David Axe - Africa is Boring

Axe in Congo: Giving It Away

2010-10-29T19:30:55Z

by DAVID AXE

U.S. Army and Congolese army doctors render free medical care at a clinic in Kinshasa, as part of the Medflag '10 exercise.

Axe in Congo: Litter Training

2010-10-28T17:33:55Z

by DAVID AXE Kinshasa -- Corrupt and impoverished, Congo doesn't have much in the way of emergency services. Wrecked cars become semi-permanent urban art installations on the side of the road. When fires break out, it can take hours for anyone to respond. MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping force, has been forced to put out some fires for the Congolese.

Colonel Gilbert Kabanda, the Congolese army's surgeon general, painted a grand picture of U.S.-trained Congolese medics deploying across the country in up to 11 specialized emergency medical companies, shifting easily between combat tasks and mitigating mass-casualty incidents and natural disasters. But it's more likely that the Congolese medics will wind up just playing EMT in Kinshasa. Kyala Hubert, one of the medics attending the Medflag '10 training, said he looked forward to applying his new American-taught litter-handling skills ... in responding to traffic accidents.

Maybe the U.S. government should have sent a bunch of traffic cops and ambulance drivers, instead of soldiers.

Axe in Congo: Can't Please Everyone

2010-10-27T20:53:27Z

by DAVID AXE

Kinshasa -- A free health clinic was one of the culminating events of the U.S. Army-led "Medflag '10" training exercise in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While American instructors trained up Congolese medics, U.S. and Congolese officials oversaw registration of civilians to attend the clinic. The civilians lined up before a board of Congolese officers and described their condition and the treatment they hoped to receive. If they were lucky, their names were added to the list.

Many of those who didn't make the list were unhappy. Others had more pointed complaints, as depicted in my video report.

Axe in Congo: Training the Congolese Army

2010-10-26T04:38:52Z

by DAVID AXE

Kinshasa -- Soft power can be tedious, exhausting, frustrating. A hundred U.S. Army doctors and medics are in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, to train several hundred medics from the Congolese Forces Armees de la Republique Democratique du Congo. The Americans' idea: to leave the Congolese more capable and more professional than how they found it, hopefully contributing to slowly increasing stability in this troubled Central African country. But even these modest goals are easier said than done. For starters, Congo is hot, remote and under-developed. Plus, there are huge language and technological barriers between the Americans and Congolese, as depicted in my video report above.

Axe in Congo: The Army's Training Dilemma

2010-10-25T03:02:52Z

by DAVID AXE

Kinshasa -- Colonel Gilbert Kabanda, the surgeon general of the Forces Armees de la Republique Democratique du Congo -- the Congolese army -- is a tiny man, barely more than five feet tall. But he has a big speaking voice. On September 6, he took the stage at the opening ceremony for the combined U.S. Army-FARDC medical training event "Medflag." The audience included hundreds of Congolese and American doctors and medics.

Medical training, Kabanda explained, lies at the heart of the army's relevance. For a modern army should be more than a killing machine, he insisted. "In addition to the principal mission of defense of the national territory, the other mission of the army is to participate in the economic, social and cultural development and protection of the people."

American assistance will, in theory, help the FARDC help the Congolese people. Everyone's a winner. "There's nothing bad about this story," U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Todd Johnston, Medflag commander, told me before Kabanda's speech.

Not so. For as Kabanda repeatedly stressed, the army's primary mission is defense -- that is, combat. And military medics' first job is to support the combat troops. Especially in Congo's rugged east, FARDC combat brigades represent one of the greatest threats to the population and the country's nascent democracy. "Since its creation in 2003, the FARDC has been one of the main perpetrators of documented sexual violence in Congo," Human Rights Watch reported. The FARDC also oversees illegal mining operations that keep the land's wealth out of the people's hands. In helping improve the FARDC -- even its medical capabilities -- the U.S. risks making the FARDC a more powerful enemy of the Congolese people.

