Category: APO-OPA

MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) today called on the authorities in Puntland and Galmudug to guarantee the safety of journalists named on a hit list that was found on an Al-Shabaab fighter.

Galmudug security forces recently arrested an Al-shabaab fighter by the name Abdihakim Hassan Hamud after he killed and wounded civilian people in northern Galkayo and found on him a list of Mudug region officials, journalists and business people he was supposed to assassinate. Galmugud handed Hamud to Puntland.

Hamud, who claimed to be from Eelbuur town in central Somalia, reportedly admitted to be an Al-shabaab member who was deployed to “kill number of people in Galkayo” according to colonel Mohamed Nur Ali, police commander in Galkayo.

Top on the Al-Shabaab’s hit list was director of Radio Galkayo, Awil Mohamud Abdi, whom they planned to assassinate him on 3 March, according to the list discovered by the security forces, which was also admitted by the Al-Shabaab assassin. Abdi’s picture was also found on Hamud. The apprehended Al-shabaab fighter had six other journalists on the hit list.

“Authorities in both southern and northern Galkayo must beef up the security and the protection of journalists in Galkayo. They can do that by guaranteeing the safety of all the journalists named in the list, protection for media houses in Galkayo and all other journalists in Mudug region,” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.

When confronted at police station, Awil Mohamud Abdi was able to recognise Hamud to be following him in restaurants and public places. Abdi and the other six journalists left Galkayo to Garowe and Hargeisa for safety reasons.

On 2 August 2013, at around 23hrs local time, armed men followed Awil Mohamud Abdi from Radio Galkayo. 5 minutes later when Abdi arrived his house and put on the light in his bedroom, seven bullets slammed into the bedroom window near where he had been standing. Awil threw himself to the ground. Holes in his bedroom wall and bullets on the floor were found. Abdi was unharmed.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — TheAmbassador of the Republic of Belarus to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, H.E. Dimitry Kuptel, on Thursday, 6 Ma…

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Authorities in Somaliland must re-open the offices of an independent newspaper in Hargeisa, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said today.

According to IFJ affiliate, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), the Hubaal newspaper in Hargeisa, Somaliland, has been closed since 13 December, 2013, following a raid by the police rapid reinforcement unit (RRU). Police continue to occupy the newspaper’s headquarters.

“We are deeply disturbed by the actions of Somaliland authorities to shut down Hubaal newspaper and forcefully occupy its offices,” said Gabriel Baglo, IFJ Africa Director. “Authorities in Hargeisa should halt their on-going crackdown on Hubaal and allow it to operate without fear of reprisal”.

Somaliland police have accused Hubaal newspaper of dividing the police leadership and misleading security officials, while also claiming that they obtained a court order to close the paper down, although the NUSOJ says they failed to produce this order during the raid.

“The continued closure of Hubaal and presence of police in their offices is nothing but censorship and an attempt to intimidate other media from being critical,” said NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman. “Somaliland should withdraw all its forces immediately. Hubaal newspaper and its journalists are exercising their journalistic duty and the authorities must not target them because of their media work.”

Harassment of Hubaal newspaper and its journalists has increased since April 2013 as the newspaper has been covering critical issues. On 11 June 2013, a Somaliland regional court in Hargeisa banned the publishing and distribution of the paper.

On 3 July, Hubaal editor Hassan Hussein Keefkeef was sentenced to two years in jail, while the paper’s manager Mohamed Ahmed Jama Aloley received a one-year sentence. Both men were also ordered to pay a 2,000,000-shilling ($350) fine each, Marodi Jeh Regional Court Judge Osman Ibrahim Dahir told the media.

The two journalists were found guilty of reporting “false news”, “slandering top Somaliland officials”, and “falsely accusing employees of the Ethiopian consulate of smuggling alcohol into Hargeisa”. The President of Somaliland later pardoned both journalists and the newspaper was allowed to resume its operations.

