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(Reuters) - Days after Islamists killed 148 people at Garissa university, Kenya's president held out an olive branch to Muslims and urged them to join Nairobi in the struggle against militant Islam by informing on sympathizers.

But as Uhuru Kenyatta launches a battle for Muslim hearts and minds, his security forces must first reckon with the deep mistrust among ethnic-Somali Muslims in the country's northeast regions bordering Somalia.

Kenyatta also faces an uphill task in reforming the violent ways of troops on the ground. A day before he spoke, a soldier in Garissa was seen by a Reuters reporter lashing at a crowd of Muslim women with a long stick.

"We live in fear," said Barey Bare, one of a dozen veiled Somali-Kenyan women targeted by the soldier.

"The military are a threat and al Shabaab are a threat. We are in between."

Without the cooperation of local people like Bare, experts say Kenya will struggle to glean vital on-the-ground intelligence to stop crude but highly lethal assaults by Somalia's al Shabaab militants.

Winning favor with Muslim communities near Somalia has been made more urgent by al Shabaab's switch in tactics to target Kenya's frontier regions near the porous 700km border. Al Shabaab has killed more than 400 people in two years, including 67 during an assault on Nairobi's Westgate mall in 2013.

"Kenyans can't afford to build a wall with Somalia so intelligence from local sources is the best approach. But people in villages won't inform if Kenyan soldiers steal or hit women," said one Western diplomat.

Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman David Obonyo denied the troops had a track record of brutality against Muslims, who make up about 10 percent of Kenya's 44 million people.

"I don’t see why we would harm our own citizens in Kenya. We are there to protect them," he said.

Analysts and diplomats say Kenya's top brass are now aware heavy-handed security tactics can cripple intelligence gathering.

Mass security sweeps also breed radicalization and help al Shabaab portray itself as the protector of Muslims in Kenya, Muslim groups say.

"In the upper echelons, especially in the intelligence department, there are constant warnings to police that these mass arrests are counter productive," said Rashid Abdi, a Horn of Africa security analyst.

Though the group has lost swathes of territory and key sources of income in its native Somalia, it can still strike at soft targets in Kenya by using a handful of fighters with AK-47 rifles and grenades. Local knowledge also helps.

One of the four fighters who stormed the Garissa college was an ethnic-Somali whose father was a Kenyan government official, intensifying fears about home-grown jihadis. Five other Kenyans have been arrested since.

"Radicalization has grown and become a national problem rather than a regional problem," said Ali Roba, the governor of Mandera, a region also targeted by militants

SCHOOL HOSPITALS

Urging Muslims to do more to root out jihadi sympathizers within their community, Kenyatta said the attacks by the Somali militants threaten economic progress in their heartlands.

"I urge all my brothers and sisters in the affected regions, and across the country, to not allow those who hide and abet the terrorists to compromise and even destroy the development that is fast growing in your area," said Kenyatta, who replaced his intelligence and police chief following attacks.

Joseph Nkaissery, appointed interior minister in December, has impressed diplomats with his desire to use more modern methods to counter radicalization.

But to get Muslims on board, especially the 2.4 million ethnic Somalis living in Kenya, the authorities will have to address their deep suspicion of the security services. Many say they carry extra "shake down" cash for bribes.

"Their interest is just money. You can't go to the government to complain, nothing will happen," said Saddam Hassan, 23, who had to pay a 20,000 shillings ($216) bribe to be freed after four days in custody last April.

Diplomats say coming months could be key to see if the new leadership whole-heartedly embraces a new strategy or reverts to bad old ways.

Kenya's shutdown of Somali money transfer firms, vital to Somali businesses and people who rely on remittances from family members abroad, has raised concern.

So has the closure of two coastal civil society groups that were mediating talks between the government and radicalized Muslim youths who had burnt down churches and attacked Christians in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa.

In Nairobi's Eastleigh district, popularly known as Little Mogadishu, a change in policy is welcomed. But jaded by what civil society groups say is years of harassment, most ethnic-Somalis are bracing for another crackdown.

"We are tense because of the expectation of what's to come," said Ibrahim Ali Maalim, a local Imam

 

 

 

 

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10.Apr.2015

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US Authorities have released more details in what they say was the apparent stabbing death of a  52-year-old Cameroonian woman whose fiance of Nigerian origin was found nearby splashed with blood Wednesday night at a home in Fort Bend County.

