More than 80 Cameroonian soldiers, early yesterday, crossed the international border between Nigeria and Cameroun and invaded Danare in Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, claiming they were fighting Cameroon militants who took refuge in the community. Vanguard learned that more than 3,000 refugees from Cameroun are currently taking refuge in Danare, which borders the Central African country. Army A group of Danare indigenes, led by a former councillor in Boki coucil,  Dauglas Ogar, who  addressed journalists in Calabar, yesterday,  said the gendarmes stormed their village about 2p.m., yesterday  and  started shooting, sending people running for  safety. He said: “Our people did not sleep yesterday because the gendarmes from Cameroun invaded our community claiming to be looking for Ambazonia militants.  The militants, who have since taken refuge in the surrounding forests, were also shooting and the whole community was in chaos.

“It is important to recall the sad invasion of Danare communities by  Cameroonian soldiers on January 25 this year when more than 80 well armed Cameroonian soldiers crossed the international boundary in the Danare-Daddi/Danare-Bodam international border openings and abducted five natives. “By the time they left this morning (yesterday), they said their mission was to warn residents of Danare communities to be aware of their return to carry out a military raid. “According to them, it was intended to cleanse Danare communities of all Ambazonia refugees’ threat to the Cameroon Government.

“The soldiers threatened to come back to Danare to execute the proscription of Southern Cameroonians taking asylum in Danare as a result of the ongoing Anbazonia crises which resulted in the mass influx of refugees from neighbouring Southern Cameroon villages to Danare  communities and many other Nigerian border communities. “This is a calculated offensive from Cameroon military on Nigeria. They have shown outright defiance to Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty and dammed the consequences of crossing the international boundary to carrying out all sort of intimidation and harassment on already alarmed citizens of Danare, with warnings of their further assault.”

He noted that the current situation in their community points “to how weak the Cameroon government sees Nigeria and its security consciousness. “They have weighed the vulnerability of defenceless residents of Danare and concluded that it was capable of inflicting mass death on the citizens of Nigeria and refugees of Southern Cameroon hosted in Danare.” He explained that the breach of the country’s internal security was posing a serious danger to the peace and safety of residents, the refugees and  the entire Boki communities in Nigeria. “The Paul Byia contingents are leveraging on the poor security state of Danare border and all Boki communities to hatch a well-thought out genocide,” he said.

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Militants have launched a fresh attack on military personnel in Mali’s lawless northern desert region, killing four soldiers.

A statement by the armed forces posted on social media on Sunday said the attack that took place earlier in the day in Menaka targeted soldiers and national guard members.

It said the attacker was “destroyed” as he was trying to detonate his explosives near the army and guard post.

“Unfortunately during this operation, four armed forces personnel lost their lives,” the statement added.

Other military sources denied reports that more than one person were behind the attack, adding that the armed forces were now “in control of the situation”.

Military helicopters operated by France, the most dominant foreign force in Mali, were hovering above the area, the sources said.

The attack was the second to rock Mali’s troubled north in the weekend. On Saturday, militants blitzed the Soumpi military camp, took control of it and killed 14 soldiers. Another 18 were wounded in the attack which came near Timbuktu, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of Menaka.

France, the former colonizing power in Mali, led a massive military operation in early 2013 to push back militants linked to al-Qaeda from the desert region. However, attacks have continued unabated on domestic and foreign forces since then while civilians living in central Mali have also been affected. A total of 26 people, including women and infants, were killed Thursday after their vehicle drove over a landmine in Boni, located outside of the desert region.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita deplored the attack which left a high civilian death toll. “All of Mali was in mourning, all of Mali is appalled,” said Keita while visiting the region instead of attending a planned regional summit.

Source: Presstv

More than 43,000 Cameroonians have fled as refugees to Nigeria to escape a crackdown by the government on Anglophone separatists, local aid officials said on Thursday.

The figure is almost three times as high as that given by the United Nations and Nigerian officials two weeks ago.

Cameroon is a majority French-speaking country but two southwestern regions bordering Nigeria are Anglophone. Last October, separatists declared independence for a state they want to create called Ambazonia, sparking a military crackdown by the government of President Paul Biya.

