News & Announcements

According to a report from the region, Intercommunal clashes in Sudan’s West Darfur region have left at least 132 people dead in recent days, its governor said Thursday.

Members of the Massalit and Arab communities have fought since Saturday in and around the state capital El Geneina, trading gun and heavy weapons fire. Sudan’s government has declared a state of emergency in the region.

“According to medical reports, the number of dead is now 132,” Mohamed Abdallah Douma, the governor of the region bordering Chad told a press conference in Khartoum.

“The situation is now relatively stable,” he said, adding that there was “looting” but “no more fighting”.

AFP reports that Sudan is in the midst of a rocky transition following the toppling of long-time president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, following mass protests against his rule.

The transitional government has pushed to build peace with rebel groups in Sudan’s main conflict zones, including Darfur, where UN peacekeepers were recently withdrawn.

Thousands have fled the latest outbreak of violence, some escaping into Chad, according to the United Nations.

The clashes have seen a power station destroyed, an ambulance attacked and a rocket-propelled grenade hitting the key Sultan Tajeldin Hospital.

It is the latest outbreak of violence between the communities since January, when over 100,000 people fled their homes, according to the UN.

The vast Darfur region was previously ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 2003, leaving around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.

It flared when ethnic minority rebels rose up against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government.

Khartoum responded by unleashing a notorious Arab-dominated militia known as the Janjaweed, recruited from among the region’s nomadic tribes.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide during the Darfur conflict.

Somalia’s top leaders are trading blame after the collapse of the much-anticipated talks meant to provide certainty on elections.

The blame game ensued on Wednesday evening, dampening optimism that had been expressed earlier in the week, going into talks.

AFP reports that Information Minister Osman Dubbe admitted there had been no progress from the initial sessions and that leaders had fallen out. He criticised leaders of Jubbaland and Puntland states for what he called lack of flexibility on the agenda.

According to Dubbe, the leaders of the two states—Said Abdullahi Deni of Puntland and Ahmed Madobe of Jubbaland—disrespected the crucial meetings.

The two leaders reportedly disagreed on the wording of state institutions – the presidency, the executive and the legislative – saying the executive’s term has expired and this should be specified in the documents.

“Puntland and Jubbaland also asked for the suspension of the heads of the security forces, despite Somalia being at a crucial security stage,” Dubbe said in a pre-recorded video, stating that such demand damages the morale of the forces that industriously serve the country. 

 “Unfortunately, the leaders of Puntland and Jubbaland have become an obstruction against holding elections in the country.”

The meeting was meant to discuss an agreement that would lead to elections.

Somalia should have held elections latest by February 8 this year. It missed the deadline after leaders failed to agree on the composition of electoral management teams, security and venues for votes. These issues have stuck out since September 17 last year when the same leaders agreed on an indirect election.

On Wednesday evening, Puntland and Jubbaland responded to the blame laid upon them by the Federal Government of Somalia. They rejected claims of sabotaging talks, instead, blaming President Mohamed Farmaajo for pushing his personal agenda.

Puntland Minister for Information Abdullahi Ali Hersi alias Tima’adde insisted that the blame by the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) was unsubstantiated and that the two states were not responsible for any failure.

“We are not aware of any failure to the talks. On the contrary, we knew that the president (President Farmaajo) adjourned the meeting so that the sides make consultations,” said Hersi, expressing surprise at the statement by the FGS Information minister.  

The meeting was expected to streamline the mechanisms to hold the parliamentary and presidential elections in accordance with the September 17, 2020, Agreement.

President Farmaajo summoned his key officials as well as federal state presidents from Somalia’s five federal states for the crucial meeting. It was the fourth such time this year the President was summoning leaders. Previous meetings had ended at agenda-setting.

The invited leaders included Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and Presidents of Puntland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle, South West and Jubbaland plus the Mayor of Mogadishu. They gathered at the ‘Big Tent,’ the venue inside the highly protected Aden Abdulle International Airport, from April 3.

Outside of the meeting, opposition groups accused the President of using the sittings as a smokescreen. They said he was planning to lobby the leaders for an extension of his term.

 “It is becoming increasingly clear to the people of Somalia in general and the Union of Presidential Candidates in particular that the outgoing President Farmaajo is constantly degrading and violating the process of seeking peaceful and credible General Election,” an opposition group of 15 aspirants, known as the Council of Presidential Candidates said in a statement.

