Nigerian and Cameroonian forces killed suspected Boko Haram terrorists and freed more than three dozen hostages during a raid to combat the insurgency in several West African nations, a military spokesman said Saturday.

“Troops killed 10 Boko Haram terrorists and also rescued 45 persons,” in an operation against the insurgents in villages including Mararraba, Angwan Fada, Dale, Wizha, Bokko Timit, Bokko Nasanu, Bokko Hide and Ngoshe Ngoshe, Nigeria’s army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman, said in an e-mailed statement.

The troops safely detonated five improvised explosives in the border towns while four soldiers in a separate operation were injured when they stepped on buried explosives, he said.

The leader of an elite unit of Cameroonian soldiers, Captain Yari Emmanuel of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, was killed Thursday during a joint operation with Nigerian forces that led to the killing of at least 27 militants, according to L’Oeil du Sahel newspaper.

Thousands of people have been killed in Nigeria as the drive by Boko Haram militants to impose their version of Islamic law begins its seventh year. The violence has spilled into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, spurring those nations to contribute soldiers to a regional force to defeat the group.

thebreakingtimes.com

A group that tracks jihadi activity online says Mali-based Islamic extremists have claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.N. base that killed five peacekeepers.

SITE Intelligence Group said Ansar Dine issued a statement on Telegram describing Friday’s attack in the northern city of Kidal as a warning to France and its supporters. The statement said a Mauritanian fighter detonated a car bomb inside the base while other fighters attacked it with rockets.

Led by a Tuareg, Iyad Ag Ghali, a native of the Kidal region, Ansar Dine emerged in 2012 as a religious alternative to the largely secular Tuareg separatists operating in northern Mali. Ansar Dine allied itself with al-Qaida and took over much of Mali’s north before France led a military intervention in 2013.

foxnews.com

Cameroon soldiers killed at least 27 Boko Haram fighters after launching a cross-border operation in the Nigerian locality of Goshi that also resulted in the death of one soldier, a senior military official said.

At least seven other soldiers were injured in the operation early Thursday, said Gen. Jacob Kodji. The Nigerian Islamic extremist group launched a series of attacks in Cameroon earlier this week, said Kodji. Ashigashiya straddles the border of northern Cameroon and Nigeria.

“At least 27 Boko Haram fighters were killed in Thursday morning’s operation,” said Kodji, commander of Cameroon troops in the area. The soldiers remain on the battle front there, he said.

Regional forces from Cameroon and Nigeria have since December 2015 been launching raids on Boko Haram strongholds along their borders, especially around Ashigashiya.

The Islamic militants began attacks across borders in 2014 and stepped them up early last year on neighboring Cameroon and other countries that have supported the Nigerian military’s effort to crush Boko Haram.

In northern Cameroon, officials said two suicide bombers believed to have come from Nigeria on Wednesday killed 10 people and injured 40 attending a wake in a border village. Attacks in Chad and Niger also are blamed on Boko Haram.

Boko Haram’s 6-year-old Islamic insurgency has killed 20,000 people, and displaced 2.5 million people, according to Amnesty International and the United Nations.

ap.org

Rwanda said it would expel 70,000 Burundian refugees, two days after US diplomats accused it of destabilising its southern neighbour.

“The long-term presence of refugees so close to their country of origin carries considerable risks for all involved,” the Rwandan government said.

Over 200,000 refugees have fled Burundi since a brutal crackdown in April on protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza seeking a controversial third term. Over 400 people have been killed.

“The growing risks to our national security from the Burundian impasse and misunderstandings in our foreign relations are unacceptable,” said Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.

Rwanda’s decision follows US diplomats saying that they had received reports that Kigali had been training refugees to overthrow Mr Nkurunziza.

A UN report based on interviews with fighters and leaked two weeks ago made similar claims.

On Thursday, the French and British UN ambassadors said Burundi must be kept in the spotlight, with more political dialogue and international involvement — potentially including peacekeepers.

A recent African Union summit shelved a plan for 5,000 peacekeepers after the Burundian government said it would treat them as invaders.

Government forces have been accused of extrajudicial killings, rape and torture, with the UN peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic sending home three Burundian soldiers for alleged human rights abuses in their own country.

Armed opponents have staged attacks on troops, including a deadly barracks raid in Bujumbura in December that led to reprisals across the capital.

morningstaronline.co.uk

Hundreds of soldiers from dozens of countries in Africa, North America and Europe have assembled in Senegal for the next three weeks for a U.S.-led counterterrorism training program at what army chiefs are calling a crucial point in history for the African continent. Terrorist organizations linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, or ISIS, are flourishing across North Africa and the arid Sahel region.

