations, it may be inferred that the Libyan authorities who purport to be investigating and prosecuting Saif al-Islam Gaddafi refuse to deal withinternational legal counsel," Kaufman said in the document.

The information, which was not disclosed in the document, would be filed confidentially,Kaufman said.




Muammar Gaddafi was killed after rebel fighters captured him near his hometown of Sirte in October. His intelligence chief is reported to have been captured but his locationis unknown.

Saif al-Islam is being held in the town of Zintan, southwest of the Libyan capital, whichis the base of the militia which captured him.

Aisha Gaddafi, along with her mother Safiya, her brother Hannibal, her half-brother Mohammed and other family members, fled Libya around the time that rebel forces took control of the capital in August.

They are in an unknown location in the neighbouring country of Algeria after thegovernment there took them in on what it said were humanitarian grounds.

###

Rwanda genocide: ICTR seeks refuge for acquitted (BBC)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16816668 January 31, 2012By an unattributed author

The court trying Rwandan genocide suspects is appealing for countries to give refuge for those acquitted, the UN tribunal's spokesman has told the BBC.

Five of 10 people cleared of involvement in the 1994 killings believe they cannot returnto Rwanda.

They remain in a house in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, where the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is based, guarded by police.

The ICTR is due to wind up its trials by the end of this year.

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in 100 days in 1994.

'Burden'

ICTR spokesperson Roland Amoussouga told the BBC that finding countries willing toaccept those acquitted of charges "was one of the key challenges facing the tribunal".

"It's a burden on us to continue hosting for so many years these acquitted people andwe've worked with them and their lawyers to identify suitable countries were they can besent. So far we have not been successful," he said.

The five men still living in Arusha and acquitted by the ICTR are all Hutus and include aformer brigadier general, ex-ministers and a businessman.




They live together in a safe house and can go to town and to church, but otherwise cannotleave.

Andre Ntagerura - the former minister of transport - has been waiting nearly six years for

refuge since his acquittal.The five have been joined in the safe house by two others who have served their sentences, but also have nowhere to go.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says their fate resembles the detainees at GuantanamoBay - the detention facility which the US wishes to close but whose inmates other countries are reluctant to take.

The men in Arusha have families in Belgium, Canada and France but so far they cannotget permission to join them, despite appeals to the UN Security Council.

Since the court started in 1997, the ICTR has dealt with 72 cases - of which 18 are onappeal.

It has three cases in progress and one person awaiting trial - all of these must be finishedthis year, with the appeals hearings to be completed by the end of 2013.

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Rwanda: HIV P ositive Women Denied Inheritance Rights - Report (The New Times<Rwanda newspaper>)http://allafrica.com/stories/201201301759.html January 30, 2012By James Tasamba

Women living with HIV/Aids in Gasabo and Nyanza districts are being denied their rights to inherit family property by their spouses and other relatives, a research conducted

by the Women's Network for Rural Development, commonly known by its Frenchmoniker Reseaux Des Femmes, has shown.

According to the research, carried out in three sectors in each of the districts, husbandssay they cannot offer property to someone destined for death, leaving women stranded.

Worse, they are threatened and, at times, thrown out of their marital homes once thehusband dies, says the report, made public at a workshop in Remera, Kigali last week.

The survey, sponsored by UN Women, focussed on issues related to women's propertyand inheritance in the context of HIV/Aids.

Nutritional needs were highlighted as the other challenges facing the women, it said




The research was carried out as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of women'svulnerability to HIV/Aids through enhanced advocacy and increasing their access to

property, according to Beata Busasa, the National Coordinator for Women's Network for Rural Development.

"The research provides broader understanding of the challenges to women infected withHIV. People living with HIV need a lot of support to live their full lives just like anybodyelse," Busasa said in an interview with The New Times.

In the case of discordant couples (where one partner is negative), the report says, womenare mistreated and accused of being responsible for bringing the virus.

With an estimated three percent of the adult population infected with HIV, Rwanda isless affected than other regional countries.

The National Strategic Plan on HIV and Aids 2009 to 2012 provides that people infectedand affected by HIV have the same opportunities as the general population.

However, grassroots leaders are not keen to resolve issues of violation of the inheritancerights of women infected with the virus, the report indicated.

And most women, especially in rural areas, are ignorant of where to seek appropriate helpin case their rights are abused, the researchers said.

