Life and Death Side by Side in Mauritania Food Crisis
You decide to start this story at the end. It’s the place you’re trying most to understand. It finds you about to reach Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital. You pass by small makeshift camps in the desert: a mix of fluttering tents, thin cattle and camels, and mostly hard-faced men under softly colored turbans. The austere sand [...]
African Military Officers Visit U.S. AFRICOM as Part of Marshall Center Program
Eight African military officers who are students at the George C. Marshall Center visited U.S. Africa Command May 11, 2012, to learn more about AFRICOM’s mission and objectives. The seven men and one woman are taking part in the Marshall Center’s Program in Advanced Security Studies (PASS), a 10-week graduate-level course that focuses on security [...]
Mali Islamists attack UNESCO holy site in Timbuktu
Malian fighters from the Ansar Dine Islamist group attacked and burned the tomb of one of the town’s saints, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, residents and a regional official said on Saturday. The militants broke off doors, windows and wooden gates from the grave and burned them, they said, in the first reported [...]
Mauritania thwarts al-Qaeda plot against Nouakchott
Mauritanian gendarmes on Thursday (May 4th) arrested two men of plotting to bomb Nouakchott for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), on the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death. Police stopped a truck carrying a number of Mauritanian citizens at a border crossing between Mauritania and Mali in Guidimaka province, Sid Ahmed Salem, a high [...]
Young African Leaders Embrace Hope, Optimism
Washington — Africa deserves to have a more positive image in the world, and its young people can help make that happen, according to a group of young Africans visiting the United States on a professional exchange program. “We have to finish with the idea that Africa is the continent of war, the continent of [...]
Life and Death Side by Side in Mauritania Food Crisis
Posted by admin on May 20th, 2012
You decide to start this story at the end. It’s the place you’re trying most to understand.
African Military Officers Visit U.S. AFRICOM as Part of Marshall Center Program
Posted by admin on May 15th, 2012
Eight African military officers who are students at the George C. Marshall Center visited U.S. Africa Command May 11, 2012, to learn more about AFRICOM’s mission and objectives.
The seven men and one woman are taking part in the Marshall Center’s Program in Advanced Security Studies (PASS), a 10-week graduate-level course that focuses on security policy, defense affairs and international relations.
The class is targeted at international military officers and civilian government officials and takes place at the center in Garmisch, Germany.
The visitors were impressed with AFRICOM’s wide-ranging mission, and the fact that so many agencies play a role in the command.
“The interoperability is really wide,” said Colonel Leonidas Bandenzamaso, an armor brigade commander from Burundi.
Mali Islamists attack UNESCO holy site in Timbuktu
Posted by admin on May 13th, 2012
Malian fighters from the Ansar Dine Islamist group attacked and burned the tomb of one of the town’s saints, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, residents and a regional official said on Saturday.
The militants broke off doors, windows and wooden gates from the grave and burned them, they said, in the first reported attack on a shrine in Mali.
El Hadj Baba Haidara, an elected member of parliament from Timbuktu told Reuters some young people were discussing how to react despite being unarmed.
“There is a risk the people may revolt because this is something that affects their dignity. This tomb is sacred, it is too difficult to bear,” Haidara said.
Ansar Dine, along with Tuareg rebels and other armed groups, swept through northern Mali in March and April, seizing the northern half of the country and its ancient towns of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal after the government collapsed in a March 22 coup.
Mauritania thwarts al-Qaeda plot against Nouakchott
Posted by admin on May 10th, 2012
Mauritanian gendarmes on Thursday (May 4th) arrested two men of plotting to bomb Nouakchott for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), on the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death.
Police stopped a truck carrying a number of Mauritanian citizens at a border crossing between Mauritania and Mali in Guidimaka province, Sid Ahmed Salem, a high ranking officer with Mauritanian military intelligence and a member of a counter-terror squad told Magharebia.
Upon searching the passengers, they apprehended the two Malian suspects.
The gendarmerie found weapons and explosives on board, as well as maps, sophisticated electronic devices, and Malian passports in the suspects’ possession – all of which, the source said, were intended to carry out large-scale bombings and operations to mark the first anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s death.
“We’re dealing very seriously with the issue,” he said. “Mauritania has already sent broad warnings to all checkpoints to be vigilant.”
