Regional News
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/27/bomb-blast-in-north-eastern-nigeria-kills-thi.Source:Africanews
Thirteen scrap-metal collectors in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state were killed when a bomb they excavated blew up, security sources said on Tuesday.
Sixteen metal scavengers from a displaced persons’ camp in Bama found the bomb while digging for scrap on Monday in the bush on the outskirts of town.
Bama is located in a region that has seen prolonged conflict between the Nigerian government and jihadist insurgents.
“The bomb exploded as they were pushing it in a cart toward the town, killing 13 and seriously injuring three.
Nigeria’s military is battling to end a 13-year jihadist insurgency in the country’s northeast that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced 2.2 million more.
Stinting to Survive in West Africa’s Sahel Region (premiumtimesng.com) Source:Premiumtimes
When Kimba Abdou went to a local store a year ago to buy a 100-kilogram bag of millet, a staple grain for Nigeriens, he parted with 20,000 West African francs, known as CFA, or about $31. The last time he checked, the price had gone up by more than 50 percent — with a bag now costing $55.
The 57-year-old farmer and his family of seven sons, five daughters and two wives live in the village of Mougoudjougou in the Tillabéri region in western Niger, which has been hit hard by attacks from Islamic State militias. Now their community is being hit again — this time by rising gas and grain prices and the fact that international aid is being diverted to the conflict in Ukraine. “Four weeks ago, we were the victims of an attack, which cost us three wounded who have been admitted to the hospital,” Abdou told PassBlue during a phone interview from his village. “It is very difficult to make ends meet; we have nothing — we only need assistance.”
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/01/malis-transition-govt-sets-february-2024-for- Source:Africanews
The Malian government has adopted an electoral calendar for the transition three days before a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is due to consider the tough sanctions imposed on the junta in January.
The date of the presidential election is set for February 2024, and that of the referendum on the new constitution for March 2023, according to official documents sent to AFP on Thursday.
Legislative elections are to be held between October and November 2023, and local elections in June 2023, according to these texts validated at a government meeting on Wednesday evening.
https://humanglemedia.com/anglophone-separatist-fighters-kill-cameroon-senior-military-officer/ Source:humangle
Anglophone separatist fighters have killed a senior officer of the elite Batallion d’Intervention Rapide (BIR) in Kumba, a town in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking Southwest region, HumAngle can report.
The Cameroon army is yet to make any official statement on the death of Colonel Essama Eyenga, son of another senior military officer, Col.Nsom Eyenga. Sources told HumAngle that separatists killed the BIR officer.
The attack on BIR forces in Kumba and the death of the senior military officer came in the middle of the visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Cameroon.
https://dailytrust.com/new-malaria-vector-discovered-in-northern-nigeria-re Source:dailytrust
The Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) has disclosed that it has discovered a new malaria vector named Anopheles Stephensi somewhere in northern Nigeria.
Director General of the Institute, Professor Babatunde Salako told newsmen in Lagos during his 63rd birthday ceremony on Monday night that the discovery is one of the institute’s recent research discoveries.
The vector, he said spreads malaria called plasmodium falciparum. He described the vector as a rugged one that is very difficult to eradicate and has not been found anywhere near West Africa.
“This has implications for malaria control in Nigeria because hitherto, the vector was not known in West Africa sub-region.”
Professor Salako further disclosed that the Institute is currently working with five groups in a consortium to develop local vaccines in Nigeria, stressing that idea is to ensure that Nigerian researchers are able to learn the development process from the beginning to the end.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/25/macron-in-cameroon-on-his-first-visit-to-afric Source:Africanews
Cameroon welcomes French president Emmanuel Macron on his first trip to Africa since his re-election last April. The visit also includes Benin and Guinea-Bissau.
The visit comes at a time when France is undertaking to “renovate” its military partnerships on the continent to maintain its strategic competition in the face of increasing influence by Turkey, China and Russia.
“Obviously it is very good news for Africa, Central Africa and Cameroon when we see the current socio-political context with the hostility of France in Mali, the war in Ukraine, it is a very good thing. France is coming to Cameroon to warm up its relations and strengthen its support when we know the strategic role that Cameroon plays in Central Africa. It is a very good visit now”, said Cameroonian banker Ndzomo Essomba Henri.
Food crisis and security top the agenda with the effects of the war in Ukraine in the supply of grain being a major concern; many also want human rights to feature prominently in the discussions between Macron and the Cameroonian president, Paul Byia.
SPECIAL REPORT: How insecurity causes malnutrition for millions of Nigerian children (premiumtimesng.com) Source:premiumtimes.
