|
It's Somalia, do they really need justification?
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2016 22:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 13:39 |
|
|
Spacewolf posted:It's Somalia, do they really need justification? America has a bit of a problematic history wrt intervention in Somalia. That said they've been running minor sortie operations out of Mogadishu for some time now, this is just the largest scale operation by a wide margin
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2016 22:28
|
|
|
Jagchosis posted:America has a bit of a problematic history wrt intervention in Africa. I agree.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2016 03:01
|
|
|
Jagchosis posted:America has a bit of a problematic history wrt intervention in Somalia. That said they've been running minor sortie operations out of Mogadishu for some time now, this is just the largest scale operation by a wide margin What do you mean tehe sortie was run out of Mogadishu? The Washington Post this morning implied this attack came from the airbase in Djibouti. America currently has dozens of troops in Mogadishu but they're mostly in advisory roles with AMISOM and the SNA, not to mention dozens (hundreds?) more security contractors. It's hard to understate just how dependent on America the Somali Federal government is, the entire Somali army (all 10,000 of em) is paid by the United States, the police are all trained by the UN, and it provides no meaningful services to anybody. Maps of its territorial control are a joke, virtually all territory under its administration is either contested by Al Shabaab or effectively run by independent warlords. It's only function is to funnel international money into the pockets of strongmen. Even the AMISOM mission is utterly dependent on American and European financing, training and equipment to operate.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2016 20:18
|
|
|
Honest question: Why do we bother pretending there's a government in Somalia? I mean, at some point, 25 years after there last was a functioning Somali government, it defies sanity. Why not just recognize Puntland and Somaliland as independent de facto and de jure, declare the remainder Terra Nullius pretty much, and then recognize whatever government assembles itself and has control over that territory substantively?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2016 20:26
|
|
|
Spacewolf posted:Honest question: Why do we bother pretending there's a government in Somalia? The government of Somalia has control over basically all of the urban area outside of Puntland and Somaliland now, al-Shabaab is confined to rural corridors
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2016 21:10
|
|
|
Jagchosis posted:The government of Somalia has control over basically all of the urban area outside of Puntland and Somaliland now, al-Shabaab is confined to rural corridors Yeah, but isn't most of Somalia rural?
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2016 21:30
|
|
|
Jagchosis posted:The government of Somalia has control over basically all of the urban area outside of Puntland and Somaliland now, al-Shabaab is confined to rural corridors This is a very generous interpretation. Let's take a look at the wikipedia map of territorial control in Somalia:  On this map pink is under the authority of the Federal Government. Wow! Why Al Shabaab only controls those little grey blobs, and the Federal government easily controls at least two thirds of Somalia! Except there's a little bit of fudging going on. See, a lot of this territory is run by "autonomous" administrations, which have only the most tenuous connection to the central government.  Note territory under Puntland's control is disconnected from the official regional boundaries, which are entirely fictitious. Territory under the control of the Puntland regional government. Puntland acknowledges the legitimacy of the government in Mogadishu, and its political leaders even sometimes assume positions in the Federal ministries or parliament. However in practice its autonomy is complete and the central government has no ability to control policy within Puntland. None of this will surprise anyone who regularly follows news from Somalia. However, you might be interested to know Puntland's is far from unique. In fact much of the territory theoretically under control of the central government is equally autonomous. For example Galmudug state in central Somalia fought several battles with Puntland over control of the town of Galkayo. While both combatants were under the de jure authority of the Federal government, both sides had their own independent paramilitary or militia fighting solely at the discretion of local leaders. Incidentally the President of Galmudug is a charming fellow. One of General Aideed's associates in the Civil War he was captured by Delta Force and after his release went on to have a successful career as a warlord. In the 2000s he was arrested in Sweden on charges of genocide for the execution of child soldiers, although the charges were ultimately dropped. There are other autonomous regions too, although I have a hard time figuring out which ones are currently operable and which are merely ex-militias. Jubaland in south is another autonomous region, although it has made moves towards greater integration with the Federal state in recent years.  Boundaries of Jubaland. The region has its own President and Parliament. The territory the Federal government does hold it owes to the African Union mission, which is in the 9th year of it's bloody war against Al Shabaab. According to this UN report: http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2016/27 released January of this year, the Federal government has a mere 19,800 Somali national army troops and 6,748 police at its disposal, a pitiful number, they'd probably struggle to just control Mogadishu without AMISOM support. According to the above report, the United States spends over a $1 million a month supporting the Somali National Army, a number I believe excludes salaries as the report notes elsewhere: Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia posted:The non-payment of salaries to security personnel continued to be a challenge and was linked to violations of human rights by security forces and the erection of illegal checkpoints to extort money from civilians in parts of southern and central Somalia. As far as I can tell the Federal government collects no taxes, provides no services and can't even pay its own personal. It has no popular support and is merely a confederacy of all the old warlords Somalis turned against in 2006, without UN, European Union, and American assistance the government would collapse overnight. The entire thing is a sham that exists solely to funnel money from international donors into the pockets of thugs. There is no sign that Al Shabaab will be defeated in the near future. Although the insurgency is pretty low intensity occasional attacks can be very bloody and AMISOM has had little luck breaking up their organisation or denying them territory. In 2015, following one attack against an AMISOM base in in Janale, quote:More than 20 AMISOM soldiers were killed and 23 wounded, while others remain missing. Shortly afterwards, AMISOM began to realign its forces by vacating previously recovered areas in Shabelle Hoose, including Kurtunwarey, Ceel Saliini, Cambarey, Golweyne and Busley, on 4, 5 and 9 September. In the Hiraan region, AMISOM vacated Buq-Aqabla and Xarar-Lugoole on 6 and 26 September, respectively. On 13 November, AMISOM withdrew from Fidow, on the border between the Hiraan and Shabelle Dhexe regions. All the locations were immediately seized by Al-Shabaab. Territory is frequently swapped between the combatants with little consequence.
