DTN News - PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IN DAKAR, SENEGAL: Obama Offers Africa Closer Business Ties, Urges Tolerance for Gays

DTN News - PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IN DAKAR, SENEGAL: Obama Offers Africa Closer Business Ties, Urges Tolerance for Gays

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Drew Hinsaw - The  Wall Street Journal
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 27, 2013: (DAKAR, Senegal) President Barack Obama Thursday called for broader commercial engagement with Africa, but also touched on the continent's more sensitive issues such gay rights and the failing health of former South African leader Nelson Mandela.

"The reason I came to Africa is because Africa's rising," President Obama told reporters, after an hourlong talk with Senegal's President Macky Sall, to mark the start of his second trip to the continent as president.

The two presidents said they hope to sign new trade agreements between the U.S. and the West African Community of Economic States, a bloc of 15 countries whose economies are picking up pace. Mr. Obama also said he'll ask Congress to renew and expand on the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a 2000 law that allows African democracies to export manufactured goods to the U.S. duty free.

"We historically have been an enormous provider of aid to Africa—food, medicine—but what I want us to do is have a shift in paradigm, where we start focusing on trade, development, partnerships," Mr. Obama said. "This is going to be a continent that is on the move. It is young, it is vibrant and full of energy," he added.

Mr. Obama's trip highlights budding ties between the growing club of African democracies and a U.S. administration that sees room to champion democracy and investment on the world's poorest region. Mr. Obama next heads to South Africa, the continent's biggest economy, and Tanzania, a fast-growing East African economy, where he is expected to discuss U.S. investment and then wrap up his first extended presidential trip to the continent.

In 2009, President Obama made a short stop in Ghana to deliver a speech on democracy.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama also touched on issues that divide the U.S. and Africa, such as gay rights. One day after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic ruling that broadly cleared the way for an expansion of same-sex marriage, Mr. Obama addressed an African crowd that represents what many gay rights activists see as a next frontier. In almost every African nation, homosexuality is illegal, punishable by jail time and even death in several states.

As Mr. Obama pressed African countries to decriminalize homosexuality, Senegalese members of the audience murmured and muttered. "The issue of gays and lesbians and how they're treated has come up and has been controversial in many parts of Africa, so I want the African people to hear just what I believe," Mr. Obama said. "People should be treated equally. And that's a principle that I think should be applied universally."

In recent years, Senegalese gays who've attempted to live openly have suffered police crackdowns and even killed. "Senegal, as far as we are concerned, is a very tolerant country which doesn't discriminate against the inalienable rights of people, but we are not still ready to decriminalize homosexuality," said Senegal's President Macky Sall in response to Mr. Obama. "This doesn't mean that we are all homophobic."

In part to press his case for equality, Mr. Obama, the son of a Kenyan father, referenced a leader admired across the continent: South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela, currently in critical condition in a South African Hospital.

Mr. Obama had hoped to meet Mr. Mandela during his next stop in South Africa, although that meeting appears unlikely, as the former South African leader remains hospitalized in critical condition. "He's a personal hero, but I don't think I'm unique in that regard," said Mr. Obama. "I think he's a hero for the world, and if and when he passes from this place, I think we all know his legacy is one that will carry on throughout the ages."

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Drew Hinsaw - The  Wall Street Journal
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DTN News: French Troops To Leave Former Colony Senegal

DTN News: French Troops To Leave Former Colony Senegal *Source: DTN News / Reuters (NSI News Source Info) DAKAR, Senegal - February 22, 2010: French troops will leave Senegal under an agreement to be signed shortly before the West African country celebrates 50 years of independence from France in April, the Senegalese presidency said on Sunday. France has about 1,200 military personnel stationed at an air base in the capital Dakar, one of three French bases in Africa. "It has been decided that the French ... will leave Senegal under an agreement which will be signed before April 4," the presidency said in a statement after talks between President Abdoulaye Wade and French Defence Minister Herve Morin. On April 4, Senegal will mark the 50the anniversary of independence from France.

