[AfricaRealities.com] A provocation on Burundi

 

http://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2016/01/30/a-provocation-on-burundi/

A provocation on Burundi

by BRIDGET CONLEY on JANUARY 30, 2016

While I am not an expert on Burundi, I, like many others right now, am watching with dismay as violence in the country continues. My recent research has been on atrocity endings and Burundi today echoes with one finding from my work: the difference between halting (or in this case forestalling) mass atrocities and advancing democratization. These two valuable endeavors, history informs us, are not the same. While clearly strongly institutionalized democracies are the best system for protecting civilians from mass violence inflicted by their own government, the timeline, processes and priorities of mass violence and institutionalizing democracy are not the same, and in some cases, they can work at odds with each other.

From the vantage point of comparative study of atrocity endings, the most potent factor is to stabilize the political situation, removing as many uncertainties as are possible, while increasing pressure to protect civilians from violence. The task: clarify the political issues and forge international (especially regional) consensus, while increasing pressure and specificity of demands regarding the patterns of violence, and adding resources to support the actual work of protection, be it international monitors, police or military units.

So how might this apply to Burundi? Stabilizing and clarifying the political situation is not the same as expanding the arena for democratization, which often includes more uncertainties, ambiguities and diverse voices. Efforts to deepen democratic practice and atrocity prevention part ways at some along the continuum when violence is underway. If stabilization and ending political uncertainty are the critical ingredients for atrocity prevention when violence is on-going and seems likely to escalate, as many believe is the case in Burundi, then fully recognizing the electoral triumph of Pres. Nkurunziza is necessary. Calm his fears that international efforts in the name of protection are not actually regime change efforts. Such an approach may be unsavory, but it is not illegitimate. Here is why:

It is my understanding that the President's party, the CNDD, would have won the presidential election with whichever candidate they put forward. In short, they had the votes.

While the maneuvering that Nkurunziza engaged in to find a legal loophole allowing him to seek a third term would not likely hold up under any neutral scrutiny of the key documents (the Arusha Acccords and the constitution), he did maneuver through the existing foundational documents and institutions. The constitutional court, which reviewed his third term arguments, was undoubtedly biased as the judges are presidential appointees, but that is not a situation he created, that is the structure of Burundi's system. He did win an election, yes, a deeply flawed election, but one where some opposition members did manage to win or hold their seats as well. As a colleague pointed out to me, in Senegal, the president attempted a similar move by seeking an arguably illegal additional term, but he did not have the votes, so ran and lost the election. Burundi's opposition could not achieve this.

The political opposition, in short, did not have the votes. This does not mean they deserve to be politically excommunicated—or brutalized as has happened with some–but it does mean their efforts to shift the conversation about legitimacy to extra-systemic political and military action is at least as illegitimate as the President's third term, if not more. They have abandoned the pretense of following the rules, whereas he warped the existing rules.

Outside pressure and threats of military intervention to overturn even controversial and flawed elections, when the opposition did not have the votes to win in any case, is a deeply problematic position. Yet this is the undercurrent of U.S., other western states' and the AU's approach to Burundi. In the name of genocide prevention, "not another Rwanda," the glimmer of intervention and remaining ambiguity in international positions on the elections is arguably likely to increase and prolong the period of violence.

One option that errs on the side of atrocities prevention would be to recognize the results of the elections as they stand. This need not by any means translate into carte blanche for Nkurunziza. His comments that seemed to signal willingness to abandon the historical accommodation enshrined in the Arusha Accords should be countered with resolute opposition by the international community. It is time, the message should be, to return to and re-validate the institutions established as the foundation of Burundi's post-conflict dispensation as the very ones to pave the way for Burundi's political future. In other words, it is time for everyone, internationals and the opposition included, to return to politics without relying on trump cards.

Further, ethnic polarization in public discourse should be unequivocally denounced. More than denouncing the inflammatory speech, Burundi's political leaders should be responsible for issuing statements that intentionally calm violence. Any efforts to stabilize the political situation should be accompanied by fervent pressure that the leaders who benefit act like real leaders.

Would such a program help correct the distortion of democratic institutions initiated by the President's bid for a third term? No, I do not think it does. This harm has been done, but it is unclear to me how it could be undone by caveat at this point without considerably more violence than what we've already seen.

