Ruins are Rare, Extremists not so much

'"The incredible enormities of the Commune, their massacre of the Archbishop ... and other hostages, their countless murders of other persons who refused to join them in their fiendish work, their horrid and well organized plans of incendiary intended to destroy almost the entire city ... are crimes that will never die. I regret to say that to these unparalleled atrocities of the Commune are to be joined by the awful vengeances inflicted by the [fill in the blank] troops. The killing, tearing to pieces, stabbing, beating, and burning of men, women, and children, innocent and guilty alike, by the government troops will stain to the last ages the history of [fill in the blank], and the execrations of mankind will be heaped upon the names who shall be found responsible for acts that disgrace human nature." ... The value of the architectural landmarks and other treasures destroyed was inestimable.'

So recounts the historian David McCollough in his book, "The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris" of a dark two years of France's history, 1870-1871, when an anarchist movement took control of the city, only to be defeated by the government in exile two years later. The specific quote above is from the US ambassador to France at the time, Elihu Washburne - who critics dismissed as unfit for the job when first appointed by President Grant, yet distinguished himself throughout his long appointment, over eight years through a tumultuous time.

On the other hand ... who remembers the Commune, much less Elihu Washburne today? And what were those architectural landmarks and other treasures destroyed in Paris at that time? It brings us to this post - a musing over ruins and remnants of previous civilizations that are being destroyed by the extremists of the day - the jihadists. While the tragic slaughter of various peoples by ISIS and fellow jihadists is no doubt the bigger story, the loss of ruins are easier to stomach, and no doubt sooner to be forgotten.


"The ruins of the ancient city of Hatra, a center of religion and trade for the Parthian empire, are in present-day northern Iraq. The city flourished during the first and second centuries BC." photo by Nik Wheeler and quote both found at kids.britannica.com


Artifacts within a museum in the ancient Assyrian village of Nimrod are also offensive ... An image from video posted on a social media account affiliated with the Islamic State group, Feb. 26, 2015, militants take sledgehammers to an ancient artifact in the Ninevah Museum in Mosul, Iraq. Photo: Associated Press

Beyond ISIS, there are the ruins destroyed by Islamists in Timbuktu, Mali, a few years ago.


An ancient shrine in Mali of great offense. Photo from a video posted by the jihadists (what's with their insistence this all has to be recorded for posterity???)


What started off the latest round of purging was the destruction (courtesy of artillery used by the Taliban) in Afghanistan of a large carved image of Buddha. Photo from the NY Times.

This rising up of various extremists - anarchist, fascist, communist, now Islamist - at regular intervals is what keeps intact ruins rare ...

PS - some ruins elsewhere are under attack ...


Mayan ruins in Central America are subject to acidic rain, pollution, and simply the vibrancy of the jungle that has overtaken and hidden many ancient artifacts from today's pilgrims. Photo from water-spouts.blogspot.com

Egypt's conflict highlights Western dogma and Islamist challenge

First, let's agree that the recent spate of bloodshed in Egypt is troubling, to be condemned, bad, and truly a growing challenge that will have to be reconciled in that country's political future. The latest count is now over 800 fatalities from protests and street fighting. The majority of the casualties are supporters of the ousted President Morsi, mainly within the ranks of members of the Muslim Brotherhood or its conservative Salafist ally. However there also losses among anti-Morsi supporters (most notably Coptic Christians) as well as the police and military.

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Photos of the clashes are everywhere in the world's media, so here's another unfortunately familiar dreary picture to get us oriented, from www.spiegel.de

The US has apparently retreated, once again, to diplomatic bromides and half measures - for example highlighting the cancellation of a planned joint military exercise with Egypt's authorities, yet quietly continuing its foreign aid to the military rulers. The European Union is "urgently" scheduling a review of its aid to Egypt, and the reasoning given is where the heart of this blogpost begins. An EU spokesperson describes the Western premise as this, "In cooperation with its international and regional partners, the EU will remain firmly engaged in efforts to promote an end to violence, resumption of political dialogue and return to a democratic process..."

Let's look at those three points: an end to violence, resumption of political dialogue, return to a democratic process. Does this fit Egypt? Peace is not merely the absence of violence, but a holistic concept where justice and tolerance are embedded. Political dialogue takes place where all parties submit to the concept of give and take. A democratic process is more than technical elections every so often, a procedure that plenty of authoritarian rulers have become experts at, without the heart of the governing concept.

