Lagos, Nigeria | Xinhua | Nigeria announced the launch of a major military operation across the country to combat insecurity, the army said in a statement on Saturday. The annual exercise code-named “CROCODILE SMILE” is part of the army’s efforts to combat insecurity in the West African nation, said Sagir Musa, …
Read More »18 civilians killed in Cameroon by Boko Haram in Far North
Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA | At least 18 civilians were killed in an incursion attributed to the Boko Haram group on the night of Saturday to Sunday in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to local sources. The attack took place at a place called Nguetchewe, located in the sub-division of …
Read More »Virus fear stalks Nigeria displaced camps
Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Men and women cluster around plastic wash basins hastily set up outside one of northeast Nigeria’s sprawling displaced persons’ camps, lathering their hands with soap under the gaze of security personnel. The makeshift hygiene facilities are among urgent efforts aimed at warding off the spread of …
Read More »Boko Haram attack kills nearly 100 Chadian troops
N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Boko Haram jihadists have killed nearly 100 Chadian soldiers in a seven-hour attack on an island army base, in their deadliest assault yet on the country’s armed forces. President Idriss Deby told Chad television he travelled to the scene of the attack on Tuesday to pay …
Read More »Niger stampede kills 20 at handout for refugees
Niamey, Niger | AFP | Fifteen women and five children were trampled to death on Monday in a stampede for food and money for refugees in southeast Niger, a regional governor said. The accident occurred at a youth and culture centre in Diffa, the main town of a region of the …
Read More »Clashes over Nigeria garrison town spark deadly displacement camp fire: witnesses
Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Intense fighting between Nigeria’s army and jihadists over a key northeastern garrison town killed three soldiers and sparked a deadly blaze at a nearby displacement camp, witnesses and security sources said Wednesday. On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of fighters from the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), …
Read More »Cameroon plans February polls under shadow of violence
Yaounde, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon is poised to hold parliamentary and municipal elections in February but a bloody separatist conflict and political tensions are set to cloud the vote, experts say. Anglophone separatists are fighting government troops in western Cameroon while the north of the country has come under attack …
Read More »Nigerian pastor accused of abusing children who fled Boko Haram
Benin City, Nigeria | AFP | Deep in the tropical forest in southern Nigeria, an evangelical pastor runs a sprawling camp billed as a refuge for thousands of children who fled the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the north. Solomon Folorunsho, known as Pastor Solomon, says he is on a self-proclaimed …
Read More »Kidnappings soar in Niger amid Boko Haram insurgency
Niamey, Niger | AFP | In the desert landscape of southeastern Niger, a radical Islamist insurgency has claimed hundreds of lives, fractured families and ravaged communities, fearful of the next Boko Haram attack. Strategically located in the Lake Chad basin in the middle of the Sahel, the Diffa region’s borders are …
Read More »10 years into jihadist rebellion, no reprieve for Nigeria’s displaced
Maiduguri, Nigeria | AFP | Maiduguri resident Ahmed Muhammed wanders through the rubble left behind as he recalls the outbreak of fighting in his city a decade ago that launched the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. “We heard shooting — badadadadadada — here, there, everywhere around us,” the 44-year-old railway …
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