United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

14 July 2010

USAFRICOM - related news stories

TOP NEWS RELATED TO U.S. AFRICA COMMAND AND AFRICA

Uganda bombings highlight need for new US policy on Somalia (Christian Science
Monitor)
(Uganda) Sunday’s sickening bombings in Kampala may be the actions of Somalia’s Al
Shabab group, which claimed responsibility on Monday. Al Shabab considers the
Ugandan government an enemy.

US Envoy to Sudan Calls for Oil Deal Before Referendum (Voice of America)
(Sudan) President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration says he
believes an oil deal is needed before a scheduled January referendum on independence
for the south takes place.

Africa: No Butter but Lots of Guns (Berkeley Daily Planet)

(Pan Africa) In its 2011 budget, the White House asked for over $80 million in military
programs for Africa, while freezing or reducing aid packages aimed at civilians. The
major vehicle for this is the U.S.’s African Command (AFRICOM) founded in 2008.

Who owns Ghana's oil? (Modern Ghana)

(Ghana) US intelligence predicted by 2015 Afrika, Ghana included will supply the US
with about 50% of its oil supply - hence the re-militarization of Afrika under the
concept of AFRICOM that seeks to protect US commercial interests by any means
necessary be it oil or any other commodity that the US needs to survive.

Nigeria sect leader lauds al-Qaida, threatens US (Associated Press)

(Nigeria) A leader of a radical Nigerian Muslim sect that started a rampage that left 700
people dead last year has issued a statement mourning the deaths of al-Qaida in Iraq
commanders and threatening the United States.

Al Qaeda in Africa (Wall Street Journal)

(Pan Africa) The U.S. military stood up an African central command in 2008 to
discourage and defeat terrorism on a continent that is growing in strategic importance.
Yet as the Kampala attacks show, extremists can attack Americans anywhere in the
world, and the U.S. can't afford to disengage in the misguided hope that the threat will
vanish if we do.
Cote d'Ivoire finally gets provisional electoral list (Xinhua)
(Cote d'Ivoire) The president of Cote d'Ivoire's Independent Electoral Commission
(CEI), Youssouf Bakayoko, on Monday received the provisional electoral list at the
organization's headquarters.

UN News Service Africa Briefs

Full Articles on UN Website
• Africa is the real victor of this year’s soccer World Cup – UN
• West Africa still at crossroads despite recent progress, says UN envoy
• Fresh clashes in DR Congo’s North Kivu province displace thousands – UN
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UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST:

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, July 14, 10:30 a.m., Washington Foreign Press Center
WHAT: On-the-Record Roundtable Discussion on “USG Assistance to Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons in Africa”
WHO: Dr. Reuben Brigety, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees,
and Migration
Info: http://www.fpc.state.gov
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FULL ARTICLE TEXT

Uganda bombings highlight need for new US policy on Somalia (Christian Science
Monitor)

Sunday’s sickening bombings in Kampala may be the actions of Somalia’s Al Shabab

group, which claimed responsibility on Monday. The claim is more than plausible.
Uganda has been a strong supporter of the American military role in Somalia and has
even provided a contingent of troops to the American-led effort – and training of pro-
US Somali forces on Ugandan soil.

Al Shabab considers the Ugandan government an enemy. The logic for the terror
group’s role in the sad events of yesterday seems clear: revenge.

And there’s the real potential for a widening crisis. The Bush-era US policy toward
Somalia has not yet been revised under the Obama administration; that the policy
urgently needs revision – perhaps radical revision – is a “no brainer.” James Traub, in
the current issue of Foreign Policy, makes the case compellingly for a new tack on
Somalia; is anyone in the Obama administration listening?

That Shabab-directed violence may now be spilling into Uganda adds urgency to the
importance of crafting a US policy toward Somalia that reflects the realities on the
ground, which include the de facto partition of this geographically well-endowed
region into three autonomous “provinces.” For Uganda, the time may also have come to
review its explicit support for US military actions in Somalia; such a review need not
occur because of the menace of Shabab and the threat of continued terrorist attacks
against innocent Ugandans as well as foreign guests, but stands on its own merits.

