17, December 2018
Nigeria: Farmer-herder clashes left over 3,600 people dead in 2 years 0
Amnesty International says clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herders in Nigeria have left more than 3,600 people dead since 2016. The UK-based rights group, in a report on Monday,documented an upsurge in communal violence involving chiefly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers fighting over land and water rights.
“The Nigerian authorities’ failure to investigate communal clashes and bring perpetrators to justice has fuelled a bloody escalation in the conflict between farmers and herders across the country, resulting in at least 3,641 deaths in the past three years and the displacement of thousands more,” Amnesty said.
The report said 310 attacks had been recorded between January 2016 and October 2018, most of them in 2018. “These attacks were well planned and coordinated, with the use of weapons like machine guns and AK-47 rifles,” said Osai Ojigho, Amnesty’s Nigeria director.
“Yet, little has been done by the authorities in terms of prevention, arrests and prosecutions, even when information about the suspected perpetrators was available,” she said.
An international rights group urges the International Criminal Court to launch a full-blown probe into the atrocities committed during the Boko Haram terror group’s campaign of violence in Nigeria.
Experts say climate change and expanding agriculture have aggravated the herder-farmer conflict over land and water. The International Crisis Group said in July that the farmer-herder conflict killed six times more people than the war with the Boko Haram terror group in the first half of 2018,
Ojigho further said, “In some places, because of the failures of the security forces, competition over resources is used as a pretext to kill and maim along ethnic or religious lines.”
“The conflict has also been dangerously politicized by some state government officials who have inflamed tensions by embarking on a blame game along political party lines,” she said.
The latest report could affect the results of the upcoming elections, in which President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking a new term. Buhari has been under fire for adopting a soft position on the herders, who come – like the president — from the Fulani ethnic group.
The administration of Buhari, who came to power on a pledge to eradicate militancy and corruption, has also been under scrutiny for failing to end the Boko Haram terror group’s campaign of violence in Nigeria’s restive northeast.
Abuja announced in 2015 that Boko Haram – which is affiliated to the Takfiri Daesh terror group, had been “largely defeated” in the northeast, but a multitude of Boko Haram attacks indicate the group’s active presence in that region.
In the latest instance of violence, Boko Haram terrorists on Sunday stormed a village near the city of Maiduguri, Borno State, firing indiscriminately and setting fire to homes there overnight. It was not clear if there were any casualties in the attack, which forced hundreds of people to flee.
A military source said troops and fighter jets were deployed to the scene and pushed out the militants after a “fierce battle.” Boko Haram has in recent months launched numerous attacks in a bid to capture Maiduguri, the birthplace of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf.
Over the past few years, at least27,000 have been killed and more than two million people displaced from theirhomes by Boko Haram.
Source: Presstv
17, December 2018
Biya regime steps up attacks in Southern Cameroons as support for IG rises 0
Scores of Ambazonians have been arrested in a stepped-up Biya regime crackdown in the northern zone and Southern zone of Southern Cameroons amid fears that support for the exiled Ambazonian Interim Government is rising. Francophone civil administrators with the support of pro Yaoundé militia groups are in control of Bamenda, Bali, Wum, Batibo and Ndop but these localities have witnessed the worst clashes between Cameroon government forces and Ambazonia Restoration Fighters over the week.
Recently, Batibo experienced Cameroon government military raids of extraordinary proportions. Our chief intelligence officer in Widikum who contributed to this report revealed that the onslaught on Batibo was done with intelligence gathered from a Southern Cameroons armed group headed by Cho Ayaba. The Francophone army fired and beat demonstrators after innocent civilians raised an Ambazonian flag.
Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the image of Cho Ayaba has been established in Batibo as the subcontractor of the French Cameroun occupation forces with his criminal gang working in the shadow of French Cameroun troops and disappearing whenever French Cameroun soldiers raid neighbourhoods in Batibo.
Cameroon government troops arrested 35 Southern Cameroonians today at the Hospital Round About in Bamenda, taking the total number of those detained in to more than 165, Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Bamenda Sama Ernest reported.
A dramatic video shows French Cameroun government troops blowing up houses in Belo, Kendem, Batibo and Weh recently. The Ambazonia Communications Secretary, Chris Anu has condemned the French Cameroun government atrocities and also sounded a note of caution to members of an obscure organization headed by Cho Ayaba committing crimes in Southern Cameroons.
By Rita Akana