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from the German news magazine der speigel, "So far, calls by US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns (left, shown in discussion with acting president Adly Mansour) for an agreement between current leaders and Morsi supporters have gone unheeded."

A basic question

Teatree wonders whether Islamists by definition can truly be democratic. If their end goal is the rule of Sharia law, is there opportunity to step back, give and take? Or will they use the tools of the democratic process as mere stepping stones to imposing their brand of theocracy.

If one remembers correctly, the Muslim Brotherhood has given the world al-Qaeda, while the "purer" versions of Islam have given not only the West, but fellow Muslims, a string of statements: embassy bombings, 9-11, bus bombings, suicide bombings, the Taliban and its early act of shelling and destroying old Hindu shrines, and the latest in Mali, the tearing apart of old Muslim shrines. With Islamic extremists, is there realistically an opportunity for dialog, an end to violence, or a commitment to a democratic process?

Another familiar angry picture of Islamists riled up by their religious teachers. This image is from Newsweek's coverage of the non-existent video narrative that was cooked up for unknown purposes by the US government to cover for lax security at its Libyan and Egyptian embassies in 2012.

Some new twists emerge

Yet, while the secular, modern West wrings its hands over the Egyptian violence, support for Egypt's military rulers is coming unexpectedly from one moderate Muslim kingdom - Jordan. Equally surprising, Palestinian President Abbas has also signaled his support for the Egyptian military. Several other Arab countries have voiced support for Egypt's military but these two leaders' positions are worth taking notice.

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Palestinian President Abbas sides with Egypt's ruler against the Muslim Brotherhood

Could these leaders be the harbinger of moderate Muslim voices finally rising up to say enough? Is it similar to the more violent 2006 uprising in Iraq where Sunni tribes (with much to resent regarding the new Shiite led Iraqi government), finally said enough to the ultra violent Al-qaeda.

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Mohammed Al-Zawahiri, the brother of Al-Qaeda Chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, has reportedly been arrested in Egypt. Photo from www.news.com.au

Ethnic cleansing occurring quietly in Egypt? Or just "acts" of ethnic cleansing.

Amid heavy coverage and soul searching regarding the Egyptian military response, there has nevertheless been a string of reporting regarding the Muslim Brotherhood turning its anger against Coptic Christians in Egypt. The Christian minority in that country (10% of the nation's total population of around 85 million) has experienced a wave of arson attacks against churches (approximately 50 have been burned or looted in the past several weeks) as well as highly publicized killings of priests and Christian leaders. One Catholic article rather breathtakingly described the situation as an early posture of ethnic cleansing.

St. Mary Church in Fayoum attacked, looted. Caption and photo from http://egyptianstreets.com

But on a more hopeful note. There are also reports that neighborhood watches are forming, resisting the mobs of the Muslim brotherhood. And of moderate Muslims taking the risky stand to protect neighbors and churches in their locale - at least this is the story floating around on the internet accompanying the photo below. (Teatree is becoming a bit suspicious of this photo as no authoritative source can be found.)

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An unfamiliar, yet hopeful, necessary, sign. (Unfortunately, the timeline of this photo is a little vague, as well as the specific church. One report says it was St Georges in Sohag - if so, then this picture was taken a while ago, because according to the Washington Post, that church was indeed attacked and burned in just the past few days.)

The confrontation between responsible moderate Muslims and the extremists is probably the battle that must first be enjoined before moving on to the next step of building political democracy and the three "pillars" described earlier by the EU. What is the heart of Islam? Is it jihad against the infidel, or a more moderate set of beliefs that can live in the larger world. Perhaps in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation that has always exercised leadership, there can emerge a home-grown, internal religious stance against extremists, showing tolerance and acceptance of others.

And perhaps it is best the West is "left out" of the forefront of this revolution as its presence morphs the tensions and violence into a geopolitical framework. As with the tense situation in Pakistan, and the disaster in Syria, these confrontations are overwhelmingly Muslim vs Muslim - with Shiite-Sunni reverberations yes - and ultimately a conflict where extremism will take over this world religion if not challenged.

France celebrates its Bastille Day

Bastille Day, July 14, is France's biggest national holiday, called "La Fête Nationale." For US readers, it is equivalent to our July 4th, and that similarity can trigger connections with independence days across all the nations of the world. For French citizens, it commemorates the storming of the Bastille fortress in 1789, which marked the start of the French Revolution.

