Category: Judicial

Nigerian churches are introducing armed security and entry searches after a deadly June 5 attack on a Catholic church blamed on the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). Security experts fear the attack in Nigeria’s southwest Ondo state means the threat of terrorism is spreading and could soon reach the capital.

Abuja’s police said they have often deployed officers to churches, mosques and public places.

“These days people just become crazy and going to churches and start shooting,” said Bishop John Praise Daniel, the presiding pastor of Dominion Chapel. “So I think the church must get to that level of arming themselves against any attack that would come, that is self-defense and there’s no law against self-defense.”

On June 5th, heavily armed men invaded St. Francis Catholic Church in the southwest city of Owo and killed 40 worshipers using guns and explosives.

Eighty-seven people survived but suffered serious injuries. Some of them described the attack as “unimaginable horror.”

“For such incident to have occurred, lasted for more than 20 minutes and there was no police presence,” said Stephen-Chuks Okonye, who survived a bullet to his chest. “It means there’s no security in this country. Security is one area the government has to look into.”

Nigerian authorities blamed the Islamic state of West African Province or ISWAP for the shooting, but some experts say that was a hasty conclusion.

Experts also said the attack was an indication that terrorism is spreading in Nigeria.

Last week, gunmen in the Kajuru area of the northern Kaduna state attacked two churches, killed three people and kidnapped 36 others.

On Sunday, gunmen killed two clergymen in separate attacks in Kaduna and Edo states.

The Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), raised concerns about the attacks, criticized authorities for a lack of protection and urged church authorities to take stronger security measures.

“The church as a whole must be security conscious and be prepared. The next person to you is a suspect,” said Joseph Daramola is the general secretary of CAN.

Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, promised to address general insecurity and boost Nigeria’s economy when he first won office in 2015.

But as his second and final term comes to an end, gruesome attacks like the one in Owo will be remembered as the country prepares for next year’s elections.

Source: Voice of America

Two police officers were killed and one wounded in an attack on a police station in northwest Benin on Sunday, police sources said, the latest in a string of deadly assaults in an area affected by a spillover of militant activity in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Suspected jihadists descended on the Dassari police station at around 2 a.m. and opened fire, killing two officers before they were pushed back, said one police officer who did not wish to be named.

“Our forces were able to resist. Unfortunately, there were two dead in our ranks,” the police officer told Reuters.

Two “terrorists” were also killed and several others wounded, he added.

A second unnamed police source confirmed the assault and the death toll.

Dassari is a town around 600 km (373 miles) northwest of Benin’s largest city Cotonou, near the border with Burkina Faso.

It is around 250 km from a police station in the commune of Karimana, near the border with Niger, that was raided by armed assailants on April 26, leaving at least one dead and several wounded.

Benin’s army has not officially communicated on Sunday’s attack.

Its spokesman Didier Ahouanvoedo referred Reuters to the police.

“The attack this early morning once again spread panic among the local population,” said a local official in Dassari, who did not wish to be named for safety reasons.

“The situation is now under control thanks to reinforcements from the army,” he added.

Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that spread to northern Benin from West Africa’s Sahel region have escalated attacks in recent weeks.

Five soldiers were killed in April when an army convoy struck an improvised explosive device planted in the northern Pendjari National Park.

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDE, Two soldiers have been injured and one Boko Haram fighter killed in clashes in Cameroon’s Far North region, army sources said.

The clashes took place overnight into Friday in the Kiliari locality of the region.

Heavily armed militants of the terror group attempted to attack the locality but were repulsed by troops who were patrolling the area, an army official said.

One of the militants was found dead early Friday after the clashes which lasted for hours, the official said.

Militants of the group have increased attacks mostly on civilians over the last two months, killing several, torching houses and looting property, according to security reports.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Key Messages

• March marks the end of the lean season in Lesotho, when most households are expected to have depleted food stocks from the 2021 harvest with increased reliance on market purchases for food. At the same time, green consumption has started for some households. Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes are likely ongoing in some areas of the country. Although, as the green harvest is beginning, many households have started to access own-produced foods. As the harvest becomes fully established, food security outcomes are expected to improve in the coming months.