The group had earlier demanded inclusion in the discussions, arguing that Farmaajo’s term had ended on February 8 and he should be treated as a normal aspirant.

“As expected, Farmaajo refused to include the following issues on the agenda: 1. The legitimacy of his mandate as well Parliament. 2. Security responsibility during elections. He’s desperate for term extension because he does not have the confidence to win in a fair and free election,” charged Abdishakur Abdirahman, leader of the Wadajir Party.

“Farmaajo has relied on fake popularity, repression and propaganda to remain in power. He has weakened State institutions such as the Judiciary and the Legislator. They can’t rein him in, neither can they resolve the electoral dispute or facilitate his peaceful exit from office.

Dubbe was on Wednesday evening facing accusations of pre-recording accusations against Puntland and Jubbaland, long before the meeting even collapsed.

He had, on Tuesday, told the Somalia National News Agency (SONNA) about his confidence that the talks were likely to end with 100 percent mutual understanding.

“The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) is determined to stimulate the ongoing talks with the Federal Member States (FMS) to result in 100 percent common understanding,” said Minister Dubbe, a reference to the discussions on the implementation manners of the indirect electoral model agreed on September 17, last year.

Meanwhile, Somalia’s international partners (SIPs,) that support the Horn of Africa country’s state rebuilding expressed optimism that the talks will generate consensus, keeping in mind that the Holy fasting month of Ramadan is fast approaching.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the SIPs partly wrote, “As Somalis prepare to welcome the Holy Month of Ramadan, international partners express hope that the basic tenets of reflection, tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation will usher in a successful summit of the Federal Government and Federal Member State leaders.”

It added, “We urge FGS and FMS leaders to use this opportunity to resolve their differences and make the necessary compromises in order to ensure that credible, timely, and peaceful elections can be held without further delay to allow Somalia to move forward.”

The joint statement was signed by multilateral agencies including the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), European Union (EU), African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), League of the Arab States (LAS), and a host of countries that assist the Somali people and their government.

In what is part of the banditry confronting the northern part of Nigeria where thousands of citizens have been killed, bandits have reportedly ambushed the Nigerian troops on a reinforcement mission to Benue State, North Central part of the country, to quell an uprising.

In a report from a newspaper, People’s Gazette, quoting a source from the Nigerian armed forces, the bandits cart away a whooping sum of N28 million ($73,481) cash.

Citing an internal army communication, the newspaper quoted a source as saying that soldiers dispatched from Katsina-Ala Local Government Area to deliver weapons to troops in Oju LGA (171km from Katsina-Ala) of Benue State were overrun by an armed militia said to be from the Konshisha district of the state, in an attack believed to have occurred on Tuesday.

Senior military officers said N28 million ($73,481) was also with the soldiers at the time of the ambush, all of which the attackers cornered and disappeared into the night on the fringes of the Benue River.

“Yes, the bandits stole weapons and also about N28 million from the soldiers,” the senior officer said.

“The entire situation has been under investigation since the headquarters heard about it.”

The official said no conspiracy was suspected on the part of the soldiers but said it was a “deeply disturbing” situation that soldiers could be easily waylaid by a ragtag group of bandits.

The source of the money and its purpose were however not immediately disclosed.

The logistics team, led by A.T. Adedayo, an army captain was reported missing, including a general-purpose machine gun and over 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

Sources said the ambush site was met deserted when a reinforcement deployed at Oju stormed the scene following an alert.

A joint operation by troops of 72 Special Forces Battalion and anti-banditry formation, Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), was planned to be conducted in the area to rescue the missing soldiers, a source said.

According to a report on SaharaReporters, the men of the Nigerian army have been alleged to have killed at least 50 unarmed civilians in Shangev-Tiev, Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State, North Central Nigeria following reports that two soldiers were missing in the community, multiple sources told the online medium on Thursday.
It gathered that the soldiers went missing during a routine patrol in the community days after a communal crisis between towns in Konshisha and Oju LGAs.

According to reports, three soldiers were initially missing but one of them was later found.

It was learnt that troops of Operation Whirl-Stroke (OPWS) on Wednesday and Thursday morning invaded the community.