Three-year-old Salamatu’s face was gaunt, her eyes sunken and her tiny hands and legs tightly covered by flesh.
Wrapped in her mother’s arm in a health facility in Maiduguri, north-east Nigeria, Salamatu struggled to force a tear as a nurse wrapped a white tape around her left arm.
She had suffered from fever, diarrhoea, and low appetite in the past three days which had left her weak. Salamatu slowly parted her lips as the nurse tried to feed her with a peanut-butter paste known as RUFT, a treatment for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
Salamatu ticked all symptoms of malnourishment and was one of the many malnourished children residing at the Munna garage IDP camp in Maiduguri, Borno State.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/24/malis-army-says-new-attack-foiled-against-mil Source:Africanews
Mali’s army said, Sunday, it had thwarted a new attack on a military camp in the center of the country, two days after a deadly suicide attack in a strategic garrison town near the capital.
“Armed forces once again foiled an attempted attack on a camp in Sevare on Sunday 5:40 a.m”, the army said on social media.
“The provisional toll stands at one terrorist neutralized,” it added.
According to a high-ranking official from the Sevare camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, to AFP: “The situation [was] under control.”
On Friday, Mali said it had repelled a suicide raid by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists of the Katiba Macina group with two vehicle-borne bombs that killed at least one soldier in Kati, the heart of the Malian military establishment.
Premium Times – Nigeria leading newspaper for news, investigations (premiumtimesng.com) Source:Premiumtimes
Arms and ammunition seizures by security forces in Niger’s Agadez and Tahoua regions between January 2021 and February 2022 helped dismantle trafficking networks in the country. This is positive, but what do the seizures say about the extent of the problem? Is arms trafficking from Libya to countries in the south on the rise again?
After the fall of Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, southward arms flows from Libya rose significantly. In 2012, this enabled Mali’s Tuareg rebels and armed groups operating in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin to acquire weapons and ammunition in a period of widespread regional turmoil.
The weapons, transported from the Libyan south-west by Tuareg fighters and traffickers, were moved along the Algerian and Nigerien borders. They were transported along the roads that cross the Agadez, Tahoua and Tillabéri regions, joining Mali via the Niger-Mali-Burkina Faso tri-border area and Lake Chad Basin via Niger’s Diffa Region.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/investigationspecial-reports/545183-investigation-inside-story-of-how-nigeria-air-force-bombed-children-terrorised-by-boko-haram-in-niger.html Source:Premiumtimes
On one mid-April morning at Kurebe community in the Shiroro area of Niger State, six girls were running after one another, carefree, in a manner expressive of the innocent exuberance of kids. As they huddled together at a borehole, which they had friskily raced to, a military fighter jet appeared high overhead, apparently hunting for military targets in an area that has fallen to the grips of the extremist violent group Boko Haram.
Then, the roaring jet belonging to the Nigerian Air Force dropped explosive artillery shells covering the atmosphere with smoke as trees fell on roofs, forcing everyone to scamper for safety. In the wake of the bombing, the air force had killed the six children. And when parents and residents reached the borehole where the kids had huddled together, they were only able to collect their torn remains.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/22/gunmen-attack-villages-kill-17-including-5-po Source:Africanews
17 people including 5 police officers were killed in an attack by armed men in the Katsina province, North-west Nigeria, police and local representative confirmed Thursday.
Forests in the northwestern part of the country have proven hideouts for criminals locally known as bandits who attack, kill, kidnap villagers and steal livestock.
Wednesday evening, some 300 bandits riding bikes attacked a police station near the Gatakawa village, which is located in the Kankara district. They killed 5 officers according to Gambo Isah, the spokesperson of the local police.
https://dailytrust.com/terrorists-plotting-to-attack-lagos-fct-kogi-katsina-kaduna-zamfara-nscdc Source:dailytrust
Two separate bandit groups are plotting coordinated attacks on North-West, North Central and South West, a leaked memo from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has revealed.
The memo, addressed to all commands of the NSCDC, dated July 25 and sighted by our correspondent yesterday listed Lagos, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Kogi States as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as targeted places.
The memo was signed by the Deputy Commandant General, Operations, D.D. Mungadi.
“Consequently, the Commandant-General has directed you to scale up deployment in all strategic places, including schools, worship centres and critical national assets in your respective states, to checkmate any possible threats by these criminal elements. Please treat it as urgent,” the memo said.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/26/2-burkinabe-soldiers-killed-and-15-suspected- Source:Africanews
Burkina Faso’s military headquarters said Monday that two soldiers were killed in an attack on a military detachment in northern Burkina Faso and 15 suspected jihadists “neutralised” in a counter-offensive.
