Mexico needs poultry

US Sets Deadline for South Africa Trade Imports

South Africa has been given a March 15 deadline to allow U.S. poultry into the country or lose duty-free access for its farming exports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), according to a proclamation issued Monday by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Last week, South Africa's Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, announced the two countries had completed negotiations on various meat imports, but U.S. Ambassador Michael Froman warned there were more hurdles for Pretoria.

Froman said the United States needed to ensure South Africans were able to purchase U.S. poultry products before confirming that South Africa could enjoy full AGOA benefits.

The U.S. proclamation reiterated that remark, saying, “Suspending the application of duty-free treatment to certain goods would be more effective in promoting compliance by South Africa with such requirements than terminating the designation of South Africa as a beneficiary."

A U.S. Trade Representative spokesman told Bloomberg news Tuesday, "With the substantive points resolved, we are able to move to the final benchmark: Testing the new system to make certain American poultry can be made available on store shelves in South Africa."

South Africa Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) spokesman Sidwell Medupe told local Fin24 the DTI would issue a statement regarding the U.S. proclamation later Tuesday.

If South Africa meets the March 15 deadline, Obama could revoke the proclamation or reinstate AGOA benefits after a suspension has taken place, the U.S. Trade Representative told South African media.

Obama had warned November 5 that he would revoke the duty-free status of South African agricultural produce unless Pretoria took action by the end of 2015 to loosen restrictions on U.S. farm exports.

Eliminating barriers to U.S. trade and investment is one of the criteria for membership of AGOA, which was renewed by the U.S. Congress in June and provides duty-free access to goods from sub-Saharan African countries, ranging from crude oil to clothing.

South Africa exported $176 million in agricultural products to the United States under AGOA in 2014 and potential lost benefits are estimated to total $4 million to $7 million.

Buya Boom !

Gonaives, 11 Jan. 2016 [AlterPresse] --- The funeral of the Ati nasyonal (supreme leader) of voodoo, Zamor Alcénat, were sung, Sunday, January 10, 2016, to Desronvilles, town of Pont-Tamarin, 1st section Communal Gonaïves (Artibonite), observed the online agency AlterPresse.

Government officials, senators, voodoo sector representatives, relatives and friends were among others present at the funeral ceremony performed in a lakou, serving as headquarters to the group Zanfan Tradisyon ayisyen (Zantray).

A vigil took place the night of 9 to 10 January 2016, in the lakou the deceased in Gros Morne, in the upper Artibonite.

Members of the family of the deceased, including thirty daughters and son in uniform, were noticed at the ceremony of homage to the leader of Haitian voodoo, died following a traffic accident, December 21, 2015, in the locality Payen, Surla national road No. 1 ..

The Ati nasyonal Acting voodoo mambo Euvonie Georges Auguste, welcomed the departure of Zamor Alcénat (Editor's note: who has not had time to be inducted in a ceremony that was scheduled for March 7, 2016) while touting his qualities.

"Zamor Alcénat was a generous man, wise, helpful, always ready to advise and forgive, even when it hurt him. He spent much of his life fighting for social organized voodoo in Haiti. His death will leave a void in the industry, "she expresses.

"Zamor Alcénat was a model for the followers of voodoo. He left with all his dreams advances for the sector. He left traces, we must follow to move the voodoo, "said for his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (MARNDR), Lionel Valbrun.

For his part, the Director General of the Department of cults his dismay at the death of the Ati nasyonal elected Alcénat Zamor, who has not had time to continue his struggle to make Voodoo one to one level organized sector superior.

It calls on all followers of voodoo to work in unity, understanding and harmony for the sector progress.

Many other personalities whose elected senator Southeast, Pierre Ricard, paid tribute to the deceased.

Aged 60, Zamor Alcénat was elected unanimously, beginning in December 2015 (to replace the Ati nasyonal Max Beauvoir, who died in September 2015) by the Konfederasyon nasyonal voodoo ayisyen (Knva) as Ati nasyonal within the voodoo sector that was to lead to a term of seven (7) years.