There is typically a large military parade. This year, according to a Voice of America article, close to 5,000 troops, including U.N. soldiers in blue berets and servicemen from 13 African countries marched past the presidential stage, led by a Malian officer, drawing attention to France's role in liberating the African country's north from Islamist and other insurgent groups.

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The traditional military parade on the Champs Elysees (photo credit to Reuters)

Jets leave colors of the French flag in their wake ... (photo from timesofnewa.co)


The storming of the Bastille fort/prison in 1789 represented the people challenging the monarchy, and eventually turning the country into a Republic. The Bastille had arms and ammunition which were distributed among the populace, although its reputation for holding political prisoners yielded only seven such individuals at the time to liberate. (graphic from Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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Outside of the capital, small town celebrations hold parades and outdoor food events, similar to rural towns everywhere. (photo from http://francephotosfrance.wordpress.com)

Teatree's musing pulls him back to the late 1700's when both the US, and France established their independence in different circumstances - just two countries that come to mind, but reflecting perhaps some growth in terms of governance. Just after the Second World War, there was a spate of new independent countries (India leading the way), from empires exhausted and financially drained by two wars in 20 years. In the early 1960s, there was another surge, this time centered in Africa, where new African nations from former colonial status, though their boundaries continue to bedevil their development. The next surge that comes to mind was in 1989-1991 when independent nations emerged from their puppet-like status under the collapsing Soviet Union.

Perhaps Egypt, Syria and other Arab nations will be able to look back to the current period as the latest surge, when they too begin to fitfully and painfully move forward to newer and better ways of governance ...

West African sahel region sinks into turmoil

Suddenly, France, Algeria (two countries who have their own long story of conflict as colonizer and colony), Mali, and al-Qaeda affiliates are involved in a rapidly escalating conflict in Western Africa.

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Arena of the rapidly escalating conflict in NW Africa

Centered in Mali, which has been covered at least twice in this blog, Islamist groups (Ansar Dine and Islamic Maghreb), have been inching south closer and closer to Bamoko, the capital city the past several months. What had been a shearing off of the northern half of the country last July by a mixture of Tuareg tribes and Islamists was followed rather rapidly by a entrenchment of those positions by the Islamist group(s) - increasingly we hear more of Islamist extremists rather than Tuaregs, more on that later - and an encroachment towards towns and cities further to the south.

The UN had in July 2012 authorized a collection of West African military forces to gather and take back the desert regions of Northern Mali, but had left a, shall we say, very leisurely pace to be set - actually no specific timetable, but the fall of 2013 has been mentioned - before serious actions would be undertaken. See http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2012/sc10698.doc.htm for the text of resolution 2056

French Intervention

France, led by its Socialist President Hollande, did not see a luxury of time, and at the end of 2012, began gathering military assets together in Southern Mali to fend off the Islamists.

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French fighter aircraft, and attack helicopters came in first, but are now being buttressed by up to 2500 ground troops.

Last week, French warplanes attacked Islamist forces around the town of Diabaly, causing Islamist forces to run for cover. While fleeing exposed positions, the Islamists did not leave the town, rather mixed with the local population, and ended up being accused of using locals as human shields.

Now, french troops are being flown in, from an original 800 to 2500. And on-the-ground fighting is underway in Diabaly as of Wednesday, January 16.

French ground troops on the move towards Diabaly (on what appears to be an unusually modern and well maintained paved road ...)

One more thing

In one further step of escalation, however, in retaliation for last weeks attacks from French warplanes, Islamists seized employees of a natural gas drilling operation in Algeria. As NBC news reports, "A number of Americans have been seized by militants at a gas field in Algeria, U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday, in what he described as a terrorist incident. The militant group that claimed responsibility said it was in revenge for Algeria's support of France's operation against al-Qaeda-linked Malian rebels groups far to the southeast. It said it was holding 41 foreigners, including seven Americans."

A natural gas facility in Algeria, similar to that where Islamists have taken hostages

Note that the natural gas facility is a long way from the Mali border, but very close to Libya. It is a reminder that Libya continues to fester after the 2011 removal of Gaddafi, a country where the 2012 killing of the US ambassador Chris Stevens on September 11 was only reluctantly acknowledged as a terrorist attack, and the overthrow itself widely recognized as having swamped the region with plenty of arms for all persuasions.