“The soldiers of the Kelbo detachment, Soum province, Sahel region, repelled a terrorist attack that targeted their base on Monday morning with shellfire”, the army said, adding that “two soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the fighting”.
According to the army, the response “of the elements of the detachment routed the attackers” and “air support was deployed to intercept the group of attackers who were trying to escape”.
https://humanglemedia.com/security-forces-avert-violent-protest-in-northwest-cameroon/ Source:humangle
Youths in the town of Wum, Cameroon’s restive English-speaking Northwest region, went on the rampage Tuesday, July 26, morning, storming the town’s grandstand carrying sticks and machetes.
Security forces have been drafted to help calm down tempers as the Aghem youths accuse a faction of Muslim youths of regular attacks on some local communities.
The tension, which has erupted into restive anger, started on Monday, July 25, when the lifeless bodies of three Fulani youths were found in the bushes in Zonghofu-Wenduo.
NEMA receives another batch of 175 stranded Nigerians from Libya (premiumtimesng.com) Source:Premiumtimes
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on Wednesday, received another batch of 175 stranded Nigerians from Libya at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed, who was represented by the Acting Coordinator of the Lagos Territorial Office of the Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Mr Farinloye said that the stranded Nigerians were received at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at about 11:58 p.m. They arrived on a Boeing 737-800 Al Buraq Air with registration number 5A-DMG.
He said that the returnees were brought back to the country by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) through a voluntary repatriation programme.
He said that the programme was meant for the distressed Nigerians who had left the country to seek greener pastures in various European countries but could not afford to return when their journey became frustrated.
Mr Farinloye said that the returnees include 77 male adults, 64 female adults, 11 male and 12 female child, five female infants and six male infants.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/22/cameroonians-queue-for-fuel-as-shortages-hit-t Source:Africanews
Scenes like this of people lining up at gas stations in Cameroon’s capital, jerrycans in hand are becoming commonplace.
Most fuel stations have run out of diesel in recent days and those that have are now rationing it.
“You line up for 4 hours, 5 hours, I’ve been here since 6 o’clock,” said Nkeudeu, a transporter.
“There is already no fuel at other stations and where we find a little bit of petrol, we are told we can’t fill our tanks,” said Moffo Koumeni, a cab driver.
In the wake of scarce supplies of diesel, transporters have increased fares. Prices of goods too are shooting up.
“While the fuel shortage situation is becoming untenable for motorists in the city of Yaoundé and surrounding towns, experts believe that this is a way for the authorities to prepare Cameroonians for a possible increase in fuel prices”, said our correspondent Joel Kouam in Yaounde.
Peace and Security
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/04/ecowas-lifts-mali-sanctions-agrees-on-burkina Source:Africanews
West African leaders met in Ghana, Sunday, to review sanctions imposed on three neighbor countries. Ecowas heads of states lifted economic and financial sanctions On Mali, approved Burkina transition timetable and gave Guinea an additional one-month reprieve to present an “acceptable” timetable. During the summit, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, president of Guinea-Bissau, was elected as new chairman of the bloc.
West African leaders attending a regional summit agreed Sunday to lift sanctions on Mali and Burkina Faso, two neighbors led by military governments.
Speaking in Accra, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou – Ecowas Commission President – said the head of states had reached an agreement with Bamako, which has promised a return to democratic rule.
https://dailytrust.com/senate-approves-establishment-of-agency-against-arms-proliferation Source:dailytrust
The Senate Tuesday passed a bill to establish the National Commission for the Coordination and Control of the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons.
This followed the consideration of a report by the Committee on National Security and Intelligence.
The bill, which is a consolidation of three bills, seeks to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the country.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/26/macron-denounces-hypocrisy-on-african-nations/ Source:Africanews
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday denounced the “hypocrisy” expressed ” notably on the African continent” for not clearly recognising Russia’s “unilateral aggression” towards Ukraine, as the European Union does.
Macron described the global food crisis as one of Russia’s “weapons of war” during a visit to Cameroon on Tuesday, dismissing suggestions Western sanctions were to blame.
Cameroon, like many developing countries, is grappling with sharp increases in prices for oil, fertiliser and foodstuffs. Severe fuel shortages hit the capital Yaounde last week leading to long queues at petrol stations.
https://dailytrust.com/bandits-kill-6-in-taraba-katsina-abduct-36-in-kaduna Source:dailytrust
Gunmen have killed three persons and abducted five girls and a leader of a vigilante group in Jalingo, Taraba State.
