News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Boko Haram attack in southeast Niger kills 32

Posted: 04 Jun 2016 06:47 AM PDT

Thirty soldiers from Niger and two from Nigeria were killed in a Boko Haram attack by ‘hundreds of assailants’ close to the border with Nigeria, the Niger defence ministry said.

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Niamey - Thirty soldiers from Niger and two from Nigeria were killed in a Boko Haram attack by “hundreds of assailants” on Friday on the southeastern town of Bosso close to the border with Nigeria, the Niger defence ministry said on Saturday.

“The counter-offensive conducted early this morning helped to retake control of all the positions in the city of Bosso. The situation is under control”, the ministry added. “A sweep is ongoing in the area with the mobilisation of all land and air means”.

Seven others from Niger and eight from Nigeria were injured in the attack, according to the ministry, which reported “several deaths” among the assailants.

Bosso is part of the Diffa region, which is home to many refugees and internally displaced people who have sought to avoid Boko Haram violence elsewhere. The region has been targeted numerous times in attacks blamed on the militants.

Six people were killed last month in the village of Yebi, 4km from Bosso, in an attack thought to have been carried out by Boko Haram.

The group, headquartered across the border in northeastern Nigeria, wants to create an emirate and impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Reuters

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Nigeria’s corruption crackdown continues

Posted: 04 Jun 2016 05:33 AM PDT

Nigeria's government has recovered $9.1-billion in stolen money and assets, its information and culture minister said.

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Abuja - Nigeria's government has recovered $9.1-billion in stolen money and assets, its information and culture minister said on Saturday, as its corruption crackdown continues against the backdrop of the country's worst economic crisis in years.

President Muhammadu Buhari, elected last year largely on his vow to fight corruption, has vowed to recover “mind-boggling” sums of money stolen from the oil sector and said public coffers were “virtually empty” when he took office last May.

Since then the country has endured an economic crisis caused by the sharp fall in global oil prices, making the need to recoup lost money more acute. Crude sales account for around 70 percent of national income.

In a statement, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said cash and assets recovered between May 29 last year, when Buhari took office, and May 25 this year totalled $9.1-billion.

The government has said it plans to generate 3.38-trillion naira ($17-billion) this year from non-oil sources to help fund the $30.6-billion budget signed into law by Buhari last month.

It was not immediately clear how much outstanding money in total is still being sought by the government.

“All these are monies recovered from individuals and entities who had either hidden, stolen, diverted or were in possession of monies belonging to the nation,” the minister's special adviser, Segun Adeyemi, told Reuters.

“These recovered funds include monies withheld by past government officials, monies kept in private accounts, monies diverted to private pockets and monies in possession of government officials not disclosed after leaving government.”

The information minister told Reuters he could not name any individuals from whom money had been recovered for legal reasons.

He said some of the money came after companies that had failed to pay taxes were forced to do so retrospectively.

The ministry also said a total of $321-million was yet to be recovered from Nigerians in Switzerland, the Britain, the United States and the United Arab Emirates or their assets held in those countries.

Last month Buhari urged other countries and the United Nations to speed up the process of repatriating stolen money held abroad, which he said was becoming “tedious”.

Reuters

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Burundi cops shoot at protesting kids

Posted: 04 Jun 2016 02:02 AM PDT

Police in Burundi shot and wounded a student and a taxi-driver during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues.

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Nairobi - Police in Burundi shot and wounded a student and a taxi-driver on Friday during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues for defacing President Pierre Nkurunziza's portrait, students and residents said.

The incident took place in Muramvya province, about 50km east of the capital Bujumbura. The schoolchildren, aged between 12 and 17 years old, were marching on the highway between Bujumbura and Gitega.

“We were in the streets to ask for the release of our colleagues who were unjustly arrested, then some police officers who were in a pick-up vehicle of the intelligence office opened fire on us, a colleague was hurt by one bullet and was taken to hospital for treatment,” one student told Reuters.

A police officer, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the student and the taxi driver had been shot.

The five students had spoiled Nkurunziza's photo in a book, a school administrator said.

Burundi has been mired in a year-long crisis in which more than 450 people have been killed since Nkurunziza pursued and won a third term. Opponents said his move violated the constitution and a deal that ended a civil war in 2005.

Nkurunziza's camp says a court ruling had declared the former rebel-turned-president eligible to seek another term.

Two weeks ago, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighbourhood were sent home for the same reason.

Due to concerns about the behaviour of Burundian security forces at home, the United Nations in February said its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic would repatriate three military officers on suspicion they committed human rights violations during political unrest back in Burundi.

The world body went further on Friday, announcing that the country's police units would no longer serve in the UN peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic once their current tour is completed.

“In light of the current situation in Burundi, a decision has been taken at UN headquarters not to replace the units serving in the country when their tour of duty ends,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.

Senior UN police adviser Stefan Feller of Germany later told reporters in New York that the decision had been a result of allegations of serious human rights violations by the police back home in Burundi.

Reuters

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