Alcénat passed away, December 30, 2015, after a cardiac arrest in a private hospital in Port-au-Prince, where he was receiving treatment following an accident, December 21, 2015, in Pierre Payen, locality Bellanger, 3rd communal section of St. Mark in the lower Artibonite.

He was to replace the manbo (priestess) Euvonie Georges Auguste, who was acting after death, September 12, 2015, the supreme leader of Vodou, Max Beauvoir Gesner.

The ceremony his induction was scheduled for March 7, 2016 on the Place d'Armes in Gonaives.

Father of 30 children, was a Zamor Alcénat houngan (voodoo priest) career. He had over 42 years of experience in the Haitian voodoo sector.

After the funeral ceremony, punctuated by voodoo rituals, the funeral procession went to Gros Morne, where the body of the deceased Alcénat Zamor was buried in the cemetery of his hometown

Malawian pastor defends buying a third private jet by saying, “I am what God says.. I was born a winner”

God’s blessings came in the form of private jets for Malawian pastor Shepherd Bushiri.

In a Jan. 6 ceremony celebrating his purchase of a Gulf Stream III, Bushiri claimed, “I am what God says I am. I was born a winner. This goes to people who understand my vision. This is not for me but to those who believe in better things,” according to local media. Bushiri posted photos of his acquisition, which sells for about $37 million, on Facebook with the caption: [size=18pt]“My third jet in two years.”[/size]

Bushiri, better known among his followers as “Major 1” or “Papa,” is believed to be one of the wealthiest pastors in Africa and one the richest men in Malawi, where he was born and raised. He founded the Enlightened Christian Gathering (EGC), whose aim is to “bring awareness about God’s existence and voice in this day and age,” according to church’s website. The pastor says he is a prophet of God.

Critics say that Bushiri lures followers with promises of money and success, if only they believe. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with over half of the population living under the poverty line. In response to Bushiri’s Facebook post, one user named Friday Mulenga wrote, “How many street kids? How many blind beggars on the street? Not even an orphanage has been built. But someone has bought a jet, expensive cars, expensive clothes.”

Bushiri’s followers responded in his defense. “You can’t be poor when you know God and have powers to communicate direct with him,” one wrote. “I will own a private jet one day in Jesus name to help international visitors coming abroad to ECG church,” another said.Bushiri himself responded in the comments: “Mr Friday Mulenga you can also sell your phone and give the money to the poor.”

Arabs are being exploited and used as pawns by america if they were indubitably troubling america you have to know so many of them would not be able to conduct business as freely in america as they currently do. I am surprised you might consider arabs will have the ability to take some american land but I would not worry too much about that one.

Donny trump could be their president if so just give the people what they want

The coordinator of the new citizens' movement " is DRC -fourth time track," Jean-Marie Kalonji , was abducted by armed men in full - Boulevard 30 June 15 December . It was only on Wednesday it was located in the facilities of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) . According to sources close to the government, Jean-Marie Kalonji excelled in student circles in subversion on behalf of the opposition, which rejects the accusations.


It is 13 hours December 15, 30-June the boulevard. At the height of the building Gécamines, armed men traveling in a car embark force pedestrians. Just enough time for the companions of the unfortunate to see that the black 4x4 vehicle was registered in Kinshasa.

Jean-Marie Kalonji, the name of the abducted person is aged 29 and above is the coordinator of a new citizens' movement, "Time DRC - Fourth Way". After over a week of intense research, his brother Pascal Kalonji locates the ANR, but assures he had not managed to establish contact with him.

Subversive activities?

According to government sources contacted by RFI, the person was wanted for subversive activities, including recruitment of students in media on behalf of the opposition. "The opposition does not need to go clandestinely recruit" retorts for its part the opponent Vital Kamerhe, adding that the opposition has publicly called on the Congolese people to join the Citizen Front in 2016, a movement set up with civil society and Lucha Filimbi for the presidential and legislative elections within the constitutional deadline.

http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20151226-rdc-opposants-kalonji-quatrieme-voie-temps-jean-marie-ANR source


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRWOXkZuigs

It was not a very great decision we all know mooslams only need a simple excuse for that jihad.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, says the decision of the Mahama administration to accept two Al Qaeda suspected terrorists in Ghana portrays the country as a puppet of US.

