No fewer than six mine-resistant military vehicles have been intercepted by a joint security operatives in Konkol, a border community in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State between Nigeria and Cameroon republic.

It is not clear yet if the vehicles were exiting or coming into the country when they were intercepted.

A source in the Nigeria Customs Service, who spoke with Sahara Reporters said, “We have the six mine-resistant equipment at office in Yola. 

“It was a joint operation involving our officers, the Department of State Services, army and others.”

Sahara Reporters learnt that the military high command in Abuja had ordered an urgent investigation into the discovery.

Source: Sahara Reporters

Chad President Idriss Deby declared a state of emergency in two eastern provinces on Sunday after violent intercommunal clashes left dozens dead earlier this month.

The state of emergency will run for three months in Sila and Ouaddai regions where 50 people have died since August 9 in fighting between cattle herders and settled farmers, the president’s office said.

“From now, we will deploy military forces who are going to ensure the security of the population in the region,” Deby said while on a trip to Sila.

“We must disarm all the civilians who have weapons in their hands,” he said.

Eastern Chad is in the grip of a cycle of violence between nomadic camel herders — many from the Zaghawa ethnic group from which Deby hails — and sedentary farmers from the Ouaddian community.

Drought and population growth have aggravated the conflict while an influx of weapons from conflict-stricken neighbors have made it even more deadly.

Deby in particular blamed the unrest in Sudan, describing it as the “principal cause” of the ethnic violence.

Speaking earlier this month, the president had described the violence as a “national concern,” adding: “We are witnessing a terrible phenomenon.”

“Those with guns are not hesitating to shoot the police. We must wage a total war against those who carry weapons and are killing people,” he said at the time. Legislative elections in Chad are scheduled to take place by the end of the year.

They have been postponed several times since 2015 as Deby, who grabbed power in 1990, looks to maintain his hold on the country.

(Source: AFP)

Equatorial Guinea’s foreign minister, Simeon Oyono Esono Angue, on Friday denied reports that his country is planning to build a wall along the border with its neighbor Cameroon.

In early August, Western media reported that Equatorial Guinean soldiers had crossed the Ntem River that forms a natural border between the two countries and erected milestones in the town of Kye-Ossi on the Cameroonian side.

“The wall does not exist. The people talking about the wall lack information. When there is a problem between two countries, it is necessary to solve the problem through peaceful and diplomatic means. The media is free to propagate information but I insist that there is no wall,” Angue told reporters in the capital of Yaounde after meeting with Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.

He said he was sent by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea to consolidate bilateral relationship which he described as “excellent” between the two countries.

In late July, Cameroon’s army chief Rene Claude Meka toured the 180-km border between the two countries and warned that Cameroon would not tolerate any “expansionist ambitions.”

Source: Xinhuanet

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso promised Wednesday to exploit the discovered hydrocarbon field in the Cuvette region (north) in an environmentally friendly way, in a message on public television.

On August 10, two oil companies presented the characteristics of the first onshore oil field discovered in the Cuvette region.

I take note (…) of the successful completion of the oil exploration operations carried out under the Ngoki permit, highlighting the presence of quality oil reserves in the northern part of our country.

Mr. Sassou Nguesso said that the discovered deposit is located on the periphery of wetlands that support peatlands.

“Congo remains fully aware of the need to preserve peatlands, given their impact on global climate balance and the protection of biodiversity,” the Congolese president stressed.

“Our country has never violated the obligation to protect peatlands in its lake areas. It has no intention of doing so in the future, notwithstanding the financial compensation announced and still to be received,” he said.

The president was speaking in a speech related to the celebration of the 59th anniversary of the independence of Congo, a former French colony, on August 15.

The “Delta de la Cuvette” deposit covers an area of 9,392 square metres and could produce up to one billion cubic metres of hydrocarbons, including 359 million barrels of oil, or 983,000 barrels per day.

The share of the Congolese State that granted a permit in 2006 amounts to 35%.

Two oil companies own the Delta de la Cuvette. These two firms belong to Congolese businessman Claude Wilfrid Etoka, who is very close to President Sassou Nguesso. Both are from this region.

