Africa Center for Strategic Studies 

Media Review for September 16, 2011

Angola: Huambo air force plane crash kills generals
Angola state-run Angop news agency named two of the dead as Lt Gen Bernardo Leitao Francisco Diogo, known by his civil war name "Lelo Kizua", and Lt Gen Elias Malungo Bravo da Costa Pedro, known as "Kalias". Kalias was the director of the rebel leader Jonas Savimbi's office and was apparently captured in 2002 when Savimbi was killed, ending the civil war, it reports. BBC

 

African elections: the good, the bad, and the rest
Until two decades ago football games were the most heated contests in most of Africa. Then came the era of competitive elections. From the beginning, the electoral game topped the charts. And much like football amateurs would tell you about the many games they watch, some elections deserve good grades, others merit bad ones, most lie in the middle. Africa News

 

Zambia: Polls Put Opposition Challenger in State House
Opinion polls put Zambian opposition Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata in State House in Lusaka with 54% of the vote after the next general elections to be held next Tuesday (20 September 2011). They also project an absolute PF majority of 87 in Zambia's 158-member parliament (150 MPs are directly elected from single-seat constituencies, eight are appointed). allAfrica

 

Guinea elections to be held in December
Guinea's long-delayed parliamentary elections will take place on December 29, more than a year after President Alpha Conde was elected in the country's first democratic polls. France 24

 

Lessons from Nigeria's 2011 Elections
With the April 2011 general elections, Nigeria may have taken steps towards reversing the degeneration of its previous elections, but the work is not finished. Despite some progress, early and intensive preparations for the 2015 elections need to start now. International Crisis Group

 

Togo coup plotters jailed
The brother of Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a 2009 plot threatening the security of the West African state. Kpatcha Gnassingbe was found guilty by Togo's supreme court, along with 32 co-conspirators, including former army chief Assani Tidjani who also received a 20-year sentence. Defence Web

 

Libya: Cameron and Sarkozy visit Tripoli - video
Prime minister and French president arrive in Libyan capital to talk to National Transitional Council about aid and stability. The Guardian

 

Sarkozy and Cameron in Libya; Heroes for a Day
European leaders are rarely celebrated as heroes, but this is precisely how Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron were treated in Tripoli on Thursday. As a reward for their military deployment against Moammar Gadhafi, the president and prime minister received a warm reception. The French appear to have gained the most in Libya. Spiegle

 

Turkey's Erdogan arrives in Tripoli
In the latest leg of his North Africa tour, Turkey's prime minister has arrived in Libya, a day after the French and British leaders won a hero's welcome there for helping to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will attend Friday prayers at Tripoli's Martyr Square, was greeted by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC). Aljazeera

 

Tiny Burkina Faso confronts Gadhafi's enormous legacy
[...]The Burkinabe, as Burkina Faso's residents are known, credit Gadhafi with starting banks, hospitals, university buildings, roads, mosques and women's education centers. If Ouagadougou were a modern city, this sort of investment might be less conspicuous. But here, Gadhafi's pet projects stand in stark contrast to the city's otherwise rundown, dust-colored blocks and streets that are filled with far more scooters than cars. Mc Clatchy News

 

South Africa to Appoint Inquiry Into Arms Deal
President Jacob Zuma, facing a bid in the country's highest court to force him to appoint an official inquiry into corruption arising from South Africa's biggest post-apartheid weapons deal, has pre-empted the outcome by announcing that he will appoint a Commission of Inquiry. sllAfrica

 

Nigeria Restructures Security Services to Combat Terror Attacks
Nigeria is restructuring security services to better combat a series of terrorist attacks. There is growing concern that the violence is not limited to any one group. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan says violence in the capital and across northern states is not exclusively the work of Islamic fundamentalists from a group known as Boko Haram. VOA

 

Laurent Gbagbo files case against French army
Ex-Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo has filed a legal case accusing the French army of his attempted assassination following the April operation to oust him, legal sources said. France and the United Nations backed the forces of Gbagbo rival and new ruler Alassane Ouattara in the offensive which saw him and his wife Simone placed under house arrest. Times Live

 

The youth in Ivorian reconstruction
As the Ivorian government works on security, reconciliation and economic recovery in the country, the issue of the youth is crucial. Myriam Wedraogo looks at the roles youths played in the post-election crisis and explores windows of opportunity for their empowerment. Pambazuka News

 

Transcript -Africom: Commander Ham Discusses African Security with Defense Writers
The commander of U.S. Africa Command told journalists that in his travels through Africa he is guided by two main principles: A safe, stable, and secure Africa is the best interest of Africans as well as the United States; and that Africans are best able to address their own security issues. Africom

 

Guns, migrants, mercenaries: Qaddafi's loss is the Sahel's gain
Aside from Qaddafi and his family, up to one million migrants from Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso may leave war-torn Libya, and arms from Qaddafi's arsenal are already showing up in conflict zones as far away as Somalia. CS Monitor

 

Al-Qaeda's affiliates in Africa, working side by side
Al-Qaeda's core leadership in Pakistan may be losing strength, but the terrorist network's affiliates in northern and central Africa are hardly weakening. In fact, U.S. officials say, the groups are increasingly collaborating with each other. Three regional Islamic extremist groups - al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in North Africa, the Boko Haram in Nigeria and the al-Shabab militia in Somalia - are sharing trainers and copying each other's tactics, according to Gen. Carter F. Ham, chief of the U.S. Africa Command. The Washington Post

 

Somali piracy set to surge as monsoon ends: EU navy
Somali pirate attacks are expected to surge in coming weeks after a monsoon abates, but defence cuts will undermine international efforts to fight them, a senior European Union navy official said on Wednesday. Pirate attacks on oil tankers and other ships are costing the world economy billions of dollars a year and navies have struggled to combat the menace, especially in the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean. Reuters

 

SADC to host anti-piracy summit
In a bid to deal more effectively with pirates, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to hold a summit at the end of October. According to Defence and Military Veterans Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, policy is required to combat piracy in SADC waters and to safeguard the economies of the many landlocked countries. BuaNews

 

Is Julius Malema South Africa's president in waiting?
"The ANCYL wields enormous power in South African politics, and played a pivotal role in the election of incumbent president, Jacob Zuma, during the 2009 presidential elections," Forbes said. It is not far off the mark. Malema has come from nowhere and, in just three years since his controversial election in 2008 as ANC Youth League president, has inserted himself at the very centre of debate about South Africa's future political direction. On the two touchiest issues in South Africa - macro-economic policy and race relations - Malema is the central player . The Guardian

 

Famine Ravages Somalia in a World Less Likely to Intervene
Is the world about to watch 750,000 Somalis starve to death? The United Nations' warnings could not be clearer. A drought-induced famine is steadily creeping across Somalia and tens of thousands of people have already died. The Islamist militant group the Shabab is blocking most aid agencies from accessing the areas it controls, and in the next few months three-quarters of a million people could run out of food, United Nations officials say. The New York Times

 

Palm oil fuels land grabs in Africa
By next year 'palm oil is forecast to be the world's most produced and internationally traded edible oil.' But as foreign investors descend on Africa to develop large-scale palm oil plantations, the survival of local people is being threatened as they lose control of the land and water on which they depend for their food production and livelihoods, warns Joan Baxter. Pambazuka News


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Please note: The following news items are presented here for informational purposes. The views expressed within them are those of the authors and/or individuals quoted, not those of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, or the Department of Defense.
 
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