The operation, which involved the deployment of military helicopters using missile launchers, left scores of unarmed civilians dead and property said to worth billions of naira destroyed.

About 200 houses including the palace of Tyoor Unaha Kôkô in Agidi and several cars in the village, which is now deserted were set ablaze by the soldiers.

Narrating the dastard act to SaharaReporters, a youth leader said, “We have lost over 50 unarmed civilians, more than five of my family members have been killed by the Nigerian Army. There are no bandits in Shangev-Tiev, a military General in Makurdi is using the Army to support his tribe in an age-long war over boundary demarcation.

“For over 3 days now, unarmed civilians have come under Nigeria military attack non-stop. Fulanis controlling the Armed Forces of Nigeria are assisting their numerous footsoldiers mobilised by Miyetti Allah in terrorising the civilians.”They keep killing and destroying properties. How can you use a fighter jet on harmless and armless citizens while negotiating a ransom with bandit and terrorists?

“As we talk now, most residents have deserted their homes and are taking refuge at Tse- Agbaragba.”

Another resident asked the government to redeploy the soldiers ravaging the community to the various highways where the Boko Haram and herdsmen are presently terrorising and killing Nigerians.

He said, “It is quite sad amidst insecurity in other parts of Benue, Konshisha will be targeted by security personnel. My village has been reduced to ashes for no reason. This is not Boko Haram. There are massive destruction and killing spree going on. The aged, women and children are not left out, among those killed and displaced. What human sense would warrant such attack and destruction?

“For days now, our people have been under flames, displaced and are massacred.“

Another resident said, “My grandfather’s house is in ruins, I hear. 2001, the Army burnt my father’s village and murdered my people. 20 years later, the Army is burning down my mothers home. 20 years after Zaki Biam, the Army has returned to Benue in the same fashion. This is not the way to go.”

Meanwhile, Governor Samuel Ortom has pledged to return peace to Konshisha and Oju while briefing journalists after an expanded Security Council Meeting with stakeholders from the two local government areas.

Ortom, who reiterated the need for Benue people to support security agents deployed to end crisis in their areas, admonished the people against attacks on security agents, which would make the situation extremely difficult to contain.

He explained that as part of measures to nip the land dispute between Konshisha and Oju in the bud, it was agreed that the boundary be demarcated and a day was fixed for the exercise.

According to the governor, a few days to the agreed date, the crisis erupted again and security agents were deployed to control its escalation when the troops sent to Konshisha came under attack with two military personnel still missing.

Ortom condemned the practice of some communities engaging militia to fight their neighbours. He, however, vowed that such merchants of violence would be made to face the consequences of their actions.

The northern town of Palma in Mozambique that was temporarily held by ISIL (ISIS) fighters which killed dozens of both indigenes and foreign nationals is now safe to stay.

The military said this after it killed a significant number of fighters and cleared one final area, an army spokesman and a provincial official said.

Commander Chongo Vidigal, leader of military operations to regain control of Palma, told state television TVM on Monday the area was now “safe”, although he stopped short of declaring that the army had regained complete control.

“The airfield area was the only one we needed to clear and we did that this morning. It’s completely safe,” Vidigal said.

Armindo Ngunga, secretary of state for the Cabo Delgado province, told Reuters news agency on Monday that the town of Palma was “under the control of the state”.

“There was significant loss of human life, infrastructure destroyed. But people are safe now,” Ngunga added.

Fighters on March 24 attacked the coastal town of Palma, near natural gas projects worth $60bn that are meant to transform Mozambique’s economy.

Mozambique’s government says dozens died in the assault dozens, and security sources say clashes continued outside the town as recently as Friday.

Thousands have fled the town of some 75,000 people, according to an early government toll. The United Nations said more than 11,000 civilians fled Palma in recent days.

Reuters has not been able to verify the accounts from Palma independently. Most means of communication with the town were cut off after the attack began.

Footage taken by TVM in Palma showed a soldier covering a body lying in the street and burned buildings.

Vidigal said the facilities of French energy company Total near Palma were being protected after sources told Reuters on Friday that Total had withdrawn all its staff as the fighters appeared to be approaching.

“The facilities are safe, they are protected,” he said.