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Kenya doctor fights mental health stigma in 'traumatized continent' (CNN Health)http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/31/health/frank-njenga-mental-health/index.html?hpt=wo_t4 January 31, 2012By an unattributed author

Editor's note: Every week CNN International's African Voices highlights Africa's mostengaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely openthemselves up to the camera.

(CNN) -- As Kenya's leading psychiatrist, Frank Njenga has been championing the causeof better mental health care on the east African country and the continent for more thanthree decades.

He's been working tirelessly to bring quality mental health care in a country wherementally disabled people receive little help from the state and face massive stigma fromsociety.




"It's a horrible indictment on what we've done but the truth and reality is that very littlehas been done systematically and deliberately by government or by ourselves to bring upthe level of mental health in this part of the world," says Njenga.

In Kenya, an estimated three million, mostly poor, people live with intellectual and

mental disabilities, according to NGO and United Nations figures. At the same time, theratio of psychiatrists to the population is dismal -- just one psychiatrist to half a million people.

But Njenga, who is president of the African Association of Psychiatrists, says the problem is even worse in other countries on the continent.

"It is a major challenge but it is a challenge that is very sadly is spread across the wholeof the Africa continent," he says Njenga.

"In fact, Kenya is ironically behind South Africa and perhaps Egypt in the ratios of

psychiatrists that are available per population. There are countries in Africa where thereis no single psychiatrist to five-six million people."

This has motivated Njenga to dedicate his life helping mental health patients and raisingawareness in a continent where mental disorders are often neglected and described as"un-African" and belonging to "people in the West."

Njenga, however, discards such claims as "clear nonsense."

"For as long as you are a self-confessed human being you will continue to suffer humanconditions of which mental disorders are an integral part," he says.

Read also: Namibia's 'miracle doctor' brings gift of sight

Njenga describes Africa as "truly the traumatized continent" that's been plagued by wars,human suffering and lethal dictatorships.

"Whether you are looking at Rwanda or southern Sudan or Sierra Leone or DRC, thenumber of women and children and adults who have suffered severe trauma is greater than any other continent that I can think of."

He underlines the link between good mental health and productivity and calls policymakers to make mental health services a priority in order to help their countries escape

poverty.

"There is no health without mental health and there is no economy," says Njenga. "Weare losing far too many men and women to mental illness and therefore to un-productivity

by not treating them for mental illness."




Born in Kenya, Njenga was inspired as a teenager by the work of psychiatrist FrantzFanon, writer of "Wretched of the Earth," a seminal book that explores identity and the

post-colonial experience.

From then on, Njenga was convinced he wanted to be a psychiatrist. He went on to study

psychology throughout medical school in Kenya before moving to the UK for his post-graduate studies at the Maudsley Hospital -- the world's oldest psychiatric hospital.

At the end of this studies, however, Njenga chose not to pursue a career in the UK but toreturn to his home country, committed to promoting the cause of better mental health inthe continent.

"I went to the UK to come back and to come back as a psychiatrist and to make adifference in my homeland and in my continent. That is the reason I left Kenya and that isthe reason I came back," he says.

On his return to Kenya, Njenga embarked on a mission to reduce the social stigma that isattached to going to a psychiatrist or seeing a mental health professional.

In a ground-breaking weekly show called "Frankly Speaking," Njenga spoke with his patients on television, putting the spotlight on tough issues such as schizophrenia andsubstance abuse -- taboo topics that were usually kept out of public sight.

"I felt powerful and relaxed I felt at last here I was able to tell it exactly as it was," hesays. "Of all the things I have done in this society and community it is the program ontelevision -- Frankly Speaking -- because I spoke frankly as my name is and my patientsspoke very frankly indeed."

In his commitment to providing top-notch mental health care, Njenga also helped build a private in-patient psychiatric hospital, the first of its kind in Kenya.

He's also authored several children's books in a bid to build better understanding of mental illness and advocated for an insurance cover for mental health patients aschairman of the largest insurance company in Kenya.

Through awareness and affordable treatment, Njenga has changed how many people inKenya think about mental health.

"Today the discussion of mental health issues on this continent is focused and is positive-- about that I feel proud and privileged," he says

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Nigerian Sani Abacha aide Mustapha appeals over hanging (BBC)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16810996




January 31, 2012By an unattributed author

An aide to former Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha has appealed against his hangingsentence for killing the wife of politician Moshood Abiola.

