News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Another Chibok girl found

Posted: 19 May 2016 07:10 PM PDT

The Nigerian army says a Chibok schoolgirl was among 97 women and children rescued from Boko Haram after clashes in Borno state.

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Abuja - A second girl who was among more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in a raid on their school in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok more than two years ago has been rescued, a spokesman for the Nigerian army said on Thursday.

Army spokesman Sani Usman said in an emailed statement that the girl was among 97 women and children held hostage by Boko Haram who were freed on Thursday morning after clashes between soldiers and jihadist militants in north-eastern Borno state.

Read: Rescued Chibok girl to meet Buhari

Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki, the first girl to be rescued, was found by soldiers working with a vigilante group on Tuesday near Damboa, south of Maiduguri in the remote north-east where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency to set up an Islamic state.

Officials confirmed Amina was one of 219 girls abducted from the government school in Chibok in April 2014. Late on Thursday, the army said an operation in Damboa at around 11am (10h00 GMT) led to the rescue of nearly 100 hostages that included the second Chibok schoolgirl.

“We are glad to state that among those rescued is a girl believed to be one of the Chibok Government Secondary School girls that were abducted,” said Usman, adding that she was receiving medical treatment.

He said her name is Serah Luka and she was from the north-eastern town of Madagali, in the state of Adamawa, which borders Borno.

The army spokesman said it was possible that three other girls that Serah referred to as having fled and been rescued when the troops arrived may also be among the Chibok girls, adding that this was being investigated.

A photograph of Serah released by the military shows her wearing a blue jilbab, a loose Muslim garment revealing her face but concealing her torso and arms.

“She averred that she reported at the school barely two months and one week before her unfortunate abduction along with other girls over two years ago,” said Usman.

Earlier on Thursday the governor of Borno state, where Chibok is located, said the army was drawing up plans and moving into a Boko Haram forest stronghold in a bid to rescue the remaining girls.

“We believe that in the coming weeks we shall recover the rest of the girls,” Governor Kashim Shettima told reporters. “The military is already moving into the forest.”

Previous military attempts to storm Sambisa forest have met with mixed success, with soldiers making significant in-roads but failing to finish off the Islamist militants after running into bands of well-armed guerrillas, mines and booby traps.

The #BringBackOurGirls activist group said Amina had told her rescuers the rest of the girls were under heavy Boko Haram guard in Sambisa.

The governor's comments came shortly after Amina, the first girl to be rescued, met Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Amina's rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity to vital information,” Buhari, a 73-year-old former military ruler, said during a meeting with the teenager, her mother and officials after a presidential jet flew her to Abuja.

Amina was discovered with her four-month-old baby, and the army said it had detained a suspected Boko Haram militant called Mohammed Hayatu, who said he was her husband.

On Thursday, the military released pictures of a clean-shaven man in a white shirt and cream trousers sitting beside Amina on a hospital bed holding the infant in his lap.

Amina, who was accompanied by her mother, Binta, Nigeria's defence minister and national security adviser, spent more than an hour with Buhari, who made crushing Boko Haram a pillar of his 2015 presidential election campaign.

More than 15 000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced in Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon during its seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in north-east Nigeria.

Under Buhari's command, and aided by Nigeria's neighbours, the army has recaptured most territory lost to Boko Haram. But the jihadist group, which last year pledged loyalty to Islamic State, still regularly stages suicide bombings.

Boko Haram captured 276 girls in a night-time raid on Chibok in April 2014, its most high-profile assault.

Some girls escaped in the melee but parents of the remaining 219 accused then-president Goodluck Jonathan of not doing enough to find their daughters, whose disappearance led to a wave of global outrage.

REUTERS

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#EgyptAir families await answers

Posted: 19 May 2016 07:08 PM PDT

Relatives of the 66 people aboard the EgyptAir jet that disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean are holding out hope.

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Cairo/Athens - An EgyptAir jet carrying 66 passengers and crew from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean on Thursday in a crash that Egypt said may have been caused by a terrorist attack.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to rule out any explanation for the crash, including an attack like the one blamed for bringing down a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula last year. The country's aviation minister said a terrorist attack was more likely than a technical failure.

Read: #EgyptAir crash 'likely to be a terrorist act'

The Egyptian civil aviation ministry initially said Greek authorities had found “floating material” and life jackets likely to be from the plane, an Airbus A320.

However, late on Thursday EgyptAir Vice-President Ahmed Adel told CNN that the wreckage had not been found.