|
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2016 07:53
|
|
|
Good news, everybody! Jose Eduardo dos Santos, head of the MPLA and dictator-for-life of Angola is planning to step down in 2018, or so he claims.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2016 15:31
|
|
|
I hope that more discussion on African news, politics, culture, standards of living, tourism (and so forth) continues to blossom on this thread. For instance, isn't Zimbabwe going to blow up in conflict after the passing of Mugabe?
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2016 20:27
|
|
|
Grouchio posted:I hope that more discussion on African news, politics, culture, standards of living, tourism (and so forth) continues to blossom on this thread.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2016 20:53
|
|
|
Is this the best place to talk about South Africa as well? They've had quite the year, with Zuma sacking the finance minister, then quickly sacking the replacement, and sending the value of the Rand to the toilet, with Barclays pulling out and people protesting to get rid of Zuma, who may be facing charges for embezzlement related to his residence. Also, student protests are causing universities to burn and classes be cancelled. With elections coming up, it'll be interesting to see if the DA can make inroads, they seem to be focused on being more appealing to the black population, and JHB seems like it may be an interesting battleground.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2016 05:02
|
|
|
Grouchio posted:I hope that more discussion on African news, politics, culture, standards of living, tourism (and so forth) continues to blossom on this thread. Probably. Grace and her entourage have already sidelined the old ZPF resistance fighters; the generals, while they eye Grace with disdain, hold their weapons caches closer to themselves than to the institution. This is problematic since its the brass who have been arranging things so that they can seize power like Jang Song-thaek was positioning himself for in China's other ally. Unfortunately for Jang, he wasn't ruthless enough to win; unfortunately for the generals of Zimbabwe, they aren't ruthless enough to win, either. Best case scenario for Zim, America elects a President with balls when it comes to foreign policy, rather than someone who'd continue current policies in a different local environment. Best-case scenario, a Republican wins office and is willing to fund pro-democracy forces and counter-Chinese operations to head off the growing affects of China's nefarious influence in SSA. Worst case scenario, a demagogue like Sanders is elected, in which case you can expect Zimbabwe to be more like Angola, but with Chinese characteristics. I don't trust Sanders to intervene to halt genocide anywhere in the world; of all the candidates, he is the one which Africans should fear the most.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2016 05:52
|
|
|
MIGF, you were really good in the Ebola thread. Why not start up a Zika thread, rather than troll this one?
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2016 06:09
|
|
|
Discendo Vox posted:MIGF, you were really good in the Ebola thread. Why not start up a Zika thread, rather than troll this one? Eh, I could, I guess. Maybe. I already have another African issue on my plate to write up: a series of articles comparing Museveni's election campaign to Trump's.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2016 08:47
|
|
|
Some poo poo is happening in Mali: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/13/un-chad-peacekeeper-kills-2-colleagues-in-northern-mali.html Also in Ivory Coast: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ivory-coast-beach-shooting-1.3489482
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2016 17:32
|
|
|
MIGF's just mad that Bernie told Rahm to gently caress off, put him on ignore.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2016 22:13
|
|
|
being friends with Goodluck's family members and friends is really weird i want that politoon of obama pulling the [economy] and [gas prices] levers except it's Buhari edit that #20 is 20N for .5L in a bag, sold by children. on the black market the Naira is going 325 to the dollar which is loving nuts, so that N20 bag of water is, like, $.06. the person that made this post does not buy bagged water on the road, I guarantee you i say swears online fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Mar 14, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2016 06:24
|
|
|
What does the opposition in South Africa's parliament look like? Who's leading/important, etc?
