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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Rebels from the Boko Haram extremist group claimed responsibility Tuesday for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State last week in one of the largest such attacks in years,...
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
Amnesty International, a London-based human rights organization, has criticized governments throughout the world, including the U.S., for neglecting health care workers who have died from the coronavirus.
Jihadist group Boko Haram released a video Thursday claiming to show the schoolboys were kidnapped in the country’s northwest. A distraught teenager in the video cited by AFP said he was among 520 students taken in by Abubakr Shekau gang.
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Aspirar JA, a non-governmental organisation based in Manchester, says since it was formed in January, 300 primary and secondary school students have benefited from its mentorship programme.
Driven by a goal of making the world a better place for all, the organisation says it is seeking to contribute to the development of society through mentorship.
Founder and president of the organisation, Jerome Hanson told the Jamaica Observer that the group has been in the works since last August.
Vice-president and co-founder of Aspirar JA, Shinell Mills, who is also a communication studies student at Northern Caribbean University, explained the role of the organisation.
“We are involved in the provision of humanitarian services to teenagers in high schools, and we also cater to children's homes and primary school students, especially those who are most vulnerable to abuse… As a group, we seek to efficiently contribute to the development of the Jamaican society.
A Terrifying Weekend
Just under 2000 people poured into Mozongo, panic-stricken and desperately fleeing for their lives from a refugee camp housing 800 internally displaced people in the village of Nguetchewe in Cameroon's far north region. The area, already one of the poorest in the world, has seen a significant increase in violent incidents in recent months with around 87 terrorist attacks by the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday condemned an attack this weekend the camp for in which 17 civilians were killed and 16 others wounded, according to an official army report. In the very early hours on Sunday, “a \"terrorist attack coupled with suicide bombings left 19 civilians dead — including two suicide bombers and \"16 injured\", the Cameroonian defence ministry had previously announced in a statement.
Camp residents are extremely afraid and feel very unsafe, \"There is a lot of fear. Really. Whoever has actually lived this experience here no longer wants to live in the village, and why is that? Because we have some defences in place, but they are very insufficient,\" expressed a shaken up young man living in the area.
Boko Haram's Regional Violence
A week before the attack the Cameroon army announced they had killed five Boko Haram fighters. In Chad, the jihadists on Friday killed at least 10 civilians and kidnapped seven others in an attack on a village in the troubled Lake Chad region. In March, Chad's armed forces suffered their biggest single-day loss, when 98 soldiers were massacred in their base at Bohoma, on the shores of Lake Chad. In response, President Idriss Deby launched an offensive from March 31 to April 3, declaring at its end that there was \"not a single jihadist left\" in the Lake Chad region. But sporadic violence has continued, with an attack attributed to Boko Haram on an army vehicle last month killing eight Chadian soldiers. The insurgence has prompted the formation of a four-nation anti-jihad coalition, the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), of which the Chadian army is a key component.
Northern Cameroon, which borders Nigeria, has been the target of deadly attacks by the Boko Haram jihadist group since 2013. The UN agency announced the deployment of an emergency mission to assess the protection and health needs of those affected but - understandably, inhabitants still terrified and uncertain after the jihadist attack.
A Group of Islamic Extremists
Boko Haram — literally meaning \"Western education is a sin\" in Hausa, the most common language in northern Nigeria, was formed in the northeastern region of the country in 2009. In 2016, the group split into two branches: the historical faction, led by Abubakar Shekau, and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), affiliated to the jihadists of the Islamic State group.
The group has regularly launched attacks over the last 6 years, staging small-scale raids aimed at stealing livestock and food. And has since spread its violence to Cameroon as well as Niger and
Six Nigerian soldiers were killed in a jihadist attack on a military base in northeastern Nigeria, military sources disclosed on Sunday.
“We lost six soldiers in the attacks launched by the terrorists on Saturday around 6:30 p.m.,” one officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
We lost six soldiers in the attacks launched by the terrorists on Saturday around 6:30 p.m.
