Free Republic

Goulfey, a town located about fifty kilometers from Kousseri in the northern region of Cameroon, is experiencing a new captivating look. Most tourists who arrive here are fascinated by the design of this small sultanate situated at the edge of the Logone River and close to Ndjamena, the Chadian capital. Goulfey, is a clay dwelling built centuries ago. It was converted to a museum and also acts as a cultural centre where young people come to learn about the rich culture of the Kotokos. "First and foremost. this museum serves the history of the Kotoko principality. So this mass of...

After the latest round of bloodletting began on March 15, the Nigerien army sent reinforcements to the Tillaberi regionScores of people have died in the deadliest suspected jihadist massacre ever to hit Niger, the government said Monday, underscoring the huge security challenge facing new President Mohamed Bazoum. Government spokesman Zakaria Abdourahamane said 137 people had died in Sunday's raids in villages near Niger's border with Mali. "In treating civilian populations systematically as targets now, these armed bandits have gone a step further into horror and brutality," Abdourahamane said in a statement read on public television.

Supporters of the losing presidential candidate in Niger set several buildings on fire, burnt tyres and threw rocks at the police on Thursday, as the authorities announced that two people had been killed in post-election protests this week. The national electoral commission on Tuesday declared ruling party candidate Mohamed Bazoum the winner of Sunday’s runoff election with 55.75% of the vote, but his rival, Mahamane Ousmane, a former president, has alleged fraud and claimed he won with 50.3%. Since then, two people have been killed and 468 detained during protests by Ousmane’s supporters in the capital Niamey, Interior Minister Alkache...

Whereabouts of deceased's junior brother still unknownA Catholic priest of the Diocese of Minna, Niger State, Rev. Father John Gbakaan Yaji has been abducted and murdered by gunmen suspected to be armed bandits in the state. The incident was said to have happened on Friday night in Tufa village along Lambata-Lapai road axis of the state. The late clergyman was said to be returning from Lambata in Gurara local government area of the state where he had attended a religious meeting in conjunction with his colleagues when he was attacked. Nigerian Tribune reliably gathered that the deceased was kidnapped along...

Niger began counting the votes on Sunday from an election that is expected to lead to the West African nation’s first transfer of power between two democratically elected presidents. Results are expected in the coming days. A smooth handover would be a rare bright spot for a country that has seen four coups since gaining independence from France in 1960, and is blighted by poverty and Islamist violence that has killed hundred of civilians and soldiers in the last year alone. It would also contrast with Ivory Coast and Guinea, whose presidents this year used constitutional changes to extend their...

Boureima Hama and Patrick Fort Thu, December 24, 2020, 8:10 AM EST Seven troops and 11 suspected jihadists have died in clashes in a troubled western region of Niger ahead of elections this weekend, the defence ministry said Thursday. An army patrol in the Taroun area of the Tillaberi region was ambushed early Monday by "heavily armed terrorists" travelling aboard motorbikes and other vehicles, it said in a statement, using a term that typically denotes jihadists. The country, the poorest in the world by the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index, is to stage presidential and legislative elections on...

Secretary General. Joined by 34 other countries, the document enshrines the Trump administration’s pro-life diplomacy on the official record of the General Assembly. “The United States strongly supports the dignity of all human beings and protecting life from the moment of conception throughout the lifespan,” Ambassador Kelly Craft wrote to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres transmitting the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family. Following the letter, the declaration was issued as an official document of the United Nations last week and circulated on December 11, after having been translated into all six official UN languages....

Jihadists from the Boko Haram group killed at least 27 people in an attack of "unprecedented savagery" in southeast Niger, local officials said on Sunday. Other people were wounded and some more reported missing in the assault on Saturday evening in the village of Toumour in the Diffa region, said a senior local official. Witnesses and other officials confirmed the attack, which came hours before municipal and regional elections went ahead across the country on Sunday. "Some victims were killed or wounded by bullets, others were burnt inside their houses, consumed by the flames of an enormous fire set by...

Two forestry workers were killed and two soldiers were reported missing after an attack early Friday in southwestern Niger, the first in the region in almost a year, sources said. “Assailants targeted a position of the Nigerien armed forces and the water and forestry services early this morning in Tapoa,” 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of the capital Niamey, a local official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Two forestry workers died, three soldiers were wounded and two others are listed missing,” the source said. Another local official said the assailants, whose number was unknown, torched two vehicles and drove...

French military forces fighting Islamic extremists in West Africa killed more than 50 jihadists and detained four in an operation last week in Mali, French officials said. Defense Minister Florence Parly tweeted Monday night that the French force in the region also confiscated weapons and equipment from the fighters in the operation last Friday, which she said “shows once again that terrorist groups cannot act with impunity.” Drones monitoring the region in northern Mali spotted a convoy of suspected fighters on motorcycles, prompting France to launch the operation, first with airstrikes and then with a ground operation by French commandos,...

