Ebola outbreak: Ghana tests US man

July 7, 2014

A US citizen is being tested for the Ebola virus in Ghana, which has had no confirmed cases of the virus in the current West African outbreak.

The man has been quarantined at the private Nyaho Clinic in the capital, Accra, health officials say.

The virus has so far killed more than 460 people since it broke out in Guinea in February and spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

It is the world’s deadliest outbreak to date and there is no cure for Ebola.

The US embassy in Accra said it had been informed that a US citizen was being tested but would not give any more details, Reuters news agency reports.

‘Under control’

The man was believed to have visited Guinea and Sierra Leone in recent weeks.

Ghana’s health ministry said it had put in place “precautionary measures” and people should stay calm.

Staff at the clinic had also been quarantined and provided with protective clothing, it added in a statement.

The clinic was awaiting the results of blood tests to see whether the patient, whom the ministry did not identify, really had Ebola, the statement said.

“We will like to assure the general public that we have everything under control,” Tony Goodman, the health ministry’s public relations officer, said.

In April, Ghana’s health authorities said a girl suspected to have Ebola had tested negative.

Ebola spreads through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids and kills up to 90% of those infected.

The health ministers of 11 West African states met in Accra last week promising to work more closely together to combat the outbreak.

So far, 759 people have been infected with the virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Most of the 467 deaths have been centred in the southern Guekedou region of Guinea, where the outbreak was first reported.

But health officials say the region’s porous borders have allowed infected people to carry the disease into other countries.

Ebola death toll in West Africa rise to 467, WHO says

July 1, 2014

The number of people killed by the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa has risen to 467, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Sixty-eight of the deaths had been recorded since 23 June, the WHO said.

The number of cases had risen from 635 on 23 June to 759, a 20% increase, the WHO added.

It is the largest outbreak – in terms of cases, deaths and geographical spread – to affect Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever, has no cure and is spread by contact with the fluids of infected people or animals, such as urine, sweat and blood.

Most of the deaths have been centred in the southern Guekedou region of Guinea, where the outbreak was first reported in February.

The rise in infections will increase pressure on the health ministers of 11 West African countries when they meet in Ghana on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the growing crisis, correspondents say.

The WHO has called for “drastic action” to tackle the outbreak.

“Containment of this outbreak requires a strong response in the countries and especially along their shared border areas,” it said in a statement.

On Monday, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf warned that anyone caught hiding suspected Ebola patients will be prosecuted.

She told state radio that some patients had been kept in homes and churches instead of receiving medical attention.

Sierra Leone issued a similar warning last week, saying some patients had left hospital and gone into hiding.

Health workers fighting the outbreak say they have encountered resistance throughout the region, and that some of them have even been attacked.

Liberia’s health ministry has set up treatment centres and launched a public service campaign that includes training health professionals to use protective clothing, and forbidding hospitals to turn away patients with Ebola symptoms.

Drastic action' needed on Ebola

June 26, 2014. “Drastic action” is needed to contain the spread of deadly Ebola in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Nearly 400 people have died in the outbreak which started in Guinea and has spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia.

It is the largest outbreak in terms of cases, deaths and geographical spread.

The WHO said it was “gravely concerned” and there was potential for “further international spread”.

The outbreak started four months ago and is continuing to spread.

So far there have been more than 600 cases and around 60% of those infected with the virus have died.

Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever, has no cure and is spread by contact with the fluids of infected people or animals, such as urine, sweat and blood.

Most of the deaths have been centred in the southern Guekedou region of Guinea.

The WHO has sent 150 experts to the region to help prevent the spread of the virus but admits ” there has been significant increase in the number of daily reported cases and deaths”.

Dr Luis Sambo, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said: “This is no longer a country-specific outbreak, but a sub-regional crisis that requires firm action.

“WHO is gravely concerned of the on-going cross-border transmission into neighbouring countries as well as the potential for further international spread.

“There is an urgent need to intensify response efforts…this is the only way that the outbreak will be effectively addressed.”

The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has already warned that the Ebola outbreak is out of control.

It says the epidemic will spread further unless there is a stronger international response.

Sierra Leone has risen from ashes of civil war after a remarkable transformation

April 1, 2014 | © DiploNews, all rights reserved.
“There is no reason for a peacekeeping or a peacebuilding mission in the country anymore. The country is at peace,” said United Nations (UN) official Jens Toyberg-Frandzen about Sierra Leone. The Ebola outbreak has not diminished the unanimous international praise of the western African country and former British colony Sierra Leone’s efforts and achievements since the end of its bloody civil war between 1991 and 2002 that killed 50 thousand people and displaced two millions. At an Open Session of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Sierra Leone, UK Ambassador Lyall Grant, welcomed the completion of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Mission in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL)’s mandate.
“Since Sierra Leone came onto the Security Council’s agenda 15 years ago, it has undergone a remarkable transformation from civil war to landmark presidential elections in November 2012,” said Grant. Between 2002 when UN peacekeeping mission, including British Special Forces, started in the aftermath of the awful conflict and today when Sierra Leone now contributes to other peacekeeping missions in countries such as Somalia and Mali, one can assess the “remarkable transformation” Sierra Leone has successfully undergone in only 12 years, Grant explained.
Sierra Leone version 2014, this is a politically-stable country which has undergone three peaceful elections and has enjoyed years of constant economic growth(1), Philippe Bertoux, Political Counsellor of the Mission of France to the UN, added. “The United Nations – thanks to its robust 15-year engagement – has contributed to that positive development by supporting the Sierra Leone authorities at every stage,” said Bertoux. Now the international community must carefully follow the Sierra Leone’s developments in the years to come. “Sierra Leone still faces challenges,” said Bertoux.
“The root causes of the original conflict cannot be fully addressed in little more than a decade,” agreed Guillermo E. Rishchynski, Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission’s Sierra Leone Configuration. Once a failed state, Sierra Leone has become the brightest example and most credible lessons-learning process for countries in trouble.
(1) Real GDP growth for 2014 is forecast at 14% according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), read more.

First the rape. Then the stigma. Now the healing?

by Tim Wyatt
Posted: 11 Apr 2014 @ 12:09
Sexual violence is endemic in many African countries. Tim Wyatt reports on efforts to combat it

DARFUR.

“One of the Janjaweed pushed me to the ground. He forced my clothes off, and they raped me, one by one. I did not have any energy or force against them.

“They used me. I started bleeding. It was so painful. I could not stand up. . . I was sick for seven days.”

This is the harrowing testimony of a 13-year-old girl from western Sudan. It is not an isolated incident. Starting in 2003, the government-backed Janjaweed militia terrorised locals across the region in what appeared to be a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the non-Arab population.

