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West African Leaders Meet For Emergency Côte D'Ivoire Talks
West African Leaders Meet for Emergency Talks on Friday on The Escalating Crisis in Côte D'Ivoire as Strongman Laurent Gbagbo Resists Calls to Step Aside And The United States Searches For More United Nations (UN) Troops.
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The meeting of leaders from West African bloc, the Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), will be their second special summit on Côte d'Ivoire this month after having suspended the country from the group at the first gathering and called on Gbagbo to cede power.
Some analysts have said the bloc could impose individual sanctions such as travel restrictions over the crisis, but officials have been tight-lipped over what will be on the table at the summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
The United States has also said it is talking with regional countries about boosting the 9 000-strong UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire.
"We are in discussions with other regional countries to see if there are ways in which we can reinforce the UN peacekeeping force," US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley told reporters.
"We're talking to a number of countries within ECOWAS."
Heads of states pull together
Since Gbagbo has ordered UN troops to leave "we can't rule out that at some point in time he may challenge the presence of that force through force of his own," Crowley said.
Ecowas spokesperson Sunny Ugoh said leaders would "look at the situation since the last summit (on December 7) and see ... how best they can enforce that and how best they can contribute to the stabilisation".
Zain Nigeria Becomes Airtel Nigeria
He Urged The Company To Assist In Creating Additional Jobs For Nigerians.
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Bharti Airtel, the giant global telecommunications company which has operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa at the weekend unveiled Airtel brand in Nigeria and around the continent, finally laying to rest the Zain brand.
The new and more vibrant brand was unveiled in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, along with Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises.
With the brand reveal activity, the identity of the company has changed from Zain Nigeria to Airtel Nigeria. Airtel is now the master brand for all the telecom group’s 19 operations. Airtel currently serve over 200 million customers in Asia and Africa.
In his remarks, President Goodluck Jonathan commended Airtel for choosing Nigeria as the launch location for the entire Africa continent. He also congratulated Airtel for the successful launch of the new brand and for its expressed commitment to make telecoms services affordable for the consumer. He urged the company to assist in creating additional jobs for Nigerians.
Jonathan who was represented by the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili also expressed joy at the plan of the company to expand its operations to more rural areas and communities. He equally advice the company to increase its investment in Nigeria as this will help to reduce the level of unemployment in the country.
Speaking at the event, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti, said: "Bharti began its African journey by promising to deliver world-class and affordable mobile services to customers and delighting them with innovative products. I believe we are taking a major step towards delivering on this by introducing the heart of our business - the Airtel brand - across our operations in Africa. Our African customers will now be able to enjoy the same best-in-class brand experience as our customers across India, Srilanka and Bangladesh.
He further added: “We remain committed to taking our network deeper into Africa, ensuring our services touch the commonman and bridge the digital divide in the continent. I am confident that over the coming years Airtel will win the hearts of customers across Africa and emerge as one of most admired brands of the continent.”
The new brand identity
Rajan Swaroop, Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria said the new Airtel brand comes with a promise to meet the emerging needs of customers with innovative, affordable and relevant solutions to empower consumers, giving them the freedom to do what they choose and provide them with the tools to meet life’s daily challenges.
The red primary colour of the logo reflects the warmth and vibrancy of the African continent. It is the colour of life and of the African sun at dusk. These qualities are reflected in Airtel’s brand personality of being brave and bold, sensitive and empathetic. The new curved addition to the logo is a symbol which will help ensure instant recognition across our diverse international markets.
As part of the celebration of unveiling the new brand, Airtel also announced the launch of a new ultra low cost handset package which effectively provides a mobile phone free of charge to all new subscribers. The package, launched in conjunction with Nokia, will be priced at approx NGN 3,500 (USD $23) and includes a brand new Nokia 1280 mobile phone, a free SIM card and the equivalent value in free Airtel talk time and SMS text messages.
Over the next couple of months Airtel will launch a number of world leading product innovations which focus on delivering relevant information for customers to enhance their quality of life and provide tools that will help them overcome their daily challenges.
In the past four months Airtel has already made tariff interventions in 11 of its 16 markets in Africa for the benefit of its customers. It has also signed agreements to extend its networks to the most remote areas which are still not connected with the outside world.
Nigeria May Report Iran To UN Over Arms Seized in Lagos
He Says The Shipment Came From Bandar Abbas
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Nigeria has said it will report Iran to the UN over an arms shipment seized two weeks ago in Lagos, if investigations show sanctions were broken.
But Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia told the BBC both countries would prefer to clear the air.
His Iranian counterpart has promised to co-operate with investigations and has given Nigerian authorities access to a suspect in the Iranian embassy.
Iran is under UN sanctions because of its nuclear programme.
Nigeria's authorities have described discovering an arsenal including rocket launchers, grenades and mortars.
There were fears the weapons might be destined for local groups but security sources say they now believe the arms were not meant to be used in Nigeria.
Lax regulations
Nigerian Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia told journalists that investigations had shown that the weapons did indeed come from Iran.
"That's been confirmed from our own shipping documents and the Iranian foreign minister," he said.
But he said there was no indication that the shipment had broken the UN sanctions as no nuclear materials had been involved.
"If Nigeria finds in the conclusion of investigations that there has been a breach of any sanctions, as a member of the UN Council we would do what is necessary," he said.
He was speaking after meeting Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who has travelled to Nigeria to discuss the issue.
He said that Nigerian security agents wanted to question two Iranian nationals who are in the embassy but one of them has diplomatic immunity.
"If the Iranians are willing to waive immunity, then we will pursue that," Mr Ajumogobia said.
It was initially feared that the weapons could be used in Nigeria - by oil militants in the Niger Delta, or Islamist radicals in the north or in elections due next year.
But the BBC's Caroline Duffield in Lagos says security sources now believe Nigeria's port may have been targeted as a holding destination - thanks to the country's reputation for corruption and lax regulations.
The France-based shipping company CMA CGM says there were attempts to send the containers on - to The Gambia, in West Africa - before the Nigerian police seized them.
It says the shipment came from Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran, and were hidden in containers labelled as building materials.
Two people who handled the shipment have been arrested.
Abuja blasts: FG Set to Try Okah’s Brother, Four Others
Five Suspects Will be Charged to Court Because it Has Been Confirmed That They Have Direct Link to The Bombings of October 1, 2010, State Security Service (SSS) Spokesperson
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NINETEEN days after the October 1 twin bomb blasts in Abuja that nearly marred the nation’s Golden Independence Anniversary, the Federal Government said, yesterday, it was now set to prosecute Charles Okah, the younger brother of South Africa based alleged militant leader, Henry Okah and four others.
The ex-militant leader is already facing trial in South Africa over the bomb attack.
This is just as Henry Okah’s wife accused the South African police of using excessive force when they raided the family’s house.
Spokesperson of the State Security Service, SSS, Mrs. Marilyn Ogar, who briefed newsmen in Abuja on efforts to bring the bombers to justice said: “Five suspects will be charged to court because it has been confirmed that they have direct link to the bombings of October 1, 2010”.
She also said that the Managing Director of Daar Communications and Director_General of the Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organisation, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who was invited to the SSS office after the blasts was not quizzed in connection with the bomb attack.
She said: “Please like I have said, the service will not want the issue pertaining to the blasts to be politicized. When we briefed you the other time, you had asked us to name the suspects and those connected to them. And the only person mentioned then was Henry Okah because it was established that he was behind the bombings.
Public service
“If the managing director of Daar Communication said he was invited, it was not to my knowledge that he was invited in connection with the blasts. The SSS is a public service and people can come in here at will and go out at will. The service has never given out any name of any suspect. The only suspect we have mentioned so far are Henry Okah and Charkes Tombra Okah.”
The SSS image maker said that hard evidence had been established against five of those in custody and that they would soon be charged to court.
She turned down all questions on the identity of those in custody except Mr. Charles Tombra Okah whose identity was already public knowledge, stressing that several people had been questioned and released since the blasts without giving details.
While noting that the organization was economical with information on the issue since investigations were still on_going and that it did not want to say anything that could compromise the national security, Ogar said: “Several Nigerians have been invited, the service will not be pushed to publish the names of those who have been invited except it has been confirmed that they have direct dealings with the incidents under investigation.
“The Service will only let you know the issues that will not undermine national security. And for that reason, you will excuse me, I will not answer this question. Like I told you, those that have been found to be directly connected to the incident will be charged to court shortly.”
She urged journalists in particular and all Nigerians at large to assist in the on_going investigation, as according to her making Nigeria safe cannot be the responsibility of only security agencies.
