Unidentified riding a motorcycle Monday evening shot dead three officials in a bar at Bwiza, near the Burundian capital Bujumbura city center, before riding away, the Burundian police spokesman said Tuesday.

“It was yesterday (Monday) around 17:45 (15:45 GMT) when unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle shot dead three persons with a pistol in a bar at the 6th Avenue in Bwiza, before riding away their motorcycle,” said Burundian Police Spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye.

According to him, the three victims include a police officer, a senior official at the Burundian education ministry and a chief of Gatete village in the country’s southern province of Rumonge.

Nkurikiye indicated that four persons as well as some other people working in the bar and some people who were taking drinks in the bar were arrested for further investigations.

He added that corpses of two men were discovered Tuesday morning at Rubirizi in palm trees in Mutimbuzi district in Bujumbura Rural province, some 12 km west of the Burundian capital Bujumbura, where they had been dumped by unidentified persons.

Nkurikiye stressed, “Investigations have been launched and we hope that it is possible to identify all phone numbers that rang the broker the day he disappeared from sight.”

He added that the suspect who exploded a grenade in Gatumba town in Bujumbura Rural province on Dec. 1, 2015, killing three persons and injuring seven others was arrested on Monday in a bar in Kinyinya in Gatumba town.

“The suspect admitted to have blasted the grenade,” said Nkurikiye.

xinhuanet.com

The recent bloody attacks by an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) in Burkina Faso, which left at least 28 people dead and 56 wounded, offer further evidence, if any were needed, that the fight against the Islamic State and its confederates ranges well beyond Syria and Iraq.

The six Canadians who were killed – including a family of four – were in the country on a development mission like many of the other victims. Fighters from AQIM’s Saharan affiliate, al-Mourabitoun, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were targeted at Westerners and United Nations workers. If the new government is looking for an effective and coherent means of contributing to the fight against the Islamic State, AQIM and associated radical groups, one of the options it might consider is to continue its current training, surveillance mission and humanitarian efforts, but also take the fight outside of the Iraq/Syria region.

Notwithstanding periodic and conflicting reports of co-operation and competition between the Islamic State and AQIM, there are indications that these groups are metastasizing into a confederacy of global terrorist actors with broad ambitions. The Islamic State is already active in parts of the Sinai, in Yemen and Libya. Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the group and there are others in Afghanistan and some of the al-Shabaab in Somalia who have strong connections with the organization.

The objective of the Islamic State certainly appears to be to strengthen the various connections between all these groups, assume the mantle of leadership, and expand from the Atlantic coast of Africa to southeast Asia.

One option the federal government should consider is joining France in support of the security measures being taken by the G5 Sahel member states in the region – Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Chad. Such military action would bolster these regional players and the UN stabilization mission in Mali.

Canada is uniquely positioned to make a very valuable contribution in the region with logistical and engineering support, strategic airlift and perhaps some more trainers and special forces. From a diplomatic standpoint, there also needs to be more focus on security co-operation. This would also address some of the foreign policy aims in the Liberal platform, which include doing more in French-speaking Africa and supporting UN peacekeeping missions.

It is vital to confront the Islamic State and its friends wherever they are. Canada could play a key role in the fight in North and West Africa to ensure these groups are prevented from expanding their sphere of activities, and eventually eliminated. As sub-Saharan Africa continues to struggle with the challenges of development, the last thing on earth it needs is a growing threat of terrorism on its doorstep. This serves both African and global security objectives.

Canada is a member in good standing of the Francophonie. By joining the French and African effort, we would definitely demonstrate a new and perhaps even more effective approach to the problem of fighting global terrorism than dropping a few bombs in Syria and Iraq.

theglobeandmail.com

theeastafrican.co.ke

The attack occurred in the village of Nguetchewe. Cameroonian officials confirmed the death toll to media sources.

The terrorist group Boko Haram is believed responsible for the attack.

The attack comes just days after a previous attack in Cameroon left 12 people dead.  According to security sources, the bombing took place around 6:00 A.M. just as the morning prayers were ending.

The suicide bomber was believed to be a young boy, who ran towards the mosque and then set off the explosives he was carrying on his person.

