The White House says the United States and its allies are still considering how to respond to atrocities in Syria and that many options are available. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted that missiles “will be coming” in response to Russia’s threat to shoot down any U.S. missiles in Syria. But a White House official said the president has set no timetable for such an attack. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
…
Month: April 2018
Teen Vote Drive Targets Pro-Gun US Lawmakers
Gun control advocates are planning to send birthday packages to newly turned 18-year-olds in 10 states where they believe pro-gun lawmakers are vulnerable. Inside each: a voter registration form. The effort is part of a teen voter sign-up campaign aimed at electing a gun control-friendly Congress in November by seizing the momentum of a movement driven by young people shaken by gun violence, organizers told Reuters.
“I think young people are going to make a huge difference in this election, and the new energy we’re seeing is going to tip the scales in a number of races,” said Isabelle James, political director for Giffords, which advocates more restrictive gun laws.
The campaign, “Our Lives, Our Votes,” combines the efforts of Giffords and two other groups following last month’s massive rallies inspired by the deadly February school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Organizers said they hoped to register at least 50,000 18- and 19-year-olds in 10 battleground states.
“America’s children took to the streets and led marches with a unified message that rang out across the country: We need a Congress that will protect us,” former Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, co-founder of Giffords, said in an emailed statement. Giffords was seriously wounded in a 2011 Arizona shooting rampage.
The other groups behind “Our Lives, Our Votes” are Everytown for Gun Safety, which includes more than 1,000 current and former mayors, and NextGen America, a liberal group founded by billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.
Starting with a $1.5 million war chest, organizers said they would reach teenagers with online voter registration ads as well as the direct-mail birthday packages.
Battleground states
Organizers said the elections they were targeting included competitive races for the Senate and House of Representatives in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Republicans are battling to maintain control of both congressional chambers in the November elections. Although the teen-voter registration campaign is non-partisan, “the sad political reality is that we do need a Democratic majority (in Congress) because we need leadership that’s willing to work with us and move forward,” James said.
She said, however, that her group supported 20 Republican lawmakers who favor stronger gun laws.
The Republican-led Congress has been generally reluctant to impede the sale of guns, in the face of constitutional protection for the right to bear arms and lobbying efforts by pro-gun rights groups including the powerful National Rifle Association.
Last month, however, lawmakers modestly improved background checks and made clear that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could study the causes of gun violence.
The Feb. 14 massacre of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, turned several survivors into household names as youthful advocates for gun control. It also inspired the huge “March for Our Lives” in Washington and other cities last month.
Gun control advocates have called for nationwide background checks on gun buyers, a 21-year-old minimum age for gun ownership and a ban on the sale of assault-style rifles.
The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Least likely to vote
At last month’s rallies, nearly 5,000 people signed up to vote in the November elections, according to HeadCount, a non-partisan group that registers young people to vote at concerts.
But young people, especially teenagers, have traditionally been the demographic group least likely to vote.
Only 46.1 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the 2016 general election, the lowest participation rate of any age group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Organizers of the campaign, however, have been buoyed by anecdotal signs that the Parkland shooting spurred teenage voter activism.
In California, new voter pre-registration among 16- and 17-year-olds surged between March 14 and April 2, according to a state official, and a new Harvard poll among 18- to 29-year-olds found a marked increase in the number who said they would “definitely be voting” this autumn.
…
Manchester Attack Survivor Snags Royal Wedding Invite
A survivor of the suicide attack at the Manchester Arena that killed 22 people last year has received an invitation to the upcoming wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle. She said initially she thought someone was ”messing” with her, then later realized it was a genuine invite. VOA’s Correspondent Mariama Diallo has more.
…
Iran’s Currency Hits Record Low; Police Target Illicit Trading
Iranian authorities have arrested 12 foreign exchange traders accused of illicit dealings, in the government’s latest response to the plunging value of the national currency against the dollar.
In a report published Wednesday, state news agency ISNA quoted Tehran’s police chief, Hosein Rahimias, as saying the 12 currency traders had been detained in the capital the previous day on suspicion of “market disruption.” Rahimi said police had seized an undisclosed amount of money from the traders and also had shut down 16 foreign exchange offices in Tehran as part of the crackdown.
Iran’s rial weakened to a record low of 60,000 to the dollar on the free market this week, according to the Reuters news agency. That marked a 50 percent drop in the rial’s value from a year ago.
Iranians have been selling rials and buying dollars in recent weeks on concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump will follow through on threats to pull out of a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran by next month and reimpose tough economic sanctions on their nation.
Many Iranians have been withdrawing their rial deposits from banks and nonbank credit institutions in order to buy dollars. That has left some institutions short of funds to guarantee customers’ deposits.
Exiled Iranian opposition group MEK posted a YouTube video Wednesday showing what it said was residents of the southwestern city of Ahvaz protesting outside a local branch of the Melal Credit Institution earlier in the day. The protesters chanted slogans criticizing the government and demanding to know what had happened to their money.
In an earlier move to stop the rial’s decline, the Iranian government unified the nation’s official and free-market exchange rates on Monday into a single rate of 42,000 rials to the dollar. Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri warned that people trading dollars above the set rate would be severely punished.
Iranian Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, a prominent Shiite religious leader, recently called for the execution of currency traders found to be operating illegally, to try to deter black market activity.
Shahram Bahraminejad of VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report.
…
Western Allies Offer Support for US to Strike at Syria, With Conditions
America’s allies are offering to join a possible military response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. But they’re urging Washington to avoid swift retaliation, saying that before a reprisal is launched, more evidence is needed that Syria was behind the chemical attack.
In very direct terms, U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Twitter Wednesday that a military response was coming:
Russian officials were quick to respond, saying if there was an American strike, then Russia would shoot down the missiles and target the positions from where they were launched.
“Smart missiles should fly toward terrorists, not the legal government that has been fighting international terrorism for several years on its territory,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked in a Facebook post.
Amid the heated social media exchange with threats and counterwarnings, all raising the stakes of a military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, Britain, France and Australia offered backing for a U.S. missile strike, but they weighted their backing with caveats.
And they questioned the deterrent effect of missile strikes, pointing out that U.S. military retaliation a year ago in response to a Syrian government sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun in the northern Syrian province of Idlib had failed to stop Assad from launching other chemical attacks, predominantly with chlorine barrel bombs dropped from regime helicopters.