In Nigeria’s Cross River state, which borders southwest Cameroon, more than 33,000 Cameroonians have taken refuge from violence, John Inaku, director general of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told Reuters by phone.

Earlier this month, the UN refugee agency had said more than 8,000 refugees were in Cross River state.

Explaining the disparity, Inaku told Reuters the UN agency was only registering people in Cross River coming in through conventional routes.

“This is a war situation and refugees are trooping in by the minute through the bush paths, rivers and every other unconventional routes open to them,” he said.

“During our advocacy to our border communities we told them to allow the refugees in and not be hostile to them so our communities have been receiving them warmly and accommodating them. These are very remote areas, hard to reach without good roads,” Inaku said.

Inaku said community facilities were becoming overstretched and so people were getting hostile toward the refugees, who were in “deplorable condition”, hungry and in need of medicine.

The Benue SEMA director general said the agency had also had difficulty counting refugees because they were in remote areas.

Early on Thursday, gunmen crossed from Nigeria to attack a border post in Cameroon’s southwest, security force witnesses said, with the incident likely to further damage relations between the neighbors.

The separatists pose the biggest challenge yet to the 35-year rule of Biya, who will seek re-election this year. The conflict is also fuelling tensions between Nigeria and Cameroon.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

REUTERS

At least 14 soldiers have been killed and 17 others sustained injuries in the central Mali city of Timbuktu after unknown gunmen attacked their camp, according to military sources.

Unidentified armed men attacked the camp in the town of Soumpi at around 6 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Saturday.

“The provisional toll is 14 dead, 17 wounded and two enemies killed. The search is still on for those missing,” said one of the military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another military source confirmed the attack, putting the death toll at “around 15.”

“The soldiers abandoned their position. The enemy carried away material,” the unnamed source said.

The attack came two days after 26 civilians were killed and several others injured when their vehicle was blown up by a mine in central Mali.

According to Malian army spokesman Colonel Diarran Kone, the vehicle had crossed the volatile border with neighboring Burkina Faso, where militants loyal to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group are known to operate, when it ran over the mine.

In a separate incident, the Malian military said its forces had come under attack in the town of Youwarou near Mopti, once a popular tourist spot, but that they had repelled it.

“They neutralized seven terrorists and recovered equipment abandoned by the assailants,” it said.

In the past three years, Takfiri forces, which had long been destabilizing the thinly populated desert north of Mali, have swept south into its wetter, more populated central regions, exploiting local conflicts to spread militancy.

Mali plunged into turmoil after President Amadou Toumani Toure was overthrown in a military coup on March 22, 2012.

The coup leaders said they staged the putsch in response to the government’s inability to contain the rebellion in the country’s north.

In January 2013, French soldiers were deployed to Mali under the pretext of putting an end to the crisis in the West African country, a former colony of France.

Unrest rages on across Mali despite the presence there of an 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, which has been stationed in the country since July 2013, as well as 1,000 French forces.

Source: Presstv

Thousands of asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have fled to Burundi in the past three days over fierce fighting in the eastern parts of the country, Burundi police say.

Nearly 7,000 Congolese have crossed Lake Tanganyika and taken refuge in Burundi since Wednesday as clashes raged between DR Congo government forces and rebels in the troubled eastern province of South Kivu.

Burundi police said on Friday a total of 6,692 refugees had registered in just three days to escape fighting between the army and the Yakutumba militia, although the flow appeared to have since slowed.

“Yesterday, Lake Tanganyika seemed to be completely covered by hundreds of boats of all sizes, packed with refugees and their property, it was quite sight,” one rights activist told AFP.

Congo’s President Joseph Kabila told a press conference that the security situation in the east, much of which is in the hands of rival militias, was “worrying.”

The UN refugee agency or the Burundian authorities have not made any immediate comment about the situation yet.

The Congolese government said last week it was waging “war” against two militias in the east, the Yakutumba and the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) rebel groups.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo had one of the most brutal colonial rules before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship and back-to-back civil wars that left the mineral-rich country poor and politically unstable.