The army is searching for 45 soldiers who could not be located but who it believes managed to escape, the source added.
ISWAP, which has split off from Boko Haram to affiliate with the EI, has been stepping up attacks against the armed forces and has killed dozens, if not hundreds, of Nigerian soldiers.
Democratic Republic of Congo: President Tshisekedi reneges on justice pledge, leaving victims in despair
\tPresident Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo has reneged on his inauguration pledges to strengthen the rule of law, fight impunity and ensure justice, leaving the families of hundreds of people killed during the country’s pre-election crisis in despair, Amnesty International said today.
“President Tshisekedi and his government must acknowledge the pain that victims and their families have been enduring and publicly commit to promptly and effectively prosecute those responsible,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
Victims of 2015-2018 brutal crackdowns denied justice in the DRC, Amnesty International interviewed 115 survivors and victims’ family members, on their quest for justice.
Farcical investigations
\tUnder international pressure, former President Joseph Kabila constituted three committees to investigate the deadly crackdowns on protestors, none of which have resulted in any prosecutions.
A second committee created in February 2018 investigated the use of deadly force against protestors on 31 December 2017 and 21 January 2018, recommending prosecution of security officers who ordered or used excessive force against protestors.
President Buhari expressed his frustrations with the security situation in the country when he met with the Heads of security agencies at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President's outburst came on the heels of calls by different segments of the country, including the National Assembly, that the service chiefs be relieved of their positions to allow fresh hands to tackle the degenerating security situation in the country.
Briefing State House correspondents after the security meeting presided over by the President, the National Security Adviser, NSA, Major Gen. Babagana Monguno, retd, said the President expressed dismay over the security situation in Nigeria.
He said: \"A meeting was just concluded between Mr. President and heads of the security agencies, that is the operational heads consisting of Minister of Defence, the service chiefs and on the other hand, the intelligence components consisting of myself and the intelligence heads.
'Military not weak'
The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, who stated this at a briefing yesterday, said while the military and other security agencies were neutralizing the bandits in scores, there were still some soft target attacks as many of the children of the bandits were also bandits whose only means of livelihood right from childhood, had been proceeds of banditry.
At least three humanitarian workers and a Nigerian soldier were on Tuesday abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in the northern part of Borno State, officials confirmed.
Humanitarian workers travelling under a military escort, from Maiduguri to Monguno in the northern part of Borno, ran into an ambush that led to the abductions.
But the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) confirmed that one of the three aid workers was their official.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered from sources familiar with the incident that the travelling aid workers were on Tuesday waylaid at about 11 a.m. at a location in Guzamala local government of Borno.
But when our reporter contacted the Borno State police command, the spokesman, Edet Okon, a deputy superintendent of police, said he was not aware of the incident.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease in Nigeria, late February, the various governments took various measures to combat the plague.
Since Nigeria recorded her first case of COVID-19 late February, 7016 persons, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, have tested positive for the disease.
·February 5: The Nigerian Air Force killed \"some\" (estimated at five) ISWA (Boko Haram) militants in Ngala, Borno.
·February 8: The Nigerian Air Force killed \"several\" (estimated at 10 Boko Haram militants in Gwoza, Borno.
·February 27: The Nigerian Air Force killed \"some\" (estimated at 10) Boko Haram militants in Gwoza, Borno.
[Nation] Two human rights lobbies and five victims of alleged police brutality have sued the government for killings and use of excessive force allegedly perpetrated by security agencies while enforcing the dusk-to-dawn curfew meant to contain coronavirus spread.
By LEKAN OYEKANMI Associated Press KANKARA, Nigeria (AP) — It was late Friday night when Usama Aminu heard gunshots, at first thinking they had come from the nearby town. As soon as he and the other students at the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara realized there was a raid on the school, they scrambled out of their dormitory and scaled the school's fence in the pandemonium. The 17-year-old told The Associated Press about the attack on the school in Nigeria's northern Katsina State in which men armed with AK-47 rifles abducted more than 300 students from the boys' school. […]
The post Nigerian boy tells of abduction by extremists and his escape appeared first on Black News Channel.
