AL SHABAB with JIHAD believes.....!!!!THIS is SIN

Global jihad: smoke signals from Mumbai to Nairobi

© Photo: AFP

From the target choice and the sophisticated operations, to the cross border threat and the official responses, the Nairobi shopping mall siege is eerily reminiscent of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

By Leela JACINTO reporting from Nairobi, Kenya (text)

 

As thick black plumes of smoke rose from Nairobi’s besieged Westgate mall on Monday, the scene was disconcertingly reminiscent of the flames billowing out of the Taj hotel cupola during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
From the target choice of landmark locations that attract internationals and local elites, to the multipronged nature of the attack involving gunfights, grenades, hostages and sieges, to the reassuring statements by authorities that the situation is under control when it’s obviously not – there are many similarities between Mumbai 2008 and Nairobi 2013.
Much of it could get lost in the smoke signals of official statements and militant boasts in the days to come.
Back in 2008, phone intercepts of the conversations between militants in the luxury Mumbai hotel and their handlers in Pakistan revealed that the terror bosses kept reminding the attackers to “pile up the carpets and mattresses” from the hotel rooms, douse them in alcohol and set them alight.
“You must start the fire now,” ordered the handler at one stage. “Nothing's going to happen until you start the fire. When people see the flames, they will start to be afraid.”
When Kenyans saw the dark, foreboding smoke billowing over the Nairobi skyline on Monday afternoon, it sent a chill down their spines.
Earlier Monday, Kenyan officials had declared they were in a “final assault” to flush the militants out of the mall, where they have been holed up since the attack began on Saturday. But with the smoke clouding the afternoon sky, most of the bystanders gathered near the Westgate mall weren’t buying the official version of events.
At a press briefing in Nairobi on Monday morning, Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said militants had set fire to a stock of mattresses from one of the stores in the mall in a bid to subvert the security forces.
But as the sun set on the third night of a harrowing attack and the ominous black fumes continued to rise, there was widespread scepticism that mattresses – and not explosives – were the cause of the blaze.
‘Hybrid’ attacks from across the border
While Kenyan security forces continue their “final operations” at the Westgate mall on Tuesday and official investigations get underway, the details of the multipronged attack have yet to be established.
But there’s little doubt that the Westgate attack is a game-changer in Somali jihadist circles.
“This is a threshold event,” said Matt Bryden, director of the Nairobi-based thinktank, Sahan Research. “In Somalia, we’ve seen a steady evolution away from simple suicide operations to complex, hybrid attacks involving gunmen and suicide bombers. Now we see that they have managed to export this tactic across the border to Kenya.”
The Westgate attack – like the 2008 Mumbai attacks – originated across the border and sowed panic in the commercial hub of a politically and economically more stable neighbouring nation.
A cross-border pollination of ideas, training and resource-sharing is not new in jihadist circles whose roots go back to the mujahideen battles in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region during and after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

SOMALIA US-born jihadist reported killed in Somalia

“It’s not a new phenomenon,” said Cedric Barnes, Horn of Africa Project Director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “We know that jihadist fighters have been traversing the Africa region between the subcontinent [the Afghanistan-Pakistan region] and the Mideast, East Africa and across West Africa. There’s been evidence of people doing that for quite a while.”
Although the Mumbai attacks were not conducted by al Qaeda, Indian officials note that the Lashkar-e-Taiba group – which it holds responsible for the 2008 attacks – operates in Pakistan, where there are networks and links between jihadist groups.
Blame al Qaeda, not al Shabaab
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said al Qaeda was responsible for the Nairobi mall siege and that the Somali militant group al Shabaab – which has claimed responsibility for the attack – was not acting alone.
Mohamed’s distinction between the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab and al Qaeda per se had analysts thumbing the depths of the complex relations between jihadist groups.
“It’s like a code-sharing or a joint operation where jihadists benefit from the experience of al Shabaab and the wider al Qaeda network,” explained Barnes. “This [the Westgate attack] is too complicated, too well organized to have been directed from Somalia purely. This will have needed a longer term level of planning that would have to be in Kenya for some time.”
Analysts eye local al Hijra group
While the al Shabaab group has been tweeting its responsibility for the Westgate attack with characteristic bombast and flair, some analysts have been examining local jihadist groups based in Kenya.
Analysts say that in the aftermath of the Westgate attacks, investigators are likely to examine the Kenyan militant group al Hijra, which has its roots in the Islamist movement of Kenya’s coastal region and in Majengo, a sprawling Nairobi slum.
Some accounts say the group also has links in Eastleigh, a Somali-dominated district of the Kenyan capital that’s also known as “Little Mogadishu”.
“It’s a non-Somali group, but its leader, Ahmed Iman Ali, traveled to Somalia in 2009 where he embedded himself with al Shabaab,” explained Bryden. “Since then, several hundred al Hijra fighters have gone to Somalia and trained and fought outside of al Shabaab.”
Nationalist and globalist splits in al Shabaab ranks
Just as the Pakistan jihadi theater includes nationalist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba that concentrate on the more nationalist agenda of the India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir, the Horn of Africa also has groups pursuing nationalist and globalist agendas.
Sometimes, the agendas can merge and culminate in well-planned, sophisticated attacks.

