Twenty-four Malian soldiers and 17 jihadists fighters were killed Monday in clashes in the east of the country, the army said, as security in the west African nation deteriorates further.

Mali and Niger forces were carrying out a joint operation when a patrol was attacked by “terrorists” near the northeastern town of Tabankort, the army said on social media.

According to the military the total toll was “24 dead, 29 injured and material damage” while 17 of the jihadists were killed and a hundred more suspects captured.

The prisoners are in the hands of Niger soldiers, the statement said.

In an earlier statement, which gave a lower death toll, the army said French and Niger forces took part in a counterattack.

The authorities have not named the assailants or identified which group they belonged to. From strongholds in Mali, groups with al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) group links have been able to fan out across the Sahel, destabilising parts of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Violence across the Sahel border regions

Northern Mali fell into the hands of jihadists in 2012 before the militants were forced out by a French-led military intervention.

Since then however, the border regions of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have become the theatre of repeated clashes with jihadist fighters.

Mali’s army has been struggling to contain the Islamist insurgency despite help from France, African neighbours and the UN. 

Monday’s action was another heavy loss for the army, which lost a hundred soldiers in two jihadist attacks in a month in the autumn.

The West African country is still reeling from an attack on an army post that killed 54 in early November – one of the deadliest strikes against its military in recent memory, which underscored the increasing reach and sophistication of armed jihadist groups active in the wider region.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Four people were kidnapped after thousands of displaced civilians fled their homes during an attack on a church compound in South Sudan last Thursday.

Homes of civilians were torched and property destroyed by unknown assailants in Rimenze, in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria region.

“Up to now people are still sleeping in the bush, because there is no security. Even they had come to the church and there is no security in the church. There is no information about the government tackling the security here’‘, said Reverend Father Peter Babetimo of the Rimenze Catholic Church.

Charles Jacob Mbaro is one of Rimenze’s internally displaced persons.

“They removed grass, set my tukul (hut) on fire. Then they entered my neighbour’s tukul, looted their bicycle, motorbike and some money about 30,000 South Sudanese pounds (300 US dollars) then they left”, Mbaro said.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) dispatched a joint assessment mission to the area. The team arrived on Thursday.

“We really have not been able to attribute it to anyone but still civilians should enjoy their security and we will take this and advocate with the state authorities – to have at least a police post in Rimenze, so that we are able to detect some of the incidents that affect the civilians in this area”, said Human rights officer, Antonina Okuta.

Rimenze has been used as a battlefield in the fight between the government and armed rebel groups since 2016.

The formation of South Sudan’s unity government, which was extended for 100 days on November 12, has left civilians frustrated. They are unsure of whether it is safe to return to the camp for displaced persons.

AP

Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta rejected any gay agenda to be tabled in a global population conference to be held in Nairobi next week.

Kenya will host the population conference “but will not accept practices that are at conflict with our cultures,” President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

Kenyatta reiterated Kenya’s stand to protect cultural norms by not allowing any practices that will be seen devaluing traditions of various local communities.

It is understood that the President was referring to the push by reproductive health activists for legal abortion and homosexual rights during the conference.

“We will welcome the visitors Nairobi. We will be there and we will listen. But will be firm in rejecting what we do not agree with,” he said.

“We have a stand,” he said, adding that “But on things that do not conform with our cultures and religion, we will firmly reject,” he told the gathering attended by UNFPA country director Ademola Olajide and western diplomats.

President Kenyatta has been quoted many times rejecting total inclusion of homosexuals in the constitution.

Kenya’s High Court on May 24, 2019 upheld laws criminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults.

Several Africa states have made it illegal to practise homosexuality though some have changed tune.

In January, Angola issued a revised penal code that no longer punished so-called “vices against nature.” Other African countries that have revoked anti-homosexuality laws through penal code reform in recent years include Seychelles, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Lesotho. Botswana’s High Court is scheduled to hear a case in June, on the constitutionality of laws that make same-sex intimacy a crime.

But 33 countries in Africa still have laws on the books that outlaw consensual same-sex relations. One of them, Chad, criminalized same-sex relations for the first time in 2017.

Source: Africa News

A Nigerian immigrant who travelled to the United States of America using a Cameroonian passport has called on President Donald Trump to ‘build the wall’ on the United States-Mexico border in order to keep illegal immigrants from entering the USA.

According to President Trump, Ben Okereke immigrated to the United States when he was 14 years old after facing ‘hardships” in Cameroon.  Okereke who later joined the U.S. Army said that he was opposed to illegal immigration just like President Trump.

While delivering remarks at the Young Black Leadership Summit 2019 on Friday, Trump introduced Okereke who went on to say,

“First of all, Mr President, we would like to thank you for everything that you’ve done for the African American community so far. We thank you for criminal justice reform. We thank you for the lowest black unemployment rate in this country, sir. And finally, most importantly, sir, thank you for saving America and thank you. Finally, sir, thank you for taking down the fake news media, sir.  We want you to build the wall, sir. Frankly, because we don’t oppose immigration — but we oppose illegal immigration. So we want you to come to this country legally if you’re going to come to this country.”

However, Okereke’s remarks did not go down with some Africans, and in particular, Cameroonians after it was erroneously reported on social media that Okereke himself had entered the US illegally.

Okereke, an Igbo from Nigeria is being accused of adding his voice to Trump’s at the expense of other Africans because he is enjoying America but wants to deny other people the same chance that he got.

South African police on Wednesday arrested around 100 foreign nationals occupying an office building in Cape Town as part of a sit-in protest against xenophobia, later releasing many of them.

Hundreds of asylum-seekers have been camping at UN refugee agency (UNHCR) offices in South Africa’s capital Pretoria and the coastal city of Cape Town since October 8.