He accused President John Mahama, who he described as the architect of Ghana’s foreign policy, of denigrating the country’s dignity and sovereignty for a paltry amount of money.

Mahmud Umar Muhammed Bin Aterf and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby have been offered humanitarian assistance in the country following a deal signed by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the US government.

Muhammed Bin Aterf is a member of the Taliban, who fought for Osama bin Laden, and his counterpart Salih Al-Dhuby trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, according to US-based Fox News.

The Yemeni nationals were previously being held at the US-controlled Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba and are expected to be hosted by Ghana for at least two years.

Mr. Osei-Adjei said the underlining factor for the acceptance of the ex-inmates of Guantanamo Prisons by the Mahama administration is money.

Speaking to Boss Fm, a Kumasi-based radio, the former Foreign Affairs Minister indicated that the government did not properly think through the deal before accepting it.

. He strongly believes the government accepted the deal because of government’s dire need for cash to rescue the country’s economy, which has sunk into the abyss of debt.

“If not cash, then somebody should tell me what the motivation is,” he indicated, adding that the decision might come with consequences.

According to him, US foreign policy dictates that the country has no permanent friends but good friends at any particular point in time.

“If there is no benefit for Ghana in this deal then the question is: what is our business in this?” he asked rhetorically.

He disclosed that Ghana would lose dignity and respect in the comity of nations for taking such a decision.

A recent statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the two ex-inmates of Yemeni origin, who were detained in Guantanamo, had been cleared to be released.

However, many Ghanaians have expressed disquiet about the decision to house the duo in the country for fear that their presence could make the nation the target of attacks.

ISIL AND USA SITTING IN THE TREE WHAT THEY DO WE ARE NOT K.N.O.W.I.N.G.

Security forces in Ethiopia have killed at least 140 protesters demonstrating against the expansion of the country’s capital city, activists in the country have told Human Rights Watch.

Protests have been ongoing in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, which is home to the majority Oromo ethnic group, since November, according to the rights group. Oromo farmers have demonstrated against proposals to expand the municipal boundary of the capital, Addis Ababa, which could result arable land being grabbed by the government and the forced eviction of the farmers.

Felix Horne, HRW researcher for the Horn of Africa, says successive governments have unfairly targeted the Oromo, viewed as a threat to authority due to the size of the ethnic group. An Amnesty International report released in October 2014 said that at least 5,000 Oromos had been arrested on the basis of actual or suspected opposition to the governing party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). “It’s very clear that in Oromia today there’s massive human rights violations and anyone who expresses dissent against the government—questioning their policies or their plans—inevitably ends up targeted, arrested, sometimes worse,” says Horne.

Horne says that the Oromia protests will not go away until the Ethiopian government sit down and negotiate with the farmers fearing displacement. “It’s very evident in the people I’ve talked to and others who’ve spoken out that the protesters have just had enough,” says Horne. “They’re saying, ‘Look, you can arrest us, you can shoot us, we’re not going to stop protesting until change comes about.’”

The Ethiopian government has previously criticized the protesters and said their demonstrations will be met with force. Hailemariam Desalegn, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said in December that demonstrators had burned down government properties and killed security forces. “I would like to pass a message that we, in conjunction with the public, will take merciless legitimate action against any force bent on destabilizing the area,” said Desalegn.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second-largest country, and Oromos constituted around 25 million out of a total population of almost 74 million at the last census in 2007, according to the BBC . By 2015, the population was estimated to have grown to more than 99 million and the capital’s population is expanding at an annual rate of 3.8 percent.

Neoliberalism Raises Its Ugly Head in South America: As Washington Targets Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina

After 9-11, the United States focused its most aggressive foreign policy on the Middle East – from Afghanistan to North Africa. But the deal recently worked out with Iran, the current back-door negotiations over Syria between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the decision to subsidize, and now export, U.S. shale oil and gas production in a direct reversal of U.S. past policy toward Saudi Arabia – together signal a relative shift of U.S. policy away from the Middle East.