A Total spokesman and Mozambique’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

ISIL-linked fighters have been increasingly active in Cabo Delgado since 2017, although it is unclear whether they have a unified aim.

Aid groups believe the latest attack displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom fled into a dense forest or escaped by boat. But the extent of the death and displacement is not yet clear, and many remain unaccounted for.

Survivors have recounted seeing bodies of others who died of hunger or dehydration while trying to escape.

Thousands have poured into Cabo Delgado’s capital Pemba, stretching a city already brimming with people displaced by previous rounds of violence as well as a deadly cyclone in 2019.

Several experts have expressed doubts over the authorities’ claims to retaking Palma.

“There might be pockets that are safe but they are definitely not in control,” Willem Els, senior training coordinator at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies, told AFP news agency.

“Insurgents are still roaming around,” he cautioned, citing sources on the ground. “The only enclave that is really secure at the moment is the area around Afungi.”

Security forces have been bolstered by a South African private military company, Dyck Advisory Group (DAG), but its contract with the government ends this week.

DAG founder Lionel Dyck confirmed their involvement ends on Tuesday.

“God helps the people,” he told AFP via WhatsApp on Monday, adding that it was “unlikely” soldiers had retaken Palma.

Nigerian prison officials have launched a manhunt for the over 1,800 fleeing inmates of Owerri Prison after they were set free on Monday by suspected hoodlums.

Attackers armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades launched a series of coordinated attacks in southeastern Nigeria, freeing more than 1,800 inmates from the prison.

The attacks began at approximately 2 am Monday in Owerri, a town in the State of Imo, and lasted for about two hours, according to local resident Uche Okafor. Gunmen also assaulted other police and military buildings, authorities said.

“Efforts are in top gear to re-arrest the fleeing detainees,” said Nigeria prison spokesman Francis Enobore, adding that 35 other inmates stayed behind during the prison break.

The coordinated attacks come less than two weeks after another wave of violence in southeastern Nigeria when at least a dozen security officers were killed during attacks on four police stations, military checkpoints, and prison vehicles.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Nigeria inspector general of police blamed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its Eastern Security Network, a paramilitary wing of the secessionist movement active in the region.

“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the attackers… are members of the Indigenous People of Biafra,” said Frank Mba, a spokesman for the Nigeria police force.

The IPOB has said it is fighting to protect the Igbo people from foreign armed invaders, but the group denied it was behind the prison attack.

Police said the assailants were heavily armed with assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and improvised explosive devices during the violence.

“The attempt by the attackers to gain access to the police armoury at the headquarters was totally and appropriately resisted,” a police statement said.

Several police stations have been attacked in southeastern Nigeria since January, with large amounts of ammunition stolen. No groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

A protest over police enforcement of coronavirus restrictions in rural Bangladesh turned violent when a mob of demonstrators attacked a police station, resulting in at least three people being shot, police and a doctor said.

The incident, according to AFP, took place late on Monday in the central town of Saltha in the Faridpur district where, according to the police, rumours had spread about a man being injured in a police sweep of a market aimed at enforcing health measures to curb the spread of COVID.

Thousands of villagers took to the streets in anger. A group of them hurled bricks at a police station and vandalised government offices in the town, torching an officer’s home and two cars belonging to government officials, police said.

“Police fired in self-defence after they attacked the police station,” a police spokesman in Faridpur district told AFP news agency.

A second police official, Inspector Nur-a-Alam Fakir, confirmed the incident.

Police did not give any casualty figures, but Abdul Matin, a doctor at the emergency ward of the state-run Faridpur Medical College Hospital, said three people were in critical condition after suffering gunshot wounds.

“One of them was hit in his buttocks, another in his chest and the third person was shot in both legs,” he told AFP.

Bangladesh on Monday instituted a seven-day nationwide lockdown after Coronavirus cases reached a record high and fatalities skyrocketed in recent weeks.

On Sunday, at least 7,087 people tested positive for the virus, the highest daily case total since the virus was first detected in the South Asian nation in March 2020.

All domestic travel services – including buses, ferries, trains and flights – have been suspended, and shops and malls will be shut for a week. A nighttime curfew is in effect.

Hundreds of shopkeepers also protested in the capital Dhaka over the lockdown, saying it would disproportionately affect their businesses.