Dozens of armed groups have been active in the eastern DR Congo, long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war during which millions of people died, mostly of hunger and disease.

The United Nations in January warned that the Democratic Republic of the Congo was at a “breaking point,” saying this year it will seek more than $1.5 billion to respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country.

“The size of the crisis in the Congo is really challenging our collective ability to respond”, said the UN migration agency’s chief envoy to the country, Jean-Philippe Chauzy.

The escalating violence in Congo’s center and east this year comes amid a political crisis in the country due to President Kabila’s refusal to leave office after his term expired in December 2016.

In 2006, the UN mission helped carry out Congo’s first free and fair elections in 46 years, paving the way for President Joseph Kabila to be elected for a five-year term.

His second term in office ended in 2016. Under the DR Congo’s constitution, Kabila is banned from seeking a third term. However, Kabila is authorized to stay in office until his successor is elected but he decided to remain in power. This prompted the UN to urge the Congolese authorities “to respect the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Congolese Constitution.”

The delay in holding an election has flared up violence in the country.

Source: Presstv

Gunmen attacked a border crossing in Cameroon’s southwest on Thursday, launching their assault from Nigeria, security source witnesses said.

No one was killed, the officials said, but the incident is likely to further damage relations between the neighbors, strained over the rise of an Anglophone Cameroonian separatist movement.

Five security and administrative agents said the unidentified gunmen launched their attack on the Ekok border post along Cross River.

“They came around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT). They came from Nigeria and there were many of them. They had heavy weapons. They had grenades. They were shooting everywhere,” said one police source, who like the other witnesses asked not to be named.

“We don’t really know how it happened,” a second security source told Reuters. “Some of these guys came from the riverside (beneath the bridge). We don’t know exactly which path they took, but all of them came from Nigeria.”

Government officials in Cameroon would not immediately comment on the attack.

Nigeria’s defense ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the incident and referred queries to the military. A Nigerian military spokesman said he was not aware of the attack but would make checks.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

Reuters reported last month that Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of the rebels without seeking authorization from Nigeria, provoking a behind-the-scenes rift between two nations with a history of fraught relations.

The militaries of Cameroon and Nigeria repeatedly clashed over the disputed Bakassi peninsula in the 1980s and 90s.

The status of the territory was settled in Cameroon’s favor by The Hague-based International Court of Justice in 2002 and in recent years the two countries have cooperated extensively to stamp out the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

More than 15,000 refugees have fled to Nigeria amid Cameroonian military operations against the Anglophone separatists, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said earlier this month.

REUTERS

Twin car bombings outside a mosque have claimed the lives of more than 30 people and wounded dozens more in Libya’s second city Benghazi.

Security officials said on Wednesday that the bombers blew up two cars 30 minutes apart outside the mosque after evening prayers on Tuesday in the central neighborhood of al-Sleimani.

Emergency and security workers who had rushed to the scene were among those killed in the second blast.

Fadia al-Barghathi, a spokeswoman for the city’s al-Jala hospital, said that the facility received 25 dead and 51 wounded. Spokesman Khalil Gider said that the Benghazi Medical Center received nine dead and 36 wounded.

Health officials said many of the wounded were in critical condition and the death toll was likely to rise.

Military spokesman Milud al-Zwei said Ahmad al-Fituri, a security official for Khalifa Haftar forces, was also among those killed.

Benghazi has been relatively calm since military strongman Haftar announced the eastern city’s “liberation” from militants in July last year after a three-year campaign.

Haftar, who supports an administration based in the east of the country has declared three days of mourning following the attack. Haftar’s opponents accuse him of wanting to seize power and establish a military dictatorship.

A UN-backed unity government based in the capital Tripoli, the Government of National Accord (GNA) condemned the attack as a “terrorist and cowardly act.” The GNA has struggled to assert its authority outside the west.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) strongly denounced the bombings as “horrific” and warned that “direct or indiscriminate attacks against civilians… constitute war crimes.”

