EgyptAir plane carrying 66 has crashed: aviation officials

A frosted glass partition is seen at the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, France, Thursday, May 19, 2016. EgyptAir said a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar early Thursday morning. (Raphael Satter / AP) — A frosted glass partition is seen at the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, France, Thursday, May 19, 2016. EgyptAir said a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar early Thursday morning.
(Raphael Satter / AP)

AP – An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board crashed in the Mediterranean Sea early Thursday morning, Egyptian aviation officials said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash. “We cannot rule anything out,” he told reporters at Cairo airport.

EgyptAir Flight 804 was lost from radar at 2:45 a.m. local time when it was flying at 37,000 feet, the airline said. It said the Airbus A320 had vanished 10 miles (16 kilometers) after it entered Egyptian airspace, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) off the country’s coastline north of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

The aviation officials later said the plane crashed and that a search for debris was now underway.

The “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed,” as the plane hasn’t landed in any of the nearby airports, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

EgyptAir said a “distress call” had been received from the plane two hours after it disappeared from radar, thought to have been an emergency beacon. The Egyptian military denied that any distress calls were received.

Egyptian military aircraft and navy ships were taking part in a search operation off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast to locate the debris of the plane, which was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two babies, and 10 crew members. The pilot had more than 6,000 flight hours.

Egyptians gather outside the arrivals section of Cairo International Airport, Egypt, on May 19, 2016. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said. (Amr Nabil / AP) — Egyptians gather outside the arrivals section of Cairo International Airport, Egypt, on May 19, 2016. An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo carrying 66 people disappeared from radar early Thursday morning, the airline said.
(Amr Nabil / AP)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault offered to send military planes and boats to join the Egyptian search for wreckage.

“We are at the disposition of the Egyptian authorities with our military capacities, with our planes, our boats to help in the search for this plane,” he said. He spoke after French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace.

Hollande spoke with Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the phone and agreed to “closely cooperate to establish as soon as possible the circumstances” surrounding the incident, according to a statement issued in Paris.

Those on board, according to EgyptAir, included 15 French passengers, 30 Egyptians, two Iraqis, one Briton, one Kuwaiti, one Saudi, one Sudanese, one Chadian, one Portuguese, one Belgian, one Algerian and one Canadian. Ayrault confirmed that 15 French citizens were on board.

Egypt’s state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted an airport official as saying the pilot did not send a distress call, and that last contact with the plane was made 10 minutes before it disappeared from radar. It did not identify the official.

Airbus is aware of the disappearance, but “we have no official information at this stage of the certitude of an accident,” the company’s spokesman Jacques Rocca said.

The Paris airport authority and the French civil aviation authority would not immediately comment.

Queries about the missing plane sent out to the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency were not returned early Thursday.

Around 15 relatives of passengers on board the missing flight have arrived at Cairo airport. Airport authorities brought doctors to the scene after several distressed family members collapsed.

In Paris, relatives of passengers on the EgyptAir flight started arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside the French capital, where their loved ones were last seen alive.

An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight no MS804,which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST),heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar. 9:57 PM - 18 May 2016 — An informed source at EGYPTAIR had stated that Flight no MS804,which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST),heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar.
9:57 PM – 18 May 2016

A man and a woman, identified by airport staff as relatives of the flight’s passengers, sat at an information desk near the EgyptAir counter Thursday at Charles de Gaulle Airport’s Terminal 1. The woman was sobbing, holding her face in a handkerchief. They pair were led away by police and airport staff and did not speak to gathered journalists.

Greece joined the search and rescue operation for the EgyptAir flight with two aircraft: one C-130 and one early warning aircraft, officials at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff said. They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.

The Airbus A320 is a widely used twin-engine, single-aisle plane that operates on short and medium-haul routes. Nearly 4,000 A320s are currently in use around the world. The versions EgyptAir operates are equipped to carry 145 passengers.

The ubiquity of the A320 means the plane has been involved in several accidents over the years. The last deadly crash involving the plane was Germanwings Flight 9525, in which all 150 onboard died when one of the pilots intentionally crashed it in the French Alps.

An EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus in March. A man who admitted to the hijacking and is described by Cypriot authorities as “psychologically unstable” is in custody in Cyprus.

