More than 20 soldiers in Niger have been killed in an attack by gunmen on a camp for Malian refugees in the West African country. Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said the attack occurred in the western Tahoua region on Thursday. “We received information of an attack on the camp in Tassalit,” Rafini said. “For the moment we are told there are 22 dead, but that is not a total death toll.”

A local official said the attackers targeted a military post near the refugee camp, adding three soldiers were also wounded. The camp sheltered a group of Malians who fled to neighboring Niger after militants, some of them linked to al-Qaeda, seized a desert in northern Mali four years ago.

France, a former colonizer of the region, deployed military forces to Mali in 2013 to push the militants back, but violence continues in the Sahel region. Last year, a total number of 54,000 Malian refugees registered in Niger, while 3000 others were still waiting for registration, according to the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.

There was no information on whether any of the civilians at the camp had also been harmed in the Thursday attack. Niger’s small army is busy fighting Takfiri Boko Haram militants, who launch attacks across the country’s southern border from Nigeria. The army is also trying to prevent an overflow of attacks from Mali.

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US forces have been accused of killing 22 Somali troops in what is said to be a misdirected airstrike in the country’s northern regions. On Wednesday, Galmudug states’ Security Minister Osman Issa announced that his soldiers were killed in the airstrike, adding that the attack was launched on a request of from the rival neighboring region of Puntland on the pretext that the targets were al-Shabab militants. “Puntland misinformed the United States and thus our forces were bombed,” he said.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis claimed that US forces had engaged in a “self-defense airstrike” after Somali troops were attacked by militants during operations to halt a bomb manufacturing network. He added that nine al-Shabaab militants were killed in the attack, while noting that the Pentagon was considering the false information claims.

“We will look at the reports to see if they are credible and if they are credible we’ll investigate them,” he said. A Puntland police source told reporters that over a dozen militants were killed in the attack. Meanwhile, al-Shabaab denied the casualties on its side, saying that it had no members in the region at the time of the attack.

Somalia has been the scene of fighting between al-Shabab and government forces since 2006. In 2011, al-Shabab, striving to topple the government, was driven out of the capital Mogadishu and other major cities by government troops and AMISOM forces, which are largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Kenya.

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Despite the controversy surrounding his narrow victory in the presidential elections that held on the 27th of August 2016, Cameroon-info.net has reported that Ali Bongo Ondimba was not totally abandoned by his counterparts today in Libreville. Four African heads of state were in the Gabonese capital for the inaugural event. They were Mohamadou Issoufou of Niger, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, Manuel Pinto da Costa of Sao Tome and Principe, Faure Gnassingbe of Togo.

Morocco, Senegal, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic were each represented by their Prime Ministers. Several other countries also answered present through senior members of the Government and their diplomats. This was the case of Cameroon and its Minister of State Justice and Keeper of the Seal, Laurent Esso who made the trip.

European countries were not invited for the ceremony which finally held in a good atmosphere at the Palais du bord de mer.

By Rita Akana

The inauguration of the re-elected President of Gabon, Ali Bongo will be held on Tuesday in Libreville. Ali Bongo’s victory in the presidential election of August 27 has been confirmed by the Constitutional Court after a recount of polling station by polling station overseen by representatives of the African Union.
Bongo will be invested for second seven-year term as head of Gabon at a ceremony whose details have still not been made public.
The losing candidate Jean Ping, who has not accepted defeat nor responded positively to Ali Bongo calls for dialogue and peace, received on Monday afternoon at his Libreville residence, diplomats accredited in Gabon. They were bearers of peace and dialogue messages from the victorious camp. The international community had already advised Jean Ping and his camp to use constitutional remedies to challenge the defeat rather than calling for violence.

By Chi Prudence Asong

South Sudan’s exiled rebel leader has called for war against the government, ending an internationally-backed peace deal. Former vice president Riek Machar said on Sunday that he will “wage a popular armed resistance against the authoritarian and fascist regime of President Salva Kiir in order to bring peace, freedom, democracy and the rule of law in the country.” 

Machar fled to Khartoum after clashes broke out between his supporters and Kiir’s in the South Sudanese capital Juba in July. He added that the international community should “declare the regime in Juba as a rogue government and a spoiler of peace that is threatening regional and international peace and security.”

The announcement is Machar’s first since the fighting broke out. At the time, he referred to the clashes as an “assassination attempt.”

South Sudan has witnessed a new wave of conflict since July 8, when gunfire erupted near the state house in Juba as Kiir and then vice president Machar were holding a meeting. More than 300 people were killed in the clashes. The country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. It has been going through turmoil ever since.

A bloody civil war in South Sudan began in December 2013, when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup against him. The two parties then got involved in a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the impoverished country along ethnic lines.

The two sides eventually signed an agreement in August last year to bring the conflict to an end. As part of the deal, Machar returned to Juba in April to take up the post of vice president in a national unity government. Despite the peace deal, battles persist across the African state.

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At least four Chadian soldiers and seven militants from the Nigeria-based Takfiri group Boko Haram have been killed in cross-border clashes in the volatile Lake Chad region. A security source said Sunday that the clashes erupted a day earlier after Boko Haram militants launched a raid from Nigeria on a Chadian military post near the border with Niger.

“Around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday night, Boko Haram members attacked the Djoroye border post near the Niger border in the Lake Chad region killing four of our soldiers,” said the sources, adding, “The Chadian army killed seven Boko Haram fighters”. There was no official confirmation from the Chadian military of the attack.