SOMALIA Somalia is the new hotspot on the ‘jihadi tourism’ trail

Within the Somali al Shabaab group, there has long been a division between what Horn of Africa analyst Abdullahi Halakhe calls “the transnational jihadi movement and the Somali nationalist movement”.
In recent months, there has been a deadly split in al Shabaab ranks between the rival factions.
The fratricidal conflict has been largely overlooked by the international community until the recent killing of the high-profile, US-born al Shabaab militant Omar Hammami, also called Abu Mansour al Amriki – or “the American” in southern Somalia earlier this month.
Before he was killed in a gunfight with rival Shabaab militants, al Amriki released messages accusing top al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane of attempting to grab power and circumventing “the principles of Sharia” - or Islamic law”.
“Godane has won,” said Halakhe simply. “Godane leans towards making al Shabaab a transnational jihadi group. He has executed a coup against the rest.”
Forget the ICC, we have a terrorism problem
As Kenya picks through the implications of the Westgate attack, the complexities of internal schisms and external links with local jihadist groups are likely to be overlooked in favour of broad claims of al Qaeda threats, which strike the right note in Western capitals focused on international terrorism.

TERRORISM IN THE HORN OF AFRICA KENYA Tough questions for Kenyan authorities after mall siege KENYA Grief, generosity as Kenya starts mourning mall victims KENYA In pictures: Islamists storm Nairobi mall

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed’s interview with Al Jazeera came as Vice President William Ruto’s trial at the International Criminal Court was adjourned for a week to allow him to return home to deal with the crisis.
Ruto faces crimes against humanity charges in connection with the post-electoral violence following the disputed 2007 election.
The ICC trial has strained Kenya’s relations with Western nations and has cast a shadow on the East African nation’s standing in the international community.
“There’s a political aspect to Amina Mohamed’s statement as well,” said Barnes.
“There’s an aspect to the message of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the international community in confronting a common problem, a common enemy. For Kenya’s leaders, this is an opportunity to restart relations with the West and say, ‘this is much bigger than what happened in 2007, don’t haul us through the courts when we are confronting our own 9/11 and 7/7,’” added Barnes, referring to the July 2007 London attacks.
There’s little doubt that the Westgate attack is indeed Kenya’s very own 9/11 or 7/7 – or 26/11 as the Mumbai attacks are referred to in India. The question now is what lessons can be learned from the carnage in the upscale Nairobi shopping mall

Syria: On the frontline with the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo

Rebels and regime forces are locked into a brutal battle for control of Aleppo, and FRANCE 24 reporters managed to enter northern Syria’s main city to meet fighters with the Free Syrian Army.

By Manolo d'Arthuys

In the small town of Kilis on the Turkish-Syrian border, we have to wait several days for the green light from our fixers to go “across”. One morning at dawn, the signal is given.
The border is porous and surprisingly easy to cross. We meet other journalists, and even foreign fighters who are off to join the jihad in Syria.
On the other side, our four "hosts" are waiting for us. They are all heavily armed and driving a battered old black BMW sporting a Free Syrian Army (FSA) flag. How discreet…
The trip to Aleppo takes no more than an hour and the whole area supposed to be under the control of the FSA, but it remains dangerous. Ambushes involving Bashar al-Assad’s forces are commonplace. Our driver tells us that the worst thing - while driving with the window down and music blaring - is helicopter attacks. "But don’t worry, I always hear them arriving from a distance”, he states confidently. We remain sceptical ...
Our driver explains that at his signal we will have to leave everything in the car and jump onto the nearest embankment.
Welcome to Syria…
On arrival in Aleppo, we discover a city divided into factions. Each group occupies a neighbourhood: rebel fighters, regime forces, Kurds, Islamists, foreign fighters, Sunni locals...
In some places, life has returned to normal. We can see markets filled with foodstuffs and children playing football, while only two miles away, the war rages on.
In the old town which is now reduced to a pile of rubble, at the heart of the old souk once listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, we meet Abdul Maleck. This 29-year-old Sunni local commands a group of 30 fighters. This local commander will be our guide in war torn Aleppo.

