New Report Identifies Challenges in Africa for Obama

A new report says the Obama administration faces key challenges in Africa this year, including poverty, climate change and HIV/AIDS.

Africa Policy Outlook 2010 says the U.S. must take action to ensure it “does not miss a historic opportunity to bring meaningful change to the continent.” The report is co-published by Africa Action and Foreign Policy in Focus.

Gerald LeMelle, executive director of Africa Action, “The policy outlook is something we’ve put out now for 10 years. What we try to do is give a sort of an honest look at what the following year will look like vis-à-vis U.S. foreign policy in Africa based on the trends that we’ve seen from the year previous.”

Poverty is the biggest challenge

“We don’t like to discuss poverty that much because it’s kind of an indication that some of the free trade deregulation policies so favored by Western countries and Bretton Woods Institutions (World Bank, IMF) are in fact failing,” he says.

LeMelle calls poverty the greatest single threat to U.S. security today.

“We have seen the result of failed states across the globe and including in Africa, places like Somalia, that have come back to haunt The United States and other countries. And therefore, if we are not seriously addressing the question of poverty, then we’re really setting ourselves up for a fairly dismal future,” he says.

The Africa Policy Outlook report calls for a “nuts and bolts” approach to deal with poverty.

“We have to stop promoting deregulation. We have to stop promoting free trade. We have to stop promoting structural adjustment programs that make it safe for foreign direct investment to make 20, 30 percent profit at the expense of even minimal reinvestment in these communities where the money is being taken from,” he says.

LeMelle says an example of how failure to reinvest in the community can cause major problems is Nigeria’s Niger Delta.

“Fifteen years ago, we were organizing with Ken Saro-Wiwa, the peace activist from the Niger Delta, to get the oil companies to stop dumping oil into the environment. And by and large they refused to meet even minimal demands of reinvesting in schools and in housing and in roads for poor people in the Niger Delta. Today, people in the Niger Delta are picking up guns and shooting,” he says.

He calls it an attitude of profits being more important than people.

Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were executed after being convicted by a military tribunal for allegedly instigating violence that led to the deaths of pro-government Ogoni chiefs. Saro-Wiwa and the others were hanged in 1995.

Climate Change

The report says another major challenge to Africa is climate change. And LeMelle is critical of the major powers for failing to take stronger action at the Copenhagen climate summit in December.

“Climate change is going to be a major contributing factor to death, disease, conflict, insecurity - all the things that we are concerned about from the perspective of national and global security. So we have to begin to address this,” he says.

LeMelle says while the rich nations pledged $100 billion to help developing countries deal with climate change, it’s unclear whether that’s new money or funds reallocated from other programs.

HIV/AIDS

The Africa Action report says HIV/AIDS will also remain a major problem, despite programs such as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. LeMelle says it’s responsible for an 18 percent decrease in AIDS-related deaths across Africa since 2004. But he says the increase in funding for PEPFAR is not as large as in years past.

“The end result has been that countries like Tanzania are beginning to turn people away. New patients approach them and they are told they can only enter the rolls (for treatment) if someone else dies. Or they’re saying they’re not taking any new patients for the coming year. This is going to reverse the trend toward successfully decreasing the deaths from HIV,” he says.

He calls on the Obama administration to keep the strong U.S. support to provide anti-retroviral drugs to those infected with the AIDS virus.

LeMelle says with the many problems facing the continent, “Africa deserves a more sophisticated approach than what has been afforded to its people.”

Source:voanews.com/

Obama: No Plan to Send US Troops to Yemen, Somalia

U.S. President Barack Obama says he has no intention to send American troops to battle extremists in Yemen or Somalia.

In an interview with People magazine to be published this Friday, Mr. Obama said he believes the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains the "epicenter" of al-Qaida's leadership and activity.

Mr. Obama said he would never rule out any possibility in what he called a "complex world," but said the most effective approach in dealing with lawless areas around the globe is for the U.S. to work with "international partners."

A Yemen-based al-Qaida branch claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day, December 25, bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner, prompting concerns about rising terrorist activity in Yemen.