Source: AFP

A car bomb explosion in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has left two UN staffers dead and several others wounded.

The blast occurred in a shopping area of the al-Hawari district as a UN convoy was passing through on Saturday.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast so far.

Ahmed Mismari, the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman, told reporters the two victims were with the United Nations Libya mission (UNSMIL). He added that ten people had been wounded, among them children.

Around the time of the blast, LNA commander Khalifa Haftar, announced a halt to military operations during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which lasts from Saturday until Tuesday, according to a statement from his forces in Benghazi.

The UN is trying to broker a truce in the capital Tripoli, where the LNA launched a surprise attack in April.

Heading a group of militias, Haftar launched an offensive on Tripoli on April 4 to wrest control of the capital, but his armed groups failed to breach the southern defenses of the city.

Since then, the fighting has left at least 1,100 people dead, more than 5,750 wounded, and over 100,000 people displaced, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Haftar’s offensive has upended UN-led plans to stabilize Libya after years of conflict that has left the oil-rich nation divided and caused living standards to plummet.

The renegade general has defied a truce call by the UN, ordering his militia not to relent in their offensive.

Libya plunged into chaos in 2011, when a popular uprising and a NATO intervention led to the ouster of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his execution by unruly fighters.

His ouster created a huge power vacuum, leading to chaos and the emergence of numerous militant outfits, including the Daesh terrorist group.

Source: Presstv

A fuel tanker exploded in eastern Tanzania on Saturday killing at least 60 people, authorities said, as flames ripped through a crowd that had gathered to siphon petrol from it.

Video clips circulating on social media showed the charred remains of dozens of young men and burnt motorbikes. In footage from before the explosion, a large crowd was collecting liquid from puddles in yellow jerry cans.

“The fire was huge and it was challenging to rescue victims. I have seen about 65 to 70 people being rescued because the fire was fast spreading across the accident area,” witness Daniel Ngogo told Reuters.

“…The situation is really bad. Many people died, here even those who were not stealing fuel because this is a busy place.”

Government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said at least 60 people died and 70 were injured in the blast, which occurred in Morogoro, a town around 200 km (120 miles) west of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The government was helping coordinate the salvage operation “to ensure we bury the bodies… relatives identify the bodies of their loved ones, and those injured get proper treatment,” he added, in comments broadcast live by a state TV channel.

President John Magufuli was “shocked and saddened” by the accident, his office said in a statement.

(Source: Reuters)

Relatives of people murdered by death squads in The Gambia expressed outrage on Monday over the release of three former hitmen, who said they committed dozens of assassinations ordered by ex-president Yahya Jammeh.

The men, who were part of an unofficial paramilitary unit known as the Junglers, were freed from army custody two weeks after appearing before the West African country’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC).

During the hearings, the assassins accused Jammeh — who ruled the country for 22 years — of ordering multiple murders, including the 2013 killings of two US-Gambians and Deyda Hydara, co-founder of The Point newspaper and AFP’s correspondent in The Gambia for 30 years.

“It’s wrong to hear all these confessions, then release the killers out in our streets, out in our communities, out in our societies,” his son, Baba Hydara, told AFP.

In a statement, Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said his decision to release the three men — Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Badjie — was to encourage other alleged human rights violaters to testify.

“What we must not do is to scare people away from telling the truth because that will not be in anyone’s interest,” he said.

“Every victim family deserves to know the truth about their loved ones.”

The TRRC hearings, modelled on South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, started in January and are expected to take two years.

At the end, the body can make recommendations with regard to prosecution or reparation but cannot itself issue any sentences.

Human Rights Watch on Monday warned that the hitmen, who were arrested in 2017 but have never been tried, could leave the country.

“If these hitmen flee The Gambia now, not only will they escape justice, but we will lose the key witnesses in any future trial against Yahya Jammeh for ordering these gruesome crimes,” said US attorney Reed Brody from HRW.

Hit squad

Jammeh ruled The Gambia — a tiny state that is almost entirely surrounded by Senegal, except for a small strip of coastline — after taking power in a bloodless coup in July 1994.

He was repeatedly re-elected in disputed circumstances until he was defeated in December 2016 by a relative unknown, Adama Barrow.