FROM ARAB SPRING TO CIVIL WAR "SYRIA"

Syria: from Arab spring to civil war

More than two years into an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, violence in the country shows no sign of abating. The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people have been killed in vicious fighting between Assad loyalists and rebel forces, who control roughly half of the country. Both sides have accused each other of using chemical weapons and the UN has dispatched inspectors to investigate the claims. Almost two million Syrians displaced by the fighting have sought refuge along the country's borders, in what the UN has described as the worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. While the Assad regime can count on the unwavering support of Russia, which has shot down all UN resolutions on Syria, the rebels are backed by wealthy Gulf states Qatar and Saudi Arabia. On the ground, Lebanese militia Hezbollah has joined forces with Syria’s regular army, whereas thousands of foreign fighters – some linked to al Qaeda – have sided with the rebels. In a bid to stem the rise of Islamist factions within an increasingly fractious rebel camp, some Western powers, among them France and the US, have said they plan to send weapons to more secular groups, including the Free Syrian Army.

PEACE TALKS M23

M23 expect 'breakthroughs' in DR Congo talks

Statement from rebels talks of major progress with Congolese government at peace talks in neighbouring Uganda. Last Modified: 19 Oct 2013 17:51

Rebels control an area of around 700 square kilometres in the east of the DRC, bordering Rwanda and Uganda [AFP]

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have said they are heading towards "major breakthroughs" with the Kinshasa government in peace talks in neighbouring Uganda. A statement by the rebels, who call themselves M23, said that under Uganda's mediation, "major breakthroughs are about to be obtained in Kampala since the heavy involvement of the international community in the dialogue". However, Lambert Mende, a minister and Congolese government spokesman, told the AFP news agency that "breakthroughs will be measured against the final agreement," if one were signed. "There has been some reconciliation," Mende said in Kinshasa, the DRC capital, but stressed that although the M23 could "sign today", that would "not be the end of the problem". In contrast, the rebels referred to the "remarkable presence" of US special envoy to the Great Lakes Russ Feingold and the UN special envoy Mary Robinson as well as Martin Kobler, the head of the UN mission to the DRC, and representatives of the European Union and African Union. The rebels take their name from a peace agreement they signed with the DRC government on March 22 2009, paving the way for their integration into the national army, but they mutinied in April 2012 over poor salaries and living conditions, renewing an armed rebellion in the country's mineral-rich east. During talks on Friday, "the M23 made major concessions on its political demands in order to make possible the signing of the peace agreement in Kampala in the coming hours," the group said. 'Lasting peace' "By this act, our movement wishes to demonstrate its determination to contribute to the rapid establishment of a lasting peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo," the M23 said. The group controls an area of around 700 square kilometres (270 square miles) in the east of the DRC, bordering Rwanda and Uganda. Complaining that the 2009 deal was never fully implemented, they turned their guns on their former comrades and have also clashed with UN troops mandated to rein in the M23. The United Nations regularly accuses Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the rebels, something both countries deny. Mende affirmed that Rwanda had a key role in the outcome of rebels' future in the country, and said "the principal player could always restart this crisis. It is Rwanda's attitude that is the deciding factor". The negotiations in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, had reportedly stumbled over the question of an amnesty for the rebels and their reintegration in the army. Backed by the international community, the government in Kinshasa has said there will be no impunity for the main rebel leaders.

fight for AL SHABAB in the whole WORLD

Somalia: U.N. Declares War on al-Shabab

By Colum Lynch

A U.N.-backed African military force in Somalia must launch a new military offensive against al-Shabab’s insurgents if it is to stem the spread of terrorism in East Africa and ensure the survival of Somalia’s struggling government, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the U.N. Security Council.

Ban appealed for a temporary military surge of thousands of additional African troops into Somalia in order to deal a decisive military defeat to al-Shabab. The offensive would aim to deprive the Islamist militant group of the ability to freely recruit new followers and secure the taxes and investments necessary to underwrite its terrorist operations from Mogadishu to Nairobi, Kenya, where the group recently carried out a brazen attack against civilians at the upscale Westgate mall.

Citing the threat posed by a reinvigorated al-Shabab, Ban appealed to the 15-nation council in a letter to provide financial and military support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), along with attack helicopters and other advanced logistical and intelligence equipment to help take the fight to al-Shabab strongholds in rural southern Somalia.