“Now, even more than the past, the increase of terrorism is a major concern to all of our countries,” Senegalese army chief of staff Brig. Gen. Amadou Kane said in a statement.

Unlike al Qaeda and ISIS in the Middle East, some of the Africa branches reportedly are working together. As the annual “Flintlock” exercises kicked off in Thiès, Senegal, a U.S. commander told reporters Monday there are mounting signs of collaboration between Islamic militant groups in the region. Shared interests, porous borders and a widening security vacuum is allowing some of these organizations to form loose partnerships, terrorism experts said, but their ideological differences and the vastness of the region will ultimately prevent them from uniting.

“These groups have shown themselves to be extremely resourceful in collaborating and getting messages to each other,” said Robin Simcox, the Margaret Thatcher fellow focusing on counterterrorism at the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank in Washington. “But there’s not going to be some Islamic super group that emerges.”

Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, U.S. commander for special operations for Command Africa, said increased collaboration among militant groups in recent years has allowed them to strengthen in size and force in North Africa and the Sahel, a semi-arid belt that spans from Senegal to Eritrea. ISIS has deepened its foothold in Libya, Boko Haram has become more deadly in the Lake Chad region and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is committing asymmetrical attacks against urban infrastructure, he said.

“We have watched that collaboration manifest itself,” Bolduc told reporters in Thiès. “We know in Libya that they (AQIM and ISIS) are working more closely together. It’s more than just influence; they (AQIM) are really taking direction from them.”

A number of Islamic militant groups thrive across North Africa and the Sahel, and their links to al Qaeda and ISIS are becoming more intertwined. Five main groups — Ansar Dine, al-Mourabitoun, AQIM, MNLA and Mujao — occupy swaths of territory in northern Mali, a landlocked West African country. Al-Mourabitoun and Mujao, or Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, are splinter groups of AQIM. Ansar Dine is also suspected of having ties with the region’s al Qaeda-affiliate.

Additionally, AQIM operates in northern Algeria while a splinter group called Jund al-Khilafah, which swore its loyalty to ISIS in 2014, is based in the country’s mountainous east-central region. Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015, is based in northeast Nigeria and is also devastating the greater Lake Chad region where the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon meet. Meanwhile, Ansaru, a splinter group of Boko Haram, operates in north-central Nigeria. And in Libya, ISIS has solidified its foothold by exploiting a power vacuum in the North African nation and capturing the coastal city of Sirte. The Islamic State group also has a presence in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where members of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis took an oath of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and formed the Sinai Province militant group in 2014.

Because many of these groups are affiliated, cooperation among them is not entirely new but it may be increasing, terrorism experts said. Before swearing loyalty to ISIS, Boko Haram members were training in the Sahel alongside AQIM from around 2006 to 2013. Now Boko Haram is seeking ways to cooperate with other ISIS-affiliated militants further north to expand beyond the borders of Nigeria. Dozens of Boko Haram fighters reportedly have traveled from northeast Nigeria to join ISIS on the battlefield in Libya this year. However, the immense distance between the countries and a lack of resources have prevented the two from establishing firm operational links.

“What is in place is a firm ideological relationship with a deep desire for a tactical relationship, but I have not seen this physically play out at the ground level yet in Nigeria,” said Zacharias Pieri, a specialist on Islamic movements and research fellow at the University of South Florida’s Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict in Tampa. “But the desire is there.”

AQIM militants based in Algeria have shared training and resources with its members operating in northern Mali. The al Qaeda branch has also coordinated with its splinter organizations, Al-Mourabitoun and Mujao, as well as Ansar Dine in northern Mali, terrorism experts said.

A continued lack of governance and border security in these vast pockets across North Africa and the arid Sahel have allowed militant groups to move and act freely with little interference. In the past year, Boko Haram has ramped up attacks beyond Nigeria’s northeast border into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. AQIM fighters recently claimed responsibility for an attack that left 30 people dead last month in the capital of Burkina Faso, which borders southern Mali and Niger. As these regions become more volatile, the worsening security vacuum has also allowed for increased competition between groups.

“The interconnection is much more a product of the last couple years-worth [of] bad security outcomes in the region,” said Brandon Kendhammer, an assistant professor of political science at Ohio University, who has lived and conducted research on conflict in West Africa. “If you leave a vacuum open long enough, it won’t be surprising if things start to slip out.”