DTN News: Drug Trafficking In Africa

DTN News: Drug Trafficking In Africa

*Source: DTN News

(NSI News Source Info) BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau - July 6, 2009: People gather around a speedboat believed to be used by drug traffickers in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.Drawn by its vast coastline, limited law enforcement capacity and weak governance, Latin American drug traffickers in recent years have turned West Africa into a major transshipment point for cocaine and other illegal drugs.

People gather around a speedboat of a type believed to be used by drug traffickers, as it unloads cargo at a quay in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Cocaine trafficking could become the biggest source of income in impoverished Guinea-Bissau, dwarfing all other economic sectors combined, a top U.N official said, adding the influx of drug money could destabilize the coup-prone West African country.

It's estimated that 60% of the cocaine sold in Europe now passes through nations such as Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Ghana and Senegal. That's an alarming trend for both international counternarcotics efforts and the stability of the countries affected.

The United States is coordinating the work of 3 government departments to work with nations in the region and other international partners to confront the problem, which in the near term is expected to get worse before it gets better.

Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told Congress recently that the U.S. State, Justice and Defense Departments are united in their understanding of the threat drug trafficking poses not only to the nations of West Africa, but to U.S. interests as well.

Guinea has had only two presidents since gaining its independence from France in 1958. Lansana CONTE came to power in 1984 when the military seized the government after the death of the first president, Sekou TOURE. Guinea did not hold democratic elections until 1993 when Gen. CONTE (head of the military government) was elected president of the civilian government. He was reelected in 1998 and again in 2003. Unrest in Sierra Leone and Liberia has spilled over into Guinea on several occasions over the past decade, threatening stability and creating humanitarian emergencies. In 2006, declining economic conditions prompted two massive strikes that sparked urban unrest in many Guinean cities.

The problem is not isolated to West Africa alone. Kenya and Ethiopia have become major transshipment routes for heroin coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The impact this has is seen in crime and corruption in the affected countries and ultimately an increase in drug use by people in the transshipment points.

The U.S. is working with the European Commission and United Nations to help nations in the region, with intelligence gathering, maritime patrol and assistance in the criminal justice sector. Ghana, Togo, and Sierra Leone have already demonstrated willingness to working closely with the U.S. and other countries have expressed interest.

DTN News: French Military Aircraft Searching Atlantic Ocean For Clues Of Air France Flight 447

DTN News: French Military Aircraft Searching Atlantic Ocean For Clues Of Air France Flight 447

(NSI News Source Info) DAKAR, Senegal - June 5, 2009: Members of the flight crew of a French military Atlantic Model 2 stand on the tarmac after returning from the site of the crash of an Air France flight, at the French military air base in Dakar, Senegal Thursday, June 4, 2009.

A Brazilian helicopter crew recovered the first wreckage from Air France Flight 447 on Thursday, pulling a cargo pallet from the sea.

Chad Inherited The African Turmoil Fever

Chad Inherited The African Turmoil Fever

(NSI News Source Info) March 6, 2009: In addition to Chad's many current problems, there are some old ones that are still getting some attention. For example, Chad's ruler during the 1980s, Hissène Habré, is being pursued on war crimes charges.

But Senegal, where Habre has been living in exile, refuses to assist the International Court of Justice or Belgium in extraditing Habre. African governments are much less enthusiastic about prosecuting Africans for "crimes against humanity" than Europeans are. This is probably because so many African leaders could, by European standards, be accused of "crimes against humanity". Senegal, for example, is being prosecuted for allowing torture. Nothing is happening on the Sudan border, despite fears that Sudan might launch attacks to protest the recent issuing of an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan on war crimes charges. President Bashir is not happy about the warrant, but is not taking it out on Chad, yet.

The EU peacekeepers have said they will fight if the Sudanese, or their irregular allies, cross the border. The current leader of Chad is a much smoother article, and has taken measures to hide evidence of his indictable (in Europe) actions. February 16, 2009: Another 6,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) have fled into southeastern Chad. There are already 50,000 such refugees there, sustained by foreign aid groups and donated food.