U.S., Canada and Africa

[Citizen] Al Shabaab's report on the Sunday attack at Manda Bay Airfield in Lamu County was exaggerated, the US military has said. Manda Bay is an area where US forces provide training and counter-terrorism support to East African partners.

[The Herald] Miss Global World Zimbabwean representative Tania Tatenda Aaron won the best evening gown accolade at the preliminaries held on Wednesday night ahead of the final of the Miss Global pageant set for Friday in Oaxaca, Mexico.

[GroundUp] Ban on political activity is "illegal, unconstitutional and contrary to the UN convention on refugees"

[The Herald] Miss Global World, Zimbabwean representative Tania Aaron did the country proud after she won the evening gown category at the preliminaries held on Wednesday night ahead of the finals for the international pageant slated for tomorrow in Oaxaca, Mexico. The 24-year-old beauty queen, beat 59 other contestants with the first runner slot going to Miss Peru, Hany Portocarrero while Miss Northern Mariana Islands Kristin Chucci was second runner up.

[The Herald] The Africa Union (AU) is determined to engage the West over illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, in an effort to guarantee stability in the region.

[The Conversation Africa] Two significant attacks have been carried out by al-Shabaab in recent weeks. On 6 January 2020, the Somali-based terrorist group attacked a Kenyan military base close to the former coastal holiday destination of Lamu. The killing of a US service man and two US contractors in this attack inflicted the first ever American military combat losses inside Kenya.

[Deutsche Welle] The three countries have agreed the filling of the Nile dam should start in the wet season and proceed in stages. But they have delayed making a final agreement until later in January.

[U.S. House] Washington, DC -House Armed Services Committee Vice Chair Anthony G. Brown (MD-04) and a bipartisan group of 10 lawmakers, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper expressing their concerns with a potential reduction of American forces in the African theater despite the heightened threat of terrorism and rising geopolitical competition on the continent. The Department of Defense recently announced a review of the United States' force posture as they reorient strategy toward countering Russia and China.

[United States Senate] Washington, DC -U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, submitted the following statement for the record today:

[Nation] Amisom and US Africa Command (Africom), who are security partners in Somalia, have warned that Al-Shabaab have built sufficient resilience and weaponry to keep launching deadly attacks in the country.

[Nairobi News] The Kenyan woman who was shot dead by an 85-year-old granny in the USA will be buried on Saturday, 18 January, in Siaya county.

[Nairobi News] Highly-rated Gor Mahia midfielder Tobias Otieno has joined US third tier side Union Omaha.

[Cision] Silicon Valley, Calif -For the fifth consecutive year, the African Diaspora Network (ADN) hosts the largest Africa-focused investment symposium in Mountain View, CA January 23rd-25th, 2020.

[SNA] Khartoum -In the context of their participation in the talks on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which are sponsored by the US Secretary of the Treasury, the Foreign Minister, Asma Mohamed Abdalla, and the Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Yasser Abbas, met with US President, Donald Trump, at his office in the White House, in the presence of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Irrigation of the Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Ethiopia and the President of the World Bank.

[New Zimbabwe] The restrictive measures imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States will remain in place until President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration implemented the necessary political and economic reforms key to restoring the troubled country's democracy and prosperity, the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe said Wednesday.

[Shabelle] The United States through its Embassy in Kenya has reiterated its continued fight against terrorism and lauded its partnership with the country in the war on terror.

[Capital FM] Nairobi -The United States has reiterated its commitment to help Kenya defeat terrorism on the first commemoration of the 2019 attack at Dusitd2, an uptown complex, where 21 people were killed, including an American and a Briton.

[VOA] Washington -The latest talks hosted by the U.S. Treasury produced some progress but failed to achieve a comprehensive agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

[U.S. Treasury] Washington, DC -The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Water Resources of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan and their delegations met with the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of the World Bank, participating as observers, in Washington, D.C. on January 13-15, 2020.

[News24Wire] Cape Town -Trevor Noah has added his voice to the lack of diversity amongst this year's Oscar nominations.

[VOA] Ethiopians and U.S. foreign policy observers are trying to unravel a comment made by President Donald Trump last week where he claimed to have "saved a country" and implied he should have been given the Nobel Peace Prize for the achievement.

[CINETELEFILMS] Meryam Joobeur's live action short film Brotherhood produced by Academy-Award nominee Maria Gracia Turgeon of Midi La Nuit & Cinétéléfilms is now nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Live Action Short Film. It tells a poignant story of a rural Tunisian father caught in between loyalty to his family and his rigid moral principles.

[Council on Foreign Relations] Washington, DC -President Emmanuel Macron of France hosted a summit in Pau, southwestern France, with the heads of state of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauretania, and Niger. The purpose of the summit was to improve military coordination against insurgents with a particular focus on the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) and al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).

[ANGOP] Luanda -Angolan minister of Culture Maria da Piedade de Jesus and the United States ambassador , Nina Fite, Monday discussed the cultural cooperation during an audience granted by the former.

[SNA] Khartoum -President of the Transitional Sovereign Council, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Fattah Al-Burhan, received at the Republican Palace Monday the visiting Minister of Parliamentary Affairs at the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Robert Olivant.

[East African] A waning urge for direct interstate conflicts may have weakened the likelihood for a full-blown war, experts said of the tensions between the US and Iran.

[Vanguard] An array of potential presidential aspirants stormed the United States to lobby support for election of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023, a move similar to the global campaign undertaken by members of All Progressives Congress, APC, prior to 2015 presidential election.

[State Department] Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor Nagy will travel to the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan from January 15-29, 2020.  He will meet with senior government officials, international partners, civil society representatives, faculty and students of local universities, and alumni of Department of State public diplomacy exchange programs.  His visit will emphasize the importance of promoting good governance and strong democratic institutions, advancing region

[SNA] Khartoum -The Prime Minister, Dr. Abdalla Hamdouk, received in his office Sunday the Canadian Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Rob Oliphant, who conveyed to him the greetings of the Canadian Prime Minister and his praise of the peaceful Sudanese revolution.

[SNA] Khartoum -The Prime Minister, Dr. Abdallah Hamdouk, Sunday received the Parliamentary Secretary for Canadian Foreign Ministry, Rob Olivant.