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2016 16:22
|
|
|
Speaking of, is that left wing youth movement that split from the APC the official opposition now?
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2016 17:19
|
|
|
Aliquid posted:Speaking of, is that left wing youth movement that split from the APC the official opposition now? That's Julius "juju" Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). They still trail the Democratic Alliance by 60~ seats or so but are the official opposition at the provincial level in a couple of North-West provinces (Limpopo and the like). The DA elected their first ever black leader last year and are hoping to make some gains in the locals this year, as are the EFF whose fiery brand of populist leftwing politics arguable has more appeal in some areas than the DA's Liberal (with a capital L) platform
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2016 18:15
|
|
|
Nigeria's state-owned oil company has failed to pay the government $16bn (£11bn) in a suspected fraud, according to an official audit.quote:The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) provided no explanation for the missing funds, the auditor general told MPs.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2016 15:16
|
|
|
poo poo has been going down in South Africa politically over the last week and President Zuma is now facing another scandal, arguable the most serious of his entire political career (with the possible exception of the continuing spy tapes/corruption charges issue that has been trundling on in the background for almost a decade at this stage). The current scandal is about the close relationship between President Zuma and the Gupta family, one of South Africa's wealthiest and most influential families with interests spread across the media, mining and computing sector. The relationship between Zuma and the Gupta's has been under the spotlight before, most notably in 2013 when a military airfield allowed a private jet carrying guests to a Gupta family wedding to land allegedly with the personal authorization of Zuma himself. This mini-scandal was called Guptagate and took a bit of backseat to the Nkandla scandal relating to the use of public money for "security upgrades" to Zuma's private homestead. Their relationship came under the public spotlight again this year after it became known that Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane traveled to Switzerland at the end of 2015 to broker a deal between mining conglomerate Glencore and a Gupta affiliated company for the sale of a coal mine - revelations that sparked rare public criticism from the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions (who alongside the ANC form the Tripartite Alliance). It was subsequently revealed the Zuma's son Duduzane was the biggest individual shareholder in company acquiring the mine - he's not the only member of Zuma's immediate family directly working in the Gupta business empire btw, one of his wives works for one of their mining subsidiaries. The growing anger over these allegations has been picked up by the EFF who declared "war" on the Gupta's and coined the catchy slogan ZuptaMustFall - a play on ZumaMustFall which popped up last year in anti-Zuma protests and in turn was based on FeesMustFall, a student protest movement that has been in the news a lot, which spun out of RhodesMustFall which was covered a fair bit by international media. Here's them disrupting the State of The Nation address in February because why not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NaBAIS4CRE This all seems pretty bad, but how could it get worse eh? Well... ENCA posted:Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas has confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that the Gupta family offered him the position of Finance Minister to replace then minister Nhlanhla Nene. Deary me. It should be pointed out that Zuma's bizarre decision to fire Nhlanhla Nene in December of last year and replace him with a relative unknown was a massive massive scandal and he was forced into an embarrassing retreat after a matter of days. Revelations that the Gupta's where directly offering cabinet spots is deeply worrying but hopefully it was just a one time thing. "IOL posted:A seemingly idle query on Facebook on the influence of the Gupta family on the government has turned into another nightmare for President Jacob Zuma. And thus the current "state capture" scandal kicked up several gears. The ANC had a meeting of the NEC last weekend and announced an internal party inquiry into the Gupta connections with pressure apparently beginning to mount within some quarters of the ANC to move for a special conference to recall Zuma - and these aren't some low level people, we are talking former senior intelligence officers and respected MK veterans. The Hawks, the unit that investigate economic crime in SA, have announced they are launching an investigation into Duduzane and the Gupta's re: the mining deal. The pressure is most definitely on Zuma and cracks in the ANC are beginning to appear - this is technically an election year and they do not need a scandal like this. A recall still seems almost unbelievably but whether Zuma can weather yet another scandal with the growing public unhappiness really is an open question.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2016 19:47
|
|
|
kustomkarkommando posted:poo poo has been going down in South Africa politically over the last week and President Zuma is now facing another scandal, arguable the most serious of his entire political career (with the possible exception of the continuing spy tapes/corruption charges issue that has been trundling on in the background for almost a decade at this stage). BTW how do the streets/areas of Johannesburg or Pretoria or Cape Town compare to places like LA or Detroit?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2016 20:11
|
|
|
