Headline News

Nigeria: People in northwest made desperate by ever-increasing kidnappings

26, August 2021

Nigeria: People in northwest made desperate by ever-increasing kidnappings 0

Desperate Nigerians are caught in the midst of a rash of abductions across the impoverished northwest of Nigeria, where thousands of bandits ask for hefty ransoms from families in return for their kidnapped children.

“We are in agony. Honestly, I don’t have anything left,” said Abubakar Adam on Tuesday, after selling his car and a parcel of land to raise a ransom to free his seven children, who were abducted along with hundreds of other students from a school in the northwestern Nigeria.

The 40-year-old tire repairman gave his three million naira (7,300 dollars) together with payments from other families in his town of Tegina to free their kidnapped children. The kidnappers took the money, seized one of the men delivering it, and demanded even more cash and six motorbikes.

Adam said they were still waiting for any sign of what happened to his children three months after the mass abduction.

Since December last year, around 1,000 students have been abducted by heavily-armed criminal gangs in different Nigerian states, with some of them having been released after negotiations with local officials and ransom payments.

President Muhammadu Buhari has advised states not to pay fees to kidnappers, saying it will only encourage more abductions. Security agencies say they are targeting the bandits through military operations.

“We are begging the government to help,” said Aminu Salisu, whose eight-year-old son was taken in the same daylight raid on Tegina’s school in May.

Salisu liquidated his own savings and sold everything in his store to raise the ransom. The owner of the school sold off half the land. Together, with the help of friends, relatives, and strangers, the people of Tegina raised 30 million naira, but that wasn’t enough for the bandits.

According to an estimate by Lagos-based analysts SBM Intelligence, Nigeria’s leading geopolitical intelligence platform, kidnappers collected more than 18 million dollars in ransom between June 2011 and March 2020.

In December last year, gunmen kidnapped 344 boys from the Government Science Secondary School in the northwestern state of Katsina during a night-time raid.

President Buhari, who promised to tackle insecurity at his inauguration in 2019, is under mounting pressure as kidnappings surge in the impoverished northwest of Nigeria.

The military is deployed to at least 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states to fight kidnappers. Security officials are concerned that they are being infiltrated by Takfiri terrorists. The northern and northeastern parts of the country have been wracked by years of violence involving Boko Haram and other affiliates of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

Source: Press TV

Ambazonia: Department of Foreign Affairs says Yaoundé attacks, aggressions endanger peace, security

26, August 2021

Ambazonia: Department of Foreign Affairs says Yaoundé attacks, aggressions endanger peace, security 0

The Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs has released a statement detailing a series of French Cameroun military raids in Southern Cameroons, saying such acts of aggression pose serious threats to peace and security in the two Cameroons.

During a meeting with the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima in South Africa, a senior member of the Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs, Prof Carlson Anyangwe said the Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the context of the UN decolonization agenda. Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. That injustice continues to cry out for redress.

Anyangwe called on the AU and the Commonwealth to fully undertake their tasks and report to the UN Security Council and other international bodies the repeated Biya French Cameroun military attacks and escalatory moves, which pose serious threats to peace and security in Southern Cameroons. The renowned Southern Cameroons academic added that the people of Ambazonia are fighting to vindicate their unquestionable and inalienable right of self-determination. They will continue to fight until self-determination is achieved.

Yerima, for his part, praised the Department of Foreign Affairs for its support for and cooperation with the Southern Cameroons war cabinet so that it can properly implement its mandate and get Ambazonians to Buea sooner than later.

By Isong Asu

Niger army repels Boko Haram attack, says 16 soldiers killed

26, August 2021

Niger army repels Boko Haram attack, says 16 soldiers killed 0

Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked a military post in southeastern Niger overnight, killing 16 soldiers and wounding nine more, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

About 50 of the Islamist militants were killed in the resulting combat in the West African country’s Diffa region and significant quantities of weapons were recovered, the ministry said in a statement.

The attack late targeted the town of Baroua, where thousands of residents had only just returned after taking refuge elsewhere following jihadist massacres in 2015.

The Boko Haram insurgency broke out in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, but violence frequently spills over into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin.