From the beginning, rape was used alongside guns and machetes as a weapon of war.

DRC.

Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist in the Democratic Republic of Congo, tells a similar story.

“It was in 1999 that our first rape victim was brought into the hospital. After being raped, bullets had been fired into her genitals and thighs.

“I thought that was a barbaric act of war, but the real shock came three months later,” he told the BBC last year.

“Forty-five women came to us with the same story. They were all saying: ‘People came into my village and raped me, tortured me.’ These weren’t just violent acts of war, but part of a strategy.”

A US study published in 2011 suggested that up to 1000 women were being raped in the DRC each day.

RWANDA.
In commemorations of the 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, attention has naturally been focused on the estimated 800,000 who were killed. But sexual violence was another characteristic of the attacks. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women and girls were raped.

As happened later in Darfur, rape was not just a by-product of the lawlessness produced by the fighting; it was an integral part of the slaughter.

In its judgment against one militia leader, Jean-Paul Akayesu, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found that sexual assault used against one specific ethnic group was as much an act of genocide as murder.

LIBERIA.
In the Liberian civil war of 1993 to 2003, almost half of all women aged between 15 and 70 reported at least one act of sexual violence from a soldier or militia member.

SIERRA LEONE.
About 65,000 women experienced sexual violence as a result of war in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2001.

THOUSANDS of miles separate all these incidents of sexual violence in sub-Saharan Africa, but the similarities are such that activists are talking about a continent-wide epidemic.

The UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in February that the scourge of rape could be found in almost every conflict across Africa.

“You meet a father in Mogadishu [Somalia] whose two children have been raped,” she said. “One is four; one is six. You meet a mother in Liberia whose three-month-old baby has been raped. So it’s everywhere you go.”

Ms Bangura has identified eight countries as her priorities in combating sexual violence, and six are in Africa – the Central African Republic, the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, South Sudan, and Sudan. (The other two are Bosnia and Colombia.)

But the message that rape is being used as a weapon of war across the continent is now being taken seriously, and many activists say that the tide is turning, and the Church is in the vanguard.

Peter Grant is the co-director of Restored, a global alliance of Christians tackling violence against women. He founded Restored in 2010 after hearing a Namibian woman speak at an AIDS conference of her experience of sexual violence. Rape has been a key factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“Sexual violence in war dates back to time immemorial,” Mr Grant said, “but the Rwandan genocide was very critical in people’s understanding. The DRC has been perhaps the highest profile area” of more recent years, he said.

We Will Speak Out is another coalition of Churches, charities, and ecumenical bodies which are working to end sexual violence. It was founded in 2011 after a conference at Lambeth Palace. Sarah Reilly, a member of the We Will Speak Out secretariat, said that the global Church now realised that it needed to raise its voice on the issue.

“In the last five years there has been much more of an international focus on sexual violence in conflict,” she said. “The environment has changed, and [the Church] has become more supportive.”

Salome Ntububa, Christian Aid’s regional emergency manager in the DRC, said: “It was the Church which started the first effort [against rape] in the DRC. In 2004, churches noticed that many women were not coming to services, and then realised it was because there was massive rape in their communities.”

But it was not until 2010 that the rape crisis in the DRC reached international attention, she estimated.

As Christians have woken up to the scale of sexual violence in conflict, so, too, have governments. The UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has made combating violence against women one of his priorities. He is organising a global summit about it in June.

Speaking to the Church Times this week, he said: “Sexual violence is often one of the first things that happens as soon as conflict or instability takes hold, yet it is usually the last thing to be taken into account by those ending wars or rebuilding nations.

“Over 140 countries will be present [at the June summit], alongside NGOs and faith leaders, where we will focus on the role of faith communities in tackling sexual violence in conflict. I want the summit to be the moment that the world wakes up and says that rape and sexual violence are not an inevitable part of war.”

THIS level of awareness was not always present. For many years, the Church as an institution remained virtually silent on the subject of sexual violence.

A report published by Tearfund in 2011, Silent No More, found that in Rwanda, Liberia, and the DRC, the Church was not part of the solution, but part of the problem.

The report quoted one survivor of sexual violence from the DRC: “Religious institutions are undermining women. They do not see women as important, and they do not see a role for them.”

A key problem is the stigma that attaches to women who have been raped. An element of blame persists, or, at the least, uncleanness, and many find it impossible to attract a husband.

Tearfund’s research suggested that either clergy were not speaking out about the evil of rape, or they were themselves contributing to the stigma surrounding victims of it.

Enlightenment has come slowly. Charlotte Simon, the founder of the anti-rape charity Mothers of Congo, said: “As Christians, we should be denouncing what is happening in Congo. The Church is the institution we rely on to help us, but it has let us down. I think of Jesus looking down and saying ‘Why?’

“What I really want is for the Church to come out and start raising awareness; to say: ‘What is happening in Congo is wrong.’ [Otherwise], the Church is an accomplice.”

This is now beginning to happen. In February, the Archbishop of Canterbury visited a project backed by Tearfund in Goma, DRC, which seeks to change the culture around survivors of sexual violence (News, 14 February).

Speaking during the same visit, the Archbishop of Congo, the Most Revd Henri Isingoma, said: “This is a priority issue for my Church, and for me personally.”

That same month, the General Synod, meeting in London, held a debate on gender-based violence, before carrying a motion condemning such violence as an abuse and violation of the image of God (Synod digest, 21 February).

One member, Dr Paula Gooder, told the Synod that the Church needed to recognise how its own tradition and theology had been used to support violence against women.

Another speaker, Canon Rosie Harper, said that “God told us to do it” was often given as a justification for gender-based violence. Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, she urged the Synod not to sit on the fence: “Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act.”

Many campaigners have said that the Church had a unique and pivotal part to play in tackling rape and sexual violence. Mr Grant, from Restored, said: “The Church has got a huge amount to contribute here, to make it clear that this is not consistent with scripture.”

Ms Reilly, of We Will Speak Out, agreed: “In Africa, the Church doesn’t just have a large reach – it is also a trusted centre-point in communities. Often, what the Church says goes; so they have a platform within the community to address some of the challenging issues, but also to speak openly about the issue.”

Mr Hague said this week that the support of local Christian leaders was hugely significant: “Faith groups have a key role to play. I was incredibly pleased to hear the announcement by the Archbishop of the DRC, whom I met last year, that he and the DRC’s major faith leaders had pledged to take action to prevent sexual violence in their We Will Speak Out campaign.”