Grouchio posted:Why South Africa repeatedly elected a rapist into office in the first place I may never know. The party is so corrupt it's almost a parody at this point, they just help each other out regardless of how little sense it makes. The main problem is that the average voter of SA is very ignorant and at least up to now would automatically vote the ANC no matter how badly the party has forsaken them. Mainly a mix of the party's legacy and propaganda saying that the Democratic Alliance will bring back Apartheid. The DA is trying much harder to appeal to the average voter, and by making Maimane the leader, who is a very positive role model with a lot of energy. Although I do feel like ANC will get a lot of votes by default, it seems like people are starting to get sick of their blatant corruption and realize that things aren't getting much better. Johannesburg elections are coming up soon, and it seems like it might actually be a competitive election. The DA has overall done a decent job in the Western Cape and it'll be interesting to see what happens. However, don't expect all those angry at the ANC to vote DA, but instead support the Economic Freedom Fighters. The EFF is advertising heavily to the poor black community who is frustrated with the ANC and is making inroads with them. The EFF has some decent ideas but it's overall a very racist anti-white party and I do fear what will happen if they get into some real positions of power. This recent "F**k White People" movement may be a preview of things to come, but who knows. I also wonder what Zuma will do with all of these scandals coming home to roost, he's mentioned recently that ANC is above the country and that they won't go down without a fight, and even with all these corruption charges he still has the gall to want to buy a luxury private airplane which would cost the people millions. It seems like overall a big powder keg of many years worth of corruption and frustration is finally starting to have its fuse lit, and what will happen no one can tell.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2016 03:16
|
|
|
Original_Z posted:The party is so corrupt it's almost a parody at this point, they just help each other out regardless of how little sense it makes. The main problem is that the average voter of SA is very ignorant and at least up to now would automatically vote the ANC no matter how badly the party has forsaken them. Mainly a mix of the party's legacy and propaganda saying that the Democratic Alliance will bring back Apartheid. The DA is trying much harder to appeal to the average voter, and by making Maimane the leader, who is a very positive role model with a lot of energy. Although I do feel like ANC will get a lot of votes by default, it seems like people are starting to get sick of their blatant corruption and realize that things aren't getting much better. Johannesburg elections are coming up soon, and it seems like it might actually be a competitive election. The DA has overall done a decent job in the Western Cape and it'll be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully an explosion immediately blown away by the explosion produced by Zimbabwe.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2016 04:29
|
|
|
The Nkandla scandal has finally come to a head in South Africa - On Thursday the Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma's failure to abide by the Public Protectors order for him to repay a portion of the cost of non-security upgrades (which was issued back in 2014) violated the constitution. Zuma subsequently went on the national broadcaster on Friday and a made a public apology Almost immediately the rest of the ANC leadership came out publicly (in a joint statement after a roundtable meeting it should be noted) supporting Zuma making it clear they will not move to impeach/recall him: Times posted:African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe has announced that the ANC's top leadership "unanimously" stands behind President Jacob Zuma after a scathing Constitutional Court judgment - and vowed that the party would not be split by the Nkandla issue. Important name to note there being Cyril Ramaphosa, long considered to be the man best placed to take over Zuma's position, who (according to some people) has been rather keen to see Zuma resign. Some pretty respected voices within the ANC have been making noise about Zuma resigning though - namely Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg, two of the last three living ANC veterans convicted at the Rivonia Trial (the third is Andrew Mlangeni who has refused to comment as "[he] can't get... involved in these controversial matters when [his] health is not so good.") The opposition DA have tabled a motion to impeach Zuma that will be up for debate on Tuesday (unlikely it will pass though). Another interesting part of the ConCourt ruling is that it found Parliament to have violated the Constitution as well when it adopted a motion absolving Zuma from having to repay funds related to non-security upgrades at Nkandla, in direct violation of the Public Protectors ruling. Naturally this puts some crosshairs on speaker Baleka Mbete, who's attempts to break a filibuster against the motion in question caused chaos in 2014. She has already ruled out resigning but she seems like one of the more likely scalps.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2016 16:54
|
|
|
How strong is party discipline in the ANC? I imagine some of their members realize this is going to end up costing them seats in the local elections this year and in 2019.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2016 16:58
|
|
|