Still, AQIM has shown distaste for the Islamic State group. In a statement posted on social media in July 2014, the branch blasted ISIS’s presence in Libya and the organization’s “general command,” which should “stop shedding the blood of Muslims and … return to their senses and mind,” according to a translation from SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadi websites.

ISIS began as an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq more than a decade ago and rebranded itself as ISIS in 2006. Now, the Sunni militant group controls swaths of territory in the Middle East, stretching from northern Syria to central Iraq, and its former allies have disowned it. Al Qaeda formally announced its separation from the Islamic State group in February 2014 after months of feuding. A statement by al Qaeda general command declared ISIS “is not a branch of the al Qaeda group … does not have an organizational relationship with it, and [al Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions.”

That’s why terrorism experts were surprised by the U.S. commander’s statement that AQIM was working closely with ISIS in Libya. It would be the first time affiliates of the two terrorist organizations were collaborating in the same area. Al Qaeda and ISIS have a shared goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate ruled by a strict version of Sharia and they have a common enemy: the West and its allies. But they are locked in competition for resources, recruits and operational spaces. There are also fundamental differences between the two groups.

Al Qaeda leadership views establishing a caliphate as a longer-term project and sees implementation of Sharia law as a slow process in contrast to ISIS and its affiliates, which have declared caliphates quickly. Al Qaeda is more focused on carrying out spectacular assaults, like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, rather than seizing territory. The group has traditionally relied on donor funding while ISIS is more dependent on illicit activities such as selling oil on the black market. ISIS is also more brutal than al Qaeda and it uses extreme violence to attract attention and recruit followers, a tactic al Qaeda has shunned.

“There’s obviously shared interests and a shared enemy between the two groups, but there’s also this animosity,” said Simcox, who specializes in al Qaeda terrorism. “It would be a surprise to me that AQIM and ISIS were working very closely.”

While it’s possible that strategic alliances are in fact emerging among the African branches of ISIS and al Qaeda, terrorism experts said these partnerships are likely temporary. The vastness of the region will prevent a potential alliance between AQIM and ISIS in Libya from expanding to affiliates further south, and their discrepancies on ideology and tactics would ultimately divide them.

“I don’t see this lasting in the long term,” said Pieri, who researches Boko Haram, ISIS and al Qaeda. “Irrespective of whether the groups increase their collaborative efforts, there is a big problem looming in the Sahel region of Africa.”

ibtimes.com

Fourteen months after a U.S. army-led combat training for Nigerian soldiers was aborted, American authorities have announced a resumption of the programme.

The American Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said, Tuesday, that the training would resume this February.

Speaking on U.S. strategy against Boko Haram at a meeting in Washington DC, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said U.S. expects would “inaugurate the first round of training for an infantry battalion later this month.”

The resumed training program is part of a broad U.S. strategy against the terror group and, part of the new deal the Obama administration entered with President Muhammadu Buhari during his official trip to America last July.

“Our counter Boko Haram Strategy is an integrated, interagency effort to help Nigeria and its neighbors in their fight to degrade and ultimately to defeat Boko Haram”, said Ms. Thomas-Greenfield adding that the Obama administration engaged Mr. Buhari’s military leadership “to draw up a range of new and continued security assistance”.

“We have stepped up information-sharing efforts, we are jointly evaluating new efforts to counter improvised explosive devices, developing better tools to assess harm to civilians, and assess the potential for U.S. advisory assistance”, the Assistant Secretary of State said.

One of the reasons the Jonathan administration gave for terminating the previous U.S. training program in December 2014 was America’s reluctance to share real-time intelligence with the Nigerian military and refusal to sell Cobra helicopters to Nigeria.

While Ms. Thomas-Greenfield did not indicate specifically if real-time intelligence sharing and sale of military equipment are part of the deal with the Buhari administration, she said the U.S. had already sent 90 combat personnel and was committed to sending a total of 300 soldiers to support “the governments of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria by providing airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations that help our African partners degrade and defeat Boko Haram”.

In apparent reference to Amnesty International’s recent report on alleged war crimes committed by Nigerian soldiers, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield cautioned that the fight against Boko Haram goes beyond the battlefield.

“Equipment and training are only useful when employed by professional forces that respect human rights and earn the respect of the population, our bilateral security discussions will continue to be paired with discussions regarding human rights”, she said, adding that “Nigeria and Lake Chad Basin countries must address the drivers of extremism that gave rise to Boko Haram, these drivers include weak, ineffective governance, corruption, lack of education, and lack of economic opportunities and jobs for the burgeoning young population”.