Below is the full address read by Mrs. Ogar before the question and answer session: “At the last press briefing the Service promised to update the media and the Nigerian public on the progress with on-going investigations into the October 1 bombings. We wish to inform you that the following has been established:
“The person that drove and coordinated the vehicles brought into Abuja for the bombings. The one who directly coordinated the bombings with Henry Okah. The individual at whose residence in Port Harcourt the vehicles were wired for detonation and from where they took off for Abuja; and the one that confirmed to his accomplice that he had completed the job, immediately after the bombings.
Consequently, Charles Tombra Okah, one of the known users of the name, ‘Jomo Gbomo’ and four other suspects would be charged to court accordingly. Meanwhile, the Service wishes to draw attention of the public to the fact that during the course of investigation, several Nigerians were interviewed and released. We plead with Nigerians to desist from politicizing the issue, as such tendencies remain a serious concern to the SSS because they promote insecurity and hinder the rapid development this country direly needs.
However, we wish to reassure the public that we will not be deterred in our investigations while urging everyone to be more security conscious about our respective environments and also collaborate with security agencies in safeguarding our national interests.
Okah’s wife says police used excessive force
Meanwhile, Henry Okah’s wife, Azuka, accused police of searching her Johannesburg home without a warrant when they raided the house to look for evidence linking her husband, Henry Okah, to the twin car bombs in Abuja on October 1.
Okah said she and her family woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of breaking glasses and said she feared someone had come to kill her husband.
She said that after entering the house, police pointed guns at her children and stole some of the family’s belongings, adding: “It’s been very traumatic to the family. We’re just barely recovering from the way they came into the house.
My kids are still trying to pick up the pieces from that. I thought it was someone who was coming to assassinate my husband.”
Henry Okah, himself will return to the Johannesburg court today which will determine whether to grant him bail.
Prosecutors say Henry Okah, 45, is the leader of the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, and gave the order to detonate the bombs that rocked celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from Britain.
Terrorism can’t shut down the country—Senate
Meanwhile, the Senate has said that the country cannot be shut down because of the fear of terrorist attacks. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, said while reacting to the closure of all roads leading to the three arms zone by security agencies on Friday last week and Monday this week.
The action of the security agencies was in response to the threat by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta that more bombs would be detonated in Abuja very soon.
While the closure of all the roads leading to the three arms zone on Friday was to allow the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan host her Women for Change Programme, that of Monday was to allow President Goodluck Jonathan commission combat helicopters of the Nigeria Police Force at the Eagle Square, Abuja.
The closure of the roads brought untold hardship as workers of the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the federal secretariat and other offices had difficult time getting onto their offices.
Senator Ayogu said he was not sure the National Assembly was notified of the closure by the executive arm of government, adding: “But I think that this is one of the problems we are confronting as an emerging democracy because ordinarily, one would expect that before that kind of action is taken, all branches are taken on board because it is a three arm government it is not one arm government.
“We will not shut down Nigeria because of terrorists. I think that the President has assured us that they will work speedily to ensure that life gets back to normalcy.”
Azazi replaces Gusau as new NSA
He Has Previously Served As Director Military Intelligence
President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Rtd General Andrew Azazi as the new National Security Adviser (NSA).
General Azazi who hails from Bayelsa state will take over from Kayode Are who has been in acting capacity since resignation of Rtd General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau.
General Gusau resigned his appointment as NSA in order to participate in the ongoing political process.
The new NSA General Azazi is of a rich military background, he has previously served as director military intelligence, GOC, Chief of Army staff and chief of Defence staff.
Gen Azazi is from the president’s home of Bayelsa. He retired from the military in 2008.
2011: We Won’t Succumb To Blackmail – EFCC
TTimesnigeria
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has described as cheap blackmail attempts by some politicians to link its on-going investigation of multi-billion naira fraud allegations in some states of the federation to the 2011 elections.
The Commission in a statement on Friday September 3, 2010 said insinuations in media reports that it is targeting pro-zoning governors ahead of the 2011 elections, are calculated to freeze its hands.
It however vowed that no amount of propaganda or campaign of calumny will stop it from carrying out its statutory responsibilities of investigating and prosecuting economic and financial crimes in any part of the country.
According to the statement, “We have a legitimate duty to investigate and prosecute all forms of economic and financial crimes in all parts of the federation. This, we have been doing since the inception of the commission in 2003and will continue to do within the ambit of the law.