The incident renewed security concerns at Egyptian airports after a Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board. Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device, and a local branch of the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for planting it.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard, U.S. investigators filed a final report that concluded its co-pilot switched off the autopilot and pointed the Boeing 767 downward. But Egyptian officials rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting some mechanical reason caused the crash.

South Africa’s EFF MPs expelled for heckling Jacob Zuma

A brawl broke out in the South African parliament on Tuesday as security officers were ordered to forcibly remove opposition MPs. Several punches were thrown as the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were expelled after trying to stop President Jacob Zuma speaking. In March a court ruled Mr Zuma violated the constitution by failing to pay back public money used on his mansion. It is the second brawl in parliament this month.

Security guards were ordered by the speaker to eject the people who were being disruptive. Guards surrounded the EFF MPs who were dressed in their trademark red boiler suits. Objects, including bottles of water and a hard hat, were thrown as the guards tried to wrestle the MPs out of the chamber.

The EFF has denounced Mr Zuma as an “illegitimate” ruler who should step down. South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, ruled that Mr Zuma had violated the constitution when he failed to repay government money used to upgrade his private home in the rural area of Nkandla.

About 20 EFF members, who were wrestled from their seats by plain-clothed guards on Tuesday, refused to let Zuma speak and shouted down Baleka Mbete, the speaker of the National Assembly. The EFF argued that Zuma was not fit to address the house after recent court decisions against the president before adding that they would repeat their disruptive actions until he resigned.

In a second case, at the end of April, a court said that Mr Zuma should be charged with corruption. The case is related to a multi-billion dollar arms deal the government negotiated in 1999. Mr Zuma denies any wrongdoing, and says he will continue to “shepherd” the nation. His term is due to end in 2019. In his first appearance after this court ruling at the beginning of May, a brawl also broke out as EFF members were evicted for heckling.

Uganda: Museveni Promotes Son to Major-General in Army

The son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Muhoozi Kainerugaba (L), is pictured at a military training center in Kampala, Uganda, August 16, 2012. Muhoozi has been promoted to the rank of Major-General in Uganda's armed forces. — The son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Muhoozi Kainerugaba (L), is pictured at a military training center in Kampala, Uganda, August 16, 2012. Muhoozi has been promoted to the rank of Major-General in Uganda’s armed forces.

By Conor Gaffey (Newsweek)

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has promoted his son to the rank of Major-General in the country’s military.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba, 42, is the first child of the Ugandan leader, who has been in power in the East African country since 1986. He heads up the Special Forces Command, which maintains the president’s security, and is considered to be one of the most powerful figures in the Ugandan military, which is one of the country’s most dominant institutions.

Muhoozi has been in the army since 1999 and trained at esteemed military centers including Sandhurst, the British Army’s primary military college, and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was only made brigadier in 2012 and has enjoyed a rapid ascent through the military’s ranks.

A spokesperson for the Ugandan People’s Defense Force, Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Akunda, dismissed suggestions that Muhoozi had received favorable treatment due to the position of his father, who also fulfils the role of Commander-in-Chief of Uganda’s armed forces. “I do not see any problem with that. He has attended all the requisite courses, he has experience in command, and therefore there should be no qualms about his promotion,” Akunda told NTV Uganda.

Museveni won his fifth term in power after triumphing in controversial elections held in February and was inaugurated on Thursday. Museveni’s main opponent, Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change, rejects the result and was arrested on Wednesday after taking part in an alternative presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Kampala. Besigye has been charged with treason and is being held in Uganda’s only maximum security prison.

The Ugandan president has three daughters besides Muhoozi.

$1m prize for heroic Burundi woman who saved 30,000 children from war

Barankitse, now 59, was presented the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity for her extraordinary efforts in caring for orphans and refugees by Hollywood actor George Clooney.

(CNN). During the brutal Burundi civil war which claimed 300,000 lives, Marguerite Barankitse risked her own to rescue around 30,000 children from persecution.

At the outbreak of the 12-year war in 1993, Barankitse — a Tutsi — was forced to watch the execution of 72 of her Hutu neighbors.