Lawyers for Major Hamza al-Mustapha lodged papers in a Lagos courtroom on Tuesday.

Mr Mustapha, Abacha's former security chief, who has been detained since 1999, says heis innocent.

Abiola's wife, Kudirat, was shot dead in 1996 - three years after he was widely believedto have won elections.

Mr Mustapha's lawyers say the 13 years he has spent in prison is an "injustice".

After the 1993 elections were annulled and Abacha seized power, Abiola declaredhimself president and was charged with treason.

Abacha and Abiola both died in 1998, paving the way for the end of decades of militaryrule the following year.

One of Abacha's sons, Mohammed, was also accused of links to the killing of KudiratAbiola but was cleared in 2002 after three years in detention.

###

Africa: Global Fund - Challenges Ahead (allAfrica)http://allafrica.com/stories/201202010094.html January 31, 2012By Sue Valentine

Cape Town ² In its short 10-year history, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, uberculosisand Malaria has saved millions of lives, but as it marks its anniversary it finds itself thesubject of questions and concern, rather than celebration.

Two recent announcements shocked and alarmed health workers, governments andactivists in the developing world who rely on support from the Fund to provide treatmentfor millions of people living with Aids and tuberculosis, and to supply bed nets to preventmalaria.

In November 2011 the Global Fund cancelled "Round 11" of its funding cycle, statingthat it would not accept any new applications for funding until 2014, and last week theexecutive director, Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, announced his resignation.




"Many people assumed that the Global Fund cancelled Round 11 because it was 'runningout of money' and donors were drastically cutting back on their grants," says BernardRivers, executive director of Aidspan, an independent observer of the Global Fund. "Thesituation is serious, but it's much less serious than that."

From interviews by AllAfrica with Rivers and recipients of Fund grants, as well as anexamination of fund documents, the following emerges:

** Far from running out of money, the Fund is boosting grants in the current fundingcycle, but not by as much as it wanted to;

** The cancellation of Round 11 can be linked to the failure of donors to live up to their promises, which has forced the Fund to budget conservatively;

** Some recipients of grants are in financial difficulty as a result of the Global Fund's poor management, and unless the fund improves its internal systems it could see donor

countries reducing their support;** The fund recognizes that its systems are not working effectively and has appointed anew general manager to fix the problems; and

** There is enough money to honour grants within agreed timeframes, which pay for Aids and TB treatment for millions of people, and for bed nets to prevent malaria.

Explaining how Round 11 came to be cancelled, Rivers told AllAfrica that one of thereasons was the introduction of a more conservative forecasting methodology toanticipate what percentage of the amounts pledged by donors would actually materialise.These new calculations forced the fund to reduce its budget and curtail its grant-making.

A statement posted on the Global Fund website spells out what spending is likely to be inthe next few years. In the statement, the chair of the Global Fund board, Simon Bland,says that the Fund will disburse "around $10 billion" between 2011 and 2013.

This is U.S.$2 billion more than in the previous funding period between 2008 and 2010,and, according to Bland, it will mean that in certain countries "more people, not less" willgain access to Aids and TB treatment in 2012 and 2013.

However, Bland admits that the current budget is $2 billion less than the $12 billion theFund expected to have for new grants.

In his explanation of the decision to cancel Round 11, Bland said, "we are living inuncertain economic times and budgets are strapped. It would have been irresponsible tocontinue promising opportunities for additional funding when we are not sure we willhave the money needed."




Bland's statement came in the wake of confusion and concern created by the way inwhich the Global Fund communicated its decision to cancel Round 11. The news that

broke last November came just two months after the Global Fund had called for applications for Round 11 and many organisations had already started the painstaking

process of applying for a Global Fund grant.

"The Fund did a terrible job in explaining that decision," says Rivers, who added that thefund has always been poor at explaining itself, whether it was to applicants to help themunderstand what the Fund wanted, or to those responsible for implementing grants. "But,"he concluded, "you would think that for the writing of a basic press release whichexplains the news about what's happened with Round 11, that at least they would be ableto write that clearly."

One organisation that has been frustrated by the Global Fund's reputation for poor and bureaucratic communication is the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa.TAC, one of the continent's strongest and most effective Aids advocacy groups, is facing

bankruptcy due to Global Fund delays in releasing promised funds."The current payment [that we're expecting from the Global Fund] is seven monthsoverdue," says Nathan Geffen, treasurer of TAC. "No other donor has ever defaulted inits payments to us. But with the Global Fund, hardly any of our tranches have been paidon time."