“It is on record that the commission has continued to investigate various fraud allegations in several states of the federation, local government councils, federal agencies and private establishments.
“As such, our on-going investigations of multi-billion naira fraud allegations in Kebbi, Kwara, Imo, Jigawa and Rivers States are not different from what we have done in other states before now.
“Rather than making desperate moves to blackmail the Commission by imputing illogical meanings to its legitimate duties in a bid to freeze its hands, the questions the brains behind this propaganda should answer are:
“Are there allegations of fraud against their officials? Is the EFCC empowered to investigate such fraud allegations? Is there any law barring EFCC from investigating fraud allegations before, during or after elections?
“Should election time be taken as a holiday period when law enforcement agents would have to close their eyes to the looting of public treasury?
“These are some of the pertinent questions whose answers will expose the hidden agenda of those behind the plot to frustrate the nation’s anti-graft war.
“We will like to re-assure the public as has often been stated long before now by the leadership of then commission, that the EFCC is not under any pressure from the Presidency or any other quarters to do anyone’s bidding on any issue.
“Attempts to link our operations to political considerations remain a blackmail which will not stop us from doing the needful within the ambit of our statutory responsibilities.”
Blood Diamond and Dinner with Many Famous
The Charles Taylor Tales
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Blood diamonds and Charles Taylor: the inside story
The 'blood diamonds' trade, which is at the heart of the war-crimes trial of Charles Taylor, ex-president of Liberia - in which Naomi Campbell has become embroiled - was partly run by his brother-in-law, Cindor Reeves. In this exclusive interview he tells Colin Freeman about his role
The now infamous dinner with Naomi Campbell, Charles Taylor and Mia Farrow Photo: REX Naomi Campbell giving evdience to the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor Photo: AP
Should Naomi Campbell ever wish for some more dodgy diamonds to grace her supermodel limbs, Cindor Reeves knows the right people to call. It is a long way from his new home in Canada to the war-ravaged gem fields of his native West Africa, and a long time since the trade in "blood diamonds" was officially banned, but as long as Ms Campbell sticks to her habit of not asking where they came from, he says a deal could probably be done.
"I tell you, I could get on the phone to people out there tomorrow, and they will fly them to wherever you want," he says, shaking his head. "They are supposed to have brought this trade under control, but it still goes on, and as long as it does, we will have wars in Africa."
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Charles Taylor displays icy charm at war crime hearing
Charles Taylor displays icy charm at war crime hearing in The HagueOn the subject of illegal gemstones, it is fair to say that Mr Reeves is uniquely well connected, even if many of his best contacts are now either dead, on the run, or in jail. The tall, quietly spoken 38-year-old is the brother-in-law, no less, of Charles Taylor, the Liberian dictator who gave Ms Campbell a gift of uncut diamonds in 1997, according to her recent testimony at his war crimes trial in the Hague. For four turbulent years, he was at the centre of the blood diamonds trade, acting as Taylor's personal envoy in his infamous arms-for-gems deals with the rebels in next door Sierra Leone, whose drug-crazed recruits raped, maimed and slaughtered their way through a war that claimed some 150,000 lives.
As such, he also knows about the appalling price in human misery that was paid so that "the chief", as his brother-in-law was known, could flatter pretty girls at parties. The gifts Taylor used to hand out to the likes of Ms Campbell were the proceeds of dozens of clandestine trips that Mr Reeves made into the Sierra Leone bush, where he would swap truckloads of weapons for tiny but highly valuable packages of stones, many from rebel-held mines being run as virtual slave camps.
Today, though, Mr Reeves' diamond smuggling days are over. Appalled by the slaughter that the trade was fuelling, in 2001 he turned against his own family and secretly approached the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, providing inside information that helped build much of the prosecution case against the former president and his cronies. He claims Taylor tried to have a hit squad kill him before he left Africa, and after an attempted kidnapping in Paris in 2004, allegedly conducted by a notorious Ukrainian arms dealer, he fled to Canada. Today, rather like the Mafioso-turned-informant Henry Hill, whose life was depicted in the film Goodfellas, he lives in suburban anonymity, although even here his mobile phone still rings with death threats.
"Taylor still has a lot of supporters," he told me, looking out over a street lined with station wagons, neatly kept lawns and garages with basketball hoops. "Nobody has done anything yet, but they tell me they know where my kids go to school."