In a phone conversation with Trump late Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May offered her support but, according to British officials, said Britain would need more evidence of who was behind the suspected chemical attack on Saturday on a rebel-held Damascus suburb. The attack left at least 40 people dead and up to 500 injured.
With inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) preparing to visit the suburb of Douma, the site of the attack, other Western allies said there should be no action until more facts were established.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has said France is ready to commit to punitive action, if it is confirmed that Assad crossed a red line and used chemical weapons. But he appears to want to limit retaliatory strikes to Syrian government chemical weapons facilities.
With the U.S. and its Western allies telegraphing a possible military response, analysts say they have lost the element of surprise and given the Syrian government and its military backers Russia and Iran plenty of time to get ready for an attack.
“The obvious pitfall for this likely U.S.-France-U.K. strike on Assad is that the effect of surprise is totally lost but also has given enough time for the Syrian regime, Russia and Iran to get prepared with anti-aircraft batteries and to empty potential targets,” said Olivier Guitta, managing director at GlobalStrat, a security and geopolitical risk consultancy.
He said the situation now was different from 2013 when Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, threatened to strike at Assad for a chemical attack, also on rebels and civilians in a Damascus suburb.
“Then the repercussions would have been much less in terms of actors because Iran and Russia were barely present in Syria,” he said. “While a strike on Assad is more than overdue since 2013, there’s a risk of conflagration, escalation and the first actual fighting between Russia and the West, opening the door to a longer, protracted conflict,” he warned.
That fear also appeared to be weighing on the minds of European governments allied with the U.S., including among members of May’s ruling Conservative Party in Britain, who worry that the Trump administration has no overall strategy for Syria.
“There are worries about being involved in any military action,” said David Amess, a British lawmaker. “Given the disastrous consequences of our involvement in Iraq, we need a strategy. We need it clearly laid out to parliament, what our objectives are. This is not a straightforward issue and we need to wait for the reports from the OPCW. This is a very dangerous and worrying time.”
Like other senior Conservative lawmakers, he said the prime minister would have no option but to seek parliamentary approval before ordering any strike on Syria. Julian Lewis, chairman of the British Parliament’s defense committee, said Tuesday: “When we are contemplating military intervention in other people’s conflicts, Parliament ought to be consulted first.”
That raises the prospect of a repeat of the setback suffered by May’s predecessor in Downing Street, David Cameron, who sought Parliament’s agreement in 2013 to participate in a U.S.-led military strike on Syria, only to lose the vote. The withholding of British support contributed to Obama’s decision to stay his hand and not to enforce his “red line” on the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government.
British officials said Trump had not formally asked May to participate in military action. They also said there were no immediate plans to recall the House of Commons, which is currently in recess. But May has called for a meeting Thursday of her “war cabinet,” prompting concern among opposition leaders that she might commit to some joint action without seeking parliamentary approval first.
In a statement after May’s conversation with the U.S. leader, Downing Street said the two had agreed that the international community had to respond, but they stopped short of blaming the Syrian government, which denies being behind the Douma attack. That contrasted with the tone of U.S. officials, who have been clear in pointing the finger at Assad.
The former head of British armed forces, Lord Richard Dannatt, said that if the U.S and Britain did take action, it shouldn’t be restricted to an isolated retaliatory strike, which, he said, on its own would be meaningless.
A reprisal, he said, has to be done within a “broader strategy.” He said an isolated “missile strike like the one Donald Trump ordered last year wouldn’t achieve anything, and that didn’t achieve anything.”
Dannatt dismissed various and shifting Russian explanations for the attack, including Kremlin claims that the White Helmets, a first-response volunteer organization operating in parts of rebel-controlled Syria, could have faked the attack. “The Russians have developed fake news into an art form,” he said.
“Up to this moment, it has seemed much more than likely, and high on the balance of probabilities, that this was an attack using chemical weapons carried out by the Syrian regime. … And it is right that they don’t get away with it,” he said.
…
Netanyahu: Israel Will Never Allow Iranian Military Presence in Syria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will never let Iran establish a military presence inside Syria.
Netanyahu made the vow during a telephone call Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Netanyahu’s office gave little information about the call. But a Kremlin statement said Putin talked about the importance of maintaining Syria’s sovereignty and said Israel should not take any action that threatens its security.
The Netanyahu-Putin phone call came on Israel’s annual Holocaust memorial day, when the country pauses to remember the 6 million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis in World War II.
“Events of recent days teach that standing up to evil and aggression is a mission imposed on every generation,” Netanyahu said at Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. “We saw the swastika the rioters waved on the Gaza fence. We saw the Syrian children slaughtered by chemical weapons. Our hearts were torn from the horrific images.”
Netanyahu also said Iran should not test Israel’s “resolve” as he let the Iranian people know that Israel is not their enemy, but the “regime of tyrants” in Tehran is.
“When this regime disappears from the world, and it will disappear eventually, our two ancient peoples — Jews and Persians — can live again in cooperation and brotherhood,” he said.
Israel is on high alert for possible Iranian retaliation after an Israeli airstrike on a Syrian air base Monday.
The airstrike was launched in response to an alleged Syrian chemical attack on a Damascus suburb Saturday that killed more than 40 civilians and injured hundreds.
…
US, Russia Edge Toward Showdown Over Syria
When the U.S. fired Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield a year ago after a chemical weapons attack, the Pentagon gave Moscow advance warning to get its personnel out of harm’s way.
Since then, U.S.-Russian relations have soured, and the two nuclear powers have raised the ante, getting dangerously close to a potential military clash in Syria.
U.S. President Donald Trump has taunted Moscow to “get ready” for “nice and new and ‘smart”‘ missiles coming to punish Syria for a purported chemical attack on Saturday that killed at least 40 people. The tweet followed Russia’s warning that it will strike at incoming U.S. missiles and their launch platforms.
The defiant posture leaves both the White House and the Kremlin with fewer options to respond without losing face.
A stern statement last month by Russia’s top military officer effectively drew a red line on any U.S. strike. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said Russian military officers are at Syrian facilities throughout the country and warned that “if a threat to our servicemen emerges, the Russian armed forces will take retaliatory measures against both missiles and their carriers.”