BEYOND raising awareness, what action should the Church take to try to end these crimes? Campaigners say that it is difficult to pinpoint specific tactics, as the problem is so complex.

Mr Grant asked: “What would it take to stop a soldier in Congo from raping a woman? It’s not an easy answer. A whole raft of cultural factors, societal norms, and military discipline. There has got to be accountability, and an end to impunity.

“But at the same time, you need religious leaders speaking out, saying that this is morally unacceptable.”

For Mrs Simon from Mothers of Congo, the scourge of rape will never leave the DRC until the underlying drivers of the conflict are addressed.

She said: “I think the West needs to change the way the big [mining] companies are doing this. They find a village where the minerals are. They tell the militias to go to this village and rape and kill and just create chaos. Then they use it as a mine.”

Minerals such as coltan, mined from violently disputed regions of the DRC, are an integral part of electronic devices. Mrs Simon believes that the Church should look at cutting these out of the supply chain, as a means of ending the rape which is associated with mining.

“Everybody has a piece of Congo in their pocket, but at what price? Every time I pick up my phone, or watch my TV, I think: ‘I have blood on my hands,'” she said.

The Mothers’ Union also works alongside churches in Africa to tackle rape.

A spokeswoman said this week: “In our experience, one of the strongest ways in which the Church is able to offer support is to actually accompany survivors as they access services, such as any police and health-care professionals in the area, to ensure that they remain safe and supported.”

The Mothers’ Union has also initiated literacy and numeracy programmes in Rwanda, aimed at empowering victims to discuss gender-based violence, besides giving them skills to help them move on in life.

We Will Speak Out has a five-point plan to combat sexual violence, Ms Reilly said. Besides raising awareness, the plan ensures that churches must be used as safe and stigma-free spaces for survivors of sexual violence.

The problem of stigma comes up time and time again in conversations. One way churchpeople are seeking to eliminate this is by demonstrating that victims of sexual violence are still worthy of love and dignity.

Ms Ntububa, from Christian Aid, described how women from Congolese churches often welcomed rape survivors into their own homes. “They have been telling women: ‘This is not your fault.'”

Alongside its advocacy work, Mothers of Congo is supporting almost 100 children born of rape in the DRC. “Nobody wants to know about them, and they have no future,” Mrs Simon said. “We want to give them a future and confidence in themselves.”

“We are also getting international funding for church hospitals, run by local churchpeople,” Ms Ntububa said. “The Church is playing a major role both in helping women and working on protection. The next challenge is how to make justice, which is difficult.”

ANOTHER part of the solution is transforming masculinity, and challenging perceptions about what it means to be a “real man”.

Mr Grant said: “We have a campaign in the UK called First Man Standing, which challenges men to respect women. We are looking at how to contextualise that kind of approach in a range of different countries. We have got to work with ‘good’ men, but also with the perpetrators.

“The whole issue is about relationships, the image of God, and being created male and female. Relationships are the core of the gospel. It’s right at the start of what the Church should be speaking out and responding to.”

An entire chapter of a 229-page 2010 World Council of Churches report into the theology of masculinity dealt with gender-based violence. In her introduction to the chapter, the Revd Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth explained what was at the heart of the attempt to co-opt men into the campaign against sexual violence.

She wrote: “Men need to redefine masculinity and create a social climate, in male peer culture, in which the abuse of women is seen as completely unacceptable.”

In the DRC, the Church has started to act as a bridge between victims and perpetrators, who now tend to be members of local militias rather than foreign fighters.

Ms Ntububa said: “The Church has been making the community more aware of how we can have a dialogue, and ask [the rapists] ‘How are you behaving like that? These women could be your mothers, or daughters, or sisters.'”

The idea that, at the heart of sexual violence in conflict, is the broken relationship between men and women is central to Restored’s work, which has developed programmes in the UK to tackle rape and domestic violence.

“It would be wrong and very misleading to [describe it] as an African problem. The danger is a demonising of African society as being fundamentally prone to sexual violence while European peoples are not,” Mr Grant said.

“The underlying drivers of violence against women are abuse, power, and control. Rape is not a matter of sex, but a matter of power. It aims to destroy people and societies. It is obviously a different level of severity, and I wouldn’t equate it [with sexual violence in the West]. . . But the issues in domestic violence are also power and control.”

Ms Reilly agreed: it was important to recognise that sexual violence occurred in conflict in other parts of the world, too. “Rape is used as a weapon of war in any context – certainly in Syria, but also in Bosnia and other areas around the world,” she said.

Similarly, the impetus to resist sexual violence is coming not just from well-meaning Western Churches. “In our experience, there are a lot of amazing church leaders from [Africa] who are aware that it is an issue, and are speaking out. They often work with us. It is coming from the grassroots, and they just need support, training, and resources, to help them deliver their message.

“We want to empower survivors to advocate for their own rights, and work with faith leaders to lobby at a national and international level.”

IT IS clear, then, that sexual violence as a part of conflict is now firmly on the Church’s agenda. But it is clear, too, to all the campaigners, that the battle is far from won.

Mr Grant said that, while it was good that momentum was growing, Restored had only begun to scratch the surface of the problem.

As the conflict in DRC degenerates further, Ms Ntububa said that rape was becoming a part of life for some women: “In many communities, men can come and rape at any time. There is no protection mechanism. For them, that’s normal.

“There is a good level of recognition [of the problem], but in terms of ending this, we are not at that point yet. It is now 20 years after the Rwandan genocide, and this is still happening in Rwanda.”

But Ms Reilly said she had seen signs of hope. “Just last week, I was visiting some programmes in Burundi and speaking to church leaders there. There are some fantastic stories coming from communities and countries where the Church has been mobilised.”

For Mrs Simon, of Mothers of Congo, there is just a steady determination to carry on the battle. “I have cried so much,” she said. “I’m not going to cry any more. Now I’m just fighting.”

Ebola outbreak: Mali on alert

Apr 4, 2014. Mali is on alert over the deadly Ebola virus after three suspected cases were reported near the border with Guinea, where 86 people have died.

A BBC correspondent says there are tight controls on people entering the capital, Bamako, from the border area.

He says thermal-imaging cameras are screening passengers at the airport in case they have a fever.

The virus, which is spread by close contact and kills 25%- 90% of its victims, has already spread to Liberia.

Meanwhile, an Air France plane which landed in Paris from Guinea was quarantined for two hours on Friday morning after the crew suspected a passenger was infected with Ebola.

“The test turned out negative,” a spokesman for the airline said.

Six people have died in Liberia, out of 12 suspected cases, according to the local health authorities.

Sierra Leone has also reported suspected cases, while Senegal has closed its normally busy border with Guinea.