Last week, though, on condition that his location was not disclosed, Mr Reeves agreed to an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, shedding first-hand light on the violent, sordid world that Ms Campbell became the chance beneficiary of during her meeting with Taylor at a party at Nelson Mandela's house in 1997. While the supermodel professed almost complete ignorance of the blood gems trade, describing Taylor's gift only as "dirty pebbles", Mr Reeves saw its every facet: the psychotic rebel commanders who ran the mines, the traumatised civilians forced to work in them, and the networks of shady middlemen who connected the trade with the outside world, including arms dealers and alleged agents of both al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.
His story begins at a more innocent time, however, back in the early 1980s, when Taylor, then a senior figure in Liberia's military government, married Mr Reeves's elder sister Agnes. Then, as now, Mr Reeves recalls his brother-in-law as someone who was generous with gifts but ruthless if crossed: the uniformed figure who would buy him ice cream and sweets once beat up one of Agnes's other suitors in front of him. After being sacked for embezzlement and banished to the US, where he served time in jail, Taylor returned to Liberia to fight his way to power with a guerrilla army. During the 1990s he also backed the Revolutionary United Front rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone, whose troops were notorious for recruiting child soldiers into their ranks and mutilating civilians.
One reason for his support for such a brutal movement was that Taylor was a pal of the RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, who had trained with him in Libya as part of Colonel Gaddafi's now defunct programme for grooming foreign revolutionaries. Another, though, was that the RUF had seized control of some of the richest diamond fields in the world, Sierra Leone being one of the rare spots on the planet where they practically spring up out of the ground.
"A rough diamond looks a bit like a sugar lump, it's only when you wash it and the sunlight hits it that you see the gemstone beneath," said Mr Reeves, his eyes gleaming a little. "The diamonds from Sierra Leone are like no others. They are much less rough than those from Angola, South Africa or Australia – all they need is
a little cutting."
While diamonds in other countries are mostly accessible only by mining firms, in Sierra Leone they can be dug by anyone with a spade and panning set. The result, in such a poor, weakly-governed country, has for decades been an anarchic free-for-all, from which criminal gangs and armed groups have grown powerful.
Ironically, it was to inject a little honesty and transparency into the business that Taylor first recruited his brother-in-law. The Liberian leader was already thought to be earning millions from the trade, funding a lifestyle that included designer suits, Mercedes cars, his own personal throne and at least 30 children by different women. However, he grew exasperated at the way his diamond packages were often pilfered in transit, and turned to his relative as one of the few people he felt he could trust. From 1998 onwards, Mr Reeves would accompany a heavily armed convoy that would drive along the sunbaked tracks into Sierra Leone's RUF strongholds, trade weapons and ammunition for diamonds, and then ensure that every stone came home accounted for.
None of the parties involved in these deals were the kind of people whom it was wise to double-cross. On Mr Reeves's side was Taylor's diamond-buyer, a Senegalese-born jihadist who had fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and trained with Hezbollah, plus members of the president's feared "special security service". On the RUF side was commander Sam "Mosquito" Bockarie, a former disco-dancer and hairdresser known for his fondness for hacking off the limbs, ears and lips of his victims. His footsoldiers, meanwhile, had a fondness for drink and marijuana.
"Commanders would come in with parcels of diamonds wrapped in paper and tied with Scotch tape," said Mr Reeves. "We would meet in Bockarie's house and then stick a chair in the middle of the room for the diamonds to be counted on, with a white sheet draped underneath so that if any got dropped we could see them. Then I would declare how many we had received, and Bockarie would tell the commanders, 'Look, President Taylor's brother-in-law is here in person, so nothing is going to go missing'."
As Taylor's own emissary, Mr Reeves had little fear of being robbed en route: in his possession was a special ID card identifying him as a member of the First Family, which guaranteed him passage through any militia checkpoint, and warned that he should not be "molested" in any way. Even so, he would never let the diamonds out of his sight. "At night, I would put them in my front pocket and sleep face down so that nobody could get at them, although any robber would have been crazy to try. The guards would have shot them if they saw so much as a movement in the bushes."