Having spent many pleasant and productive days in Kampala, I hope the city soon
returns to “normal.” Kampala is perhaps the most peaceful, crime-free large cities in the
entire African continent. Whatever shortcomings shown by Uganda’s often-criticized
and autocratic president, Yoweri Museveni, he deserves great credit and respect for
Kampala’s tranquility. The city is safe than any of similar size that I know in the US, for
instance. And because of Kampala’s charms, which include its position on a tropical
plateu, the city is a magnet for talented people throughout East Africa.

In the days ahead, look for understanding to the writings of the city’s great newspaper,
The Monitor, and its fine political commentator, Andrew Mwenda.
--------------------
US Envoy to Sudan Calls for Oil Deal Before Referendum (Voice of America)

President Barack Obama's special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration says he believes an oil
deal is needed before a scheduled January referendum on independence for the south
takes place. The vote is the central part of a peace agreement that was signed in 2005 to
end the decades-long north-south Sudanese conflict.

Gration says it is crucial for the government in Khartoum and authorities in southern
Sudan to come to broad terms on how to share oil resources, with most of the oil in the
south, and most of the infrastructure in the north. "This is going to have to be
negotiated, number one, because both sides need foreign exchange, but number two, I
do not think we will have a referendum unless this issue is resolved," he said.

He said there should be in his words "a win-win" with both sides profiting from oil
wealth. He spoke late Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington before dozens of dignitaries, scholars and aid workers.

Gration admitted there were many challenges for the referendum process, in particular
in the oil-rich Abyei region. The flashpoint area on the border between north and south
is scheduled to hold a separate vote on its future status.

Gration said there was lots to tackle for President Obama's diplomatic team in the next
few months, including helping with border demarcation, as well as preparing for the
possibility of a new African state.
"That is what our job is right now, to be proactive to do these things, to make sure this
does not end up in a disaster because as we know in the south, we have lost millions of
lives, in Darfur, hundreds of thousands, and the future, unless, we get very proactive, it
could have disastrous results that pale those other numbers," he said.

Gration has also been trying to help bring peace in Sudan's Darfur region, but expressed
disappointment in recent diplomatic setbacks as well as in a resurgence of violence and
the difficult plight of the millions of displaced.

His update on Sudan policy came one day after the International Criminal Court in The
Hague added three genocide counts to the charges against Sudan's President Omar al-
Bashir for allegedly orchestrating violence this past decade in Darfur.

"The charges of genocide are additive to the indictment that President Bashir already
faces and the United States supports President Bashir to be responsive to the request of
the ICC and will continue to do that. As to how it affects my job, I am going to push
forward to help in any way that I can," he said.

Gration said it would not have an impact on his overall goal of trying to help give
current and future generations in both north and south Sudan a prosperous and
peaceful life.

Mr. Bashir, who was re-elected to a new five-year term earlier this year, has refused to
recognize the court's authority and says he will not turn himself in for trial. He has
denied the charges, and says he is the victim of a western-led conspiracy against him
and his country.

Mr. Gration heads back to Khartoum later this week for a series of multi-lateral
meetings on a number of issues, including renewed efforts to reach a negotiated peace
for Darfur and progress on the many lingering north-south issues.
--------------------
Africa: No Butter but Lots of Guns (Berkeley Daily Planet)

The developed world has a message for Africa: “Sorry, but we are reneging on our aid
pledges made at the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland back in 2005, but we do have
something for you—lots and lots of expensive things that go ‘bang’ and kill people.”

And that was indeed the message that came out of the G8-G20 meetings in Canada last
month. The promise to add an extra $25 billion to a $50 billion aid package for the
continent went a glimmering. Instead, the G8 will cut the $25 billion to $11 billion and
the $50 billion to $38 billion. And don’t hold your breath that Africa will get even that
much.
The G-8 consists of Britain, the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Japan, France, and Russia,
although Moscow is not part of the aid pledge.

Canada’s Muskoka summit hailed “significant progress toward the millennium

development goals”—the United Nations’ target of reducing poverty by 2015—but
when it came time to ante up, everyone but the United Kingdom bailed. The Gleneagles
pledge was to direct 0.51 percent of the G-8’s gross national income to aid programs by
2010. The UK came up to 0.56 percent, but the U.S. is at 0.2, Italy at 0.16, Canada at 0.3,
Germany at 0.35, and France at 0.47. Rumor has it that France and Italy led the charge to
water down the 2005 goals.