Some say the U.S. could launch a limited strike like it did in April 2017, when it hit Syria’s Shayrat airfield with cruise missiles after warning Russia. Such a scenario would allow Washington to claim it made good on its promise to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without triggering a clash with Russia.
A pinpoint U.S. strike on Syrian targets that does not harm Russian personnel “will allow Trump to say that the Assad regime has paid a heavy price … and Russia, in its turn, will be able to limit itself to ringing statements,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the head of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, an association of top Russian political and security experts.
He added, however, that the U.S. would be unlikely to warn Russia of the coming strike this time.
“The context of the relations has changed radically in the past year: We’re in a state of a real and tangible Cold War,” Lukyanov said.
Cooling relations
Moscow’s hopes of warmer ties with Washington under Trump have been shattered by the ongoing U.S. investigations of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and its potential ties with the Trump campaign. The Trump administration has ramped up sanctions against Russia and expelled dozens of diplomats. Tensions between the two countries have escalated on a broad range of issues — from the crisis in Ukraine to the war in Syria to the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain, which triggered the massive diplomatic war.
President Vladimir Putin’s top adviser, Vladislav Surkov, said in an article released earlier this week that Russia has abandoned its centuries-long aspirations of integrating into the West and is bracing for a new era of “geopolitical loneliness.” Surkov warned that “it’s going to be tough,” but added cryptically that “it’ll be fun.”
Opinions vary about what may happen in Syria.
“The situation is pretty bad, but it shouldn’t be overdramatized,” Alexei Malashenko, a leading Russian expert on Syria said in televised remarks. “I don’t believe that a clash between Russia and the U.S. is possible.”
Washington and Moscow both have said that a hotline established in 2015 to prevent incidents between their militaries in Syria has worked well, but the rising stakes make the situation more unstable than ever during the Syrian conflict.
Possible scenarios
Under one possible scenario, Russia may try to use its sophisticated electronic warfare systems deployed in Syria to make U.S. missiles veer off course without shooting them down. If that softer option doesn’t work, the Russian military could use an array of its state-of-the-art air defense assets in Syria to target the U.S. cruise missiles or drones.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, a senior lawmaker in the Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament, said in televised remarks that the Russian military was getting its electronic countermeasures and air defense assets ready for action. He added on a combative note that the situation offers a “good chance to test them in conditions of real combat.”
An even more threatening situation may evolve if the U.S. and its allies use manned aircraft, and the Russian strike results in casualties.
Such a scenario could trigger a quick escalation, leaving Russia and the U.S. on the brink of a full-scale conflict — a situation unseen even during the darkest moments of the Cold War.
Retired Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky, the former chief of the Russian Defense Ministry’s international department, warned that Russia has thousands of military advisers in Syria “practically in every battalion,” and a strike on any Syrian facility could jeopardize their lives. He warned that Russia and the U.S. will quickly find themselves in a major conflict if they allow a collision in Syria to happen.
“I have an impression that Americans’ survival instincts have grown numb, if not vanished completely,” Buzhinsky said. “They seem not to really believe that Russia will give a tough military response and expect some sort of a local brawl, exchanging some minor blows. It’s a miscalculation. Any clash between Russian and U.S. militaries will expand beyond a local conflict and an escalation will be inevitable.”
Fears of war
Andrei Klimov, the head of an upper house committee that investigates foreign meddling in Russian affairs, proudly said on the top talk show on Russian state TV that his relative, a Soviet pilot, won a medal for combat duty in Vietnam. Klimov pointed to heavy U.S. losses from Soviet missiles and jets in Vietnam, adding that Russia stands ready to counter any possible U.S. strike.
Unlike the Vietnam War, where Soviet advisers helping North Vietnam supposedly weren’t directly engaged in combat, the potential clash in Syria would pit Russia directly against the U.S.
Fears of war swept Russian newspaper headlines and TV news, with commentators discussing the darkest possible outcomes, including a nuclear war.
“What if the war starts tomorrow?” the front page of Moskovsky Komsomolets clamored on Wednesday. Russia’s best-selling newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda wondered: “Is macho Trump going to start World War III?”
Even former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev weighed in. The 87-year-old former president compared the tensions to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and said he feels “great concern.”
…
US Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing for New S. Sudan Envoy
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick to be U.S. ambassador to South Sudan, Thomas Hushek.
During his one-day hearing, Hushek said he is ready for the job despite the complexities of going to a country like South Sudan.
Democratic Senator from New Jersey Cory Booker who has visited South Sudan, told Hushek he is frustrated with the lack of progress on the South Sudan peace process and with the Trump administration’s failure to flesh out a policy regarding South the conflict, now in its fifth year.
“My concern is compounded by not only the deteriorating effects in South Sudan, but I just feel we have no articulated strategy to deal with this crisis,” said Booker. “And more than that, I have to say I am very concerned about this administration’s concern about this crisis.”
US weapons from Uganda
Booker also voiced frustration over what he calls the undermining of U.S. efforts in South Sudan by neighboring governments who help prop up the Kiir administration.
He said the UN panel “has reported that Uganda has supplied Kiir’s regime with weapons and we are giving weapons.”
“The DOD [Department of Defense] has spent $130 million to train and equip in Uganda,” he added. “And according to my notes, we have given a lot of heavy equipment, including helicopters and ammunition, and there is concern that they have been transferred from Uganda to South Sudan.”
Booker wondered if this isn’t “a serious undermining of our efforts in that area?”
Hushek said he was unaware of any U.S.-supplied weapons being transferred from Uganda to South Sudan. If true, he said the practice “needs to be ended if the idea of the arms embargo or stopping the ammunition and arms flows into the country is in order to reduce the suffering of the victims of the civil war.”
Two aid workers were killed in South Sudan several days ago, the first this year. The deaths bring the number of humanitarians killed in South Sudan to at least 98, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. And as Hushek said, the numbers keep rising, making South Sudan the most dangerous place in the world for aid workers.
Hushek assured the senate panel he is committed to working toward ending the violence.
“If confirmed, I will press the leaders of all parties to the conflict in South Sudan, and especially the government, to disavow violence and make the hard compromises necessary to achieve a peaceful resolution of their political differences,” he said.
