Central Africa: Rwanda Arrests DRC Rebel Nkunda

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested in Rwanda late Thursday night, Rwandan and Congolese authorities announced on Friday.Radio Okapi, the Congolese radio station operated by the United Nations and the Fondation Hirondelle, reported that Rwandan and Congolese military leaders had disclosed the news. In the same announcement, they called on Nkunda’s followers to join the process under way to integrate former rebels into the Congolese army, FARDC.

Somalia: New Navy Task Force Takes Aim At Pirates

Washington DC — A new multinational naval task force is patrolling the waters off the coast of Africa to scare off pirates who have been regularly attacking commercial shipping vessels laden with oil, fertilizer and iron ore.For now, Combined Task Force 151 comprises three U.S. ships, but other nations, including the United Kingdom, are expected to join the effort that is focused on the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. In the meantime, naval forces from nearly two dozen nations are patrolling in the same waters — in some cases bilaterally — and are often providing escort to merchant vessels bearing their national flags.

Africa: Hillary Clinton Outlines Obama?s Africa Policy

Washington DC — The foreign policy objectives of the Obama administration in Africa are rooted in security, political, economic and humanitarian interests, Secretary of State–designate Hillary Clinton told a U.S. Senate committee January 13.In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton said the Obama administration’s foreign policy objectives for Africa also include “combating al-Qaida’s efforts to seek safe havens in failed states in the Horn of Africa; helping African nations to conserve their natural resources and reap fair benefits from them; stopping war in Congo; [and] ending autocracy in Zimbabwe and human devastation in Darfur.”