“We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane. So the search and rescue is still going on,” Adel said.

Greek defence sources told Reuters the material was discovered in the sea 370km south of the island of Crete.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the civil aviation ministry, the army's search and rescue centre, the navy, and the air force to take all necessary measures to locate debris from the aircraft.

Read: #EgyptAir flight 'crashed', says Hollande

In a statement issued by his office, Sisi also ordered an investigative committee formed by the civil aviation ministry to immediately start investigating the causes of the plane's disappearance.

Officials from multiple US agencies told Reuters that a US review of satellite imagery so far had not produced any signs of an explosion aboard the EgyptAir flight.

The US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the conclusion was the result of a preliminary examination of imagery and cautioned against media reports suggesting the United States believed a bomb was responsible for the crash.

They said the United States has not ruled out any possible causes for the crash, including mechanical failure, terrorism or a deliberate act by the pilot or crew.

Amid uncertainty about what downed the plane, Los Angeles International Airport became the first major US air transportation hub to say it was stepping up security measures.

“In light of the disappearance of EgyptAir Flight MS804, we have heightened our security posture and enhanced our counter-terrorism security measures,” the Los Angeles Airport Police said in a statement.

Greece had deployed aircraft and a frigate to search for the missing plane. Egypt said it would lead the investigation and France would participate. Paris said three investigators would arrive in Egypt on Thursday evening.

In Washington, President Barack Obama received a briefing on the disappearance from his adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, the White House said. A White House spokesman said it was too early to know the cause of the crash and offered condolences.

Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said the Airbus swerved 90 degrees to the left, spun through 360 degrees to the right and plunged from 37 000 feet to 15 000 before vanishing from Greek radar screens.

According to Greece's civil aviation chief, calls from Greek air traffic controllers to Flight MS804 went unanswered just before it left Greek airspace, and it disappeared from radar screens soon afterwards.

There was no official indication of a possible cause, whether technical failure, human error or sabotage. Ultra-hardline Islamists have targeted airports, airliners and tourist sites in Europe, Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries over the past few years.

Asked if he could rule out terrorist involvement, the Egyptian premier told reporters: “We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause.”

French President Francois Hollande also said the cause was unknown. “No hypothesis can be ruled out, nor can any be favoured over another.”

The aircraft was carrying 56 passengers, including one child and two infants, and 10 crew, EgyptAir said. They included 30 Egyptian and 15 French nationals, along with citizens of 10 other countries.

The Canadian government said on Thursday two Canadian citizens were aboard and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said Canadian officials were working with authorities to confirm if any other Canadians were on the flight.

A man identified as an Australian-UK dual national was also aboard, according to the Australian government.

The US State Department said there was no indication that American citizens were on board.

‘Lives are so cheap’

At Cairo airport, a man sat on a brown leather couch crying with his hands covering his face. “How long will Egypt live if human lives are so cheap?” he said.

The mother of a flight attendant rushed out of the VIP hall where families waited in tears. She said the last time her daughter called her was Wednesday night. “They haven't told us anything,” she said.

Some relatives tried to beat up a photographer working for EgyptAir who took several pictures of the families waiting in the hall. Security officials intervened and escorted him out.

With its archaeological sites and Red Sea resorts, Egypt is a traditional destination for Western tourists. But the industry has been badly hit by the downing of a Russian Metrojet flight last October, in which all 224 people on board were killed, as well as by an Islamist insurgency and a string of bomb attacks.

A320s normally seat 150, which means the EgyptAir plane was barely a third full.

Greek air traffic controllers spoke to the pilot as the jet flew over the island of Kea, in what was thought to be the last broadcast from the aircraft, and no problems were reported.

But just ahead of the handover to Egyptian controllers, calls to the plane went unanswered.

“About seven miles before the aircraft entered the Cairo airspace, Greek controllers tried to contact the pilot but he was not responding,” said Kostas Litzerakis, head of Greece's civil aviation department. Shortly after exiting Greek airspace, it disappeared from radars, he said.

In Paris, a police source said investigators were interviewing officers who were on duty at Roissy airport on Wednesday evening to find out whether they heard or saw anything suspicious. “We are in the early stage here,” the source said.

Airbus said the missing A320 was delivered to EgyptAir in November 2003 and had operated about 48 000 flight hours. The missing flight's pilot had clocked up to 6 275 hours of flying experience, including 2 101 hours on the A320, while the first officer had 2 766 hours, EgyptAir said.