“The deterioration in the security situation threatens to undermine the fragile Somali political process,” he wrote in the letter, which has not yet been made public. “In order to regain momentum and avoid further reversals, there is an urgent need to resume and strengthen the military campaign against Al Shabab.”

The strategy endorsed by Ban was first outlined by a joint U.N.-African Union mission that travelled to Somalia in late August and early September to assess the risk posed by al-Shabab. It draws on the military rationale invoked by the United States in past years to justify temporary surges in military operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan aimed at breaking the back of the insurgency and laying the groundwork for an eventual exit strategy.

Ban asked the council to authorize an increase in the size of the African Union force, dominated by Ugandan and Burundian troops, by as many as 4,400 additional troops and support staff for a period of up to two years. He also called on the U.N. mission in Somalia to provide a limited package of non-lethal support — including transportation, food rations, and fuel — to 10,000 front line Somali troops. A temporary military buildup of forces “should ultimately pave the way for the exit of all international forces,” Ban wrote. “Without additional support recommended in this letter, our joint investment is at risk of being derailed by the indefensible actions of the Al Shabab insurgency.”

The African Union force was first deployed in Somalia in 2007 to counter the Islamist insurgency and to protect a U.N.-backed transitional government. It is currently staffed by roughly 18,000 troops.

Over the past two years, African forces have driven al-Shabab out of Somalia’s main cities, including Mogadishu and Kismayo. But the movement has regrouped, shifting its military strategy from fighting conventional battles and holding major cities to undertaking targeted terror operations in Somalia, where it has struck U.N. and foreign diplomatic outposts, and beyond.

On June 19, al-Shabab mounted a bloody attack against the United Nations’ humanitarian aid compound in downtown Mogadishu, killing eight U.N. employees. The attack, and the threat of further violence, “has significantly curtailed the mobility of U.N. staff in Mogadishu and hampers delivery of critical U.N. programs in support of the federal government,” according to a confidential report by the joint U.N. and African Union mission. The report was circulated to U.N. Security Council members along with Ban’s letter this week.

The joint U.N.-AU report paints a grim picture of the security situation in Somalia. The military gains of the past two years, it states, are now “at a serious risk of being reversed.” Al-Shabab’s army “is estimated in the thousands and is increasing through forced recruitment.” If it is not stopped, the report warns,” al-Shabab is likely to expand its targets beyond Somalia.”

The report, which was partially endorsed by Ban, cites “the need to immediately resume the military campaign against Al Shabab” in order to counter the group’s increasingly sophisticated use of asymmetric warfare tactics, and to curtail its ability to infiltrate urban centers like Mogadishu and Kismayo at will. It proposes that African forces shift from a largely defensive strategy to “an offensive posture necessary for the clearing and holding of additional key rural areas and strategic economic avenues.”

“The idea behind the recommendation of the joint mission is to defeat Al Shaba in their major rural hideouts and making it as costly as possible for them to exist and easier for the SNA [Somali National Army] to dislodge elements that melt into the population, forcing an eventual total defeat,” the report states. “AMISOM is structured as a conventional fighting force deployed over four sectors in south central Somalia. The forces are holding ground already cleared from Al Shabab, but are unable to expand their operations as they are overstretched, lack force enablers such as combat engineering, signal, logistics and port security capabilities, as well as the critical force multiplier, particularly military helicopters.”

Previous efforts by the African Union to introduce attack helicopters into combat have gone horribly wrong. Last year, the U.N. Security Council authorized the use of attack helicopters, setting the stage for the deployment of four Ugandan military aircraft in Somalia in support of offensive military operations. But three of the helicopters — Russian-made MI-24s — crashed into the foggy base of Mount Kenya while en route to Somalia from Uganda.

In his letter to the council, Ban asked for countries outside the region to supply military helicopters to the effort, saying it was “not realistic” to mount a successful offensive against al-Shabab without them

MISSION TO STOP CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN SYRIA

Sigrid Kaag to lead Syria chemical weapons mission
by Edith M. Lederer

The Associated Press
18 October 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Dutch Mideast expert Sigrid Kaag on Wednesday to lead the team charged with destroying Syria's chemical weapons and announced stepped up efforts to hold a peace conference on Syria in mid-November.

The U.N. chief appeared with Kaag shortly after U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky announced her appointment and the official establishment of the joint mission of the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that she will lead.

Its goal is to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, all chemical precursors, and the equipment to produce the deadly weapons by mid-2014.

'We have no illusions on the challenges ahead,' the secretary-general said. 'The situation in Syria remains dangerous and unpredictable. The cooperation of all parties in Syria is required.'