On 24 April 2013, two gunmen attacked the headquarters of the newspaper, injuring managing director Mohamed Ahmed Jama. The two gunmen are believed to be Somaliland police, and one of the policemen was caught by the Hubaal staffers and was later released by Somaliland authorities.

“Clearly this is systematic campaign to censor and intimidate an independent newspaper in Somaliland. Hubaal is a victim of its reporting about what is really happening in Somaliland,” added Baglo.

The IFJ urges Somaliland to ensure that independent media outlets are not harassed, and to allow Somaliland journalists to practice their profession without fear of retaliation.

HARARE, Zimbabwe, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The European Union (EU), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Government of Zimbabwe have launched a major programme to assist poor smallholder f…

BERN, Switzerland, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — On Wednesday evening 5 March 2014, the FDFA state secretary, Yves Rossier, received Mr Djibril Bassolé, minister of foreign affairs and regional cooperation of Burkina Faso, who is in Switzerland on an official working visit. Switzerland’s long-standing commitment to Burkina Faso, in particular in the field of development and economic cooperation, was one of the topics of the talks. Mali was also an item on the agenda.

Mr Rossier and Mr Bassolé emphasised the quality of relations between Switzerland and Burkina Faso, which have been based on a development cooperation partnership over the last 40 years. Specifically, Switzerland – through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) – supports programmes to reduce poverty, in particular through the modernisation of family farms, access to high-quality education and professional training, as well as decentralisation.

Switzerland is also helping to strengthen the institutional and organisational capacities of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Burkina Faso and to control public finances. In addition, Switzerland promotes the participation of citizens in the country’s political life as well as transparency in fiscal matters and the commodities trade.

Mr Bassolé took the opportunity of the meeting to express his appreciation for Switzerland’s support for Burkina Faso at the local level via a partnership with population groups, local communities and community organisations. During the period from 2013-2016, Switzerland envisages an annual overall commitment for Burkina Faso of CHF 29 million.

Concerning foreign policy, Switzerland and Burkina Faso are actively promoting peace in West Africa. In this context, Mr Rossier and Mr Bassolé addressed the need for the national political dialogue in Mali to take place in the context of the support provided by the international community. Against the backdrop of Switzerland’s overall commitment to Mali in the field of development, humanitarian aid, peace promotion and the fight against the financing of terrorism, Mr Rossier reiterated Switzerland’s availability to continue its support within the framework of the current process.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The U.S. government and African partners met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a dialogue on strategic approaches to countering violent extremist messaging in the greater Horn of Africa region. The Feb. 23–28 workshop was co-hosted by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) and attended by approximately 60 professionals.

The communication abilities of extremist groups were on display during the September 2013 terrorist attack on Westgate Mall, in Nairobi, Kenya, by the Somalia-based Al Shabaab group. During the four-day siege, the attackers orchestrated a sequenced social media messaging campaign explaining why they had carried out the attack, providing their version of events inside the mall, taunting the Kenyan government, and sowing panic among Kenyans.

Al-Shabaab and other extremist groups have long understood that communications are domain of modern warfare, said Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie, a senior official in the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking to participants at the opening of the workshop. Ambassador Selassie said extremists groups have invested time and effort into understanding strategic communications and, as a result, are able to coordinate attacks much more easily.

“As technologies become more sophisticated and available, so have the tools of choice for terrorist organizations,” Ambassador Selassie said. “They are not just fighting wars kinetically but also through the war of ideas.” He called on the U.S. and African partners to employ a two-pronged approach centering on countering the terrorist message itself, while at the same time delivering communications to reach out to vulnerable groups that are at risk of being radicalized or recruited.

ACSS Acting Director Mr. Michael Garrison said that growth and sophistication of terrorist organizations requires, rather than a reactive approach, a more proactive and coordinated approach that creates greater synergies throughout inter-agency organizations and with African partners.

Brigadier General Wayne Grisby, Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), a U.S.-led task force based in Djibouti, echoed Mr. Garrison’s remarks by calling for the deliberate employment of all available tools of statecraft – diplomacy, strategic communications, military operations, intelligence, development and financial tools – in a comprehensive strategy in close coordination and partnership with African nations. Brig. Gen. Grisby urged interagency and African partners to pay closer attention to strategic communications and messaging as valuable, but still underutilized, instruments of statecraft.