Mr. Obama says he knows al-Qaida in Yemen has become a more serious problem, and that the U.S. is working with Yemen's government to root out terrorist training camps and cells.

But despite U.S. pressure to crack down on the terrorist group, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Sunday he is open to dialogue with al-Qaida militants.

In an interview with Abu Dhabi television, Mr. Saleh said he is ready to deal with any al-Qaida members who lay down their arms, renounce violence and "return to reason," as he put it.

Yemen's government says it has been successful in conducting operations against what it says are al-Qaida targets. Sana'a says air strikes last month killed at least 34 militants, but conflicting reports from witnesses say at least some of those killed had no connection to al-Qaida.

Source:voanews.com/

Somalia: Top UN delegation lands in Puntland state in Somalia

A high delegation from Human Rights Watch spearheaded by Dr. Shamsul Bari has reached in the semiautonomous state of Puntland in eastern Somalia in a mission to asses the fact on the ground after there has been instability in the region in the past couple of months.

“During my days in Puntland I will have meet some officials in the administration of Puntland and as well have deep discussions with the different sectors of the community including, the civil society and the humanitarian organizations, and we shall be mainly focusing on the humanitarian situation in the region as whole” said Shamsul Bari speaking to Somaliweyn Website on Friday.

On the other hand Dr. Abdi Hassan Jimale the constitution Minister of Puntland speaking to one of the local radio stations in Mogadishu has confirmed the presence of the UN delegation.

“In fact the arrival of the UN delegation in Puntland was very significant, and I hope all what we have discussed upon will be fruitful” said the Minister.

Puntland state has been lately experiencing instability in the region and some two nights ago a Member of Parliament of Puntland was gunned down in Bossaso town. Somaliweyn English News Desk.

Mohammed Omar Hussein+2521-5519235 shiinetown@hotail.com

Source:somaliweyn.org/

U.S. Extends Reevaluation of Security Threats to Yemen and Somalia

Somali-born geography professor Abdi Samatar of the University of Minnesota says that the intensification of fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt by Nigerian-born Umar Abdulmutallab have helped shift the focus of conflict to al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula, particularly to Yemen. But he notes that reports of recent arms shipments from Yemeni rebels to Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabab fighters have so far had little impact on the rebel insurgency against Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).



CIA

“I don’t think that the amount of weapons that are going from Yemen through al-Qaida to al-Shabab is significant. Shabab has many other sources of weapons, both in the domestic market, and, remember, Somalia has one of the largest small weapons markets in Mogadishu itself,” he said.

Despite al-Shabab claims of sending fighters to help al-Qaida resist Yemeni and foreign-assisted efforts to quash its insurgency, Professor Samatar says a Somali presence in Yemen is limited to longtime refugees who have lived in northern Yemen for decades, but not a significant infusion of terrorists or resistance fighters.

“Containing refugees and others in particular localities I don’t think is going to be a significant element in tackling the terror matter,” he noted.

As for Yemenis operating in Somalia, Samatar says the security threat is also low. But he does acknowledge that the stepped up fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan have expanded the arena of doing battle with al-Qaida back to the Gulf region, where it was extremely active ten years ago.

“The military pressures in Pakistan and Afghanistan are having a significant effect on al-Qaida’s ability to further decentralize itself so that they cannot be holed in one particular locality. And this is a fact that should be taken into account in both Somalia and in Yemen,” he observed.

Does this mean a more intensified struggle in Somalia at this point? Samatar says not as far as expecting an infusion of fighters from Yemen to add to Somalia’s woes. He says al-Shabab continues to lead insurgents’ attempts to bring down the internationally endorsed TFG.



AP
Islamist al-Shabab fighters conduct military exercise in northern Mogadishu's Suqaholaha neighborhood, 01 Jan 2010

“I think Shabab controls much of southern Somalia at the present, and in the last week or so, they have had military celebrations in Mogadishu itself, to show the caliber of their troops and the size of their troops. So they are already what they are, and they control what’s left of Somalia….small strips in south Mogadishu and a few other pockets. And I just don’t think further pressures are going to make any difference in those spots because those are where the African Union forces are, and I don’t think al-Shabab will have the wherewithal to confront them head-on,” he said.