If philanthropy can be defined as the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed by the generous donation of money to good causes, then for centuries, philanthropic activities have done a lot of good.
The tactics of persons linked with organized crime groups, utilizing philanthropy or charity to provide material benefits to people that have been victims of their actions is not novel, neither is it restricted to one region.
Besides beheadings and carrying out deadly attacks on soft targets, both terrorist groups have been known to provide social services within their strongholds in Somalia and Nigeria, as a means of recruiting soldiers and maintaining a long list of informants.
Philanthropy has been defined as an “altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.”
Doing something good to justify doing something bad
For decades, organized criminal groups have employed philanthropy to good effect in one way or the other.
May 16: Nigeria receives COVID-Organics, scientific tests ordered
\tNigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday (May 16) received the country’s share of a purported coronavirus herbal cure, COVID-Organics.
Madagascar donated a consignment of the controversial cure to the West African bloc, ECOWAS.
May 12: Nigeria accepts COVID-Organics
\tNigeria is set to fly in Madagascar’s herbal cure donation from Guinea-Bissau, a top official at the president who is leader of the presidential task force on COVID-19 disclosed on Monday.
“Mr President has given instructions for the airlifting of Nigeria’s allocation of the Madagascar Covid-19 Syrup; also given clear instructions that it must be subjected to the standard validation process for pharmaceuticals; there will be no exceptions for this.
May 6: ECOWAS ‘rejects’ COVID-Organics, Madagascar’s untested virus cure
\tThe Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has dissociated itself from reports of a donation from Madagascar regarding a coronavirus herbal cure, COVID-Organics.
[AI London] Award-winning journalist Omar Radi was targeted with notorious Pegasus spyware days after Israel tech firm pledged to abide by human rights standards
About 10,600 people have been displaced following recent attacks in two villages in Niger's Tillaberi region, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The situation is even worse for refugee children, most of whom begin school late, and for whom education is also the only hope out of the camps.
At the Daadab Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya, a local radio station, Gargar FM, is giving hope to children seeking an education.
The aid agencies have appealed to the Ministry of Education to urgently ensure that systems for remote learning are in place, as the most marginalised children have been hit hardest by the closure of schools.
Save the Children says priority should be given to children who cannot access digital learning tools - those from low-income households and in rural and marginalised areas, those with disabilities, and those in refugee camps.
Ms Le said other measures to help the children include supporting distance learning by making families aware of the radio lessons being offered by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development for formal learners, and supporting the recording of lessons for non-formal learners.
Nigeria has been rocked by nearly two weeks of protests against police brutality and calls to disband its controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad, better known as […]
The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced Thursday evening, the launch of an independent investigation into allegations of prevarication against its president, Nigerian Akinwumi Adesina, the only candidate for re-election to a new term.
The Abidjan-based pan-African development institution finally gave in to the demands of the United States, which was dissatisfied with the internal investigation that had totally exonerated Adesina from serious accusations made by a group of “whistleblowers” such as “unethical behaviour, personal enrichment and favouritism”.
“The Board (of Governors of the AfDB) agreed to authorize an independent review of the “whistleblowers’ “allegations” against Mr. Adesina, according to a statement the Board’s bureau chairperson, Nialé Kaba, made at the end of a new meeting of the Board’s bureau on Thursday.
This “independent review should be carried out by a neutral, honest, high-calibre person with unquestionable experience and a proven international reputation, within two to four weeks maximum, taking into account the electoral calendar” of the Bank, which is due to elect its president at the end of August, Mrs. Kaba said.
Mr. Adesina, who was elected in 2015 to head the AfDB, one of the world’s five major multilateral development banks, has been the subject of a series of embarrassing accusations since the beginning of the year, which were disclosed in the press in April.