Hushek added that he will “work tirelessly to urge respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms so that the people of South Sudan might once again aspire to a peaceful and prosperous future.”
Sanctions
The State Department has sanctioned certain, high-powered individuals in South Sudan, applied a domestic arms embargo, and added restrictions on US companies who do business with the country’s oil sector. Hushek said those pressures will not only continue but will be increased in coming days.
“Last fall we took it up to the next level and we put on sanctions on some people that were on cabinet level positions in the government of equivalence,” Hushek told U.S. senators. “And the idea is to continue to increase this pressure.”
A number of high level vacancies remain at the U.S. State Department. Mike Pompeo is scheduled to undergo Senate confirmation hearings to be the next Secretary of State, replacing Rex Tillerson. The posts of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan remain vacant.
This report was written by Ayen Bior.
…
Trump: Worst US-Russian Relations Ever
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he thinks U.S.-Russian relations are at their lowest point ever, including the saber-rattling Cold War years of six decades ago.
Trump offered his assessment of the diplomatic climate between Washington and Moscow, even as he vowed in a Twitter comment to launch “nice and new and ‘smart'” missiles targeting Syria, where Russian troops are fighting alongside the Syrian military, to punish Damascus for last weekend’s suspected chemical weapons attack that killed at least 40 people.
Trump warned, “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming,” adding his disapproval of Moscow’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”
Aside from Russia’s involvement in the long-running Syrian conflict, Trump claimed “Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation” into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has been conducting a nearly year-long investigation into Trump campaign links to Russia, and the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow was targeting the election in an effort to help Trump win.
Trump has repeatedly rejected the notion that his campaign colluded with Russia or that he has obstructed justice by trying to short-circuit the probe.
He complained that the investigation is “headed up by … all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for (former President Barack) Obama,” although Mueller is a Republican and was appointed as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by both Republican President George W. Bush and Obama.
…
WHO: Dozens Dead, Hundreds Reportedly Showing Signs of Toxins Exposure in Douma, Syria
The World Health Organization is demanding “immediate, unhindered” access to victims of a suspected chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma. The WHO says it has received reports from its partners on the ground that dozens of people have died and an estimated 500 people are showing symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic tells VOA the agency cannot verify reports of the use of toxic substances last Saturday in Douma because the WHO has no direct access to the area.
He does, say, however, that the information the WHO has received comes from national and international health partners with whom it has worked for years. Jasarevic says these reports indicate the general population was exposed to toxic agents.
“The people who were reportedly coming to health facilities included men, women and children, so the general population. They presented symptoms like respiratory failure, like discharge of mucous membrane and other symptoms that are consistent with the exposure to chemicals, like difficulty in breathing, eye irritation and other symptoms,” Jasarevic said.
The U.N. agency says the reports indicate that more than 70 people sheltering in basements have died. It says two health facilities also reportedly were affected by the alleged attacks.
The Syrian government denies being behind these alleged chemical attacks and has invited a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate. A senior WHO official has voiced outrage at the “horrific reports and images” from Douma, a suburb of Damascus.
U.S. President Donald Trump says the government of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad – who Trump labelled an “animal” – has a “big price to pay” and is threatening a military strike in retaliation for the alleged chemical attack.
your ad hereSomalia to Halt UAE Funding for Troops as Relations Sour
As relations with the United Arab Emirates sour over the seizure of millions of dollars in cash, Somalia announced Wednesday it would end UAE funding for its armed forces.
Defense Minister Mohamed Mursal’s comments to reporters came shortly after the UAE condemned what it called an “illegal” move by Somalia to seize $9.6 million from an aircraft at the Mogadishu airport over the weekend.
The UAE’s state news agency, WAM, said some of the 47 Emirati Armed Forces personnel on the plane were held at gunpoint and assaulted by Somali security forces. The money was allocated to support the Somali army and trainees, WAM reported.
“The UAE deplores this violation of international law and norms at a time when the UAE has provided all kinds of political, economic, military and humanitarian support in the darkest conditions to establish security and stability” in Somalia, the foreign ministry statement carried on WAM said.
Somalia’s government has dismissed such reports.
It announced the seizure Sunday, saying security forces boarded the plane and discovered three unmarked bags of cash during routine checks. A security ministry statement said the bags were full of U.S. dollars and an investigation was under way to determine why they had been smuggled into the country.
Somalia’s defense minister said all of the UAE-trained Somali troops would be integrated into army units by Thursday. “It’s our duty as the government to ensure the salaries for our army — not that it has to bother other people,” he said.
Somali officials have long claimed that the UAE-trained troops were taking orders from UAE military advisers rather than Somalia’s government, and that they conducted unilateral raids targeting politicians and others. In recent months, the UAE-trained forces repeatedly clashed with other Somali forces, leaving dozens of people dead.
Relations between Somalia and the UAE have been strained since the oil-rich Gulf country’s Dubai-owned DP World port operator began operating a major port in Somalia’s breakaway territory of Somaliland last year. The UAE also has invited Somaliland officials for state visits and is building a military base there, suggesting that the country is moving toward recognizing Somaliland’s independence.
…
Where Did Zimbabwe’s Diamond Money Go?
Lawmakers in Zimbabwe are preparing to summon ex-president Robert Mugabe to answer for his management of the diamond sector, which he nationalized in 2016.
Mugabe announced the state seizure two years ago on Zimbabwe state TV, saying, “There has been a lot of secrecy … and we have been blinded. We have not received much from the diamond industry at all.”
Foreign mining companies operating in the country were quick to challenge the stop-work orders in court, and some cases are still pending.
But analysts question Mugabe’s 2016 assertion that as much as $15 billion in diamond revenue was missing, and it was the fault of the foreign companies.
Now, the parliamentary mines committee wants answers.
“He must be able to tell the country where he got these figures from,” the head of the parliamentary committee, Temba Mliswa, told VOA. “It is not witch hunting.
“If there is anything parliament is doing, [it is] to support the executive to ensure that the economy has to pump through a process where minerals are accounted for. You got to bring closure to this. And you must also understand that it would be unfair for people to say he [Mugabe] is too old, when he could have been the president right now.”