Throughout the workshops, attendees planned to discuss the drivers of extremism, face-to-face messaging, identifying credible voices, and crafting alternative visions to challenge the conceptual bases of terrorist messages.

To reflect the inter agency aspect of the partnership, several U.S. agencies, in addition to ACSS and CJTF-HOA, were participating, to including the U.S. Department of State, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM), and the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA). The Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) is the pre-eminent Department of Defense (DOD) institution for strategic security studies, research and outreach in Africa.

The Africa Center engages African partner states and institutions through rigorous academic and outreach programs that build strategic capacity and foster long-term, collaborative relationships. Over the past 15 years, more than 6,000 African and international leaders have participated in hundreds of ACSS programs.

NEW YORK, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the closing ceremony of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), as delivered in Freetown today:

I thank His Excellency President [Ernest Bai] Koroma, the Government and the Sierra Leonean people for their warm welcome. Today, we celebrate the successful conclusion of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office. This is a triumph for the people of Sierra Leone. The UN is proud to have supported them – and we thank them for proving our value.

Sierra Leone saw many UN “firsts”. This country hosted the UN’s first multidimensional peacekeeping operation with political, security, humanitarian and national recovery mandates. Sierra Leone was home to the first UN Deputy Special Representative, who also served as head of UNDP, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator, underscoring the links among peace, human rights and development. The UN Peacebuilding Commission made its first-ever visit to Sierra Leone. This country also had the first Secretary-General’s Executive Representative heading the political and development presence. This ensured an integrated approach to supporting the Government’s peacebuilding efforts.

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone overcame severe challenges and successfully brought peace to a nation torn by a decade of war. Our blue helmets disarmed more than 75,000 ex-fighters, including hundreds of child soldiers. The UN destroyed more than 42,000 weapons and 1.2 million rounds of ammunition — a potentially deadly arsenal that is now itself dead. The UN helped the Government to combat illicit diamond mining that fuelled the conflict and to establish control over the affected areas.

With the UN’s help, Sierra Leone held its first-ever free and fair elections. The UN assisted more than half a million Sierra Leonean refugees and internally displaced persons when they voluntarily returned home. We helped train thousands of local police.

Many UN staff members launched projects that gave jobs to thousands of ex‑fighters and basic services to communities. Our staff built schools and clinics, funded farming projects and provided free medical services.

The people of Sierra Leone suffered grave human rights abuses and they became staunch human rights advocates. When victims and perpetrators of atrocities were ready to talk and heal, the UN helped set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Sierra Leoneans knew their hard-won peace would only be sustained with justice. The United Nations was proud to help set up the Special Court here. This was the first country in Africa to establish, with UN participation, a tribunal on its own territory to address the most serious international crimes.

When the Special Court closed last year, it was the first of the UN and UN-backed tribunals to successfully complete its mandate. The Special Court’s sentencing of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was the first conviction of a former Head of State since Nuremberg. It showed the world that even top leaders must pay for their crimes. The Special Court’s cases recognized the terrible suffering of victims. I offer my and the United Nations highest tribute to these brave individuals. The trials saw first-ever convictions for attacks against UN peacekeepers, forced marriage as a crime against humanity, and for the use of child soldiers.

When the peacekeepers left, the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office helped Sierra Leone’s citizens to consolidate progress. This political mission addressed tensions that could have caused a relapse into conflict, while strengthening institutions and promoting human rights.

UNIPSIL helped the Government to bolster the National Electoral Committee and the Political Parties Registration Commission. It emphasized dialogue and tolerance. The Mission helped the police establish the first Transnational Organized Crime Unit in West Africa and create an Independent Police Complaints Board. UNIPSIL also helped to establish the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation. It strengthened Sierra Leone’s National Human Rights Commission, which received an award for complying with international standards.

