Politics

Suspected Boko Haram militants launched four attacks over 24 hours on villages in Niger, Chad and Cameroon, killing at least seven people, security and administrative sources said on Wednesday. The Islamist militants are mostly based in northeastern Nigeria but have become a major threat to wider regional security by carrying out attacks in the lawless Lake Chad zone where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet. In the most deadly of three attacks since Tuesday, militants killed two soldiers and three civilians in Niger's southern border town of Abadam overnight, the sources said. About 150 km (90 miles) east in Chad, three militants were killed when they detonated suicide bombs after being found out by a group of local people as they sought to embark from an island to a lakeside market in Bol.

A fourth set off his bomb but survived. "They were intercepted by villagers who wanted to search them and they resisted," said a local official who asked not to be named. Three other militants managed to shed the explosives they were carrying and swim away, he added. A female suicide bomber blew herself up on Wednesday in the town of Nguetchewe in Cameroon's Far North Region, also killing a small girl accompanying her and a local resident. In northern Cameroon, several suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked three food trucks near the Chadian border on Wednesday, officials said. Cameroonian Special Forces (BIR) arrived shortly afterwards and there were no deaths or injuries. Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than 2 million people to flee their homes during its six-year insurgency in one of the world's poorest regions.

Regional governments including Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin have pledged to destroy the group using an 8,700-strong regional task force. The United States has also sent troops to supply intelligence and other assistance. But joint operations have yet to begin, leaving it up to national armies to tackle the group individually. In the absence of effective coordination, security sources have warned this often means that soldiers just drive the militants across each other's borders. Both Chad and Niger have declared a state of emergency for the regions of Lake Chad and Diffa respectively which have been hit by dozens of attacks this year. Aid agencies say they often struggle to provide food and other support to the vulnerable local populations because of the security challenges.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Dec.2015

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Nigerian army slew Shia children earlier in the month, opening fire on the unarmed youngsters with no provocation. The New York-based rights body said the instance of bloodshed was one among the several committed against the country’s Shia community in mid-December. The killing of the children was followed by another incident, in which Nigerian forces killed as many as 1,000 Shias in raids on three Shia centers in the northern Nigerian city of Zaria from December 12 to 14. The HRW also expressed disbelief at the army’s explanation for the three-day-long massacre.

The army says it carried out the raids after Shias set up roadblocks during a religious ceremony three days earlier, stopped the convoy of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai and attempted to assassinate him. The army’s version “just doesn’t stack up,” Daniel Bekele, the New York-based rights group’s Africa director, said on Wednesday, adding, “It is almost impossible to see how a roadblock… could justify the killings of hundreds of people.” “At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shia group,” he said.

The Shias have categorically denied the accusations of fully blocking roads and attempting to assassinate Buratai. On Sunday, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)’s spokesman, Ibrahim Usman, rejected the accusation that the Shias had brought about “complete occupation of a lane for four days.” “That was not the case. Blocks were only from junction to junction on the roads. The public was informed about these little inconveniences with apologies on public radio and television stations throughout the trek. Road users during the period would be surprised by” such claims, he said. “Clearly, this is a deliberate attempt to twist the facts,” Usman said, noting that during such ceremonies, “we block only [a] limited part of the road, and this is to protect persons from traffic accidents, control mass movement, and avoid chaos on the roads.”

The IMN said on Tuesday that people wounded in the attacks are dying in military and police detention because they are being denied medical care. A day after the ceremony, which saw Nigerian troops opening fire on the participants, forces raided the house of the country’s Shia leader Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, who heads the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), arresting him after reportedly killing individuals attempting to protect him, including one of the movement’s senior leaders and its spokesman. Zakzaky suffered four bullet wounds during the attack, which also saw the detention of scores of others.

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24.Dec.2015

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Cameroonian troops are said to have killed at least 70 Nigerian villagers as they were chasing Boko Haram Takfiri militants into communities in northeastern Nigeria. Villagers said the Cameroonian troops invaded their community in the Gwoza area of the northeastern state of Borno on Sunday, December 20. They said troops entered Kirawa-Jimni Village and opened unprovoked fire on the villagers after asking for the location of the militants they were chasing.

“We didn’t know what was going on but the Cameroonian troops suddenly appeared and began to ask us for Boko Haram terrorists,” Mohammed Abba, the commander of a local group in Jimnana set up to fight Boko Haram, said late Tuesday. “Before we could say a word, they started firing. That scared most of us and we began to run,” he said, adding that when the villagers returned on Monday, they found 70 bodies.

Late last month, Cameroonian troops engaged in a similar chase in Cameroon, during which they killed 150 villagers. Cameroon’s government, however, denied the charges, saying the military is trained to respect human rights. It claimed that the troops carried out a coordinated operation on several border villages last month and freed 900 people held hostage by Boko Haram militants. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million displaced since the beginning of the Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria in 2009.

The militants have recently pledged allegiance to Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri terrorist group, which now controls parts of Syria and Iraq. Cameroon is part of a regional task force set up to fight Boko Haram terrorists, who sometimes infiltrate Nigeria’s neighbors, including Cameroon, to carry out terrorist attacks there.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Dec.2015

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Cameroonian troops are said to have killed at least 70 Nigerian villagers as they were chasing Boko Haram Takfiri militants into communities in northeastern Nigeria. Villagers said the Cameroonian troops invaded their community in the Gwoza area of the northeastern state of Borno on Sunday, December 20. They said troops entered Kirawa-Jimni Village and opened unprovoked fire on the villagers after asking for the location of the militants they were chasing.