A bit of history:

The rebel takeover of northern Mali began soon after the fall of Gaddafi in Libya in October 2011, when Tuareg fighters from northern Mali, who had been fighting alongside Gaddafi’s forces, returned home with weapons from Libyan arsenals.

They joined with Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militants who had moved to the lightly policed region from Algeria, and the two groups easily drove out the weakened Malian Army in late March and early April last year. The Islamists then turned on the Tuaregs, routing them and consolidating control in the region in May and June. So, the liberation of Awazad, which had been the Tuareg's longtime cry for self governance, has been silenced, as has peace in this region for years to come.

Islamists triumphant in Mali. Local residents must now fear for their hands and heads - removable items if they commit specific offenses under Sharia law.

The Tuaregs, long neglected within their own lands and with many justifiable points as to their resistance to broader Malian governance, nevertheless chose sides badly by linking themselves with Islamists.

Questions remain

US President Bush was excoriated for his decision to take on Saddam Hussein in 2003 - the world heard from all quarters: the US was out of control, did not seek adequate consensus, did not focus on coalition building ..., etc. The ouster of Libya's Gaddafi, in contrast, was trumpeted by US President Obama as the "smart" way to lead change, and that from behind. The action had UN consensus, plus the Arab League was on board - passing the new Global Test, as it was put. However, eager to move on after Gaddafi was killed, little effort was made to contain or shape the aftermath, The result, increasingly apparent from the Mali crisis, is that unsecured weaponry flowed across the region. One could describe the Libyan action with consequences still unfolding, as not at all following the script advanced by Western politicians. (And are we close to seeing this situation play out again in Syria where chemical and advanced weaponry may yet end up in Hezbollah hands or elsewhere ...)

Did French President Hollande collect the approval of the UN, or build a consensus before intervening in a matter of weeks? No, and apparently the Western world is not outraged or concerned. Is he the new cowboy of the world? Or once again, is the Western media selective and arbitrary in its formulations.

The highly technological West continues to favor aerial attacks, cruise missiles, and drones (the new US favorite)as weapons of choice - minimal damage or exposure to conflict for its own forces, but with clear limitations on the scouring out of an enemy, or at the very least, the securing of abandoned or hidden weapon caches.

What was derided as a needlessly provocative phrase, the "war on terror" was replaced by the Obama administration in 2009 with the phrase "overseas military contingencies." Apparently, three years later, the phrase "war on terror" is back, only it is US Secretary of Defense Panetta using the term, not the former president/cowboy from Texas.

Finally, the long history of neglect for the peoples of northern Mali, followed by the armed insurgence of the Tuaregs and their own dalliance with Islamists leading to their demise can be found at the following link. It is a detailed and doleful story that brings us to today's headlines.
http://www.irinnews.org/report/95252/mali-a-timeline-of-northern-conflict

Timbuktu's ancient Islamic shrines come down

There are relatively few artifacts across much of the continent of Africa that indicate its past - the pyramids of Egypt, and some Coptic churches in Ethiopia come to mind. This week, from reports by the BBC, we read that one of the less familiar, but still "world heritage" class artifacts - Timbuktu's ancient Islamic shrines - are now being taken apart by Islamic extremists.

"Islamists in control of northern Mali began earlier this year to pull down shrines that they consider idolatrous. "Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu," Abou Dardar, a leader of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, told AFP news agency. Tourist official Sane Chirfi said four mausoleums had been razed on Sunday. One resident told AFP that the Islamists were destroying the shrines with pickaxes."

Timbuktu was a center of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th centuries. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) added three mosques and 16 cemeteries and mausoleums to its world heritage list in 1988 . The structures played a major role in spreading Islam in West Africa.

Timbuktu, an ancient centre in Africa's dry Sahel

The most famous Djinguereber Mosque was built in 1327, and had been in the process of being restored and preserved since 2006. In July this year, two tombs on the site were destroyed by the Ansar Dine extremists.

Most of these structures are built entirely of local, organic material - mud (adobe like), stones, and wood. Amazingly well preserved in the dry climate, but unable to withstand picks and axes.

A loss within a greater setback

Covered once before in this blog, the presence of the Ansar Dine extremists in Timbuktu stems from a spiraling of events in 2011-2012 when the Mali government lost control the northern half of the country to an alliance of the Toureg people and the Ansar Dine.

The government itself lost its legitimacy when a group of officers took over in April 2012, forcing the civilian government to flee from the capitol of Bamoko. After negotiations led by the UN and Western countries such as France and the US, the coup officers, led by Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo handed back power to civilians, but retain influence in the Malian capital, where tensions remain high between their supporters and opponents.