In December, an attack blamed on Boko Haram killed 28 people and burned 800 homes in the Diffa region.

More than 6,000 people had returned to Baroua in late June under a programme to encourage around 26,000 inhabitants in the region to leave safer villages or UN camps and go back to their homes.

The authorities said they had beefed up security to provide returnees with greater protection.

The world’s poorest country by the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), Niger is facing jihadist attacks on two borders, with Islamist militants also carrying out cross-border raids from neighbouring Mali.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

Tennis: Serena Williams withdraws from US Open through injury

25, August 2021

Tennis: Serena Williams withdraws from US Open through injury 0

Serena Williams has pulled out of next week’s US Open because of a hamstring injury, the 23-time Grand Slam winner announced on her Instagram page on Wednesday.

“After careful consideration and following the advice of my doctors and medical team, I have decided to withdraw from the US Open to allow my body to heal completely from a torn hamstring,” wrote the 39-year-old American.

Williams, who has not played since a tearful first round exit at Wimbledon when she hobbled off court during the first set against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, is a six-time winner in New York.

She won her first Major at the 1999 US Open as a teenager, the first step on her path to a domination of the women’s game.

Williams, whose ranking has now slipped to 22, last missed the US Open in 2017 because of the birth of her daughter.

She reached the final in 2018 and 2019, losing both which added to her frustration as she attempts to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

“New York is one of the most exciting cities in the world and one of my favorite places to play — I’ll miss seeing the fans but will be cheering everyone on from afar. Thank you for your continued support and love. I’ll see you soon,” she wrote on social media.

Williams is the latest big name to withdraw from the US Open following multiple winners Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as well as the 2020 men’s champion Dominic Thiem.

Source: AFP

Taliban shows off ‘special forces’ in propaganda blitz

25, August 2021

Taliban shows off ‘special forces’ in propaganda blitz 0

The Taliban has been showing off its own “special forces” on social media, soldiers in new uniforms equipped with looted American equipment who contrast sharply with the image of the usual Afghan insurgent.

Pictures and videos of fighters in the so-called “Badri 313” unit have been posted online for propaganda purposes to underline how the Taliban have better equipped and trained men at their disposal than in the past, experts say.

The soldiers are shown in uniforms, boots, balaclavas and body armour similar to those worn by special forces around the world — and unlike the shalwar kameez, turban and sandals of the traditional Taliban fighter.

Rather than a battered Russian-designed Kalashnikov rifle slung over their shoulder, the men of Badri 313 hold new US-made rifles such as the M4, sometimes with night-vision goggles and advanced gunsights.

Badri 313 “likely represents some of the best trained and equipped fighters within the Taliban more broadly, although as you would expect there is a degree of sensationalising in propaganda coverage of the unit by the group,” Matt Henman from the Janes defence consultancy told AFP.

A Western weapons expert who writes anonymously on Twitter under the pseudonym of Calibre Obscura said the unit would be no match for Western special forces, or those of India or Pakistan.

But “they are more effective than normal Taliban and certainly more than standard Afghan national army troops from a couple of weeks ago,” he told AFP.

– US weapons –

Named after the battle of Badr 1,400 years ago, when the Prophet Mohammed supposedly vanquished his enemies with only 313 soldiers, the Taliban unit could number up to several thousand men, experts say.

The amount of equipment at their disposal is unclear, but multiple pictures online show jubilant Taliban fighters posing with captured armoured Humvees, aircraft and weapons abandoned by the defeated US-equipped Afghan national army.

Experts say the most sophisticated equipment, especially the helicopters, will be difficult to operate and near-impossible to maintain.

“There is certainly a degree of propaganda, but we saw during the final offensive since May that the Taliban special forces have been critical in the taking over of Afghanistan,” said Bill Roggio, managing editor of the US-based Long War Journal.

“When they began to overrun the Afghan forces, they progressively integrated Western supplies. The US in effect armed the Taliban army,” he added.

In previous days, the unit has been in charge of security outside Kabul international airport, bringing them nearly face-to-face with American troops inside who are overseeing the airlift of thousands of civilians.

In a social media post, Badri 313 troops even mocked their US counterparts by recreating the famed picture of American soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945.

