United States Africa Command

Public Affairs Office

28 June 2010

USAFRICOM -related news stories

From and About Africa

PAKISTANI TERROR SUSPECTS HELD AT SOUTH AFRICA BORDER

Harare - Zimbabwe has arrested two Pakistani men for using fake passports, police said on Saturday, and
state media said one man is potentially linked to the November 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai.
The men were picked up in the southern border town of Beit bridge on June 20, where they were alleged
to have been trying to use fake passports to enter South Africa, which is hosting this year's World Cup
soccer tournament.

PAKISTANIS DETAINED MAY HAVE MUMBAI 2008 ATTACK LINK

HARARE: One of the two Pakistani men held in Zimbabwe for using fake passports could be linked to
the November, 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, state media reported yesterday.

FRENCH OXFAM WORKER BRIEFLY HELD HOSTAGE IN CHAD

A French humanitarian worker was kidnapped Sunday by armed men in eastern Chad and found four
hours later close to the Sudanese border, government sources said.
The Frenchwoman, who worked for Oxfam, was kidnapped by seven armed men at 01:00 am (0000 GMT)
from a camp run by the NGO in Koukou Angarana that is home to 20,000 Sudanese refugees, Ahmat
Mahamat Bashir, the minister in charge of security in Chad, told AFP. "Seven armed men arrived .. they
seized the head of the camp, a Frenchwoman, took two vehicles with fuel and drove away towards the
border," said Bashir. Security forces were alerted and sent in pursuit of the vehicles. "At around 05:00 am,
the kidnappers abandoned the hostage and the two vehicles," said the minister.

GUINEA WRAPS UP VOTING

Conakry - Polling stations in Guinea began closing at 18:00 GMT on Sunday, an AFP journalist reported, after its
first free presidential election which appeared to have gone off without incident.

AL-SHABAAB THREATEN SOMALILAND VOTERS

"Those who take part in those so-called elections will face the consequences," Ahmed Abdi Godane, the overall leader
of the Shebab group, said in the message released ahead of Somaliland's Saturday polls. Godane, also known as
"Abu Zubayr" and a native of the Somaliland capital Hargeisa, said the elections were organised by "the anti-
Islamic forces” in Somalia.

SOMALILAND 4 DEAD ON POLL DAY

Hargeisa - Officials in Somaliland say a voting-day skirmish killed four people in a contested area of the self-declared
republic. The election board says a militia from neighbouring Puntland region tried to raid a polling station in an
area claimed by Somaliland and Puntland. Officials said late on Saturday the disturbance forced them to close 34
stations early in that area.

TWO MORE KILLED IN BURUNDI

Bujumbura -Two people were killed and three wounded overnight in the latest in a string of attacks in Burundi, two
days before a controversial presidential election, officials said on Saturday. The central African nation's police chief
Pierre Chanel Ntarabaganyi told AFP that three grenade attacks were reported overnight. "Two exploded in the
capital's Buyenzi and Kamesa districts, causing no injuries, but one went off in the western town of Kanyosha,
killing one and wounding two," he said.
RWANDA DENIES LINK TO JOURNO MURDER
Kigali - The Rwanda government on Saturday denied any involvement in the murder of a journalist who accused
the regime of attempting to assassinate a dissident general in Johannesburg. Jean-Leonard Rugambage was gunned
down in Kigali on Thursday. His assassination raised concerns from media watchdogs that the press was
increasingly operating in a climate of fear ahead of August 9 presidential elections, while Rugambage's publication
blamed the government.

RWANDA INCREASES TROOPS AT BORDER

The Uganda Peoples Defence Force has called for calm following the heavy deployment of troops by Rwanda at its
border with Uganda. The UPDF 2nd Division spokesperson, Capt. Robert Kamara, said Uganda’s border with
Rwanda is safe. “The UPDF is not bothered by the deployments and the movements of the Rwanda army because we
don’t control them. Ours is to guarantee the security of our people by ensuring that our border is safe. There is no
need for any worry or panic,” Capt. Kamara said at the weekend.

HOW BIG IS UGANDA’S DRUG PROBLEM?

It was one of those shocking news items. A Ugandan lady had been arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
with 21kilogrammes of cocaine whose street value was worth Shs2.2 billon. That wasn’t all. Ms Anne Birungi
Bisaso was not who she claimed she was. She, according to the chief of the joint security operations at Entebbe
Airport, was actually Ms Gillian Kiconco and was on the police wanted list. This lady’s woes posed some serious
questions. Where was she taking the drugs? Is there a drug problem in Uganda? And how did Ms Kiconco became
Ms Bisaso? When you look at her itinerary on that fateful day, it kicked off from Brazil, through South Africa en-
route to Uganda. How did she manage to invade the airport security of all these countries especially South Africa,
where with the World Cup going on, one would think cocaine would be the last item to go past the security there?
Ms Bisaso’s case is just a small part of the big problem Uganda is facing with drugs. According to the Ugandan
ambassador to China, Mr Charles Madibo Wagidoso by 2008, 35 Ugandans were languishing in Chinese prisons.
18 of them women. Twenty of the 35 had their sentences reduced from death to life imprisonment. It’s that bad.

