The head of the UN peace-keeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo says despite a delay in deploying more troops to bolster 7000-strong force already in the country, his forces are making progress in subduing rebel groups in the war-torn central African nation.
In his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, Obama did recognize his Kenyan roots.But the American President singled out Kenya as one of the African countries that have failed to realize their potential. But as Brenda Mulinya of NTV reports, a section of Kenyan leaders are putting up a brave face, in the wake of the stinging rebuke.
Acid attacks on women are frighteningly common in Bangladesh. Men often use it as their weapon of choice against women who have rejected their advances. Unofficially the figure is believed to be much higher than 200 a year.
The government wants to demonstrate a tough stance: offenders can be executed and acid sales are restricted. But as Al Jazeera’s Nicholas Haque explains, the rules aren’t always enforced.
US troops started to withdraw from Iraq’s cities at the end of June, leaving security in the hands of the Iraqi army and police.
The pullback marks the first step towards a US exit strategy from Iraq.
Barack Obama, the US president, has vowed to withdraw most US troops from Iraq by August next year. But plenty of armed forces and militias are still active in Iraq.
Following the US troop withdrawal, how might they respond to the new balance of forces on the ground? What is the future of the militias in Iraq now that the US has withdrawn from the urban areas? Does the fight continue until the last American soldier leaves?
We ask: Who are these groups and what is their relationship with Iraqi government forces?
Jasim Azzawi discusses with guests: Peter Harling, an Iraq, Syria and Lebanon project director with the Middle East programme of the International Crisis Group; Nibras Kazimi, a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, and Anthony Shadid, a Washington Post staff-writer based in the Middle East .
The Afghan government says that Taliban fighters are on the backfoot as the US-led offensive in the southern Helmand province enters its second week. But that’s not a view shared by the Taliban, who say they have inflicted heavy casualties.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports.
The following is the text of the President’s speech on Accra, as prepared for delivery and released by the White House.
Good morning. It is an honor for me to be in Accra, and to speak to the representatives of the people of Ghana. I am deeply grateful for the welcome that I’ve received, as are Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama. Ghana’s history is rich, the ties between our two countries are strong, and I am proud that this is my first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as President of the United States.
I am speaking to you at the end of a long trip. I began in Russia, for a Summit between two great powers. I traveled to Italy, for a meeting of the world’s leading economies. And I have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well.
This is the simple truth of a time when the boundaries between people are overwhelmed by our connections. Your prosperity can expand America’s. Your health and security can contribute to the world’s. And the strength of your democracy can help advance human rights for people everywhere.
So I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children. That partnership must be grounded in mutual responsibility, and that is what I want to speak with you about today.
We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans.
I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story.
My grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him “boy” for much of his life. He was on the periphery of Kenya’s liberation struggles, but he was still imprisoned briefly during repressive times. In his life, colonialism wasn’t simply the creation of unnatural borders or unfair terms of trade – it was something experienced personally, day after day, year after year.
My father grew up herding goats in a tiny village, an impossible distance away from the American universities where he would come to get an education. He came of age at an extraordinary moment of promise for Africa. The struggles of his own father’s generation were giving birth to new nations, beginning right here in Ghana. Africans were educating and asserting themselves in new ways. History was on the move.
But despite the progress that has been made – and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa – we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Countries like Kenya, which had a per capita economy larger than South Korea’s when I was born, have been badly outpaced. Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the African continent. In many places, the hope of my father’s generation gave way to cynicism, even despair.
It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants. In my father’s life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many.
Of course, we also know that is not the whole story. Here in Ghana, you show us a face of Africa that is too often overlooked by a world that sees only tragedy or the need for charity. The people of Ghana have worked hard to put democracy on a firmer footing, with peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections.
For that the minority deserves as much credit as the majority. And with improved governance and an emerging civil society, Ghana’s economy has shown impressive rates of growth.
This progress may lack the drama of the 20th century’s liberation struggles, but make no mistake: it will ultimately be more significant. For just as it is important to emerge from the control of another nation, it is even more important to build one’s own.
So I believe that this moment is just as promising for Ghana – and for Africa – as the moment when my father came of age and new nations were being born. This is a new moment of promise. Only this time, we have learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa’s future. Instead, it will be you – the men and women in Ghana’s Parliament, and the people you represent. Above all, it will be the young people – brimming with talent and energy and hope – who can claim the future that so many in my father’s generation never found.
To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.
As for America and the West, our commitment must be measured by more than just the dollars we spend. I have pledged substantial increases in our foreign assistance, which is in Africa’s interest and America’s. But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of aid that helps people scrape by – it is whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change.
At 65 years old and more than a decade out of office, Newt Gingrich remains one of the most powerful figures in Washington. As speaker of the House, he led the Republican party from the backbenches of US politics to national prominence in the mid-1990s. He ruthlessly attacked the Democrats on every major issue, drilling holes into the Clinton agenda while building support for his conservative brand. Today, with the Republican party struggling to regroup after a devastating defeat in the November elections, Gingrich is once again back in the spotlight. Avi Lewis goes one-on-one with the influential Republican and asks him if, having pulled off a political revolution once before, he is gearing up to do it again?