At the opening ceremony, Samuel Laeuchli, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, described FARDC personnel racing to help out in the aftermath of a tragic July tanker explosion that killed some 300 people in remote Kivu. After Medflag, Congolese medics might be better equipped to assist survivors of such disasters. But they will also be better equipped to patch up and keep healthy the tens of thousands of Congolese troops raping and pillaging across this Texas-size jungle nation.

Somali Officials Resign as Fighting Escalates

2010-05-18T05:03:53Z

by DAVID AXE

Sheikh Adan Madobe, speaker of the U.S.-and U.N.-backed Somali parliament, resigned today after his support in the weak governing body collapsed. Prime minister Abdirashid has also resigned after seeing his own influence wane amid continuing violence in the East African country. "The president is going to appoint a new prime minster and the MPs are supposed to appoint a new speaker for the parliament," correspondent Hiddig Jamaal reports.

The shake-up comes at a time of escalating violence. Last week, fighters from Hizbul Islam, one of two major Islamic groups battling the government, attacked a neutral health clinic and refugee camp, apparently seeking to either extort money from the camp guards or force one of them to repay an old debt. At least 10 people died in the attack, including eight sick children whose care was interrupted.

"Islamist rebels shelled Somalia's newly rebuilt parliament in Mogadishu yesterday, sparking clashes with government forces and African Union peacekeepers that left around 15 civilians dead," AFP reported.

"Government troops and forces from the African Union retaliated with heavy artillery and mortars towards the city's southern Bakara area, one of the main rebel strongholds," Jamaal tells us. "Several artillery salvos and mortars hit Bakara market. Fifteen civilians were killed and 52 wounded," Ali Muse, head of the Mogadishu ambulance service, told Jamaal.

Somali Islamists = Environmentalists?

2010-05-12T06:03:23Z

Guardian photo.

by DAVID AXE

Just two weeks ago Somali Islamic group Al Shabab advanced on a Harardere, a pirate stronghold in central Somalia. "The pirates began retreating with the hijacked vessels and crew to Hobyo, another pirate stronghold about 108 kilometers to the north," Voice of America reported. This after years of inaction by secular authorities in the region.

Many Westerners fear Islamic parties, and for good reason. Periodically Islamists sponsor bloody attacks on Westerners in their hotels, office buildings and city buses. But remember: there's a reason Islamic parties enjoy significant public support in many of the areas they control, despite their frequent brutality. Law and order.

In Somalia, Islamists have successfully cracked down on piracy where even the U.S.- and U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government has failed. And according to Somali Weyn, Al Shabab is also enforcing sound environmental policy, preventing people from cutting down the country's few remaining trees for charcoal. "The administration of Al-Shabab, an Islamist adversary faction in Somalia has on Monday banned cutting down of trees at Bula-Hawo district in Gedo region to the west of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, and the surrounding areas," Mohamed Omar Hussein wrote.

Instantaneously after the decree was announced, the fighters of Al Shabab conducted an operation to monitor if at all there were people in the bush who were cutting down trees, and in the operation five lorries which were partly laden with charcoal and waiting for the capacity of the lorries to be filled were brought to the former Somali police station in the district, which is now a base for Al-Shabab.

Until secular powers start exercising the same clear, decisive authority in pursuit of something resembling the public good, rival Islamists will always win.

World Politics Review: Disputes Threaten Chad-Sudan Peace Deal

2010-04-22T21:08:23Z

Crashed Chadian helicopter. David Axe photo.

by DAVID AXE

On April 16, a Chadian helicopter with at least three people aboard crashed in Adre, a town abutting the border with Sudan in the desert region shared by the two countries. One person died in the crash, while two were injured. The incident was an unwelcome reminder of five years of conflict between the two impoverished nations — even as that conflict finally shows signs of winding down.

On April 17, the two countries re-opened their official border crossings. “Sudanese taxis are going back and forth and so are the people,” a government official in Adre told AFP.

