Thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have fled their tents following gun duel between Nigerian troops and Boko Haram insurgents in Kala-Balge Local Government Area of Borno State, SaharaReporters has learnt.

SaharaReporters earlier reported that at least 10 persons were killed and dozens wounded in the crossfire on Monday night after the insurgents stormed Rann.

It would be recalled that several houses, including a military base and a United Nations hub, were razed by the militant group.

Tuesday witnessed an exodus of displaced persons fled their homes to Cameroon border to take refugee, with thousands already in Gamboru-Ngala. “It was a pathetic situation,” the source said.

“We have about 50,000 displaced persons living in the camp at Rann. They were helpless; thousands of them said it was better for them to leave Rann for Cameroon than to stay back in Rann and get killed.”

A rescue worker told SaharaReporters: “The situation in Ngala is so worrisome; thousands of our people are really going through tough time. Imagine, in this harmattan, children and women are there without anything to cover themselves. It is a really pitiable situation.”

Source: SaharaReporters

The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab is claiming responsibility for Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a hotel and office complex in Nairobi, Kenya.

Police say at least 15 people were killed and a still undetermined number wounded. One report says an American and a British citizen are among the dead.

Kenya’s Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i says the country is safe and the situation under control. But gunshots could still be heard several hours after he made that pronouncement.

The attack on the DusitD2 complex began in mid-afternoon with an explosion outside a bank and a suicide bombing in the hotel lobby.

Four gunmen could be seen on surveillance video walking through the parking lot with at least one stopping to open fire.

Terrified office and hotel workers and guests ran for cover, streaming from the buildings, climbing out of windows, ducking behind police vehicles and anything they could find while gunfire echoed off the walls.

Police found a sad and grisly scene inside one of the restaurants — wounded and dead diners at their tables, slumped over unfinished meals.

Other witnesses say they found human limbs lying on the ground.

Witness Duran Farah told VOA he and some colleagues were entering the complex at the time of the attack.

“A loud explosion happened at the gate. Next there was shooting, an exchange of fire, a lot of fire, and we see people rushing and running around in every direction,” he said. He and his friends escaped by running down an alleyway.

The DusitD2 hotel and shops are in an upscale Nairobi neighborhood popular with American, European, and Indian tourists, although exactly who was targeted and why is unclear.

The militant Islamic Al-Shabab staged several previous attacks in Kenya, including the September 2013 assault on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall that left 67 dead.

The militants targeted Kenya after Kenyan forces entered Somalia in 2011 with al-Shabab as their target.

Tuesday’s attack comes one day after a Nairobi court said three men accused aiding the Westgate attack will be put on trial.

A State Department spokesperson tells VOA the U.S. embassy in Nairobi is closely watching the situation and “has actively offered assistance to local authorities.”

VOA

The International Criminal Court on Tuesday acquitted former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo of crimes against humanity, marking the latest dramatic twist in the career of one of West Africa’s most divisive politicians. After seven years behind bars in The Hague, Gbagbo, 73, was cleared of crimes committed following a disputed presidential election in 2010. More than 3,000 people were killed in the cocoa-producing nation after he refused to accept defeat by his rival Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast’s current president. Gbagbo, a onetime socialist and labour activist, was the first former head of state to stand trial at the ICC. The judges’ ruling means he will now be released from jail – a familiar routine for a man who spent decades battling power-hungry strongmen, only to become one himself. The opponent Gbagbo, then a university lecturer with a PhD in history, was first jailed for “subversive” teaching in 1971, during the rule of Ivory Coast’s independence leader, president Houphouet-Boigny. The man nicknamed “Cicero”, because of his taste for Latin, would be among the first to defy Houphouet-Boigny, first as a trade union activist and then as a left-wing politician. A skilled orator whose affable manners concealed a ferocious determination, Gbagbo sought exile in Paris in 1982, cultivating ties with prominent socialist figures in France – ties that would endure during later crises with the former colonial power. He founded the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) in exile, returning only in 1988 to attend its founding congress. Further stints in jail would soon follow.

His first shot at the presidency, in 1990, ended in crushing defeat to Houphouet-Boigny, then in his seventh term, though it cemented Gbagbo’s position as opposition leader. Two years later he was again jailed for his part in student protests against the government of prime minister Alassane Ouattara. The two would meet again. In 1993, the rise to power of Henri Konan Bédié coincided with mounting xenophobia in Ivory Coast, instigated by the notion of “Ivoirité” (Ivorianness), and Gbagbo was accused of jumping on the nationalist bandwagon too. Ivoirité paid dividends in 2000 when Gbagbo won a disputed presidential election in which Ouattara, a Muslim whose nationality was disputed, was barred from running.

Civil war Gbagbo’s decade in power was marked by years of civil war, triggered by a failed coup in October 2002 that resulted in rebels seizing the country’s mainly Muslim north. His supporters, notably the Young Patriots that policed the streets, were accused of carrying out xenophobic attacks against northerners and foreigners. As the war dragged on, Gbagbo’s camp became increasingly frustrated with a peacekeeping force deployed by France, which it accused of undermining the country’s unity. The anger boiled over in 2004 after nine French soldiers were killed in an Ivorian air strike against rebels, prompting France to destroy the country’s air force in retaliatory attacks. Gbagbo supporters vented their fury at French expatriates, forcing Paris to hurriedly evacuate some 8,000 people.

As Gbagbo’s first term drew to a close in 2005, elections were repeatedly delayed, with postponements blamed on logistical failings and a row over eligibility to vote, centered on the question of who was and who wasn’t Ivorian. Unable to recapture the north militarily, Gbagbo signed a peace and power-sharing arrangement in March 2007 with rebel leader Guillaume Soro, who later became his prime minister. Three years later, the president and opposition leaders finally agreed to hold elections, which soon shaped up into a showdown between old rivals Gbagbo and Ouattara.

A bloody denouement In December 2010, Ouattara was declared the winner of a run-off vote, only for the Constitutional Court, controlled by Gbagbo supporters, to overturn the verdict 24 hours later. The ensuing power struggle would bring further bloodshed to the war-scarred nation, until Ouattara’s forces, backed by French troops, stormed the president’s compound in April 2011.

Later that year, the ICC opened an investigation into the violence and charged Gbagbo with four crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution and rape. He adamantly denied the charges, saying: “All my life, I fought for democracy.” Gbagbo maintained a strong following even while in jail, and news of his acquittal prompted celebrations in his Ivorian hometown of Gagnoa and other former bastions. His release comes just months after his wife Simone also walked free. Sentenced to 20 years in jail by a local court, the former “Iron Lady” of Ivory Coast was granted an amnesty by Ouattara after seven years in detention.

Source: France24