Courtesy of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the U.S. National Defense University, and the United States Department of Defense, here are a representative sample of articles on African matters, either from around the African continent or about Africa-related activities:
The 'Caliphate's' Colonies: Islamic State's Gradual Expansion into North Africa
The caliphate has a beach. It is located on the Mediterranean Sea around 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Crete in Darna. The eastern Libya city has a population of around 80,000, a beautiful old town and an 18th century mosque, from which the black flag of the Islamic State flies. The port city is equipped with Sharia courts and an "Islamic Police" force which patrols the streets in all-terrain vehicles. A wall has been built in the university to separate female students from their male counterparts and the disciplines of law, natural sciences and languages have all been abolished. Those who would question the city's new societal order risk death. Darna has become a colony of terror, and it is the first Islamic State enclave in North Africa. The conditions in Libya are perfect for the radical Islamists: a disintegrating state, a location that is strategically well situated and home to the largest oil reserves on the continent. Should Islamic State (IS) manage to establish control over a significant portion of Libya, it could trigger the destabilization of the entire Arab world. Der Spiegle
Al Qaeda branch releases video of French, Dutch hostages
Al Qaeda's North African branch, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), released a video Monday purporting to show a French and a Dutch hostage who have been held in the Sahara since being kidnapped separately in Mali in November 2011. In an online video identified by the private SITE jihadist monitoring group, French national Serge Lazarevic and a man identifying himself as Sjaak Rijke appeal to their governments to negotiate their release from the AQIM militants. There is nothing in the footage of Lazarevic to suggest when it was shot, but Rijke says he is speaking on September 26 this year and refers to a US-Taliban prisoner exchange conducted in May. France 24
Mali: Last Chance in Algiers
As northern Mali experiences renewed violence, peace negotiations in Algiers offer a unique opportunity to resolve the crisis. But after almost two months of negotiations, peace remains a distant hope. The Malian government and participating armed groups have struggled to find common ground. Influential radical groups that are absent from the negotiating table are tempted to resort to violence to derail the process. Conflict resolution will require reconciliation of competing interests regarding security in the Sahara, organisation of the Malian state structure and local balance of power between divided communities in the north. In the face of armed clashes, it is tempting for mediators to move quickly to achieve a deal that would only guarantee security in the short term. But rushing the process will not help. Time is needed to build the foundations of sustainable peace. After months of deadlock, Algeria arranged international mediation that had long been handicapped by institutional rivalries. The mediation team led by Algeria should maintain this momentum and take the time necessary to build broad consensus for a future agreement. International Crisis Group
Islamic State Allegiance Could Cost Egypt's Sinai Jihadis Popular Support
Last week, the Egyptian militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABM), which operates primarily in the Sinai Peninsula, pledged its loyalty to the so-called Islamic State (IS). In an email interview, Zack Gold, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, discussed the implications for Egypt.WPR: What are the major armed groups operating in Sinai, to what degree do they coordinate activities and do they have any foreign support? Zack Gold:Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has been a base of armed activity, both militancy and smuggling, for many years. Following the uprising of 2011, however, the remnants of smaller jihadi groups amalgamated into Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the "Supporters of Jerusalem." World Politic Review
Sinai caught in the middle of Egypt's 'war on terror'
With soldiers firing warning shots to herald the nightly curfew and jihadist militants beheading informants, Sinai's residents find themselves caught in the middle of Egypt's "war on terror". The Sinai Peninsula has become a hotbed of Islamist militancy after decades of neglect under former president Hosni Mubarak, and amid a security vacuum triggered by the army's ouster last year of his successor Mohamed Morsi. Militant attacks remain commonplace almost two years since the military launched its "war on terrorism" in northern Sinai bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip. A brazen suicide bombing on 24 October killed 30 soldiers near the North Sinai capital El-Arish, sparking a state of emergency and a curfew being slapped on several areas of the province. News 24
