27, April 2019
Boko Haram overrun army base in Nigeria, steal weapons 0
Members of the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group have attacked and overrun an outpost belonging to the Nigerian government troops in the northeastern parts of the African country, stealing weapons before fleeing, military sources say.
Militants of the terror group launched their attack against the outpost at Mararrabar Kimba in the volatile Borno state late on Friday, two unnamed military sources told AFP on Saturday.
The assailants were reportedly driving more than a dozen pickup trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on their top. Terrorists were accompanied by three armored personal carriers stolen from security forces.
The terror convoy, flanked by a fleet of armed men firing from motorbikes, emerged from the woods and sped straight towards the outpost.
“There was a serious gunfight,” one of the sources said, adding, “The troops put up a good fight, but they were outgunned and overwhelmed… unfortunately, the base fell to the terrorists, who took away weapons and fled.”
![PressTV-Boko Haram kills 60 in northeast Nigeria: Amnesty](https://cdn.presstv.com/photo/20190201/f2204fc4-1401-46c8-88c7-11f6562bd2b6.jpg)
The base lies some 135 kilometers from the state capital Maiduguri. It was not yet clear whether there were casualties, especially as some troopers reportedly scattered into the woods to escape the attack.
One eyewitness had told the sources that some of stranded soldiers arrived at Biu, a town around 45 kilometers away from the outpost, a number of them wounded.
Boko Haram’s nine-year militancy is estimated to have killed more than 27,000 people and forced 1.8 million others to flee their homes.
In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.
Source: Presstv
29, April 2019
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Fru Ndi released by kidnappers 0
The chairman of Cameroon’s main opposition party Ni John Fru Ndi has been released after being kidnapped earlier Saturday in the Northwest Region, one of two English-speaking provinces in the grip of an armed conflict for over a year, his party said.
The SDF leader was abducted while leading a funeral procession, his party said earlier, without giving any indication of whether the kidnappers were believed to be separatists.
“President Ni John Fru Ndi has just been freed at 1834 (1734 GMT),” Social Democratic Front (SDF) official Jean Robert Wafo said in a statement.
A number of officials and members of the SDF have already been targeted in similar attacks.
In October 2018, Fru Ndi’s home was attacked by arsonists and his sister kidnapped and later released.
His party is the main opposition to 86-year-old President Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon since 1982.
It has always opposed any partition of the country and defied separatists in the English-speaking regions who called for a boycott of the last presidential election in October.
Conflict in Cameroon, a majority French-speaking nation, broke out in October 2017 when anglophone militants declared an independent state in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.
The International Crisis Group has said the death toll since the start of the fighting had topped 500 for civilians and more than 200 for members of the security forces.
Around 530,000 people have fled the fighting, according to the United Nations.
English-speakers, who account for about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million, have chafed for years at perceived discrimination in education, law and economic opportunities at the hands of the francophone majority.
The self-declared entity, the “Republic of Ambazonia,” which has been named after the local Ambas Bay, has not been recognised internationally.
AFP