Mliswa says the committee also plans to summon former vice president Joice Mujuru, as well as current Vice President Kembo Mohadi.
Mugabe’s 37 years in office came to an abrupt end last November, when he resigned under pressure from the army. Popular anger over the failed economy had been mounting for several years.
In 2010, Global Witness began voicing concern about abuses and mismanagement in the country’s diamond sector. Last year, the global anti-corruption watchdog presented evidence connecting state security agencies and ruling party elites to diamond mining and smuggling.
Alice Harle of Global Witness welcomes parliament’s plan to question Mugabe.
“If he does testify, it will be difficult to see how much he is prepared to reveal,” Harle said. “If Zimbabwe’s diamond money is to benefit Zimbabwean people in fighting poverty and driving development, it is essential that the sector is open to scrutiny. A lot of the problems around the industry are directly related to how opaque the sector is.”
Current Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa spent decades by Mugabe’s side, serving in various official roles as one of his closest allies. The ruling ZANU-PF has chosen Mnangagwa as its candidate for the July elections.
Reacting to the news that parliament would summon Mugabe, presidential spokesman George Charamba told VOA that parliament can summon anyone, except a sitting president.
…
New Thai Charges Filed Against Russian Sex Guru, Woman
Police in Thailand have filed new charges against a self-described Russian sex guru and a woman who claims to have evidence of Russian ties to President Donald Trump’s election campaign.
The woman, Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, has attracted widespread attention for claiming to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a crony of President Vladimir Putin, discussing interference in the U.S. election. She is being held in an immigration detention center and has said she fears for her life and pleaded not to be expelled to Russia.
Col. Apichai Krobpetch, a police superintendent in Pattaya, where the two were arrested with eight others for working illegally by holding a sex training course, confirmed Wednesday that additional arrest warrants had been issued for soliciting, with a maximum prison term of 10 years, and conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years.
The original charge on which all 10 were held was working without a permit, punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Three of the 10 have already received a suspended jail sentence of six months and been ordered to leave the country. The others will have to appear in court on April 17 to hear the new charges.
The group was arrested on Feb. 25 in a hotel meeting room in Pattaya, a seaside resort city noted for its sex industry and popularity with Russian visitors. The lessons were attended by about 40 Russian tourists, many wearing T-shirts saying “Sex animator” in English with an arrow pointing to the wearer’s crotch. The course was led by Alexander Kirillov, also known as Alex Lesley, who was Vashukevich’s mentor.
Vashukevich, who carries a passport from Belarus, became the center of a public scandal in early February when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published an investigation drawing on her social media posts suggesting corrupt links between billionaire Deripaska and a top Kremlin official, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. The report featured video from Deripaska’s yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich claims she was having an affair with him and allegedly recorded him talking about Russian interference in U.S. politics.
Deripaska has been linked to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager has been indicted on money laundering charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
Deripaska is one of 24 Russian officials and tycoons faced with new sanctions imposed by the United States last month as Washington stepped up its condemnation of Russia’s actions in recent years, including its 2014 annexation of Crimea, support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, hacking attacks and meddling in Western elections. The metals tycoon controls a business empire with assets in aluminum, energy and construction and is worth $5.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
…
StoryCorps: Marking the Distance
A woman who lost her short-term memory following surgery to remove a brain tumor is forced to navigate life in a new way. But she isn’t alone. With the support of her boyfriend, she finds she can tackle the challenges her condition throws her way—and a few more.
…
Reports: House Speaker Ryan Won’t Run for Re-Election
U.S. media reports say House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan will not run for re-election this November.
Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, has been House speaker since 2015.
He has served in the House since 1999.
…
Farmers Fret Over Trump’s Trade Tactics
The increasing trade tensions between the United States and China has rattled farmers in the American heartland, the place where many of the products on which China seeks to impose a tariff are produced. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, those farmers, once supportive of President Trump, are increasingly wary about his stance on global trade, and ultimately, how it will impact their bottom line.
…
German Warship to Embark With US Navy Carrier Strike Group
A German warship will join a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group that’s getting underway to Europe and the Middle East.
The Virginian-Pilot reported that the USS Harry S. Truman and its support ships will leave Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia on Wednesday.
Among the strike group’s ships will be the German frigate FGS Hessen. The state-of-the-art vessel specializes in air defense.
U.S. Navy officials said the Hessen is the only type of ship in the Western world with three kinds of surface-to-air missiles. Its radar has a detection range of more than 200 nautical miles for air targets.
The U.S. military often trains and deploys with NATO allies and other partner nations.
The Hessen also will accompany the strike group for the first part of its deployment.
…
Security Council Deadlocks Again on Syria Chemical Attacks
Rival U.S. and Russian resolutions to determine responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria suffered defeats at the United Nations on Tuesday, a result that the Russian ambassador said the Trump administration wanted so it can “justify the use of force against Syria.”
The Security Council also rejected another Russian-drafted resolution that would have welcomed an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of allegations of a weekend chemical attack in the suburbs of Syria’s capital. The U.S., Britain and France opposed the measure, saying that the investigators are already headed there and that the text didn’t include a new way to assess blame for chemical attacks.
The council has met four times in the past week on chemical weapons in Syria, with the U.S., Britain and France facing off against Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s key ally that insists no chemical attack took place in the Douma suburb.
As tensions escalate over possible U.S.-led military reprisals for the suspected attack, the U.N.’s most powerful body remained paralyzed, unable to overcome its deep divisions that have shown during the seven years of conflict in Syria.
Sweden’s ambassador, Olof Skoog, who tried unsuccessfully to find a compromise solution, told the council after the third vote that he was disappointed.
“I just hope that we do not consider this the end when it comes to ensuring that the facts are established ant that there is a true accountability and no more impunity for the horrendous use of chemical weapons in Syria and elsewhere,” Skoog said.
After the defeat of Russia’s second resolution, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said to U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley: “I would once again ask you, once again beseech you, to refrain from the plans that you’re currently developing for Syria.”
The threats of U.S. military action against Syria “should make us seriously worried, all of us,” Nebenzia said.
In Tuesday’s first vote, Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution that would have condemned the suspected Douma attack in the strongest terms and established a new independent and impartial investigative body to determine responsibility for Syrian chemical attacks.