The shortfall, says Oxfam spokesman Mark Fried, is not just a matter of “numbers.” The
aid figures “represent vital medicines, kids in school, help for women living in poverty
and food for the hungry.”

AIDS activists are particularly incensed. “I see no point in beating around the bush,”
said AIDS-Free World spokesman Stephen Lewis at a Toronto press conference. He
charged that Obama Administration’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief “is being flat-
lined for at least the next two years.” Lewis said AIDS groups were treating five million
patients, but that another nine million needed to be in programs. “There are AIDS
projects, run by other NGOs [non-governmental organizations], where new patients
cannot be enrolled unless someone dies.”

But if the poor, sick, and hungry are going begging, not so Africa’s militaries.

According to Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project, the
White House is following the same policies as the Bush Administration vis-à-vis Africa.
“Indeed, the Obama Administration is seeking to expand U.S. military activities on the
continent even further,” says Volman.

In its 2011 budget, the White House asked for over $80 million in military programs for
Africa, while freezing or reducing aid packages aimed at civilians.

The major vehicle for this is the U.S.’s African Command (AFRICOM) founded in 2008.
Through the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative, AFRICOM is training troops
from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Chad. The
supposed target of all this is the group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Meghreb (AQIM), but
while AQIM is certainly troublesome—it sets off bombs and kidnaps people— it is
small, scattered, and doesn’t pose a serious threat to any of the countries involved.

The worry is that the various militaries being trained by AFRICOM could end up being
used against internal dissidents. Tuaregs, for instance, are engaged in a long-running,
low-level insurgency against the Mali government, which is backing a French plan to
mine uranium in the Sahara. Might Morocco use the training to attack the Polisario
Front in the disputed Western Sahara? Mauritanians complain that the “terrorist” label
has been used to jail political opponents of the government.

In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Assistant Secretary of State
Johnnie Carson said the U.S. was seeking to bolster Nigeria’s “ability to combat violent
extremism within its borders.” That might put AFRICOM in the middle of a civil war
between ruling elites in Lagos and their transnational oil company allies, and the
Movement for the Emancipation of the Delta, which is demanding an end to massive
pollution and a fair cut of oil revenues.

The National Energy Policy Development Groups estimates that by 2015 as much as 25
percent of U.S. oil imports will come from Africa.

So far, AFRICOM’s track record has been one disaster after another. It supported
Ethiopia’s intervention in the Somalia civil war, and helped to overthrow the moderate
Islamic Courts Union. It is now fighting a desperate rear-guard action against a far
more extremist grouping, the al-Shabaab. AFRICOM also helped coordinate a Ugandan
Army attack on the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—
Operation Lightning Thunder— that ended up killing thousands of civilians.

The U.S. has been careful to keep a low profile in all this. “We don’t want to see our
guys going in and getting whacked,” Volman quotes one U.S. AFRICOM officer, “We
want Africans to go in.”

And presumably get “whacked.”

AFRICOM’s Operation Flintlock 2010, which ran from May 3-22, was based in Burkina
Faso. Besides the militaries of 10 African nations, it included 600 U.S. Special Forces and
elite units from France, the Netherlands, and Spain. Yes, there are other arms pushers
out there, and the list reads like an economic who’s who: France, the United Kingdom,
China, Russia, Sweden, and Israel. Some 70 percent of the world’s arms trade is aimed
at developing countries.

So, is AFRICOM about fighting terrorism, or oil, gas and uranium? Nicole Lee, the
executive director of Trans Africa, the leading African American organization focusing
on Africa has no doubts: “This [AFRICOM] is nothing short of a sovereignty and
resource grab.”

And who actually benefits from this militarization of the continent? As Nigerian
journalist Dulue Mbachu warns, “Increased U.S. military presence in Africa may simply
serve to protect unpopular regimes that are friendly to its interests, as was the case
during the Cold War, while Africa slips further into poverty.”
--------------------
Who owns Ghana's oil? (Modern Ghana)

With Ghana on the verge of officially producing large commercial quantities of oil, this
is a legitimate question to pose. Many ordinary Ghanaians have placed their trust in its
leadership that oil revenue will rejuvenate the country's fortunes like never before.
Again many see this as an opportunity for Ghana to transform into a first world type
economy. However caution must be put to the wind because the blatant truth of the
matter is there is something the government doest not want to let out of the bag is that
"Ghana's oil" is in fact not owned by Ghana but the old tale of the imperialist who
seems to be controlling the black gold.