Deepening democratic processes is not a crisis-driven endeavor. Democracy is nothing if not systemic—a set of practices that get worn into the regular course of political contention, channeled through institutions established for this purpose rather than routed around them. It is a language of engaged and accountable reform; it lacks drama and requires consensus and community building over the longer haul. For people outside a country who wish to support the growth of democracy, the greatest contribution is slow steady application of principles that return contention to debate and nonviolent organizing.

We do not see such an approach at present regarding presidential term limits in Africa from the AU or the wider international community, which has responded to various efforts to alter constitutions as if each case could be entirely isolated from every other case. Absent systemic and predictable responses, and given the very real and apparently escalating threat of widespread violence in Burundi, an atrocities prevention approach that errs on the side of stability would be more realizable than one predicated on 'fixing' democracy through crisis intervention.

Tagged with: atrocities • Burundi
 

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I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
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[AfricaRealities.com] African hero, now living in San Antonio, will run for Rwanda presidency

 

http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/African-hero-now-living-in-S-A-will-run-for-6791393.php

African hero, now living in S.A., will run for Rwanda presidency

By Bill Lambrecht, Washington Bureau

January 28, 2016

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Photo: LAWRENCE JACKSON, STF / AP

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President Bush awards, Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered people at a hotel he managed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, ... more

WASHINGTON - Paul Rusesabagina, a San Antonio resident who gained fame for saving hundreds of lives in Rwanda in the 1990s, on Thursday declared his candidacy for the presidency of the east African country ruled for two decades by a dictator.

Rusesabagina called on the United States government and leaders around the world to halt foreign aid to Rwanda and support for its longtime president, Paul Kagame.

"Today, I publicly declare that I have decided to combine humanitarian with political action to liberate the Rwandan people from the dictatorship," Rusesabagina told a gathering of supporters and journalists in a downtown Washington conference room.

"All facts and available data show that the (Kagame) government thrives on chaos, corruption, impunity, injustice," he said.

Rusesabagina became known internationally in the 2004 film "Hotel Rwanda," which depicted his heroism in saving the lives of 1,268 people in his hotel during the genocide mass slaughter in Rwanda in 1994. American actor Don Cheadle portrayed Rusesabagina.

Rusesabagina, 61, fled Rwanda in 1996 hours after a failed attempt on his life, he recounted in an interview. He and his wife, Taciana, moved to San Antonio in 2009 to be near friends after he was threatened in Brussels, where they had been living. They keep a residence in Belgium.

The candidacy Rusesabagina announced is unlike a traditional campaign and, for now, amounts to an effort to rally people in Rwanda while pressuring the United States and other governments to acknowledge abuses by Kagame during his 22 years in power.

Kagame said earlier this month that he will seek another term in office in 2017 under a recent constitutional change. He has been president since 2000, but in control of the nation since forces he led ended the genocide of Tutsi people in 1994.

It is unlikely that Rusesabagina will return to Rwanda anytime soon to campaign, given the danger. In a report last year, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch noted ominously that "real or suspected opponents inside and outside the country continue to be targeted." 

Rusesabagina said: "It will not be the business of one individual. It will take not a village, but a whole country to be mobilized. And we have started mobilizing," 

He added: "Human rights are abused every day and every night. There is no freedom of media. But we have a very strong network outside the country. And each and everybody outside the country has a link within the country."

Bob Krueger, a former Democratic congressman from New Braunfels and briefly a U.S. senator, introduced Rusesabagina at the gathering. In the Clinton administration, Krueger was ambassador to Burundi and Botswana. He left Burundi after gunmen with AK-47s opened fire on his motorcade.

Krueger referred to Kagame as "the most ruthless, murderous dictator on the huge continent of Africa…He needs to be replaced, not by killing him and not by revolution but by honest elections in Rwanda overseen by a large, intensive, multinational force of international observers."

And then, Krueger added, Rwandans can look to Rusesabagina, who he described as an ordinary man "who never carried a gun and never killed a soul, but by his bravery, saved over 1,200 people in a hotel and many more in his community, capital and nation."

bill.lambrecht@hearstdc.com

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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
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When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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[AfricaRealities.com] RWANDA: FDU-INKINGI IS STRONGLY OPPOSED TO THE MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF ARCHIVES OF THE ICTR BY THE RPF, ONE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CRIMES COMMITTED IN 1994.