SUDAN SEEKS EXPULSION OF REBEL LEADER

KHARTOUM: Sudan said yesterday that it had asked Libya to expel the leader of Darfur's rebel Justice and
Equality Movement, accusing him of trying to undermine peace talks and threatening attacks on Khartoum.
Movement leader Khalil Ibrahim has been staying in Libya since May when authorities in neighbouring Chad
stopped him at their capital's airport and said he could not pass through their territory to return to the battlefield in
Darfur.

MOROCCAN-GERMAN JAILED IN MOROCCO FOR TERROR OFFENCES

A German national arrested on the Afghan-Pakistani border was Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail for
terrorism offences by a court in Morocco, a judicial source said. "His name is Mohamed Hajib, and he was arrested
in September 2009 on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He was extradited to Germany, and then on the same day to
Morocco," said the source. Hajib, who is in his forties and of Moroccan origin, was charged with "forming a
criminal band to prepare and commit terrorist acts" before the appeal court in Sale, a city neighbouring the capital
Rabat.

Islamic Militants Become Hired Guns To Survive

Algerian government has concluded their $7.5 billion weapons and equipment purchase deal with Russia. Included
are a wide range of equipment, for ground, naval and air forces. Over the last two decades, the armed forces have not
replaced a lot of their gear needed for conventional war. Most of defense spending went into filling the needs of
police and paramilitary forces fighting Islamic terrorists.
Islamic militants are believed to be building fortified bunkers in the mountains along the Mali border. They are
doing this in cooperation with local tribal groups, who provide cover. Local security forces on both sides of the
border are always out hunting for Islamic terrorists, so no one down there openly identifies themselves as such. But
an increasing number of known Islamic terrorists from the north have been killed, captured or spotted in the south,
and especially along the Mali border. The Islamic radicals are armed, and have turned to kidnapping foreigners and
drug smuggling to pay for supplies, bribes and gifts for their new tribal buddies. Foreigners have been warned to
stay out of the area, but there are always a small number of them too dumb, or adventurous, to stay away. The
Islamic terrorists are believed to be helping move 50-100 tons of cocaine (and other drugs) a year, north to
Mediterranean ports. Some of the smuggling fees are shared with local tribesmen, who have long engaged in some
smuggling on the side. But the drugs are very valuable cargoes, and the Islamic radicals had the international
connections (all up and down the coast of West Africa, as well as in South America) to put this deal together. The
local tribes are suitably impressed. So are Western counter-terror forces. While there are only believed to be a few
hundred Islamic terrorists operating along Algeria's southern border, there are nearly as many American Special
Forces to the south, training African troops and police on the best methods for hunting and killing the newly arrived
(in the last few years) Islamic terrorists. The relations with the local tribes, especially the powerful Tuareg, are
complicated. The Tuareg are not fond of Islamic terrorism, but young Tuareg are allowed to work with al Qaeda as
hired guns. The pay is good, and, so far, not too dangerous. But the young Tuareg are picking up some radical ideas
from their al Qaeda bosses, and that is causing some tension with tribal leaders.
The drug smuggling is actually handled by Arab gangsters that are not terrorists. Al Qaeda gets paid lots of money
to provide security for the drugs as they make the long run through the Sahara. The Tuareg provide local knowledge
of the terrain, and people, at least in the far south. Meanwhile, along the border, Islamic radicals openly talk (on
their web sites) of planning to overthrow the governments of Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. Given the sorry track
record against Algeria, Islamic terrorism in Algeria's neighbors is seen more of a nuisance than real threat. In the
more populated northern Algeria, the Islamic terrorists are able to launch one or two operations a month, and spend
most of their time dodging army and police efforts to find the terrorist bases (mostly in rural areas.)
June 24, 2010: Near the Tunisian border, gunmen opened fire on a wedding celebration, killing five. Police believe
the attackers were al Qaeda, and are searching for the killers (who are apparently known to the cops.) There hasn't
been any violence like this in the area for over a year.
June 11, 2010: A hundred kilometers east of the capital, a suicide bomber drove a truck into a police base (for
SWAT/rapid reaction forces), killing nine people (four policemen, three terrorists, one local civilian and a Chinese
man from a local construction project.) Two of the terrorists were in another vehicle behind the truck bomb,
apparently armed and for exploiting the explosion. But police security prevented the two terrorist vehicles from
getting as close as the terrorists wanted.