An American missionary was abducted in the middle of the night by six gunmen armed with assault rifles in southern Niger close to the border with Nigeria on Tuesday. WATCH: Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter According to the Daily Mail, the assailants entered the home of 27-year-old Philip Walton early Tuesday morning and demanded money. The gunmen took Walton, then tied up his wife, young daughter, and his brother.  “They were looking for money in the house but there was not enough. There were only 20,000 CFA francs ($35). After that, they left with him,” said Philip’s father, Bruce Walton. Philip Walton had been...

The gunmen who kidnapped an American citizen in southern Niger issued a ransom demand Wednesday for his release, a local official said. The hostage, Philip Walton, described as the son of a missionary living in Niger, was abducted Monday night by six men armed with Kalashnikovs on the outskirts of Massalata, a village about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border with Nigeria. "The kidnappers phoned the man's father and demanded a ransom," said Ibrahim Abba Lele, prefect of the Birni Nkonni department, which includes Massalata. The US State Department said Tuesday it was aware of an American citizen abducted...

ISLAMIC State is taking over swathes of Africa like it did in Syria and Iraq with "staggeringly brutal" tactics, the Pentagon has warned. According to a report from West Point, the US officer training academy, the group's expansion and regrouping on the continent shows "Islamic State is far from defeated". "By the summer of 2020, it had become resolutely clear that the Islamic State was a changed organisation, but by no means a beaten one," the report, published by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Centre, said. The Pentagon report said there has been a "marked upward curve of claimed cumulative attacks...

Wild Speculation Alert: I have listed a lot of coincidental and circumstantial evidence in this post folks. I feel compelled to warn everyone when I see links to this NIE and Valerie Plame! It seems the NIE was NOT a consensus view of the US Intelligence Community but a hack job by some folks with possible political aspirations (wonder what CNN debate these folks will turn up in): A highly controversial, 150 page National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear programs was coordinated and written by former State Department political and intelligence analysts — not by more seasoned members of...

A senior official from Chad told Israel on Tuesday that the country was willing to open an official diplomatic mission in Jerusalem. Chad’s cabinet chairman, Abdelkerim Déby, who is also its president’s son, visited Israel for a series of meetings, including with Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen. A statement from the Intelligence Ministry said Déby expressed “willingness to open an official mission in Jerusalem.”

Despite being hailed as a "peace deal," the UAE-Israel agreement will more likely prolong ongoing regional wars. It will intensify conflict in those contested zones of the Middle East where the two blocs back rival actors -- primarily Yemen, Libya, and Syria. The insurgent bloc is winning in all three conflicts. The UAE has proved that its main strategy in these conflicts is to control the policymaking of its allies. Emirati leaders have leveraged their relationships in Riyadh and Washington over the last three years to give them or their proxies a free hand to fight in these contested zones....

Turkey and Qatar have reiterated their support for Libya's internationally recognised government during a trip by their defence chiefs to the capital, Tripoli, where Germany's foreign minister also paid an unexpected visit... The country has been split since 2014 between factions based in the east and west, and regional powers have aligned themselves with the competing sides. While Turkey and its regional ally Qatar support the GNA, forces in the east led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar have received backing from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. "We believe that we will achieve the wanted results by supporting...

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse have been detained by mutinying soldiers in the capital during an apparent coup attempt. The development on Tuesday came hours after soldiers took up arms and staged a mutiny at a key base in Kati, a town close to Bamako. It followed a weeks-long political crisis that has seen opposition protesters taking to the streets to demand the departure of Keita, accusing him of allowing the country's economy to collapse and mishandling a worsening security situation. Mali's years-long conflict, in which ideologically-motivated armed groups have stoked ethnic tensions while jockeying...

The six French citizens and one Nigerien killed on Sunday were working for Paris-based NGO ACTED and Geneva-based IMPACT Initiatives, they said in a joint statement on Monday. The other victim was their Nigerien guide. Niger's interior ministry said Sunday the attack took place in Koure, where the aid workers were visiting a giraffe reserve. Hundreds of people visit each year the protected national park that contains dense vegetation and tall trees about 70 45 miles southeast of the capital. One of the biggest French NGOs, ACTED has been present in Niger since 2010 and provides aid to displaced people...

The Popular Resistance is a militia linked to Yemen's Islah party, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that has good relations with both Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Turkey. Part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement, the party and the militia have enemies within the alliance battling on behalf of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi's government - particularly groups allied with the United Arab Emirates, which is a major backer of eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar. Recent reports by anti-Islah media in Yemen have accused the party of sending Yemenis to Turkey under the guise of receiving medical treatment,...