The vote was 12 in favor, with Bolivia joining Russia in voting “no” and China abstaining.
“History will record that, on this day, Russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian people,” Haley said, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
She said the United States “went the extra mile” to get Russian support for the resolution to ensure that a new investigative body would be impartial, independent and professional — provisions she said were not in the rival Russian resolution.
Haley said the Russian draft would have allowed Russia to choose the investigators and assess the outcome of the investigation. “Does any of that sound independent or impartial?”
Nebenzia accused the United States of trying to mislead the international community and said it is “taking one more step toward confrontation.”
He said the U.S. and its allies didn’t need a resolution to determine responsibility because it was already blaming Syria and Russia.
“You do not want to hear the fact that no traces of a chemical attack were found in Douma,” Nebenzia said. “You simply have been looking for a pretext” and want the resolution to fail “to justify the use of force against Syria.”
A joint U.N.-OPCW investigative team accused Syria of using chlorine gas in at least two attacks in 2014 and 2015 and the nerve agent sarin in an aerial attack on Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 that killed about 100 people and affected about 200 others. The latter attack led to a U.S. airstrike on a Syrian airfield.
The team also accused the Islamic State extremist group of using mustard gas twice in 2015 and 2016.
Russia rejected the findings and vetoed a Western-backed resolution in November that would have renewed the U.N.-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism, or JIM.
Nebenzia told the council Tuesday the U.S. resolution was trying to recreate the JIM, which he said “became a puppet in the hands of anti-Damascus forces.”
The rival Russian resolutions — on a new accountability body and the OPCW fact-finding mission — both failed to get the required nine “yes” votes needed for adoption. The U.S., Britain and France voted against both measures but didn’t have to use their vetoes.
Nebenzia and Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said that despite the council’s failure to welcome the OPCW fact-finding mission, its investigators are heading to Syria with support from both Russia and Syria.
Nebenzia said two groups of OPCW experts could be on the ground “as early as this week.”
…
Drought-Plagued Iranian Farmers Protest Lack of Access to Water
Farmers in Isfahan, Iran, are continuing to protest the lack of water available to irrigate their fields.
Recent amateur video on social media showed protesters chanting slogans while security forces tried to disperse them.
Much of Iran is suffering through a drought that has sparked several protests across the country in the past month, including in towns near Isfahan and around the western province of Khuzestan.
Isfahan has been at the epicenter of the protests. Farmers say that over the years, the government has deprived them of their right to the water sources of the region. The farmers also claim that either because of mismanagement or bribery, government officials have diverted water from Isfahan to its neighboring province, Yazd.
Iran’s farmers have struggled with several successive years of drought. Farming has never been easy in Iran, where three-quarters of the country gets less than 8 inches of rain a year, most of which evaporates before seeping into the soil.
The government has promised to pay compensation to help the struggling farmers.
Approximately 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree, according to the Iran Meteorological Organization.
“Towns and villages around Isfahan have been hit so hard by drought and water diversion that they have emptied out, and people who lived there have moved,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told Reuters.
…
Bound by Blood, 2 Rwandan Families Embody Reconciliation’s Challenge, Rewards
Valens Rukiriza’s mud-walled house was too dim for a journalist’s on-camera interview. So, he and neighbor Silas Bihizi lugged a long wooden bench out of the tidy living area and into the dusty courtyard, one man on each end, negotiating turns with easy familiarity.
They already have grappled with a much weightier task: reconciliation.
Twenty-four years ago, Bihizi joined other ethnic Hutus in killing five Tutsi neighbors: Rukiriza’s brother, the man’s wife and their three children. It was part of the three-month spasm of bloodshed triggered on April 6, 1994, when the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down over the capital, Kigali. The president was a Hutu. Extremist Hutu militants rampaged, attacking the minority Tutsis and Twas as well as Hutu sympathizers. At least 800,000 people died, most of them Tutsis; the Rwandan government puts the genocide’s toll at more than 1 million.
“I was among those who participated in the killings,” the soft-spoken Bihizi acknowledged.
“We were friends and neighbors,” he also said of Rukiriza and his kin. “We shared a lot and visited each other’s families.”
Years in prison
Bihizi was arrested in early 1995 for actions he had come to abhor. He was among at least 130,000 suspects rounded up after the violence. With the justice system overwhelmed, most were imprisoned without trials.
Bihizi spent 13 years in overcrowded Gitarama Central Prison, now called Muhanga Prison, in Southern Province. He was released to face a gacaca – the Rwandan government’s form of community-based courts, involving victims’ relatives and friends, set up to speed prosecutions stemming from the genocide.
The gacaca for Bihizi took place here in Buguli, a community of roughly 500 people – mostly subsistence farmers growing corn, bananas, cassava and sweet potatoes – tucked amid hills.
“During the trial, I confessed, asked for forgiveness and was sentenced to 13 years” – the time served, Bihizi explained.
Rukiriza, the key witness against Bihizi, told VOA that he had argued for a life sentence.
“We had to accept his apology, but it was difficult. It required one being brave. At first I hesitated. I felt I could not do it. But, thanks to God, I had to accept the apology,” said Rukiriza, a Christian. “Our government encourages us to promote unity and reconciliation and to co-exist peacefully. It’s God who made this happen. If you don’t like unity, you’re actually hurting yourself. You will be restless, full of stress, because of that heavy burden that you carry.”
After his release, Bihizi returned to his wife, their seven children and his farm work – but worried about the inevitable meetings with his victims’ relatives.
“I prayed for strength to confront them and ask for their forgiveness” again, Bihizi told VOA. “I decided confessing was not enough and went ahead to meet them. I apologized and sought forgiveness because I wanted to free my soul.”
An unexpected union
Repairing the broken relationships has been an ongoing process.
A big step came in 2009, two years after Bihizi’s release. His son, Stanislas Niyomungeri, approached him with plans to wed Hyacinthe Murayire – Rukiriza’s daughter.
“That came as a shock to me. I couldn’t imagine having to face Rukiriza again to tell him that my son wanted to marry their daughter,” said Bihizi.
Her father resisted, too. Rukiriza didn’t think it was right that his daughter would wed the son of a man who had ripped apart the family.
But the young couple were deeply in love. Stanislas Niyomungeri swore he would commit suicide if they could not be together.
