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The allegations were first made by Amnesty International in a report published in July. Their report said dozens of suspected supporters of the terror group Boko Haram “were held incommunicado, tortured, and sometimes killed by Cameroonian security forces in facilities run by the military and intelligence services.” Amnesty alleges that Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion, an elite army unit, was one of the units that engaged in torture, doing so at the military base known as Salak, near the northern city of Maroua. ... Amnesty called on the US and the French government, which it says also used the base, “to...

DOUALA, Cameroon (Reuters) - Two children carrying explosives blew themselves up on Friday near a camp in northern Cameroon housing civilians displaced by Nigeria's Boko Haram militants, killing nine people and wounding 30, officials said. They entered the town of Kolofata, around 10 km (6 miles) from the border with Nigeria, before dawn, posing as refugees looking for food before the start of the daytime fast for Ramadan. "Two suicide bomber adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years infiltrated the town of Kolofata," Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary told state radio, adding that both had detonated their explosives.-snip-Villages and towns...

SLIPPERY ROCK (KDKA) – Three African nationals from Cameroon are facing charges in an organized, intra-national internet fraud scheme uncovered in western Pennsylvania. According to police, large amounts of money were wired through Western Union and MoneyGram at various locations in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties. Authorities say among the allegedly crimes, the men were selling boxer puppies online out of a student housing complex in Slippery Rock. Police say the total is at least $20,000, but it is expected to grow. “We have at least 10 victims, and we’re expecting a lot more,” said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper James...

The latest story about an NFL player and a flag began Tuesday morning just after 11, in the great hall of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins building. All 45 candidates for naturalization held miniature American flags as they sat in plastic chairs and listened to government officials deliver paeans to the power of immigration. Those included the first two candidates in the front row, perhaps the smallest and the biggest of the 45. There was tiny Dahlia Lyons, a native of the Philippines and the only military spouse in the ceremony. And next to her was the 6-foot-5...

MOKOLO, Cameroon — As the convoy barreled through a village in northern Cameroon on Monday, a 7-year-old boy darted to the road, excited to see the chain of white S.U.V.s carrying Samantha Power, the first cabinet-level American official to visit the country since 1991. Distracted by a thundering noise, the boy glanced up at the helicopter providing security from above. Suddenly, he was struck dead — killed by the same convoy that had brought officials to showcase American efforts to help protect West Africa’s women and children. After hitting the boy, one S.U.V. carrying State Department employees pulled to the...

It’s not a good look for the convoy of a crusader against genocide to mow down a little African boy as her motorcade roars through a rural area at high speed (often exceeding 60 miles per hour on two-lane country roads), accompanied by a helicopter overhead, journalists in tow, eager for a photo op with refugees.  But that was the situation facing Samantha Power yesterday in Cameroon.  The Associated Press reports: U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power’s trip to Cameroon’s front lines in the war against Boko Haram started horrifically today as an armored jeep in her motorcade struck and killed...

Geneva (AFP) - Many of the young girls Boko Haram sends out as suicide bombers in Nigeria and neighbouring countries are probably unaware that they will be blown up, a UN expert said Tuesday. Boko Haram jihadists have in recent months increasingly used young women and girls as suicide bombers in northeast Nigeria, northern Cameroon, Chad and Niger, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Leila Zerrougui, the UN secretary-general's special representative on children and armed conflict, suggested Tuesday that especially the children used in this way were in many cases not aware of what they were about to do....

The Cameroon army claimed Wednesday to have dealt a major blow to Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists, killing around 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages in a three-day operation last week. ... The sweep enabled troops "to release almost 900 hostages, seize large supplies of arms and munitions as well as black-and-white Islamic State flags", the statement added, without providing details on the identities of those freed. Boko Haram swore allegiance to IS in March 2015. The minister attributed the success of the raid to cooperation between Cameroon security forces, a new multinational force being set up to fight Boko Haram...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday informed Congress he is sending about 300 U.S. military personnel to Cameroon, the White House said, part of a stepped-up effort by Washington to counter the violent group Boko Haram. An advance force of U.S. military personnel has arrived in Cameroon, an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

After Boko Haram terror attacks in northern Cameroon, Catholics in the African country have formed human chains to screen off areas where Mass is celebrated outdoors, a local bishop reports. Bishop Bruno Ateba of Maroua-Mokolo told Aid to the Church in Need that he always celebrates Mass outdoors. The faithful form a ring around the area, and anyone who attends must pass through security controls. The defensive measures were adopted after suicide bombings that killed 30 people in Maroua in July. More recently, on September 3, two suicide bombers struck at a crowded marketplace; the casualty figures are unclear.