The previous training programme, which started in April 2014, engaged American soldiers and special operators as instructors for a 650-strong Nigerian ranger battalion to fight Boko Haram.

Itwas the first time ever that US troops would train their African counterparts for a mission other than peacekeeping.

Ms. Thomas-Greenfield was one of three lead speakers at the Tuesday meeting on regional impact of Boko Haram. It was hosted by Congresswoman Karen Bass with diplomats and diaspora Nigerians in attendance.

premiumtimesng.com

The head of an elite unit of Cameroonian soldiers helping lead the military campaign against Boko Haram died in a battle with the Islamist militants along the border with Nigeria, L’Oeil du Sahel reported.

Captain Yari Emmanuel, the head of Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion, was killed during a joint operation with Nigerian forces on Boko Haram positions on Thursday, the newspaper reported. At least 27 militants died in the fighting, it said.

Army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck didn’t answer multiple phone calls seeking comment.

Thousands of people have been killed in neighboring Nigeria as a campaign by Boko Haram militants to impose their version of Islamic law enters its seventh year. The violence has spilled over to Cameroon, Chad and Niger, spurring those nations to contribute soldiers to a regional force to defeat the group.

Rebel attacks still regularly occur. Nine people were killed by suicide bombers in Cameroon’s Far North this week, while earlier this month bombings in the same region left at least eight people dead.

bloomberg.com

Somalia militants Al Shabaab are planning to attack liberated areas disguised in uniforms stolen from the African peacekeepers.

The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Francisco Madeira warned Thursday of the sinister plot.

Madeira —an Amisom head—said Al-Shabaab is plotting to strike in communities in the liberated areas that are currently enjoying peace and appealed to the Somalia public to be on the lookout and guard against such manipulations.

“If you see any suspicious behaviour by anybody in Amisom uniform, report it immediately to the authorities so that we can all be able to defeat this heinous enemy who does not respect life, who does not want the development of the people of Somalia,” warned Madeira.

Some of the uniforms were obtained during the attack of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) camp in El-Adde, Gedo region on January 15 in which an unknown number of soldiers were killed.

For most part of last year, Al-Shabaab has concentrated on attacking military targets inside Somalia including Ethiopian, Ugandan and Burundian troops.

The militias are now using the uniforms looted from the camps during attacks to disguise themselves as Amisom.

theeastafrican.co.ke

Senior American diplomats say refugees in Rwanda are being recruited to launch attacks on Burundi government as violence threatens to spiral into civil war.

telegraph.co.uk

South Sudanese government forces have on Monday launched surprise attacks on rebel-held territories in a move seen as a violation of the peace agreement signed by South Sudan’s rival leaders, rebel Spokesman has announced.

James Gatdet Dak, the official Spokesperson for the leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), has released a statement declaring that government troops have launched coordinated attacks on rebel positions in the oil-rich Upper Nile State.

“Government forces have on Monday attacked SPLA-IO military base at Deba in Wedakona area in Upper Nile state. Government forces also shelled our military camp in Tubagiya, south of Malakal on Monday,” Gatdet said in a statement g extended to the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA).

The outspoken rebel official described the latest attacks as a “serious violation” of the power-sharing deal, adding that armed opposition forces managed to repulse Juba-backed troops, resulting in capturing of one of government soldiers.

“This unprovoked aggression is a serious violation of the Permanent Ceasefire Agreement signed between the parties. Juba forces were however repulsed and one of their soldiers captured,” he said.

The SPLM/A-IO Spokesman also said that South Sudan’s government troops also left one of their bases in Unity State and are moving toward rebel locations in Tunga and Kodok.

“Another force from the government has moved out from Parieng county of Unity state towards Tunga and Kodok with the aim to attack the SPLA-IO bases and designated cantonment locations in the areas,” Gatdet further elaborated.

In the document, Gatdet asserts that Salva kiir’s government is not committed to the implementation of the internationally-brokered deal and security arrangements, saying Kiir is only looking for a “military option.”

Kiir and Machar signed the IGAD-Plus’s compromise peace agreement last August after nearly 20 months of failed negotiations.

South Sudanese government has in recent days been accusing rebel forces of besieging Unity State’s capital, Bentiu. Rebels denies the accusation, saying Juba is lying and that Kiir’s government is simply using one of its deceptive techniques in an attempt to attack rebel forces and then blame it on the SPLA-IO.

southsudannewsagency.com