• Above-average rainfall for the January to February period led to favorable crop development across much of the country, notably for maize and sorghum. The maize and sorghum harvest begins in May. National production is likely to be above both last year and the five-year average.

• Seasonal workers are returning to South Africa in search of labor, as casual labor opportunities typically decline within Lesotho. The lifting of restrictions on the movement of people and the opening of industries resulted in the recovery of jobs and incomes. The lifting of restrictions affects both the workforce within the country and migrant workers heading to South Africa. However, these opportunities and the level of remittances remain below pre-pandemic levels.

• The monthly price of maize meal was stable in January and near last year’s levels but significantly above the five-year average. The stable levels generally reflect adequate regional supplies of maize. However, there was an uptick in edible oil and wheat flour prices for the past four months. Prices for edible oil and wheat flour were above last year and the five-year average. Following the invasion of Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, global prices for energy and food commodities and freight costs increased. As Lesotho is a net importer of these commodities, there will likely be some price transmission to domestic markets. Food prices are expected to remain high compared to last year and the five-year average and will negatively impact purchasing power of market-dependent households.

Source: Famine Early Warning System Network

Lesotho’s former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has been charged with the 2017 murder of his estranged wife Lipolelo Thabane.

His current wife, Maesaiah, was charged with the same crime last year.

She was living with Thabane at the time of the killing and they are accused of hiring hitmen. They have both denied any involvement.

Thabane stepped down in May 2020 following months of pressure after he was named as a suspect.

The case has shocked many and caused political ructions in the small landlocked kingdom which is entirely surrounded by South Africa.

Maesaiah Thabane accompanied the 82-year-old former prime minister to court. She was charged last year and then released on bail.

The charges were read out in the boardroom of the High Court in the capital, Maseru, rather than in the main court room, which is normal practice.

Gunmen shot and killed Lipolelo Thabane on June 14, 2017 – two days before Thabane was sworn in as prime minister.

While returning home, she was ambushed, shot several times at close range and died on the side of a dirt road. She was 58.

At the time, Lipolelo was going through a bitter divorce with Thabane and had been living apart from her husband since 2012.

He had moved in with Maesaiah some time between 2012 and 2017. They married two months after Lipolelo’s death.

Source: Nam News Network

The European Union plans to take the unprecedented step of funding weapons purchases for Ukraine, EU officials said on Feb. 27 as the bloc announced a raft of new sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The EU’s plan to fund weapons purchases will use millions of euros to help buy air-defense systems, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and other military equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces. It would also supply things like fuel, protective gear, helmets and first-aid kits.

“For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said of the weapons purchases, calling it a “watershed moment.”

Von der Leyen expects the measure to be endorsed by EU leaders along with other significant moves — a ban on pro-Kremlin media outlets RT and Sputnik, the closure of EU airspace to Russian planes, and sanctions against Belarus.

She said RT and Sputnik are part of the “Kremlin’s media machine,” and the EU is “developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe,” von der Leyen said.

They will “no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our union,” von der Leyen said.

The closure of the EU’s airspace comes after many individual European countries along with Britain and Canada announced they would ban Russian planes. The EU airspace ban will prohibit flights into or over the EU by “every Russian plane — and that includes the private jets of oligarchs,” von der Leyen said.

The EU also will hit Russian ally Belarus with sanctions for facilitating the invasion. The regime of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka had been “complicit in the vicious attack against Ukraine,” von der Leyen said.

New restrictive measures will hit Belarus’s most important sectors, including tobacco, wood, cement, iron and steel.

The measures come on top of EU sanctions announced Feb. 26, including cutting some Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging network, banning all transactions with Russia’s central bank, and added restrictions on Russian oligarchs.

The measures also follow Germany’s decision to commit 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to a special armed forces fund and to keep its defense spending above 2% of GDP from now on.

Source: Voice of America