Soul City is another South African organisation that has won international acclaim for itsedutainment model promoting health and development communication. It too has beenexasperated by the Global Fund's bureaucratic processes and mercurial demands.

"They keep on shifting the goal posts as to what is required," says Sue Goldstein, programme director at Soul City. "It's impossible to know where you are and how to plan.Funding can be delayed by six months, then they ask you for a report, then you hear nothing. And you can't question them."

According to Rivers, who has permanent observer status at Global Fund board meetings,TAC's experiences are a very worrying indication of the internal management situationand the relationship between the Fund and its recipients, or "implementers" as the fund

prefers to term them.

Rivers believes that part of the problem is a heavily bureaucratic system, and part of it is"risk aversion", resulting in a reluctance to make decisions. In May 2011, the GlobalFund itself identified and exposed some cases of corruption in West Africa. These were

picked up by the international media and led to concerns about the Fund's ability to avoidthe mismanagement of funds.

"Nobody wants to be the manager on whose watch some piece of corruption took place,"says Rivers. "Zero risk can only be achieved if they give zero grants, and if you give zero




grants, you have zero impact. What you have to do is ascertain risk, manage it, and work out how best to deal with it."

The man who is now tasked with cleaning up the management problems at the GlobalFund is Gabriel Jaramillo, a Latin American banker who was a member of a panel that

evaluated the work of the Global Fund during 2011.It was Jaramillo's appointment as general manager reporting directly to the Global FundBoard that prompted the resignation of the executive director Kazatchkine. He will leavethe Fund in March this year.

Kazatchkine has been at the helm of the Global Fund for the past five years. "He's a brilliant and deeply motivated doctor who has done some remarkable medical research inthe area of Aids," says Rivers, "but he's not a manager."

Shaun Mellors is a Global Fund board member, representing communities living with

HIV, TB and affected by malaria. He too believes that a number of things about theFund's management need to be fixed.

In the past it has taken too long from the point at which the Fund approves a grant, towhen countries actually benefit from the resources, says Mellors. "So improving andstrengthening some of the internal processes and information flow between thesecretariat, office of the inspector-general and country level is crucial to a stronger

partnership. This forms a big part of the comprehensive transformation plan that will bemanaged by the newly appointed general manager."

Some activist networks have been dismayed at the appointment of a banker to manage afund that has cultivated radically distinctive characteristics from other internationalinstitutions. Rivers is less pessimistic. He points out that besides the billions of dollarsthat the Global Fund disburses, it has a staff of more than 600 with its own substantialadministrative budget. This, he believes, requires "formidable" management.

Although Rivers does not know Jaramillo, he thinks the Global Fund has done the rightthing. "It sounds like a good decision to bring in someone with significant managementexperience in dealing with money," he says.

So what are the challenges for the Global Fund as it enters its second decade?

According to Rivers, the Global Fund must put its house in order in 2012; otherwise itcould see donors reducing their support. "If the Global Fund does not improve in some of its problem areas, or does not improve fast enough or visibly enough, donors, especiallythose that have their own economic problems, might well start cutting back," he said.

Mellors is also concerned. "We need to ensure that donors meet their pledges and turnthem into actual contributions. A pledge, whilst sending an important political message,does not save someone's life."




In its short history the Global Fund has forged a unique identity, which includesunparalleled levels of transparency.

"Tell me another donor which is as transparent as the Global Fund and as vigorous as the

Global Fund in trying to find out whether the money has been spent as promised, or misspent. And then tell me another international donor, that having discovered to itshorror that there had been some corruption will publish the details on its website," asksRivers. "There is no other major donor like that."

For Rivers the Global Fund represents "philanthropy for the 21st century". It allowscountries to identify their own needs and agendas, and it has created a governancestructure that gives genuine voice and power to civil society and recipient governments,as well as to donor governments.

"There are very few global health institutions where civil society, especially communities

living with and affected by the three diseases, have an equal say and vote, as countriessuch as the U.S., the UK or France," says Mellors.

The Global Fund may not be in crisis yet, but there is cause for concern. Aids treatmentadvocates are unanimous in their calls for the Global Fund not just to sustain the threemillion people who currently receive antiretroviral therapy courtesy of the Fund, but toexpand access for others who need it.

