Weekly Africa Update — January 16, 2015

By David Leiter, Georgette M. Spanjich, Katherine Fox, and Sarah Mamula

This week, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced reaching 100 percent commitment of the initial $20 million administered under the US-Africa Clean Energy Finance (ACEF) initiative to 30 renewable energy projects across 10 African countries. US Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa Affairs Linda Etim and Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Mark Brinkmoeller traveled to South Sudan to meet with community leaders. In addition, Spanish media reported this week that the US Department of Defense (DOD) is looking to establish a permanent presence of up to 3,000 Marines at a base in Moron that is currently hosting Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response – Africa. On the continent, the United Nations (UN) World Health Organization (WHO) laid the foundation for clinical trials for promising Ebola vaccine candidates to begin this month in Liberia and next month in Sierra Leone and Guinea. Following last week’s Boko Haram assault on Baga, Nigeria, which may have killed as many as 2,000 civilians, Nigeria saw several other Boko Haram suicide attacks, which the US government said are likely linked to the Nigerian presidential election planned for February 14. Boko Haram also crossed the border into Cameroon and launched an attack against a military camp in Kolofata. In addition, lawmakers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) advanced controversial legislation requiring a census before the 2016 presidential elections, as UN-brokered peace talks between various factions in Libya began in Geneva, Switzerland. Meanwhile, authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR) transferred custody of Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen to an African Union (AU) task force for eventual transfer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face justice for his alleged war crimes. Also this week, Afrileaks launched with the goals of connecting African whistleblowers to media organizations and training African investigative journalists on how to safely use leaked material.

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