 

http://www.fdu-rwanda.com/en/rwanda-les-fdu-inkingi-sopposent-fermement-a-la-gestion-conservation-des-archives-du-tpir-par-le-fpr-lun-des-acteurs-des-crimes-de-1994/#more-4656

RWANDA: FDU-INKINGI IS STRONGLY OPPOSED TO THE MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF ARCHIVES OF THE ICTR BY THE RPF, ONE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CRIMES COMMITTED IN 1994.

JANUARY 26, 2016   

The Government of Rwanda Patriotic Front persists and intensifies the pressure to be entrusted with the archives of the ICTR. This request is far from being trivial. It is worth recalling the great importance of the Archives of the ICTR, particularly with regard to bringing about justice in general, and in particular the key aim of the creation ICTR.

The judicial process of the ICTR was established by the resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations nº 955 of 8 November 1994. In view of the objective of the resolution, the mission assigned to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is twofold:

• Punish international crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994;
•  Help the people of Rwanda to reconcile.

It must be emphasized that beyond the aim of prosecution and punishment of crimes committed in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region of Africa, the ICTR is first and foremost an international framework to carry out thorough investigation into the Rwandan tragedy and shed light on the whole truth about what happened, a prerequisite sine qua none for genuine reconciliation between sons and daughters of Rwanda. In such a vital process for the nation, it is essential that light be shed on the role of each actor in the tragedy that befell Rwanda right from 1990 to the genocide of one part of the country's population. In any case, Rwanda can only exorcise her demons if a criminal or a criminal group, which played a central role in the suicidal process of the country, keeps the reins of power of the country.

However, the delicate position of judge and jury that the RPF has occupied since the beginning of the Rwandan crisis rules it out from the position of being the custodian of the archives of ICTR, an institution that scrutinized the tragic history of Rwanda. Indeed, in order to ensure the total impunity and for obvious psychological reasons, the RPF government would be against the idea of shedding light on the tragic history of Rwanda. In case this is done the ICTR will have permanently jeopardized all hope for truth and justice so vital for the traumatized Rwandans. The neutrality of the RPF cannot be guaranteed, being part of the tragedy that befell Rwanda from the beginning to to the end.

Thus, beyond these general considerations, there are two compelling reasons why the ICTR archives should not be entrusted to the Rwandan government dominated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front:

1.              Witness protection 

We know that a witness may be protected at his/her request, the request of the Prosecution, the defence, the victims and witness support unit or of judges. Thus, there were several types of protected witnesses that came before different chambers of the ICTR: witnesses under pseudo names and witnesses who allowed to disclose totally or partially their identity. In all cases, the names of protected witnesses and any information that could identify them, was removed from the Tribunal's public documents to safeguard the identity of protected witnesses. All these measures are designed to ensure that the identity of the witness, which is always disclosed to the accused and his counsel, is not disclosed to the public. Given the above, it is the UN that must keep the archives of the ICTR, as these archives contain the identification of thousands of protected witnesses.  They could suffer serious consequences if their identity were revealed to the RPF. These privileged observers of the Rwandan tragedy, which for a security question, have obtained guarantees that their identity will not be disclosed to the public, are key actors in the process of justice for Rwanda and as such cannot be revealed to the RPF which has never been neutral in the judicial management of the Rwandan tragedy.

2.              Lack of neutrality of the Rwandan government

When the administration of evidence in the different chambers of the ICTR and throughout the debates, a mass of prosecution witness statements, factual evidence, testimonies on the context of the tragedy and expert testimony have clearly established the responsibility of the RPF rebellion in the bloody events that shook Rwanda. Defense expert witnesses, among others, informed the different chambers of the ICTR on political and strategic choices that turned the RPF war of national liberation into a bloodbath. That is why the government dominated by the RPF did everything to suppress the truth about the course of the war and the stages that led it to military and political victory.

That said, the government dominated by the RPF, if it received the archives, could not help but tamper with different files in order to remove all evidence relating to its responsibility in the Rwandan tragedy. Moreover, if not happy with the acquittal of the official of Habyarimana regime, the government could reopen closed cases for prosecution. We remember that in several cases, the Rwandan government organized massive demonstrations against the acquittals of some people and at the same time launched new accusations against people freshly acquitted by the ICTR.

For all these reasons, FDU-Inkingi strongly recommends that the request of the Rwandan government for the management of the ICTR archives be dismissed.

