Central African Republic: Another Somalia Brewing on the African Continent

To passionate Africans or any keen observer whatsoever, the question of why always Africa will be an hourly one going by all sort of obnoxious events and queasy news coming out of the continent in consequential fashions. Africa has the African Union which at best is saddled with the responsibility of making the continent a safe haven for all. This body is somehow always showing greater signs of ineptitude during crises. Dangerous situations that usually should have been tackled from the root and headlong before they degenerate into cataclysmic events are mostly left to fester on till they almost and most times become insurmountable.

Central African Republic began gradually and the AU was almost nowhere to be found except when it suspended the country which has now become its tradition. Recently in Central African Republic, Red Cross medical workers' lives were endangered with the villagers bolting in panic upon sighting rebels brandishing machetes and AK47 assault rifles who came out from the bush like traditional masquerades. The landlocked former French colony is one of the poorest places on earth and has been plunged into chaos since the Seleka rebels seized power from President Francois Bozize about four months ago, triggering a humanitarian crisis. Just like Rwanda with no oil, it is ignored by the West.

The African Union decided to boost a small regional peacekeeping mission (CEMAC) into a 3,600-strong force in the third week of July after the country had long been degenerating. The decision came after Seleka gunmen killed 15 people in Bangui on July 13 when their truck was found to contain T-shirts supporting Bozize. The bodies of seven victims were found floating in the Ubangi river.

Since independence from France in 1960, Central African Republic like most African countries has been trapped in a cycle of coup after coup. France's military has intervened in the country than anywhere else in Africa, supporting successive military strongmen including self-proclaimed Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa from 1966 to 1979. Though France hid under the guise of President Francois Hollande's keenness to end France's meddling in its former colonies, hence, French soldiers did not act to stop Seleka toppling Bozize but CAR just like in cases where no oil or uranium or any other vital resources exist, has nothing to offer France unlike Mali and Niger. The only interest France has is to secure Bangui airport. It will serve the purpose of express evacuation if need be.

With the country outside the capital Bangui in the grip of rebel warlords, many aid groups and UN agencies have pulled out, leaving its 4.5 million inhabitants to fend for themselves. Rebel Colonel Issene Yaya, who confronted the Red Cross workers in the remote northern village of Ouata-Nata, had come to collect protection money from local chiefs and to lay down the law. Yaya was furious the Red Cross had not recently visited Ouandago, 10 km (6 miles) from Ouata-Nana, where the rebels had made their base according to Reuters.

"You, Red Cross people...I could make you pay a dear price at the end of my gun barrel for your behaviour," Yaya told the aid workers in the local language Sango. Behind him, his camouflage-clad fighters, wearing protective magical charms, chatted in Arabic, the tongue of neighbouring Sudan and eastern Chad. After delivering an ultimatum to Ouata-Nana's mayor for four local chiefs to bring 800,000 CFA francs ($1,600) to them the next day, the rebels disappeared, leaving the village deserted.

Central African Republic has porous borders which give Arabic-speaking marauding raiders, poachers and soldiers of fortune from neighbouring Chad and Sudan to prey on the countryside over the years. Seleka means 'alliance' in Sango and it is a coalition of five rebel groups. It launched its uprising after Bozize failed to honour the terms of a previous power sharing deal. Many northerners resented Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup, for surrounding himself with his own Gbaya tribesmen.

"What sin, what wickedness did we do for God to reserve this fate for us?" asked Marie Loana, a 72-year-old woman outside her hut in Ouata-Nana, empty after her family fled into the bush. After the March 24 rebel takeover, Seleka's leader Michel Djotodia was named interim president of Central African Republic in a deal brokered by regional powers intended to lead to elections in 18 months. But he has failed to prevent his troops, many of whom are Muslims from Chad and Sudan, from committing atrocities against the Christian population.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) says rebels have killed at least 400 people and carried out dozens of rapes since seizing power. It qualifies this as war crimes. With health services across the country close to collapse, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has accused the international community of turning its back on the country. The fighting has displaced 206,000 people inside Central African Republic and pushed 55,000 refugees across its borders.

"We have to appeal to the conscience of the world to help these people living in some of the worst conditions on earth," EU Commissioner for international cooperation Kristalina Georgieva said during a visit this month to the country. "Unless the state returns, this risks turning into a new Somalia, where local warlords control the country," Reuters report. "All seven bodies showed signs of torture. Some of the men had their genitals cut off, their eyes gouged out ... It was really an atrocity," said Joselin Likomba, a Red Cross worker. Security has improved somewhat inside the chaotic capital this month, following months of looting and killings, after Seleka fighters were ordered off the streets unless patrolling jointly with the CEMAC regional force.