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Wednesday that inspectors have so far visited 11 of more than 20 sites linked to Syria's chemical weapons program. The team destroyed 'critical equipment' at six sites as well as unloaded chemical weapons munitions, said the OPCW.

Nesirky said the joint mission was officially created on Wednesday and trust funds have been set up at both the U.N. and OPCW to help finance it.

Kaag, a fluent Arabic speaker who has been the assistant administrator of the U.N. Development Program, said she was honored and humbled to be chosen for 'this very complex and challenging assignment.' She said she would travel to The Hague, Netherlands, where the OPCW is based, on Friday evening for consultations and guidance from its director-general, Ahmet Uzumcu.

Ban praised the U.N. Security Council, which last month ended 2 1/2 years of paralysis on Syria by unanimously approving a resolution ordering the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, for quickly approving the appointment of Kaag.

'She will be responsible for overseeing all activities on the ground undertaken by the OPCW and the United Nations personnel' from Cyprus, where the joint mission will have its staging area and support base, Ban said.

Kaag will also coordinate international assistance that will be needed to complete the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons, he said.

At the same time, Ban stressed that 'the United Nations has not lost sight for one moment of the wider tragedy that is still destroying Syria' and is 'equally focused on reaching a political solution that will stop the appalling the violence and suffering being inflicted on the Syrian people.'

The secretary-general said the U.N., the U.S. and Russia are 'intensifying efforts' to hold a new conference in Geneva in mid-November to try to agree on a transitional government in Syria based on a plan adopted in that city in June 2012.

The United States, which supports the Syrian opposition, and Russia, which supports President Bashar Assad's government, have been trying to convene a new Geneva conference with the United Nations and assistance from the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

Ban said he met briefly last week with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the conference of southeast Asian nations in Brunei. He said Brahimi met Kerry in London and will be traveling to the region in the coming days for consultations with key parties. His deputy, Nasser Al Kidwa, will be traveling to Turkey for talks with the opposition, Ban said.

'We are calling on all who truly wish to work for peace and a new, democratic Syria to focus not on military actions but rather on ensuring the success of this conference,' the secretary-general said.

Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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REFUGEES in MALI

Mali recovery hampered by poverty and food insecuShare5

• 
  theguardian.com, Friday 18 October 2013 02.00 EDT
  Afua Hirsch in Gao

A Malian women carries a child at a camp for displaced people. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

Food programmes aim to help tackle issues caused by flight and displacement, which have left many families without income

At the referral health centre in Gao, northern Mali, Halifatou Alousseini shares a recipe. The 20-year-old mother of three looks almost twice her age, a white headscarf framing a face that is weathered from life in the desert. She explains carefully how to make a nutritious porridge for children from local products, using beans, rice and millet.

The problem is, Alousseini says, she can't afford to buy the ingredients. "I know this would improve my children's nutrition, but I don't have the means to buy this kind of food for my family," she explains in Tamashek, the language of her Tuareg ethnic group. "Usually I feed my children rice. With no vegetables and no meat. It's all I can afford."

Alousseini – whose two youngest children are malnourished and receiving sachets of Plumpy'nut at the centre from the World Food Programme (WFP) and Action Contre la Faim (ACF) – has a personal story that embodies much of the history of Mali's conflict. Driven from Gao long before the war by poverty and food shortages, she and her family moved to Benghazi in Libya, where her husband found work.

After the Gaddafi regime collapsed, Alousseini returned to Gao, but has since lost touch with her husband, for whose safety she fears, and has barely any income.

"My husband is away in Libya to find work, but since last March I have lost contact with him," Alousseini explains. "When the rebels took control of Gao, I was all alone with my children. I was scared, so we fled to Niger. We came back three months ago. I'm happy to be back, but things are not the same. There is no cohesion anymore. It doesn't even compare."

The interlinked fortunes of the countries in the sparely populated Sahara region have played a complex role in the causes of Mali's conflict and also the coping strategies people such as Alousseini have employed to survive.

The return to northern Mali of some armed groups from Libya was one of the sparks that ignited conflict in 2012. But now, ostracised by the community for their role in the events that led to a brutal jihadist takeover of towns such as Gao, many have fled, leaving households without breadwinners and the marketplace without crucial traders.

Insecurity has meant there are no up-to-date figures on the malnutrition rate in the region. But the latest available figures point to 15% in Gao, and in Burem – a district of the Gao region – as high as 17%.

A recent report by Oxfam (pdf) found that breakdowns in community relations and the exit of lighter-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs has severely affected trade. "A considerable number of [people questioned in northern Mali] bemoaned the departure of key economic actors (Arab traders in particular), which caused serious shortages of imported products and price rises," the report said.    

