25, October 2020
Nigeria: Looting sweeps as authorities struggle with unrest 0
Nigerian authorities struggled to halt looting across the country on Sunday as crowds defied curfew orders to ransack government warehouses in the latest in a wave of unrest sweeping Africa’s most populous nation.
The country’s police chief on Saturday ordered the immediate mobilisation of all “operational assets” as he sought to curb turmoil sparked by widespread protests.
Governors have slapped round-the-clock curfews on a string of states as residents have pillaged stocks that were meant for distribution during coronavirus lockdowns.
Locals raided agricultural supplied in the central city of Jos on Sunday a day after thousands had emptied a vast government warehouse.
Fresh looting of food supplies was also reported in Taraba and Adamawa states.
Peaceful demonstrations against police brutality erupted in Nigeria on October 8 and quickly snowballed into one of the biggest challenges to the ruling elite in decades.
Chaos spiralled after security forces on Tuesday opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in the centre of Lagos, unleashing days of rioting across Africa’s biggest city.
Official buildings were torched, supermarkets looted and vehicles destroyed as officials accused “hoodlums” of taking advantage of the mayhem.
The situation has calmed in the economic hub and a stringent stay-at-home order was eased on Saturday.
Amnesty International has said at least 12 protesters were shot dead by the army and police in Lagos on Tuesday, and a total of 56 people have died since the demonstrations began.
President Muhammadu Buhari has called for an end to the protests and warned demonstrators not to “undermine national security”.
He has not directly addressed the shooting of protesters in Lagos and sought to shrug off international outrage over the use of excessive force by his security agencies.
Nigeria is a tinderbox of deep social and economic grievances with around half of the estimated 200 million population living in extreme poverty.
Frustration runs deep among younger generations furious with the country’s graft-riddled leadership over a lack of opportunities.
Source: AFP
26, October 2020
UN says Kumba massacre is ‘the worst atrocity’ 0
Hundreds of Southern Cameroonians held a peaceful procession through the streets of Kumba town and ended at the site of a school attacked on Saturday that the Ambazonia Interim Government has blamed on Cameroon government forces.
The Southern Cameroonians in the Meme County carried placards denouncing the attack, while calling for an end to war declared by French Cameroun President Paul Biya against the people of British Southern Cameroons in 2017.
The French Cameroun civil administrator of the Meme constituency told news reporters that “Instead of 6 we have now seven corpses in the mortuary,” Mr Ntou’ou Ndong Chamberlin, the Senior Divisional Officer has been responsible for all Cameroon government military operations in Meme and he is currently benefitting from the proceeds of war.
“We have to make it stop, they [children] are our future, we need our education, they are our future leaders, violence must stop,” said a man at the procession.
The UN headed by the corrupt Antonio Gutteres called the shooting ‘the worst atrocity’ since schools reopened in Cameroon two weeks ago.
Fighting between Cameroonian troops and Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia has killed thousands. Human Rights Watch recently accused both sides of committing atrocities.
No Southern Cameroons Restoration group has claimed responsibility for the attack but French Cameroun authorities have put the blame on separatist militia fighters.
By Fon Lawrence and Kingsley Betek