As we mark the formal closure of UNIPSIL, I thank all of its dedicated staff and Mr. [Jens Anders] Toyberg-Frandzen for their outstanding service. I take this opportunity once again to express my deepest admiration to Mr. Toyberg-Frandzen as my Executive Representative for UNIPSIL for his leadership. And I stress that this milestone is far from the end of the UN’s engagement.

We will continue to support efforts to expand economic opportunities, deliver public services, strengthen democratic institutions, promote the rule of law and address new challenges. I welcome President Koroma’s commitment to ensuring that the constitutional review process is transparent and inclusive. This is an important opportunity for the people of Sierra Leone to address the outstanding root causes of the conflict. I am also encouraged by the holistic approach to development of the Agenda for Prosperity of His Excellency President Koroma. I call on Sierra Leoneans and the international community to press ahead for success.

In 2010, when I visited Sierra Leone, I saw a football match played by members of the Single Leg Amputee Sports Club. They had suffered during the war, but they were not thinking about the past. They were living for the moment and planning for the future. Each one of them was a champion.

Many proud sons and daughters of Sierra Leone have shown that a person’s hope is stronger than any machete. That a mutual goal can beat a machine gun. And that even the most deadly weapons can be defeated by our determined will. Sierra Leone

has taught the world many lessons, but none more important than the power of people to shape the future.

Other States devastated by conflict, hatred and atrocities can draw hope from Sierra Leone. Here we see that a strong investment — in material resources, human energy, international support and national goodwill — can bring lasting peace. Sierra Leone once hosted the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the world with 17,500 soldiers. Now some 120 Sierra Leoneans serve under the UN flag as peacekeeping troops. Some of them are here today. I salute them all.

Mr. President, allow me to present to you this blue helmet as a symbol of our past engagement and our future cooperation. As Secretary-General of the United Nations I reaffirm again in this very symbolic [ceremony] that the United Nations will continue to be with the people and the Government of Sierra Leone so that they can have a better future for all.

Thank you very much.

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 5, 2

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I send best wishes to the people of Ghana as you …

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, welcomes the conclusion of Phase II of the South Sudan Peace Process, after two weeks of…

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, March 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — “The completion of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office, UNIPSIL, marks the end of more than 15 years of successive peace and political operations that all played critical roles in supporting Sierra Leone’s remarkable transition from war to peace,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated during a joint press conference with Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma.

He commended the people of Sierra Leone for their determination to put the war behind and the international community for staying the course through the challenging process of keeping, consolidating and building peace. “Sierra Leone represents one of the world’s most successful cases of post-conflict recovery, peacekeeping and peacebuilding,” the Secretary-General further added during his second official visit to Sierra Leone, pointing out that other countries now torn by war can draw hope from this example. He stated that efforts must continue to build upon the peace gained today.

“We derive tremendous courage and confidence from the United Nations; the United Nations was pivotal in our transition from armed conflict to peace,” Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma said during the joint press conference. “We are building on this partnership for stability as we move forward with our actions for sustainable development, peace and democracy.”

The President noted that the transition of Sierra Leone into one of the fastest growing economies in the world and its effective participation in United Nations Peacekeeping missions are clear testaments to the successful transformation of the country.

During their joint meeting, President Koroma and the Secretary-General discussed the continued cooperation between the UN and the Government. The Secretary-General also met with representatives of political parties and civil societies and attended the official closing ceremony of UNIPSIL.

Over fifteen years of successive UN peace and political operations in Sierra Leone will end 31 March 2014 when UNIPSIL closes down as per United Nations Security Council Resolution (2097) of March 2013. This transition from an Integrated Peace Office – a political mission – to a more development-focused UN presence also marks a new phase of UN support in the country. The UN Family in Sierra Leone currently consists of 19 agencies, funds and programmes and a total of about 600 staff. The specialized agencies will continue to support Sierra Leone after UNIPSIL closes in meeting new challenges as the country moves forward and carry forward some of UNIPSIL’s residual tasks, including support for the ongoing constitutional review process.