Flight and displacement have disrupted farming, livestock activities and trade, and the collapse of state institutions – only now beginning to reform in towns such as Gao – form a complex set of pressures on already vulnerable people.

"An emergency food security assessment shows that three out of four households living in northern regions of the country are food insecure and heavily dependent on food assistance," said Alexandre Brecher, an WFP spokesperson in Mali. "People in the north are spending between 85% and 90% of their income on food. Around 1.3 million people will continue to need food assistance throughout 2013 and into 2014."

At the Chateau Thionville school in a Gao suburb, 11-year-old Achwadange Wallet Ackhou, who wears a top made from African cloth printed with the French words for peace and security, fiddles with the frayed fibres of a prayer mat as she tells of her she struggles withhunger.

Although Achwadange's father, Achkou Ag Alhalias, 60, is the school guard, and her mother, Hadeja Wallet Snahalane, 53, is the school cook, the family are still short of money to buy food. Since the occupation of Gao ended, Alhalias has received none of his small salary of CFA15,000 per month (about $30).

 "I wish I could eat all my meals at school," said Achwadange. "I eat breakfast and dinner there, but in the evenings I go without."

Under a WFP programme, children such as Achwadange are now receiving porridge for breakfast, and rice, beans, oil and salt for lunch. The WFP is running school feeding programmes in 576 schools in northern Mali, including around 250 in Gao. 

Ouléymatou Maiga Touré, director of the Centre d'Animation Pédagogique (CA), which looks after the wellbeing of children in Gao, says a significant number of children live in homes where there is simply nothing to eat. "Many of these children have nothing at all to eat at home, and when they go home on Friday, they will not eat on Saturday or Sunday until they come back to school on Monday again," he said.

Headteacher Oumar Touré says the programme has had a dramatic impact on school attendance. "In just a few months, class sizes have doubled," he explains. "Children come punctually in the mornings because they know they will have porridge, and we have far fewer absences. School attendance has just exploded."

Edward Snowden: I brought no leaked NSA documents to Russia

US whistleblower says he handed over all digital material to journalists he worked with in Hong Kong

• Ed Pilkington in New York
•  Friday 18 October 2013 04.12 EDT

Edward Snowden says there is no chance of leaked NSA documents falling into the hands of Russian or Chinese officials. Photograph: AP

Edward Snowden, the source of US National Security Agency leaks, has revealed that he left all the leaked documents behind when he flew fromHong Kong to Moscow and there was no chance of them falling into the hands of Russian or Chinese authorities.

In an interview with the New York Times (NYT), Snowden said he had decided to hand over all the digital material to the journalists he had met in Hong Kong because it would not have been in the public interest for him to hold on to copies. "What would be the unique value of personally carrying another copy of materials onward?"

Snowden disputed speculation that he had run the risk of China andRussia gaining access to the top secret files. He said he was so familiar with Chinese spying operations, having himself targeted China when he was employed by the NSA, that he knew how to keep the trove secure from them. "There's a 0% chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents."

The 30-year-old said he had previously been reluctant to disclose that he no longer had the files for fear of exposing the journalists – Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian, and the independent filmmaker Laura Poitras – to greater scrutiny.

Snowden conducted the interview over the past few days, communicating from Russia, where he has been granted a year's asylum, with an NYT journalist in the US via encrypted email. He took the opportunity to try to quash several of the most widely aired criticisms of his actions.

Snowden insisted that he decided to become a whistleblower and flee America because he had no faith in the internal reporting mechanisms of the US government, which he believed would have destroyed him and buried his message for ever.

One of the main criticisms levelled at Snowden by the Obama administration has been that he should have taken up an official complaint within the NSA, rather than travelling to Hong Kong to share his concerns about the agency's data dragnet with the Guardian and other news organisations. But Snowden dismissed that option as implausible.

"The system does not work," he said, pointing to the paradox that "you have to report wrongdoing to those most responsible for it". If he had tried to sound the alarm internally, he would have "been discredited and ruined" and the substance of his warnings "would have been buried for ever".

Snowden's comments go to the heart of the dichotomy within the Obama administration's policy towards whistleblowers. It has introduced new protections for whistleblowers uncovering corruption and inefficiency, including a presidential order that extends the safeguards to the intelligence services. But contract workers, such as Snowden, are not protected by the executive order, and the government has pursued official leakers with an aggression rarely seen before.

Eight leakers, including Snowden, have been prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act – more than twice the number under all previous presidents combined.