In a detailed report, the “whistleblowers” accuse him of favouritism in many senior appointments, especially of Nigerian compatriots, of appointing or promoting people suspected or convicted of fraud or corruption, and of granting them comfortable severance packages without sanction.
The charges were outrightly refuted by Mr. Adesina, 60, the first Nigerian to head the AfDB since its creation in 1964, who has repeatedly claimed his “innocence” and was quickly exonerated by the Bank on the basis of a report by its internal ethics committee.
“Mystification and Smoking”
But the United States, the AfDB’s second largest shareholder after Nigeria, demanded at the end of May that an independent investigation be launched, calling into question, in a scathing letter from US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the work of the ethics committee, and provoking a serious crisis in the pan-African institution.
“Considering the scope, seriousness and accuracy of the allegations against the Bank’s sole leadership candidate for the next five years, we believe that a more thorough investigation is necessary to ensure that the AfDB president enjoys the full support and confidence of shareholders,” Mr. Mnuchin wrote.
The decision to launch an independent investigation was taken “with a view to reconciling the different points of view,” Mrs. Kaba said.
While his re-election seemed assured six months ago, with the support of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, and following a giant capital increase of 115 billion dollars accepted in October 2019, Mr. Adesina’s position now appears increasing
From April to July 1994 Rwanda suffered through a period of government-sanctioned mass murder which resulted in the deaths of nearlyone million Tutsi men, women and children. Most observers point to myriad factors which caused the slaughter including government corruption, longstanding ethnic antagonism, the legacy of colonialism, and competition for scarce farmland. Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, a citizen of Rwanda whose parents and four siblings were killed during the Genocide, offers another explanation, greed and jealousy. His account ofthe Rwandan Genocide, written expressly for BlackPast.org, appears below.
For centuries and even until today after the genocide, the three Rwandansocial groups have lived together, on same hills, dales, and flatlands.Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas live together in every part of the country of thousand hills. The relationship between the three groups was based on everyday life. It is simplistic and naive to argue that the relationshipbetween the people was perfect and that conflicts arose as a result of colonization only. No society exists that has avoided social conflicts among its population. From the pre-colonial period to the 1994 genocide,Rwanda has been characterized by internal conflicts. However, the nature of these conflicts was different in each epoch. Before the colonial period, the conflicts involved different clans such as the Bega and the Banyiginya in which both Hutus and Tutsis were represented. Those conflicts were related to the problems of land or power.
The 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda was the culmination of the hate of Hutus towards Tutsis. It poses two main questions: the first on the relationship between the two groups over centuries, and the second concerns the origins of hate that led to the genocide.
Non-Rwandans and many Rwandan citizens, ask how the relationship developed between Hutus and Tutsis and how that relationship encouraged the genocide that killed about one million Tutsis. I would argue that for centuries, the relationship between Hutus
The Nigerian Customs Service, (NCS) Seme Area Command, on Wednesday, destroyed expired drugs valued at N168,385,511 intercepted by officers of the command.
The Area Controller, Deputy Comptroller Chidi Wada, in his address before destruction of the expired items, said the command remained resolute in the fight against smuggling and its negative impacts.
Mr Ekpo Udo-Ekpo, the Deputy Director, NAFDAC, urged Nigerians to desist from importing expired items into the country.
Udo-Ekpo said that all the items listed for destruction expired two years ago.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the sister agencies present at the destruction of the items include Nigeria Immigration Services, Port Health Office, Nigeria Army and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The area is known for oil spills that have polluted the waters and left fish and other wildlife inedible.
The massive die-off was first reported in February when community people in Delta State complained of the schools of dead fish floating and littering their shores.
Samples of the fish were taken by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
Idris Musa, head of NOSDRA, declared the die-off had nothing to do with the continual oil leakages from offshore platforms as claimed over the years by Amnesty International, the U.N. Environmental Program, the Fishnet Alliance, and dozens of other groups in and outside of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) this month said that the dead fishes floating and littering the Niger Delta coastline had nothing to do with its operations.
