U.S., Canada and Africa

[United States Senate] Washington, DC -- Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Menendez, and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to appear before you and for your consideration of my nomination by President Trump to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone.

[MAP] Montreal -- The Moroccan Jewish community established in Canada recently celebrated Mimouna, an ancient Jewish-Moroccan tradition celebrated each year to mark the end of Jewish Easter, Pessah.

[VOA] Berlin -- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday ordered an Army review of an investigation into a January 2020 militant assault on the Manda Bay military base in Kenya that killed three Americans and wounded three others.

[Tunis Afrique Presse] Tunis/Tunisia -- The Interior Ministry and the US Embassy in Tunis, on Monday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote the level of security cooperation between the two countries.

[USAID] The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is airlifting 1,500 rolls of heavy-duty plastic sheeting-- to contribute to emergency shelter efforts for more than 82,500 people affected by the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region. This airlift will transport durable sheeting from USAID's warehouse in Dubai to Ethiopia.

[State Department] The United States looks forward to working with the government of President Ismail Omar Guelleh and the people of Djibouti to advance our common interests following Djibouti's presidential election on April 9. We appreciate the work of the election observer missions from the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. The United States encourages the Government of Djibouti to further strengthen its democratic institu

[IPS] New York -- Commentators talk about a "new Cold War" between the United States and China. They sometimes conclude that the geopolitical rivalry between these two major powers has ruined the effectiveness of the UN Security Council through hostile vetoes and other barriers to Council action.

[New Times] On the 7th of April 2021, as Rwandans were commemorating the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, US and UK officials engaged in a sordid competition of genocide denial by issuing shameful statements found here and here in which the victims and the historical truth of what happened twenty-seven years ago were erased.

[ISS] Exactly how the Biden administration might impact Africa remains a bit of a mystery, as the new United States president, predictably, works through a mountainous backlog of domestic issues left by Donald Trump. However on the economic side, a picture is emerging.

[The Point] Trump is hardly the first serial liar in the White House. But his deceptions are different

[VOA] Geneva -- The U.N. human rights office is urging Sudanese authorities to speed up the deployment of security forces to West Darfur, in an effort to protect civilians from ethnic and tribal clashes in the region.

[Nation] The US government has announced the partial lifting of visa sanctions imposed on Sierra Leone over differences in the handling of deportees.

[The Herald] Assistant Editor

[Egypt Online] Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Hafez said on Thursday that Egypt welcomed the US administration's decision to resume economic, development and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, including financing the UNRWA.

[Egypt Online] In the Name of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful,

[Premium Times] The U.S. Mission in Nigeria Thursday congratulated Mr Ndukwe, an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame

[East African] The US government has retained its highest travel advisory on Nairobi initially indicated by the Centers for Disease Control, and which asks Americans not to travel to Kenya due to Covid-19 cases.

[Nation] Kenya Sevens launched their campaign at the second leg of Emirates Invitational Sevens strongly, winning all their matches on Thursday against Uganda, Canada and Spain at the Sevens Stadium, Dubai.

[DW] The US said "large-scale assistance is urgently needed" in order to prevent the humanitarian situation in Tigray from worsening. The area has seen a violent conflict for several months.

[allAfrica] After 30 years in power, Chad's brutal ruler Idris Déby Itno is just coming into his own.  With elections on April 11 in his oil rich, yet crushingly impoverished country, he is offering a masterclass in how to not just win an election but crush an opposition, dispirit a population, and seduce foreign backers so completely that his tenure as president is assured for years to come.

[State Department] Summary - Telephonic press briefing on the first ever West Africa Joint Operations (WAJO) regional exercise that took place March 29-31, 2021. The briefing featured Julie Cabus, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Assistant Director Training Directorate, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and Michael C. Gonzales, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs. The speakers addressed the regional exercise, which was designed to connect counterterrorism investigators with their judicial counterparts in th

[African Arguments] The US has the neutrality and influence to mediate in the CAR. It would also be a chance for Biden to show that diplomacy is back.

[VOA] Johannesburg -- About 80 law enforcement and judiciary officers participated in last week's inaugural West Africa Joint Operations regional exercise -- a small figure compared to the thousands of personnel who sometimes take part in military-led counterterrorism exercises.

[Nation] The US government has retained its highest travel advisory on Nairobi initially indicated by the Centres for Disease Control, and which asks Americans not to travel to Kenya due to Covid-19 cases.

[allAfrica] Following is a statement from the Advocacy Network on Africa (AdNA) Rwanda Working Group

[New Dawn] Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) President and General Overseer of the Water in the Desert Ministry Rev. Kortu Brown has called on the Government of Liberia to welcome the recent US human rights report [in good faith].

[East African] The US government has announced the partial lifting of visa sanctions imposed on Sierra Leone over differences in the handling of deportees.

[East African] The US government's 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices documents human rights violations in Burundi from 2015 to date.

[East African] The Biden administration will review bilateral trade negotiations and targets that ex-President Donald Trump regime made with Kenya last year over a potential free trading deal.

[Nation] The Riyadha Mosque and Islamic Centre, along with a section of the Muslim fraternity in Lamu County, is infuriated by a Kenyan designer whom it accuses of misusing the mosque's portrait. This comes after US rapper and business mogul Jay Z was spotted coming out of a restaurant in California last week while sporting a T-shirt bearing an image of the mosque.