"Seleka fighters are committing crimes with total impunity," FIDH said in a report, estimating the group's ranks had swollen from 5,000 at the time of the coup to some 20,000 fighters. "In the provinces, where Seleka holds power and the state does not exist, there is no justice." The European Union, the country's largest humanitarian donor, has so far pledged 20 million euros ($26.5 million) to stabilize the country, hoping this will bring aid groups back. "The very presence of humanitarian organizations can be a deterrent to looting, killings and rape," said Georgieva, who held long talks with Djotodia in Bangui. "It is not clear he understands how to get a grip on security in his country."

The humanitarian situation may be about to worsen as terrified villagers flee deep into the forests, scavenging for food, meaning they are missing the planting season. Malnutrition rates, already double those of last year, are poised to leap. In Ouata-Nana, only one of the village chiefs appeared to pay Yaya 50,000 CFA. Two others fled to Chad while the fourth headed south with his family to Bangui. "They will kill us if we don't pay," said one of the chiefs, Paul Idamba. "Our life here is torture. It is hell."

Election in Mali: On the Road to Peace or a Pathway to Crises?

President Dioncounda Traore, Mali's interim leader has met with members of two northern Tuareg separatist groups apparently for the first time in a build-up for peace to secure the elections scheduled to be held on Sunday. This move provoked anger among many in the country's south due to the rising ethnic tensions.

The aim of the election is to unify the nation after a March 2012 coup allowed Tuareg rebels and their al Qaeda-linked Islamist allies to seize the West African nation's desert north. France intervened earlier in the year, displacing the militants who have continued with brittle sporadic attacks.

The Tuareg rebels last month agreed to take their fighters off the streets in exchange for a promise of negotiations with the new government after the elections. This allowed the Malian army gained entrance into their controlled-territory. The rebels after the French-led intervention had simmered down captured some of the Islamists who outsmarted them in a 10-month long attacks.

Representatives of the MNLA and its ally, the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, was to meet with military officials to review progress in implementing the preliminary peace deal signed in neighbouring Burkina Faso. "We spoke of peace and reconciliation," Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assale, head of external relations for the Tuareg MNLA rebels, said following the closed-door meeting at the presidential residence late on Sunday.

But many in the capital Bamako viewed the unannounced visit with the president, during which Traore broke the Muslim holy month of Ramadan's traditional daytime fast with the Tuareg leaders, as an affront. "Dioncounda may forgive them, but the people will not," said Bamako resident Youssouf Toure. This statement makes the peace after election in doubt especially if the candidate that emerges the winner is not accepted by an aggrieved party.

Light-skinned Tuaregs like the Sudanese-Arabs have been blamed for attacks on black Malians in the northern city of Kidal and for the abduction of four election workers and a deputy mayor in another northern town last week. Two of the Tuareg delegation are named in arrest warrants for alleged crimes committed during the occupation of the north. The Tuaregs had also vowed to expel all blacks from their vicinities before the peace deal; signalling a fear of another South-Sudan-Sudan-Darfur encounter.

Drones and Gunships May Land in South Sudan Soon

As the Security Council sets to renew the mandate of the UN mission in South Sudan later this month, the UN special envoy to South Sudan stated that the United Nations should consider deploying surveillance drones and helicopter gunships to South Sudan because peacekeepers are struggling to protect civilians from violence and rights abuses.

Hilde Johnson while speaking to the UN Security Council said after a UN civilian helicopter was shot down in December, new developments in safety procedures and a lack of military helicopters had slowed the mission's ability to respond. The peacekeepers' arsenal is equipped with just three helicopters in such a precarious terrain.

According to Johnson, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had outlined several options to boost the South Sudan mission in a report to the 15-member Security Council, including surveillance drones, helicopter gunships and more cargo and riverine transport capabilities.

According to Reuters, Johnson said: "I urge the council to take urgent action to support the mission in filling these critical resource and capability gaps," Johnson told the Security Council in a video link briefing. South Sudan will mark two years of its freedom from Sudan on July 9 and Johnson said that while most parts of the country remained stable, fighting between South Sudanese troops and armed groups in the eastern state of Jonglei was of "deep concern."

