2, February 2017
Gunmen kill five on Cameroon-Nigeria border 0
Unidentified gunmen have killed five people, including three nationals from Nigeria and one from Cameroon, after raiding a United Nations (UN) team on the border between the two countries, the UN has announced. The deadly raid occurred in the Hosere Jongbi area near Kontcha in northern Cameroon on Tuesday, according to a Wednesday evening statement by the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).
“An unknown armed group attacked the UN team and killed five persons and injured several others,” read the statement, which also identified the victims as “one UN independent contractor, three Nigerian nationals and one Cameroonian national.” The UN’s special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, censured the armed assault.
The statement, which did not mention the nationality of the UN contractor killed in the attack, further explained that the team was working to demarcate the nearly 2,000-kilometer land border dividing Nigeria and Cameroon. The area has reportedly been a source of tension between the two countries in the past. The Nigeria-based Takfiri terrorist group of Boko Haram, whose terror campaign has ruined wide areas of northeast Nigeria since 2009, also remains active in the far-north region of Cameroon.
Presstv
8, February 2017
Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara caught in the pangs of a monster he created 0
Soldiers in Ivory Coast have mutinied in a town in the southeast of the country, renewing an attempt to secure promised bonuses and make other grievances heard. Witnesses in the town of Adiake said on Tuesday that soldiers opened fire and blocked roads earlier in the day, similar to what happened in Bouake and other cities a month ago. “The soldiers erected barricades blocking traffic near their camp. The population has left the streets and we let the students out because we were afraid,” said a teacher in Adiake, adding that schools and other government institutions were shuttered as a result of the mutiny.
Another teacher said gunfire had begun earlier in the Special Forces’ camp in Adiake, adding that the entire town began panicking after armed soldiers left the barracks. A spokesman for the army confirmed that there was gunfire in Adiake, a town located nearly 100 kilometers east of Ivory Coast’s commercial hub Abidjan. The official did not immediately confirm the mutiny.
There was also no report on what the shooters were demanding, but the similar revolt in Bouake last month saw soldiers mutinying over unpaid bonuses and other grievances. The Bouake unrest quickly spread to other cities, including Abidjan. The government then agreed to pay more than 8,000 soldiers, most of them former militants who controlled northern Ivory Coast from 2002 to 2011, bonuses of nearly $20,000.
Other soldiers and elements of security forces have sought similar bonuses since the deal in January. Military sources said on Tuesday that mutineers in Adiake were seeking a similar payoff, which also included bonuses promised to them when they fought for former President Laurent Gbagbo. Hospital sources said the gunfire stopped around 1:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday, but people in Adiake were still panicked.
Presstv