The incident occurred Saturday and Monday nights at different locations in the metropolis.
It was learnt that a resident and a mobile policeman were killed midnight at Lasandi, BabaYau and Sabongari.
Similarly, the vigilante leader, identified as Bashir and five girls, were abducted by gunmen around 1.30am at Saminaka Junction on Monday night.
The gunmen on motorcycles reportedly invaded the area and shot in different directions before gaining entrance into the resident of the vigilante leader.
Humanitarian
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/21/nigeria-recovery-of-third-chibok-girl-within- Source:Africanews
The Nigerian army has found another one of the so-called “Chibok girls” who were kidnapped by Boko Haram eight years ago. The recovery is the third in recent weeks, military officials said Wednesday.
Ruth Bitrus was among 276 schoolgirls aged 12-17 who were abducted from their boarding school in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria in 2014.
Christopher Musa, the commander of troops in the region, presented 24-year-old Ruth Bitrus, along with her two-year-old son to journalists in front of a military barracks.
Musa did not say when the Chibok woman was found. The young woman, who was 16 when she was kidnapped, escaped at night and walked for three days through the bush before reaching the town of Bama and approaching troops.
https://humanglemedia.com/abortion-amongst-displaced-women-women-in-captivity-in-niger Source:humangle
One day at around 3 a.m., a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri, Northeast Nigeria, was roused awake by cries from a woman in pain. Some of the women leaders were stirred from sleep. One of them was Aisha Kumshe*.
By the time Aisha got to the wailing woman’s tent, she says, she was in great pain and bleeding so much that her screams “seemed to be coming from deep inside her bones.”
It was not the first time her attention would be drawn to an emergency at odd times, because of her status in the camp. She has even once been called to help cage in a woman who had run out of her tent, naked, having developed a mental illness.
https://humanglemedia.com/security-forces-arrest-another-journalist-in-nigeria/ Source:humangle
The Police in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Monday, July 25, arrested Ayodele Samuel, the Publisher of Taraba Truth and head of Rock FM Jalingo, in the country’s northeastern State of Taraba
According to a personal statement about the development shared on Monday morning, Samuel is being detained at the Police Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja, over a petition by Emmanuel Bwacha, the lawmaker representing Taraba South Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
His wife, Mercy Samuel, told HumAngle in an interview on Tuesday that her husband has not returned home as police detained him overnight.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/26/cameroon-parties-call-on-france-to-recognize-c Source:Africanews
A collective of Cameroonian political parties called on President Emmanuel Macron to recognize France’s “crimes”, a few hours before the head of state’s visit to western African states, including Cameroon.
It’s Macron’s first visit abroad after re-election as he seeks to reboot France’s post-colonial relationship with the continent.
“Everything must be done so that Cameroon no longer accepts French hegemony willingly or by force”, affirmed Ekane Anicet, president of MANIDEM (African Movement for New Independence and Democracy).
Stabilization and economic development
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/27/benin-macron-in-cotonou-for-a-business-visit/ Source:Africanews
French President Emmanuel Macron is on a business visit to Benin on Tuesday and Wednesday following an invitation from his Beninese counterpart, Patrice Talon.
After a a tête-à-tête with Mr. Talon at the Marina Palace in Cotonou, Mr. Macron is expected to visit the exhibition of royal treasures returned to Benin by the French government last November.
In Benin, Macron is expected discuss ways to combat an increase in terrorist threats and to prevent it from spilling into countries in the Gulf of Guinea.
French Opposition and majority MPs have urged the Head of State to put pressure on President Patrice Talon on the issue of human rights during his trip to Cotonou on 27 July.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/20/world-bank-will-resume-financial-operations-i Source:Africanews
According to a note disclosed Tuesday by Mali’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, the World Bank has allowed the lifting of the suspension of its financial operations in Mali, a measure taken in May 2021 after two coups in less than a year.
“The Vice President, Western & Central Africa for the World Bank, Ousmane Diagana, sent a letter dated July 18, 2022 to the Minister of Economy and Finance, announcing the lifting of the suspension of disbursements for projects and programs financed by the World Bank in Mali,” a note posted on the government’s Facebook page read.
A development that will enable “the release of payments (…) of the companies concerned as well as the immediate resumption of the activities of the said projects and programs “, the statement followed.
West African presidents lifted early July sanctions imposed on Mali. ECOWAS in January had imposed a trade and financial embargo on Mali after its military government unveiled a scheme to rule for five years.