Osa Alohaneke, 56, faces a murder charge in the woman's death at about 7 p.m. in the 16300 block of Alametos Drive in the Mission Bend area, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies said they found the female victim, identified Thursday as Evelyne Ebane Epiepang, dead inside the house and  her sister injured. Alohaneke was standing nearby with blood on his clothes, according to a news release. He told investigators that Epiepang was his fiancee and they lived at the house.  Another man, a family friend, at the home was not hurt.

Epiepang's sister was taken to Memorial-Hermann Hospital-Katy. She had a puncture wound in her shoulder and a broken arm. Her condition was not released, but deputies said her injuries were non-life-threatening.

Deputies said they were first dispatched about 5 p.m. on a domestic violence emergency call from Epiepang. When deputies arrived at the house, Alohaneke had already left.

About two hours later, Alohaneke reportedly returned to the home and banged on the front door, but the two women were not home. A man in the house phoned the victim, and she and her sister returned. Deputies say the alleged fatal attack occurred after their return.

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10.Apr.2015

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A residential area south of Sheikh Zuweid town in North Sinai was hit by mortar fire on Wednesday, killing nine civilians, said the officials. They added that two more civilians were killed as a missile hit a house in a village in North Sinai.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that two soldiers died in the provincial capital el-Arish as an explosive device went off while their vehicle was driving by.  The Sinai Peninsula has long been considered a safe haven for gunmen who use the region as a base for their acts of terror.

Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s former president, in July 2013, gunmen have launched terrorist attacks in Sinai, killing members of Egypt’s security forces. On January 31, the group killed 30 people and injured dozens in a series of coordinated attacks in Sinai.

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09.Apr.2015

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(New York Times)The average high school graduate would be fortunate to get acceptance letters back from more than half of the elite universities they applied to—and getting into just one Ivy League school would be a joyous accomplishment worth celebrating. That’s exactly what makes Harold Ekeh’s acceptance into all eight Ivy League schools so remarkable.

Value education and value opportunity.

That’s the message 17-year-old Ekeh touted after he got accepted into more than a dozen universities.

Ekeh, like many other students, took the time to apply to a plethora of universities as his high school graduation lay just over the horizon.

Rather than dealing with the emotional rollercoaster of a few acceptance letters mixed in with some rejection letters, Ekeh opened all 13 of the letters from the universities he applied to and realized he had been accepted to all of them.

This list of 13 schools ready to welcome Ekeh to their campus includes all eight of the Ivy Leagues as well as other prestigious universities like Johns Hopkins and MIT.

Based on his academic achievements, it’s no surprise that all the schools wanted to make Ekeh a part of their student bodies.

The Nigerian-born teen who now resides in Long Island graduated high school with a GPA of 100.5 percent and boasts a 2270 SAT score out of a possible 2400.

He also has a demonstrated interest in STEM that makes him a promising candidate for any university.

Ekeh was one of the semifinalists for the national Intel Science Talent Search this year for his research on how the acid DHA can slow Alzheimer’s.

It’s a research project that was extremely personal for Ekeh whose own grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was 11.

Outside of his grandmother’s diagnosis, Ekeh says he had a good life in Nigeria but his parents knew there was more opportunity for him in America.

“We had a fairly comfortable life in Nigeria, but they told me we moved to America for the opportunities like the educational opportunities,” he said, as reported by CNN Money.

These are the opportunities Ekeh has always cherished as they fueled his sheer drive and determination in the classroom.

When it comes to explaining how his incredible accomplishment was possible, Ekeh credits his parents.

“My parents’ hard work and my hard work finally paid off,” he said, according to the NY Post.

He added that he was “humbled” by the experience and insisted the accomplishment was not just a personal feat.

“It’s not just for me, but for my school and community,” he said, according to CNN Money. “We can accomplish great things here.”

Despite the plethora of options available to him, Ekeh believes he already knows what school he wants to attend.

“I am leaning toward Yale,” he added. “I competed at Yale for Model UN, and I like the passion people at Yale had.”

He has also already formed friendships with students at Yale as well as established great connections with mentors at the university.

