In this issue:

Lula in Africa: We Want a 'Strategic Policy With Africa, China, Russia, India, and Mexico'

Cheney's Bush Administration Offers $2 Million for Kidnapping Charles Taylor

Cheneyacs Back (Their Own) Mercenaries in Africa

Rebels Excluded from 'Peace' Talks Attack Sudan

Grasshopper Swarm Devastating Farms in Central Sudan

Zambia Asks Iran To Build a Tractor Plant for Southern Africa

Algeria To Host African/Ibero-American Energy Conference

China Provides Interest-Free Loan to Namibia

From Volume 2, Issue Number 45 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Nov. 11, 2003
Africa News Digest

Lula in Africa: We Want a 'Strategic Policy With Africa, China, Russia, India, and Mexico'

"We want to develop a strategic policy with the rest of Africa, with China, Russia, India and Mexico," Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva told a press conference Nov. 8 in Pretoria, the last stop of his five-nation tour of Africa, according to BBC News. Lula's assertion is the more interesting because a former chief of Brazil's UN mission to Geneva, Ricardo Seitenfus, recently said that, "China will likely become part of the group soon," referring to the G3 group of Brazil, South Africa, and India, according to the Washington Times Nov. 4. For more on Lula's tour of Africa, see the Ibero-American Digest.

Cheney's Bush Administration Offers $2 Million for Kidnapping Charles Taylor

The Bush Administration of Dick Cheney has put up a $2 million reward for the kidnapping of former Liberian President and butcher Charles Taylor from his sanctuary in Nigeria. The reward was specified in a clause of the $87 billion emergency funding bill for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which President Bush signed into law Nov. 6. The clause offers the money for the capture of "an indictee of the Special Court for Sierra Leone." Taylor is the indictee of the Special Court—for war crimes. The court is funded by the U.S. and Britain, and its chief prosecutor is a former Pentagon lawyer.

Taylor was offered—and under intense U.S. pressure, accepted—asylum in Nigeria, to put an end to his rule in Liberia.

Nigerian Presidential spokesman Femi Fane Kayode told BBC Nov. 8, "This is a little bit close to what many of us would describe as state-sponsored terrorism." It is a "step back to the Stone Age," and Nigeria would resist such an attempt, he said.

Presidential spokeswoman Oluremi Oyo told Reuters, "A friendly nation would not encourage the violation of the sovereignty of Nigeria." She said that Nigeria had granted Taylor asylum as part of a peace plan, agreed with other African nations, and that the U.S. had initially commended Nigeria for doing so.

Security around Taylor's villa in Calabar has been beefed up. He is protected by Nigerian police armed with assault rifles.

Jacques Paul Klein, Kofi Annan's special representative in Liberia, told BBC he was delighted by the bounty. Klein is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force who was the Coordinator of UN Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Cheneyacs Back (Their Own) Mercenaries in Africa

Mercenary armies, sometimes known as "military service providers," are doing a good job supporting peacekeeping and peace-enforcement operations in Africa, and should be employed more often, claimed Doug Brooks of the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) at a seminar at the U.S. State Department in the last week in October. The IPOA is a trade association of mercenary companies headquartered in Alexandria, Va.

Brooks claimed the role of these private armies has been "of great utility in filling the vacuum left by absent Western militaries, and particularly useful for supporting internationally-mandated peace operations." Brooks then detailed the deployment of the subcontracted armies to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Congo.

The major companies putting mercenaries in Africa include Dick Cheney's own Kellogg, Brown & Root, which has sent its troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Others are:

* DynCorp, a division of Computer Sciences Corporation (Reston, Va.): Sudan;

* MPRI, a division of L-3 Communications (Alexandria, Va.): Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal;

* ArmorGroup (Jacksonville, Fla. and London): Angola, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo;

* Defence Systems Ltd., a subsidiary of ArmorGroup (London): Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Rwanda;

* Control Risks Group Ltd. (London): Algeria, Nigeria;

* Sandline International (London): Sierra Leone.