Subcommittee Hearing: Fighting Ebola: A Ground-Level View (video)
Witnesses: Mr. Rabih Torbay, Senior Vice President for International Operations International Medical Corps - Mr. Brett Sedgewick, Technical Advisor for Food Security and Livelihoods Global Communities - Darius Mans, Ph.D. President Africare. House Comittee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
Obama on Ebola in West Africa: 'We are nowhere out of the woods'
President Obama said Tuesday that despite progress, West Africa is "nowhere near out of the woods" on Ebola. "It underscores how important it is to continue to push forward until we stamp out this disease entirely in that region," Obama said before a meeting on the virus with national security and public health officials. "Until we do, there are threats if additional outbreaks, and given the nature of international travel, it means that everybody has some measure of risk." White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said later that the president was referring to the country of Mali, which was declared free of the virus, only to see it come back. Obama said that attention on the virus in the United States has ebbed in the past week, "the challenge remains." The Washington Post
Guarding The Ebola Border
On a map, a border is a solid black line. On the ground, it can feel like a fiction. I'm standing on the edge of a shallow stream through the forest that separates two West African countries: Ivory Coast and Liberia. Here there is no fence. No sign. No border guard to prevent my crossing. On either side of this stream, people speak the same local language, Yokuba, a language incomprehensible to most of their countrymen. They share the same currency, the West African CFA franc, as well as a currency of trust built up over generations of intermarriage and communal life. There's even one tribal king who can settle disputes on both sides. Ebola changed all that. NPR
Army names new units that will deploy to Africa
The Minnesota National Guard's 34th Infantry Division headquarters and soldiers from 11 other states will deploy this spring to support U.S. Ebola response operations in West Africa, officials announced Sunday. In all, about 2,100 soldiers from the National Guard and Army Reserve are expected to deploy to Liberia and Senegal to relieve troops who deployed to the region in September and October as part of Operation United Assistance. The deployment of the Guard and Reserve soldiers was announced Friday. Army officials released the list of specific units tapped for the deployment on Sunday after notifying soldiers and their families. The soldiers, as well as those already in country, are expected to be deployed for six months. About 1,200 Guard soldiers are expected to deploy from these units. ArmyTimes
Algeria opposition calls for new elections
A coalition of Algerian opposition parties and political figures has called for new presidential elections because of the continued hospitalizations of the country's leader. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, was elected to a fourth term in April, but he has rarely appeared in public since suffering from a stroke in 2013. He was briefly hospitalized in France last weekend. Tuesday's opposition statement said the leader's absence is a sign of the "serious crisis in the country." The coalition, which includes Islamist and secular opposition parties, and former government ministers, also called for an independent commission to oversee elections. AP on Yahoo News
Tunisia: Political comeback of Ben Ali's cohort a setback to democracy
The political party Nidaa Tounes has won 85 seats in the newly-elected 217-member Tunisian parliament. This compares with the 69 seats won by the Islamist party Ennahdha, which after the last election in 2011 held the majority in the Constituent Assembly. The elections on October 26th were welcomed by most Arab, African and international media observers who saw in them a model of democracy for a region torn by strife and dictatorship. Lebanese columnist Rami Khouri described the elections as "the most significant domestic and national political development in the modern history of the Arab world". Despite social unrest and severe economic challenges, Tunisia's political factions were able to agree and compromise for the sake of national unity, "in sharp contrast with the hysteria and hallucinatory emotional excesses" in Egypt where the army overthrew the elected Islamist president to great popular acclaim, Khouri wrote in the Daily Star. African Arguments
Tunisia 2.0 - from revolution to republic
