News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

MPs heap blame on Cameron for Libya collapse

Posted: 13 Sep 2016 10:39 PM PDT

The bloody collapse of Libya is being blamed on David Cameron's blunders when he intervened to overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

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London - The bloody collapse of Libya - which triggered a refugee crisis and aided the rise of Isis - has been blamed on David Cameron's blunders when he intervened to overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

A damning report by MPs condemns the 2011 military campaign for lacking both “accurate intelligence” and a coherent strategy for the aftermath of removing the dictator. The disastrous results were “political and economic collapse”, tribal warfare, the refugee crisis, widespread human rights abuses and the rise of Isis in north Africa, fuelled by weapons abandoned by the Gaddafi regime.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee concludes: “Through his decision-making in the National Security Council, former prime minister David Cameron was ultimately responsible for the failure to develop a coherent Libya strategy.”

The scathing verdict comes a day after Cameron's sudden announcement that he will leave Westminster immediately, breaking an earlier pledge to stay on as a backbencher.

In today's report, the MPs say:

* They saw “no evidence that the UK Government carried out a proper analysis of the nature of the rebellion in Libya”.

* There was no “defined strategic objective” - which meant a limited intervention to protect civilians “drifted into a policy of regime change by military means”.

* There was no attempt to “pause military action” when Benghazi was secured and seek a deal to protect civilians and reform Libya, with the UK instead “focused exclusively on military intervention”.

* Cameron should have used Tony Blair's “contacts and influence” to try to secure Gaddafi's exit and a “negotiated solution”.

* Many Libyans had taken part in the Iraq insurgency and fought with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which meant the rise of militant extremist groups “should not have been the preserve of hindsight”.

* There was “insufficient action” taken to secure weapons abandoned by the Gaddafi regime, which contributed to the turmoil and “increased terrorism” across the region.

* Cameron should have been required to issue a formal “ministerial direction” to intervene, noting the Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Richards, “dissociated himself from that decision” in evidence to the inquiry.

* France led the campaign, noting: “UK policy followed decision-taking in France”.

Just six months after sending in the RAF and the Navy, in alliance with France - after the regime threatened to attack the rebel-held city of Benghazi - a triumphant Cameron was mobbed by cheering Libyans on a visit with French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The two leaders pledged support for the future, proclaiming: “Your friends in Britain and France will stand with you as you build your country and build your democracy for the future.”

But the promise proved empty as Libya collapsed into a power vacuum, allowing Isis to seize control of part of the country and people-smugglers to send migrants towards Europe in rickety boats.

Barack Obama has called Libya the worst mistake of his presidency, apparently criticising Cameron personally for the UK's role in allowing the country to become a “shit show”.

Crispin Blunt, the Committee's Conservative chairman, said: “The UK's actions in Libya were part of an ill-conceived intervention, the results of which are still playing out today. Other political options were available. Political engagement might have delivered civilian protection, regime change and reform at a lesser cost to the UK and Libya.”

The international community must now get behind the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) to prevent the country descending into all-out civil war, Blunt added.

A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "The decision to intervene was an international one, called for by the Arab League and authorised by the United Nations Security Council. Throughout the campaign we stayed within the United Nations mandate to protect civilians."

The Independent

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No crisis in Zim, says SA’s foreign minister

Posted: 13 Sep 2016 12:02 PM PDT

The South African government played down the growing crisis in Zimbabwe, noting that the Zimbabwe government has claimed it has it ‘under control’.

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Pretoria - The South African government has on Tuesday, played down what is widely regarded as a growing crisis in Zimbabwe, noting that the Zimbabwe government has claimed it has it “under control”.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was asked at a press conference in Pretoria, whether government was concerned about the security situation in Zimbabwe and the social and economic implications for South Africa.

She replied by noting that she had watched Zimbabwe’s High Commissioner (ambassador) to South Africa being interviewed on a South African TV channel recently.

“He presented a picture which doesn’t talk to the crisis you are alluding to and [said] that all is under control,” she said, with apparent approval.

But she then implied that the South African government was in fact consulting the Zimbabwe government about the situation there, noting that there were “regular interactions among us about the working of countries in the region, including Zimbabwe”.

These interactions took place in meetings which journalists didn’t know about, she indicated, usually between heads of state.

On the Lesotho crisis she said regional leaders meeting for the annual Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit meeting in Swaziland last month, had urged the Lesotho government to ensure an all-inclusive process for the constitutional, public sector and security sector reforms they had agreed to.