With a Middle East consolidation phase underway, U.S. policy has been shifting since 2013-14 to the more traditional focus that it had for decades: first, to check and contain China; second, to prevent Russia from economically integrating more deeply with Europe; and, third, to reassert more direct U.S. influence once again, as in previous decades, over the economies and governments in Latin America.

Following his re-election in 2012, Obama announced what was called a ‘pivot’ to Asia to contain and check China’s growing economic and political influence. In 2013-14, it was the U.S.-directed Ukraine coup – i.e. a pretext for sanctions on Russia designed to sever that country’s growing economic relations with Europe. But there is yet another U.S. policy shift underway that is perhaps not as evident as the refocus on China or the U.S. new ‘cold war’ offensive against Russia. It is the U.S. pivot toward Latin America, begun in 2014, targeting in particular the key countries and economies of South America – Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina – for economic and political destabilization as a fundamental requisite for re-introduction of Neoliberal policies in that region.

Venezuela: Case Example of Destabilization

Economic destabilization in its most recent phase has been underway in Venezuela since 2013. The collapse of world oil and commodity prices, a consequence in part of the United States vs. Saudi fight that erupted in 2014 over who controls the global price of oil, has caused the Venezuela currency, the Bolivar, to collapse. The United States raising its long term interest rates the past year has intensified that currency collapse. But U.S. government and banking forces have further fanned the flames of currency collapse by encouraging speculators, operating out of Colombia and the ‘DollarToday’ website, to ‘short’ the Bolivar and depress it still further. U.S. based media, in particular the arch-conservative CATO institute in Washington, has joined in the effort by consistently reporting exaggerated claims of currency decline, as high as 700 percent, to panic Venezuelans to further dump Bolivars for dollars, thus causing even more currency collapse. Meanwhile, multinational corporations in Venezuela continue to hoard more than US$11 billion in dollars, causing the dollar to rise and the Bolivar to fall even more. The consequence of all these forces contributing to collapse of the currency is a growing black market for dollars and shortages of key consumer and producer goods.

But all that’s just the beginning. Currency collapse in turn means escalating cost of imports and domestic inflation, and thus falling real incomes for small businesses and workers. The black market and dollar shortage due means inability to import critical goods like medicines and food. Rising cost of imports means lack of critical materials needed to continue production, which results in falling production, plant and business closures, and rising unemployment.

Currency collapse, inflation, and recession together result in capital flight from the country, which in turn exacerbates all the above again. A vicious cycle of general economic collapse thus ensues, for which the popular government is blamed but which it has fundamentally not caused.

As this scenario in Venezuela since 2014 has worsened, the United States has targeted Venezuela’s state owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, with legal suits. The Obama government in March 2015 also issued executive orders freezing assets of Venezuelan government and military representatives charged with alleged ‘human rights’ abuses. The United States then recently arrested Venezuelan businessmen in the United States, holding them without bail, no doubt to send a message to those who might still support the government. The U.S. government has also indicted Venezuelan government and military officials recently with charges of alleged drug conspiracy, including National Guard generals who have supported the Maduro government. This all raises impressions of government corruption with the public, while giving second thoughts to other would-be military and government supporters to ‘think twice’ about their continuing support and perhaps to consider ‘going over’ to the opposition in exchange for a ‘deal’ to drop the legal charges. The popular impression grows that the economic crisis, the inflation, the shortages, the layoffs must all be associated with the corruption, which is associated with the government. It is all classic U.S. destabilization strategy.

As all the above economic dislocation has occurred in Venezuela, money has flowed through countless unofficial channels to the opposition parties and their politicians, enabling them to capture earlier this month control of the national assembly. The leaders of the new assembly, according to media leaks, now have plans to reconstitute the Venezuelan Supreme Court to support their policies and to legally endorse their coming direct attack the Maduro government in 2016. It is clear the goal is to either remove Maduro and his government or to render it impossible to govern.

As Julio Borges, a possible next president of the national assembly, has declared publicly in recent days: if the Maduro government does not go along with the new policies of the Assembly, “it will have to be changed.” No doubt impeachment proceedings, to try to remove Maduro, will be soon on the agenda in Venezuela – just as it now is in Brazil. But for that, the Venezuelan Supreme Court must be changed, which makes it the immediate next front in the battle.