Snowden singled out one of those eight, Thomas Drake, a former senior NSA executive who turned whistleblower after he became alarmed about the agency's choice of tools for intelligence gathering. Drake, who was prosecuted but had all the charges dropped, was in Moscow last week to honour Snowden with an award.

The author of the NYT article, James Risen, is himself at odds with the Obama administration. Risen uncovered the original warrantless wiretapping of phone calls by the Bush administration, for which he won a Pulitzer prize. He is under intense pressure to divulge the name of one of his sources at the criminal leak trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent who is another of the Espionage Act eight. Risen is refusing to reveal his source, and is likely to appeal right up to the US supreme court.

Snowden said it was a report on the wiretapping programme Risen uncovered that first piqued his curiosity.

He said he was shocked when he came across a copy of a classified report from 2009 dealing with the NSA's warrantless wiretapping under Bush. "If the highest officials in government can break the law without fearing punishment or even any repercussions at all, secret powers become tremendously dangerous."

He said his main objection to the NSA dragnet of data was that it was being conducted in secret. "The secret continuance of these programmes represents a far greater danger than their disclosure. It represents a dangerous normalisation of 'governing in the dark', where decisions with enormous public impact occur without any public input."

Snowden would not discuss the conditions of his life in Moscow. His father, Lon Snowden, returned to the US this week from a visit to see him and reported that "he's comfortable, he's happy, and he's absolutely committed to what he has done".

WAR in MALI........!!!!!!!!!!!

Mali's fight with militants is far from over

The rebel groups that were driven out of northern Mali by French-led troops in January are once again on the rise.....

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• • Afua Hirsch in Gao
  • theguardian.com, Thursday 17 October 2013 09.52 EDT

A Malian soldier walking in Gao, which was hit by a rocket attack last week. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Sitting in front of her house on a quiet street in Gao, Bintou Yatarra, 28, pokes a feathered bird in a pot of hot water. Beside it, two small fowl have been skinned, their wings and feet neatly tied together with string. Yatarra, heavily pregnant with a white T-shirt stretched over her belly and red cloth wrapped at her waist, is preparing for Tabaski – the local name for Eid al-adha.

But Yatarra says she is not in the mood for celebrating. Only a metre away from where she is sitting, a crater – now piling up with litter – marks the spot where a rocket landed last week. One person was injured and Yatarra was taken to hospital suffering from shock. The walls of her house are now scarred with jagged gashes; inside there is a hole in the ceiling.

Gao spent almost a year under jihadist rule during Mali's recent civil war, when first Tuareg rebels then Islamic militants took over parts of the north. A French-led African and Malian military intervention in January liberated the region, but a spate of recent attacks has shown that the conflict is far from over.

"We are still scared," says Yatarra. "We sit outside because we are too are afraid to sit indoors, and when we do, we don't even want to close the door in case it makes it harder to get out."

Gao's latest rocket attack, believed to have been launched from 10 miles outside the town, came as clashes have continued in the far northern region of Kidal – a stronghold of Tuareg rebels from the Mouvement National pour la Libération de l'Azawad (MNLA). Last month, Timbuktu was also hit by the latest in a series of suicide bomb blasts.

The UN envoy to Mali said on Wednesday that the recent terror had highlighted the ongoing volatility in the region. Albert Koenders told the UN security council that the renewed violence was a wake-up call to the international community, and called for more troops and equipment to support the UN peacekeeping force, known as Minusma. "We are faced with severe challenges," he said.

At a hotel in central Gao which has been turned into a makeshift command centre by the army, Major Colonel Abdoulaye Coulibaly – in charge of northern operations – says the terrorist groups from across the African continent are far from defeated.

"There is still insecurity, and it will take time to root it out," says Coulibaly. "We have jihadists from Sudan, we have Boko Haram, we have Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, we have the Mujao [Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa] … all these groups are here, they have sleeper cells here and there.

"We need to find these cells and dismantle or destroy them. It's not only in Gao, its spread over the whole country. This is a whole endeavour that doesn't take only one year. It's a long-term task." The military's major concern now is the infiltration of urban areas by jihadist groups, collaborating with those integrated back into the civilian population in order to launch attacks.

"My greatest worry is to clean this band of jihadists from the desert, and those within the towns whom they control," says Coulibaly. If you take the example of the suicide bombings in Timbuktu, or the rockets that fell in Gao recently, this could not have happened without the complicity of those inside and around Gao."

"The welder who manufactured the platform for launching the rockets from the desert, or the truck driver who delivered it, these people are inside the towns, they are among us. And somebody is their brother, or son, or mother – we need those people to work with us."