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the US House Intelligence Committee, said no conclusions could be drawn yet but terrorism was a very possible cause.

“If terrorism was indeed the cause, it would reveal a whole new level of vulnerability to aircraft - not only from those flights originating in the Middle East, but to those departing from the heart of Europe and with, at least in theory, far better airport defences,” he said.

Other countries offered to help in the investigation, including the United States, where engine maker Pratt & Whitney is based.

Russia and Western governments have said the Metrojet plane that crashed on October 31 was probably brought down by a bomb, and the Islamic State militant group said it had smuggled an explosive device on board.

That crash called into question Egypt's campaign to contain Islamist violence. Militants have stepped up attacks on Egyptian soldiers and police since Sisi, then serving as army chief, toppled elected president Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist, in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

In March, an EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus by a man with what authorities said was a fake suicide belt. He was arrested after giving himself up.

EgyptAir has a fleet of 57 Airbus and Boeing jets, including 15 of the Airbus A320 family of aircraft, according to airfleets.com.

REUTERS

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Rescued Chibok girl to meet Buhari

Posted: 19 May 2016 07:15 AM PDT

A schoolgirl rescued more than two years after being taken captive by Boko Haram militants will meet President Muhammadu Buhari.

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Maiduguri, Nigeria - A Nigerian schoolgirl rescued more than two years after being taken captive by Boko Haram militants will meet President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday amid hopes she can help shed light on the whereabouts of more than 200 other missing girls.

The girl, named by activists as Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki, was accompanied by her mother, Binta, and the provincial governor as she was driven in a military convoy to the airport in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's war-scarred northeast.

Soldiers working with a civilian vigilante group rescued Amina on Tuesday near Damboa, south of Maiduguri. Officials confirmed she was one of 219 girls abducted from the government school in Chibok in April 2014.

She was found with her four-month-old baby, while a “suspected Boko Haram terrorist” called Mohammed Hayatu who said he was Amina's husband, was also detained, the army said.

Amina's rescue should give a boost to Buhari, a former military ruler who made crushing the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency a pillar of his presidential campaign in 2015.

However, an assertion from activist group #Bringbackourgirls that the remining abductees were under heavy Boko Haram guard in the Sambisa forest, the jihadists' final stronghold, will put pressure on him to send in rescue squads.

Boko Haram captured 276 girls in their night-time raid on Chibok, one of the most audacious assaults of a seven-year-old insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the north.

More than 15,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced in Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Some girls escaped in the melee but parents of the remaining 219 accused then-President Goodluck Jonathan of not doing enough to find their daughters, whose disappearance led to a global campaign #bringbackourgirls.

Amina's mother last year spoke of her daughter's fear of Boko Haram but of her enjoyment of attending school and doing well at her studies.

She told the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, a Nigerian non-profit organisation researching a book on the Chibok girls, that she was not sure of the age of Amina, the youngest of her 13 children although only three survived their early years.

“She always sewed her own clothes,” her mother said in the interview released to the Thomson Reuters Foundation by Aisha Oyebode of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation.

Binta said Amina's father died some months after his daughter was abducted.

“After Amina was kidnapped, only two (of our children) are left alive,” she said, adding her son and daughter live in Lagos.

She said she constantly thought of her lost daughter, who had always helped her around the house.

“(My son) said I should take it easy and stop crying,” she told the Foundation. “He reminded me that I am not the only parent who lost a child.”

Reuters

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#EgyptAir pilot ‘was in a good mood’

Posted: 19 May 2016 07:14 AM PDT

The pilot of an EgyptAir flight that vanished over the eastern Mediterranean had “not mentioned a problem” in his final contact.

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The pilot of an EgyptAir flight that vanished over the eastern Mediterranean early on Thursday with 66 people on board, had “not mentioned a problem” in his final contact, the Greek civil aviation said.

“The flight controllers contacted the pilot (with the plane) at a height of 37 000 feet (near Athens)... he did not mention a problem,” civil aviation chief Constantinos Litzerakos told Antenna TV.

Litzerakos said the controllers had last spoken to the pilot “around 00.05 GMT”, about 25 minutes before the plane disappeared from Greek radar.

A civil aviation statement said the pilot “was in a good mood and gave thanks in Greek when authorised to exit the Athens flight information region.

“We tracked the entire process from the plane's entry (into Greek airspace) to its exit, it does not appear to deviate at all from the coordinates we gave,” Litzerakos said.