If he indeed follows through with his decision to go to Yale, he will be following in the footsteps of another Long Islander who was accepted into all of the Ivy League schools—Kwasi Enin.

Enin is another African native who came to the U.S. as a child from Ghana and chose to attend Yale after he too was accepted into all of the Ivy League schools.

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Apr.2015

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(Reuters) - French forces have freed a Dutch man held hostage in Mali since 2011 by al Qaeda's north African arm, the French defense ministry said.

It said Sjaak Rijke, who was kidnapped in Timbuktu in November 2011, was freed on Monday during a special operation and had been transferred "safe and sound" to a temporary base in Tessalit, north-east Mali.

French forces had also killed two militants and captured two others during fighting that took place during the early morning operation, said Lieutenant Colonel Michel Sabatier, a spokesman for Barkhane, the French counter-insurgency operation in the region.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said Rijke was in good condition considering the circumstances and receiving medical treatment under Dutch supervision.

"The liberation of Mr Rijke underscores France's staunch determination to fight armed terrorist groups in the Sahel region as part of the Barkhane operation," the French ministry said in a statement.

In November Rijke's captors, the al Qaeda-affiliated AQIM group, issued a video of him along with French national Serge Lazarevic.

Lazarevic, held captive in the Sahara for three years, was released the following month in exchange for four Islamist militants with ties to al Qaeda in north Africa.

France launched an intervention against al Qaeda-linked militants in its former colony Mali in January 2013.

It has since created Barkhane, a 3,000-strong counter-insurgency force to track down Islamist militants, including AQIM, across a band of the Sahara desert stretching across five countries from Chad in the east to Mauritania in the west.

Dutch troops have been deployed in Mali as part of security and peacekeeping missions under the aegis of the United Nations.

 

 

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06.Apr.2015

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(Reuters) - Surveying the charred ruins of the northern Nigerian town of Malam Fatori, which Chadian troops and his own soldiers from Niger liberated from Boko Haram last week, Colonel Toumba Mohamed paused to reflect on Nigeria's landmark election.

As the two nations' forces poured into the border town on Tuesday, driving out the Islamist fighters, Nigeria's election commission was announcing the victory of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari.

"We hope that finally the armies of Chad and Niger will be able to fight Boko Haram side by side with the Nigerian army," said Toumba, who expects to see changes when Buhari, a former general and Muslim from the north, is sworn in.

Boko Haram's six-year insurgency in northern Nigeria, and incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan's failure to decisively counter the threat, were a key issue in the Nigerian election.

Gains by the Islamist movement, which is seeking to carve a caliphate out of Nigeria's northeast, even forced a poll delay as a regional force launched an offensive to drive them back.

But it has been Chad's battle-hardened troops, and not Nigeria's, that have led in the offensive, expelling Boko Haram from the major towns in the north in just a matter of weeks.

Malam Fatori - seized by Boko Haram in November in fighting that sent hundreds of Nigerian troops stationed there fleeing into Niger - was one of the group's last border footholds.

The fall of the town marked the end of the first phase of regional action, General Seyni Garba, Niger's army chief of staff, told private Niger television station Ténéré.

"The second phase is to secure the whole of the conquered territory with mopping up operations everywhere that Boko Haram can be found. We need to be able to secure the whole of the Lake Chad basin," he said on Sunday.

Buhari has called Nigeria's reliance on neighboring armies a disgrace and has vowed to restore the territorial integrity of Africa's most populous nation. There is still work to be done.

 

Boko Haram set Malam Fatori on fire before withdrawing to the former Nigerian army camp outside of town to dig in and fight. In clashes on Wednesday, 170 militants were killed, while nine Chadian soldiers died and another 16 were wounded.

"Boko Haram no longer has a stronghold. But they are still a threat that must be cleaned up," General Seyni Garba, the head of Niger's army, said during a visit to Malam Fatori on Friday.

To date, problems of communication and coordination have stymied military cooperation between Nigeria and its neighbors.

But it has also struggled to overcome distrust between armies that have not always fought on the same side. Chad occupied parts of Nigeria's north in the 1980s. Chad army chief General Brahim Seid Mahamat said on Friday times have changed.

"We came here to help our brother country. When they come to take control of the towns we've liberated, we'll leave."

 

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06.Apr.2015

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