Germany's Muencher Abendzeitung reported that up to 15 people were killed in a shooting in a shopping mall in the southern city of Munich.

TV images showed dozens of emergency vehicles outside the mall.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an ax rampage claimed by Islamic State. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

22.Jul.2016

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Cameroon is preparing the deployment of up to 750 troops currently stationed at the 21st regiment called in its french acronym "génie militaire" in Douala in a bid to boost security in war-torn Central African Republic(CAR). The soldiers  will benefit from a revaluation of their premiums and will be subject to the signing a deployment  contract

The Cameroonian contingent be joining multi-dimensional UN Mission for Stabilization in Central African Republic (minusca) as part of a military cooperation agreement, according to a statement made by  the  Cameroonian Minister for Defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, during a visit to the soldiers at their Base in Douala-Cameroon on Thursday, 21 July 2016.

The soldiers will be subject to the signing of individual contracts, and they will benefit from a revaluation of their monthly premium of about 80%, moving up from 250,000 to 450,000 FCFA.

The revaluation comes as a gesture to boost the morals of the soldiers. In September of 2015, some 200 military returnees from Central Africa Republic  had staged a protest at the gates of the Ministry of Defence Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital, to demand the payment of  up to eight months of unpaid premiums for the period from February to September 2014.In panic, the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, had to arrange for the immediate payment,in anticipation of reimbursement from the African Union (AU),.

The Central African Republic is just beginning to emerge from a civil war that started in 2012 and quickly culminated in the ouster of then-President François Bozizé by predominately Muslim rebels from the north, known as the Séléka, before devolving into tit-for-tat massacres pitting Christians against Muslims. Although the country recently held its first presidential elections since the coup, in February 2016, and inaugurated a new president in April, fifty-nine-year-old Faustin-Archange Touadéra, it remains mired in factional violence and humanitarian crisis.

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Muluh Frank

21.Jul.2016

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The Nigerian army reports that it has rescued 80 people in an operation codenamed, ‘‘Operation Tiger Claw.’‘ The freed hostages included 38 women and 42 children.

The Army further reports that in an ensuing operation, 42 Boko Haram terrorists were killed while an unconfirmed number escaped with gunshot wounds in the combat that took place in north-eastern Borno State.

‘‘The women and children were taken to the military facility in Baga for checks. They were further assisted with food and clothing,’‘ the Army added.“Operation Tiger Claw” is part of the bigger anti-Boko Haram combat called “Laafiya Doole” which the army has launched on the insurgents who have been troubling the country’s north-east with the view of establishing an Islamic caliphate.

The army also confirmed a suspected Boko Haram terrorist attack in the early hours of Thursday July 21, on Bakin Dutse community in which the terrorists killed one person and injured 4 others.

Further havoc was averted by the arrival of troops. The troops have continued to patrol the general area with the hope of finding and apprehending the attackers. Soldiers also killed 3 out of 4 Boko Haram terrorists who ambushed them. ‘‘The lone survivor is currently being interrogated. It is heart-warming to state that he has been making very useful statements that are very revealing,’‘ the Army concluded.

Africannews

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Rita Akana

21.Jul.2016

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Pretoria - The National Prosecuting Authority will appeal Oscar Pistorius's six-year jail sentence, it was announced on Thursday. "The NPA has decided to file an application for leave to appeal," it said in a statement. It said the sentence was "shockingly too lenient". Pistorius was sentenced on July 6 for fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013. He was initially convicted of culpable homicide and received a five-year sentence, but the Supreme Court of Appeal last year ruled that the conviction should be murder and that he should be re-sentenced.

Judge Thokozila Masipa then sentenced him to six years in jail.

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Rita Akana

21.Jul.2016

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In Cameroon, 18  US Marines with Special Purpose Marine-Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa (SPMAGTF-CR-AF) shared tactics and skills with more than 80 soldiers part of the Forces Fusiliers Marins et Palmeurs de Combat Cameroonian Armed Forces between 6 June and 8 July.

The mission supported the preventing of illicit activity in the Central African region, ranging from human trafficking, drugs and weapon trafficking.

The Marines spent time with Cameroonian soldiers building their skills in weapon safety, fire team formations, patrolling tactics and techniques, and fire and movement drills on a live-fire range.

“We are covering ambushes, as well as tactical site exploitations and that transfers to the stopping of vehicles and personnel which is a problem at some of the locations borders,” said 1st Lt. Moises E. Navas, Theater Security Cooperation Team 1 Lead, with SPMAGTF-CR-AF. “This will give them the tools and tactics to be able to help prevent the illicit trafficking.”

"By sharing our tactics and procedures involving fire teams and patrols, we can help support FORFUMAPCO in the prevention of illicit activity in the surrounding area.

“This helps us increase more of our operational capacities,” said Capt. Kome Devine Kome, the commander of the Cameroon Marines. “We benefit from this by utilizing other proven techniques.”

The US Marines with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment taught classes to the Cameroonian soldiers. They went into practical application where our Cameroonian soldiers  learned hands on training.

“They see what we do and they can adapt and incorporate it into their doctrine,” said Navas. “We see what they do and how they operate in this kind of environment. The past decade we have been fighting in a different type of terrain and these gentlemen have been fighting in heavy, thick jungle.”

Defenceweb

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Rita Akana

21.Jul.2016

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Islamist militants killed 17 Malian soldiers and wounded 35 when they attacked an army base in the center of the country, firing on troop positions, burning buildings and pillaging shops, the government said.

The attack is the biggest for months on the army in Mali, a country that faces a growing threat from Islamist groups based in the desert north.

"We lost 17 men and unfortunately 35 were also wounded and these have all been transported for medical care in the region of Segou," Defence Minister Tièman Hubert Coulibaly said on state television.

"We will make sure that this coordinated terrorist attack ... is met with an appropriate response," he said, adding that the army controls the town and is hunting the militants.

Army spokesman Souleymane Maiga told Reuters the raiders briefly took control of the base in Nampala, which is set in semi-desert scrubland close to the Mauritanian border. He said Malian troops retreated to nearby Diabaly to regroup.

 

Reuters

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Rita Akana

20.Jul.2016

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