The plane vanished from radar screens at 00.29 GMT after crossing into the Cairo flight information region, the Greek civil aviation statement said, referring to Egyptian air space.

A civil aviation source told AFP the plane's last location was “around 130 nautical miles off the island of Karpathos” which is situated between Crete and Rhodes.

The Greek defence ministry said it had dispatched two search planes and a frigate to international waters in the area, with additional resources on standby on Karpathos and nearby Crete.

Twenty-six foreigners were among the 56 passengers, including 15 French citizens, a Briton and a Canadian, EgyptAir said.

EgyptAir said contact was lost with the flight about 280 kilometres north of the Egyptian coast.

Neither the Greek coastguard nor the navy could confirm reports that a passing ship had seen “a ball of fire in the sky”.

The civil aviation chief said if there had been an explosion, any debris would have scattered across a wide distance.

“It was at a height of 37 000 feet, dispersal is quite logical. This is quite an altitude,” he told Antenna.

AFP

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UN peacekeepers killed by bomb, gunfire in Mali

Posted: 19 May 2016 07:14 AM PDT

Five UN peacekeepers from Chad were killed in northern Mali when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device and unknown gunmen opened fire.

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Dakar - Five United Nations peacekeepers from Chad were killed and three were wounded in northern Mali on Wednesday when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device and unknown gunmen opened fire, the United Nations said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Northern Mali is home to a separatist movement as well as to Islamist militants who have staged a series of high profile attacks in the past year both in Mali and in neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso.

A peace accord signed last year was meant to bring stability to the arid region, but attacks against the UN mission, Malian military and civilians are still frequent.

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was established in April 2013 with a mandate that includes supporting the political process, monitoring human rights and protecting the civilian population.

The UN said on Wednesday that 12 peacekeepers had been killed since the start of the year in dozens of attacks against the force in the Kidal region, where Wednesday's assault took place.

However, the UN would continue to support the implementation of the peace agreement in Mali, it said in the statement.

Reuters

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Tearful reunion after Chibok girl rescued

Posted: 19 May 2016 06:50 AM PDT

On Tuesday, Binta Ali's prayers were answered when her daughter who was held by Boko Haram Islamists was found.

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Binta Ali hadn't seen her daughter Amina since she was abducted with more than 200 classmates from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, more than two years ago.

Amina and her brother Mai were Binta's only living children. The other 11 had died.

And while Amina was being held by Boko Haram Islamists, Binta, in her sixties, also lost her husband Ali, one of 18 parents of the 219 kidnapped girls to die since the abduction on April 14, 2014.

“He died of high blood pressure,” said Yakubu Nkeki, head of the Abducted Chibok Parents' group.

Those parents have been hanging on to hope for their daughters' return.

On Tuesday, Binta's prayers were answered when Amina was found by soldiers and civilian vigilantes.

“They (the vigilantes) took her to her village and parked the vehicle outside her house,” said Ayuba Alamson Chibok, a Chibok community leader.

“They sent for the mother and told her to go to the vehicle and see if the girl inside is her daughter.

“When the mother approached the car the girl stepped out and her mother exclaimed, 'Amina! Is that you?' They ran towards each other and hugged. The mother burst in tears.

“Relatives and neighbours quickly gathered around the duo and began to celebrate and singing praises to God for rescuing the girl.”

News of the reunion spread like wildfire through the ramshackle market town of Mbalala and to Chibok, a short drive away along a dusty, unpaved road.

Mbalala, like Chibok, has only a patchy mobile phone signal, making communication further afield difficult; troops on the look-out for militants patrol the roads.

The Nigerian Army said troops from 25 Brigade stationed in Damboa, nearly 40 kilometres from Chibok, were deployed on Tuesday with civilian vigilantes in Baale.

“Vigilantes from Chibok and Damboa regularly team up and raid Boko Haram camps in and around nearby Sambisa Forest where ongoing military operations are forcing Boko Haram out,” said Alamson.

They saw about a dozen people near Kilakesa village at the edge of the former game reserve where Boko Haram is known to have camps and they appeared to be fleeing.

Among them was a young girl in a hijab resembling those worn by the Chibok girls in previous Boko Haram video messages. She was carrying a baby.

The vigilantes, most of whom are volunteers and equipped only with rudimentary weapons including single-shot muskets, slingshots and sticks, caught the group and began to question them.