Cameroonian and Chadian forces say they have killed over 250 Boko Haram militants. On Wednesday, forces from Cameroon said they killed about 50 militants in a battle at a border town between Cameroon and Nigeria. Boko Haram has been attacking northern Nigeria and had started to affect towns in Cameroon. Wednesday, Boko Haram militants fought with Cameroonian troops in the town of Fotokol. Cameroonian officials say that at least 50 militants and six soldiers were killed in the fight. Armed forces in Chad reported to have killed at least 200 Boko Haram militants on Tuesday. State media as well as...

Authorities have ordered the closure of mosques and Islamic schools following a series of suicide bombing attacks in northern Cameroon that have left at least 60 people dead, the region's governor said Sunday. Child beggars are also being ordered off the streets because all the suicide bombers so far have been children, including the 13-year-old female who detonated explosives in an attack Saturday evening. ... In the latest attack inside Cameroon, at least 20 people were killed and another 85 wounded Saturday evening in the northern town of Maroua. The suicide bombing came just days after another attack there earlier...

On the same evening Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was at a LGBT fundraiser in Washington D.C., Fox Business Network’s “After the Bell” aired a report on the Clinton Health Initiative receiving millions of dollars from the Cameroon Baptist Convention’s health board, part of a Baptist church that compares homosexuality with incest, human trafficking and bestiality calling it “devilish” behavior . The Wall Street Journal’s Dan Henninger, Reason Magazine Editor-in-Chief Matt Welch, and New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin reported on the donations as revealed by the newest list of donors from the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which lists the...

EXCLUSIVE: Clinton charity took up to $10 MILLION donation from African church which called homosexuals 'devils' - despite Hillary's support for gay marriage Clinton Health Initiative received $1m to $10m from Cameroon Baptist Convention's health boardBaptist church in African country says homosexuality is on a par with incest and bestiality and is 'a devilish type of thing' Hillary launched her campaign with a video featuring a same-sex couple about to get marriedOther donors to imitative include Elton John AIDS foundation - Sir Elton recently married partner David Furnish Views of the church are shared by some US denominations but seem...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Monday where the issue of Middle East peace talks will be raised, Russian authorities announced Thursday. “The two leaders will hold talks concerning key aspects of Russian-Palestinian relations and their future, with particular attention on the trade, economy and humanitarian sectors,” the Kremlin said in a statement according to AFP. There will also be “an exchange of ideas on the process of Israeli-Palestinian talks and other problematic regional situations,” the statement continued, adding that North Africa would also be on the agenda. …

At least 19 civilians were killed in a weekend attack by Boko Haram Islamists on three remote islands in Niger with many victims burnt alive, a local lawmaker said. Sunday’s onslaught took place on three islands located on Lake Chad, said ElHadj Aboubacar, a deputy from the town of Bosso in southeastern Niger. “We have been informed that at least 19 people have died, most of whom were either burnt alive or drowned in the lake,” he told AFP. There has been no official confirmation of the death toll but a private radio station in Niger has reported that two...

President Idriss Deby of Chad said on Wednesday he knew the whereabouts of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, and called on him to surrender or risk being killed. Chad's army has waged a series of battles against Boko Haram as part of a cross-border military campaign and has re-taken territory the militant group held in northeastern Nigeria. ... The Chadian army is considered one of the best in the region, backed by a strong air force. It first deployed to help Cameroon fend off Boko Haram and is now pressing southwest into Nigerian territory...

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...

Chadian forces scored a key victory over Nigeria's Boko Haram on Tuesday, wresting control of the border town of Gamboru within hours of launching a ground offensive against the jihadist group. Around 2,000 Chadian troops backed by armoured vehicles crossed the border into Gamboru from the Cameroonian town of Fotokol . ... The ground intervention by Chad came after the African Union last week backed a regional five-nation, 7,500-strong force to take on the extremists amid growing fears about their threat to regional security. Nigeria has drawn fierce criticism for failing to hold back the insurgents, who have stepped up...

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.