“He repeated those threats to my family when we visited them,” Murayire recalled. “It is then that I made a decision: Instead of losing him, I’d rather stay away from my family if they opposed our marriage.”
Given the prospect of losing his daughter, Rukiriza relented and blessed the marriage. He called it “supporting reconciliation.”
“I did it to avoid self-torture and living a stressful life,” he said.
Forgive but don’t forget
That measure reflects the Rwandan government’s approach to recovering from the genocide. It has stripped ethnic categories from national identity cards and textbooks, denounced “divisionism” and urged Rwandans to forgive but not forget.
Today, both Rukiriza’s and Bihizi’s bloodlines commingle in three young, beloved grandchildren.
“They love me. I enjoy seeing them running to hug me every time I visit them. They are very warm,” Bihizi said. “When I see them, I reflect back and regret that other kids like them had their lives cut short.
“What happened was terrible – and kids should not have to go through that again.”
Edward Rwema reports for VOA’s Africa Division.
…
Minister: Morocco Could Improve Human Rights in Western Sahara
Morocco’s minister for human rights admitted his country could do better in the way it deals with civil rights in the disputed Western Sahara, as the North African kingdom warned it could act against the Polisario Front independence movement in the region.
Mustapha Ramid told The Associated Press on Monday that Morocco is “working to enhance the institutional framing of human rights. Morocco is not hell for human rights, but it is not a heaven.”
Ramid spoke days after Morocco’s foreign minister warned that all options, including military action, are on the table if the United Nations doesn’t act against alleged plans by the Polisario Front to build military posts in U.N.-monitored buffer zones in Western Sahara.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975 and fought the Polisario Front, a movement seeking independence for mineral-rich Western Sahara. The U.N. brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce.
Morocco considers Western Sahara its “southern provinces” and has proposed giving the territory wide-ranging autonomy. The Polisario Front insists on self-determination through a referendum for the local population, which it estimates at between 350,000 and 500,000.
Political parties from across the spectrum met on Monday in Laayoune, Western Sahara’s largest city, to condemn the latest actions of the Polisario Front.
Speaking at the rally, head of government Saad Eddine El Othmani confirmed Morocco “is ready to use all means at its disposal to defend its territory.”
Lawmakers attending the gathering signed a statement proclaiming political unity in defending the territorial integrity of Western Sahara.
The statement condemns and rejects “actions carried out by the enemies of our territorial integrity at all levels, especially the recent acts of hostility by the Polisario … in flagrant violation of the cease-fire agreement and in total ignorance of the will of the United Nations and Security Council resolutions.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned both Morocco and the Polisario Front against actions that could slow down the resolution of the conflict.
…
‘Sesame Street’ Helping Kids in Mideast Affected by War
Conflicts across the Middle East have had a tremendously adverse effect on children, the most vulnerable members of the population. With the Syrian civil war now in its seventh year and the Iraqi territories retaken from the Islamic State still unstable, millions of children in refugee camps have had to spend their early years dealing with the dire consequences of war.
But the American nonprofit behind the popular children’s show Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop, says it is sending its lovable and furry Muppets to these countries to help bring laughter and build resilience in the affected kids.
In an interview with VOA, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president for international social impact, Shari Rosenfeld, said her organization was teaming up with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to provide early education to help children and families overcome the trauma of conflict.
“We will deliver this in two ways: direct, in-person services for 1.5 million of the most vulnerable children, as well as a new educational broadcast that will reach 9.4 million children across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria,” she said.
In December 2017, the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change program — a competition for funds to support a program that promises measurable progress in solving a critical contemporary problem — awarded Sesame Workshop and the IRC a grant of $100 million to help implement the project.
Rosenfeld said the program would introduce a localized version of Sesame Street to provide engaging educational messages covering reading, languages, math and social skills.
Character customization
Instead of using popular character names such as Elmo, Big Bird and Cookie Monster, the puppets will have regional names and will speak Arabic and Kurdish.
“Not only will our content be made available through traditional television broadcast, but it will also be available on digital platforms like WhatsApp,” she said.
The program also will directly support children and parents at learning centers equipped with material for play-based learning, she added. Its trained workers will give home visitation and caregiving sessions to nearly 800,000 caregivers to mitigate the impact of toxic stress on children up to age 3.
“Toxic stress” occurs when a child’s brain development is disrupted because of prolonged adversity and leads to problems such as self-harm, suicide attempts and aggressive behavior.
Save the Children, a children’s rights and relief NGO, last year found that millions of Syrian children exposed to war could now suffer from “toxic stress” and needed immediate help to keep the damage from becoming irreversible.
The U.N.’s children agency, UNICEF, estimates that 1.75 million Syrian children remain out of school, and that 2.6 million Syrian children are living as refugees or are on the run for their safety.
In neighboring Iraq, the agency says, more than 1 million children have been displaced and 4 million are in need of assistance as a result of the war with the Islamic State group.
Affected children
Iraqi officials have expressed concerns, particularly about children who were schooled by IS. Counterterrorism officials have listed about 2,000 children needing therapy after having been influenced or brainwashed by IS.
Rights organizations say a majority of children affected by extreme violence do not receive proper education and rehabilitation.
The IRC estimates that of the billions of dollars spent on humanitarian aid, only about 2 percent is reserved for education or child development.
Rosenfeld of Sesame Workshop said the organization’s project would meet the children’s needs to recover from violence and extremism by emphasizing critical issues, such as mutual respect and understanding, diversity and inclusion, and gender equity.
If the program is successful in achieving those goals, the organization would try to expand it for other crises.
Projects elsewhere
Sesame Workshop has created local versions in several conflict-torn areas, such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Kosovo.
In rural Afghanistan, where women’s rights are sharply restricted, particularly by extremist groups like the Taliban, the local version of Sesame Street, known as Baghch-e-Simsim, has targeted girls’ empowerment. The program features a vibrant hijab-clad female role model called Zari, a 6-year-old Muppet who loves going to school and has big dreams for her future.
An impact assessment by the organization showed that children who watch Baghch-e-Simsim test 29 percent higher in believing in girls’ and boys’ equal ability to do various tasks compared with their peers who did not watch the show.