Visas suspended
The BBC’s Alou Diawara in Bamako says the three people feared to have Ebola have been moved to isolation wards on the edge of the city.

Samples have been sent to the US for testing and the results are expected in a few days.

Mali’s government has advised its nationals against all non-essential travel to areas affected by Ebola.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic in Conakry told the BBC the reports of cases in Mali were a “concern”.

“Everyone should be vigilant and aware of what is going on. But we need to wait for the results to confirm if it is Ebola,” he said.

The virus was first spotted in Guinea’s remote south-eastern region of Nzerekore, where most of the deaths have been recorded.

But it was not confirmed as Ebola for six weeks.

It has now spread to Guinea’s capital, Conakry, where five deaths have been recorded out of 12 suspected cases.

Saudi Arabia suspended visas for Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia on Tuesday, in a sign of the growing unease about the outbreak.

This is the first known outbreak in Guinea – most recent cases have been thousands of miles away in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

There is no known cure or vaccine for Ebola.

The tropical virus leads to haemorrhagic fever, causing muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.

Ebola: Guinea outbreak reaches capital Conakry

Mar28, 2014. Guinea’s government has for the first time confirmed cases of the deadly Ebola virus in the capital Conakry.

Until now, the 66 confirmed deaths have only been in rural areas, although there have been suspected cases, which have since proved negative, in the capital.

There have also been suspected cases in neighbouring West African states Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ebola is spread by close contact and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

Earlier this week, the health ministry banned the sale and consumption of bats, in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus. Fruit bats, which are a delicacy in the worst affected south-eastern region, are thought to be carriers of the disease.

Health Minister Remy Lamah said the virus appeared to have been transmitted by an man who showed symptoms of haemorrhagic fever after visiting Dinguiraye in central Guinea, far from the identified outbreaks of Ebola in the remote south-east.

Four of the man’s brothers, who attended his funeral in the central town of Dabola, started to show the same symptoms and were tested for Ebola on their return to Conakry.

The four have been placed in an isolation ward and the dead man’s family have also been quarantined, the minister said.

The spread of the disease to Conakry, a city of some two million people, marks an escalation in the Ebola outbreak in Guinea – one of the poorest nations on earth, despite rich deposits of bauxite and iron ore.

Discovered in 1976 after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, Ebola causes a severe haemorrhagic fever where victims suffer vomiting, diarrhoea and both internal and external bleeding.

Scientists have yet to develop an effective drug or vaccine to fight it.

Part of the problem is that the deadly virus is rare and its victims are often poor people living in rural areas of Africa without well-functioning health systems. But there is also little incentive for major pharmaceutical companies to invest in medical solutions when there is little chance of a return, analysts say.

However, many health officials believe the virus could be better controlled with good basic hygiene and the eradication of dangerous bush meat consumption. The US government also funds some research, partly out of concern the virus could be used for bioterrorism.

“Ebola virus is one of the deadliest killers known,” said Ben Neuman, a virologist at Britain’s University of Reading.

“If this virus spread between people more easily, it would probably be more deadly than the black plague. Fortunately, up to this point, it has not,” he added.

Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, the World Health Organization says.

Nigeria: Rethinking Government Strategy in Tackling Insurgency

By Aderemi Oyewumi, 26 March 2014
Despite the national outpouring of grief and sorrow, the upsurge in the reign of terror unleashed by insurgents on the north eastern part of the country in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, has continued unabated, giving a renewed sense of urgency to the need for a review of government’s strategy for a more effective response.

In spite of the state of emergency declared by government in the most affected states, there appears to be no end in sight to the spate of violent attacks. Hundreds of innocent civilians including students have been killed in recent weeks while others ran for their lives, swelling the ranks of internally displaced persons in need of humanitarian assistance. It is as if government has abdicated its responsibility in protecting the lives and property of its citizens.

While the armed forces are doing their best given the circumstances, to contain the insurgency, government needs to address the growing perception that the insurgents have free rein, rampaging from one target to another without let or hindrance, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

The impression created is that there are not enough boots on the ground, that the army is overstretched. Admittedly, soldiers cannot be everywhere but the armed forces’ capacity for rapid response to attacks must be strengthened. In one incident those who killed students of the federal government college in Buni-Yadi in Yobe state were said to have operated for four hours without security forces in sight. Understandably, the embattled governors of Borno and Yobe states have appealed to the federal government to commit more troops and resources.

Failure of intelligence gathering in forestalling attacks has also been cited as one of the reasons for the apparent ease with which the insurgents strike unchallenged.

It may well be that the armed forces should review the training of soldiers as there are reports that standards of training and discipline have fallen in recent years. Lack of proper training not only pose a threat to the lives of the soldiers concerned putting them in harm’s way, but also serves as a threat to national security.

Given the crucial role the armed forces play in securing the nation from external aggression it is to be expected that only competent applicants would be enlisted into the armed forces. There must be no return to the days under military rule when the then Chief of Army Staff, General Salihu Ibrahim, famously referred to the army during his tenure as an “army of anything goes”.

The Obasanjo administration sought to restore professionalism to the armed forces but the jury is still out in determining whether that process has run its course. While it is only natural that the armed forces ought to reflect the ethnic and religious diversity of the country, competence should not be sacrificed on the altar of religious and ethnic sentiment. The army is about leadership and followership. A competent commander is more likely to get the loyalty of his troops.

The Nigerian armed forces first earned their spurs in peacekeeping operations in the Congo in the early 60s under the leadership of the then Colonel JTU Aguyi-Ironsi, a reputation which they later cemented in Liberia and then Sierra Leone. However, in recent years standards have slipped. Some Nigerian soldiers sent on peacekeeping missions were found wanting, suggesting perhaps that they were selected on the basis of sentiment and not competence. For instance, in a paper presented at a conference on security at Stellenbosch, South Africa in August 2013, Professor Ibrahim Gambari Nigeria’s former ambassador to the UN recalled his experience as the Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and African Union Mission (UNAMID) in Darfur: “We had some contingents in UNAMID including sadly from Nigeria, which did not really perform to expectations. Fortunately the Nigerian government sought to address this issue by repatriating one battalion, sending new troops and reequipping them.”

To reorganize the armed forces as an effective fighting force would require political will and imagination. It would depend on engaging the services of competent tried and tested officers with integrity and the strength of character to change things. Officers appointed to the military high command ought to be of the highest calibre.

Neighbourhood diplomacy has an important role to play in securing the cooperation of our neighbours in Nigeria’s efforts in containing the conflict in the north east. It has spilled over into the neighbouring countries with thousands of Nigerian refugees crossing the border into Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Needless to say, there is a pressing need to intensify cross border cooperation with our immediate neighbours in the north. Our borders are the first line of defence against external aggression.

