Politics

The Nigerian army has made fresh gains in its fight against Takfiri Boko Haram terrorists, overrunning 10 militant camps in the country’s northeast. Defense spokesman Chris Olukolade said in a statement on Sunday that security forces destroyed the Boko Haram camps in the terrorist group’s Sambisa Forest stronghold in the state of Borno. Olukolade added that a number of terrorists were killed in the offensive and that a landmine explosion killed one soldier and injured two others.

The defense spokesman said the military operation continues in both Sambisa and other areas. “The operation to clear the terrorists in Sambisa and other forests is continuing as troops in all fronts have been alerted to be on the lookout for fleeing terrorists,” said Olukolade, adding, “The Nigeria Air Force is maintaining an active air surveillance to track the movement of terrorists for appropriate action as the operation continues.” The gains came a day after an attack killed seven people and injured scores of others at a crowded bus station in neighboring Yobe State.

The military operation is part of an offensive by the Nigerian army to remove the Takfiri terrorists in the northeast of the country. A regional military coalition of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon has claimed a series of major victories against Boko Haram since launching sweeping offensives against the militant group in February. Some 15,000 people have been killed and about 1.5 million displaced as a result of Boko Haram violence since 2009. Boko Haram recently pledged allegiance to the ISIL terrorist group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and Syria.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.May.2015

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Local residents and army officials say at least nine people have been killed after Boko Haram Takfiri militants launched an attack in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno.  Civilian vigilante official, Yusuf Sani, said on Thursday that six vigilantes and three soldiers were killed after hundreds of Boko Haram extremists tried to attack the Giwa Barracks in the city of Maiduguri, located approximately 870 kilometers (540 miles) north of the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday evening.

Nigerian government forces, however, thwarted their assault following a fierce exchange of fire with the Takfiris.  "The terrorists suffered serious casualties," Sani said without giving an exact number, adding that 12 vigilantes also sustained injuries by the shrapnels of detonated bombs.  "They came in through the Kayamla area at around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), when residents were preparing for evening prayers, firing in all directions and hurling bombs," local resident Ibrahim Sidi said.  "Soldiers from the Giwa barracks deployed and intercepted them just on the outskirts of the city and engaged them in a fight that lasted for over 40 minutes," he added.  An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that army soldiers "killed many" of the militants.

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.May.2015

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 Hundreds of Boko Haram extremists tried to attack the biggest army base in northeast Nigeria overnight but met fierce resistance from soldiers who fired artillery throughout the night. Booming cannon and whooshing rockets woke up people living around Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, the northeast's biggest city. The ground shook as people prostrated themselves for evening prayers. Hundreds fled, though some were returning home on Thursday morning. Many villagers were killed by shells that hit the outlying village of Kayamla, where the soldiers engaged hundreds of militants, according to Muhammad Gava, a hunter who is secretary of the self-defense Vigilante Group of Nigeria. "Many of them (Boko Haram) were killed outside the trenches while some fled back," said another civilian fighter, Ibrahim Musa. "We were with the soldiers during the attack and I was shocked to see that Boko Haram could be in such large numbers," Musa told The Associated Press.

Panicking people took flight, some women hefting babies on their backs while other children clung to their skirts. An elderly woman trying to run had an asthma attack. The army imposed a 24-hour curfew amid fears some insurgents have slipped through trenches and sand walls constructed to prevent a motorized assault after a Feb. 1 offensive in which the Islamic extremists attacked Maiduguri from four fronts. The curfew is "to protect lives and property of innocent and law-abiding people of Maiduguri," said a statement from Col. Tukur Gusau, spokesman for the army's 7th Division that is leading the fight against Boko Haram. A multinational force and Nigerian troops backed by bombing fighter jets and helicopter gunships drove the extremists from all towns in the northeast in a 14-week-long offensive. Nigerian officials have said they have the militants hemmed into their stronghold in the vast Sambisa Forest, which is about 125 miles southeast of Maiduguri.