In another assessment, Israeli and Palestinian children who watched the show were more likely to take someone else’s perspective and express the need for the use of dialogue to solve a problem.
Some experts say that by providing education for children and promoting messages of tolerance, the program also could be used as an effective counterterrorism tool.
Countering Boko Haram
Naomi Moland, a lecturer at American University in Washington who studies the Nigerian version of Sesame Street, said the program producers tried to indirectly combat Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.
The terror group, whose name loosely translates as “Western education is forbidden,” has abducted hundreds of girls for going to secular schools.
“As far as gender equality, especially in regions where Boko Haram is active, even saying that girls should go to school is a counterterrorism message, because Boko Haram has fought against it,” Moland told VOA.
She said the creators of the localized show, called Sesame Square, feared being targeted by Boko Haram or having their show boycotted.
“They would say things like, ‘If we do one thing wrong, nobody in northern Nigeria is going to watch this because a certain extremist imam might say the show is not appropriate,’ ” she added.
Her forthcoming book, Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism? Children’s Television as Soft Power in Nigeria, concludes the creators faced other dilemmas, such as celebrating diversity without exacerbating divisions and stereotypes of others, and localizing the show to reflect children’s reality.
“I think that is a difficult challenge that Sesame will face in this new program with Syrian refugees — that is, how do you present something that seems somewhat realistic to the children in that it connects their experiences of trauma and displacement while also giving them hope that something could be different and they might be able to get along with people who are different from them?” asked Moland.
…
US Stages Annual Military Exercise as Questions Linger About Its African Role
Amid unresolved questions about the role of its military in Africa, the U.S. has kicked off a two-week exercise in Agadez, Niger, designed to strengthen security partnerships and train elite counterterrorism units in the volatile Sahel region.
Flintlock, an annual military exercise directed by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, involves participants from eight African countries and 12 Western countries. The event helps regional partners learn to work together to patrol vast, ungoverned spaces where terrorist groups such as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram operate.
Major General J. Mark Hicks, the commander for Special Operations Command Africa, said the investment in training in the region is crucial because the terror groups control only patches of territory and can still be destroyed.
“Africa matters to us because it is a ‘preventive-medicine theater’ versus an ’emergency-medicine theater,’ ” Hicks told reporters in a conference call on April 5.
“These threats, as they exist in Africa, are at a level where they can be dealt with … by, with and through our African and European partners, at a very low cost,” he said. That cost efficiency, he said, makes them comparable to preventive health care, “versus something like Iraq and Syria, where you have to go into emergency medicine and large military activities.”
Enabling regional partners
One regional effort taking shape that Flintlock organizers hope to support is the G5 Sahel, a 5,000-person joint military force created by Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. The U.S. is contributing $60 million toward the G5 Sahel project, but believes the training offered at Flintlock offers unique value.
“We are enabling the G5 Sahel partners both to command and control tactical formations, to cooperate across national boundaries and deal transnationally with transregional threats,” Hicks said. “We’re also providing tactical training to tactical units, which will be fielded in the context of the G5 Sahel immediately after the exercise.”
This year’s Flintlock exercise is the first since an ambush last October in which four U.S. soldiers and four Nigerian troops and an interpreter were killed while on patrol near the border with Mali. The exercise location rotates annually and was already planned to be held in Niger.
“The focus this year on Niger is really centered on the increasing threats that we see, both from al-Qaida-aligned JNIM (Group for Support of Islam and Muslims) and ISIS-aligned ISIS Greater Sahara. They are descending through central Mali, threatening not only Mali but Burkina Faso and Niger,” Hicks said. “So we are mindful of the changing facts on the ground, and this exercise is focused to enable our partners that are part of the G5 to deal more directly and more effectively with those threats.”
U.S. involvement
Since the October attack on U.S. forces, many have questioned the U.S. military presence on the continent. The Pentagon has yet to release its report investigating the incident, but reporting by The New York Times concludes that “a series of intelligence failures and strategic miscalculations” led to the attack in October, and leaked drafts suggest the Pentagon will pull back on its presence on the ground in West Africa.
Five U.S. senators recently returned from a one-week, bipartisan congressional trip to Africa, including a stop in Niger. The senators met with U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Special Operations Command officials and were briefed on the October ambush.
“The United States has some of our best military personnel, diplomats and aid workers serving on the front lines in Africa,” Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, said in a statement. “My past week in Niger, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso has been an eye-opening testament to the vital economic, political and security assistance partnership between the U.S. and African countries.
“In each of our meetings this week, we reaffirmed the value we place on U.S.-African relations and the dire need for a fully staffed, empowered U.S. diplomatic corps committed to working to advance fundamental freedoms, the rule of law, and democratic transparency and accountability,” he added.
According to U.S. Ambassador to Niger Eric Whitaker, who also participated in the conference call, Americans cannot wall themselves off from the issues affecting the region and must play a role in helping local partners find solutions.
“We have a vested interest in Africa developing its own security because we wouldn’t want to see issues there, such as pandemics, terrorist organizations or other issues — piracy, for example — that might spread on to the United States,” he said. “So we’ve chosen to invest in the African partner nations in helping them to address security challenges first and foremost.”
…
White House: US Lifts Travel Ban on Chad Citizens
President Donald Trump lifted a U.S. travel ban on citizens from Chad on Tuesday after a six-month U.S. government review found improvements in the African country’s security standards, the White House said.
The Trump administration added Chad to a revamped travel ban list in September after it said the Chadian government had failed to send proof it had taken adequate security measures to prevent terrorists from traveling to the United States.
With Chad taken off the list, seven countries — Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea and Venezuela — are still subject to the travel restrictions.
In a proclamation lifting the ban on Chad, Trump said the other seven countries “did not make notable or sufficient improvements in their identity-management and information-sharing practices” and would remain on the list.
Trump’s critics have said his travel ban unfairly singled out Muslims, and violated U.S. law and the Constitution.
Courts struck down the first two versions of Trump’s travel ban, and the current one is narrower in scope than its predecessors. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider its legality this spring, and a decision is expected in June.
Trump said in the proclamation that Chad had taken steps to make its passports more secure and had improved the sharing of information with the United States on known or suspected terrorists.
Chad has been an ally of the United States in fighting jihadist groups — some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State — in the Sahel.
…