The seditious libel case involving Sierra Leone’s former minister of social welfare and journalist – Dr Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, was adjourned today to Friday 12 June 2020, after prosecution witness who is the lead police investigator – Detective M.K. Alieu, was cross-examined by Blyden who is representing herself in court.
On Friday, 22nd May 2020, Dr Blyden was charged with seditious libel under Sections 33, 32 and 27 of the notorious Public Order Act No 46 of 1965, which successive governments of Sierra Leone have used to harass, intimidate and persecute those with whom they disagree, especially journalists.
According to Section 33 (1): “Any person who (a) does or attempts to do, or makes any preparation to do, or conspires with any person to do, any act with a seditious intention; or (b) utters any seditious words; or (c) prints, publishes, sells, offers for sale, distributes or reproduces any seditious publication; or (d) imports any seditious publication, unless he has no reason to believe it is seditious shall be guilty of an offence and liable for a first offence to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to a fine not exceeding one thousand leones or to both such imprisonment and fine, and for a subsequent offence shall be imprisoned for a term not exceeding seven years, and every such publication shall be forfeited to the government.”
Section 32 (1) states: “Any person who publishes any false statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear or alarm, to the public or to disturb the public peace shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding three hundred Leones or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Section 27 states: “Any person who maliciously publishes any defamatory matter shall be guilty of an offence called libel and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding seven hundred leones or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
By The Associated Press A doctor arrested after writing an article about Egypt’s fragile health system. A pharmacist picked up from work after posting online about a shortage of protective gear. An editor taken from his home after questioning official coronavirus figures. A pregnant doctor arrested after a colleague used her phone to report a []
The post Egypt Arrests Doctors, Silences Critics Over Virus Outbreak appeared first on Afro.
[Monitor] Presidential candidates have condemned the violence meted out on candidates and supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the Forum Democratic Change (FDC) Opposition political parties.
At least 10,000 people were arbitrarily arrested and detained last year as part of the government's crackdown on armed attacks and violence in Oromia Region
Forces have burned homes to the ground, committed rape and extrajudicial execution in response to inter-communal violence
'With elections on the horizon, these violations and abuses could escalate out of control unless the government takes urgent measures' - Deprose Muchena
Ethiopian security forces committed horrendous human rights violations including burning homes to the ground, extrajudicial executions, rape, arbitrary arrests and detentions - sometimes of entire families - in response to attacks by armed groups and inter-communal violence in Amhara and Oromia, Amnesty International said today.
In a new report, Beyond law enforcement: human rights violations by Ethiopian security forces in Amhara and Oromia, Amnesty documents how security forces committed grave violations between December 2018 and December 2019, despite reforms which led to the release of thousands of detainees, expansion of the civic and political space and repeal of draconian laws - such as the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation - which were previously used to repress human rights.
Amnesty's report reveals that the Liyu police, local administration militia and two Amhara youth vigilante groups joined forces to attack members of the Qimant community in January last year, and again in September and October, leaving at least 100 dead and hundreds displaced.
Security forces and vigilante groups also attacked a Qimant settlement in Metema, with grenades and guns and set homes on fire last year.
Brutal beatings, lifetime scars
Last year at least 10,000 people were arbitrarily arrested and detained as part of the government's crackdown on armed attacks and inter-communal violence in Oromia Region.
More than 300 schoolboys abducted last week by armed men in northwestern Nigeria have been released, the Katsina state governor... View Article
The post Nigerian official says over 300 abducted schoolboys freed appeared first on TheGrio.
In 1997, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda – an international court established by the UN in 1994 to judge people responsible for the genocide – indicted Kabuga for his role.
It was set up to perform the remaining functions of both the Rwanda tribunal and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The International Criminal Court was set up to hear cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression crimes.
From my experience working in Rwanda, Rwandans perceive international-based justice as aiding the conscience of the international community, which failed to intervene before or during the genocide.
The original warrant for his arrest was issued by the now-dissolved International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