Until a dramatic thawing in tensions that began this winter, Chad accused Sudan of harboring rebels aiming to bring down the government in N’Djamena. Likewise, Sudan accused Chad of aiding insurgents targeting Khartoum. Both sides relied heavily on helicopters to pursue rebel groups in the expansive desert border region, helicopters those rebels have sought to shoot down to register their resistance.

Rebels apparently downed a Russian-built Chadian gunship back in 2008, injuring the two Ukrainian mercenaries at the controls. Just last month, rebels in Sudan’s western province of Darfur claimed to have destroyed two Sudanese helicopters. So there might have been a moment when observers feared the crash in Adre was also the work of insurgents — and a potential blow against a fragile peace. After all, there had reportedly been “many bandits” around Adre, according to Mahamat Tahir Issa, an independent Chadian correspondent.

It turned out the helicopter crash was “an accident,” Issa said. “Everything is quiet for the time being.” But political complications and continuing security concerns, on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border, threaten the newborn peace.

Read the rest at World Politics Review.

Foreign Fishermen Still Plundering Somali Waters

2010-02-25T00:30:57Z

Kenyan fisherman. Photo by David Axe.

by DAVID AXE

When the Somali government collapsed in 1991, so too did Somalia’s ability to police its waters and regulate foreign vessels. For corporate fishing fleets from Asia and Europe, that meant rich shark and tuna fisheries suddenly wide open for exploitation. And boy did they exploit. Tales abound of foreign vessels stripping the fish from once-rich waters, and chasing away small-time Somali fishermen.

The problem got so bad that many displaced Somali fishermen picked up AK-47s and began boarding foreign vessels to demand “fees.” Thus Somali piracy was born. No wonder pirates are so popular — and untouchable to police — in many Somali fishing towns.

Today these small-time pirates have been bought out by large pirate bands that amount to seaborne organized crime. But that doesn’t mean that the illegal fishing has stopped. There are still legit fishermen in Somalia, and they’re still being squeezed by the foreigners. “Fishermen at Eyl district in Nugal region in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland are seriously complaining about foreign vessels,” our correspondent Mohamed Omar Hussein writes.

“There are several times when we have been chased by the foreign vessels, which are illegally taking our sea resources. And we have submitted our complains to our authority, but so far our authority has not done anything on this issue,” Abdifatah Mohammed, a senior fisherman in Eyl district, told Hussein. Puntland’s government lacks the resources and influence to change the behavior of billion-dollar industrial fishers.

Illegal fishing will continue. And it will continue providing legitimacy to pirates who these days are mostly just sea thugs.

Al Shabab Rallies Troops for Mogadishu Defense

2010-02-17T20:31:35Z

Al Shabab. AP photo.

by DAVID AXE

On Friday Sheikh Moqtar Robow Abumansor, a top military leader in Somali Islamic group Al Shabab, declared war against the U.S.- and U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government and the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu. This at a time when the TFG and peacekeepers are clearly planning for a major offensive against Al Shabab.

A War Is Boring correspondent tell us that Moqtar Robow addressed “hundreds of worshipers” at Nasreddin mosque in southern Mogadishu. “Robow said his movement is ready to face an onslaught by the Western-backed government.”

“This war is a religious obligation for all of us,” Robow told the crowd after prayers. “The soldiers of Allah are now fully ready to launch attacks to eliminate the enemy from the country.”

“Our promise is to engage in all-out [warfare]. Are you going to be with us?” Robow shouted. Our correspondent describes the “crowd of faithful” roaring back with a resounding, “Yes!”

World Politics Review: Somali Forces Prepare Counter-Islamist Offensive

2010-02-12T04:23:41Z

AMISOM peacekeepers. U.S. Army photo.

by DAVID AXE

Forces belonging to the U.S.- and U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia have mobilized for a major offensive against Islamic militants who control much of southern and central Somalia. On Friday, a local journalist who spoke with World Politics Review reported seeing government forces, as well as peacekeepers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), preparing for battle.

