Al-Shabaab Raids Somali Army Base
The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has carried out a raid on a military intelligence base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. A firefight claimed a number of casualties. The al-Shabab fighters first set off a car bomb outside the base before storming inside in Sunday’s attack, security officials said. Witnesses near the compound, which is also […]
Global Leadership Criticized – Refugee crises ‘reflect world in chaos’
Political will to stop conflicts missing, with old ones festering and new ones constantly erupting, UN official says. The UN refugee agency has said that the record number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people globally is “a reflection of a world in chaos”. On the eve of World Refugee Day, the UN released […]
Truth About Eritrea’s ‘Economic Migrants’
The United Nations refugee agency has just announced that more people are on the move – driven from their homes by conflict and human rights abuses – than at any other time in history: 59.5 million to be precise. Yet governments all over the globe contend that most of these people, who risk their lives […]
AU Calls United Nations to Protect Western Sahara
The 25th African Union summit has approved a decision in which the AU heads of state and government call the UN General Assembly to protect Western Sahara and keep its unity as the United Nations considers it a non-self-governing territory. The summit took this decision after it received the report of the AU Peace and […]
What Lies Behind the Rise of Jihadist Movements in Africa
The failure of African states to adequately address their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and economic differences provided the fertile ground on which rebel groups now prosper. Africa arguably faces the biggest threat to political stability since the collapse of colonialism in the mid-20th century. The threat comes in the main from the proliferation of militant […]
Shadow Economy of CAR Armed Groups, Exposed
A new report published today by the Enough Project takes an in-depth look into the business models of the two main armed groups responsible for widespread atrocities in the Central African Republic (CAR), the ex-Séléka and the Anti-Balaka. “Warlord Business: CAR’s violent armed groups and their criminal operations for profit and power” exposes a shadow […]
The Girls of the Lord’s Resistance Army
“Pain at sunrise, regrets at sunset – dawn or dusk, life isn’t fair anymore.” These are lines from a poem written by Betty Ejang, a former child soldier with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Thanks to the infamous KONY 2012 campaign you probably now know that the LRA abducted more than 30,000 children from their […]
Boko Haram Attack in Niger kills 38
An attack by suspected Islamist Boko Haram fighters in Niger has killed at least 38 people, officials say. It took place late on Wednesday night, according to a security source quoted by the Reuters news agency. Local MP Bulu Mammadu told the BBC that the victims included women and children who had been shot dead […]
Eritrean Man Walks 4 000km to SA for Education
After walking 4 000km from his home country of Eritrea to South Africa in pursuit of an education, Yibrah Ghebreyohannes finally realised his dream when he graduated with a Masters Degree in Geography at KwaZulu-Natal University recently. Ghebreyohannes, 33, who lives in Port Edward, told News24 it was South Africa’s democracy that inspired him to […]
Confiscated Boko Haram Bomb Explodes
At least 23 people have been killed in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Monguno after a Boko Haram bomb confiscated by vigilantes exploded, an MP and army source have told the BBC. The vigilantes were celebrating a successful operation with the military against the Islamist militants. An improvised explosive device (IED) went off killing and […]