Cameroon has been hit by numerous attacks by Boko Haram in recent weeks largely in response to their role in the regional joint task force which has been fighting the terrorist group.

saharareporters.com

Three people were killed and several wounded in a grenade attack on a bar in the Burundian capital Bujumbura late on Monday, police said, as the impoverished nation faces the prospect of a return to civil war.

Burundi sank into a crisis last year after President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term of office, which he secured in a disputed vote.

U.N. officials say the crisis has brought the nation to the brink of a new civil war, after it emerged from a 12-year, ethnically fuelled conflict just a decade ago.

Pierre Nkurukiye, the police spokesman, said a senior police officer, a lawyer and a civil servant were killed in the attack that took place in the Bwiza neighbourhood.

Witnesses said the attackers used a motorbike to get to the scene and to flee after the explosion. Police arrested several youths in the area after the attack on the bar that is popular with Nkurunziza’s supporters, the witnesses added.

reuters.com

Kenya’s military carried out air raids on al-Qaeda-linked militants in southwestern Somalia after an attack on an African Union military base Jan. 15 in which the Islamists said at least 100 Kenyan soldiers died.

The Kenya Defence Forces used both land and air forces in response to the attack on the El Adde base in Somalia’s Gedo region near the Kenyan border, Samson Mwathathe, the head of Kenya’s military, said in a statement published Sunday on the Ministry of Interior’s website. The operation is “delicate” because some Kenyan soldiers have been captured and are being used as human shields, he said.

“As we speak right now our troops are engaging the terrorists,” Mwathathe said. “We have information to the effect that some soldiers are being used as human shields and we will not allow any further casualties.”

Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group that has been fighting Somalia’s government for a decade, said it killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers and captured 12 others in the Jan. 15 attack. If the death toll is confirmed, it would be the highest number of casualties Kenya’s military has suffered in a single incident since its troops invaded southern Somalia in October 2011.

The African Union is still verifying the number of casualties and Kenyan authorities haven’t specified how many of its soldiers died.

The El Adde attack was carried out by suicide bombers using improvised explosive devices on vehicles and “the soldiers affected by the attack are a company-size force,” Defence Secretary Raychelle Omamo said in a separate statement on the Ministry of Interior’s website. In the U.S. military, a company has 100 to 200 soldiers, according to the U.S. Army’s website.

bloomberg.com

Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region.

Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after al Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least seven countries, and wounding 50 other people.

The assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States.

In a statement on the Burkina Faso assault that was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, AQIM said: “This blessed operation is but a drop in the sea of global jihad.”

The militant group identified three attackers and called the targeted hotel and surrounding areas “one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent”.

The exact details of the cooperation between Burkina Faso and Mali were not immediately clear, but the patrols and intelligence sharing mark an intent by the two countries to prevent the spread of militancy as AQIM and others expand operations in the region beyond their usual reach.

For years, Islamic militants have used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they have staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country. Burkina Faso’s authorities are now concerned that its long desert border with Mali could become a transit point for militants.

“There is a very strong political will on the part of the two states to combine our efforts to fight terrorism,” said Burkina Faso’s prime minister, Paul Kaba Thieba.

Thieba and his Malian counterpart Modibo Keita visited the outside of the Splendid Hotel on Sunday, where bullet holes and a charred exterior offered reminders of Friday evening’s attack.

Tight security was in place around the hotel. Inside, Burkinabe and French security officials were conducting an investigation.

Security forces in Burkina Faso retook the 146-room hotel on Saturday after firefights with militants, at least three of whom were killed. Survivors said the militants targeted white victims at the hotel and at the restaurant, both of which were popular among westerners.

According to provisional figures from the Burkinabe government, among the dead were eight Burkinabes, four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two Portuguese, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch citizen. Seven bodies are yet to be identified, and the list is subject to change. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said six Canadians had been killed.

A nine-year-old Italian boy and his mother were killed in the assault on Cappuccino, the restaurant attacked opposite the Splendid Hotel, Italy’s foreign ministry said on Sunday. The boy, Michel Santomenna, and his mother were the son and wife of the restaurant owner, Gaetano Santomenna. She was not Italian and has not yet been named.