That horrific incident inspired her to start a mission at the Catholic diocese where she worked. Caring for children and refugees, she created an environment where young Hutus and Tutsis alike could seek refuge.

Her heroic efforts have now been acknowledged by a $1m humanitarian prize. Barankitse, now 59, was presented the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity for her extraordinary efforts in caring for orphans and refugees by Hollywood actor George Clooney.

“Marguerite Barankitse serves as a reminder of the impact that one person can have even when encountering seemingly insurmountable persecution and injustice,” said Clooney, a co-chair of the Aurora Prize selection committee, at the award ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia, last month. Launched this year, the Aurora Prize recognizes exceptional individuals who have preserved human life in the face of adversity, risking freedom, reputations, livelihoods, or even their lives.

Marguerite Barankitse received a $1.1m (£760,000, €1m) cheque from the Hollywood star George Clooney, who is co-chair of the prize, during a ceremony in Yerevan in conjunction with commemorations for the Armenian genocide

Marguerite Barankitse accepted the inaugural Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity from George Clooney in Armenia on April 24 2016.

Accepting the award Barankitse, said: “Our values are human values. “When you have compassion, dignity and love, then nothing can scare you, nothing can stop you. No one can stop love — not armies, not hate, not persecution, not famine, nothing.”

“This prize is consolation for the whole of Burundi’s people.”

Donates $1m to Burundi’s young

Barankitse’s humanitarian efforts didn’t stop when the war ended.

In 2008, three years after the conflict, she opened a hospital in Burundi, which has since treated more than 80,000 patients.

Currently in Rwanda, she is now helping Burundian refugees in camps along the border.

Barankitse says she will use the $1 million grant — for her to donate to a charity or organization that has inspired her — to send children in this region to school, and to help young people who suffered injuries during the civil war.

Barankitse was also personally awarded $100,000.

U.S. MRAPs arrive in Egypt

The first shipment of U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles arrived in Egypt Thursday, under the Excess Defense Articles program, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said. Photo courtesy U.S. Embassy in Egypt

CAIRO, May 12 (UPI) — The first shipment of U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles arrived in Egypt Thursday. The 762 armored vehicles were provided to the Egyptian military at no cost as part of the Pentagon’s Excess Defense Articles program, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Originally manufactured to protect U.S. droops in Iraq and Afghanistan from roadside bombs, the vehicles will now be used to combat terrorism in the region, the embassy said. The MRAP delivery constitutes the latest step involving military cooperation between the two countries, according to the embassy.

Why US diplomats walked out of Uganda president’s inauguration

Uganda's long-time president was sworn in Thursday for a fifth term, taking him into his fourth decade in power amid arrests of opposition politicians and a shutdown of social media. — Uganda’s long-time president was sworn in Thursday for a fifth term, taking him into his fourth decade in power amid arrests of opposition politicians and a shutdown of social media.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. delegation to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s inauguration walked out of Thursday’s ceremony in protest against his disparaging comments about an international war crimes tribunal and the presence of Sudan’s leader, whom the court has indicted, the State Department said.

Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac and a visiting Washington-based official, along with several European and Canadian diplomats, abruptly left the inauguration after Museveni made negative remarks about the International Criminal Court in his inaugural address. She added that the U.S. also objected to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s participation in the inauguration. Al-Bashir has been charged by the court for atrocities in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Trudeau did not identify the European or Canadian diplomats involved. She said Museveni’s comments were “insulting” to both the court and to victims of war crimes and genocide.

“We believe that walking out in protest is an appropriate reaction to a head of state mocking efforts to ensure accountability for victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly when his country has committed to accountability as a state party to the Rome Statute” that established the court, she said.

President Yoweri Museveni, 71, was inaugurated in the capital, Kampala, in a ceremony attended by dignitaries from across Africa, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, South African President Jacob Zuma and President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. Tribal dancers entertained the crowd and Ugandan military aircraft, including Russian-made fighter jets, performed an air show over the venue.

In his address, Museveni called the court “a bunch of useless people” and said he no longer supports it. Uganda is a member of The Hague-based International Criminal Court and as such is obligated to detain and turn over suspects wanted by the tribunal. The United States is not a member of the court, but supports it and has called on other countries to live up to their commitments under the treaty that created it.