According to Stephen Lewis, the former UN Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa whois currently co-director of the advocacy organisation Aids-free World, the cancellation of Round 11 is a worrying step backwards.

In a speech at Yale University last November, Lewis expressed horror that the GlobalFund would make no new grants in the next two years. "Quite simply, withoutadornment, people will die in large numbers. The fund will attempt to sustain the

programs presently in place, but the opportunity to enroll others who need treatment-andthat number is 7.6 million-will be lost."

Rivers says it's now time to gear up the Fund for its second decade. "I don't feel anyone,including donor governments, is saying let's scrap the Global Fund, or the key principlesof the Fund. I think they're saying, let's get it right."

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Hershey to invest $10 million in Ivory Coast to reduce child labor, improve cocoafarming (A P )http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/hershey-to-invest-10-million-in-ivory-coast-to-reduce-child-labor-improve-cocoa-farming/2012/02/01/gIQATGcThQ_story.html February 1, 2012




By an unattributed author

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast ² The Hershey Company says it will invest $10 million in IvoryCoast to reduce child labor and improve the cocoa supply in the West African nation.

Spokesman Andy McCormick says the measure will bring higher productivity for farmers and will increase supply to meet the demand of a growing middle class incountries like China and India.

Ivory Coast produces 35 percent of the world¶s cocoa. Combined with coffee, the cocoasector accounts for 15 percent of GDP. Cocoa production hit a record 1.48 million tons in2010 despite a political crisis.

UNICEF estimates 600,000 children work on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast and that 35,000are victims of trafficking.

McCormick says that Hershey is already trying to address child labor issues, ³but we allrecognize that more needs to be done.´

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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African Union summit: disunity on display (Christian Science Monitor)http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/0131/African-Union-summit-disunity-on-display January 31, 2012By Scott Baldauf

For sheer murkiness, the African Union is in a world of its own.

Established back in 2002 to replace the older, less-organized Organization of AfricanUnity, the African Union has ambitions of creating a common policy front so that 54different African countries can confront what they see as an exploitative and richer worldwith one voice. It¶s an ambition deeply rooted in the Pan-Africanist movement of Kwame

Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere and Leopold Senghor, who wanted to do away with colonial borders and build on the common features and strengths of Africa culture to form a singleAfrican nation. But it's an ambition wrapped in profound distrust of other countries whowould take advantage of Africa and its disunity.

Today, at the end of its 18th assembly of African leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, theAU is an organization that has begun to put action behind its words. It sends

peacekeeping missions to the Darfur region of Sudan and to support the totteringtransitional government in Somalia. Its leaders jet off to growing conflict zones such as

post-election Ivory Coast and pre-war Libya and attempt to achieve peace through




negotiation, with varying success. But is it any closer to creating a single voice onmatters that affect all African states?

A fairly vicious battle for the AU¶s top leadership position, as chairman of the AUCommission, shows that unity is still a distant goal.

The incumbent is Jean Ping, a Gabonese diplomat of mixed heritage. His father was aChinese immigrant, his mother was Gabonese. Mr. Ping was educated in France, and roseup through politics to be chief of cabinet for the long-ruling Gabonese President El HadjOmar Bongo Ondimba. The magazine African Confidential quoted Ping as being largelyuncritical of China¶s growing role in Africa.

³With China, everything is simple," Ping is quoted by African Confidential assaying. "She gives us debt forgiveness or long-term loans without interest or conditions.´

But Ping¶s capabilities as a diplomat were not quite up to the exacting standards of SouthAfrica.

During last year¶s Libyan crisis, when South African President Jacob Zuma wasattempting to broker a peace deal between Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Libyanrebels, Ping was seen as inadequately standing up for the interests of the AU. Ping failedlast March to broker a peace deal in Ivory Coast, after disputed elections turned into a

brief civil war. Many South Africans fretted that his failure gave an opportunity for France to throw in its troops to oust former President Laurent Gbagbo, who refused toaccept election results showing he had lost.

So when Ping¶s job came up again for renewal, South Africa mounted a campaign toreplace him. AU members did not accept South Africa¶s alternative, the formidableformer foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, but they did prevent Ping from gettingthe two-thirds majority vote required for another term. When the final votes werecounted, and the AU was left without a leader, witnesses told the Monitor that SouthAfrica¶s delegation was dancing in the hall.