Nigeria’s foreign policy towards its neighbours has long been predicated on good neighbourliness or being your neighbour’s keeper so to speak. It was one of the guiding principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy enunciated by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who also doubled as foreign minister at independence. Good neighbourliness is not an abstract concept. In some cases our neighbours are our brothers, the same people speaking the same language but divided by the colonial boundaries.

The late Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo told me during a meeting in his office in London in 1986 that, as a young diplomat he was on the entourage of the first Nigerian ambassador to Cameroon, a Fulani, to present his credentials to Ahidjo who was himself a Fulani from Garoua in northern Cameroon. After the official exchange of pleasantries in English and French both Ahidjo and the ambassador went into a closed session and spoke in Fulfulde.

Ordinarily, Nigeria’s relations with the neighbouring countries should have been the most important focus of our foreign policy, but for the distortions of colonial rule and a global economic system excessively skewed in favour of the developed countries. That is why in our hierarchy of diplomatic representation it is New York, London and Washington that are at the top of the list and not Niamey, Yaounde and Ndjamena.

Nigeria’s good neighbour policy paid off during the civil war when Niger, Chad and Cameroon gave unflinching support to Nigeria despite attempts by France their former colonial power to influence them to act otherwise. Cameroon’s stance under president Ahmadu Ahidjo was particularly crucial in this regard. It secured its border with south eastern Nigeria preventing the infiltration of arms into that part of the country. There is no reason why Nigeria should not count on President Paul Biya’s cooperation this time around.

When Chad was racked by civil wars in the late 70s and early 80s Nigeria could not feign indifference to the conflict. Consequently, Nigeria brokered peace between the two major protagonists and heads of the warring factions, Hissene Habre and Goukouni Weddeye. This culminated in Nigeria dispatching troops to Chad in March 1979. Known as the Neutral Force, it was commanded by the then Colonel Mohammed Magoro, now a member of Senate.

Amid reports of cross border raids and safe havens, the role of our neighbours has taken on added significance. Given their proximity and the potential spill-over effects, it is a matter of enlightened self- interest for our neighbours to support Nigeria in its war against the insurgents, since none of them is immune to conflict. It is just as well that the principle of non- interference which used to be such a cardinal principle in inter-African relations has steadily given way to that of non-indifference. Cameroon and Chad are also immediate neighbours of the Central African Republic; they are already feeling the impact of the sectarian conflict in that country.

In addition to closer engagement with our immediate neighbours, government should also accelerate moves to tackle the threat posed by the proliferation of small and light weapons in the sub region given our porous borders. Government agencies notably the customs and immigration need to focus attention on those borders.

In commenting on the war in the north east, government spokesmen ought to be careful and guarded in what they say. They should stop putting unrealistic timelines or deadlines on how long they think the insurgency would last. Each time they did so, it emboldened the insurgents to prove them wrong by launching fresh attacks.

Needless to say the insurgency in the North East region is rooted in poverty, youth unemployment, inequality and social exclusion; religion is being used as a convenient pretext for it. There is no quick fix or a silver bullet to end the conflict; it requires a painstaking mix of the use of force, intelligence gathering, diplomacy and dialogue. It is also about winning hearts and minds of the people in the area. Governments at all levels ought to be seen to be assisting in resettling those displaced by the conflict and at the same time addressing its underlying causes with a view to finding a long term solution.

Dr Oyewumi is a member of Editorial Board of Daily Trust

West Africa: West African livelihoods weakened by graft

Jan 3, 2014. DAKAR, 3 January 2014 (IRIN) – Poor public services in many West African countries, with already dire human development indicators, are under constant pressure from pervasive corruption. Observers say graft is corroding proper governance and causing growing numbers of people to sink into poverty.

“If you want to put a human face to corruption… then see how we have kids who walk miles to school because there are no public transport systems,” said Harold Aidoo, the executive director of the Institute for Research and Democratic Development in Monrovia, the Liberian capital.

“You see women and mothers who give birth and die because there are no basic drugs or equipment at the hospitals, and no qualified or trained health professionals. You realize that many of our impoverished populations do not have access to clean drinking water,” he said.

Lapaque said this could mean creating an independent anti-corruption entity, or giving political independence to judges and prosecutors. Civil society groups and NGOs can help in developing codes of conduct, promoting integrity, and advocating the adoption of appropriate legislation, as well as the training of anti-corruption agencies, added Kalenga.

Bribery, rigged elections, shady contract deals with multinational businesses operating in the natural resources sector, and illicit cash transfers out of countries are some of the more common forms of graft. In sub-Saharan Africa, 90 percent of countries are seen to be corrupt, the watchdog said.

“There is no doubt that corruption affects pure and sustainable development in West Africa, and there is no doubt that it most often affects the poorest and weakest portions of society”
The region accounts for 11 percent of the world’s population, but carries 24 percent of the global disease burden. It also bears a heavy burden of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria but lacks the resources to provide even basic health services, according to the International Finance Corporation.

Almost half of the world’s deaths of children under five years old occur in Africa, which also has the highest maternal mortality rate, the organization says.
Parents sometimes have to pay bribes to get their children admitted to good schools, said Pierre Lapaque, the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) representative for West and Central Africa.

“There is no doubt that corruption affects pure and sustainable development in West Africa, and there is no doubt that it most often affects the poorest and weakest portions of society.”

Illicit cash flight

As much as US$1.3 trillion has been illegally transferred out of Africa in the past three decades, said a by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based advocacy group monitoring illicit financial flows.

Nigeria’s oil industry has been plagued by graft allegations that gave rise to complaints of neglect and a rebellion by people in the oil-producing southern regions. A draft report released in May 2013 by Liberia’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative noted that nearly all resource contracts signed since 2009 had violated regulations.

“Economically speaking, when millions of dollars are filtered out every year by corruption, this is very corrosive in terms of its impact on society,” Aidoo said. “It is very corrosive in how it undermines growth and development and the well-being of our population.”

Corrupt politics

Many political campaigns in Africa are fraught with allegations of irregularities and malpractice. “Not only are elections prone to corruption in the form of vote-rigging and fraud-monitoring, but by the way in which our political elites become entrenched in power,” said Tendai Murisa, director of TrustAfrica’s Agriculture Advocacy and Financial Flows programme.

“Corruption creates a way to perpetuate the regime, and one of the ways they perpetuate the regime is to buy votes, so that really affects the quality of democracy,” said Murisa, noting that a government deemed corrupt inspires little trust in the people, whose voices are often silenced or ignored when they speak out against graft.