The walkout was preceded by expressions of concern about al-Bashir’s presence from the U.S. delegation to Uganda’s prime minister and foreign minister, Trudeau said. She added that the delegation decided to attend the inauguration despite al-Bashir’s attendance out of respect for U.S.-Ugandan bilateral relations, but made the decision to leave after Museveni’s remarks.

Al-Bashir faces two ICC indictments for atrocities linked to the conflict in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have died and 2 million have been displaced since 2003, according to U.N. figures. He rejects the ICC’s authority and had been able to travel relatively freely in Africa and the Middle East — even to countries like Uganda and South Africa that are parties to the Rome Statute and are required to carry out ICC arrest warrants. Al-Bashir also recently attended the inauguration of Djibouti’s president, an event attended by U.S. officials.

DR Congo president can remain in office without a vote: court

Kabila, who took over Democratic Republic of Congo on his father's assassination in 2001, is constitutionally barred from running for a third term. He won successive elections in 2006 and 2011. — Kabila, who took over Democratic Republic of Congo on his father’s assassination in 2001, is constitutionally barred from running for a third term. He won successive elections in 2006 and 2011.

Lubumbashi (DR Congo) (AFP) – DR Congo’s President Joseph Kabila can remain in office when his mandate expires at the end of 2016, even without being re-elected, the Constitutional Court said Wednesday.

The ruling came amid rising tensions over the government’s failure to set a date for the country’s next elections, originally due in November this year before Kabila’s term ends.

After months of incessant controversy, protests and arrests, Wednesday saw police in Lubumbashi, the country’s second biggest city, use tear gas and stun batons to clear thousands of opposition supporters who had stormed a courthouse.

The protesters forced their way inside in support of powerful opposition figure Moise Katumbi, a wealthy former governor of mineral-rich Katanga province and Kabila’s leading rival.

He was appearing in court for the second time this month over alleged use of foreign mercenaries, including Americans, allegations he has slammed as “a grotesque lie” and “a machination”.

Wednesday’s constitutional ruling in Kinshasa followed a request for clarification by the ruling party over Kabila’s fate should the polls fail to be held on schedule, as is widely expected.

Kabila, who took over Democratic Republic of Congo on his father’s assassination in 2001, is constitutionally barred from running for a third term. He won successive elections in 2006 and 2011.

– Football magnate –

The nine-member Constitutional Court — three of them chosen by Kabila, three by parliament — based its response on article 70 of the constitution stating that a president remains in office until the next head of state steps in.

The opposition, however, argued in favour of article 75 that calls for the senate president to step in pending new elections.

Kabila has been under pressure from the international community to stick to the election schedule, while the opposition suspects he is planning to amend the constitution to extend his rule.

In Lubumbashi, the 51-year-old flamboyant Katumbi entered the court for a closed-door hearing sporting an all-white outfit and a scarf in the colours of the national flag.

The owner of the prestigious Tout-Puissant Mazembe football club, three-time winners of the African Champions League, is accused of hiring several foreign mercenaries as his private guards.

Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said there was “documented proof” that former American soldiers and South Africans were among the foreigners working for Katumbi in Katanga.

Katumbi, who last week said he would run for presidential office on behalf of an opposition coalition, was an ally of Kabila for a decade but quit the ruling party in November when the president split several provinces, including Katanga.

Katanga, formerly the size of Spain, has been carved up into four separate entities.

– US ‘deeply concerned’ –

The US embassy said in a Facebook post that it was “deeply concerned about the accusations of mercenary activities” brought against Katumbi.

“We are aware of the detention on April 24th of an American citizen who was working in Katanga as a security advisor. Mr Darryl Lewis was not armed and allegations he was involved in mercenary activity are false,” it said.

It added that he worked for a private company that provided services to clients around the world.

One of France’s top lawyers, Eric Dupond-Moretti, told AFP that he was going to join Katumbi’s legal team following a request from the politician’s lawyers and several damning reports by human rights groups.

He said he would seek international observers at the trial and was ready to involve the International Criminal Court in The Hague as well as the United Nations.

Human Rights Watch on Monday slammed the trial as “targeted actions against a presidential aspirant and close supporters.”