The foreign nationals were detained after clashes broke out when the protesters refused to be evicted from the Waldorf Arcade — a 12-storey office block in Cape Town’s central business district.

Large groups of the refugees were seen walking out of the police station by an AFP reporter on Wednesday evening. Police were not available for comment.

Singing and crying, they carried one of their fellow detained community leaders on their shoulders to the nearby Central Methodist mission.

The church, where many of those released will take shelter, called on the community to help.

Mainly from other African nations, the foreigners say they are fed up with being ill-treated and discriminated against.

They have asked the United Nations to relocate them to another country, claiming they no longer feel safe in South Africa after a surge of xenophobic attacks last month.

Protesters banged on pots and plastic bottles, chanting “xenophobia government” and “police xenophobia”.

– Eviction notice –

Wednesday’s Cape Town sit-in overflowed into the building housing the UN’s office, prompting the landlord to apply for their eviction.

In a statement, police said about 100 people had been arrested after “they failed to heed the call to disperse”.

Clashes broke out as police fired water guns and stun grenades to break up the crowds.

The UN called on the protesters to “respect the laws” and “return peacefully to their residences”.

South Africa is home to 268,000 refugees and asylum seekers, according to government statistics. They are mainly from Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and DR Congo.

The country boasts some of the world’s most progressive asylum policies, allowing foreigners to apply for refugee status within the country itself and to work during the process.

But the UN has voiced concern over the more than 50,000 pending asylum claims — the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.

Rights groups say the number of people granted refugee status has remained unchanged for the past decade.

As the continent’s most industrialised economy, South Africa is also a magnet for migrants seeking better job prospects.

Seen as competing with locals for work, foreigners are often the first to come under fire when South Africa’s chronic unemployment and inequality boils into resentment.

Xenophobic violence left at least 62 dead in 2008. Seven people were killed in 2015 and 12 died in the latest spate of attacks this year — most of them South African. The incidents occurred mainly in the Johannesburg area.

Source: AFP

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Zimbabwe’s capital, calling on the United States and European Union to lift the “evil” sanctions they have imposed on the country’s president and several other top officials for almost two decades.

The demonstrators rallied at Harare’s Robert Mugabe Square on Friday before proceeding towards the National Sports Stadium, where President Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered an address.

They were chanting slogans like, “Down with sanctions” while carrying placards reading “Sanctions must go now” and “Anti-sanctions solidarity march.”

The president’s supporters, in white t-shirts, were also carrying placards describing the sanctions as “evil” and “weapon of mass destruction to mankind.”

The US imposed financial and travel restrictions against 85 individuals, including Mnangagwa and late former President Robert Mugabe and other members of the ruling ZANU-PF party back in 2001.

The sanctions have expanded to include 56 companies or organizations ever since.

Washington also imposed a ban on weapons exports to the African country.

In March, the US administration added to its list some military officials involved in last year’s crackdown on protesters.

The European bloc also targeted specific individuals both within the government and associated with it.

Western sanctions are ‘cancer’: Mnangagwa

During his speech on Friday, Mnangagwa described the measures as “cancer,” eating at the country’s economy.

“We know very well that the sanctions are neither smart nor targeted,” he told a large crowd.

“Their impact on our daily lives is immeasurable and the consequences are dire,” the president added.

Zimbabweans are experiencing severe economic hardship, which is characterized by the highest inflation rate in the world.

According to figures released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), annual inflation in Zimbabwe was 300 percent in August.

Source: Presstv

Gunmen have gone on a deadly shooting spree at a mosque in northern Burkina Faso. Over a dozen people have been killed.

The Grand Mosque in Salmossi witnessed the death of at least 16 people on Saturday, AFP reported.

Thirteen of the victims died on the spot and three others succumbed to their wounds later. Two more people were in a critical condition.

The act of terror drove locals from their homes.

Since 2015, several hundred people have lost their lives in terrorist attacks that have turned increasingly violent especially in the north and the east of the African country. The extremists are linked to either al-Qaeda or the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

Terrorists mostly use guerrilla hit-and-run tactics with road mines and bomb attacks.

The terror groups have not spared the capital Ouagadougou. The city has been the scene of deadly attacks three times. In March 2018, one such assault on the military headquarters killed eight people.

Some 300,000 people have fled their homes and nearly 3,000 schools have closed. The impact of the terrorist attacks on an overwhelmingly rural economy is rising, disrupting trade and markets.

Roughly 55 to 60 percent of Burkina Faso’s population is Muslim, with almost a quarter Christian. The two communities generally live in peace.

Source: Presstv

The remains of former Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe will be transported on Monday to his village of Kutama, northwest of the capital Harare, to allow his family to pay him a final tribute, his family announced on Sunday.

The country’s former president died last week at the age of 95 in a luxurious Singapore hospital where he had been receiving treatment for years.

His successor Emmerson Mnangagwa and some African heads of state paid tributes to his memory on Saturday at a two-thirds empty Harare stadium at a state funeral. He is to be buried within a month at the “Field of Heroes”, a monument in the capital, once a mausoleum has been built in his honour.

Until then, his remains are to be transported on Monday to Kutama, his native village where he owned a property.
His coffin will be displayed for the people of the village. He will spend the night there,” a family spokesman, Leo Mugabe, said.

The local tribute was initially scheduled for Sunday but, as traditional leader Raphael Zvikaramba disclosed, the family “needed to rest”.

The details of Robert Mugabe’s funeral have been the subject of intense tensions between his family and Mnangagwa’s government, whose relations have been bad since the army coup that caused the former president’s fall in 2017.

Having led Zimbabwe for 37 years, Robert Mugabe left behind a country traumatized by repression and ruined by 20 years of economic crisis.

Source: Africa News