“Italy will continue to work to ensure that the international community remains united and intensifies its efforts to fight the terrorist threat, which once again showed its most inhuman and cruel face by targeting innocent civilians,” it said.

christiantoday.com

The UN human rights chief voiced alarm at the spiralling violence in Burundi, decrying allegations of security forces gang raping women, ethnic killings and mass graves filled with more than 100 bodies.

“All the alarm signals, including the increasing ethnic dimension of the crisis, are flashing red,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein warned in a statement.

Burundi has been sliding deeper into violence since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April his intention to run in elections in July.

The unrest has intensified since his re-election, with political assassinations on both sides, attacks against the police and summary executions.

But Zeid warned on Friday that “deeply worrying new trends are emerging in Burundi, including cases of sexual violence by security forces and a sharp increase in enforced disappearances and torture cases.”

He called for an urgent investigation into a spike in violence in Bujumbura last month and witness accounts of at least nine mass graves in and around the capital, including one in a military camp allegedly containing more than 100 bodies of people killed on December 11.

“My office is analysing satellite images in an effort to shed more light on these extremely serious allegations,” Zeid said.

The witness testimony suggests that the toll from the December 11 attacks on three military bases was far higher than the official tally of 87 dead.

The UN puts the number at at least 130.

Those attacks meanwhile appeared to have triggered “new and extremely disturbing patterns of violations,” Zeid said.

“We have documented 13 cases of sexual violence against women, which began during the search and arrest operations that took place after the December events,” he said.

“The pattern was similar in all cases: security forces allegedly entered the victims’ houses, separated the women from their families, and raped – in some cases gang-raped – them,” he added.

Police and army forces had also arrested “considerable numbers of young men, many of whom were later tortured, killed or taken to unknown destinations,” Zeid said.

He voiced particular alarm at testimony from residents in various neighbourhoods indicating that the search operations following the December 11 violence had targeted Tutsis in particular.

One woman was told she was being sexually abused since she was Tutsi, and in Bujumbura’s Nyakabiga neighbourhood, a witness claimed Tutsis “were systematically killed, while Hutus were spared,” Zeid’s office said.

“A complete breakdown in law and order is just around the corner,” Zeid warned, stressing that with “the potentially lethal ethnic dimension starting to rear its head, this will inevitably end in disaster if the current rapidly deteriorating trajectory continues.”

At least 439 people have died in the violence since April and tens of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries out of fear of a return to all-out war.

Burundi plunged into civil war on ethnic lines between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis in 1993, at a cost of an estimated 300 000 lives by the end of the conflict in 2006.

iol.co.za

Border security holds the key to success in Nigeria’s war on terror, writes Vincent Obia.

Until a few years ago, the issue of border security was not something most people in Nigeria gave much thought to – or any thought at all. But today, Nigerians are witnesses to a deluge of problems caused and aggravated by inadequate security at the country’s borders. Sentiments bordering on the need to tighten security at the borders have become a sort of national mantra.

Minister of Interior, Lieutenant General   Abdulrahman Danbazzau (rtd), echoed those sentiments last week when he lamented the menace of porous borders in the fight against terrorism. Danbazzau disclosed on Tuesday in Sokoto that out of about 1, 500 identified border crossings into Nigeria, only about 100 were manned by the security agencies. The rest are left as free entry and exit points for all sorts of persons and goods.

The growing concern about border security is, of course, due to the unremitting terrorist atrocities, which, in most cases, are organised abroad and imported into the country or largely fanned from across the borders.

Thousands of people have been killed by terrorists in the country since the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009. These killings have occurred mainly in areas within the North-east states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe that share borders with Nigeria’s West African neighbours, like Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. These areas have formed the epicentre of the insurgency, highlighting the fact that most of the terror attacks Nigeria has witnessed are actually cross-border raids by guerrillas who hit targets and escape to bases outside the country.

The critical role of border security in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism is well acknowledged by the Nigerian government and the citizens. In a valedictory speech in 2014, to mark his exit from the Nigerian Army, former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, blamed the porous borders for the growing insurgency in the North-east. Experts have long since warned about the danger posed by the assorted illegal weapons that are being smuggled through the borders by merchants and terrorists.

