Africa Week in Review – January 17, 2014 Share This /

Below is a roundup of some of the top articles and news highlights from around Africa over the last week.

• Amidst some strategic gains by al Shabab in Somalia, the United States is sending a small team of military advisors to the country. This is the first time U.S. troops will be present in the country since the infamous Black Hawk Down mission. Col. Tom Davis, a spokesman for the military’s Africa Command, explained the mission:

The U.S. has established a military coordination cell in Somalia to provide planning and advisory support to the African Union Mission in Somalia and Somali security forces to increase their capabilities and promote peace and security throughout Somalia and the region.

Somalia’s Defense Minister Fiqi thanked the U.S., affirming that the military advisers give welcome “support to Somali federal government especially Somali armed forces as well as peace keeping forces of African Union Mission in Somalia  (AMISOM) troops.”

• The U.S. Congress passed the FY 2014 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. In addition to noteworthy restrictions for security assistance to Rwanda and Ethiopia, the bill specifies:
  • Of the funds appropriated by this Act, no less than $53,000,000 should be made available for the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership program, and no less than $24,000,000 should be made available for the Partnership for Regional East Africa Counterterrorism program.
  • The Secretary of State shall provide the Committees on Appropriations, no later than April 1, 2014, and for each fiscal quarter, a report in writing on the uses of funds made available under the headings ‘‘Foreign Military Financing Program’’, ‘‘International Military Education and Training’’, and ‘‘Peacekeeping Operations.’’
• The U.S. announced a new Conventional Arms Transfer Policy. The U.S. pledges to factor in U.S. regional stability interests, the risk of significant change in the political or security situation in the recipient country, and the

likelihood that the recipient would use the arms to commit human rights abuses or serious violations of international humanitarian law, retransfer the arms to those who would commit human rights abuses or serious violations of international humanitarian law, or identify the United States with human rights abuses or serious violations of international humanitarian law

The emphasis on human rights is a new development in the U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer Policy.

• Fighting continued in South Sudan, especially around strategic oil-producing regions.  U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth met rebel leader Riek Machar in search of a cease-fire, who persisted that the release of political detainees must be a prerequisite for any such agreement. The U.S. continues to call for an end of all hostilities and a political solution to the crisis. In the meantime, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch documented atrocities on both sides, including targeted killings of civilians, recruitment of child soldiers, looting, destruction of civilian property as well as ethnically motivated violence. The African Union expressed concern that the ongoing violence undermines regionally sponsored peace negotiations in Ethiopia and the delivery of much needed humanitarian relief.
• This week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing titled South Sudan’s Broken Promises?. Linda Thomas-Greenfield (PDF), Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Earl W. Gast (PDF), Assistant Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Africa testified. Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield outlined U.S. political engagement and the underlying tenants of U.S. policy. Members of Congress raised questions about the efficacy of U.S. assistance to South Sudan. Additionally, U.S. Congressman David N. Cicilline (D-RI) raised questions about whether legislative caps on U.S. assistance to the UN have weakened the peacekeeping mission there, while Representative Randy Weber (R-TX) asked whether the Ugandan troops moving into South Sudan have benefited from U.S. training.

Quick news hits across the Africa region:

• The situation remained precarious in the Central African Republic despite the fact that deliberations on transitional leadership were underway. The U.S. has urged for a selection process that is transparent, inclusive and consistent with the negotiated agreements. The UN released reports of grave human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, mutilations and forced disappearances, and warned that a significant risk remains that the ethnic violence could turn genocidal. U.S. ambassador to the UN, Samantha Powers, stated in a press briefing that doubts remain if the mandated number of peacekeepers will suffice.
• The UN has linked Chadian peacekeepers in the Central African Republic to mass killings during the conflict.
• Reuters reviewed how Al Qaeda has changed over the last two years and determined that Somalia's al Shabab and North Africa’s Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have primarily local aims, contradicting fears in U.S. policy circles that they may pose a threat to the U.S.
• Rwanda announced that it intends to send a peacekeeping contingent of 800 troops to Central African Republic. The U.S. promised to airlift the Rwandan troops into Central African Republic to support the peacekeeping mission.
• After Uganda deployed troops and provided military assistance in support of President Kiir’s government, President Museveni admitted that Ugandan troops were fighting alongside South Sudanese troops— a contradiction to last week’s assurances that Ugandan troops are not active participants in the conflict. President Museveni got parliamentary backing for this deployment.
• U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Russell D. Feingold travelled to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region’s (ICGLR) Fifth Ordinary Heads of State Summit, which took place in Angola January 13^th to 16^th. The UN expressed concern that DRC’s recently-defeated M23 rebel group is recruiting again, a claim the rebels deny. Many M23 fighters have surrendered over the last months.
• The EU Naval Force Somalia carried out a counter-piracy exercise with the Seychelles Coast Guard, Air Force and Police Force as part of the international engagement against piracy off the coast of East Africa. Somali media reports that the EU intends to extend its a multi-million euro counter-piracy naval force off the coast of Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau lauded international engagement this week, reporting a 40% drop in piracy since the East African peak in 2011.
• Rwandan president Paul Kagame commented on the murder of an opposition figure in exile saying, "No one will betray Rwanda and get away with it. Regardless of who you are, there will be consequences." The U.S. criticized the comments, with State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying this Thursday: “We are troubled by the succession of what appear to be politically motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles.”
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Nigeria’s Islamist terror organization, Boko Haram, forcibly conscripts child solders.
• Sudanese Air Force aircraft conducted several air raids in South Darfur this week.
• Kenya started the trial of the four suspects accused of supporting al Shabab and sheltering the gunmen involved in the Westgate Mall attack.