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes because of the violence and Johnson said there had been rights violations by both armed groups and national security authorities. On April 9, gunmen ambushed and killed five UN peacekeepers and seven civilian staff in Jonglei. The UN mission has fewer than 6,900 troops to cover a country the size of France that has barely 300 km (200 miles) of paved roads.

Seasonal rains have turned the region into a swamp, severing road access. Johnson said "critical resource and capability gaps" had caused a mobility crisis for the peacekeepers that particularly affected operations in high-risk areas such as Jonglei. "This is having a particularly detrimental effect on the mission's ability to implement its protection of civilians' mandate," she said. "Effective protection is only possible through being present in those communities most at risk."

South Sudan still suffers largely from lack of infrastructure as well as high level of corruption and consistent oil face-off with Sudan. Senior council envoy said that peacekeepers should focus more on protecting civilians "rather than on spreading out across the country and doing infrastructure projects and nation building."

United States to Ease Sanctions on Sudan

The top US diplomat in Sudan revealed today that Washington will soon change sanctions regulations that will allow educational institutional in both countries to deal directly with one another.

Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 because of the civil wars in the country, accusing it of supporting terrorism. In 2007, it strengthened the embargo citing abuses in Darfur which it labeled as genocide.

In 2010 the US announced it was easing sanctions on agriculture equipment and services which allowed half a dozen companies to get export licenses.

Khartoum has lobbied Washington intensively to lift sanctions but little progress has been made on this front.

In an interview with the independent al-Sahafa newspaper the American charge d'affaires Joseph D. Stafford said that the Obama administration is prepared to hold a comprehensive, frank and transparent dialogue with Khartoum on all issues that prevent normalization of bilateral ties.

Stafford noted that security cooperation between the two sides which strengthened more than a decade ago is continuing describing it as "good".

He denied that the US is biased in favour of any party in Sudan and strongly dismissed accusations by officials in Khartoum that Washington is behind the "New Dawn" charter signed by opposition and rebel groups in Kampala last month.

Stafford said that Washington informed Sudanese rebels that they oppose any attempt to overthrow the regime by force and urged them to seek dialogue with Khartoum.

"We are only biased towards peace in Sudan," the US official said.

He said that his country stopped granting visas to Sudanese and reduced its staff since last September following demonstrations that broke out in Khartoum at the US embassy against a film that insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Stafford called this a temporary measure that he hopes will soon be reversed.

Africa and Obama's Second Term: Expectations and Counter-Expectations

Africans no longer stood still to watch the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as was witnessed four years ago. The President's acts during the period clearly showed he was and will always be the president of the United States not of Africa. He proved he will neither be the President of both 'continents' nor fully that of one and partially that of another.

As the president of the United States publicly takes the oath of office for the second time, it is understandable why, in stark contrast to four years ago when Barack Obama's unique personal history made his election to the White House the cause for intense pride and excitement across Africa, many Africans have shrugged off the event and carried on with their lives.

To be fair, many Africans' expectations of the then-new American president were wildly unrealistic and Obama had quite a number of pressing challenges demanding his immediate attention, not least of all th United States' economic meltdown and healthcare system.

Nevertheless, the sense of let-down acutely felt, both in African capitals and among the Africa constituency in Washington, over the lack of engagement during most of the administration's first term, remains palpable. Even for the administration's most reflexive defenders, there is no getting around the data.

While veteran diplomat Johnnie Carson was installed as assistant secretary of state for African affairs within four months of Obama's first inauguration, an ambassador to the African Union was not on post until nine months after the president's swearing in and, until just nine months ago, there was no permanent assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Africa.

The U.S. Strategy toward Sub-Saharan Africa was not released until June of last year. As for the president himself, he has not set foot on African soil since his brief visits to Egypt and Ghana during his first year in office--and the latter a stopover lasting less than twenty-four hours.

Of course, the administration has scored some noteworthy successes, not least of which was helping see the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to its fulfillment in the largely peaceful referendum and subsequent secession of South Sudan--although the continuing conflict between

Africa's newest independent state and the country it left behind remains a challenge the administration must tackle in its second term alongside the overall lack of economic development and general governance capacity in Juba.

Somalia must also be monitored;defeat of Somalia's al-Shabaab as a military force, the improved security in and around Mogadishu, and the installation of a new parliament, president, and prime minister represent relatively big advances, even if the progress is still far from consolidated.

Africa could receive more attention during his second term but not to the benefits and desired directions of Africans. His actions, if African leaders are wise enough are to tell them that no one can build their countries and continents for them. No foreign country will ever make policies to favour and uplift their continent. They must wake up.