Because the poor rely more on public services, they spend the largest percentage of their income on bribes to officials and even school administrators, so corruption pushes the most vulnerable further into poverty. In Sierra Leone, 69 percent of people think the police are corrupt, and in Nigeria the figure rises to 78 percent, said UNODC’s Lapaque.

Floundering anti-graft war

Despite efforts to increase transparency and accountability throughout the continent, the war against graft in sub-Saharan Africa has been on the decline over the last decade, according to the World Bank’s 2013 World Governance Indicators. With the exception of South Africa and Botswana, sub-Saharan Africa scored in the lowest percentile for the control of corruption worldwide.

“If a country’s [public] service is staffed by civil servants based in nepotism or bribery, rather than merit and competence, it creates significant problems,” Lapaque said. “Not only are fewer job opportunities made available to those who deserve them, but the rule of law is undermined and economic growth is stifled.”

Weak governance often undermines security services, which can lead to an increase in local and transnational organized crime, including arms and drug trafficking. It can also undermine human rights. “It’s really very often a failure of our government to be efficient gatekeepers of our resources, and of them allowing leakages within and out of our economies,” Murisa said.

Strategies

To fight corruption, governments first need to recognize that it is a real problem. “They need to ensure that national structures in charge of fighting corruption are well resourced, and staff have the capacity to do their work in an independent way, without political interference,” said Marie-Ange Kalenga, Transparency International’s West Africa regional coordinator.

“They also need to ensure there is an appropriate legal framework, in line with the regional and the international instruments on anti-corruption, and to educate ordinary citizens and promote integrity at the individual level,” she said.

Kalenga said this could mean creating an independent anti-corruption entity, or giving political independence to judges and prosecutors. Civil society groups and NGOs can help in developing codes of conduct, promoting integrity, and advocating the adoption of appropriate legislation, as well as the training of anti-corruption agencies.

Empowering citizens to denounce corruption and to seek redress if they are victims of corruption could also help, as could making budgets more transparent and including people in the participation of public spending, Lapaque suggested.

“Transparency is an important factor in building democratic governments that are accountable to their people,” said Tom Cardamone, GFI’s managing director. “I think that’s what we need to do to stem the flow of illicit money and stop this corruption.”

Murisa said, “If we just got back 50 percent of what we are currently losing to corruption, it could mean things like advancements in education or better road systems. We could make sure our children are back at school, we could make sure we are maintaining social welfare systems, and we could make sure our healthcare delivery systems are working properly.”

SOMALIA: Pirates Looting Cargoes With AK-47s Threaten African Oil

They also took the ship’s cargo. The Maltese-flagged vessel was carrying about 10,000 tons of fuel oil belonging to France’s largest oil company when it was attacked by 15 pirates off the coast of Gabon in West Africa. The hijackers kept control of the tanker for seven days as they siphoned off the fuel.

While Total SA (FP) eventually got its fuel oil back with the help of Ghana’s navy, Varma’s story is becoming increasingly typical as Africa’s west coast replaces Somalia as the world’s most piracy-prone area. The attacks, which are getting more frequent and more violent, threaten shipping in sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil-producing region.

West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea had 40 piracy attacks in the first nine months of the year, compared with 10 incidents in waters around Somalia, according to data from the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre. As well as stealing from ships, kidnappings are on the rise. Last month, two U.S. citizens were seized from a supply ship before being released after more than two weeks.

Taking Hostages

“Initially they were interested in holding the ships, stealing the cargo, taking this ship-crew’s possessions and money and leaving,” said Roy Paul, a director at the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme. “This year, we’ve seen an increase in taking hostages” for ransom.

Nigeria, Gabon, Ghana and other countries around the Gulf of Guinea produce more than 3 million barrels of oil a day, or about one-third of Africa’s output, according to data compiled by BP Plc. The region’s crude, often so-called sweet grades that are refined into high-value motor fuels, is shipped to refiners in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea are also leading liquefied natural gas exporters.

This year, piracy has spread through the region from Nigeria, where theft from ships has long been common, and ships are being attacked farther offshore, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Boardings or hijacks have been reported off Togo, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Warships Deployed

Piracy’s rise in West Africa has been mirrored by its decline off Somalia, where kidnappings spurred a response from shipowners and western governments. The deployment of warships and the use of armed guards have resulted in the number of incidents plunging this year.

The use of private security may be less effective in the Gulf of Guinea because the pirates are more violent, said Jan Fritz Hansen, who chairs the piracy task force at the European Community Shipowners’ Associations.

“They are becoming more and more organized,” Hansen said in an interview. “You can’t really rely on private armed guards. It should be a more strong force from governments. The criminals down there are a bit better equipped and armed.”

International oil companies exporting from the region are taking steps to protect ships from attack.

“We take additional precautions on all our LNG tankers for security,” Andrew Gould, chairman of U.K.-based producer BG Group Plc (BG/), which exports all of Equatorial Guinea’s natural gas, said in an interview. “We have a procedure in place. We have warned people.”

Protect Vessels

Peter Voser, the chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), the biggest operator of oilfields in Nigeria, and Total Chief Financial Officer Patrick de la Chevardiere said they had policies to protect their vessels from attacks.

“We are facing a difficult situation in Nigeria; we are protecting our staff there,” de la Chevardiere said. “We faced several kidnappings in Nigeria for money. We were able to solve all of them.”

West African nations made some progress on fighting piracy after agreeing on a Code of Conduct to help protect trade and shipping, said Simon Bennett, a director at the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents companies controlling more than 80 percent of the world’s merchant tonnage. Last month, politicians agreed to develop coordination mechanisms in 2014, the United Nations Office for West Africa said.

Sovereign Waters

Many Gulf of Guinea incidents occur in national waters and governments need to bolster efforts to guard their coastlines and fight money laundering from the sale of stolen goods such as oil, said Andrew Linington, a spokesman for the Nautilus International trade union. The sovereign status of the waters prevents shipowners from hiring private armed guards or using foreign navies to patrol the area.

Piracy “is clearly a threat, which we take very seriously,” Shell’s Voser said. “There are various measures one can take. You either avoid these areas or when you go through, you go in convoys and you can be protected.”

The M/V Cotton was drifting 2.1 nautical miles (3.7 kilometers) off the Gabonese port of Gentil when it was attacked. The 24 crew members were finally released unharmed by the pirates, who claimed to be from Nigeria, Varma said. He’s considering a new line of work.

Since the incident, the Cotton oil-product tanker has been renamed Sky, according to data on Bloomberg.