Two officers said supporters of the hardline group, Hefazat-e-Islam, joined the attack on the police station at Saltha.

Tens of thousands of Hefazat supporters staged a nationwide demonstration against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi late last month, which triggered deadly clashes with police.

There was no immediate comment from Hefazat over police claims of their involvement in the incident in Saltha.

More than 100,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine has arrived at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, the first shipment to reach Libya.

Some 1,000 new coronavirus cases are announced daily by the National Centre for Disease Control, posing a challenge to a health sector ravaged by years of conflict.

 “It is the first drop of rain. Thank God, we are able to supply the first batch of corona vaccine,” interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said in a tweet on Sunday.

“The rest of the shipment will arrive in succession.”

A box of the vaccine was shown being unloaded from a cargo plane in a social media post by the health ministry, saying it would be moved to the ministry’s warehouses before distribution.

In February, the disease control centre launched an electronic registration campaign for vaccinations for those aged over 18.

No details on the numbers of those registering have been disclosed. Libya has a population of about 6.5 million.

The country has recorded almost 200,000 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic, including 2,684 deaths.

Libya has been torn by division and violence for a decade since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and split between warring western and eastern factions in 2014.

Dbeibah’s new unity government took office last month with a mandate to improve services and prepare for a national election in December.

At least 22 Indian security personnel were killed and 30 injured in an ambush by Maoist rebels in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, the deadliest incident of its kind in four years.

Officials said on Sunday that security personnel belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force’s elite CoBRA unit, the District Reserve Guard and the Special Task Force were attacked on Saturday in the tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state during an anti-insurgency operation.

“We can confirm that 22 of Indian force members have been killed by Maoist fighters,” said a senior government official in Raipur, the capital of mineral-rich Chhattisgarh.

They were killed in firing that lasted for four hours in the border district of Sukma, 540km (340 miles) south of Raipur.

Om Prakash Pal, a senior police official in Raipur said combing operations to trace one missing security force member was being conducted.

The death toll was the worst for Indian security forces battling the far-left guerrillas since 2017.

On Saturday, senior police officer DM Awasthi said hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers raided a hideout in Bijapur district after receiving intelligence that a large number of rebels had gathered there. At least five security personnel were killed in the incident.

The Maoist rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting the Indian government for more than 40 years, in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

More than 10,000 have been killed since the year 2000, according to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

The rebels claim to defend the rights of indigenous tribes and other marginalised groups, while the government calls them India’s biggest internal security threat.

The Maoists, also known as Naxalites because they are left-wing the rebellion began in 1967 in the Naxalbari village of the eastern West Bengal state, have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials.

They have also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves.

Last month, a roadside bomb killed at least four policemen and wounded 14 in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh state as they were returning from an anti-Maoist operation.

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged an American couple for supporting a “terror group” after trying to board a Yemen-bound ship to join ISIL (ISIS).

James Bradley, 20, of New York, and Arwa Muthana, 29, from Alabama were stopped on Wednesday as they stepped onto the gangplank of a cargo ship in Newark, New Jersey.

The DoJ said Bradley had expressed “violent extremist views” since at least 2019 and was in contact with an undercover agent of a law enforcement agency last year, he repeatedly said, he believed in the mission of the armed group.

He also told the undercover agent he was willing to carry out an attack on a US target, including possibly the US Military Academy at West Point.

Bradley had drawn the FBI’s attention after a friend of his was arrested in 2019 after planning to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban, according to a court filing.

Since then, the FBI said, Bradley “has continued to express his desire to carry out violence in support of radical Islamic ideology, directed his support and allegiance to ISIS, and attempted to travel overseas to join and fight for ISIS”.

Bradley also shared the ISIL propaganda with the undercover agent, and they discussed his various options for joining similar groups or launching an attack in the US.

Ultimately, Bradley decided to head to Yemen to link up with ISIL along with Muthana, whom he married in January this year.

“If I don’t find them, I just keep going to Somalia,” he told the agent, referring to the East African country where the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group operates.

Bradley and Muthana face up to 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiring to “provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation”.

The case shows that groups like ISIL, which lost its final slate of territory in Syria in March 2019, still exert a pull on some people in the US, said Assistant Attorney General John Demers in a statement.

“The threat of terrorism at home and abroad remains,” he said.