She said the Basotho had also agreed that there would be no lasting peace in their country without fully-fledged security sector reform in particular.

Asked if Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili had agreed at the summit to remove the controversial army chief Tlali Kamoli – as apparently demanded in SADC’s Pumaphi judicial commission report – the minister said she did not want to mention specific names.

The Pumaphi commission report was established by SADC leaders last year to investigate the killing of former army chief Maaparankoe Mahao by Lesotho soldiers in June last year. Kamoli has been widely implicated in his arch-rival Mahao’s death which was why the commission reportedly called for him to be fired.

The Basotho themselves would have to decide if security sector reform should include changing the heads of the army and the police, Nkoana-Mashabane said. The reform would include ensuring that the police and the army each did what was expected of them in a democracy.

This was an apparent reference to SADC demands that Lesotho change the constitution to ensure the army does not play the role of a police force by carrying out arrests and other police duties in the country. The Lesotho army has claimed Mahao was shot dead while resisting arrest by its soldiers.

The minister also seemed to be referring to demands that the army and police should remain aloof from politics. She noted the Basotho themselves had also said the roles of the police and the army had become “intermixed” and that politicians seeking power had been recruiting one or other of these security forces to back their power bids.

Nkoana-Mashabane said the Basotho had also said themselves that the assassinations and other turmoil in the country’s army and police would end when they had completed security sector reform.

Nkoana-Mashabane said Lesotho had accepted the Pumaphi report and that a SADC oversight committee had been established at the Swaziland summit to work with experts and the Basotho parties themselves to carry out the agreed constitutional and security sector reforms.

She was also asked what South Africa and SADC were doing about that seems to be a looming crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which is due to hold presidential elections in November to choose a successor for President Joseph Kabila who is constitutionally obliged to stand down in December after completing two terms in office.

But Kabila has not announced that he will in fact retire and he is widely suspected of using excuses, such as the need to update the voters roll, as a way of extending his term.

The African Union (AU) is supervising an inter-Congolese dialogue to address the election issue, though one of the main opposition parties, the Rassemblement de l’opposition – led by veteran oppositionist Etienne Tshisekedi – has refused to participate, because it believes Kabila instituted the dialogue to prolong his stay in power.

Nkoana-Mashabane brushed this aside, saying “all parties” had agreed to the dialogue.

Asked if SA and SADC would be happy if the dialogue proposed that Kabila stay in power beyond his constitutional term limit on December 19, she said it would be up to the Congolese to decide if the elections were shifted back.

She also appeared to accept the Kabila government’s argument that the elections needed to be postponed, noting that Kinshasa had told the SADC summit that eight million young people had emerged who were not registered.

Nkoana-Mashabane noted that unlike most democratic countries the DRC had only had national elections – and no provincial or local government elections – since Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled in 1997.

Kabila’s government has also used the need to hold these provincial and local elections no latter than the presidential and legislative elections as a reason to delay the latter elections.

African News Agency

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ZEC working in difficult political environment

Posted: 13 Sep 2016 11:46 AM PDT

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Justice Rita Makarau, said the political polarisation in Zimbabwe was negatively affecting their work.

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Harare - The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Tuesday said that it was working under a very difficult environment which was highly polarised and it wanted to establish a joint committee to probe reports of political violence.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting between the electoral body and civic society organisations in Harare, ZEC chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau, said the political polarisation in the country was negatively affecting their work. “We are saying that the environment in which we are operating in is a challenge in itself because people are so polarised, either they agree with you or they don't agree with you. There is no middle ground so we find that as a challenge; and it does affect our work on the ground,” Makarau said.

She said was in the process of getting relevant authorities to meet and establish a joint committee to investigate cases of political violence. “What we want to do is to encourage the key players to actually set up that machinery, it can be set up between the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, who are supposed to set up a joint committee that investigates any reported cases of political violence and they submit a report to us for consideration,” Makarau said.

She noted that the committee was provided for in the constitution, but had not been operationalised; adding that there was need to urgently align the country's laws to the supreme law. “So we want to operationalise that machinery so I can't say much at this stage until we have met these key players. It is for the first time that the machinery will be set up, it is in the law but nobody has operationalised it up to now,” she said.

The ZEC boss, who also doubles up as the chairperson of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) said: “ZEC is guided by the law, there is what we call the universal adult franchise in Zimbabwe, in other words every Zimbabwean who is above 18 has the right to vote; and so that includes people in prisons, people in hospital, people who may be away from home and people who may be in the diaspora.