Argentina & Brazil: Harbinger of Neoliberal Things to Come

Should the new pro-U.S., pro-Business Venezuela National Assembly ever prevail over the Maduro government, the outcome economically would something like that now unfolding with the Mauricio Macri government in Argentina. Argentina’s Macri has already, within days of assuming the presidency, slashed taxes for big farmers and manufacturers, lifted currency controls and devalued the peso by 30 percent, allowed inflation to rise overnight by 25 percent, provided US$2 billion in dollar denominated bonds for Argentine exporters and speculators, re-opened discussions with U.S. hedge funds as a prelude to paying them excess interest the de Kirchner government previously denied, put thousands of government workers on notice of imminent layoffs, declared the new government’s intent to stack the supreme court in order to rubber stamp its new Neoliberal programs, and took steps to reverse Argentine’s recent media law. And that’s just the beginning.

Politically, the neoliberal vision will mean an overturning and restructuring of the current Supreme Court, possible changes to the existing Constitution, and attempts to remove the duly-elected president from office before his term by various means. Apart from plans to stack the judiciary, as in Argentina, Venezuela’s new business controlled National Assembly will likely follow their reactionary class compatriots in Brazil, and move to impeach Venezuela president, Maduro, and dismantle his popular government – just as they are attempting the same in Brazil with that country’s also recently re-elected president, Rousseff.

What happens in Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil in the weeks ahead, in 2016, is a harbinger of the intense economic and political class war in South America that is about to escalate to a higher stage in 2016.

Boko Haram sugar daddy.

Clear evidence shows Washington uses ISIS and other terrorist groups as imperial foot soldiers in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Its so-called war on terror is a complete hoax, the media perpetuating the myth.

Iraqi parliamentarian Awatif Naima accused US forces of “expanding their heliborne operations in Huweija, Beiji and Sharqat…with the goal of assisting the ISIL terrorist group.”

Iraqi forces witnessed airdrops of weapons, munitions, food and other supplies. Instead of combating ISIS, Pentagon commanders directly aid its fighters.

Last fall, Iraqi forces seized large amounts of ISIS-supplied US weapons, munitions and other military hardware, including anti-armor, anti-tank TOW missiles, as well as shoulder-launched, man-portable, surface-to-air missiles (SAMS) defense systems (Manpads) able to down helicopters and low-flying aircraft.

Naima’s outspokenness leaves her vulnerable. She said “an unidentified armed group assaulted me and MP for the coalition of state law Haider Mawla and directed their weapons at us” – taking Haider “to an unknown destination.”

She demanded Iraq’s Interior Ministry investigate to determine who was behind the incident. Does Washington want her and other US critics terrorized and silenced – to facilitate its war OF terror?

Why Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi continues supporting Washington’s plot to destroy his country he’ll have to explain, using, not combating ISIS terrorists, wanting Iraq balkanized into a Kurdish north, Shiite south and Sunni center.

Iraqi popular forces coordinator Jafar al-Jaberi also accused Washington of airdropping weapons to ISIS terrorists in areas they control – as well as recently liberated ones to encourage them to keep fighting.

Earlier, Iraqi forces downed two UK planes carrying weapons for ISIS in Anbar province. Iraqi parliament security and defense committee chief Hakem al-Zameli said he has photographic evidence of both downed planes and their military cargoes.

He explained Baghdad gets virtual daily reports about US-led coalition weapons and munitions airdrops to ISIS terrorists.

According to Anbar Provincial Council head Khalaf Tarmouz, weapons made in America, Europe and Israel are regularly delivered to ISIS fighters.

Caches were discovered. Eyewitnesses provided evidence. Iraqi parliamentarian Jome Divan calls the so-called US-led coalition “an excuse for protecting the ISIL and helping the terrorist group with equipment and weapons.”

Everyone knows it, Haider doing nothing to publicly expose and try stopping it, as well as turning to Russia for support, what many Iraqi parliamentarians urge.