Done in London  on January 25, 2016.

Justin Bahunga

Commissioner for External Relations and FDU-Inkingi Spokesperson

jbahunga@yahoo.co.uk

TPIR-Archives.FPR-EN

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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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[AfricaRealities.com] Audio | CBC Radio: 'Bad News' author exposes repression of journalists in Rwanda

 

Audio | CBC Radio: 'Bad News' author exposes repression of journalists in Rwanda.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/player.html?autoPlay=true&clipIds=&mediaIds=2682537848&contentarea=radio&subsection1=radio1&subsection2=currentaffairs&subsection3=the_current&contenttype=audio&title=2016/01/25/1.3418285-rwandan-president-extremely-effective-at-crushing-dissent-says-author&contentid=1.3418285

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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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The Voice of the Poor, the Weak and Powerless.

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[AfricaRealities.com] Stop President Paul Kagame from attending CERAweek 2016, Davos.

 

Petition, CERAweek, IHS Energy: Stop President Paul Kagame from attending CERAweek 2016, Davos.
https://www.change.org/p/ceraweek-ihs-energy-stop-president-paul-kagame-from-attending-ceraweek-2016

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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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[AfricaRealities.com] Overview of Africa News

 

Governance models and leadership quality in universities

 

Governance models in African higher education have evolved over the decades, but their impact on university leadership appears not to have been highly significant. The key drivers of quality leadership are factors such as individual capacities, leadership training and state funding, according to new research.

Professor Joseph Oonyu, head of the school of education at Makerere University in Uganda, believes governance models are important but management of them is key. "There are things we need to look at beyond the models – who are these leaders, who should we have, what sort of training should they receive, and how should they be appointed?"

Oonyu has been conducting research into "Governance Models and the Quality of Leadership in African Universities" for the Higher Education Leadership Programme of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, or CODESRIA.

The three-year initiative, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is reaching its conclusion and a HELP Dissemination and Policy Dialogue Workshop was held last November in Arusha, Tanzania, to present and debate the research produced.

 

More

 

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20160122161320466

 

'Using education as a carrot to stay a virgin'

Durban - Sexual health experts have equated virginity tests with sexual assault in their reaction to matriculants from Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal having to undergo these tests to get bursaries.

This follows a report in the Times of Ladysmith on Friday that 16 women were awarded "maiden" bursaries for tertiary education on condition they were virgins. They would lose the bursaries if they failed virginity tests, which took place every holiday, the report said.

The uThukela District Municipality, led by mayor Dudu Mazibuko, awarded the bursaries.

The report brought widespread reaction with the media quoting traditionalists justifying it because this prevented pregnancies and infections such as HIV/Aids. The Guardian in the UK covered the story on Saturday.

More

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/virginity-has-nothing-to-do-with-education-1.1975034

 

Investors Optimistic About Africa Despite Headwinds

 

In spite of the economic headwinds facing African economies, there is still an increasing appetite to invest into Africa globally, mostly for those who are willing to make the long-term investment in the continent, Footprint to Africa has learnt.

"I think it depends really on your time profile for your investments, I think there's a growing interest from people who have a five- to ten-year view of what they want to be investing in to actually go to Africa," said Geoffrey White, Chief Executive Officer, Agility Africa, at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Recall that ahead of the WEF, some analysts had pointed to low commodity prices and currency volatility, impact of slowing growth in China and the tightening of interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, and rising terrorist activities on the continent, saying these issues had punctured the 'Africa Rising' narrative and halted the rush to and the unbridled enthusiasm about Africa.

"After the initial good cheer at the beginning of last year, 2015 turned out to be very poor for the continent. Lower commodity prices and China's economic slowdown unravelled the 'Africa Rising' narrative," said
Dr Rafiq Raji, a principal at Macroafricaintel Investment Ltd, a Lagos-based Africa-focused macro research and investment consultancy.

More

http://footprint2africa.com/investors-optimistic-about-africa-despite-headwinds/

 

 

Why the Middle East and North Africa Need More Women in the Workforce... And What Can Be Done About It

Co-authored by Roba Al-Assi There are many good reasons for tackling female workforce participation as a matter of priority in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The potential economic benefit of increased women's employment is striking.According to recent estimates, if women's participation in labor markets in the MENA equaled that of men's, the regional GDP could rise by 47% over the next decade, and the MENA could realize $600 billion in economic impact annually ($2.7 trillion by 2025).