Chad is a member of a multinational task force combating Boko Haram across its border with Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. The force has been created with the aim of preventing a spillover of the militancy to those countries from Nigeria. Boko Haram militants launched a similar cross-border raid on members of the Niger army two weeks ago. Officials in Niger said five soldiers and 30 militants were killed in the clashes that ensued on September 14.

More than 20,000 people, mostly Nigerians, have been killed since Boko Haram began waging a militancy in northern Nigeria in 2009. The group has pledged allegiance to Daesh, a Takfiri terrorist group mainly operating in the Middle East.

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Morocco has made an official request to join the African Union (AU) again more than four decades after leaving the pan-African bloc in protest at Western Sahara’s membership.

In a statement released on Friday, the AU said that it had received Rabat’s bid to rejoin the 54-member body. “The Kingdom of Morocco has officially submitted a request to accede to the African Union Constitutive Act, and therefore, become a Member of the Union,” the statement read.

Morocco’s membership request must be approved by a vote of the AU Commission in order to be accepted. Meanwhile, AU Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said member states will be informed and the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI will be notified of the outcome.

Morocco withdrew from the AU in 1984, when the mineral-rich and sparsely populated Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) – commonly known as Western Sahara – was accepted as a member. Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975. Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom, but the international community has not recognized the annexation.

Western Sahara is home to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan presence in the territory.  In 1991, Moroccan forces and Sahrawi rebels agreed on a UN-brokered truce and a referendum to settle the status of Western Sahara. However, the vote has never taken place.

Rabat first announced its decision to return to the AU in July, with the king saying that his country wanted to “take up its natural place within its institutional family.” However, he stressed that rejoining of the body did not mean an change in Morocco’s stance on Western Sahara.

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Egyptian rescue workers have pulled out from the Mediterranean Sea the bodies of more than a hundred refugees whose boat recently capsized near the coast of Egypt.

A senior Egyptian official said on Friday that a total of 162 bodies had been pulled out from Egyptian waters. The vessel capsized on Wednesday.

Rescue and recovery operations were still underway, while the military said it had rescued 163 survivors, who are said to be mostly Egyptians, but also include a Syrian, as well as Sudanese, Eritreans, and an Ethiopian asylum seeker.

The survivors said about 450 refugees had been on board the overcrowded fishing boat that was heading toward Italy when it sank about 12 kilometers off the coast. In this regard, authorities have arrested four suspected human traffickers.

Since 2014, according to the United Nations, more than 10,000 asylum seekers have lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe in substandard vessels overloaded with desperate refugees.

The current year has been described by the United Nations as “the deadliest year on record in the Mediterranean Sea.”The perilous sea route across the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt to Italy, which often takes more than 10 days, is just one of several routes used by asylum seekers.

After Balkan countries closed the popular overland route in March and the European Union reached a deal with Turkey to halt departures, asylum seekers from conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa have turned to new paths to reach Europe.

Frontex, an EU agency for the management of operational cooperation at the external borders, said in June that crossing from Egypt to Italy was becoming increasingly popular.

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The President of the Republic His Excellency Paul BIYA granted audience to Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Thursday 22 September 2016. At the end of their discussions, the American Under-Secretary of State told the press that the audience with the Cameroonian Head of State was focused on the fight against the terrorist group Boko Haram, the handling of refugees and economic cooperation between the United States and Cameroon.

Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield lauded the total commitment of Cameroon in the fight against Boko Haram which has yielded serious blows to this terrorist group. She reiterated the support of the United States of America to all the countries fighting terrorism. The American Under-Secretary of State appreciated the harbouring of hundreds of thousands of refugees by Cameroon and all the measures the Government has taken to give them good living conditions. Cameroon currently hosts over 350 000 refugees of different nationalities, but mainly Nigerians and people from the Central African Republic.

Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield affirmed that Cameroon and the USA have very solid bilateral economic relations. She also indicated that the second US-Africa Business Forum which held on the 21 September 2016 in New York, with the participation of Cameroon, was an excellent occasion to examine the ways and means to increase commercial links between Cameroon and the United States.

The Diplomat and the Head of State also discussed the participation of Cameroon at the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly. It should be recalled that Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield was granted audience by the President of the Republic at the Unity Palace in Yaounde on 6 September 2014. President Paul BIYA had an audience with the Secretary-General of the United Nations BAN KI-MOON yesterday evening. The face-to-face meeting held on the side-lines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The warm and friendly audience took place at Mr BAN KI-MOON’s office in New York. Both personalities have recorded a cordial relationship. Mr BAN KI-MOON is a great friend to Cameroon. He established this friendship during his official visit to Cameroon on 9 to 10 June 2010. The UN Secretary General was accompanied by his wife, Mrs BAN SOON-TAEK. It is during this visit that Mr BAN KI-MOON told the press that President Paul Biya is a long-time friend and “a respected leader in the world.” In return, the Cameroonian Head of State affirmed that the relationship between Cameroon and the United Nations is “a long history of trust and friendship.” President Paul Biya and Mr. BAN KI-MOON equally met on 25 September 2010 during the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Both personalities probably made an overview of relations between Cameroon and the United Nations, and activities of the ongoing 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Mr BAN KI-MOON’s second and final term as head of the UN Secretariat ends in January 2017. Elected on 13 October 2006, he took office on 1 January 2007 and was re-elected on 21 June 2011. His mandates were marked by numerous initiatives and reforms to strengthen the organisation. These include: the promotion of sustainable development, women’s empowerment, assistance to countries in crisis or instability, a new impetus to disarmament, arms control, and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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