“In the last 24 hours, we have seen many convoys, including tanks from the AMISOM bases,” reported the journalist, who requested anonymity to protect him from Islamist reprisal. “I can see the logistics [convoys] of AMISOM troops going through the city — especially around their bases.” He added that he also saw TFG troops deploying north of Mogadishu, in areas of the city dominated by al-Shabab, an Islamic group that in recent years has aligned itself with al-Qaida, particularly the terrorist network’s Yemeni branch.

In the last year, the 5,000-strong AMISOM contingent has assumed a more active role in Somalia’s civil war. Ugandan tanks and mortars provide heavy firepower for the peacekeepers and the TFG. Exchanges of mortar and gunfire between al-Shabab and pro-government forces killed more than 250 Somali civilians in January, according to the U.N., making it the bloodiest month since August for the war-torn country.

On Jan. 26, al-Shabab attacked an AMISOM hospital in Mogadishu, killing one peacekeeper and at least four civilians. Some reports indicated the attacker was a suicide bomber. Al-Shabab began adopting al-Qaida-style suicide tactics four years ago; such bombings are now common. A suicide attack on Mogadishu’s Shamo Hotel in December killed scores of people attending a medical school graduation. Several government ministers and reporters died in the blast. Another local journalist, Mohamed Omar Hussein, was at the scene and narrowly avoided injury.

The preparations for major combat come just days after Kenyan Vice President Steven Musyoka made the rounds in Washington, warning of the growing threat from Somali Islamists. “As a result of what is going on in Afghanistan, some of these [Afghan] extremists are leaving for Somalia,” Musyoka claimed during an interview at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. “Unless the rest of world looks at Somalia as a peace challenge, it may be too late.”

Read the rest at World Politics Review.

Somali Insurgents Claim Yemen Boost

2010-01-25T04:27:34Z

A.U. tanks in Somalia. Photo via Somali Weyn.

by DAVID AXE

A spokesman for the Somali Islamic group Al Shabab told reporters his forces have been bolstered by fighters from Yemen. “We have received fighters from the Arabian Peninsula — I mean in Yemen — to bolster our fighters on the ground,” Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage said. “There is not any other alternative for us [but] to do [this] … [A]s the saying goes, ‘one good turn deserves another.”

Rage is referring to reports that Al Shabab might send Somali fighters to Yemen to help Al Qaeda in its battle with U.S. and Yemeni forces.

Rage said there can be no peace or stability in Somalia until the African Union troops from Burundi and Uganda, pictured, pull out. Rage called for the overthrow of “the apostate government” led by President Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed.

The 9,000-Ton Littoral Warship

2009-10-03T16:04:06Z

A year after Somali piracy peaked with more than 100 ships attacked, the world’s navies have assembled dozens of warships to combat the threat. David Axe joins the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Donald Cook in Djibouti, to observe firsthand this “global war on piracy.”

by DAVID AXE

The Navy’s shipbuilding strategy hinges on buying at least 55 copies of the 3,000-ton Littoral Combat Ship, a vessel supposedly optimized for near-shore warfare, with a shallow draft and improved maneuverability.

But the Navy’s not waiting around for the delayed and over-budget LCS. USS Donald Cook, a 9,000-ton Burke-class destroyer designed for open-ocean combat, braved outdated charts and her fairly deep draft to perform her own littoral combat mission in recent weeks, when she patrolled just a mile and a half from Somali pirate camps soon after deploying to East Africa this summer.

In nautical terms, a mile is pretty damn close. In pushing so close to the pirate camps, “DC” Captain Derek Granger hoped to send a clear message to potential sea bandits. “If they’re sitting on the beach, wondering if they should make an, ahem, sojourn, and they see the Donald Cook … they may rethink.”

DC took the opportunity to gather intel for her NATO commodore. “My crew loved it,” Granger says. “In there close, providing video and photographic info back to the boss … it’s useful.”

During her near-shore patrol, DC sent out two boarding teams to investigate suspect skiffs. Turned out they were both legit fishing boats. But Granger didn’t know that when he ordered his people to travel a mile away in Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boats — too far for DC to provide quick support. That, and not the shallow water, was the most stressful thing, Granger says.

