By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya serves as “a major base” for Islamist groups battling Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, the United Nations says in a recent report.

The UN report says Kenyans account for about half of all foreigners fighting in Somalia under the banner of al-Shabaab and details Kenya’s training of TFG forces in apparent violation of a UN embargo.

Many of these fighters are recruited through a support network in Nairobi consisting of “wealthy clerics-cum-businessmen, linked to a small number of religious centers notorious for their links to radicalism,” the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia states in its March 10 report.

Leaders of Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, the other main insurgent group in Somalia, “travel with relative freedom to and from Nairobi, where they raise funds, engage in recruitment and obtain treatment for wounded fighters,” the report says.

Some African and European diplomats based in Nairobi meanwhile engage in visa fraud that enables the smuggling of illegal migrants into Europe and other destinations for fees of about $12,000 for a man and $15,000 for a woman, the UN says. The ambassador of an African country to Kenya reportedly plays a key role in this visa fraud scheme.

The Nairobi embassy of another country in the Horn of Africa is said to funnel cash to insurgents in Somalia monthly. “An estimated $1.6 million may have passed through Kenya.”

The report criticizes Kenya for not cooperating with the UN on breaches of an arms embargo slapped in 1992. “One notable exception,” the report says, “was the Kenya Police Criminal Investigations Division, which provided valuable assistance.”

The report points to Kenya’s training last year for the TFG of 2,500 youths recruited in Somalia and northeastern Kenya, including Dadaab camps. Officials acknowledged training TFG police, but “denied any other type of training.”

The report says training involved “irregularities,” like recruitment of children and Kenyans as well as “false promises of financial remuneration.”

In detailing connections between Somalis in Nairobi and the rebels, the report names several mosques in the Kenyan capital. It describes a 31-year-old cleric “believed by the government of Kenya to have obtained Kenyan nationality under false pretences,” as a key leader of one such mosque.

For more information, please see:

 The East African – UN Shows Kenya Links to Both Sides – 29 March 2010

Somaliweyn – UN Links Kenya to Somali Rebels – 29 March 2010

Daily Nation – UN Links Kenya to Somali Rebels – 28 March 2020

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

TAPILI, DR Congo  – A recent Human Rights Watch report accused 300 the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of killing over 300 unnamed Congolese civilians last December.

This report has gotten the attention of UN peacekeepers who now say that a new strategy is needed to prevent future massacres.  Alan Doss, the head of the UN peacekeepers said that better intelligence gathering and greater air mobility was needed.  Because the LRA operate in small, highly mobile groups that spread over a wide area, it has made the UN’s job very difficult.

“But even small groups, moving as they do in the bush, can create havoc.  Their best weapon is fear and they create fear by their extremely brutal and violent tactics which we saw again in this latest massacre near Tapili.,” said Doss.

Top official of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) says even more is needed.  “Money or military troops on the ground that’s not enough…we need more cooperation between the three countries where the LRA is operating — that is the DRC, Uganda and Central African Republic. Also those countries need to have better cooperation in terms of exchanging intelligence so that they can better organize the operation on the ground,” he said.

Early on, LRA leaders claimed their violent mission was to install a theocracy in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.  Although, now they are only moving across Sudan, Central Africa, and DR Congo attacking villages.

During the latest attack, in December, villagers were hacked to death by rebels.  Just before they attacked, the rebels pretended to be Congolese soldiers and asked for food and other goods.  Witnesses say the stench of death hung over the area for weeks after the massacre.   Aside from the killings, at least eighty were taken by force.  Boys to become child solders and girls to be used as sex slaves for the LRA fighters.

For more information, please see:

BBC – DR Congo Needs New Strategy, UN Chief – 28 March 2010

Times Online – Lord’s Resistance Army Killed 321 People in Democratic Republic of Congo – 29 March 2010

VOA – MONUC Official Says Regional Cooperation Could Counter LRA Atrocities – 28 March 2010

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – The Chief of the Uganda People’s Land Defense Forces has called for urgent and immediate assistance for the Somalia Transitional Federal Government to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the war torn country. Lt General Katumba Wamala said that urgent support needs to be given to the government to improve the besieged government’s capacity and to deliver badly needed services to its people.

 Wamala’s statements were made following heavy clashes Monday which left at least 3 people dead and 4 others wounded in Mogadishu. The most recent fighting occurred between the AMISON backed transitional government and Islamist fighters.

 Uganda is one of two countries that have responded to an AU request for AMISOM troops to Somalia. Since responding, AMISON troops have come under constant attack by Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam insurgents fighting to oust the Western backed government of President Sheikh Ahmed Sharrif.

 “Normalcy can only return to Somalia if the government is able to provide basic services to the people and this can be made possible if there is a public service that is equipped with the necessary knowledge and is committed to service delivery,” said Deputy Special Representative of the African Union Commission for Somalia Wafula Wamunyinyi.

 Clashes in Mogadishu have displaced more than 55,000 people from Mogadishu since the beginning of February, with many of them heading out of Somalia to neighboring Kenya, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Hawo Sheiikh Ali, a refugee who left Mogadishu at the end of February after a mortar shell killed 15 people in her neighborhood said, “Staying in Mogadishu now is like a death sentence: you are not safe; your neighbour is not safe.”