Fears about both security in the desert and the infiltration of towns is also affecting humanitarian work. Aid agencies struggle to reach communities in a region which was already one of the world's poorest, and who are now under pressure from internal displacement and shortages of food.

"Insecurity in still critical in some areas, especially the areas bordering Kidal and Menaka," says a senior humanitarian source, who did not want to be named. "Even local organisations cannot get access there.

"We are receiving information about the infiltration of jihadists in Gao – we believe that people who are recognised as active members of the Islamist groups are coming back, and planning attacks."

The need to root out jihadist conspirators from within civilian populations sits uneasily with the need for reconciliation, espoused by Mali's newly elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, who is expected to reopen negotiations with some rebel groups in the coming weeks.

Under the terms of a peace agreement signed in neighbouring Burkina Faso – so far only partially upheld – the deadline for talks expires in November. Earlier this month 23 MNLA prisoners were freed in an effort to foster reconciliation.

But frustration at the perceived ease with which people who joined the rebel groups are able to come back into the town has sparked protests in Gao, where earlier this week large areas were deserted and markets closed as residents marched to demand more action.

"We don't want the MNLA members who were arrested by the government forces to be released," says Moussa Boureima Yoro, one of the protesters. "And we demand to be represented at all levels of the negotiations with the rebels."

MNLA rebels – whose goal is ostensibly the creation of a secular state of Azawad in the Sahara – and al-Qaida-linked jihadists, who seek to impose sharia law, joined forces during the occupation, and many believe that the lines between the various factions are either blurred or non-existent.

A report by Oxfam (pdf) earlier this month found that community relations in northern Mali remain severely affected by the conflict, characterised by "restricted interactions and … feelings of fear and mistrust".

"We have known about wahhabists [followers of an ultra-conservative form of Islam] in Bamako and Gao for 25 years – they have created schools … and during the occupation they recruited disciples," says Sadou Harouna Diallo, mayor of Gao.

"These disciples are still here. They live among us. And everyday our lives are in danger. I have cousins who have worked for the Mujao. And they still work for the Mujao until now. And if they lay their hands on me in the village they will kill me."

At one end of Gao's Independence Square, a group of tall, lean youths are dribbling basketballs in the relative cool of the desert dusk. All wear shorts and vests, emblazoned with logos.

They are playing metres away from the site where, only a year ago, Islamist extremists who controlled this part of northern Mali carried out amputations and lashings for what they said were breaches of sharia law.

"What they did right here was unbelievable, it was terrifying," says Konesse, 11, standing in line to shoot hoops, wearing a matching dark blue and lime green vest and knee-length shorts, with the words "Real Madrid" running down her leg. "During the occupation, boys could still play sport, but we girls couldn't."

Konesse speaks of one girl, 15, who was arrested, drugged and raped by the Islamists when she went to the market alone, and has since fled to Bamako where she remains too scared to return to her hometown.

Since the militants fled in January, girls such as Konesse have been able to return to the freedom to which they are accustomed. But Konesse says she cannot support forgiveness or negotiation with any of those who turned her life, and the lives of her family and neighbours, upside down.

"They ruined our town, they raped our sisters, destroyed our houses, and beat our mothers," says Konesse. "We will never let them come back.

SYRIA PEACE...

Syria crisis: date set for Geneva peace talks, says deputy PM

Qadri Jamil tells reporters conference, which has been planned since May, will take place between 23 and 24 NovemberEmail

• Reuters in Moscow
• theguardian.com, Thursday 17 October 2013 06.07 EDT

Qadri Jamil told a press conference in Moscow international peace talks aimed at ending the Syria conflict would take place in November. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

Syria's deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, said a long-delayed international conference aimed at bringing the government and opposition together to seek an end to the civil war is scheduled for 23 – 24 November.

Jamil named the dates when asked at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday whether plans for the Geneva II conference, which Russia and the US have been trying to organise since May, had been pushed back from mid November.

Asked to confirm the dates, he told Reuters: "Yes, this is what [UN secretary general] Ban Ki-moon is saying, not me."

The deal reached last month for Syria to scrap its chemical weapons arsenal rekindled efforts to convene the conference, but the UN peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has said it was not certain that peace talks would take place in mid November.

Jamil has made several visits to Russia during the conflict, which has left more than 120,000 people dead since it began with pro-democracy protests in March 2011.

He said the conference was needed because "everyone is at a dead end – a military and political dead end".

He added: "Geneva is a way out for everyone: the Americans, Russia, the Syrian regime and the opposition. Whoever realises this first will benefit.

"Whoever does not realise it will find himself overboard, outside the political process.