“The recent developments in Lubumbashi come in the context of a broader crackdown against activists, opposition party members and others who have urged that presidential elections be organised,” it said.

Last week Katumbi asked the UN mission in the country for protection, saying he felt he was “in danger”. He said his home had been surrounded by security forces and two of his bodyguards had been arrested.

Separately the Congolese army confirmed it had arrested Eboko Amani, a radio journalist, on Monday and accused her of “publishing false news”, as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for her release.

According to RSF, “freedom of information is constantly violated” in DR Congo, which ranks 152nd of 180 countries in the watchdog’s press freedom index.

Why Does Thuli Madonsela, South Africa’s Public Prosecutor, Fear for Her Life?

Few women command the same public respect in South Africa as Thuli Madonsela.

Madonsela, 53, holds the post of public protector in South Africa , an independent watchdog tasked with investigating government corruption and holding the most powerful people to account. South African President Jacob Zuma appointed Madonsela to the role in 2009 for a seven-year term, due to conclude in October.

Zuma may well regret that appointment. Madonsela’s highest-profile case has been the investigation of Zuma’s misuse of state funds in improving his sprawling residence at Nkandla, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. She authored a 2014 report titled Secure in Comfort , numbering more than 400 pages, concluding that the president had “benefited unduly” from the upgrades—which included a swimming pool and amphitheater and totaled an estimated 246 million rand (worth $23 million at the time)—and should be made to repay funds spent on non-essential security upgrades.

Prior to the 2014 report’s release—which came less than two months ahead of a general election that Zuma won convincingly—South African police reportedly threatened to arrest Madonsela, arguing that the report would constitute a breach of the president’s security. During the two years following its publication, Madonsela was ignored or insulted by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Deputy defense minister Kebby Maphatsoe accused her of being an agent of the CIA , while former national police commissioner and ANC national executive committee member Bheki Cele said she must “stop acting like she is God.”

Madonsela was finally vindicated in March, however, when the country’s highest court ruled that Zuma had failed to uphold the constitution by ignoring Madonsela’s report. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court praised Madonsela and her office as “an embodiment of a biblical David” and Madonsela herself welcomed the judgement as having “restored hope in the constitutional dream.”

Madonsela’s public advocacy against corruption has earned her enemies, however, as she claimed to have been notified of a bounty against her life. The public protector told South Africa’s Sunday Times that she received a text message on April 1 from a trusted informant, telling her that a gang leader in the Western Cape region had been contracted to have her assassinated. Madonsela said she is “traumatized” by the plot, which she believes to be authentic, and has stopped jogging in the mornings as a security precaution. The anonymous informant also confirmed that 740,000 rand ($49,000) had changed hands for the hit, which was reportedly planned for May and would be made to look like a car accident.

The opposition Democratic Alliance party, led by Mmusi Maimane, has called on the South African Police Service to fully investigate the allegations, saying that public officials like Madonsela cannot “have threats made on their lives for acting in a manner that is too independent in an effort to root out government corruption.” The ANC is yet to comment publicly and was not immediately available when contacted by Newsweek . There is no evidence of a link between the Nkandla investigation and the alleged death threats against Madonsela, who has said she does not know the identity of those threatening her.

The incident highlights the costs that come with speaking out against corruption in a violent and sometimes unstable society like South Africa. It is likely that whoever replaces Madonsela come October will take on her mantle with more than a hint of trepidation.

Kenya Says It Will Shut Down The World’s Largest Refugee Camp

A refugee stands with her son just outside a fenced perimeter at the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp in May 2015.

Kenya says it plans to shut down two refugee camps, including the world’s largest, due to security concerns. The announcement was swiftly condemned by human rights groups that say the move puts some of the world’s most vulnerable people at risk.

In a statement, the Kenyan government says it is working to expedite the closure of the Dadaab and Kakuma camps. They’re home to hundreds of thousands of refugees, the vast majority fleeing violence in neighboring Somalia.

The government has made such threats previously. Last year, it announced it was closing the camps but later “backed down in the face of international pressure,” CNN reports.

As NPR’s Gregory Warner reported last year, “With every new terrorist attack in Kenya, there’s another call to close Dadaab,” the world’s largest camp. Gregory says “the 23-year-old refugee camp is more like a small city than a tented village. More than 300,000 Somali refugees call it home.”