“And as ZEC we are saying we are ready to implement that as long as there is a law that tells us how that vote is going to be administered. Currently there is no such law so we are waiting for the alignment of our laws.”

Asked about concerns reportedly raised at the meeting on Monday held with opposition parties under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda, Makarau said she was no aware of such development. “In the meeting I did not get the impression that they were unhappy so I am hoping to find out the source of their unhappiness in the next meeting because we did agree that we meet next week,” said Makarau.

“I thought all went well in the meeting and afterwards, they have not come back to us yet with complaints so we will get to hear their complaints in the next meeting and hopefully we will able to answer them fully and to their satisfaction.”

African News Agency

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Zim NGO applauds ZHRC stance over food aid

Posted: 13 Sep 2016 09:33 AM PDT

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum applauded ZHRC for taking a stand against the partisan distribution of food aid by some overzealous Zanu PF supporters officials.

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Harare - The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has applauded the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) for taking a bold stand against the partisan distribution of food aid by some overzealous Zanu PF supporters and government officials.

In a statement Tuesday, the Forum said the move was coming at the right time when millions of Zimbabweans in the countryside were faced with hunger due to the El Nino-induced drought and was a sure sign of the independence of the Commission. “The President himself spoke against partisan food aid distribution. This is because hunger knows no party line or card. Regardless of this, his party supporters are in contempt of his position. The Forum, therefore, welcomes this bold and timely intervention by the ZHRC on partisan food aid distribution.”

The Forum said the findings by the Commission had vindicated the complaints by human rights defenders and citizens in general about discrimination and partisanship in the distribution of food aid.

The forum said people had to be treated equally when it came to food aid because food was a basic need for everyone, regardless of divergent political views. “Many people have been affected by drought; as such food aid must not be used as a political bait to lure people to support some political parties. The Forum is concerned that such behaviour exhibited by some overzealous ZANU PF party members and other civil servants may escalate as Zimbabwe drifts towards 2018 elections,” the Forum said.

It said the responsibility to protect citizens lay with the government, adding that this was a non-partisan obligation.

Section 58 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Forum noted, gave every citizen the right to freedom of assembly, which association could be political and could not be used as a basis for discrimination. “Every person has the right not to be treated in an unfairly discriminatory manner on such grounds as their nationality, race, colour, tribe, place of birth, ethnic or social origin, language, class, religious belief, political affiliation, opinion, custom, culture, sex, gender, marital status, age, pregnancy, disability or economic or social status, or whether they were born in or out of wedlock.”

African News Agency

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Kenyan, British leaders discuss terrorism, trade

Posted: 13 Sep 2016 12:32 AM PDT

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta phoned British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday and discussed trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism issues.

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Nairobi - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta phoned British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday and discussed trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism issues.

The British High Commission in Nairobi confirmed talks between May and Kenyatta, saying in the statement that the Kenyan leader congratulated May after she was appointed to office.

Kenyatta told her that Kenya greatly values its relationship with Britain, which is based on shared values and common interests.

"The Prime Minister underlined Britain's commitment to continuing to build on our ties in a number of important areas such as trade and investment, defence and counter-terrorism," the statement said.

She welcomed Kenya's recent ratification of the Defence Co-operation Agreement (DCA), which is an important element of the two countries' partnership, and provides a platform for future collaboration.

"They ended the call by looking forward to meeting at the earliest opportunity," the statement said.

The new DCA was ratified by the Kenyan Parliament on September 1, allowing for the continuation of British military training in Kenya currently worth US$75 million per year to the Kenyan economy.

The pact is also expected to trigger an enhanced programme of co-operation between the two nations' armed forces. British forces have trained in Nanyuki Town and Samburu County in northwest Kenya since independence, based on agreements that are renewed periodically.

Xinhua

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Seizure of oil ports risks new conflict in Libya

Posted: 13 Sep 2016 12:25 AM PDT

Libyan forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar say they have tightened their control over four major oil ports.

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Tunis/Benghazi - Libyan forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they had tightened their control over four major oil ports, casting deep uncertainty over a Western-backed project to unite Libya and revive oil exports.

Haftar's forces met little resistance as they seized the terminals at Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega in an operation launched on Sunday, displacing a rival armed faction aligned with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

The advance is the latest power struggle over the OPEC nation's energy assets, after the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi and the chaos that followed left the North African country splintered into rival armed factions.

