Free Republic

Hundreds of militants have been killed during the struggle to recapture the Nigerian garrison town of Monguno, according to officials. "Over 300 terrorists were killed while a few were also captured," said defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade. The claims follow similar statements from Niger, Chad and Cameroon - who are also involved in fighting the terror group - but they have not been independently confirmed. The army has often claimed success against the group which has then been contradicted by witness reports. Civilian vigilantes in the town confirmed it had been retaken and said there had been heavy casualties, but...

Out of Babel--Not Africa by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. * Newly published research combining genetic, language, and demographic data challenges the idea of a single lineage of languages and human populations evolving out of Africa.1 Instead, the data supports the idea that multiple people groups have independent origins—a condition one would predict if the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel happened as described in the Bible. Both language traits and genomic variability in populations change as people migrate to new areas. Some populations split off, and others merge. Thus, while languages and DNA sequences are passed along differently, they...

Scarcely a day passes that media personalities aren’t sounding the alarm over the relentless march of “Islamism”—i.e. militant Islam. To hear them tell it, one could be forgiven for thinking that “Islamism”—exemplified by the likes of ISIS—is mere centimeters away from destroying both America and Israel. Of course, this is hysteria. Jihadists are dangerous individuals, for sure, but America and Israel have ample resources with which to protect their citizens. Such, however, cannot be said for the Christians of dozens of countries around the world who daily suffer unimaginable predations at the hands of the Muslim majorities of their homelands....

Boko Haram forces appear poised to attack Maiduguri, a city of 2 million in northeast Nigeria -- meaning that 200,000 Christians could be at risk of slaughter by the Islamist terror group, say U.S. intelligence officials and experts on Nigeria. "An attack on Madiguri is very likely," said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the Atlantic Council, echoing U.S. intelligence officials. Pham believes, as do other experts, that Boko Haram has already placed "sleeper cells" among the tide of refugees who have fled the group's murderous rampage through Africa's most populous nation. "They've done it everywhere else...

Violent attacks by Boko Haram have caused many to flee their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis within Nigeria and neighboring countries. Refugees say they have witnessed brutal acts of savagery, with men's throats being slit and women being held as "war booty." Chad has become the latest country on the border with Nigeria to be affected by a Boko Haram attack. The BBC's Tom Oladipo went to Yola village in Aadamawa state in northeast Nigeria and spoke to refugees there. ...

The absence of strong Western leadership against the Boko Haram terror state has created an opportunity Iran seems ready to exploit. The Premium Times of Nigeria reports that Iran is stepping forward to offer assistance to the African Union against the savage caliphate spilling out of northern Nigeria into Cameroon and menacing the entire region: ... Abdollohian said the activities of the Boko Haram militants and that of Al-Shabaab in the Somalia were similar to that of Al-Qaeda and the ISIS and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. ... Iran was willing to share its experiences on terrorist activities...

Boko Haram is officially an international problem. At least according to the African Union, which asked the United Nations Security Council on Jan. 29 to greenlight an intervention force to bring the Islamist group to its knees. The A.U. plans a 7,500-strong military force, named the Multinational Joint Task Force, and staffed by Nigerian, Cameroonian, Chadian and Beninese troops. If the coalition gets the go-ahead, the soldiers will base in their respective countries, but coordinate and assist each other.

In the sparsely populated Karoo desert in the heart of South Africa's Northern Cape, the spirit of apartheid lives on. I spent a few days in Orania, a town established in 1991 where no black people live. I was part of a BBC crew, including Zimbabwean journalist Stanley Kwenda, who were accredited to visit.

US halted Israeli arms transfer to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.

An Egyptian appeals court on Monday convicted a doctor of manslaughter and performing female genital mutilation that led to the death of a 13-year-old girl, sentencing him to two years and three months in prison in the country’s first case that came to trial over the widespread practice .... It is practiced in 29 countries, mostly in East and West Africa, but also in Iraq and Yemen. Rights groups see it as a way to control female sexuality that causes physical and psychological damage.

Nobody in his hut, including his seven children, sleeps under a net at night. Instead, Mr. Ndefi has taken his family’s supply of anti-malaria nets and sewn them together into a gigantic sieve that he uses to drag the bottom of the swamp ponds, sweeping up all sorts of life: baby catfish, banded tilapia, tiny mouthbrooders, orange fish eggs, water bugs and the occasional green frog. “I know it’s not right,” Mr. Ndefi said, “but without these nets, we wouldn’t eat.” Across Africa, from the mud flats of Nigeria to the coral reefs off Mozambique, mosquito-net fishing is a growing...