The UN-backed government of Libya has yet to exert its control over much of the oil-rich North African country as a rival administration in the east and its powerful army continue to challenge Tripoli’s rule as they rely on support from some of Libya’s neighbors and certain rich Arab states.

Libya has been wracked by violence and divisions since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed military invasion.

A series of fierce clashes between rival militias at Tripoli’s airport last week left 20 dead and forced the cancellation of all flights for five days.

Source: Presstv

Cameroon-based Nigerian man identified as Ugochukwu Okeke a.k.a Alino, has allegedly been killed by his wife, Chinenye Adaeze Okeke, and her apprentice boyfriend in the  African  country.

Multiple online reports reveal that  the deceased  met his untimely death during an argument with his wife over her sexual affairs with one of his apprentices under his roof. Late Alino hailed from Ndimgbu while the wife is from Mbanagu, both in Anambra State.

It was gathered that Chinenye and the said boyfriend joined hands to beat Alino to death. They then wrapped his body and put it in a car trunk for disposal, but luck ran against them and they were apprehended.

The suspects are now cooling their feet in a police station in Yaunde.

Alino was the only son of his mother popularly known as Madam Holy Holy. The couple had 5 children together.

On Saturday, Nnewi Youth in their numbers stormed  the home  of the wife in Mabanagu to burn down her father’s house. The angry youths ransacked the house and took the  pictures  of Chinenye and  mourn  her alive around the town.

Source: The Nigerian Voice

The Cross River government on Sunday provided food and non-food items to over 3,000 Southern Cameroonian refugees camping in Ikom local government area of the state. The items included rice, plantain, beans, yam, garri, palm oil, cartons of indomie, toiletries and cooking utensils.

Presenting the items, Gov. Ben Ayade of the state disclosed that the intervention was to give succour for the hardship and displacement experienced by the refugees. Ben Ayade Ayade, who was represented by Dr Mercy Akpama, the Managing Director, Cross River Food Bank Commission, said that his administration places premium on the welfare of residents in the state.

“I am aware of your pains and I am not relenting in my contacts with President Muhammadu Buhari and the international community to know that what is happening to you is not good before God and humanity. There is no greater pain like depriving a people of their ancestral homes and reducing them to wants in body and soul. “This passion has led me to bring food to you and soon I will build camps for you while waiting for my contacts to come to fruition in a bid to see you return to your ancestral homes. “I love you all and urge you to stay in peace with your hosts. Remain patriotic and obey the laws of the land. “I urge you to share these items in love for your suffering will not be for too long,’’ he said. Mr John Inaku, Director General of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, told the refugees that the state governor was passionate about their plight. “We have your brothers and sisters in other locations as well, these items are for those of you in Ikom and I can assure you that the governor will also reach others soon,’’ he said.

Inaku explained that drugs would also be provided soon to take care of the health needs of the refugees. “The governor will come with more things for you. Be law abiding; you are our brothers and sisters and we love you all,’’ he said.

Mr Abia David, Coordinator, Southern Cameroon refugees, lauded the government and people of the state for their concern, noting that the gesture was a sign of true love. “A drop of water to a man who is very thirsty is a welcome development. We are appreciative of this gesture by Cross River state governor and it is a sign that he cares about our wellbeing,’’ he said.

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Suspected militia fighters killed four Congolese soldiers in a hit-and-run attack on a military post in troubled Kasai-Central province’s capital, Kananga, UN-funded radio reported on Sunday.

Fighting between the Kamuina Nsapu militia and government forces over the past year and a half has displaced over 1 million people in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai provinces. Millions more have been hit by a severe humanitarian crisis.

Citing UN sources, Radio Okapi, which is supported by Congo’s peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, said the assailants attacked a military post near Kananga’s airport in the early morning hours before disappearing into the surrounding bush.

Local authorities were not immediately reachable for comment on the attack.

More than a decade after the end of a 1998-2003 war in which millions of people died, mostly from hunger and disease, militia attacks are on the rise across the vast, mineral-rich nation.

The violence comes amid a political crisis linked to President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate expired a year ago and has raised concerns that Congo could again slide into all-out war.

(Source: Reuters)