UN Security Council extends Somalia peacekeeping force
Wed Nov 7, 2012 7:41pm GMT
* AU has 17,600 U.N.-mandated peacekeepers in Somalia
* Uganda threatens withdrawal over rebel aid accusations
* Somalia fighting al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab Islamists (Adds details)
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council extended an
African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia for four months on Wednesday as
it mulls lifting an arms embargo and Uganda threatens to pull out troops
over claims it is aiding rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The African Union has appealed to the 15-member council to review its arms
embargo to help Somalia rebuild its army and consolidate military gains
against al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab. U.N. diplomats said the council was
split over this request.
The council extended the AMISOM peacekeeping mission for four months,
instead of the usual 12, to allow for a review of operations, including
consideration of the arms embargo request and a call to permit the export of
stocks of charcoal.
The council imposed the embargo in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding
warlords, who a year later ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged
Somalia into civil conflict. It banned the sale abroad of Somali charcoal in
February this year in an attempt to cut off al Shabaab's funding.
A deadly car bomb exploded on Wednesday near the country's parliament
building in the capital Mogadishu, police said. While it was not clear who
was responsible, Mogadishu has frequently been targeted by al Shabaab.
"The situation in Somalia is changing rapidly. We have a more legitimate
political leadership than ever before," British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall
Grant told the Security Council. "But, as today's deplorable attack on
Parliament shows, the situation remains perilous."
He acknowledged the African Union request for the arms embargo to be lifted,
but gave no indication of how Britain would respond.
Somalia wants help strengthening its poorly equipped and often
ill-disciplined military that is more of a loosely affiliated umbrella group
of rival militias than a cohesive fighting force loyal to a single
president.
There are 17,600 U.N.-mandated peacekeepers helping battle the Islamist
rebels in Somalia. Ugandan troops make up more than a third of those
peacekeepers, but they have threatened to withdraw in protest over
accusations made in a U.N. report.
Uganda and Rwanda have denied claims in a leaked U.N. Group of Experts
report which said the two neighbors were arming Congo's M23 rebels, whose
warlord leader has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.
In the confidential report, which was seen in full by Reuters, the experts
called for sanctions on those who violated an arms embargo.
Although Uganda has publicly stated its threat to withdraw troops from
peacekeeping missions unless the report is changed, U.N. Security Council
diplomats said a Ugandan delegation that came to New York last week did not
formally raise it with council members, U.N. officials, the AU or Somalia.
Council diplomats told Reuters that the experts' report would most likely
not be amended.
Diplomats have also said that the council was divided on the issue of the
charcoal sales. Some countries fear that charcoal merchants in the Somali
city of Kismayu - which Kenyan forces under the umbrella of AMISOM took
control of last month - might still have connections with al Shabaab.
In September, Somalia inaugurated President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud - elected
in the first vote of its kind since 1991, when Barre was ousted by the
warlords, leaving the African nation without an effective central
government.
It unveiled a new Cabinet on Sunday, keeping a delicate balance among rival
clans.
"We must allow the new government the space to set policies and priorities,"
Britain's Lyall Grant said. "After two decades of despair, Somalia's people
at last have hope and the Security Council must do all that it can to turn
hope into reality." (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jackie Frank
and Stacey Joyce)
Obama triumph raises hope of fresh start with Africa
Wed Nov 7, 2012 4:01pm GMT
* Obama re-election fails to bring jubilation seen in 2008
* President urged to focus on Africa education, health
* People hope Obama may visit Africa again, babies named after him
By Njuwa Maina and Ben Makori
KOGELO, Kenya, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Kenyans in Barack Obama's ancestral
homeland stayed up all night and danced with joy on Wednesday as America's
first black president won a second term in the White House, raising the
prospects of a fresh start for his ties with Africa.
Many Africans feel Obama has not responded to their huge enthusiasm when he
won the presidency four years ago with an increased U.S. commitment to the
world's poorest continent during his first term.
His re-election failed to rouse the same level of jubilation that was seen
across Kenya following his 2008 election victory.
But as news of Obama's victory came through, hundreds of people gathered in
his late father's village, and cheers and chants of "Obama, Obama, Obama!"
erupted when key U.S. states fell to the east African country's favourite
adopted son.
In the tiny western hamlet of Kogelo, men waved tree branches and banged
drums at the Obama family home where his grandmother Sarah lives. Women
ululated and cried tears of joy, muttering prayers of thanksgiving.
Obama's grandmother joined in the dancing and cheering outside her house
after the results were declared.
"He is welcomed home," she told reporters. "I would just like to tell him to
give his best to the people who have shown their faith in him by electing
him."
Obama, who hails his African roots, visited sub-Saharan Africa only once in
his first four years - a stopover of less than a day in Ghana between
summits elsewhere.
President Mwai Kibaki, who declared a national holiday in Obama's honour
four years ago, this time merely sent him a message of congratulations for
his victory over Republican Mitt Romney, saying he hoped Obama would deepen
ties with Kenya.
FRESH START
However, in Kogelo, where Obama's father was born and buried, they still
celebrated his win with gusto.
Residents saw his victory as a boost for Kenya-U.S. relations. Some said it
gave Obama another chance to provide more development aid to the continent,
and many still held out hope that he would visit the country of his father's
birth.
"If I had a chance to talk to him, which hopefully I will get after he is
inaugurated again, my message would be to focus on Africa," Mustafa Obama,
the president's half brother said as he plucked weeds and tended to flowers
on their father's grave.
"If he can put more emphasis on education, health and all that matters to
Africa instead of politics, that is my message to my brother," he told
Reuters.
Obama, who was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan
father, has been idolised by many Africans in the way the Irish revered U.S.
President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s - as one of their own who succeeded
beyond their wildest dreams.
Macharia Munene, a lecturer on international relations at the United States
International University, said Obama's re-election gave him a chance of a
fresh start with Africa.
"There is a possibility that he might want to be seen to be more concerned
than he was with regards to Africa. He may say, 'let me go and see my
grandma, and say hi to Africa'. In that sense it is an opportunity to start
afresh," Munene said.
Some people in Kogelo had predicted an easy victory for Obama. Witch doctor
John Dimo had tossed some shells, bones and other items to determine who
would win Tuesday's election. Pointing to a white shell on election day, he
declared: "Obama is very far ahead and is definitely going to win."
Several new-born babies at a hospital near Kogelo were named after the U.S.
president.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, Millicent Awuor, 20, named her twins after
both candidates. "I named the first twin Barack and the second one Mitt,"
said Awuor, a housewife.