Young African Leaders Embrace Hope, Optimism
Posted by admin on May 8th, 2012
Washington — Africa deserves to have a more positive image in the world, and its young people can help make that happen, according to a group of young Africans visiting the United States on a professional exchange program.
“We have to finish with the idea that Africa is the continent of war, the continent of diseases, of every problem,” said Joannie Bewa, a physician and social activities coordinator for the Young Beninese Leaders Association. “We have to finish with all of that and know that there is hope on our continent.”
Bewa is one of 23 Africans from French- and Portuguese-speaking countries who converged in Washington April 30–May 5 for the beginning of a three-week visit to the United States under the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Last year, the program brought 5,300 current or emerging leaders in government, media, education, the arts, business and other fields from around the world to America.
Timbuktu rejects al-Qaeda
Posted by admin on May 3rd, 2012
Timbuktu residents are determined to stop them.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Ansar al-Din are not receiving a warm welcome in Azawad.
Days after Touareg rebel Iyad Ag Ghaly’s Islamist group seized Timbuktu with the help of al-Qaeda, residents struck their first blow against what they called the “Islamic and foreign groups in the region” by staging a protest on Friday (April 20th).
“Elements of al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Din tried to stop the march, but young people ignored them,” an official of the Belferandi mosque told Magharebia.
Northern Mali’s strong cultural pride, Touareg heritage, affinity for Sufism and respect for women’s freedom make them deaf to the extremists’ message. They are vocal about their refusal to let their UNESCO World Heritage Site be held hostage by Islamic hardliners.
“We held our own banners to show our rejection of al-Qaeda and the carriers of black flags [Salafists],” Elhassan Cissé, a bus driver in Timbuktu, tells Magharebia.
IRA burns religious books in Mauritania
Posted by admin on April 30th, 2012
The Mauritanian president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, said on Sunday evening that he will work on punishing all who were involved in burning Maliki books, adding that the Mauritanian
people take their religion and ethics very seriously. Meanwhile, Arab ambassadors in Nouakchott expressed resentment aganst what they called a “crime” committed by the president of the IRA movement, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, for burning Islamic books about the Maliki faith in front of worshippers in the capital. His movement also warned the government against harming its leader who was detained on Saturday.
The Mauritanian foreign minister, Hamadi Ould Hamadi, said in his meeting on Sunday with several Arab ambassadors, that there is room in Mauritania for freedom of expression. However he added that the issue has now become related to severe assault on the creeds of the society, and its offenders will be punished.
For his part, the Moroccan ambassador in Mauritania, Abdurrahman Ben Omar, declared his solidarity with Mauritania and denounced this as a “crime.” The Mauritanian official news agency announced the unanimity of the Arab ambassadors who condemned this act and their solidarity with the Mauritanian government in all the procedures it sees appropriate to deter whoever allows himself to abuse the values and identity of the society.
Millions face hunger in Sahel
Posted by admin on April 25th, 2012
Dakar – Aid agencies said on Monday they are facing a multi-million dollar funding shortage to deal with a food crisis in the Sahel where people are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive.
“A huge gap in funding for aid projects … is threatening to leave millions of people hungry in the coming months,” a coalition of aid agencies said in a statement.
Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision said they have raised only $52m of $250m needed to provide emergency assistance to six million people in the region.
The aid agencies have called for a donor pledging conference to rally wealthy governments and donors.
The United Nations had estimated $724m would be needed to tackle the latest food crisis in the Sahel belt after poor rains in 2011 saw harvests drop by a quarter.
Mauritanian Travel
Posted by admin on April 25th, 2012
Experience an Ancient Culture amidst the Magic of the Sahara Desert
Settlements that sprang up along the routes where caravans of camels once carried salt, gold and slaves survive into modern times as Mauritania’s UNESCO sites.
His desert land, where wealth is still measured in camels and nomads wander with their herds across barren dunes in search of water, isn’t an easily-accessible vacation spot. Located on the Atlantic edge of the Sahara desert, Mauritania is just south of Morocco and north of Senegal, and features hot dry summers, clear skies in winter, and a lack of development that lends itself to adventure travel. But for those looking for something authentic and unusual, Mauritania offers its guests a glimpse of a forgotten time and a chance to experience an ancient culture that is rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth.
Extremists threaten Timbuktu patrimony
Posted by admin on April 21st, 2012
UNESCO has called for neighbouring countries to help protect the legendary Malian city.