20 Poorest Countries In The World

In the early 80′s, Bob Geldof of the band called The Boomtown Rats saw in the news the massive famine engulfing the African country of Ethiopia. He felt guilty because he couldn’t believe that while the Western world was suffering from an abundance of wealth and food, a continent just below them were a people that did not have anything at all.

He organized Band Aid, enlisting the help of other stars like Bono, George Michael and Sting, to raise funds for Africa through a song entitled “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Their counterparts in the United States followed suit, with Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie writing a song called “We are the World.” They then banded together for Live Aid, that added stars like Madonna, Paul McCartney and Elton John in a two-continent concert.

Yet, almost three decades after, Africa remains a veritable wasteland. Out of the 20 poorest countries in the world, 17 comes from the continent, including nine out of the top 10.

Based on the different countries’ gross domestic product purchasing power parity, here are the 20 poorest countries in the world in 2013.

20. Haiti – $1,358.10 (2012 INCREASE FROM TWENTIETH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1235)
Haiti is a country in the Caribbean that was the first independent nation of Latin America, the second republic in the entire Americas, and the first republic in the world to be led by blacks. It is one of only two nations in the Americas to speak French in an official capacity. It has been ravaged by political violence throughout its history.

19. Nepal – $1,347.62
Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is home to eight of the 10 tallest mountains in the world, including the tallest at Mt. Everest. It is host to Lumbini, one of the holiest places in the world as it was the birthplace of Lord Buddha. It suffered from a civil war that culminated to an agreement in 2008 to abolish the monarchy.

18. South Sudan – $1,324.10
South Sudan is a new state that got its independence in 2011. It is a landlocked country in east central Africa. It has little infrastructure and has the highest maternal mortality and female illiteracy rates in the word. It has one of the most underdeveloped economies in the world.

17. Comoros – $1,296.77 (2012 DROP FROM EIGHTTEENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1232)
Comoros is an archipelago off the eastern coast of Africa. It is the third smallest nation in Africa based on area. Its unique position allows it to become the only nation that is a member of the African Union, Francophonie, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League and the Indian Ocean Commission at the same time. It has suffered from numerous coup attempts, and half its people live below the poverty line.

16. Guinea-Bissau – $1,268.46 (2012 DROP FROM SEVENTEENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1144)
Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa that was once part of the Mali Empire. It has been independent since 1973, but no president has ever served the full five-year term because of political instability.

15. Mozambique – $1,262.96 (2012 INCREASE FROM FOURTEENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1085)
Mozambique is a country in southeast Africa. Endowed with rich natural resources, its average GDP growth is actually quite high. It however lags behind in GDP per capita, human development, average life expectancy and inequality measures.

14. Ethiopia – $1,258.60 (2012 DROP FROM FIFTEENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1093)
Ethiopia is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the most populous landlocked country in the world and the second most populated nation in the entire African continent. It actually has the largest GDP in central and east Africa, but famines and civil wars in the past destabilized the country.

13. Guinea – $1,162.18 (2012 NO CHANGE, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1083)
Guinea is a country in the western part of Africa. It is the second largest producer of bauxite in the world and is known to have rich deposits of gold and diamonds. It is marked with poor infrastructure and frequent electricity and water shortages despite great potential for hydroelectric power. Bauxite and alumina are currently the only major exports. Guinea’s poorly developed infrastructure and rampant corruption continue to present obstacles to large-scale investment projects. Agriculture employs 80% of the nation’s labor force. Under French rule, and at the beginning of independence, Guinea was a major exporter of bananas, pineapples, coffee, peanuts, and palm oil. From independence until the presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by a number of autocratic rulers, which has contributed to making Guinea one of the poorest countries in the world.

12. Togo – $1,145.94 (2012 INCREASE FROM TENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $899)
Togo is a country in west Africa. Though it serves as a regional and trade center in the region, economic reforms and activities have been stalled by political strife and instability. Togo is among the world’s largest producers of phosphate. Approximately one half of the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.

11. Mali – $1,136.77 (2012 DROP FROM SIXTEENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $1128)
Mali is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is the third largest producer of gold in the African continent. Half of its population lives below the international poverty line.

10. Afghanistan – $1,072.19 (2012 DROP FROM TWELFITH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $956)
Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South Asia that is considered as one of the most dangerous in the world. It is the largest producer of refugees and asylum seekers in the world. Terrorist groups still abound in the country despite international efforts to rebuild the country.

9. Madagascar – $972.07 (2012 DROP FROM ELEVENTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $934)
Madagascar is an island country off the coast of southeast Africa. It is a biodiversity hotspot, with 90 percent of its wildlife unique to the country. Over 90 percent of its population lives at less than two dollars per day. Madagascar’s mainstay of growth are tourism, agriculture and the extractive industries.

8. Malawi – $893.84 (2012 DROP FROM NINTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $860)
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa. It has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. There is also a high prevalence of AIDS among its population.

7. Niger – $853.43 (2012 NO CHANGE, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $771)
Niger is a landlocked country in western Africa. It suffers from a lack of infrastructure, poor health care, environmental degradation and poor education among its people.

6. Central African Republic – $827.93 (2012 NO CHANGE, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $768)
The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in central Africa. It has degenerated into practical anarchy after a coup in March 2013 removed all vestiges left of governance. It also suffered from armed conflicts in the 2000′s. Despite its significant mineral resources; uranium reserves in Bakouma, crude oil, gold, diamonds, lumber, hydropower and its arable land, it remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Diamonds constitute the most important export of the Central Africans Republic, accounting for 40–55% of export revenues.

5. Eritrea – $792.13 (2012 NO CHANGE, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $735)
Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa. It became independent in 1991. Affected by the Italian colonizers of the 19th century. Eritrea’s advantage of controlling the sea route through the Suez Canal made the italians to colonized it just a year after the opening of the canal in 1869 and same reason the British conquered it in 1941. eritrea has a fast growing economy at 8.7 percent, though much of its GDP was accounted for by remittances from abroad.

4. Liberia – $716.04 (2012 INCREASE FROM SECOND, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $456)
Liberia is a country in west Africa. It is one of the few countries in Africa that have not been colonized by Europe. Instead, Liberia was founded and colonized by freed slaves from America. These slaves made up the elite of the country and they established a government that closely resembled that of the United States. In 1980 the president of Liberia was overthrown and a period of instability and civil war followed. After the killings of hundreds of thousands, a 2003 peace deal was led to democratic elections in 2005. Today, Liberia is recovering from the lingering effects of the civil war and related economic dislocation, with about 85% of the population lives below $1 a day.