The Taliban figures in uniforms are seen raising their black-and-white flag.

– Haqqani role? –

Badri 313 is also seen as having benefited from training from the Haqqani network, Afghanistan’s most ruthless and feared militant group which has been responsible for multiple suicide attacks on civilian targets.

Mainly based in eastern Afghanistan — with alleged bases across the border in Pakistan’s northwest — the group has become more visible in the Taliban leadership in recent years.

They have also long been suspected of links with the Pakistani military establishment — US Admiral Mike Mullen described them as a “veritable arm” of Islamabad’s intelligence in 2011.

Pakistan denies the allegations.

“There is a strong likelihood of Pakistan having provided at least a vestige of training to the unit,” said Henman from Janes, who specialises in terrorism and insurgencies.

Gilles Dorronsoro, an expert on Afghanistan at the Sorbonne University in Paris, said the emergence of the new Taliban commandoes was part of a larger trend.

“We’ve seen a remarkable professionalisation of the Taliban since the middle of the 2000s,” he told AFP.

“The war they are fighting is not the same as the one their parents fought against the Soviets. They’ve learned from the ground and they are very good technically,” he added.

Source: AFP

Cash-for-marks scandal rocks Buea University, lecturers implicated!

25, August 2021

Cash-for-marks scandal rocks Buea University, lecturers implicated! 0

Cameroonian Universities under the Biya Francophone regime are rife with corruption and several instances of moral turpitude. The University of Buea (UB) is not immune from this vice; a recent press release linked to the revaluation of answer sheets attests.

Under the ruling CPDM crime syndicate, lecturers who took bribes and corrected the marks of dozens of students including those who had sex with under-aged female students have often escaped with a lenient punishment or go scot-free making the mark tampering scheme to flourish in the University of Buea.

Prof Ngomo Horrace Manga, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea is leading the investigation this time around pertaining to the final-semester examination involving money being transferred via MTN services to UB lecturers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the first step in the process is for the lecturers to humiliate the students who do not clear the exam. After that the lecturers comforts them and says he would be able to help. He eventually takes a bribe and changes the marks.

The Vice Chancellor’s communiqué made public evidence collected from several students when the irregularity was brought to light.

It is estimated that some one hundred students benefitted from the cash-for-marks scam scheme.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Mukake Stephen in Buea

Atanga Nji in Abuja: Cameroon, Nigeria to protect countries against terrorists, secessionists

24, August 2021

Atanga Nji in Abuja: Cameroon, Nigeria to protect countries against terrorists, secessionists 0

The Federal Government and the Republic of Cameroon have pledged to complement each other’s effort in securing the borders of both countries, particularly against terrorists and secessionists.

The Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, while declaring open the 8th Session of the Cameroon-Nigeria Trans-Border Security Committee Meeting in Abuja, said the committee has achieved a lot of appreciable strides since its establishment in 2012.

Dada disclosed that Nigeria will always welcome and support any initiative from the Republic of Cameroon that will strengthen the border relations and curtail security threats, especially from terrorists and secessionists.

Dada added that since the signing of the Cameroon-Nigeria Trans-border Security Agreement in February 2012 and the first session of the committee’s meeting in Yaounde in 2013, the committee has made efforts to collectively address the enduring challenges of terrorism and other forms of criminality along borders in order to promote peaceful coexistence.

Dada further said it was crucial to sustaining the level of cooperation between the two countries.

‘It is crucial that we sustain this level of cooperation in order to overcome our lingering border security concerns. It is for this reason that we are gathered here in Abuja, in line with the aforementioned agreement to ensure that our people in the border areas live in a peaceful and secured environment,’ Dada said.

Dada also stated that the Common Border Governance Strategy as agreed during the 4th Conference of African Ministers responsible for border management held in Addis Ababa in 2016, was critical in addressing challenges and opening doors of opportunities for trans-border economic cooperation.

‘It was unanimously agreed that Africa’s peace and security is directly intertwined with good border governance at the attainment of sustainable development in the border areas,’ Dada stated.

In his remarks, the Head of the Cameroonian delegation, Mr Atanga Nji Poul, described the committee as an important forum for both countries.