An offensive on forest camps has freed some 700 girls and women held captive by the extremists. But it appears to be bogged down by militants' land mines and booby traps. Maiduguri has suffered several attacks, including a March 14, 2014 assault in which Boko Haram invaded Giwa Barracks and freed hundreds of detainees. More than 600 people were killed that day, mostly unarmed detainees gunned down by Nigerian troops, according to Amnesty International. Maiduguri used to be a city where people didn't lock the doors to their homes. Its population of 2 million has been swelled by more than 300,000 refugees.More than 1.5 million people in Nigeria have been driven from their homes, some across borders, during the nearly 5-year-old Islamic insurgency. Last year was the bloodiest, with some 10,000 people killed, according to the U.S. Council on

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.May.2015

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Chad's President Idriss Deby said on Monday in Nigeria's capital Abuja the fight against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents was being hindered by failure of the two countries' troops to work together. He said there were plans to form a rapid response force for the African Union from troops of the four countries around the Lake Chad basin - Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Nigeria's outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, Deby said he was disappointed a joint agreement with Nigeria was not working. Chad has repeatedly complained about the lack of co-operation between the two armies since they launched offensives against the Islamist militant group earlier this year.

Deby also met president-elect Muhammadu Buhari, who beat Jonathan in the March 28 polls. "‎It is regrettable the two armies, that is the Nigerian army and the Chadian Army, are working separately in the field. If they were operating jointly, they would have achieved more results," Deby said. Having defeated al Qaeda in Mali two years ago, Chad's military believes it could finish off Boko Haram alone. It has notched up victories that have pushed the Nigerian militants back from the Cameroonian border. The insurgents seized control of a swathe of north-east Nigeria last year, killing thousands in an unprecedented land grab while increasing incursions on neighbouring countries. 

Nigeria has managed to roll back most of the group's gains since the start of the year with the help of offensives launched by Chad and Niger into Nigerian territory while Cameroon has repeatedly repelled attacks on its border towns. Deby said he did not know where Boko Haram's elusive leader Abubakar Shekau was hiding. Earlier this year, Deby threatened the militant chief by saying he knew where he was hiding.

"I cannot tell you today that I know where Shekau is hiding ‎and even if I knew I wouldn't tell you," he said. A statement from Buhari's press team said Deby and Buhari discussed Boko Haram's cross border activities and the impact on trade due to the destruction of key infrastructure, such as bridges, and how to work jointly to defeat the militants once the new administration comes into power. "We know how Chad, Niger and Cameroon have been helping Nigeria to secure our border, we will sit and make sure we have a comprehensive review of the security situation in the north-east," Buhari said.

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Ngwa Bertrand

13.May.2015

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An Open Letter to the Editor, Cameroon Concord

Dear Mr. Editor,

Why I Still Believe In The Sinful Church

Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai (AMDG).

Recently I met a Cameroonian Catholic who expressed great worry and doubt about the Church. He referenced an editorial he had read from your paper, and asked me: is God still at work in the Church? I read that editorial myself, but did not give it much thought, because there was much on my plate at the time. However, looking at the number of unprecedented hits that editorial has had, and the feeling of doubt about the Church that it has generated and will likely continue to do so, I seek to offer a response that I hope will be helpful in shaping our understanding of the failures of the members of the Church.  

Firstly, some preliminary considerations. The hierarchy of the Church has the obligation to listen to the lay faithful. Catholicism is not a clerical club. The laity has the right and obligation to call the attention of the hierarchy to face the music, though it is advisable to do so respectfully. The crisis of priestly pedophilia in the Church has shown the damage that can plague the Church when you have a passive or an indifferent laity. As Newman once said, the Church will be a very awkward place without the laity! Thus, the question is certainly not that of priests opposed to lay voices. I think Vatican II has moved the Church pass a crippling clerical obscurantism of ecclesia life.