For someone who has not been sleeping much, and working punishing hours for months, 27-year old Anis Smaali is in an extraordinarily good mood. He is running a team of 5,000 election observers for Mourakiboun - a group that monitored Tunisia's parliamentary elections in October and on Sunday will be observing the first freely contested presidential election in the country's history. "These are the most important elections in the history of Tunisia," he says with a broad smile. "After this we will have a real government with a five-year mandate. Tunisia is showing that a real and sustainable democracy is possible in the Arab world." Less than four years ago, Mr Smaali was among hundreds of thousands demonstrating outside the Interior Ministry, calling for an end to dictatorship. BBC
Nigeria: Policing the Police
[...] The population of the police is about 370,000, a minuscule fraction of Nigeria's 167m. If the police are unable to manage police affairs, how do we expect them to protect millions of Nigerians? How many other cases, like Banor's, are in police's files? Could Banor have acted alone? We are wondering if the police realise the implications of what they are telling the public. Are they confirming stories about dismissed police officers making their way back to service? Could it be that the police take finger prints of criminals, but do not have finger prints of their personnel? Why is the police pay roll not computerised as has been the case with the Nigeria Immigration Service since 2006? How are the police using the technologies that are available to them? How did Banor's matter get to the stage of the allegations against him? Is his case common in the police? Vanguard on allAfrica
Cameroon under pressure from Boko Haram
Cameroon's military are battling cross-border raids by Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram, as the BBC's Thomas Fessy found out when he joined soldiers on a patrol. A soldier is standing on the back of a flatbed pick-up truck leading the convoy. His high-powered twin-barrelled gun is turned towards Nigeria. In reality, though, the weapon is aimed at what Boko Haram call their "caliphate", or Islamic state. The border village of Amchide is mostly deserted. Only a handful of people can be seen as we drive through. They are hastily throwing a few belongings on a cart as they prepare to leave. They probably did not have time to take anything when they fled during an attack, and came back to recover their possessions. BBC
Zambia to hold presidential by-election January 20
Zambia's interim leader announced a presidential by-election on Jan. 20 and called for calm and tolerance amid concerns about a tense contest to succeed President Michael Sata, who died in office last month. Interim president Guy Scott, who became the continent's first white leader since the 1994 end of apartheid in South Africa, said he hoped all contestants, both from the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and opposition parties, would desist from violence. "It is my prayer that peace continues during the campaigning and the presidential by-elections," he told a news conference. Questions about the stability of Africa's second-biggest copper producer arose when Scott fired a presidential front-runner, Edgar Lungu, as PF secretary-general on Nov. 3, without explaining why. Reuters
The real value of the Zimbabwe torture ruling
The South African Police Service (SAPS) really doesn't want to investigate torture in Zimbabwe. When the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum (ZEF) first asked it to do so in 2008, even giving detectives a dossier of evidence to get them started, the police took no action. When a court action (brought by SALC) forced it to do so, it appealed. When it lost that appeal, it appealed again. All to no avail. In late October, the Constitutional Court - the highest court in the land - ruled that SAPS must investigate the complaint. Failure to do so would violate South Africa's obligations under both domestic and international law. For SALC and international justice campaigners, the verdict was vindication after a long and difficult fight. ISS
'White Widow alive and well' in Somalia: report
Dubbed the "White Widow," Samantha Lewthwaite - a British convert to Islam who is said to have been involved in the Kenya mall attack last year - is reportedly living in Somalia with her jihadist husband, Marco Costa, a wanted Al-Qaeda suspect, the Daily Mail quoted Kenyan sources as saying. The sources said Lewthwaite was 'alive and well' and living in the south Somalia, the daily reported. The paper said it had obtained a forged Mozambican passport bearing Costa's picture. The document clearly identifies him as Jamal Salim, who the paper said was on the run from Kenyan police since he shot and killed two police officers in Nairobi in 2011. Lewthwaite has previously used a false South African passport and alias. The couple, according to the Daily Mail, also appears in a selfie taken at their home, adding that police are using these and pictures of their two children as part of a countrywide manhunt for the suspects. Al Arabiya
Ivory Coast tells soldiers to return to barracks
