African press review 21 January 2015

War is as old as men. The saying has been validated by a team of scientists working in Kenya, it seems. Plus, in this morning's Africa press review, we also have the latest on last Friday's Al-Shebab attack.

DR

The Kenyan press as more information about the Al-Shebab attack of last Friday. The Standard spoke to soldiers who were at the army camp in Somalia when it was hit by the armed group last Friday.

The attack lasted for about 10 hours and started at the "crack of dawn" according to the paper. "The attack was carried ou in three waves, using heavy gunfire [...] and leaving dozens of soldiers dead and several others injured," it says.

The first attack, according to the newspaper, started from an adjacent Somalian army camp and saw fighters coming in on a vehicule and "blowing themselves up".

"A second vehicle, mounted with a machine-gun then made its way into the camp and later detonated inside it.

"The third wave of attack was mounted by an estimated 70-100 terrorists who gained entry into the camp in a lorry" writes The Standard.

According to the Kenya's Intelligence focrces, the attack was similar than those witnessed in Paris and Lybia. This could explain why the army said to the Daily Nation that Al-shebab might have received helped from Syrian fighters.

A new study shows that war is as old as men the British Guardian writes.

A team of researchers found what is believed to be the "earliest evidence of warfare between stone age hunter-gatherers" in Kenya.

The scientists from Cambridge University found remains of at least 27 members of a tribe, who all been brutally murdered and dumped into shallow water at the edge of a Kenyan lagoon in the north of the country. The tribe is believed to have died out 10 000 years ago.

"The remains, which include at least eight women and six children, show skulls smashed in, skeletons shot through or stabbed with stone arrows and blades, and in four cases, hands almost certainly bound" writes the paper.

The conclusion of the study, according to its lead author: violence is inherent to humanity. Robert Foley, another co-author, is a bit more optimistic.

"I’ve no doubt it is in our biology to be aggressive and lethal, just as it is to be deeply caring and loving. A lot of what we understand about human evolutionary biology suggests these are two sides of the same coin" he said.

The Egypt Independent wonders "who is affraid of January 25th". The country is getting ready to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the uprising that saw the fall of Housni Mubarak.

But don't expect any massive protests or public celebrations: Egypt is under "the toughest security crackdown ever" accordgin to the paper.

"The crackdown reveals an insecurity that has grown since general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power two years ago" it writes.

"With a promised economic revival having yet to materialize and the threat of Islamist militancy looming, he is at pains to stamp out open dissent told analaysts to the paper.

The paper explains it talked to activists who "declined to be named" - a sharp contrasts to the days of the Tahrir Square.

And analysts seems to think the government is walking a fine line. "Oppression is the fuel of protest and protest is the first step to violence," told one to the Egypt Independent.