That said, it is helpful to recall that to say that the Church is sinful is to say what all Catholics say at the start of each mass, “I have sinned, through my fault, through my fault, through my most gracious fault.” It was Benedict XVI that said at the height of the sexual abuse scandal, “I am heading a sinful Church.” The reality is that the Church has been sinful from the time of the Acts of the Apostles to present. It will continue to be till the time when the Angel of the Apocalypse announces the completion of time, the end of history, when Jesus Christ will hand over the Church, his purified bride to the Father, so that God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

At the root of human sin is the greatest gift of creation, human freedom. Sometimes we wonder why God allows sin to flourish. Why does God also allow good and virtue to flourish? St. Augustine argues that without freedom, the human being cannot be held accountable for his or her actions. You cannot blame or praise one who is not free. It is precisely because we are free that we need to be held accountable for our actions.

The ordained need to be held accountable, precisely because of the gift of human freedom and the charisma of leadership bestowed on them. It can be abuse. It has been abused. It will be abuse. What is important is to remind ourselves of a distinction traceable to Augustine of Hippo and made more explicit by John Henry Newman: the difference between the holiness of the Church and the mystery of sin in her members. The objective realities of the Church are holy: her sacraments, her rites and rituals, her gospel message. Also, the Church will never be completely lacking in terms of holy persons who cooperate with the message of the gospel. There will always be holy persons in the Church. Consequently, we cannot let the failures and sins of some in the Church to cloud our conviction of God’s presence in the Church. God is in the Church, sinful as she might be. Precisely because the Church is sinful, the power and presence of God is all the more operative, for where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more (Rom. 5:20).

Also, we must remind ourselves that the Church is always on the way, always moving toward her eschatological fulfillment with Christ. The Church as it stands at this point in history is not the perfect one, the one that has already arrived. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, the Church is a piece of land to be cultivated  (Lumen Gentium, 6). Every farmer knows that the process of cultivation could be uncertain and difficult, but such difficulties do not deter us from farming. If anything, the challenges of farming should motivate us to intensify our efforts because we are aware of the good that comes with the harvest season. So it ought to be with our attitude toward the Church. We are patient with her, working hard at our own call to holiness, trusting that each little step cultivates the farm of the Church, trusting in God’s power to bring home a good harvest.

It is advisable to keep in mind that to love the Church is to be ready to suffer from her. Every lover of the Church must go through a time of Calvary, of rejection and pain, of even utter meaninglessness. How can we say we love if we have no suffering to show? A lover who cannot suffer cannot love. Ratzinger said as much: the uniqueness of the Christian God is that he loves and suffers. A God who does not love and suffer is a god of mathematics. Such a God cannot save, for to save the human being entails love and suffering. A love that does not suffer is a hired love. To love and to suffer always accompany the reform of the Church, that beloved Mother, old, slow, sinful, and yet bearing in her the hope of humanity, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the One who gives life its decisive meaning. Yes, because of Christ and not in spite of Christ, I still believe in the sinful, miserable Church, because with all her sinfulness, Christ is her head and we are the body of Christ, and without Christ, I do not know how to understand myself. And without the Church I will not know Christ, and without Christ, I will be more selfish and wretched. I will not know how to understand myself. Hence, I continue to believe in the sinful Church because I can still find Christ in the sinfulness of the Church.

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.May.2015

Hits: 2869

An Open Letter to the Editor, Cameroon Concord

Dear Mr. Editor,

Why I Still Believe In The Sinful Church

Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai (AMDG).

Recently I met a Cameroonian Catholic who expressed great worry and doubt about the Church. He referenced an editorial he had read from your paper, and asked me: is God still at work in the Church? I read that editorial myself, but did not give it much thought, because there was much on my plate at the time. However, looking at the number of unprecedented hits that editorial has had, and the feeling of doubt about the Church that it has generated and will likely continue to do so, I seek to offer a response that I hope will be helpful in shaping our understanding of the failures of the members of the Church.  