Alamson said the girl told them her name was Amina Ali and that she was one of the Chibok girls.

She then pointed to a man whom she identified as her husband, Mohammed Hayatu, from Mubi in Adamawa state. The military described him as “a suspected Boko Haram terrorist”.

Binta and Amina's brief reunion outside the family home - a single-storey mud-brick dwelling with a corrugated iron roof - came after one of the vigilantes recognised Amina.

“He asked her if she was the daughter of the late Ali, from Mbalala, and she answered, 'Yes',” said Chibok.

Amina, Hayatu and a four-month-old baby girl named Safiya were taken to 25 Brigade headquarters in Damboa at about 2:30 pm (13.30 GMT) on Wednesday.

They were then transferred to the Borno state capital, Maiduguri for “further medical attention and screening”, said army spokesman Sani Usman.

Nkeki said Amina's release had brought “very deep joy” to a place that has suffered so much and which has become a symbol of the conflict.

Amina was 17 when she was kidnapped.

She is now 19 and, according to the military, a mother.

Few can imagine what she has endured in captivity.

But Nkeki said both Amina and her daughter would be accepted back into the community.

“We will accept her into the family as one of our own daughters.” he said.

AFP

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#EgyptAir crash ‘likely to be a terrorist act’

Posted: 19 May 2016 06:50 AM PDT

A Russian spy chief reportedly said that the crash of an EgyptAir jet en route from Paris to Cairo was "in all likelihood" caused by a terrorist act.

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Moscow - The head of Russia's FSB security service Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday that the crash of an EgyptAir jet en route from Paris to Cairo was “in all likelihood” caused by a terrorist act, the RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

Read: #EgyptAir flight ‘crashed’, says Hollande

Bortnikov, who was speaking in Minsk, Belarus, called on Russia's European partners to work together to identify those behind the downing of the plane.

He did not say what evidence he had that the crash was terrorism-related.

Reuters

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#EgyptAir flight ‘crashed’, says Hollande

Posted: 19 May 2016 04:19 AM PDT

President Francois Hollande confirmed that the EgyptAir flight that disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean had "crashed".

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Paris/ Cairo - French President Francois Hollande confirmed on Thursday that the EgyptAir flight that disappeared from radar screens over the Mediterranean had “crashed”.

“We must ensure that we know everything on the causes of what happened. No hypothesis is ruled out or favoured,” he said in a televised address.

“Whether it was an accident or another hypothesis that everyone has on their mind - a terrorist hypothesis... at this stage we must focus on our solidarity with the families and the search for the causes of the catastrophe,” Hollande added.

The Paris prosecutor's office said its accident department had opened an investigation into the crash.

The EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean between the Greek islands and the Egyptian coast early Thursday with 66 people on board.

“We feel solidarity and compassion. It's not the first such catastrophe, and we know what it means for families and loved ones,” Hollande said.

AFP

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#EgyptAir: Egypt-France exchange condolences

Posted: 19 May 2016 03:45 AM PDT

Egypt's foreign ministry exchanged condolences with France over what it called the “fall” of an EgyptAir flight carrying 66 people.

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Cairo - Egypt's foreign ministry exchanged condolences with France on Thursday over what it called the “fall” of an EgyptAir flight carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo.

The statement was the first official admission that those on board were likely to have died.

The plane was carrying people from multiple nationalities including 30 Egyptians and 15 French nationals. The flight was three children, including two babies.

Egypt's foreign ministry said in its statement that the two countries had agreed to cooperate closely in investigating the causes of the incident.

Reuters

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Kenyan police condemned for brutality

Posted: 19 May 2016 01:51 AM PDT

Pictures and video of a protester being kicked by Kenyan riot police as he lay on the ground have caused a stir. [VIDEO]

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Nairobi, Kenya - Widely viewed pictures and video of a protester being kicked by Kenyan riot police as he lay on the ground have caused a stir in this East Africa country, prompting debate on police brutality and civil rights.

The US and human rights activists are condemning the violence displayed by Kenyan police who on Monday beat up opposition supporters protesting for election reforms ahead of polls next year.

In one incident that has stirred anger and condemnation across Kenya, a policeman is seen beating and kicking one protester who had fallen on a road curb in the chaotic scenes after police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd in the capital, Nairobi.

The US “deplores the excessive use of force by the Kenyan security services and the violence around the demonstrations” near the offices of Kenya's electoral commission.