“We didn’t know what was going on but the Cameroonian troops suddenly appeared and began to ask us for Boko Haram terrorists,” Mohammed Abba, the commander of a local group in Jimnana set up to fight Boko Haram, said late Tuesday. “Before we could say a word, they started firing. That scared most of us and we began to run,” he said, adding that when the villagers returned on Monday, they found 70 bodies.

Late last month, Cameroonian troops engaged in a similar chase in Cameroon, during which they killed 150 villagers. Cameroon’s government, however, denied the charges, saying the military is trained to respect human rights. It claimed that the troops carried out a coordinated operation on several border villages last month and freed 900 people held hostage by Boko Haram militants. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million displaced since the beginning of the Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria in 2009.

The militants have recently pledged allegiance to Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri terrorist group, which now controls parts of Syria and Iraq. Cameroon is part of a regional task force set up to fight Boko Haram terrorists, who sometimes infiltrate Nigeria’s neighbors, including Cameroon, to carry out terrorist attacks there.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Dec.2015

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The Security Council has added two more people to a United Nations blacklist for attempting to undermine the transitional government of the Central African Republic and inciting violence against Muslims in the conflict-torn nation. According to an announcement dated Dec. 17, the council's Central African Republic (CAR) sanctions committee added Haroun Gaye and Eugene Barret Ngaikosset and they are now subject to an international travel ban and assets freeze. The former French colony descended into chaos in March 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian nation, triggering reprisals by "anti-balaka" Christian militias who drove tens of thousands of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition.

The sanctions committee said on its website that Gaye, leader of an armed group in Bangui's PK5 district, was listed due to his links to acts "involving sexual violence, targeting of civilians, ethnic- or religious-based attacks, attacks on schools and hospitals, and abduction and forced displacement." It said he has repeatedly supported anti-balaka elements to foment chaos in PK5, where thousands of Muslims are surrounded by Christian militias, and that he was involved in an attempted coup backed by supporters of former President Francois Bozize aimed at toppling the transitional government. The committee said Gaye met in October with Ngaikosset, a "member of a marginalized anti-balaka group" and the other individual blacklisted last week, to plan an attack on Bangui. In May 2014, the committee imposed its first targeted sanctions by blacklisting former Bozize and two other men.

In August, the council blacklisted the Belgian branch of CAR's diamond trading company and three more people linked to the conflict. There are now seven people and one entity blacklisted over the war. Thousands have died and around one in five Central Africans has fled violence. Fighting that began as clashes between rival militias has degenerated into a conflict between Christians and Muslims. The country is rich in diamonds, uranium, gold, oil and other assets which are coveted by the rival factions as well as by foreign interests. Separately, the council's Panel of Experts that monitors compliance with the CAR sanctions said in its latest report that prospects for peace "remain remote." It said diamond-buying houses have not taken action to reduce the risk of financing ex-Seleka elements while anti-balaka groups still engage in "taxation and racketeering", are present at several diamond mining sites and have obtained mining licenses.

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Dec.2015

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Rwanda's president Paul Kagame thanked the nation on Monday for voting in a referendum last week that overwhelmingly backed constitutional changes to let him extend his rule beyond 2017, but he did not say if he would seek re-election. Friday's referendum, in which 98 percent of those casting ballots voted "yes", drew criticism from Western powers who worry about the growing list of African leaders who have been seeking to extend their time in office. Kagame has been president since 2000 but he has effectively been in control since his rebel force marched into Kigali to end the 1994 genocide. The change would allow him stay until 2034, if he chooses. In Burundi and the Congo Republic, the issue of extending presidential terms has sparked unrest. Rwanda has been calm. Rights groups acknowledge Kagame has broad support for rebuilding the nation, but accuse the authorities of stifling the media and opposition voices, charges the government denies.

The United States, which has long praised Kagame for transforming the nation since the 1994 genocide, said the president could best serve his nation by stepping down in 2017. "When the time comes to transfer responsibility from one public servant to another, Rwandans already have confidence that it will be done in an orderly and harmonious manner," Kagame said in a state of the nation address. "No individual is forever, but there is no term limit on values, institutions, or progress," he said to an audience of Rwandan officials and others who applauded and cheered. Foreign diplomats also attended. He thanked those who took part in the vote whether they voted "yes" or "no". "We stand up for these propositions without hesitation and undaunted by reproach. The results are undeniable and the historical context is unforgettable at least to us Rwandans," he said. Kagame, 58, had said any decision on re-election would happen after the vote, without giving a specific timeliness.

The European Union criticized the speed at which the vote was held, saying it did not give enough time for the public to consider the arguments. The referendum took place about a month after Senate gave its final approval to the draft changes. There is only one real opposition party in Rwanda. The Democratic Green Party, which is tiny and has no seats in parliament, had its bid to block the constitutional amendments rejected in the courts. The constitutional changes will allow him to run for another seven-year term in 2017, followed by two five-year terms afterwards.

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21.Dec.2015

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