Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Backward? Forward? .. no idea, yet for awhile now (yet again, as do so many of us) i've been wondering why Boko Haram's brutality was not getting the same media attention as ISIS' was .. me too, i've been distracted .. of more strategic importance? .. closer to home? .. not Europe but Africa 'only'? .. trade route proximity? .. a battle for natural resources? .. yup, some possible reasons immediately to mind .. then yesterday ..

Nigeria's Boko Haram: Baga destruction 'shown in images'
15 January 2015 Last updated at 17:48 ET
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30826582

haven't read it all, even yet .. too sickening .. what is the best response? .. to not intervene, then what? .. ISIS Syria/Iraq .. or to intervene Iraq/Libya/Syria (somewhat) .. Boko Haram Nigeria and? elsewhere .. not a real good outcome anywhere .. yup, the Iraq invasion still reverberates as a clarion cry among ugly extremists sowing so destruction death and fear in so many countries today .. if to intervene .. how and how much? has been the basis of chat chat, and of too much political blame game for too long .. and will continue to be for, yeah, unfortunately years .. lol, :( .. this is a babble rant, i know .. there are no easy answers, nor simple solutions .. maybe some point to start is to look at the success? .. or not? of President Bush's 2007 AFRICOM creation of .. one position back then ..

AFRICOM: AFRICOM: Wrong for Liberia, Disastrous for Africa
By Ezekiel Pajibo and Emira Woods. Edited by John Feffer, July 26, 2007

Just two months after U.S. aerial bombardments began in Somalia, the Bush administration solidified its militaristic engagement with Africa. In February 2007, the Department of Defense announced the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command infrastructure, code name AFRICOM, to “coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent.”
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=59092358

.. a John Perkins interview is still available at the Democracy Now link in that one .. so what around 2007 and since .. Mali is one ..

Leaders of Mali’s Military Coup Seem to Have Uncertain Grasp on Power


Reuters

A day after a military coup in Mali, an acute gas shortage meant long lines and high prices at the pump on Friday in the capital, Bamako, while the junta faced international condemnation.

By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: March 23, 2012

DAKAR, Senegal — Mali’s military coup leaders struggled on three fronts Friday, as international condemnation mounted, an insurrection by nomadic tribesmen in the north gained ground and the junta was forced to condemn looting by its own troops in the capital, Bamako.

A day after overthrowing the country’s elected president and arresting his ministers, the military men who have seized power — led by Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo, who received extensive training in the United States between 2004 and 2010 — appeared to have an uncertain grasp on power in what had hitherto been one of Africa’s most stable democracies.
.. more .. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/world/africa/in-mali-coup-leaders-seem-to-have-uncertain-grasp-on-power.html?_r=0

.. still past ..

Mali’s Atrocities Began When It Lost Its Democracy

By LANDRY SIGNÉ
Published: January 14, 2013 .. bits ..

IN 2005, after the world failed to prevent mass atrocities in Rwanda, the Balkans and Darfur, the United Nations declared that nations had a responsibility to protect populations everywhere from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It is a fine idea, but not easy to implement, especially in Africa. There, frail democracies too often fall victim to corruption, social division, greed and dictatorship. So there, especially, the world needs to add another “responsibility to protect” — a duty of democratic nations to safeguard popular rule in neighboring lands. Too often, a failure of democracy is what starts a country down the road to atrocities.

(Page 2 of 2)

In fact, Mali is not the first African country in which a failure to protect the constitutional order or quickly restore an overthrown democracy opened a path for grave atrocities. In Kenya, a disputed election in 2007 was followed by violence in which more than 1,000 people were reported to have died and 500,000 others were displaced. In Guinea, a coup in 2009 was followed by the killing of more than 150 opponents of the junta. In Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo refused to relinquish the presidency in 2010 after losing an election; mass atrocities followed. It took a civil war to dislodge him the following spring. Finally, late in 2011, he was turned over to the International Criminal Court to be tried for crimes against humanity.

So, how can the concept of responsibility to protect democracy be further developed?
.. more .. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/opinion/when-malis-democracy-ended-the-atrocities-followed.html

.. AFRICOM 7 years later .. well that's short term i guess .. democracy creation and defense is seen by many as simply a cover for more of the same Western imperialism .. and used by the worst Islamist extremists to justify the perpetration of their sheer evil .. yet, to do nothing is no alternative .. to today .. Libya .. France to contain, but not to intervene as that is an international responsibility .. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/france-ready-bomb-rebels-libya-border-20151651130155365.html .. Nigeria ..