(Photo: David Axe)

The Near-Shore Strategy

2009-10-02T04:05:28Z

by DAVID AXE

A year into the “global war on piracy,” naval operations have settled into a comfortable routine. The world’s maritime bodies have agreed on a 50-mile-wide “security lane” connecting the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean. Commercial ships are encouraged to travel inside that lane. Each of the roughly 20 NATO, E.U. and U.S. coalition warships in the region is assigned a squarish portion of the security lane to patrol. Recon aircraft from Djibouti crisscross the skies, spotting suspected pirates and directing the warships to investigate. Merchant ships also spot possible pirates and radio in their locations.

This is a “surveillance-driven” model, in the words of Commodore Steve Chick, senior officer of the five-ship NATO force. It has its disadvantages. The surveillance model is mostly reactive, and it’s aimed at interdicting pirates in the terminal phase of a potential attack — that is, when the pirates are already close enough to represent a danger. For this reason, the counter-piracy fleet often counts on stalling tactics to keep merchant ships safe until warships can respond. Merchants are instructed to sail fast, zig-zag and use their hoses to keep pirates at bay while warships and helicopters race to the rescue.

There’s another, potentially better, way of countering pirates, Chick explains. He calls it an “intelligence-driven” model that relies on a better understanding of pirates’ infrastructure and attitudes. By this method, a warship might sail a circuit within sight of a pirate port. The vessel’s presence is meant to bottle up pirates, while also creating an impression of overwhelming power that hopefully would deter future pirates from every setting sail, even after the warship has left.

USS Donald Cook — “DC” to her crew — has already tested out Chick’s new intel method, and other ships might do the same, as counter-piracy operations evolve. “There’s a bit of hearts and minds there, as well,” Chick says, adding that a visible warship presence can encourage the vast majority of Somalis who oppose piracy, but have been cowed by the sea bandits’ wealth and aggression. DC routinely sends boarding teams to talk to friendly Somali fishermen, “asking what they’ve seen and what they know” regarding pirates, Chick says. As the intel approach gains acceptance, this kind of interaction will only grow in importance.

(Photo: David Axe)

Behind the Piracy Decline

2009-09-29T16:27:43Z

by DAVID AXE

In three months there's been just one successful pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden. The same time last year, there were 17. Piracy off the Somali coast is apparently on the decline, big-time.

Commodore Steve Chick, the senior officer for the five-ship NATO counter-piracy task force, has a theory. He says the decline is a combination of three factors. First off, "merchant ships are taking better self-protection measures." Chick recalls flying in his Lynx helicopter along the security lane through which vessels are encouraged to sail. Looking down, he saw ships with fire hoses at the ready and barbed-wire on their rails.

Also, the "military are doing better," Chick adds. In Somali waters there are 20 warships belonging to three international flotillas -- NATO's, the E.U.'s and the American-led Combined Task Force 151 -- plus another 20 ships from Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Iran. All the forces, expect Iran, send reps to a monthly meeting in Bahrain to dole out patrol areas. The three flotillas take turns as chair of the assembled fleet, with veto power during any dispute over who sails where. So far, Chick says, there haven't been any arguments. Officers on USS Donald Cook, part of the NATO force, describe sitting in the destroyer's Combat Information Center listening to sailors from a dozen nations checking in.

Finally, something is giving in Somalia. Piracy has its roots in lawlessness on land. Where law takes hold, pirates can't. The governments of three Somali nations -- the Republic of Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland -- have all stood up new naval forces, with help from the U.S., NATO and the U.N. While these forces have few boats, they don't necessarily need them, Chick says. Rather, they should focus on beachfront security. As governments crack down, "piracy is becoming less socially acceptable" in Somalia, Chick says.

"Let's not under-estimate pirates," Chick cautions. They might adapt, and strike back. But with extensive international infrastructure now in place to address the threat, the world is well-positioned to keep up with any new piracy methods. "What we have here is a template," Chick says.

(Photo: David Axe)