Africa

The State Department on Monday renewed its travel warning for Kenya as the government cracks down on Somali refugees in the wake of violence linked to Kenya's intervention in neighboring Somalia.

Kenyan troops crossed into Somalia in 2011 to route the al-Shabaab Islamic militia and last year formally joined the African Union Mission in Somalia. The moves have sparked a campaign of retaliation inside Kenya, with some 30 attacks over the past year killing at least 76 people – most notably when a bomb killed 10 people on a Nairobi bus. 

“The Kenyan government is currently conducting sweeps at checkpoints and in predominantly Somali-inhabited areas of Kenya searching for proof of status in Kenya and sending those who are refugees to camps,” the travel warning states. 

Your morning global affairs speed-read

The Obama administration has agreed to help France's intervention in Mali by providing “logistics help, satellite intelligence and in-flight refueling for French warplanes” that are rolling back the Islamist militants who have taken over the northern part of the country, according to French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. France has also reportedly asked for help from U.S. drones.

Pay up: Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta left today for a farewell tour of Europe, where he's expected to press America's allies for more contributions to defense spending. Panetta will visit Portugal, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.

New blood: President Obama receives the credentials of new foreign ambassadors at the White House this afternoon. 

The Obama administration affirmed Friday that it supports a French military intervention to repel efforts by militant Islamists in Mali to take over the southern part of the country.

“We are monitoring the situation closely,” White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor said. “We have noted that the government of Mali has asked for support, and we share the French goal of denying terrorists a safe haven in the region.”

The French intervened with air strikes and reportedly with ground forces on Friday at the urging of Malian President Dioncounda Traore. The United Nations Security Council in December approved the creation of an African-led force to take back the northern half of the country, but Friday's intervention was precipitated after Islamists took over the central town of Konna, near the strategically crucial city  of Mopti.

In a letter to congressional leaders on Saturday, Obama cited the “deteriorating security situation” in the Central African Republic.

The administration is urging tribal leaders to end the escalating ethnic clashes.

Actor and activist Ben Affleck briefly butted heads with Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D.Calif.) on Wednesday, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the future of U.S. military assistance operations in eastern Congo. 

The U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on two leaders of the Congolese rebel group M23 on Tuesday, following the United Nations Security Council's lead.

The sanctions target two senior leaders of a group that has been accused of recruiting child soldiers and engaging in mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The new sanctions freeze the assets of Baudoin Ngaruye and Innocent Kaina that are within U.S. jurisdiction. They also prohibit U.S. residents from conducting transactions with Ngaruye or Kaina.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle took turns Tuesday criticizing Rwanda's involvement in the crisis in eastern Congo, raising the pressure on the Obama administration to cut millions of dollars in foreign aid to one of America's closest African allies.

The bipartisan concerns come as Rwanda has come under increasing international criticism for allegedly supporting the rebel group M23 engaged in violence in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. European and other nations have slashed their aid because of the allegations, but the Obama administration has been reluctant to follow suit.

“In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, successive U.S. administrations have turned a blind eye to reports of Rwandan plundering of resources from the DRC and support for rebels who have devastated eastern Congo and its people,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs panel on Africa, said in his opening statement. “It seems that guilt over the Clinton Administration’s failure responding effectively to the genocide in Rwanda has led subsequent U.S. administrations to be reluctant to criticize the Government of Rwanda.”

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Congress takes a rare look at one of the most brutal conflicts in the world today when the House Foreign Affairs panel on Africa holds a hearing Tuesday afternoon on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The hearing, titled “The Devastating Crisis in Eastern Congo,” is expected to generate sparks when the State Department's top Africa hand, Johnnie Carson, testifies alongside some of the sharpest critics of the administration's policy in the region.

Prior to the hearing, 15 human-rights groups sent President Obama a letter urging him to appoint a presidential envoy to the region and cut all military aid to U.S. ally Rwanda, which is accused of fueling an insurgency in its giant neighbor.

Clinton to skip Syria meeting: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won't participate in Wednesday's international conference on Syria because of a stomach virus, the State Department announced late Monday.

US in Iraq: Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Thomas Nides is in Baghdad today for meetings with U.S. and Iraqi officials on efforts to streamline the U.S. presence in Iraq.

President Obama should immediately cut all military aid to Rwanda and appoint a presidential envoy to respond to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 15 human-rights organizations urged in a letter to the president Monday.

“As the situation once again dramatically deteriorates in eastern Congo, the U.S. response to the crisis has patently failed and is out of step with other Western nations,” the letter states. “The United States must take immediate steps to address meaningfully one of the greatest ongoing humanitarian crises of our generation.”

The letter comes ahead of Tuesday's hearing on the situation by the House Foreign Affairs panel on Africa. John Prendergast of the Enough Project, one of the groups that signed the letter, is slated to testify.