Last fall, US Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford warned Iraqi officials against accepting Russian help, saying they’ll lose so-called US aid – supporting, not combating ISIS.

On Thursday, Dunford arrived back in Baghdad for meetings with Abadi and US ambassador Stuart Jones – vowing more of the same kind of US help doing more harm than good.

Zimbabwe will soon ratify the protocol on the African Court on Human and People's Rights, a development that could pave the way for its aggrieved citizens to seek justice at the regional court.

Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) chairperson Elasto Mugwadi confirmed the impending development, saying the African Court should be supported as Africa's replacement for the International Criminal Court which has failed in its task of delivering justice in an impartial manner.

"The country is going to be ratifying the protocol very soon. We need to ratify it. The African Court is the practical or implementing arm of the African Commission of People and Human rights," said Mugwadi.

"Any matters of complaint or discord will be settled by the African Court. And we believe it will be the natural replacement of the ICC which has not been applying the Rome Statute in an equitable manner."

Mugwadi accused the ICC of selective justice saying former American and British leaders George Herbert Bush and Anthony Blair should have been tried over human rights violations across the world including the imposition of sanctions which "have caused much suffering in Zimbabwe."

"One would have thought the two would have been brought before the ICC if it was a fair forum treating everyone fairly in terms of United Nations principles where countries are supposed to be equal but this has not happened. Therefore the African Court can replace the ICC and bring before it its own African leaders who go astray," he said.

A government source, however, told the Zimbabwe Independent that the country had been selected to host this year's conference of the African Court and the decision to ratify has "therefore been taken to avoid an awkward situation where the country hosts a court whose protocol it has not ratified".

"Zimbabwe will host next year's conference of the African Court and as such it would be an embarrassment to do so without ratifying the protocol that led to the establishment of the court in the first place," said an official familiar with the developments.

swemzkid:
there is really ntin special abt ftc

meanwhile those are just crocodile tear he might even have a hand in that cant trust all this over abitious politician

goodlifehyd:
Lol Nigerian politicians cry but water no dey gree comot their eyes

Toupee Donny

Donny Trump

Ban op

South Africa has big pretty chickens I am sure obama has seen them.

Worst U.S. Bird Flu Outbreak in History Expands to Michigan

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worst-u-s-bird-flu-outbreak-in-history-expands-to-michigan/

South Africa has resolved a trade row with the US which threatened millions of dollars worth of business, its trade minister has said.
The US had said it would throw South Africa out of its preferential trade programme over its refusal to allow the importation of American chickens.

President Obama had set the end of 2015 as the deadline to resolve the dispute.

Last-minute negotiations which dealt with South African health concerns ended the row.

For more than a decade, South Africa - like several other African countries - has enjoyed preferential trading status with the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

The BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg said this was worth more than $170m (£117m) a year to South African farmers exporting citrus fruits, wine and nuts.

South Africa's Trade Minister Rob Davies said, when announcing that a deal had been struck, that 32,000 jobs depended on Agoa.

The US had been upset that South Africa was imposing what it saw as unfair restrictions on the import of American chickens over worries about avian flu and salmonella.

But Mr Davies said he had received assurances from the US authorities over the safety of their meat exports and added that rigorous safety checks would now be carried out.

Zimbabwe will be having those PLA base so I think donald trump possibly may end up in jail himself. He may be correct on museveni since he is under western dominion but I am sure it was just the Toupee talking when Mugabe came out.

Rossikk I will be hoping for many more of your type

Toupee talking.

cckris:
THEN WHY ARE MOSLEM REFUGEES RUNNING TO EUROPE, INSTEAD OF SAUDI ARABIA, THE BASTION OF SHARIA?
Please respond.

If they are knowing what will be the best for them they would avoid america these days

Will they know about fbi reports where it has been major spikes in hate crimes against muslims

Burning down mosque already

Even those good honest mosque

At least two people have died in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, where a suicide bomber detonated himself inside a restaurant popular with journalists and government officials Saturday.

A VOA reporter said the incident took place at the Village restaurant, near the presidential palace in Mogadishu.

The bomber killed himself and one other person, and injured at least four others.