After a six-week crisis that led to military intervention by other West African states, Jammeh bolted from the country.

Human rights activists have accused his regime of the systematic torture of opponents and journalists, executions without trial, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and rape.

The commission has gripped the public with its graphic evidence.

Last month Badjie, a hit squad member, told the panel that Jammeh ordered in June 2013 for two US-Gambian businessmen who he suspected of planning a coup, Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe, to be “chopped into pieces”.

The two men were arrested and suffocated, beheaded and buried, Badjie told the commission.

“Our team was a hit squad for Yahya Jammeh. We had blind loyalty for Yahya Jammeh,” he said.

Alhaji’s mother Ya Mamie Cessay expressed her horror at the release of the men.

“I feel so disrespected as a mother that my government is setting free the men who just confessed in the savage killing of my son,” she told AFP on Monday.

“What is the point of truth if the perpetrators of these crimes are set loose?”

The government has said the hitmen’s release is not an amnesty but has also not set out any restrictions to prevent them from fleeing the country.

Former soldiers, currently in custody, have also accused Jammeh of the murder of around 50 migrants rounded up on a beach as they were trying to make their way to Europe, but were taken for rebels.

Barrow has indicated he will wait for the commission to conclude before deciding on whether to request the extradition of Jammah.

(AFP)

Officials in Sudan have ordered the shutdown of schools across the country amid an escalation of tensions over the killing of five students.

Snipers allegedly shot dead the five high school students while they were taking part in a protest rally against fuel and bread shortages in al-Obeid City on Monday.

Late on Tuesday, authorities ordered all schools nationwide to suspend classes.

“Orders have been given to governors of all states to shut kindergartens, primary, and high schools from tomorrow (Wednesday) until further notice,” the official SUNA news agency said, following a directive issued by the ruling military council.

On the streets in the capital, Khartoum, crowds of students rallied, waving flags and chanting, “The people want to fight for the rights of martyrs.”

“We keep silent all the time and they kill us,” said Enas Saifeddine, a 16-year-old high school student. “The five students of al-Obeid were killed because they were asking for something basic like food, water, and electricity.”

The killings, which have caused outrage across the country and beyond, are attributed to the tribal paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The United Nations (UN) has called for an investigation into the killings. The UN’s children agency, UNICEF, has urged Sudanese officials “to investigate and hold all perpetrators of violence against children accountable.”

Meanwhile, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the ruling military council, has condemned the killings.

“What happened in al-Obeid is sad. Killing peaceful civilians is an unacceptable crime that needs immediate accountability,” he told journalists, quoted by state television.

The military council has been in power since April, when generals ousted long-time president Omar al-Bashir in the midst of protests against him.

But the Sudanese did not stop protesting. They have since been expressing their disapproval of military rule in demonstrations across the country. Bashir himself had risen to power in a coup.

Source: Presstv

Equatorial Guinea is awash in oil, although little of the wealth has trickled down to the poor.

Yet one of the most glaring inequalities here is access to the internet.

Other parts of the world are pushing ahead with plans for fast, free — or at least low-cost — universal online access. Equatorial Guinea, a small reclusive state on the coast of central-western Africa, seems stuck in a timewarp.

With rare exceptions, sluggish speeds and stratospheric bills are the daily lot of people who want to search for information on the web, use social media, email, messaging and the myriad of other internet activities that are routine elsewhere.

“The internet in Equatorial Guinea is still a big-money business, reserved for those who can afford it,” said Mboro Mba, 35, seated on the ground behind a hotel as he tried to hook into a free wi-fi service with his smartphone.

Equatorial Guinea has the most expensive internet in the world after Zimbabwe, according to a list published this year by Ecobank, a pan-African bank.

One gigabyte of mobile data — roughly equivalent to watching an hour of television on Netflix — costs an eye-watering $35 dollars (31 euros).

By comparison, the average monthly pay of a manual worker or restaurant waiter in Equatorial Guinea is between 100,000-150,000 CFA francs ($170-260, 150-230 euros).

“For 2,000 CFA francs (3.40 euros), I can’t even download an 80-second video,” a local journalist told colleagues from central Africa who had come to Malabo to cover a regional meeting and found themselves caught out by internet problems.