'War on Terror' Claims Another Chunk of Africa

Following a communique supporting al-Qaeda, allegedly from Nabil Sahraoui of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), unnamed "Western and Arab" intelligence sources have identified the Sahara, stretching between Mauritania and southern Libya, as a base for al-Qaeda, according to Periodico de Catalonia Oct. 27. The GSPC is a split-off from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) of Algeria. Of particular concern, they claim, is the desert of Mali, especially in the north, and the area near the Algerian border, which is reported to be a base and meeting point for al-Qaeda members who have fled from the Middle East region. An unnamed U.S. diplomat identified Niger, Mauritania, and Mali as bases of support for al-Qaeda.

Reuters said of the communique, in an Oct. 22 wire, "It was not possible to verify its authenticity and the [Algerian] Interior Ministry declined comment," but Reuters treated it as authentic nonetheless.

Rebels Excluded from 'Peace' Talks Attack Sudan

A coalition of rebel forces that was excluded from the Sudan "peace" talks have captured Sudanese military bases in eastern Sudan, Middle East Newsline (MENL) reported Oct. 29. Sudanese officials said the rebels received training and aid from neighboring Eritrea. The rebel coalition includes insurgents from the Fatah movement, aligned with the United Democratic Party, led by Mohammed Othman Al Mirghani. Fatah and government forces were said to have engaged in fierce battles in the Al Kash delta some 120 km north of Kasala, on the main highway that connects Khartoum to Port Sudan. Sudanese sources told MENL a joint unit raided two military camps, identified as Maidam and Irbab. The Fatah militia is not related to the Palestinian movement of the same name.

Grasshopper Swarm Devastating Farms in Central Sudan

A swarm of grasshoppers of biblical proportions is attacking farm-rich central Sudan, in the worst plague to reach Sudan in more than 30 years, according to Al-Rai Al-Aam (Khartoum) Oct. 27. In addition to the plague of insects, an epidemic of more than 600 cases of asthma has struck the region, caused by the massive, dense dust clouds produced by the grasshoppers. A regional state of emergency has been declared, with the grossly inadequate hospitals of Wad Medani city unable to help handle the epidemic. The farmland in Gezira state is estimated to be the richest in the country. Some reports estimate that Sudan's agricultural potential, in conjunction with Somalia's, could feed the entire population of Africa and have enough left to export food around the world. DDT remains a banned substance in Sudan.

Zambia Asks Iran To Build a Tractor Plant for Southern Africa

Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa has called on Iran to construct a tractor plant in his country, to boost agriculture across the southern African region. "On establishing a tractor plant, you will stimulate agriculture not only in Zambia, but the whole region, in that you will capture markets from all SADC [Southern African Development Community] countries," President Mwanawasa told a visiting Iranian delegation, led by Iranian Minister of Cooperation Ali Soufi Oct. 27, according to the Times of Zambia. Mwanawasa also urged the Iranian government of help revive Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ), a request to which Soufi agreed. There was no immediate response to the proposal for a tractor plant. Mwanawasa recently asked the Kubota company in Japan to build the tractor plant, but he was turned down.

Soufi said Iran was ready to form a joint venture with Zambia in the production of chemical fertilizer at NCZ. Soufi added that Iran was ready to revive the tire-manufacturing industry, and that the Zambian government had assured his team that they could move ahead with this project.

Other areas where the Iranians have pledged investment are in development of the irrigation system, creation of a heavy duty-motor bike manufacturing plant, and a plan to rehabilitate the Tazama pipeline from Ndola to Tanzania. Soufi said Iran was ready to invest in the oil refinery by expanding plant capacity, so that it could service Zambia and the entire region. He said Iran was also interested in the development of hydro-electric power through installation of power generators.

Algeria To Host African/Ibero-American Energy Conference

Algeria will host a conference of African and Ibero-American energy ministers in February 2004. This first meeting of its kind will be attended by delegates from 52 African and 26 Ibero-American countries. The agenda is to include consultations on cooperation and exchange of expertise in numerous energy areas, such as training, information, and environment.

China Provides Interest-Free Loan to Namibia

China is providing an interest-free loan of $3.6 million to the government of Namibia, to "enhance friendship and cooperation with Namibia and to help Namibia with its development programs," and to "reduce the burden on Namibian taxpayers." An unnamed Namibian government official reported that the loan is being provided with no strings attached, according to The Namibian (Windhoek) Nov. 3.

All rights reserved © 2003 EIRNS