“We urge the security services to exercise restraint during demonstrations and to protect the rights of free speech, assembly and political participation guaranteed by the Kenyan constitution,” said the statement attributed to Robert F Godec, US ambassador to Kenya.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said it was “particularly dismayed by the gory scenes” as police tried to subdue protesters and said the actions by the security forces amounted to serious rights abuses.

Kenyans took to social media to voice their reactions under the hashtag

When riot police dispersed the opposition demonstration on Monday, much of the downtown area was covered with white clouds of tear gas.

Police then went through the streets chasing protesters, beating them with sticks and clubs.

In a nearby building where protesters and bystanders had taken refuge, police went into the building flushing them out toward waiting colleagues who beat many with wooden clubs and kicked them as they tried to flee.

The man seen being kicked and beaten with sticks by three separate police officers in the widely viewed video and photos, was initially reported as having died on Tuesday by Kenyan media, but was later located alive in Nairobi's Kibera slum and named as 36-year-old Boniface Manono, by local radio station Capital FM.

Manono said at first he managed to escape the waiting police, he ran across the street but was pursued and collapsed against a curb.

As he lay motionless on the ground the riot policeman who had pursued him beat him with a stick eight times until the stick broke in half, and then continued to kick him half a dozen times, while two other police joined in.

Eventually another officer walked up and directed the police to move away, leaving Manono lying in the street.

“I thank God that I am alive. I could have died,” said Manono.

“When I saw the way I was kicked this afternoon actually it shocked me that it was so bad.”

Monday's protest was led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who lost the most recent election to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Odinga has said he doesn't believe the current election commission is credible, and is vowing to hold protests every Monday until the commissioners are removed from office.

Amnesty International urged Kenyan authorities to facilitate peaceful assembly and condemned the violence.

“The brutal beatings by police on Wednesday amount to arbitrary and abusive use of force, which is illegal under Kenyan, regional and international law,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, a regional officer for Amnesty International.

AP

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UN, Kenya to discuss refugee camps closure

Posted: 19 May 2016 01:47 AM PDT

UN top officials are to visit Kenya to discuss the way forward after the country said it was closing some refugee camps.

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Kampala - The UN Deputy Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Refugees are to visit Kenya at the end of May to discuss challenges of hosting thousands of refugees and the way forward after that country said it was closing some refugee camps.

This was confirmed in a telephone call on Wednesday between the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, during which they discussed the Kenyan government’s decision to close Dadaab refugee camps.

On May 6, Kenya’s Ministry of Interior said that the Government had disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs and was working on a mechanism for the closure of the country’s refugee camps - a decision that could affect as many as 600 000 people, according to UNHCR.

Following the telephone call Ban Ki-moon expressed his appreciation for Kenya’s decades of generosity to asylum seekers, in a press statement.

“The Secretary-General told Kenyatta that he appreciated the enormous task and responsibility involved in hosting large numbers of refugees, amidst daunting security challenges,” the statement said.

It also noted that Ban Ki-Moon urged Kenyatta to continue to use the 2013 Tripartite Agreement, signed with Somalia and the Office of the UN high Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as a basis for the voluntary return of Somali refugees in safety and dignity.

Ban Ki-moon also expressed the United Nations’ support for Kenya, including the proposal by the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, that a high-level bilateral review on the refugee situation in Kenya be conducted by the Government of Kenya and UNHCR.

“They look forward to discussing this issue with Kenya, and will underline the readiness of the United Nations to garner the support of the international community in addressing Kenya’s refugee challenges, with consideration for the host communities in Kenya as well as the sub-regional security concerns, the statement concluded.”

– African News Agency

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Over 240 000 displaced by Boko Haram

Posted: 19 May 2016 01:43 AM PDT

Violence by Boko Haram militants has displaced more than 240 000 people in the Diffa region of Niger on the border with Nigeria.

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Kampala - Violence by Boko Haram militants has displaced more than 240 000 people in the Diffa region of Niger on the border with Nigeria.

“I am appalled by reports of killing of civilians, looting of villages, and other abuses perpetrated by Boko Haram in the countries around the Lake Chad Basin, including Niger,” Stephen O’Brien, UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in a press release on Wednesday following a two-day mission to the country.

“Adherence to international humanitarian law and norms is fundamental in conflict and it applies to all parties, without exception,” he said.

In the Diffa region, O’Brien visited the Assaga site, which hosts more than 15 000 people, including refugees, returnees and internally displaced people who had been recently forced out of their homes due to Boko Haram attacks.