 “I was selling tea when it hit and all of a sudden I could not see anything. By the time the dust settled 10 young boys were dead,” Ali said. “I don’t know how I survived but I did and I left. I also lost two of my sons, aged 10 and 11; we got separated and up to now I don’t know where they are.”

 Ali said she had never considered becoming a refugee, but now felt she had no choice. He said many families are continuing to arrive “almost daily”.

 For more information, please see:

 Daily Nation – Uganda Urges Immediate Help for Somali Regime – 24 March 2010

Shabelle Media Network- Heavy Clashes Restarts, Kills 3, Injuries 4 in Mogadishu – 23 March 2010

IRIN – Kenya – Somalia – Thousands Flee Mogadishu ‘Death Trap’ – 22 March 2010

 

By Jonathan Ambaye

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands– Last week saw Charles Taylor’s defense provide key witness testimony that could be potentially damaging to Sierra Leone Special Court Prosecutors.  One witness testified that over 300 Liberians and Sierra Leoneans were based and being trained in Liberia under a top Sierra Leonean rebel leader, prior to attacking Sierra Leone in 1991.

This particular witness, whose name and personal information were kept private, told judges he was a part of the rebel force that trained under the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader, Foday Sankoy, in Liberia at Camp Nama sometime around the early 1990’s. The witness also recalled additional rebel commanders who participated in these training camps, some of whom would later be prosecuted and convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for their roles in war crimes committed during the Sierra Leonean conflict.

The witness testified, “I can remember Sam Bockarie who is Mosquito, I knew Sam Quelleh, I knew Issa Sesay, I knew Morris Kallon, I knew Augustine Gbao, I knew Jonathan Kposowa, they were many, I can’t recall all of their names now.”

Prosecutors are alleging that Taylor was aware of, and supported these training facilities at Camp Nama in Liberia. Taylor denies having any knowledge of the camp’s existence.

Another witness testified that Charles Taylor never ordered his rebel forces to commit crimes. The witness further claims that Taylor was actually being prevented from liberating the Liberian people by other foreign countries that interfered in the country’s conflict.

For more information please see:

Charles Taylor Trial – Foreign Countries Prevented Charles Taylor From Liberating Liberia – 11 March 2010

Charles Taylor Trial – Foday Sankoh Wanted To Free Sierra Leoneans From The Misery of Politicians – 12 March 2010

Charles Taylor Trial – Liberian Witness Says Sierra Leonean Rebel Forces Were Trained in Liberia – 13 March 2010

By Kylie M Tsudama

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NEW YORK, United States – On World Water Day, the United Nations is highlighting the importance of water safety.  This year, the Day’s theme focuses on “Clean Water for a Healthy World.”

According to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his message commemorating World Water Day, more people die from unsafe water than from violence, including war.

“These deaths are an affront to our common humanity, and undermine the efforts of many countries to achieve their developmental potential,” said the Secretary General.  “Our growing population’s need for water for food, raw materials and energy is increasingly competing with nature’s own demands for water to sustain already imperilled ecosystems and the services on which we depend.”

He added, “Day after day, we pour millions of tons of untreated sewage and industrial and agricultural wastes into the world’s water systems.  Clean water has become scarce and will become even scarcer with the onset of climate change.”

On March 20, scientists, policy-makers, and others gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to kick off a three-day celebration and discuss water safety.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that 39% of the population in West and Central Africa (more than 155 million people) have no access to potable water, an increase of nearly 30 million people from 1990 to 2008.

By 2015, countries were supposed to reach 75% drinking water coverage.  While West and Central Africa’s coverage has improved from 49% in 1990 to 61% in 2008, six countried still have less than 50% coverage: Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Mauritania, and Sierra Leone.

Complete lack of access to sanitation to the 291 million people in West and Central Africa was also noted as a particular area of concern, having “the highest under-five mortality rate of all developing regions at 169 deaths per 1,000 live births.”

According to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “Access to reliable supplies of clean water is a matter of human security.  It’s also a matter of national security.”

She recognized that the Nile River Basin is largely affected by poverty and conflict, endangering 180 million people across 10 East African countries.

“Cooperative management of the basin’s water resources could increase growth — increase it enough to pull many of these countries out of poverty and provide a foundation for greater regional stability,” said Clinton.

Africa’s Sahel region is affected by drought.  On Thursday, nine countries from the region will meet in Chad to discuss water management and protection against food shortages.  Additionally, the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal) is focusing on creating a global coalition on managing water.

“Human activity over the past 50 years is responsible for unprecedented pollution, and the quality of the world’s water resources is increasingly challenged,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP).  “It may seem like an overwhelming challenge but there are enough solutions where human ingenuity allied to technology and investments in nature’s purification systems – such as wetlands, forests and mangroves – can deliver clean water for a healthy world.”

The UN named the International Decade for Action of 2005-2015 as “Water for Life,” recognizing that all its “developmental goals, including material and shild health and life expectancy, women’s empowerment, food security, sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation” rely on clean water.

“Without water, there will be no prospects for achieving all MDGs (Millenium Development Goals),” said Sha Zukang, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

For more information, please see:

Xinhua – UN Highlights Water Safety on World Water Day – 23 March 2010

AFP – More Deaths From Unsafe Water Than From War: UN – 22 March 2010

UN News Centre – Unsafe Water Kills More People Than War, Ban Says on World Day – 22 March 2010

UN OSSG – Secretary-General’s Message on World Water Day – 22 March 2010