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NEWS/(r6e Charlotte
Thursday, April 27, 2005
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Africa marks ‘Malaria Day’
By Ali Sultan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania -
Zanzibar marked Africa
Malaria Day on Tliesday with
an appeal for more aid money
to control and possibly elimi
nate the tropical disease,
which kills more than 1 mil-
hon people a year - many of
them young children in
Africa.
Malaria is spread by mos
quitoes and causes wracking
pain, fever and, if left
imtreated, death. It is the
leading cause of death of
those under 5 in sub-Saharan
Africa, according to the World
Health Organization.
Officials in Zanzibar, a
semiautonomous archipelago
off the Indian Ocean coast,
said they are making strides
against the disease. Dr.
Salhiya Muhsin, head of the
Preventive Services at the
Mnazi Moja Hospital Care
and Treatment Center, said
the U.S. Agency for
International Development
has distributed 130,000
insecticide-treated nets.
“We expect to do residual
spray to all homes in
Zanzibar by next month and
distribute more treated nets.
But, this exercise needs
money. We just appeal for
more aid from other donors,”
Salhiya said.
niF, IkW OFFICE OF
CHIEGEO.KALUOKWM
Sudan residents living in the Chadian capital N’djamena burn an effigy representing
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir last Friday during a protest condemning the situation
in Darfur. Terrorism experts believe Sudan - weakened by war and natural crises - could
become a haven for al-Qaida
Experts warn Sudan could
be vulnerable to al-Qaida
By Mohamed Osman
and Alfred deMontesquiou
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KHARTOUM, Sudan -
Sudan dismissed Osama bin
Laden’s renewed calls for
“jihad” in its troubled Darfur
region, saying that it wiU not
harbor terrorists or allow for
eign interference in the coun
try.
But outside experts said
Monday the chaos in Sudan -
already spilling over, to trou
bled neighbors like Chad — is
exactly the kind of place al-
Qaida has successfully
exploited in the past and
might again.
In a tape issuing more
threats against the West on
Sunday, bin Laden urged fol
lowers to go to Sudan to fight
a proposed U.N. peacekeep
ing force for Darfur. Muslims
must “get ready to conduct a
long war against the crusader
plunderers in western
Sudan,” he said in the audio-
tape, broadcast on Arab TV.
The call made headlines in
most of Sudan’s newspapers
Monday, but Khartoum’s
leadership seemed eager to
dissociate itself from bin
Laden, who was based in the
country through much of the
i990s but thrown out in
1996.
“We are not concerned with
such statements, or any other
statement that comes from
foreign quarters about the
crisis in Darfur,” Sudanese
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Jamal Eldin Mohammad
Ibrahim was quoted as say
ing by the A1 Sahafa newspa
per.
Sudan will cooperate with
the international community
to solve the ongoing humani
tarian crisis “and we will not
host any terrorist,” the
spokesman said.
However, experts said that
although Khartoum was try
ing to distance itself from al-
Qaida’s leader, his words
might nonetheless play into
the government’s hands.
Sudan’s government has
opposed the idea of shifting
the peacekeeping mission in
Darfur to the U.N. from the
current African Union force,
noted John Pendergast, a
Sudan specialist with the
International Crisis Group in
Washington.
“The statement by bin
Laden greatly serves their
interest in Darfur,” he said,
arid would “give a good pre
text to those who are bent on
preventing that from happen
ing.”
Yet few believe the govern
ment would deliberately
allow al-Qaida into Sudan
again.
Instead, most experts said
bin Laden’s appeal was
aimed at attracting the
Muslim world’s attention to
his vision of a clash of civi
lizations between Islam and
the West. Few expected large
numbers of fighters to take
bin Laden up on the call.
“He’s trading on the promi
nence that Darfur has
regained to push his own
agenda and prove he’s still
aroimd,” said Eric Reeves, a
Sudan specialist and a pro
fessor at Smith College in
Massachusetts.
Bruce Hoffinan, a terrorism
expert at the RAND think
tank in Washington, said the
prospect of Western troops in
another Muslim country is
“an issue he can exploit. It
proves his point about the
West’s war against Islam.”
Al-Qaida has targeted
Western forces in Africa
before - including its attacks
against U.S. troops trying to
bring peace to Somalia in
1993.
On the ' streets of
Khartoum, feehngs ranged
from scorn to angst.
Eating lunch at an open-air
market in the Sudanese capi
tal, Muhammadain Salih
called bin Laden’s call non
sense.
“I don’t think his people can
do anything in Darfur,” said
the 32-year merchant, him
self from the western region.
“The place is so remote, if
(outside) Arabs went there,
they’d be spotted straight
away ... It’s not like Iraq.”
But Said Muhammad, a 35-
year-old electrician, said
“people should take what this
guy says very seriously. Look
at what he did in America.”
Bin Laden was thrown out
of Sudan by the authorities in
1996, under U.S. pressure,
and Pendergast said he
doubted authorities would let
his group in again and give
up the benefits of cooperation
in the U.S.-led war on terror.
Furthermore, although
Sudan’s hardline Muslim
government could be per
ceived as a potential “ideolog
ical ally” of al-Qaida - and bin
Laden may still have contacts
he could take advantage of -
the terrorist group has little
clout with the population, he
said.
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