This article seeks to explain to Ghanaians why we do not own the oil and why it

will not be the blessing many hope it would be. Like our Gold that is controlled and
owned by an unholy alliance of Western interests, the TRUTH that Ghanaians NEED to
know is that the oil is NOT OWNED by the Government of Ghana but in essence the
Western oil companies like Tullow oil, Kosmos etc.

Even though the government and by extension the people of Ghana have a 23.5% stake
in the Jubilee oil fields the brutal truth is that the Americans in the form of Kosmos
Energy have the lion's share. This was clearly evident when Kosmos Energy wanted to
sell its stake in the Jubilee fields to another American company Exxon. They were able
to do this by going over the backs of the Government of Ghana with no consideration
for our national interest and thought that they could just railroad the government.

But give the government credit as they have stuck by their assertion that they in the
national interest of Ghana and this is the key, should have first right to buy Kosmos
energy's share in the Jubilee fields.

Despite this however such is the power of western geo-politics especially when it comes
to looking after their interests, my intelligence has reliably informed my that Kosmos
Energy has succeeded in being able to offload its shares to fellow American company
Exxon. This is a hammer blow to Ghana's sovereignty both politically and economically
and should show to Ghanaians who is really in control if the oil. However if this
insidious act by the Americans was not enough, the Chinese expressed their interest in
the jubilee oil fields and as a result of this Ghana is in the middle for an almighty
scramble for its oil, leading to right assertions that Ghana's oil is indeed not Ghana's but
at the mercy of Euro/American and Asian (Chinese) interests.

As an article in the June 2008 edition of the Foreign Policy magazine of the dangerous
American Council of Foreign Relations implied that this scramble as "a race between the
United States and China to secure (Ghana's) oil supplies. So with this belief system in
mind shouldn't one come to the conclusion that the honest reality is that the oil is not
Ghana's and like the gold and all the other natural resources in Ghana belongs to the
imperialist. This article from the American Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) should
not be taken lightly as the CFR is a very important lobbying group that has a big
influence on American foreign policy. This then should send warning signals to the
people of Ghana that in fact there is an almighty tussle the oil that sits within our shores
and Ghana will be the big loser.

Why? Because under the US foreign policy and a report that was commissioned by the
Bush administration in 2002, the US knew that it could not depend on the middle-east
(North- East Afrika) for its oil supplies and furthermore US intelligence informed the
Bush administration that countries along the West coast of Afrika including Ghana has
tens of billions of untapped crude oil worth tens of billions of dollars in commercial
quantities.

In addition to this US intelligence also predicted by 2015 Afrika, Ghana included will
supply the US with about 50% of its oil supply - hence the re-militarization of Afrika
under the concept of AFRICOM that seeks to protect US commercial interests by any
means necessary be it oil or any other commodity that the US needs to survive and now
that it has lost its title as the World's biggest economy to China access to Afrika's oil
becomes even more important.

This should prove to Ghanaians and Afrikan people alike the Imperialism/Colonialism
NEVER went away with political independence but has just re-invented itself.

China
Over the last 15 years China has developed a rapid industrialization programme that
has seen it overtake Germany as the world's biggest exporter and over take the United
States as the World's largest economy. In order to maintain its position as the No.1
economy Chinese intelligence has informed Beijing that it amongst others needs
Afrika's oil. At the moment Afrika supplies 15% of China's oil, this is expected to double
to 30% by 2015 - therefore one can see why countries like Ghana have been targeted for
its oil and why there is a tremendous scramble for Ghana's Black gold.

The sad thing about this development is that our national interest has been sold out to
the interests of the West and potentially the Chinese who as I have said time and time
again want to re-colonize Afrika, this time to loot our resources for their benefit and
leave countries like Ghana the hewers of wood and drawers of water. Again one can
argue that and I have said this time and time again that we are economically enslaved
to the whims and dictates of others enabling them to loot our resources with impunity.
They are able to do this because since we do not earn enough income from “our”
resources we have to go to the likes of China and the US for “loans” and “financial
assistance”.
When we get these “loans” and “financial assistance” from these countries what the
people of Ghana and this includes the vast majority of the media whose job it is to
inform Ghanaians, that there are certain conditions attached to these “loans” and
“financial assistance” including having stakes in a country's natural resources.
Therefore the people of Ghana have been lolled into a false sense of security believing
that they will benefit immensely from this oil find when the reality is that it is the West
and possibly the Chinese who will benefit greatly from this.