These numbers are too big and significant to ignore. But despite the work that has been done in combating gender discrimination in the MENA, women still face widespread challenges in entering the workforce. When it comes to labor force penetration of women, the World Bank predicts that at the current rate, it would take 150 years for MENA countries to reach the current world average.

More

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reem-boudraa/why-the-middle-east-and-n_b_9064888.html

 

 

From South Africa, a lesson too late on US legacy of racial oppression

When it comes to race and inequality, the United States is disturbingly similar to South Africa

We have a history of politically suppressing and economically exploiting black and brown people, a history that continued generations beyond the Emancipation Proclamation

And yet, like South Africa, we have done precious little to address the searing inequality and fundamental unfairness that we created and that continues to wound our societ

 

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Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article56101475.html#storylink=cpy

 

S Africa girls given student grants to remain virgins

Women's rights activists have criticised a South African municipality for a scholarship programme that funds studies for young women if they can prove they are virgins.

On Friday, the uThekela municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), announced that 113 students would receive scholarships to pursue higher education in the country.

Sixteen scholarships were specifically designated for sexually inactive students, as part of a programme called Maiden's Bursary Awards. The programme started in January 2015, but it is unclear how many students were awarded the scholarship in 2015.

Sisonke Msimang, a policy development and advocacy consultant for the Sonke Gender Justice project in Johannesburg, said the municipality's decision was "a terrible idea [that] had so many layers of ridiculousness".

More

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/worldNews/S-Africa-girls-given-student-grants-to-remain-virgins-410283

U.S. urges African leaders to sway Burundi on peacekeepers

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The United States on Saturday urged African leaders to "work behind the scenes" before their annual summit next weekend to convince Burundi to accept a deployment of international troops in the tiny African state amid festering political violence.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said members of the African Union Peace and Security Council expected leaders to endorse its proposed deployment of 5,000 troops to protect civilians, despite a rejection of the force by Burundi.

"I didn't get a sense from the African countries gathered in the room that they're going to take that as a final answer," Power told reporters after a meeting between the U.N. Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa.

"As well as the AU meeting (next weekend) to endorse it, we will need leaders to work behind the scenes to get the Burundi government to change its position," she said. 

More

http://news.yahoo.com/u-urges-african-leaders-sway-burundi-peacekeepers-083313642.html

UN Security Council Considers Burundi Options

ADDIS ABABA—

The U.N. Security Council departed Africa on Saturday, considering its options to help quell political violence in Burundi.
 
Council members had a disappointing meeting with President Pierre Nkurunziza on Friday, in which he showed no sign of softening his rejection of an African Union peacekeeping force or engaging in a substantive and inclusive dialogue with the opposition.
 
"The African Union has to work through what its next move is, now that the force it authorized is rejected," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told reporters after meeting with the AU Peace and Security Council for more than two hours Saturday here in Ethiopia's capital.
 
African heads of state will hold their annual summit next week, and diplomats said they would be watching to see what comes out of the gathering.

More

http://www.voanews.com/content/un-security-council-considers-burundi-options/3159879.html

 

Mark Pursey: A new deal with Kenya represents a significant move away from Blair's unworldly foreign policy

Mark Pursey is the founder and Managing Partner of BTP Advisers.

Late last year, unnoticed in Parliament or by Fleet Street, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office made an important policy change that stands to significantly improve Britain's relations with Africa: it agreed to allow British military personnel accused of crimes committed in Kenya when off duty to be tried in Kenyan Courts.

At first glance this may seem insignificant, yet the decision has major geopolitical implications. At a stroke it begins to smooth Britain's complicated diplomatic relations with world's fastest growing continent. But as a consequence it deals a blow to the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent global justice tribunal that UK has long championed, but which has been to the detriment of that partnership. The Kenya decision reveals the FCO is turning away from the unworldly and moralistic foreign policy championed by Tony Blair and continued under the Coalition – of which the ICC is a prime example – to a more tactical, hard-nosed approach. Labour's desire to save the world through global justice for all is being replaced by what is good for Britain.