The U.N. Security Council condemned the recent escalation of attacks by the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram on Monday and expressed deep concern that its activities are undermining peace and stability in central and west Africa. The statement was sponsored by Nigeria, which had been reluctant to have the council discuss the Islamic militant group despite being a member of the Security Council. The Security Council has previously responded to specific terrorist acts by Boko Haram with press statements that do not become part of its official record. The militant group seeks to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria, Africa's...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has been hospitalized following a horse-riding accident over the Christmas holidays in Africa that left him with seven broken ribs and fluid around his lungs, a spokesman said Monday. Spokesman Brian Coy said doctors had expected the weeks-old injury to heal on its own, but after identifying increased fluid around the governor’s lungs, they admitted him around noon Monday for a procedure. McAuliffe (D), who attended a Martin Luther King Jr. event in Norfolk on Monday morning and was interviewed by local media there, was admitted hours later to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond....

At least 10 people have been killed in violent protests in Niger over the weekend, after Muslim mobs burned down a number of churches in retaliation to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo publishing cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Christian missionaries in the capital, Niamey, told International Christian Concern that "all of [their] churches have been burned along with the pastors' homes ... almost every church [they] know or are associated with has been attacked." The missionaries, who despite seeing smoke "around all sides of [their] house," remain in Niamey. "Jesus said: 'I will build my church and the gates...

Near the hillside shelter where dozens of men and women died of Ebola, a row of green U.S. military tents sit atop a vast expanse of imported gravel. The generators hum; chlorinated water churns in brand-new containers; surveillance cameras send a live feed to a large-screen television. There’s only one thing missing from this state-of-the-art Ebola treatment center: Ebola patients.The U.S. military sent about 3,000 troops to West Africa to build centers like this one in recent months. They were intended as a crucial safeguard against an epidemic that flared in unpredictable, deadly waves. But as the outbreak fades in...

Chad will send a large number of troops to neighboring Cameroon to help it fight increasing incursions from Boko Haram Islamist militants attacking from Nigeria ... Biya has called for international military help to fight the Islamist militant group that has seized swathes of northern Nigeria and is threatening neighbors who share borders with the northeastern zones occupied by the group. Boko Haram, which aims to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, has stepped up attacks in the region as Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, prepares for a crucial Feb. 14 presidential election. The group has also carried out...

Oldowan stone-knapping dates back to the Lower Paleolithic period in eastern Africa, and remained largely unchanged for 700,000 years until more sophisticated Acheulean hand-axes and cleavers, which marked the next generation of stone tool technology, came on the scene. It was practiced by some of our earliest ancestors, such as Homo habilis and the even older Australopithecus garhi, who walked on two legs, but whose facial features and brain size were closer to those of apes. In testing five different ways to convey Oldowan stone-knapping skills to more than 180 college students, the researchers found that the demonstration that used...

While Western newspapers were debating whether or not to reprint the Mohammed cartoons, in Nigeria as many as 2,000 people were massacred by the Islamic State in Nigeria, also known as Boko Haram, in what is being called the deadliest attack by the Muslim group to date. Survivors described the Islamic State setting up efficient killing teams and massacring everyone while shouting “Allahu Akbar”. “For five kilometers (three miles), I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt,” one survivor said. There’s a word for that. It’s genocide. The Islamic State...

DEBORA PATTA CBS January 15, 2015 "It's As If The World Has Forgotten Us" JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- #BringBackOurGirls. Remember that hashtag? The social media campaign that accompanied global outrage over Boko Haram's abduction of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls on the eve of their final exams went viral almost instantly. That was nine months ago. The girls have not been seen since and it appears the world is suffering from what one commentator called "collective amnesia." But for the people of Nigeria, there is no such thing as the luxury of forgetting and moving on. Hardly a week goes...

Authorities are investigating and hazmat crews are on scene after the body of a soldier who just returned from deployment in West Africa was found Tuesday morning in Killeen. The body was found in a home in the 3300 block of Cantabrian Dr. A Fort Hood official on scene confirmed the body found was a soldier who had just returned from deployment in West Africa.