The Ivory Coast government is calling on disgruntled soldiers to return to their barracks after they protested in the streets over their benefits. The Defense Ministry said it would make concessions the soldiers, whose complaints earlierTuesday had raised the specter of widespread unrest. The demands of the soldiers - dominated by former rebels who brought the current president to power - include increased health care benefits and improved opportunities for career advancement in the military. Defense Minister Paul Koffi Koffi said the government will address those issues. Ivory Coast is still recovering from a bitter political standoff that left about 3,000 people dead after a disputed December 2010 election. AP on Stars and Stripes
DR Congo's Katanga 'catastrophic' as 71,000 flee homes: UN
The UN refugee agency said it was "deeply concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Katanga". Rampant violence in the mineral-rich southern region has uprooted about 400,000 people since 2012, and brought the total number of people internally displaced to nearly 600,000, UNHCR said. In October alone, the agency said it had registered 1,737 "incidents" in the territories of Kalemie and the so-called "triangle of death" comprising Manono, Mitwaba and Pweto in northern Katanga. The violence is mainly attributed to the Mai Mai rebel group which is fighting for a better distribution between the north and south of the wealth from the province's immense natural resources. Times Live
Food on Hold, Ex-Rebels in Bangui Face Bleak Future
Ex-rebels in the Central African Republic have been threatening to blow themselves up to protest a government attempt to relocate them from camps in the capital, Bangui. The rebels are under pressure to move - an international aid agency says their food supply has been put on hold while talks about their relocation continue. Tensions are running high in the streets of Bangui around two camps containing ex-rebels, as negotiations over their future drag on. Peacekeepers from the United Nations mission MINUSCA have deployed to the area to prevent clashes between the ex-Seleka rebels inside the camps and anti-Balaka militia outside. VOA
Traffickers turn to teenagers to drive migrant boats across Mediterranean
Traffickers in Egypt and Libya are increasingly using children to drive boats of migrants to Italy. Many of these teenagers are then detained and imprisoned by the Italian authorities, facing up to 15 years in jail and fines of hundreds of thousands of euros. This year, 18 children have been sent to jail in Catania, Sicily, on trafficking charges. Others are being held in juvenile detention centres in Agrigento, Palermo, Siracusa and Reggio Calabria. Lawyers in Sicily say more and more minors are being charged with offences as traffickers attempt to evade Italian authorities by sending children in their place. Said, now 19, was only 15 when he was jailed in Italy on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration and criminal association. The Guardian
Habyarimana case: the new Rwandan witness disappeared
The new witness in the case of the attack against the plane of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana - April 6, 1994 on the eve of the genocide - has been missing since Thursday, November 13. He was to be heard soon by the judges Nathalie Poux and Marc Trévidic. According to testimonies collected by RFI, Emile Gafirita was abducted in Nairobi, Kenya, outside his home shortly before midnight. He was stopped by two men who handcuffed him and forced him into their vehicle. No news since. Kenyan police ensures not have arrested him and they are investigating this matter. Emmanuel Mughisa had moved there two months ago, in the district of Dagoretti, Nairobi.Rwandan " without history, rather friendly and open , "according to nearby residents. [...] According to his French lawyer, Maître François Cantier Emile Gafirita had just received his call when he was removed on Thursday, but his name as a witness was known for several weeks by all parties, including the Rwandan regime figures charged in this case. The ProxyLake
Global report says 36 million people enslaved: Mauritania is biggest offender
[...] "From the Thai fisherman trawling fishmeal, to the Congolese boy mining diamonds, from the Uzbek child picking cotton, to the Indian girl stitching footballs ... their forced labour is what we consume," read the report. The biggest offender, with the highest proportion of its population enslaved, remains the west African nation Mauritania, where slavery of black Moors by Berber Arabs is an entrenched part of society. Mauritania has anti-slavery legislation but it is rarely enforced and a special tribunal set up in March has yet to prosecute any cases, the report said. In second place was Uzbekistan where, every autumn, the government forces over one million people, including children, to harvest cotton. Countries like Qatar in the Middle East were a major destination for men and women from Africa and Asia who are lured with promises of well-paid jobs only to find themselves exploited as domestic workers or in the construction industry, the report found. Al Jazeera
America: forging partnerships for Africa's future.
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