UPDATE 3-West African leaders mull new force to fight Boko Haram insurgents

Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:19pm GMT

(Recasts after interview with Mahama)

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Kwasi Kpodo

ACCRA Jan 16 (Reuters) - West African leaders will seek authority next week from the African Union to create a multi-national force to fight Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist insurgents, Ghanaian President John Mahama told Reuters on Friday.

Any such force would represent the most robust international response yet to the militants who have killed thousands over the last year in their campaign for an Islamic caliphate and have also launched cross border attacks into Niger and Cameroon.

Boko Haram is seen as the most serious security threat to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and its biggest energy producer, but Mahama said the group and militants in Somalia, Kenya, Mali and elsewhere posed a wider risk.

"Terrorism is like a cancer and if we don't deal with it it will keep going. It threatens everybody in the sub region. When it comes to terrorism nobody is too far or too near," he said.

It will take months before an African Union force could be set up and key issues such as who would command it, the location of its headquarters and its financing remain undecided, he said.

Once set up, however, the African Union could ultimately seek a United Nations Security Council mandate to take over the force as happened in Sudan's Darfur region, he said.

Mahama was speaking as current chair of West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has been accused of not doing enough to combat Boko Haram.

"Nigeria is taking military action and Cameroon is fighting Boko Haram, but I think we are increasingly getting to the point where probably a regional or a multinational force is coming into consideration," he said earlier.

In a further blow, Boko Haram militants seized the military base and town of Baga, in Nigeria on the shores of Lake Chad, on Jan. 3. Baga was the headquarters of a planned force to fight the insurgents with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, although that initiative stalled.

The insurgency stirred international outrage when militants seized more than 200 school girls in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria, the epicentre of the violence, last April.

France must do more to help countries fight Boko Haram, President Francois Hollande told an annual conference of French and foreign ambassadors in Paris.

"Today, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin are threatened and this situation means the international community must take appropriate action and can't let this be," he said.

France said last month it would help coordinate a regional task force against Boko Haram given signs of mistrust among West African neighbours.

Cameroon President Paul Biya this month appealed for military help against Boko Haram. On Friday, U.S. Ambassador Michael Stephen Hoza said Washington would help train Cameroon's soldiers and offered equipment for the fight.

Russian Ambassador Nikolay Ratsiborinski said Moscow would supply equipment, training and arms to Cameroon and provide humanitarian assistance. (Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris and Tansa Musa in Yaounde; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Bernard Orr)

© Thomson Reuters 2015 All rights reserved
http://af.reuters.com/article/maliNews/idAFL6N0UV2EC20150116?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

---

Manhunt for ISIS suspects as dozens arrested in Europe
CBS/APJanuary 16, 2015, 4:36 AM
Last Updated Jan 16, 2015 3:57 PM EST

VERVIERS, Belgium -- Intelligence sources told CBS News on Friday that a manhunt was underway in Belgium for three individuals believed to have been trained by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Syria, as dozens of suspects were rounded up in that country and two others following the deadly attacks in Paris last week. .. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/terror-raids-france-belgium-germany-sweep-up-more-than-a-dozen/

.. then there is this ..

The presidents of Niger, Mali and Senegal last week marched alongside more than a million French citizens to show solidarity with the victims of the Paris bloodshed, which began with a shooting attack on Charlie Hebdo's Paris office.

But in an indication of the shifting mood, Macky Sall, president of one of Africa's most stable democracies Senegal, said late on Thursday: "Freedom of the press should not, in our view, head in the direction of a totally pointless provocation." .. more .. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/01/16/world/africa/16reuters-niger-protest-violence.html

.. gotta admire the great great great majority of Africans .. lol .. still .. music and joy persists ..

Along the Niger River, the Beat of the Sahel - JAN. 15, 2015


A street performer dances for a crowd at the Festival on the Niger in Ségou, Mali. Credit Ben C. Solomon for The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/travel/along-the-niger-river-the-beat-of-the-sahel.html

.. chuckle/shrug .. excuse the somewhat unfocused, confused and shaky rant .. nothing much of so much importance is easy .. lol .. gotta stop somewhere .. click ..