More

http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2016/01/mark-pursey-a-new-deal-with-kenya-represents-a-significant-move-away-from-blairs-unworldly-foreign-policy.html

 

 

Federation is not East Africa's salvation

ISAAC Mwangi's article in the Daily News of January 17, 2016 titled: "Want to know why EA is getting poor? Ask your thieving leaders" in fact started well by stating that the region's poverty and underdevelopment is caused, primarily, by the prevalence of selfserving leaders, pre-occupied with looking after their own interests and those of their families and cronies rather than the welfare of their electorates at large. The fact that there are exceptions, rare as they may be, is in fact an exception which proves the rule of his statement.

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For instance, the reality of President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania having managed to accomplish in a couple of months what others failed to do in thirty years; or President Kagame of small and previously impoverished Rwanda having successfully, out of the genocide of 1994, created a society where people enjoy a better quality of life and longer life expectancy than mega-rich Nigeria, are the clearest exceptions.

However, Isaac Mwangi's article diverged from political reality when he characterised nationalism as myopic and protectionist policies as inherently bad, implying that there cannot be integration without political union and that prosperity in the region is contingent on the creation of a Federation; all these are fallacies that have no basis in reality.

History is a clear witness to the fact that vital national interests are indeed at the core of world events, whether long past or recent, and continues to be so today throughout the world. Nothing will change this; not globalisation nor freemarket slogans.

More

http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/analysis/46300-federation-is-not-east-africa-s-salvation

 

Security conference aligns military, political priorities for East Africa

Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa hosted the 2016 East Africa Security Synchronization Conference Jan. 20-22, at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

The EASSC is the only conference between U.S. Department of State and U.S. military representatives dedicated to aligning military and political priorities for East Africa.

More than 70 U.S. embassy representatives from each East African country and organizations including the African Union, U.S. Africa Command, and AFRICOM components attended the event to kick start the process of synchronizing and prioritizing all activities in East Africa.

"Events that bring together the diplomatic and military leaders from the U.S. and the region are incredibly valuable because we're all working on the same set of problems, and they're not easy issues," said Amb. Tom Kelly, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Djibouti.

The ambassador said we can achieve progress by engaging in informal discussions, and the conference provides, "the luxury of us all being here together to talk about the tough issues."

"All of these efforts are focused on achieving a single goal: operationalize the Theater Campaign Plan by synchronizing the combatant commander's primary ways with all available means to achieve our end states and execute our enduring tasks," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Mark Stammer, CJTF-HOA commanding general.

The conference encompassed several working group sessions that consisted of discussions on some of AFRICOM's major priorities, known as lines of effort, to include neutralizing Al-Shabaab, interdicting illicit activity and building the peace-keeping capacity of African partners.

More

http://www.hoa.africom.mil/story/18471/security-conference-aligns-military-political-priorities-for-east-africa

 

Spiritual Colonialism Hurting Africa

"African parents in church wail, jump and scream for some so called god to save them, while their lives deteriorate further." - Teekay Akin

"The oil that keeps this machine (anti-gay violence) moving is bad religion."

- Bishop Joseph Tolton

Bishop Joseph Tolton heads the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a network of African-American churches rooted in the Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal traditions.

A social justice activist, committed to securing rights for Africa's gay community, he was one of three speakers briefing journalists at the New York Foreign Press Center on January 12.

Other speakers included Marianne Duddy-Burke, the executive director of Dignity USA, and the Reverend Dr Ngeo Boon, director of Asian affairs at the Global Justice Institute, Metropolitan Community Church.

Their theme was unified. The culture of marginalisation and violence against homosexuals are endemic in certain parts of the world.

 

More

 

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160124/spiritual-colonialism-hurting-africa

 

Ethiopia gripped by drought the worst in 50 years

ETHIOPIA is in the grip of the worst drought in half a century with three failed rain seasons, crop failures and dying livestock forcing farming families to now eat the seeds they are supposed to plant.

While the world has been firmly focused on the humanitarian crisis in Europe stemming from the Syrian conflict, the African nation has slipped further into its own crisis with donations drying up as fast as their lands.

A team of Australian-based Save The Children frontline aid workers has been urgently dispatched to the country to tackle an "unprecedented" drought, the worst in 50 years, where more than 400,000 children under five are severely malnourished and one tenth of the population can no longer feed themselves.

More

http://www.news.com.au/world/africa/ethiopia-gripped-by-drought-the-worst-in-50-years/news-story/e2ff0f7177744e95deb11cad71595184

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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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