The statement from the Kenyan government on Friday said: “The Government of Kenya has been forced by circumstances to reconsider the whole issue of hosting refugees and the process of repatriation.” Here’s more:

“Under the circumstances, the Government of the Republic of Kenya, having taken into consideration its national security interests, has decided that hosting of refugees has come to an end.

“The Government of Kenya acknowledges that the decision will have adverse effects on the lives of refugees and therefore the international community must collectively take responsibility on humanitarian needs that will arise out of this action.”

It adds that the government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which “works with humanitarian organizations looking after the welfare of refugees,” according to The Associated Press. It also is in charge of processing refugee registration, Human Rights Watch says.

The statement provided no details about a timeline or where the hundreds of thousands of refugees would go should the camps be closed.

It cited security concerns about the Al-Shabab militant group, which has carried out attacks in the country including the assault on Garissa University last year in the country’s northeast that killed 147 students.

However, according to Human Rights Watch, “officials have not provided credible evidence linking Somali refugees to any terrorist attacks in Kenya.”

The Two-Way spoke with 23-year-old blogger Nadifa Abdullahi in Dadaab, who hails from Somalia and was born in the camp.

“People call this place a refugee camp but me, I call it home, because this is where I grew up and where I learned everything,” she says.

She describes the scene at Dadaab after the news:

“You see when you’re walking the streets yesterday and today, it’s like people are so sad. And saying to each other, ‘Where are we going? When the government of Kenya told us to go, we don’t know where to go. What are we going to do?'”

Abdullahi adds that people in the camp are hoping Kenya will continue hosting them: “Please, don’t close us down. Don’t send us back…We are in their hands.”

Rights groups have swiftly condemned Kenya’s decision. “This reckless decision by the Kenyan government is an abdication of its duty to protect the vulnerable and will put thousands of lives at risk,” Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, says in a statement.

Wanyeki adds: “It could lead to the involuntary return of thousands of refugees to Somalia and other countries of origin, where their lives may still be in danger. This would be in violation of Kenya’s obligations under international law.”

Why Senegal is a Fitting Partner for the U.S. in Defending West Africa

Soldiers parade during the closing ceremony of a joint military exercise between African, U.S. and European troops in Saint Louis, Senegal, February 29. The U.S. has signed an agreement increasing access to facilities in the West African country.

By John Campbell/Newsweek

Emblematic of the growing U.S. defense presence in West Africa is a new defense cooperation agreement signed on May 2 with Senegal. According to the low-key report carried by Associated Press (AP), the agreement improves access for the U.S. military to Senegal should they need to deploy in the event of a security or humanitarian crisis. In Dakar, U.S. Ambassador James Zumwalt said, “With this agreement, the United States military and the Senegalese military can plan better together, accomplish more with joint training, and better prepare to respond in concert to risks to our shared interests.”

According to AP, this new agreement updates another that dates from 2001. It provides U.S. access to certain facilities in Senegal and authorizes U.S. forces to make certain physical improvements, as necessary.

There has long been low-key military cooperation between Senegal and the U.S. With respect to democracy, Senegal is an African success story, with credible elections through which the opposition came to power. An overwhelmingly Muslim nation, Senegal is known for its religious tolerance; its first president, one of the 20thcentury’s most celebrated intellectuals, Leopold Senghor, was a Christian. Senegal also is a center for a network of Muslim Sufi brotherhoods that stretch from Dakar to Khartoum. West African Sufi Islam is known for its mysticism, its cult of the saints and its religious tolerance. It is anathema to the radical, jihadist groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria. Dakar has shown concern about possible penetration by jihadist Islam. Senegal is one of the majority-Muslim West African countries considering the banning of the burqa, the veiling that hides the face of a Muslim woman, that has been used by suicide bombers to hide in crowds. It has already been banned in Chad and according to London’s Daily Telegraph, there is little opposition to its banning in Senegal.

Defense cooperation agreements between the United States and West African countries are not rare; there are more than 60. In terms of political and social developments, Senegal would appear to be a particularly appropriate partner for Washington in the region.

John Campbell is the Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Donates $1m to Burundi’s young

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