3. Burundi – $648.58 (2012 DROP FROM FOURTH, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $615)
Burundi is a landlocked country in east Africa. It is known for its tribal and civil wars. Burundi have never really had any peaceful time between the everlasting civil wars as a result its the fourth poorest country. Owing in part to its landlocked geography, poor legal system, lack of economic freedom, lack of access to education, and the proliferation of HIV and AIDS. Approximately 80% of Burundians live in poverty and according to the World Food Programme 57% of children under 5 years suffer from chronic malnutrition; 93% of Burundi’s exports revenues come from selling coffee..

2. Zimbabwe – $589.46 (2012 DROP FROM THIRD, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $487)
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in south Africa. It has been ruled by Robert Mugabe since 1980 and he is often blamed for the country’s poor human rights record and economic decline.

1. Democratic Republic of Congo – $394.25 (2012 NO CHANGE FROM FIRST, INCREASE IN GDP FROM $348)
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the second largest country in Africa. It was known as Zaire until 1997. Congo is the largest country in the world that has French as an official language – the population of D.R Congo is about six million larger than the population of France (71 million people in D.R Congo vs 65 million in France). The Second Congo War beginning in 1998 has devastated the country. The war that involves at least 7 foreign armies is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II – by 2008 the Second Congo War and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people. It is beset with violent atrocities because of the fight for control of its mineral wealth. While it has potential in agriculture, it suffers from a high rate of malnutrition and mortality.

NOT ON THE LIST
Sierra Leone finished eighth in 2012 with a GDP $849 (As of 2011)
A West African country with English as its official language, Sierra Leone has relied on mining, especially diamonds, for its economic base and home to the third largest natural harbour in the world where shipping from all over the globe berth at Freetown’s famous Queen Elizabeth II Quay. It is among the top diamond producing nations in the world, and mineral exports remain the main foreign currency earner and also among the largest producers of titanium and bauxite, and a major producer of gold. Despite this natural wealth, 70% of its people live in poverty.

Uganda finished twentieth in 2012. did not make the list with a GDP 2012 $1,317 (As of 2011)
Uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world, with 37.7 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day. Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, small deposits of copper, gold, and other minerals, and recently discovered oil. Despite making enormous progress in reducing the countrywide poverty incidence from 56 percent of the population in 1992 to 31 per cent in 2005, poverty remains deep-rooted in the country’s rural areas, which are home to more than 85 per cent of Ugandans.

A guide to terrorist, security actors in East Africa

Published 8 October 2013
The continuing violence in East Africa is often attributed to Somalia’s instability, triggered by the collapse of the government more than twenty years ago, and the descent of the country into a war among war lords, tribes, and religious factions. Here is a useful guide to the main groups and organizations which operate in the region which extends from Eritrea in the north to Tanzania in the south.
The continuing violence in East Africa is often attributed to Somalia’s instability, triggered by the collapse of the government more than twenty years ago, and the descent of the country into a war among war lords, tribes, and religious factions.
USNews offers a useful guide to the main groups and organizations which operate in the region which extends from Eritrea in the north to Tanzania in the south.
Al Shabab
Al-Shabab, which translates to “The Youth,” was formed out of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a coalition of Islamic courts operating in areas of Somalia controlled by Islamists to enforce Sharia law. The United States supported an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006 to root out the Islamists and destroy the ICU. When the Ethiopian military retreated, the remnants of the ICU formed al Shabab as an umbrella organization for Islamic militants in the Horn of Africa.
Al Shabab, which always had a strong Somali national message in addition to its Islamic ideology, enjoyed financial support from members of the Somali diaspora abroad, allowing the organization to gain control parts of Somalia, including most of southern and central Somalia and parts of Mogadishu and Kismayo, from 2007 to 2011.
In 2011, the African Union (AU) created the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and launched a broad campaign against al Shabab strongholds.
The AMISON campaign chased al Shaba out of most of the areas it had controlled. The organization went through a period of internal squabbles and infighting, and leaders and members who were not deemed radical enough were expelled or killed, and radical Moktar ali Zubeyr emerged as the new leader.
“It became much smaller but much more radical,” J. Peter Pham, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and frequent adviser to Congress and the White House, told USNews.
This was also the period when al Shabab sought closer relationship with al Qaeda, and increased its recruitment efforts among Somalis who lived abroad, including the United States.
Al- Qaeda in East Africa
Al Qaeda in East Africa refers to Islamic militancy in East Africa excluding al Shabab. The group has been a financial supporter of al Shabab, and many of its founding leaders have trained with other al Qaeda-affiliated groups. One of the group’s missions is to establish an Islamic state independent of Western influence.
The reason for the group’s existence is the unease with which Osama bin Laden regarded al Shabab. Bin laden was living in Sudan until 1996, and became familiar with Somali Islamists. He was never convinced about the depth of their commitment to the Islamic cause, and regarded them more as Somali nationalists who were employing the universal language of Islam to pursue parochial Somali interests. While he was heading al Qaeda, therefore, he preferred to support the competing Al Qaeda in East Africa (the relationship between al Shabab and Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s successor, are much better).
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISON)
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISON) consists of thousands of Ugandan, Burundian, Kenyan soldiers, with a few hundred soldiers each from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Djibouti. The force of about 17,000 soldiers was created to protect the central Somali government from attacks by al Shabaab and to destroy the infrastructure used by extremist groups in the country. AMISON’s commanderMaj. Gen. Fred Mugisha has reiterated that AMISON’s mission is to clear Somalia of al Shabaab, not to occupy the country. “We need the support of all peace loving Somalis to help us restore peace and stability to the city (Mogadishu). We urge the civilian population to support their government and isolate and reject criminals. That way we can start to provide effective security together,” he said.
The Forces of the Federal Republic of Somalia
The Forces of the Federal Republic of Somalia is the official name of the Somali military. This is not a national military in any meaningful sense of the term. Rather, over the past three years, some warlords and clan leaders appointed themselves as members of the Somali parliament, and each made a “contribution” to the state by ordering some members of his clan or militia to join the Forces. These newly minted “soldiers,” however, are loyal to the clan leader or warlord who sent them to join the military, not to their immediate commanders or the country’s nominal government.
U.S. forces
In addition to the occasional commando raid, like the Saturday Special Forces raid in Somalia, American forces in the Horn of Africa are limited to an air base in Djibouti, support troops for AMISOM, and ship-borne Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) which patrol the region’s seas. Col. Francis Donovan, former commander of the Marine’s 24th MEU. Told USNews that, “The ultimate goal of bringing up security forces in other countries is so they can fight so we don’t have to.”