Several journalists fled the scene before the blast. They told VOA they had seen the bomber struggling to set off his explosive device.

The Village restaurant was the scene of two previous attacks three years ago — one in September 2012, when 15 people were killed, and the second one in November of the same year, in which four people died in twin explosions near the restaurant.

Time to come back home to Waaq

Should the AU concentrate more on this or post election violence in burundi.

Which one

SAHARA DESERT, Niger — A group of light armored vehicles skated over the moonscape of the Sahara, part of one of the largest detachments the French military has deployed here since colonial times. Its mission is growing ever more urgent: to cut smuggling routes used by jihadists who have turned this inhospitable terrain into a sprawling security challenge for African and international forces alike.

Many of the extremist groups are affiliates of Al Qaeda, which has had roots in North Africa since the 1990s. With the recent introduction of Islamic State franchises, the jihadist push has been marked by increasing, sometimes heated, competition.

But, analysts and military officials say, there is also deepening collaboration among groups using modern communications and a sophisticated system of roving trainers to share military tactics, media strategies and ways of transferring money.

Their threat has grown as Libya — with its ungoverned spaces, oil, ports, and proximity to Europe and the Middle East — becomes a budding hub of operations for both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State to reach deeper into Africa.

And as Africa’s jihadists come under the wing of distant and more powerful patrons, officials fear that they are extending their reach and stitching together their ambitions, turning once-local actors into pan-national threats.

The Nov. 20 assault on the Radisson Blu hotel, which killed at least 19 people in Bamako, Mali’s capital, was just one of the more spectacular recent examples of the ability of these groups to sow deadly mayhem. Across the region, hundreds of people have been killed in terrorist attacks in the past year.

Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who heads the United States Africa Command, warned in a congressional statement in March of an “increasingly cohesive network of Al Qaeda affiliates and adherents” that “continues to exploit Africa’s undergoverned regions and porous borders to train and conduct attacks.”

“Terrorists with allegiances to multiple groups are expanding their collaboration in recruitment, financing, training and operations, both within Africa and transregionally,” General Rodriguez warned months before the Mali attack.

The transfer of expertise can be witnessed in the spread of suicide bombings in Libya, Tunisia and Chad and in the growing use of improvised explosive devices in Mali, analysts and officials pointed out.

Such exchanges have been enhanced as groups shift shape, sometimes merge, and come under the wing of more powerful and distant patrons.

In one instance, two of the longest-standing North African groups, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Mourabitoun, after a long publicized split, announced that they had reunited and that the Bamako hotel attack was their first joint venture.

The leaders of the two groups — Abdelmalek Droukdel and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, both Algerians — have loyalties that reach far beyond Africa, however.

As does Seifallah Ben Hassine, leader of Ansar al-Shariah in Tunisia, the organization believed to be behind three deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, including a massacre of 38 people at a beach resort in June and an attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March that left 22 dead.

All three men are veterans of fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980s, swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden and now profess loyalty to Al Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, based in Pakistan.

Mr. Droukdel, routed by French forces in Mali in 2013, is reportedly holed up in the mountains in southern Algeria. Mr. Belmokhtar and Mr. Ben Hassine have made rear bases in Libya, where they have been targeted by American airstrikes.

Today, despite French and American efforts to disrupt their networks, they still stretch across the continent.

To keep the pressure on the jihadists and help resist the threat, France has installed 3,500 troops across 10 bases and outposts in five vulnerable countries — Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad. The recent French patrol, tiny dots in the Sahara’s expanse of dunes and blackened rock, included 30-ton supply trucks carrying food and fuel, armored vehicles mounted with 80-millimeter cannons and a medical truck.

Similarly, American Special Operations Forces are working in Niger, and last year President Obama ordered 300 United States troops to Cameroon to help defend against the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram, which has spread across borders.

French troops have led repeated operations to break communication and supply lines from Libya that have fortified such groups. The November operation was part of coordinated maneuvers in eastern Mali and northern Niger to try to disrupt jihadist links between the two nations.