Haftar opposes the Tripoli government and has resisted its attempts to integrate his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) into unified armed forces. His seizure of the ports risks a response from powerful western brigades allied with the government and a deepening of regional divisions.

But Tripoli may seek a deal with Haftar, similar to the agreement it struck with the armed faction he has displaced, to restart the oil exports it needs to stave off a financial crisis that could paralyse government operations.

Conflict and political disputes have reduced Libya's oil output and exports to a fraction of the level seen before an uprising toppled late dictator Gaddafi five years ago.

In a statement signalling a willingness to get oil flowing, Haftar's LNA said late on Sunday it would secure the ports to "return operational responsibility to the National Oil Corporation with a guarantee of non-interference by armed forces in operational activities and exports".

The GNA's international backers said on Monday that LNA forces should withdraw immediately, that oil infrastructure had to remain under the control of the GNA, and that they would enforce a UN Security Council resolution against "illicit" oil exports.

Just a year ago, Libya had two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east, each backed by competing factions of armed brigades and laying claims to the country's oil resources.

A unity deal brokered by the United Nations, signed by rival factions in December despite opposition from hardliners, was meant to end the divide. As a result of the agreement, the GNA arrived in Tripoli in March, backed by Western powers, to stabilise a country where lawlessness allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to operate across swathes of territory.

Since then, however, some political and tribal leaders in the east have withheld their support, worried that the new government is a vehicle for opponents in the west. The LNA has strengthened its position, making military gains in and around Benghazi against Islamist-led opponents before taking control of the ports.

Many people in Tripoli and western Libya criticise Haftar as a new dictator in the making, but he has become a political figurehead for many in the east who feel abandoned by the capital.

In seizing the ports, the LNA displaced units of Libya's Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG) led by Ibrahim Jathran, which struck a deal with the GNA in July to end its three-year blockade of the Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina terminals.

The LNA took Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, Libya's biggest export terminals, in a dawn operation on Sunday it dubbed "Swift Lightning". Clashes broke out in Zueitina, but the LNA said overnight that it had secured that port as well as confirming its control of a fourth port, Brega.

Residents in Zueitina and Brega told Reuters that LNA forces were in control on Monday.

A commander allied to the LNA said an attempted counter-attack at Ras Lanuf by Jathran loyalists had been blocked on Monday.

Jathran had lost much local support after switching allegiances to the GNA. There were few casualties during the port seizures as many of his men appeared to have responded to a call from eastern tribal leaders to hand over control peacefully.

Haftar's forces could face a renewed backlash from Islamist-leaning groups in the east as result of the raids, but they have suffered heavy losses in previous battles with the LNA.

His opponents in the western city of Misrata could prove the bigger threat.

Misratan forces are close to finishing a four-month campaign to oust Islamic State from its former North African stronghold of Sirte.

But the campaign has been costly, and Misrata also has to sustain a military presence in several other parts of the west, including Tripoli, where it has provided support for the GNA.

If the LNA retains military control over the terminals, eastern factions it is allied with could make a fresh attempt to export oil independently from the National Oil Company (NOC) in Tripoli.

But previous efforts to do this through the NOC office in Benghazi and funnel money to an eastern branch of Libya's central bank have been blocked by international opposition.

Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert at International Crisis Group, said it was in Haftar's interests to have a working relationship with the NOC.

"I think this is what he's aiming for - to be the one who reopens the terminals," Gazzini said.

Still, any deal between the LNA and the state oil body could face stiff political opposition from anti-Haftar elements in the GNA's leadership, or Presidential Council, which late on Sunday called the attacks an "unjustified escalation" that would prolong conflict in Libya.

The GNA's Council consists of nine members who were selected on the basis of Libya's political and geographical divisions and are often divided among themselves.

The return to the Council of Ali Gatrani, a member representing the east who had suspended his membership for months, opens a potential channel to Haftar and his allies in the east as the government seeks to win their backing.

In the past, however, eastern factions have said they will not join the GNA without greater representation, guarantees over the leadership of the military, and the relocation of the NOC to Benghazi - demands they are likely to press with more confidence now.

"The view of the LNA is that, now they are taking control and making advances, they will want to see an improvement in their funding, they will want to see this reflected economically and politically in their benefit," said Mohamed Eljarh, an analyst with the Atlantic Council.

In such a scenario, he said, Misrata leaders could refuse to deal with Haftar, adding: "There we could really see the faultlines for the division of the country."

Reuters

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