Badger of Basra posted:How strong is party discipline in the ANC? I imagine some of their members realize this is going to end up costing them seats in the local elections this year and in 2019. There is a lot of talk about pro and anti Zuma factions in the ANC jostling with each other but there have been repeated calls to for party unity and to keep differences behind the scenes. A big part of this is because of traumatic memories of the Zuma/Mbeki power struggle in 2007/2008 when, at the 52nd Annual Conference of the ANC, Zuma ran against Mbeki for the Party Presidency and beat him. Zuma had been dismissed as Vice President by Mbeki after he was charged with a bevy of corruption charges relating to the arms deal (sometimes considered the original sin of post-apartheid South Africa), the case collapsed in 2006 but shortly after he was elected party president he was re-charged. A series of wire-taps where subsequently revealed that showed that the timing of the decision to re-charge Zuma had been politically manipulated by Mbeki and his allies to damage Zuma's presidential bid (of the country that is not the party) - this is generally refereed to as the Spy Tapes scandal. When this was revealed in court in 2008 the corruption case was yet again thrown out and the ANC NEC moved to recall Mbeki as the President of South Africa - triggering his resignation (alongside many pro-Mbeki members of ANC in his cabinet). In the aftermath of this there was a split in the ANC and a new opposition party, the Congress of the People (COPE), was formed by members of the pro-Mbeki faction - though they didn't exactly sweep the board politically it was deeply traumatic for the ANC to see the party split. Memories of the power struggle are definitely guiding how the ANC is dealing with this internally and probably moderating the different factions, no one wants a replay. kustomkarkommando fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Apr 3, 2016 |
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2016 17:21
|
|
|
Badger of Basra posted:How strong is party discipline in the ANC? I imagine some of their members realize this is going to end up costing them seats in the local elections this year and in 2019. Pretty much the biggest joke to come out of SA politics in the past month or two was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiZ_-gd2Cb8&t=165s ANC NEC member Bathabile Dlamini imploring other ANC members not to use the media to reveal scandals, but to discuss them behind closed doors because: "All of us there at the NEC have our very small skeletons and we don't want those skeletons to come out." loving insane, really.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2016 20:48
|
|
|
AtomD posted:Pretty much the biggest joke to come out of SA politics in the past month or two was this: I am not sure "very small skeletons" is the best choice of words, especially for a county with historical UK associations.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2016 20:55
|
|
|
I can't find any articles in English, but the DRC army just happened to hold a tank parade in Lubumbashi the day after local politician (former Katanga governor) Moise Katumbi announced his candidacy for the presidency  http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20160403-rdc-inquietude-population-armement-lourd-lubumbashi-katanga On a side note, I'm in Kinshasa right now, and thankfully none of the violence from Brazzaville has spilled over here. The city is still a huge mess, though
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2016 17:18
|
|
|
surrender posted:I can't find any articles in English, but the DRC army just happened to hold a tank parade in Lubumbashi the day after local politician (former Katanga governor) Moise Katumbi announced his candidacy for the presidency Please post pictures. I'm fascinated by Kinshasa.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2016 20:08
|
|
|
SyHopeful posted:Please post pictures. I'm fascinated by Kinshasa. I actually shy away from taking photos here because both the police and residents are pretty aggressive with any foreigners they see with a camera, especially in the current political climate. It really is an ugly city, though - Kampala and Kigali are significantly nicer.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2016 10:19
|
|
|
Wow the DRC has expelled Jason Stearns http://www.reuters.com/article/us-congodemocratic-politics-idUSKCN0X60PR
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2016 17:12
|
|
|
Nigeria floats its currency on Monday, after being pegged at ~N200/$1 since the oil crash. It's expected to nosedive, and be worth roughly half what it was when I was there in 2012/2013. I've been talking to friends and prices for local goods haven't increased in years (oranges, cashews and suya on the street, for instance). The next week will be interesting.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2016 19:08
|
|
|
Anyone have any good long form articles or books on CAR? I may be going to Bangui soon and I'm trying to gain a better understanding of the country's dynamics and history beyond the past few years.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2016 05:08
|
|
|
If anyone wants a vacation in Lagos, now's the time.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2016 08:06
|
|
|
suboptimal posted:Anyone have any good long form articles or books on CAR? I may be going to Bangui soon and I'm trying to gain a better understanding of the country's dynamics and history beyond the past few years. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Central-African-Republic/dp/1783603798 There's a pretty good bibliography in it as well but unsurprisingly most of the books cited are in French.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2016 14:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 13:39 |
|
|
kustomkarkommando posted:anc stuff do people just vote for the anc because they were the party most associated with ending apartheid? or are they more of the peoples action party of south africa? If its the former I would hope people can realize the party is no longer as it once was and move onto other parties. Imagine if 75% of the us voted republican because they stoped slavery.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2016 07:43
|
|