This is further compounded by the percentage that Ghana will be getting from the
oil. The government so far has not been too transparent as to the exact amount of
percentage in royalty payments it will be receiving from the Black gold. In addition to
this the Ghanaian public is not so sure as to the amount of money that the government
will get from oil revenue in the form of actual receipts from sales of oil barrels on the
market, exploration rights, royalty payments, and taxation.

This lack of transparency further underpins the caution that Ghanaians should have in
relation to the oil because before the above can be taken into the equation, the revenue
that will be repatriated to the West and possibly China would first have to be taken into
consideration. Since the West and possibly China control the lion's share of the oil, the
bulk of the profits that will inevitably be made will leave the shores of Ghana, leaving
Ghana with relatively speaking peanuts.

If it really was Ghana's oil why is the government only getting peanuts and not
something in the region of 70% or even 30% whilst the West, in this case American and
British oil companies and perhaps the Chinese taking the lion's share? Food for thought.
--------------------
Nigeria sect leader lauds al-Qaida, threatens US (Associated Press)

LAGOS, Nigeria – A leader of a radical Nigerian Muslim sect that started a rampage
that left 700 people dead last year has issued a statement mourning the deaths of al-
Qaida in Iraq commanders and threatening the United States.

The message by Imam Abubakar Shekau, a deputy for the Boko Haram sect whom
police claimed to have killed during the July 2009 violence, comes as the one-year
anniversary of the killings approaches. It also shows Boko Haram's supposed leader
reaching out to other global terror groups at a time when Nigerian security agencies
remain concerned that the sect is capable of unleashing new attacks.

The statement, issued on a jihadist Internet forum and translated Tuesday by the SITE
Intelligence Group, shows Shekau offering condolences to al-Qaida in Iraq over the
death of leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. The two men were
killed in an April raid by Iraqi and U.S. security forces on their safe house near Tikrit,
north of Baghdad.

"By Allah, they rose, did jihad, and fought in order for the faith to be entirely for Allah,"
the statement reads. "It was for this that they rose, it was for this that they fought, and it
was for this that they died. For that, he really was a master of the martyrs."

The statement later adds: "Do not think jihad is over. Rather jihad has just begun. O
America, die with your fury."

Boko Haram — which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa
language — has campaigned for the implementation of strict Shariah law. Nigeria, a
nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the
Muslim-held north. A dozen states across Nigeria's north already have Shariah law in
place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments.

Boko Haram sect members rioted and attacked police stations and private homes a year
ago this month, sparking a violent police crackdown. Authorities have been accused of
killing Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf while he was in custody.

In recent months, rumors about the group rearming spread throughout northern
Nigeria. Violence between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria has left hundreds
dead since the start of the year. Those deaths sparked calls from an al-Qaida-affiliated
website for a Muslim uprising against Christians.

Though police claim to have killed Shekau during last year's attacks, a videotaped
statement from April showed Shekau apparently acting as the sect's leader and
threatening to unleash new violence.

During the 2009 attack, Boko Haram also was known as the Nigerian Taliban. No direct
link with al-Qaida has emerged, even though al-Qaida affiliates operate in North Africa.
Analysts have warned that Boko Haram could join the al-Qaida fold, if the group
carries out attacks the terror organization supports.
--------------------
Al Qaeda in Africa (Wall Street Journal)

Three bombs tore through Uganda's capital of Kampala on Sunday, killing at least 74
people gathered to watch the World Cup championship, including a U.S. aid worker
from Delaware. Six missionaries from a Pennsylvania church group were among the
hundreds wounded. The Somali terror group al Shabab claimed responsibility
yesterday, and the simultaneous attacks reveal the growing security threat of this al
Qaeda franchise both to East Africa and the world.
Al Shabab—"the Youths"—was part of the Islamist terror coalition that ruled Somalia in
the second half of 2006 before Ethiopia deposed the regime, though the network now
effectively controls key southern regions of the country, including the port city of
Kismayo. Apart from piracy in the Indian Ocean, al Shabab has carried out a string of
bombings, kidnappings and assassinations over the last several years. Before Sunday,
the deadliest incident to date was a synchronized suicide campaign against U.N. and
Ethiopian diplomatic headquarters in the Somali cities of Bossaso and Hargeisa in
October 2008.