Al-Shabab insurgents control much of southern Somalia, including the city of Kismayo.

The answer to U.S. and British efforts to bring greater stability to both Somalia and Yemen can be found in new initiatives to democratize both countries rather than focusing on the anti-terror threat, according to Professor Samatar. He warns that stepped up foreign military involvement can foment resentment among local populations in both countries, which have long been discontent with the authoritarian qualities of their own failed states’ leaderships.

“I think the Somali people would welcome a very genuine support from the United (States) government to help themselves rebuild their country. I think the project that the United States helped take part in in Djibouti, which ultimately produced the Transitional Federal Government was both illegitimate and incompetent. And so what the Somali people are looking for is support from Britain and the United States people and governments that are genuinely democratic, that will support civil society, and Islamic movement that is also democratic,” he maintains.

Samatar asserts that Yemeni and Somali resentment are stirred up against western interference when it is being engineered to serve outside interests.

“Genuine democratization of the political process in Somalia, pushing the Transitional Federal Government into becoming more inclusive, more accountable, more effective, and bringing on board people with capacity who are Somalis who can deliver for the local population, if the U.S. and Britain push things in that direction, the Somali people will genuinely welcome that, in my opinion,” he noted.

Source:voanews.com/

Action against Qaeda in Pakistan forcing terrorists into Yemen, Somalia: Brown

LONDON: Extremists squeezed out of Pakistan and Afghanistan will emerge in struggling states like Yemen and Somalia, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday.

After the US and Britain agreed to finance a special counter-terror unit in Yemen, Brown said battling the “murderous ideology” of extremist Muslims would likely become “a feature of this decade”.

Brown also wants a bigger peacekeeping force in Somalia to tackle violent radicalism in the region.

“The weakness of Al Qaeda in Pakistan has forced people out of Pakistan and forced them into Yemen and Somalia,” Brown told BBC television.

Taking on the Al Qaeda terror network in the Tribal Areas has dispersed their organisation and limited their abilities in Afghanistan, he said. “Of course, that means that other centres will appear but they will not have the strength that Al Qaeda had in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We’ve got to be vigilant in every part of the world where there is a failed state or a failing state which creates space for a terrorist group to operate.”

Though London and Washington have pledged to help the Yemeni authorities improve their counter-terror efforts, Brown said it was also a “battle for hearts and minds”.

“We’ve got to be very careful who we’re supporting and what we’re giving them support to do,” he added. Britain has called an international meeting on combating extremism in Yemen for London on January 28.

Brown said the Yemen sessions of the conference would help Sanaa “develop the means and will” to tackle extremism.

“Yemen has been recognised, like Somalia, to be one of the areas where we’ve got to not only keep an eye on but we’ve got to do more,” Brown said. afp

Source:dailytimes.com.pk/

Somalia seeks a dose of Obama's Afghan vision

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia's government called on Saturday for an international peace plan like President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy, saying it would be more effective and far cheaper than current efforts to combat Somali piracy.

"We accept that ... the situation in Somalia will appear beyond repair but the reality is very different," Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said in a letter to The Times newspaper in Britain.

Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991 and is home to insurgents and pirates, who prey on shipping in the Indian Ocean despite international naval patrols. Sharmarke's U.N.-backed administration controls only part of the capital, Mogadishu.

Obama's plan for Afghanistan marked a "sea change in international support to troubled countries", wrote Sharmarke. "What is so startling is that all the conclusions are as true about Somalia as they are about Afghanistan."

Obama announced this week that the United States would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to combat Taliban insurgency, as well as measures aimed at ending corruption and promoting local accountability before a U.S. withdrawal. [ID:nN30459822]

"Piracy and the growth of Islamic extremism are not the natural state of being. They are but symptoms of an underlying malaise -- the absence of government and hope," Sharmarke said.

"The irony is that it would cost only a quarter of what is being spent right now on the warships trying to combat piracy, to fund our plan and actually solve the problems rather than simply chasing them round the Indian Ocean," he said.

The Horn of Africa state hit the headlines again this week when a suicide bomber struck a medical graduation ceremony and killed at least 22 people, including three government ministers, several doctors, students and their relatives.

Source:reuters.com/