Two out of three people in the region have experienced displacement.

“This morning I met a family in Diffa hosting 30 people who had fled violence caused by Boko Haram both in Nigeria and in Niger. As the first to respond, the solidarity and generosity of families in Diffa who have shared their scarce resources with those in need are an example and inspiration to us all,” noted O’Brien, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

He also met with the President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou, Prime Minister Brigi Rafini, Minister of the Interior Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s first Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Laouan Magagi and several other senior Government officials.

O’Brien said they discussed ways to step up the humanitarian response for people affected by Boko Haram, as well as the challenges that Nigerians continue to face despite their Government’s commitment to build people’s resilience to recurrent food insecurity and malnutrition crises.

In 2016, humanitarian partners and the Nigerien Government plan to assist two million food insecure people and 1.5 million people threatened by malnutrition, including 1.2 million children.

“Displacement or malnutrition alone causes great human suffering. A combination of the two is too much for people to bear. Together, we must help them now with urgent supplies and services,” O’Brien stressed.

The humanitarian community has launched a Humanitarian Response Plan for 2016 targeting 1.5 million people with a budget requirement of $316 million.

So far, only 25 percent has been received, which is “clearly insufficient” to meet the immediate needs, the Under-Secretary-General said.

O’Brien will travel from the Lake Chad Basin region to Istanbul to participate in the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit being held on 23 and 24 May.

“The Summit will be a critical opportunity for me to tell the stories of the people I met, who have been affected by the Boko Haram violence,” he said.

“An event on the Lake Chad Basin region will help us draw global attention to the increasing vulnerability of the communities of the region, who are facing the converging events of climate change, high poverty levels, violent extremism and population growth,” he added.

O’Brien noted that a comprehensive approach is urgently needed to ensure greater collaboration between the political, security, development, environmental and humanitarian efforts to maximise scarce resources and to ensure no one is left behind.

“A big, compounded crisis needs a big, compounded response,” he concluded.

In related news, the Under-Secretary-General, speaking via phone to reporters at the daily press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, reiterated that he had specifically decided to visit the Lake Chad Basin region ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit.

The visit was aimed at bringing attention to the “chronic and endemic” life conditions for millions of people as a result of the six-year “brutal campaign” by Boko Haram.

– African News Agency

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Libya forces recapture Abu Grain from IS

Posted: 19 May 2016 01:43 AM PDT

The UN-backed Government of National Accord pushed IS fighters back towards Sirte but lost more than 30 men, officials said.

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Misrata, Libya - Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government pushed Islamic State fighters back towards their stronghold of Sirte on Wednesday but lost more than 30 men, including seven killed in a car bombing, officials said.

In a televised statement from the streets of Abu Grain, military spokesman Mohamed al-Gasri said the forces had “liberated” the small town and two nearby villages after heavy fighting.

Western powers are counting on the new government to unify Libya's political and armed factions to take on Islamic State.

The government arrived in Tripoli in late March and is still trying to establish its authority.

Islamic State gained control over Sirte last year and has built up its most important base outside Syria and Iraq in the Libyan coastal city. However, it has struggled to hold on to territory elsewhere in Libya.

Islamic State militants overran the town of Abu Grain and several villages after staging suicide attacks against checkpoints in the area on May 5.

The unity government then created a new operations room in Misrata, which announced a campaign to recapture Sirte.

Abu Grain is about 140km west of Sirte and about 100km south of Misrata.

The operations room said 32 of its forces had been killed and 50 wounded in Wednesday's fighting, according to a brief statement sent to journalists. Seven died in a car bombing in Buayrat al-Hasun, about 90km west of Sirte.

The advance came a day after military forces retook Abu Grain checkpoint.

They now also control the villages of Abu Najaym and Zamzam, Gasri said.

“We declare the completion of the first stage of al-Bonyan al-Marsous after we pushed the militants of Daesh (Islamic State) back to the outskirts of Sirte,” he said, referring to the name the operations room gave to the campaign for Sirte.

A report published on Wednesday by campaign group Human Rights Watch found that Islamic State in Sirte had unlawfully executed at least 49 people accused of offences including spying, sorcery, and blasphemy over one year from February 2015.

It quoted a military intelligence officer in Misrata as saying Islamic State had about 1 800 fighters in Sirte and that at least 70 percent of them were foreign.

Some two-thirds of the city's 80 000 residents have fled, the report said.