The smuggling route patrolled by the French is one of the main arteries for jihadists, arms and drugs. French troops call it the “autoroute” to southern Libya, which they describe as a “big supermarket” for weapons.

The route crosses one of the most remote places on earth. Devoid of human habitation or water for hundreds of miles, it is a treacherous terrain of unbearable heat in the summer and nearly impossible navigation. Yet small convoys of smugglers attempt the crossing several times a week.

For the French, it is like looking for a tiny craft in an ocean, said Lt. Col. Étienne du Peyroux, the commanding officer leading the Niger operation.

“It is like a naval battle,” he said, sketching out the hunt on maps on the hood of his desert jeep. “The zone of operations is 40,000 square kilometers, an area the size of Holland, for 300 men.”

“We try to find them, to block, to constrain, to work out how they will be channeled by a particular piece of terrain,” he said.

The French rarely catch anyone — the last capture was of a drug haul in June. But, they say, their operations are at least disrupting the jihadists’ movements, evidenced by a drop in traffic and tracks in the sand showing smugglers’ vehicles having turned back.

“We want them to abandon the fight, until they cannot do it anymore or until the effort is too great,” the colonel said.

That, however, seems unlikely. “Weak government and chaos are always conducive to terrorism,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, coordinator of a United Nations Security Council committee that monitors the Qaeda sanctions list. “These groups do take advantage of that.”


The development of jihadist training camps in Libya over the past four years represents a regional and international threat, with particular significance for Africa, he warned in a recent report.

Especially worrying, he said, is “the growing numbers of foreign terrorist fighters and the presence of a globalized group of terrorists from different Al Qaeda backgrounds.”

North Africa and the Sahel, a vast area the breadth of the United States — with its difficult geography, impoverished populations and weak states — is acutely vulnerable, military and civilian analysts said.

Poverty, corruption, poor government and unfair elections are all making populations susceptible to Islamist propaganda, said Adam Thiam, a columnist for the Malian daily newspaper Le Républicain.

“Elections are corrupt; services are corrupt,” he said, and young people have lost confidence in government, “so they will go and listen to the religious leaders rather than the political leaders.”

Others blame foreign interventions in Libya and Mali, and repressive counterrevolutions like Egypt’s, for fueling support for the jihadists.

Certainly, despite the interventions and improved security efforts, new groups and recruits continue to appear. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates remain active in Mali, and they have sponsored a new group, the Massina Liberation Front, which has emerged in the past few months.

“They do not need much; they just need to be determined,” said Col. Louis Pena, a commander of French troops in N’Djamena, Chad.

The deepening reach of Al Qaeda and the arrival of the Islamic State are raising fresh alarm.

While the two groups are rivals, that competition can pose a significant challenge from a broader security standpoint — as extremists seek to prove their potency and relevance, inspire and attract recruits, and play on a bigger stage.

The effect can be witnessed prominently in Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency in Nigeria, which has killed 17,000 people and displaced more than a million.

Boko Haram has been around for two decades. But money and training from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb gave its leader, Abubakar Shekau, a substantial boost when he assumed control in 2010.

Last year, Boko Haram switched allegiance to the Islamic State, which claimed that its West Africa division had killed more than 1,000 people since November, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites.

Despite setbacks in Nigeria, Boko Haram has become a regional scourge by exploiting contacts in the wider jihadist network, and it has now spilled into Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

At Madama, an oasis about 50 miles south of Libya, a mud-brick fort built by the French in 1931 guards Niger’s northern desert approaches.

In the past two years, the French have built a sprawling base dwarfing the old fort still manned by Nigerien troops, and posted 300 French troops to create a buffer against jihadist advances from Libya.

Nigerien soldiers accompany the French on their missions, hurtling in battered pickups across the desert terrain, much like their jihadist opponents do. Many of the local soldiers have been through six-month training programs run by American forces. Farther east, Chadian troops guard their part of the border.

In this lonely spot, French soldiers watch from their guard post out across the empty sand toward Libya. French commanders agree that the root of the problem is there, and that until it is addressed the entire region is threatened.

“They are still fragile countries,” Colonel Pena said. “They are countries that need stability to grow and develop. That is the real danger.”