Back in the crumbling Liberian capital, Monrovia, Mr Reeves would deliver the packages to Taylor: in similar fashion to the delivery to Naomi Campbell, the president preferred the hand-over to be done in the small hours. The stones duly checked by an expert, Taylor would then call the international dealers he retained, who included members of the Lebanese diaspora that has long operated all over Africa, and Europeans connected to the diamond market in Antwerp. All had a remarkable ability to summon millions of dollars in cash at short notice, although if they ran short, Taylor was always happy to help. On one occasion, when a buyer turned up with $240,000 in travellers' cheques, his security men forced a bank in Monrovia to cash the lot on the spot. "They didn't normally take travellers' cheques, but were told that this particular 'tourist' was special," Mr Reeves recalled.
On one occasion in 1999, Mr Reeves even accompanied a dealer to Antwerp, where a dozen local diamantaires were invited to submit sealed bids for a pile of stones laid out in the middle of a hotel room. The dealer pocketed $2.35 million that afternoon, with no questions asked. "It was long before anybody knew about blood diamonds," said Mr Reeve. "As far as they were concerned, there was nothing wrong at all."
He knew otherwise, having visited the RUF-controlled mines, where men, women and children were being conscripted to work in appalling conditions. "It was horrific – at one point I saw three or four guards beating a guy with their rifle butts just because he had stopped for a drink of water. They thought he was trying to steal a diamond, and at one point they were going to force-feed him laxative so that it would come out. When I saw that with my own eyes, I began to realise just how bad it all was."
Despite the danger it put him in, Mr Reeves quietly turned supergrass, working with prosecutors from the special court, and, allegedly, with Britain's M16. He handed them records of every transaction he had done, and during field trips began to gather evidence of the atrocities carried out by militia commanders. While he is not expected to give direct evidence to the Hague court, owing partly to a falling-out over the way court officials handled his witness protection provision, he is one of the key sources of information for a trial in which very few people have been brave enough to tell the truth. Among those who have been afraid to do so, he reckons, is Ms Campbell, who denied in court knowing that the stones she got were actually from Mr Taylor. "You could see the fear in her eyes, because she knows who Taylor is now," he said.
Mr Reeves was surprised to hear testimony that he told bodyguards to give her the diamonds in the middle of the night. "For one thing, she is a supermodel – strangers wouldn't be allowed to come knocking on her bedroom door just like that. And Taylor is a flamboyant character – he would want to give her the diamonds in person, because he liked impressing people. If fact, if she hadn't been there, he would have probably given them to Nelson Mandela."
New al-Qaida threat: Somali group claims blasts
By Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya
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KAMPALA, Uganda — East Africa saw the emergence of a new international terrorist group Monday, as Somalia's most dangerous al-Qaida-linked militia claimed responsibility for the twin bombings in Uganda that killed 74 people during the World Cup.
The claim by al-Shabab, whose fighters are trained by militant veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, resets the security equation in East Africa and has broader implications worldwide. The group in the past has recruited Somali-Americans to carry out suicide bombings in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab has long threatened to attack outside of Somalia's borders, but the bombings late Sunday are the first time the group has done so.
"We warned Uganda not to deploy troops to Somalia, they ignored us," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman. "We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignored that. The explosions in Kampala were only a minor message to them. ... We will target them everywhere if Uganda does not withdraw from our land."
Rage said a second country with peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu — Burundi — could soon face attacks. Fighting in Mogadishu between militants and Somali troops or African Union peacekeepers frequently kills civilians.
The attacks outside Somalia represent a dangerous new step in al-Shabab's increasingly militant path and raises questions about its future plans. The U.S. State Department has declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization. Other neighboring nations — Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, along with Burundi — may also face new attacks, analysts say.
Despite the threats, Uganda's army spokesman said the county would not withdraw. "Al-Shabab is the reason why we should stay in Somalia. We have to pacify Somalia," said Lt. Col. Felix Kulaigye.
In Washington, President Barack Obama spoke with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday to express his condolences for the loss of life in the bombings. Obama offered to provide any support or assistance needed in Uganda, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Gibbs said that while the FBI is assisting in the ongoing investigation, the U.S. believes that there is "no clearer signal of the hateful motives of terrorists than was sent yesterday."
The death toll in Sunday's twin blasts rose to 74 on Monday, Ugandan officials said. Investigators combed through the blast sites, one an outdoor screening at a rugby club and the other an Ethiopian restaurant — a nation despised by al-Shabab. Investigators found the severed head of what appeared to be a Somali suicide bomber.
A California-based aid group, meanwhile, said one of its American workers was among the dead. Officials said 60 Ugandans, nine Ethiopians or Eritreans, one Irish woman, and one Asian were also among those killed. Two people couldn't be identified. Eighty-five people were wounded.