The Minister of Territorial Integrity of Cameroon disclosed that since the commencement of the Committee activities, Nigeria and Cameroon borders have recorded a lot of improvement in terms of security.

Atanga Nji maintained that due to the improvement in security, the activities of Boko Haram and other criminals have reduced drastically which led to the returning of many Nigerian refugees residing in Cameroon back home.

The Head of the Nigerian Delegation and National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno, said the 8th session’s main focus is the consolidation on gains of the previous ones.

Monguno added that multilateral platforms in the fight against terrorists must be sustained by both countries.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the two countries to resist any attempt to form alliances by secessionist groups to destabilise the region.

Source: Sunnewsonline

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Red Cross official dies following injuries he sustained in Bamenda attack

24, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Red Cross official dies following injuries he sustained in Bamenda attack 0

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday that one of its staff members has been killed in Southern Cameroons.

ICRC said in a statement that Nzobambona Diomede, a 62-year-old Canadian who was a delegate working in the fields of water and sanitation died on Monday, following injuries he sustained the day before during an attack in Bamenda, the chief town of the region.

Diomede was in Bamenda to provide humanitarian assistance to communities affected by a four-year-long separatist armed conflict, according to ICRC.

“Words are not enough to express our immense sadness nor to soothe the grief of his family and loved ones. We send them our sincere condolences and the expression of our deepest sympathy,” the statement quoted Markus Brudermann, head of the ICRC delegation in Cameroon as saying.

Circumstances of his death have not been clarified and no further information can be given at this stage, the statement said.

Since 2017, government forces have been clashing with separatist militant groups who want to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia” in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest.

Aid workers have been working to provide assistance to over 700,000 people who have been displaced internally by the conflict in the Central African nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

Two killed in Boko Haram attack in French Cameroun

24, August 2021

Two killed in Boko Haram attack in French Cameroun 0

At least two people were killed in an attack by suspected members of terror group Boko Haram overnight into Tuesday in Cameroon’s Far North region, local sources said.

Armed militants invaded Malika, a locality in the region, firing indiscriminately when the villagers were asleep, killing two civilians, wounding several others and stealing cattle in the process, local sources said.

The villagers have fled and were taking refuge in the bushes, according to local authorities.

Nighttime incursions by Boko Haram have become recurrent in the region, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhaunet

Southern Cameroons Bishops call for an end to the conflict: Our people are tired of living in uncertainty

24, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Bishops call for an end to the conflict: Our people are tired of living in uncertainty 0

“We deplore the violence, insecurity, kidnappings, torture and senseless killings, sometimes of innocent people and children”, emphasized the Bishops of the Bishops’ Conference of Bamenda Province (BAPEC) in a statement published on Sunday, August 22nd, in which they renew their appeal for the end to the long conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

The BAPEC members appeal to all armed groups to “end the violence with immediate effect and work towards a peaceful solution to the conflict”. “Our people have suffered enough and are tired of living in uncertainty and fear”, said the bishops, who praised the commitment of the priests who “stood by the people entrusted to them with pastoral care and have made and continue to make heroic sacrifices in this time of crisis”.

On August 20, a seven-year-old student at the St. Theresa Catholic Primary School in the Kumbo diocese of Cameroon was killed by a stray bullet in a gun battle between Cameroonian soldiers and separatists near the school.

On Sunday, August 22nd, a female parishioner was killed and a pastor was wounded during a service in the Presbyterian Church in northwest Bali.

A military patrol was ambushed by separatists. In the exchange of fire, stray bullets killed the women and wounded the pastor.

The conflict in the Anglophone regions in the southwest and northwest of Cameroon has been dragging on for more than four years and has intensified since the separatists symbolically declared the independence of the two areas that have been grouped into one in Ambazonia on October 1, 2017.

The separatists chose the date of October 1st to commemorate the independence of the English-speaking area from the United Kingdom in 1961. The French-speaking part had gained independence from France in 1960. The creation of a single bilingual state was then decided in a referendum. However, residents of the English-speaking regions complain that they are discriminated against in legislation and in education compared to French speakers.

The conflict has already claimed more than 3,500 lives and forced more than 700,000 people to flee their homes.

Source: Agenzia Fides

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