Category Archives: African Theater

Iranian Navy Ships Pass Through Suez Canal in Clear Military Provocation!

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The ships are believed to be headed to Syria to aid in the Baathist crackdown. I guess that Arab spring which overturned the Egyptian government isn’t heralding in peace and stability after all since Egypt allowed the passage:

ISMAILIA – Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt’s Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel.

“Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces,” a source in the canal authority said on Friday.

The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region.

Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic waterway on February 17 last year, in a move that Israel called a “provocation”.

Egypt’s military, which has a close defense ties with the United States, has been governing the country since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak a year ago.

Iran joins Venezuela in supplying Syria making Western actions against that country seem like a world war by proxy. Hopefully things don’t heat up too much there.

h/t Astute Bloggers

Deadly New Virus Found in Africa

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It causes “Ebola-like” bleeding (which means sometimes blood starts to pour from a victims orifices) and killed four out of the five people who got it. If this sounds like the beginning of a zombie apocalypse to you you’re not alone. World War Z anyone?

Via Breitbart:

ATLANTA (AP) – Scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called “Lujo” virus infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by the scientists.

It’s not clear how the first person became infected, but the bug comes from a family of viruses found in rodents, said Dr. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist involved in the discovery.

 “This one is really, really aggressive” he said of the virus.

A paper on the virus by Lipkin and his collaborators was published online Thursday on in PLoS Pathogens.

The outbreak started in September, when a female travel agent who lives on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, became ill with a fever-like illness that quickly grew much worse.

She was airlifted to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she died.

A paramedic in Lusaka who treated her also became sick, was transported to Johannesburg and died. The three others infected were health care workers in Johannesburg.

Investigators believe the virus spread from person to person through contact with infected body fluids.

“It’s not a kind of virus like the flu that can spread widely,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped fund the research.

The name given to the virus—”Lujo”—stems from Lusaka and Johannesburg, the cities where it was first identified.

Investigators in Africa thought the illness might be Ebola, because some of the patients had bleeding in the gums and around needle injection sites, said Stuart Nichol, chief of the molecular biology lab in the CDC’s Special Pathogens Branch. Other symptoms include include fever, shock, coma and organ failure.

By the gods that’s a nasty bug. The fifth victim survived but doctors aren’t sure if she responded to treatment with ribivirin or just had a milder case. And since the bleeding was near the gums and the others were thought to be infected by bodily fluids it’s not hard to imagine that they were biten. I mean if you’re a blogger looking for a way to work in some Amazon links to zombie related material.

But in all seriousness I hope this “new virus” has been contained, the last thing the world needs is a new disease running rampant.

Is Foreign Aid Killing Africa?

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Dambisa Moyo, who authored the book Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is a Better Way for Africa, makes the case for that very idea in this video I recently watched on Cato @ Liberty:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIPvlQOCfAQ[/youtube]

Moyo’s book is much maligned by left leaning critics but her most basic premise, that relying on the fickle largess of White activists is no way to run a country, is so simple and obvious that one suspects her critics are motivated by colonialist racism. Zimbabwe is engaged in pogroms against Whites and Jews largely because the government is able to be propped up by Western money, thus they can afford to destroy productive members of society in spiteful class and race warfare policies. If Zimbabwe was forced years ago to govern themselves it would be a much different place. Not to mention that the current economic crisis is limiting how much aid will even be available, and it becomes clear Africa needs to find a new sustainable economic model.

Damisa Moyo also has a website so check her out, and buy her book.

Hope and Change: Is the Obama Administration Railroading Leopold Munyakazi?

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It sure seems that way when you read this report from Fox News:

Leopold Munyakazi, 59, taught French at Goucher College, north of Baltimore, until he was suspended with pay after the liberal arts school learned in December that he was wanted in Rwanda. Munyakazi has denied the accusations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are taking steps to deport Munyakazi, who was arrested Tuesday at his home in Towson for overstaying his visa, according to agency spokesman Brandon A. Montgomery. Munyakazi was later released from custody but with a monitoring device.

The arrest came a day after the allegations against the professor became public, but Montgomery said the news reports weren’t a factor.

“We don’t rush to get something done just because of the news,” he said.

The genocide accusations stem from 1994, when more than a half-million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in Rwanda after the then-president’s plane was shot down as he returned from negotiating with Tutsi rebels. Munyakazi is Hutu.

“I think they did it under the pressure of the Rwandan government,” Munyakazi said Thursday of his arrest. “They would like to show them that they are doing something about the allegations.”

Andrew Tusabe, second counselor at the Rwandan embassy in Washington, called the arrest a positive step.

“We appreciate the development and ask authorities to send him to Rwanda where he will face justice,” Tusabe said.

Munyakazi is charged with murder and several genocide-related counts, according to a copy of an indictment provided by Munyakazi. Goucher officials said they gave Munyakazi a copy of the indictment, which they received from a Rwandan prosecutor.

Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, reviewed the indictment and said it contained details that do not “fit historical facts of the time.” For instance, it is unlikely that Munyakazi organized a militia associated with a party that was opposed to the party he was affiliated with, Des Forges said.

Given that why the sudden rush to send this guy back to a certain death while everyone is distracted? As the left used to say up until recently, I’m just asking questions!

Update: Here’s a video of the story via Breitbart:

Somali Pirates Hijack Ship Carrying 33 Russian Tanks

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The ship was also carrying large quantities of weapons and ammunition:

MOSCOW — A Russian warship on Friday rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa — a bold hijacking that heightened fears about the surging piracy and high-seas terrorism.

U.S. naval ships were in the area and “monitoring the situation,” and a U.S. Defense Department official said Washington was concerned about the attack.

“I think we’re looking at the full range of options here,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

It was unclear whether the pirates who seized the Faina Thursday knew ahead of time it was carrying 33 Russian-designed T-72 tanks, plus ammunition and spare parts, bound for Kenya. Analysts said it would be extremely difficult to sell such weaponry as Russian tanks.

Kenyan maritime welfare activist Andrew Mwangura told The Associated Press that the hijacking of such cargo was unprecedented.

“This is a jackpot in the piracy world,” he told AP.

The hijacking, with worldwide pirate attacks surging this year, could help rally stronger international support behind France, which has pushed aggressively for decisive action against Somali pirates.

Russian navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo told the AP that the missile frigate Neustrashimy left the Baltic Sea port of Baltiisk a day before the hijacking to cooperate with other unspecified countries in anti-piracy efforts.

But he said the ship was then ordered directly to the Somalia coast after Thursday’s attack.

A lot of armchair warriors are saying the pirates will have no use for the tanks and will be unable to sell them. Not true, a rich warlord can hire mechanics to keep the T-72 up and running because it’s a design from the 70s and easy to learn to maintain compared to modern tank design. There’s a maximum height requirement so finding drivers will be harder than mechanics. But in Africa child soldiers are easy to come by.

An ambitious warlord may have just scored himself the ability to topple weak governments and fend of a weak willed west. The question is how much force the Russians will commit to Somalia if things go bad, and how long the Somali pirates can hold out.