At least three of the wounded were in a church group from Pennsylvania who went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala early to get good seats for the game, said Lori Ssebulime, an American who married a Ugandan. Three Ugandans in the group were killed when a blast erupted. One of the wounded was 16-year-old American Emily Kerstetter.
"Emily was rolling around in a pool of blood screaming," said Ssebulime, who has helped bring in U.S. church groups since 2004. "Five minutes before it went off, Emily said she was going to cry so hard because she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay the rest of the summer here."
Blood and pieces of flesh littered the floor among overturned chairs at the scenes of the blasts, which went off as people watched the game between Spain and the Netherlands.
"We were enjoying ourselves when a very noisy blast took place," said Andrew Oketa, one of the hospitalized survivors. "I fell down and became unconscious. When I regained, I realized that I was in a hospital bed with a deep wound on my head."
At a wrap-up news briefing Monday in South Africa, FIFA President Sepp Blatter denounced the violence against fans watching the game.
"Can you link it to the World Cup? I don't know... Whatever happened, linked or not linked, it is something that we all should condemn," he said.
Analysts have long feared al-Shabab was turning increasingly violent. The International Crisis Group in May said that if foreign fighters' influence grew inside al-Shabab, the group's "rapid transformation into a wholly al-Qaida franchise might become irreversible. That could cause havoc even well beyond Somalia's borders, and the (Somali government) and the international community cannot choose to be bystanders."
Invisible Children, a San Diego, California-based aid group that helps child soldiers, identified the dead American as one of its workers, Nate Henn, who was killed on the rugby field. Henn, 25, was a native of Wilmington, Delaware.
"He sacrificed his comfort to live in the humble service of God and of a better world," the group said.
The FBI sent agents based at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya to assist in the investigation and look into the circumstances of the death of the American citizen, a State Department official in Washington said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the probe. Interpol said in a statement that it was dispatching a team to Uganda.
Ugandan President Museveni toured the blast sites Monday and said that the terrorists behind the bombings should fight soldiers, not "people who are just enjoying themselves."
"We shall go for them wherever they are coming from," Museveni said. "We will look for them and get them as we always do."
Kulayigye, the Ugandan army spokesman, said it was too early to speculate about any military response to the attacks.
Uganda still plans to host the African Union summit in late July. More than 50 heads of state or government are expected to attend.
Ethiopia, which fought two wars with Somalia, is a longtime enemy of al-Shabab and other Somali militants who accuse their neighbor of meddling in Somali affairs. Ethiopia had troops in Somalia between December 2006 and January 2009 to back Somalia's fragile government against the Islamic insurgency.
Sunday's terror attacks are not the first to hit East Africa. U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were the targets of deadly twin bombings by al-Qaida in 1998, killing 224 people including 12 Americans. An Israeli airliner and hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, were targeted by terrorists in 2002.
The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden has declared his support for Islamic radicals there.
Covert U.S. operations authorized in secret order
The Middle East and the Horn of Africa
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A senior U.S. military commander issued a secret order last year that laid the ground for an escalation of covert operations across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, officials said on Monday.
Politics
Issued last September by General David Petraeus, the order authorized an escalation that included boosting military and intelligence assistance to help Yemeni forces strike al Qaeda targets, as well as deployment of more unmanned aerial drones to collect information and track high-value targets.
The order also authorized U.S. Special Operations units to work with local security forces to counter al Qaeda and other threats, a goal Pentagon officials have made no secret of.
As the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, Petraeus oversees U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and plays a major role in planning for any possible military action against Iran over its nuclear program.
The order was first reported by the New York Times, which quoted a document it obtained as saying the goal was to build networks that could "penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy" al Qaeda and other militant groups as well as "prepare the environment" for future attacks by U.S. or local military forces.
The newspaper said the directive also appeared to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about its nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for any future military offensive.
Some of the covert military operations that followed the secret order have been reported. These include a September 2009 attack by helicopter-borne Special Operations Forces on a car carrying one of east Africa's most wanted al Qaeda militants, Kenyan-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.
Central Command has been positioning Reaper drones at a base in the Horn of Africa. Officials said the drones can be used against militants in Yemen and Somalia, and even against pirates who attack ships traversing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
"They (the drones) are part of it but it is much broader than that," one U.S. official said of the order.