“You really have to be patient to work with the internet in this country,” said a visitor from the Republic of Congo, unsuccessfully trying to send files to his editor.

The barriers to internet access here are so high that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency, estimates that just a quarter — 26 percent — of Equatorial Guineans go online.

The authorities have set up a “free, public internet network” along the Paseo Maritimo, a seafront six kilometres (3.5 miles) long in Malabo that is also used for sporting activities and leisurely strolls.

“I come here almost every evening to talk on WhatsApp to my mother who is in Spain,” says Filomena, 32, a clothes vendor.

“I don’t have the money to have an internet connection, so I come here often with my friends to use the wi-fi,” schoolboy Jorge Obiang says, leaning against a tree with several young companions, all glued to their screens.

A former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea is nominally one of the richest states in Africa thanks to oil income.

By next month, its president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, will have ruled with an iron fist for 40 years — the longest tenure of any African leader alive today.

He has long been criticised for corruption within the regime and lack of openness to the rest of the world.

The slow service is especially paradoxical since “the country is situated in the Gulf of Guinea and so has access to a number of seabed cables”, said Julie Owono of Internet Sans Frontieres (Internet Without Borders), an NGO.

Equatorial Guinea — consisting of an island where Malabo lies and a forested territory on the African mainland that hosts trading capital Bata — is connected to three undersea fibre optic cables supplying internet service.

In neighbouring Gabon, internet access is five times less expensive on the scale drawn up by Ecobank.

– No competition –

The sky-high price of the internet “is explained by the very strong presence of the state (telecom) company on the market and lack of competition,” Owono said.

“Everything here is centralised, political decisions depend on one person, or a family, and it is difficult to establish a competitive market.”

The state telecoms agency GITGE, which sets tariffs, declined to respond to AFP’s questions.

Another disincentive for competition is internet blackouts ordered by those in power, she said.

In November 2017, on the eve of parliamentary elections, access to WhatsApp was blocked and social media became unavailable for five months.

“We’re living in the information era — the government is applying an enormous brake,” said Owono.

AFP

Sudan’s ruling military council has foiled a coup attempt, a top general announced on state television Thursday, saying that 12 officers and four soldiers had been arrested.

The announcement came as the ruling military and civilian protesters agreed last week to end a political impasse after the army in April ousted longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir on the back of a popular uprising.

“Officers and soldiers from the army and National Intelligence and Security Service, some of them retired, were trying to carry out a coup,” General Jamal Omar of the ruling military council said in a statement broadcast live on state television.

“The regular forces were able to foil the attempt,” he said, but did not say when the attempt was made.

Omar said of the 12 officers arrested, five of them were retired, and that security forces were looking for the mastermind of the attempted coup.

“This is an attempt to block the agreement which has been reached by the Transitional Military Council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change that aims to open the road for Sudanese people to achieve their demands,” Omar said.

The announcement late Thursday came as legal advisors of the ruling military council and protest leaders were going through the details of the agreement at a luxury hotel in Khartoum.

The landmark agreement that aims to form a new joint transitional civilian-military ruling body was reached last week after mediation by African Union and Ethiopian envoys.

The forming of the new governing body is the first step towards installing an overall transitional civilian administration in Sudan as demanded by demonstrators.

Sudan has been rocked by a political crisis since protests first erupted against Bashir’s rule in December.

The protests finally led to the army ousting him on April 11, but the generals who seized power have so far resisted demonstrators’ demands to hand it over to a civilian administration.

Tension had further soared between the two sides after a brutal raid on a longstanding protest camp outside army headquarters in the capital Khartoum that killed dozens of demonstrators and wounded hundreds on June 3.

The raid came after talks between the generals and protest leaders collapsed in May over who should lead the new governing body — a civilian or soldier.

Intense mediation by African Union and Ethiopian mediators finally led to the agreement reached on the new joint governing body on July 5.

The agreement proposes a little more than a three-year transition period, with the president of the new ruling body to be held by the military for the first 21 months and a civilian for the remaining 18 months.

The ruling body would comprise of six civilians, including five from the protest movement, and five of the military.

(Source: Reuters)