Ms. Dlamini Zuma, meanwhile, says that she will try again for the chairmanship, whenPing¶s extended six month tenure ends.

One thing that most African diplomats can agree on these days is that Africans need to protect their interests against the power of former colonial powers, such as France,Britain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and their perceived supporters, such as the UnitedStates. Another thing many Africans can agree with is that they still need outside foreignassistance, as long as that assistance comes with few strings attached. That¶s why China,and to a lesser extent, India are welcomed in Africa.




At the AU summit, a senior Chinese diplomat, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the NationalCommittee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said all the rightthings.

³«we must fully respect the efforts of African countries in resolving African

issues independently. In recent years, Africa has steadily built up its capacity toindependently address African issues. Facts have proven that African countriesare able and wise enough to do so. The international community should providesupport and help to the resolution of African issues. China believes that such helpshould be based on respect for the will of the African people and should beconstructive. It should reinforce, rather than undercut, Africa's independent effortsto solve problems. Interference in Africa's internal affairs by outside forces out of selfish motives can only complicate the efforts to resolve issues in Africa.´

China has not been shy about getting involved in Africa, as the recent construction of theAU's new headquarters -- built by Chinese companies -- clearly illustrates. But while

China is clearly giving money in order to secure access to natural resources, it does notgive African leaders a lecture on how to run their countries, how to protect civil libertiesor human rights, or how to run the public treasury.

In the end, it may have been ³outside interference´ by old colonial powers that cost Pinghis job. Speaking with South Africa¶s Independent newspaper, the Mozambican ForeignMinister Oldemiro Baloi, confirmed that AU members were turned off by the³interference´ of outsiders, and separately, South African and other southern African

participants confirmed that intense lobbying by the French ambassador to Ethiopia infavor of Ping made many AU members see him as France¶s man.

Normally, AU members would have voted to extend Ping¶s chairmanship but, ³becausewe felt this was not just a discussion between Africans ± and that is why Ping did not winon the fourth round.´ Mr. Baloi did not specifically name France, but did say, ³I cannotmention the name of the country, but there was outside interference, not only in theelection, but also in some of the dossiers under discussion, such as the question of Madagascar.´

Now the AU is in a kind of leadership limbo. Ping has been given a six-month extension,a leader without a mandate, until another vote can be held at a summit in June or July.With an ongoing election crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with growingtensions between Sudan and South Sudan, with an increasingly bloody war and killingfamine in Somalia, with electoral troubles brewing in Senegal, and the challenges of restoring peace in Libya and Egypt, this is a time when Africa could use a unified voice.

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P erfect group stage for co-hosts Gabon (Al Jazeera)http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/2012/01/2012131192931494970.html January 31, 2012



By an unattributed author

Co-hosts Gabon defeated Tunisia 1-0 on Tuesday to finish top of Africa Cup of NationsGroup C with a perfect nine points from three matches.

The Panthers will play the runners-up in Group D in Libreville on Sunday, while Tunisia,who finished second in the group will face the winners of Group D.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave Gabon the lead after 62 minutes when he collected aloose ball before wrong footing Tunisia goalkeeper Rami Jeridi for his third goal of thecompetition.

Skipper Daniel Cousin could have doubled the co-hosts' lead in the 67th minute but hisshot from a rebound was well off target as Gabon seemed to be a revived team after therecess.

The north Africans fought to restore parity but the home team were resolute in defence tohold on for another famous victory.

"I don't have any preference who we play in the quarterfinals,'' said Gabon's coach GernotRohr.

"We're just happy to be there. We weren't expecting to be first (in the group) but we arefirst."

Meanwhile Morocco denied Niger their first ever point with a 1-0 win in their meaningless closing Group C tie.

With both teams already knocked out pride was the only prize on the table.

Niger, 45 minutes away from an historic first Nations cup point, held a prayer session before the restart.

They were looking at grabbing all three points as Karim Lancina's pinpoint 25m free-kick headed for goal on 46 minutes only for Mohamed Amsif to safely extinguish the danger.

Good work from Daouda Kassaly was keeping Morocco at bay until the 89th minutewhen Marouane Chamakh fed Montpellier midfielder Younes Belhanda whose slidingright-footed shot broke Niger's hearts and perhaps kept Morocco coach Eric Gerets in a

job.

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END RE PO RT

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