The coup in Bamako led to the fall of north Mali into the hands of armed Islamic group (the most prominent being Ansar Dine) linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group applies strict Islamic sharia law including summary executions, stonings, amputations and beatings as punishments.

Much is ahead

Last month a United Nations Security Council resolution paved the way for an international military intervention in Mali. With the Mali army and troops from the Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas) fighting on the ground and the US and the EU providing logistical support and training.

The coup leader, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, remains in the army, and leads the Junta, which considers itself to have retained power but is overseeing a one year interim power sharing arrangement with new civilian leaders - an election is scheduled within the year.

Interim Mali President Dioncounda Traoré, currently leading the country after pressure from the UN and the West led to the ceding of power by Captain Sanogo.

So much is going on. Elections for a return to pre-coup civilian leadership, the loss of half the country (the size of France alone), and preparations for the deployment of a 3,300-strong West African force to retake the northern half back from Islamic and Toureg control.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the African Union have been tasked to submit a detailed and costed plan for the military offensive. Again, from the BBC, "No-one is under any illusion that the restoration of government authority over northern Mali will be easy. Reports of jihadist fighters from Sudan and Western Sahara arriving to reinforce the radical Islamist rebels controlling northern Mali will add new urgency to international debates over military intervention to help the government restore its authority and reunite the country."

The Touregs call northern Mali, Azawad, and show their flag here.

However, Azawad, whatever the Toureg's vision of their land was at one point, is now a place oppressed by harsh Islamic law.

This image shows the geographic and climatic separateness between the more humid and vegetated southern Mali, and the arid Sahel with its different peoples and cultures.

Not a rosy picture ahead for Mali for 2013.

And it is Christmas ...

Once again, so far from this West African region full of sorrow and grief, Christmas 2012 seems a world apart, yet with peace so elusive in so many parts of the globe. Teatree's own personal favorite song (from an innocent early time when he learned verses 1,2,6,7), composed in 1863 by the American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow himself wrote the poem soon after he had lost his wife in an accidental fire, and his oldest son lay severely wounded from a battle in the then-raging US civil war:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and mild and sweet The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Uganda's role in regional peacekeeping forces to end

Friday, November 2, the Uganda government announced it was going to withdraw its military forces from various regional UN-authorized peacekeeping efforts across Africa. The announcement is not a good omen for the efforts involved, most noticeably the sizable force considered the backbone of UN efforts to establish a legitimate government in Somalia.

The reason

The BBC notes that the UN infuriated the government of Uganda when it published an experts' report last month accusing Uganda of arming Congolese rebels. The report said Rwanda and Uganda were both supplying weapons to the M23 rebels in the DR Congo. This long running conflict has forced some 500,000 from their homes since April, 2012.

This M23 group - led by Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda - who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges - is merely the latest ascendance of constantly shifting and coalescing rebel groups in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The region has never been brought under control of any government since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Bosco Ntaganda, operations leader of the latest ascendant rebel group, the M23, in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Rwanda's current leader, Paul Kagame(a Tutu) and Uganda, under the leadership of Yoweri Museveni, opposed the Hutu-led government and militias that slaughtered nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus during that three month period in 1994, and during the past two decades Rwanda has continued to back armed groups in the east of DR Congo as a way to fight Hutu rebels who fled there after the genocide.

The troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with Rwanda and Uganda neighboring.

M23 rebels moving to a position

The BBC article continues by quoting, Mr Mukasa, Uganda's Security Minister, told a news conference: "If our efforts are going to be misinterpreted and we are going to be maligned, we want to be in a good relationship with our neighbours. "Let's stop all these initiatives. We will concentrate on ourselves. Whoever wants to cause us trouble, they will find us at our home."

Uganda Security Minister, Wilson Mukasa

Places where Uganda troops are stationed.

The BBC notes that operations in Somalia, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be affected. Uganda provides the largest contingent to the UN-backed African Union mission in Somalia (Amisom) (7500 of the force's 16500 total). The Amisom force has helped the Somali government gain ground against Islamist militias. Analysts say a rapid withdrawal of Ugandan troops could threaten those gains.

Over 7500 Ugandan troops serving under the UN flag in Somalia

Ugandan troops are deployed in smaller numbers to an international mission to CAR and DR Congo to hunt down the remaining elements of the Lord's Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony.

