Russia Slams French Arms Drop to Libyan Rebels

Tripoli, Libya

Russia has criticised France for air-dropping weapons to Libyan rebels saying that it violates the UN resolution’s arms embargo in Libya.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday they are awaiting a response from France about the move, to check that it “corresponds with reality”.

“If this is confirmed, it is a very crude violation of UN Security Council resolution 1970,” said Lavrov.
Lavrov is expected to meet his French counterpart Alain Juppe in Moscow on Friday. US state department spokesman Mark Toner said that the US would “respectfully disagree” with the Russian assessment.

Toner told reporters in Washington that “We believe that UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973, read together, neither specified nor precluded providing defence material to the Libyan opposition,”

French defence officials confirmed on Wednesday that France air-dropped weapons to rebels fighting against Col Muammar Gaddafi. French general staff spokesperson Colonel Thierry Burkhard confirmed the drops had taken place in Djebel Nafusa in Libya's western mountains to the region’s Berber tribesmen who have joined the revolt.

Burkhard said they dropped light arms and humanitarian aid to allow civilians to protect themselves from government troops due to worsening situation of civilians on the ground.

Russiaand China who had abstained from the UN Security Council vote have in recent weeks criticised the NATO operation in Libya saying it had gone beyond the UN Mandate.

African Union has condemned the Move which it termed it risks causing a Somalia-sation of Libya.
AU commissioner Jean Ping said the move would risk civil war, partition of the country and terrorism
which will concern neighbouring countries.

NATO which took over the implementation of the UN resolution in March has distanced it self from the French military operation which the rebels have acknowledged to aid their sustenance in the region. The resolution established a no-fly zone, asset freeze and arms embargo on Libya.

On Tuesday rebel fighters seized significant weapons bunkers near Zintan town, a move they termed as a major boost in their push for the capital, Tripoli 50km away.

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea

AU Summit Closes in Equatorial Guinea

African heads of state meet outside the Equatorial Guinea capital, Malabo for this year’s 17th annual African Union (AU) summit with talks on ongoing crises in the continent dominating the
convention.

Talks in the two-day summit were mainly dedicated towards finding everlasting solutions to the ongoing crises in the continent, with major dedication going to the Libyan crisis. Other conflicts which will be under attention are South Sudan’s secession and the ongoing crisis in Somalia.

During the opening ceremony on Thursday several speakers urged for continental unity and desist from any pressure from the western powers. The convention dedicated a moment of silence in honour of two former African leaders-Frederick Chiluba of Zambia and Ange-Felix Patasse of
Central African Republic- who both died this year.

Equatorial GuineaPresident Teodoro Obiang Nguema, also chairman of the AU called for all African leaders to remain united at this critical period that is testing the continent’s unity and cohesion,
condemning western powers of intervening in Africa without its agreement.

“Africa does not aspire to resolve European, Asian or American problems but to resolve its own problems. Africa has neither been a conqueror, colonizing or exploiting continent. Its struggle has always been to shake off and reject these ideas of policies that victimize and subjugate Africa,” he said.

A five-member AU panel on Libya headed by South African leader Jacob Zuma is expected to present a roadmap at the summit for ending the country’s crisis that has been running since February. The proposal calls for a cease fire and transition to democratic elections.

Representatives from both Muammar Gaddafi’s government and the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) are both at the AU summit for discussions of the proposed roadmap.

AU commissioner Jean Ping on the Sudan conflict said there was a final accord on security agreements on the disputed oil-rich Abyei state, urging both north and south Sudan to work towards all aspects of their 2005 peace accord.

Mogadishu, Somalia

US in Drone Planes Somali Attack

The United States is reported to have used its pilot-less drone aircrafts to launch its last week’s attacks on leaders of the Somali’s Al-Shabab militia, an Islamist armed group fighting the
UN-backed government.

An unidentified US military official told the WashingtonPost newspaper in a disclosed report on Thursday that the attack on leaders of Al-Shabab on June 23 had come from such an aircraft.

The strike was targeted towards a convoy of Al-Shabab fighters as it drove along the coast in Kismayo, wounding two of the militia’s fighters.

Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig, Somali’s deputy defence minister declined to identify who carried the attack or who the two casualties were. Citing the attack had been done by a “partner country”.

If confirmed the strike would be first of its kind in Somalia, making it the sixth country where the US is reportedly to have used the aircrafts to conduct strikes. Somalia joins Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and recently Libya where the pilot-less aircrafts have been used for airstrike.

The Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab has been fighting to topple the UN-backed transitional government since 2007. It controls much of southern Somalia in its growing influence, with much of its target being the capital, Mogadishu.

A US official in Washington on Wednesday identified Somalia as a country which hosted affiliates and adherents of Al Qaeda. John O. Brennan, assistant to President Barack Obama in charge of counter-terrorism said as the Al Qaeda core has weakened under US yielding pressure, it has looked increasingly to these other groups and individuals to take up its cause, including its goal of striking the United States.

“Ultimately defeating al-Qaeda also means addressing the serious threat posed by its affiliates and adherents operating outside South Asia,” he added.

Somaliahas had no functional government since ousting of dictatorial leader Siad Barre in 1991.