Reuters

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Can Zim meet 2030 zero hunger targets?

Posted: 19 May 2016 01:43 AM PDT

Zimbabwe faced overwhelming odds in meeting the zero hunger by the 2030 target, the World Food Programme said.

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Harare - Despite having a myriad of sectorial policies relevant to food security, Zimbabwe faced overwhelming odds in meeting the zero hunger by the 2030 target, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.

Speaking during a debate on Achieving Zero Hunger in Zimbabwe, held in the capital Harare, WFP Country Director, Eddie Rowe, said Zimbabwe had a very conducive policy framework that promoted food and nutrition security, but that these had failed improve the country’s food security situation.

He said the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation and the food and nutrition policy were some of the plans and programmes with the potential to help improve the food situation.

“So what does hunger look like in Zimbabwe? Of course the statistics in front of you would suggest that Zimbabwe is stuck against odds in meeting this objective of a zero hunger nation by 2030. When you look at the stunting rate, the poverty levels, you look at the productivity yields, you look at some of the basic services, and indeed the odds are stuck against achieving this goal,” he said.

Rowe said although the country adopted the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda, especially SDG Number 2, it continued to grapple with the challenges of rising poverty and associated hunger and malnutrition among the populace.

“The adverse weather conditions, lack of adequate financial and equipment resources and high poverty levels amongst others, have definitely contributed to the high food insecurity levels that we currently see. But the government has initiated key policies, not least including the ZIMASSET, despite these efforts, the goal to end hunger continues to be a challenge,” he said.

He said the country had, in the last 15 years, failed to meet the first Millennium Development Goal to halve extreme poverty and hunger owing to recurrent food insecurity and economic difficulties.

Rowe, however, noted that the government had since last year shown a deliberate effort to embrace the new global agenda, while ensuring it was localised and was top on its policy agenda.

He said the government of Zimbabwe had also committed to ensuring that it developed realistic programmes that would ensure progress towards achieving a zero hunger Zimbabwe.

On the issue of politicisation of food aid, Rowe said they were educating the beneficiaries and local authorities to ensure there was transparency.

“In almost all districts we now have government and our own registration list and every month we sit down to compare these lists and quite honestly you would find few inclusion errors. What that means is when government food assistance programme goes down to the districts, there is a registration list used and most of our partners are always on the ground to ensure that they verify,” he said.

He said they were now sharing statistics with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare on a monthly basis on food distribution and the different districts that would have benefited.

He, however, admitted that they sometimes clashed with local authorities on the distribution modalities as some had their suspicions regarding the motive of development partners who provided the food aid.

“I think where we have an issue is the extent to which local authorities work with districts, beneficiaries and the partners to ensure those in need are actually those who receive food. We have a major problem because we do not receive all the resources that we require to meet all the needs. That is where we have to prioritise and set up clear transparency targeting measures which local authorities and even the beneficiaries would see and understand.

“If you have 50 percent of resources, then how do you target those most in need, in most instances that is where we tend to disagree with local authorities and the partners because local authorities will say everybody needs food, but we don’t have the resources to cover everybody,” he said.

– African News Agency

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France to ‘help search’ for #EgyptAir plane

Posted: 19 May 2016 12:49 AM PDT

France reportedly plans to send boats and planes to help search for an EgyptAir aircraft that went missing en route from Paris to Cairo.

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Paris - France plans to send boats and planes to help search for an EgyptAir aircraft that went missing en route from Paris to Cairo with 15 French citizens aboard, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Thursday.

“Everything must be done to find the plane, that's why we're in contact with the Egyptian authorities... we are mobilising and ready to send our military means, planes and boats, to search for this plane,” Ayrault told reporters after a ministerial meeting with French President Francois Hollande.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies added that there was no cargo on board the Airbus A320 passenger jet.

Reuters

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Distress signal received from #EgyptAir plane

Posted: 19 May 2016 12:00 AM PDT

Rescue services reported receiving a distress signal before Airbus 320 disappeared from Egyptian air space.

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Cairo - Rescue services from the Egyptian armed forces reported receiving a distress signal at 04.26am local time (02.26 GMT) from the EgyptAir plane that went missing overnight, an official from the airline said in a statement.

The Airbus 320 disappeared from Egyptian air space almost two hours earlier, at 02.30am, about 280kms from the Egyptian coastline, according to EgyptAir.

It had been due to land at 03.15am.

No further details were provided as to the nature of the distress signal.

Reuters

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