Ugandan troops deployed to search for the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, in both Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo

African conflicts across the midsection of the continent

The Horn of Africa - Somalia is the center of this large region of conflict - Islamists (Al Shabaab) and famine, piracy - with Ethiopian, Kenyan, Burundian, and Ugandan soldiers comprising the UN peacekeeping force establishing security in what is known as the prime example of a failed state.

Sudan/South Sudan - the continuing battle of Islamist Sudan vs the black African South Sudan - the current point of conflict is over oil resources along the two country's border.

Mali/Nigeria - both battling Islamists with Al Qaeda sympathies, along with corruption in their own government.

Rwanda/Democratic Republic of Congo - the longest, deadliest, and most under-reported conflict on the continent.

Troubles, troubles, everywhere.

South Sudan, Congo and Mali

Three African countries are in the news this week - none of the reasons are particularly inspiring.

South Sudan - now one year old (July 9, 2011 independence day) is embroiled in a tense, violent confrontation with its parent nation, the Republic of Sudan. After repeated clashes along an undefined and oil-rich border, and arguments and accusations regarding payments for oil shipped north through the Republic of Sudan, South Sudan suspended oil shipments altogether in the past few months. Now South Sudan is struggling without 95% of its revenues from producing oil, and the Republic of Sudan is without 75% of its revenues based on shipping South Sudanese oil. For a while, there were concerns that a full scale war was about to erupt between the two, but that possibility has receded for the time being.

South Sudan, with a lot of oil, and Republic of Sudan owning the only pipeline out to the world market. The two countries haven't solved their issues yet.

In the past week, however, international relief agencies have noted an increasingly dire situation with much of South Sudan's population. Without the government's ability to purchase food internationally (grain), pockets of food shortages are erupting. In the northern Republic of Sudan, significant protests among Khartoum residents have also occurred due to lack of government services.

Both leaders walking together. Republic of Sudan's Bashir wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court situated in The Hague, Netherlands; South Sudan's Salva Kiir in a cowboy hat.

So, not much of a year to point back to, the question is not only whether South Sudan's 8.2 million population has kept its firm resolve to move forward together, but if they can.

South Sudanese girls overlooking Juba, South Sudan's largest city, and temporary capitol.

Republic of the Congo

Not to be confused with its much larger and [in]famous neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, this French-speaking West African country has a population of 4 million and its capitol city is Brazzaville.

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Republic of the Congo and its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Interestingly, (from Wikipedia) "the Republic of the Congo's sparse population is concentrated in the southwestern portion of the country, leaving the vast areas of tropical jungle in the north virtually uninhabited. Thus, Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa, with 70% of its total population living in a few urban areas, namely in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, or one of the small cities or villages lining the 534-kilometre (332 mi) railway which connects the two [main] cities."

The railroad along which 70% of Congo's population lives ...

The impoverished country (wealthy in mineral resources and timber - unable to exploit them for the good of the whole ...)made the news this week when a former warlord, Thomas Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in prison for using child soldiers during 2002-2003 when the country was engulfed in a civil war - a local conflict within the wider DR Congo war, which left an estimated five million people dead - mostly from hunger and disease.

Thomas Lubanga in the International Criminal Court sentencing proceedings this past week.

In March, Lubanga became the first person to be convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it was set up 10 years ago. Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots, an ethnic militia active in the war that is estimated to have killed 60,000 people. Conflicts continue in the two Congolese countries, ripples still occurring nearly two decades later after the Rwandan genocide unleashed violence throughout Central Africa.

Mali

Mali - now divided between rebels and a tenuous government in the south. The rebels themselves (ethnic Tuaregs and those with a predominately Islamist perspective) have joined forces to create an Islamist state.

The new Islamic state - Azawad - apparently considers ancient Muslim shrines as anathema, and its new leaders have duplicated action taken by the Taliban in Afghanistan when that movement took control of the country in the late 1990s. In the case of the Taliban, its forces destroyed a massive world-heritage Buddha image carved into a mountainside. In the case of the "Islamists of Ansar Dine," they too are destroying world-heritage status religious shrines.

This Buddha image was heavily damaged with direct shelling by the Taliban 13-14 years ago.

Ancient Muslim shrines in Timbuktu are the latest relics deemed offensive to the the Northern Mali's new leaders, supported by Al Qaeda, who have apparently gained the upper hand over the Tuaregs, according to the New York Times.

Strange and sad stories from Africa.