A popular Ethiopian bar was one of the Kampala targets, the other a mass gathering on
a rugby pitch. The attacks mark the first time al Shabab has exported its methods
beyond Somalia's porous borders, though it botched a Kenya strike last year. The
militants had long threatened Uganda because it is a U.S. ally and for its role in the
African Union-led Somali peacekeeping mission. The slaughter may lead to greater
instability given Uganda's geographic misfortune as a transit corridor for terrorists
moving to, from and within the Horn of Africa, sometimes by way of Europe.

Last February, Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al Zawahiri praised al Shabab's
operations as "a step on the path of the victory of Islam." The larger danger now is that
Somalia further devolves into an international terror haven akin to the Sudan that
incubated bin Laden in the 1990s.

As disturbing, al Shabab is becoming a magnet for U.S. radicals. Federal prosecutors

charged eight people in Minneapolis last year with financing and abetting al Shabab's
terror training. Two New Jersey men, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduaro
Almonte, were arrested in June at New York's Kennedy airport, shortly before boarding
an Egypt-bound flight and allegedly en route to Somalia to join up with al Shabab.

According to the criminal indictment, Mr. Alessa told an undercover officer that "They
only fear you when you have a gun and when you—when you start killing them, and
when you—when you take their head, and you go like this, and you behead it on
camera. We'll start doing killing here, if I can't do it over there." He added, "I leave this
time, God willing, I never come back. . . . Only way I would come back here is if I was
in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something
here. Ah, I love that."

The U.S. military stood up an African central command in 2008 to discourage and
defeat terrorism on a continent that is growing in strategic importance. While Africom
is mostly devoted to humanitarian and security assistance, not direct military
deployment, critics claim that it runs the risk of fueling regional conflict rather than
checking it. Yet as the Kampala attacks show, extremists can attack Americans
anywhere in the world, and the U.S. can't afford to disengage in the misguided hope
that the threat will vanish if we do.
--------------------
Cote d'Ivoire finally gets provisional electoral list (Xinhua)

ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire - The president of Cote d'Ivoire's Independent Electoral

Commission (CEI), Youssouf Bakayoko, on Monday received the provisional electoral
list at the organization's headquarters.

Bakayoko thanked the technical operators especially Sagem Security and the National
Institute of Statistics (INS) for the hard work that resulted in the country getting a
provisional electoral list.

"We are now in possession of the documents and CEI will soon embark on
accomplishing its work," the electoral commission president promised.

An official from the prime minister's office who is in charge of handling election
matters, Paul Koffi Koffi indicated that the process of preparing the new provisional
electoral list began from the first exercise as well as the operation to clean up what was
termed as the "grey list."

"We are handing over to you the electoral list both on paper and in soft copy (hard disc)
so that you can proceed well with the process of organizing the electoral process," Koffi
told the CEI president.

About 5,775,000 people have been registered on this provisional list whose display and
consultation through SMS will begin on Thursday.

The preparation of the provisional electoral list constitutes an important stage in the
ongoing electoral process in Cote d'Ivoire.

The presidential election is considered the only way of ending the country's political
crisis that broke out in September 2002 between an armed rebel group and the
government forces.
--------------------
UN News Service Africa Briefs
Full Articles on UN Website

Africa is the real victor of this year’s soccer World Cup – UN

13 July – The United Nations today hailed the 2010 World Cup as a great success for the
Government and people of the host nation South Africa, as well as the entire African
continent, adding that the event also served as a vital tool to promote development and
peace.

West Africa still at crossroads despite recent progress, says UN envoy

13 July – Root causes of conflicts in West Africa, including ethnic tensions and
governance challenges, could overturn gains made in consolidating peace, leaving the
region at a crossroads, a senior United Nations official said today.

Fresh clashes in DR Congo’s North Kivu province displace thousands – UN

13 July – Clashes between the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
remnants of a Ugandan insurgency forced an estimated 20,000 people to flee their
villages in the troubled North Kivu province of the vast African country, the United
Nations reported today.