In February, Defense Secretary Robert Gates authorized $150 million in security assistance for Yemen for fiscal 2010, up from $67 million last year.
Officials told Reuters the money would be used in part to bolster Yemen's special operations forces to lead an offensive targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for a failed plot to blow up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day.
The group has emerged as one of al Qaeda's most active affiliates, and the Obama administration recently took the extraordinary step of authorizing the CIA to kill a leading figure linked to the group -- American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
Counterterrorism training to curb Al Qaeda threat in Africa
US and European troops train local militaries in counterterrorism tactics in the face of threats from Al Qaeda and criminals in West Africa.
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Thiès, Senegal; and Johannesburg, South Africa
In the bare and unremarkable desert town of Thiès, a platoon of commandos from Mali and Senegal are scaling a building's edifice, one handful of rope at a time. This is practice.
Their American, Dutch, and Spanish handlers call it Operation Flintlock – an annual, West Africa-wide counterterrorism exercise to prep local militaries.
According to the script, a carload of European sightseers on their way, perhaps, to a waterbuck-filled nature reserve, will be kidnapped by desert bandits, ransomed to Al Qaeda in the Maghreb, and whisked to Senegal's northeastern frontier. And that's where a bit of rope-climbing expertise could save the day, as Senegal's finest shimmy down from hovering helicopters to stage a rescue.
"This is designed as a rehearsal for a multinational coordination center or a mechanism to counter terrorism," says Lt. Col. Chris Call, deputy commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans-Sahara, and operations commander for Operation Flintlock. "This is necessary against a regional transnational threat, which in this region [is] a violent Salafist jihadist movement."
"The challenge [for the partner nations] here is how do they control their territory in countries that own just vast swaths of territory in some of the most inhospitable remote locations in the world," says Call, speaking by phone from Flintlock's multinational coordination center near Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. "Our focus is on basic tactical military techniques … and helping to build capacity in our partner nations. Success for us is putting us out of a job."
At one time, a military exercise like Operation Flintlock – which is now in its fifth year – would have set African opinion-page columns aflame and set a fair number of African politicians pounding on tables with their shoes. Some African nations worried that the newly announced but vaguely defined Africa Command (AFRICOM) of the US Army would herald a new colonial presence in Africa, complete with permanent military bases and political interference.
But today, AFRICOM's military exercises often pass with little notice, and increasingly with the support of African leaders. In part, this is because African leaders now see a common threat: armed violent groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which have carried out a series of murders and kidnappings from Mauritania to Algeria to Niger and threaten to topple any government that dares confront them.
For Senegal, for now, this threat is still hypothetical. Unlike Senegal's neighbors in the Maghreb – where Al Qaeda has been abducting tourists and aid workers, ransoming them off and profiting handsomely – the 50-year-old democracy here has never known Islamic extremism, only its home-grown Sufi mysticism, a permissive faith.
But for Senegalese brass patrolling the vast and remote flatlands, the threat could emerge at any moment. More than 500,000 tourists vacation here each year, touring ancient slave dungeons near Dakar or the hinterland's pristine riverbanks. Their souvenir-shopping and spa-surfing activities contribute 6 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
"We need to consider that tomorrow, that menace [in Mali and Mauritania] will be here," says Col. Ousmane Sarr of the Senegalese Army's public relations department. "Our economy counts so heavily on tourism that the state must ensure that the country remains secure."
Yet the US military wants Senegal to do more than lock down holiday spots from a few carjacking terrorists. Come 2011, the US hopes to run the entirety of Operation Flintlock from Senegal, a sign that the country can be the regional leader in parrying the Sahel's terrorism endemic.
[Correction: The original version misstated what operations the US hopes to run from Senegal.]
"I've worked in more than 24 countries, and Senegal's [military] is one of the most professional," says a US military official in Senegal, who asked not to be identified. "Senegal is an example to the subregion in its military competence, in its civilian control of the military, in its professionalism, and we'd like to learn from, replicate, and share those strengths across borders."
Whether the ex-colony would agree to accommodate such an influx of American and European marines is a thornier question. The perception of military sovereignty remains a salient political issue here.
The president is currently embroiled in a public feud with France's defense ministry, which has yet to abandon its military bases in Senegal. American proposals to build a central antiterror base were widely rejected throughout the region.
But, Sarr says, "If the world wants to help us have this dimension as a leader, we'd like that. We have an excellent rapport with AFRICOM."
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