Firstly, some preliminary considerations. The hierarchy of the Church has the obligation to listen to the lay faithful. Catholicism is not a clerical club. The laity has the right and obligation to call the attention of the hierarchy to face the music, though it is advisable to do so respectfully. The crisis of priestly pedophilia in the Church has shown the damage that can plague the Church when you have a passive or an indifferent laity. As Newman once said, the Church will be a very awkward place without the laity! Thus, the question is certainly not that of priests opposed to lay voices. I think Vatican II has moved the Church pass a crippling clerical obscurantism of ecclesia life.

That said, it is helpful to recall that to say that the Church is sinful is to say what all Catholics say at the start of each mass, “I have sinned, through my fault, through my fault, through my most gracious fault.” It was Benedict XVI that said at the height of the sexual abuse scandal, “I am heading a sinful Church.” The reality is that the Church has been sinful from the time of the Acts of the Apostles to present. It will continue to be till the time when the Angel of the Apocalypse announces the completion of time, the end of history, when Jesus Christ will hand over the Church, his purified bride to the Father, so that God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

At the root of human sin is the greatest gift of creation, human freedom. Sometimes we wonder why God allows sin to flourish. Why does God also allow good and virtue to flourish? St. Augustine argues that without freedom, the human being cannot be held accountable for his or her actions. You cannot blame or praise one who is not free. It is precisely because we are free that we need to be held accountable for our actions.

The ordained need to be held accountable, precisely because of the gift of human freedom and the charisma of leadership bestowed on them. It can be abuse. It has been abused. It will be abuse. What is important is to remind ourselves of a distinction traceable to Augustine of Hippo and made more explicit by John Henry Newman: the difference between the holiness of the Church and the mystery of sin in her members. The objective realities of the Church are holy: her sacraments, her rites and rituals, her gospel message. Also, the Church will never be completely lacking in terms of holy persons who cooperate with the message of the gospel. There will always be holy persons in the Church. Consequently, we cannot let the failures and sins of some in the Church to cloud our conviction of God’s presence in the Church. God is in the Church, sinful as she might be. Precisely because the Church is sinful, the power and presence of God is all the more operative, for where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more (Rom. 5:20).

Also, we must remind ourselves that the Church is always on the way, always moving toward her eschatological fulfillment with Christ. The Church as it stands at this point in history is not the perfect one, the one that has already arrived. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, the Church is a piece of land to be cultivated  (Lumen Gentium, 6). Every farmer knows that the process of cultivation could be uncertain and difficult, but such difficulties do not deter us from farming. If anything, the challenges of farming should motivate us to intensify our efforts because we are aware of the good that comes with the harvest season. So it ought to be with our attitude toward the Church. We are patient with her, working hard at our own call to holiness, trusting that each little step cultivates the farm of the Church, trusting in God’s power to bring home a good harvest.

It is advisable to keep in mind that to love the Church is to be ready to suffer from her. Every lover of the Church must go through a time of Calvary, of rejection and pain, of even utter meaninglessness. How can we say we love if we have no suffering to show? A lover who cannot suffer cannot love. Ratzinger said as much: the uniqueness of the Christian God is that he loves and suffers. A God who does not love and suffer is a god of mathematics. Such a God cannot save, for to save the human being entails love and suffering. A love that does not suffer is a hired love. To love and to suffer always accompany the reform of the Church, that beloved Mother, old, slow, sinful, and yet bearing in her the hope of humanity, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the One who gives life its decisive meaning. Yes, because of Christ and not in spite of Christ, I still believe in the sinful, miserable Church, because with all her sinfulness, Christ is her head and we are the body of Christ, and without Christ, I do not know how to understand myself. And without the Church I will not know Christ, and without Christ, I will be more selfish and wretched. I will not know how to understand myself. Hence, I continue to believe in the sinful Church because I can still find Christ in the sinfulness of the Church.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

11.May.2015

Hits: 2232