Yet, very little has been done to address the question of security at the country’s borders.
In the last couple of years, the federal government has from time to time closed the country’s borders with its West African neighbours to try to control the entry and exit of people and goods. The government has also adopted diplomatic strategies to encourage regional cooperation on the issue of security at the national borders. These measures are valid and necessary. But the federal government needs to up the ante in its efforts to secure the country’s international land borders of about 4,470 kilometres (2,513 miles) with Chad, Cameroon, Benin, and Niger, and coastline of 774 kilometres (480 miles).

Former Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, said in May 2013 that Nigeria needed $244 million to install electronic surveillance systems round its borders. He stated that the United States State Department and a Chinese firm had offered to assist in the project, stressing that the borders would be effectively policed when the project is completed. It is unclear how far the federal government has gone on the electronic surveillance project.

But on Monday in Sokoto, Danbazzau said the federal government planned to deploy modern methods and machines as well as intelligence to monitor movements along the country’s borders. This is to try to stop the smuggling of arms, drugs and human trafficking.
Some have also suggested the walling of Nigeria’s borders.

The federal government must decide on the appropriate and realistic criteria to adopt in policing the borders. Nigeria can afford the hi-tech remedies to its border security problem, and it can also employ adequate manpower to secure the borders. What the country cannot afford is the seeming lip service being paid to the menace of porous borders. The relevant authorities have regularly highlighted the need to adequately police the borders, without concrete steps to achieve the goal.

The country’s location in a relatively unstable region, with volatile socio-political situations in countries like Ivory Coast, Chad, Mali, etc., makes the need for proper border security urgent. There is also the question of growing poverty in many of the countries bordering Nigeria, which makes their nationals susceptible to manipulation or intimidation by terrorists.

Since 2009 when Boko Haram insurgency put down roots in the North-east, places outside the Nigeria have been used as launching points for terrorist activities in the country. Such outposts have also provided a buffer for fleeing terrorists. Thousands of people have been killed and the economies of states and regions have been destroyed.

Trillions of naira has been sunk into the fight against insurgency. But the anti-insurgency efforts may come to nought if urgent steps are not taken to fix the border security problem and block routes that have for years served as incubator for terrorism in Nigeria.

thisdaylive.com

Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group said on Sunday it had captured some Kenyan soldiers during an attack last week on a military base in the west of Somalia near the Kenyan border.

The group, which did not say how many soldiers were held after Friday’s assault, also said in a statement that more than 100 Kenyan soldiers were killed, revising up the number from the more than the 63 dead it had previously claimed.

There was no immediate comment from the Kenyan military or AMISOM, the African Union force in which the Kenyans serve. Both have offered limited information about the attack. A Kenyan official said on Sunday the army would issue a statement without saying when.

Al Shabaab often cites vastly higher figures than those given by officials. There was no independent death toll.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday that “some of our patriots in uniform” were killed. Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said on Saturday the wounded were being evacuated to Nairobi for treatment and bodies of those killed would be brought home. Neither gave figures.

“Mujahideen fighters … stormed the Kenyan base in the early hours of Friday morning, killing more than 100 Kenyan invaders, seizing their weapons and military vehicles and even capturing Kenyan soldiers alive,” al Shabaab said.

AMISOM and Kenyan forces had said al Shabaab attacked a Somali National Army base and AMISOM forces counter-attacked. AMISOM and the Somali army launched a joint offensive last year that has driven al Shabaab from its major strongholds.

Al Shabaab said the attack was in retaliation for the Kenyan “invasion of Muslim lands” and what it said was the army’s “persecution of innocent Muslims” inside Kenya, a reference to the government’s pursuit of suspected militants in the country.

Some critics say the Kenyan authorities often use heavy-handed tactics. The government, which has faced a spate of attacks in Kenya in the past two years or more, insists it acts justly and within the law to deal with a security threat.

Kenyatta has repeatedly said he would not be coerced into withdrawing Kenyan forces from Somalia, saying the troops are protecting Kenya. “With our allies, we will continue in Somalia to fulfil our mission,” he said in Friday’s comments.

The comments were echoed by AMISOM. “Our resolve can only be rejuvenated, to fight on until Somalia is freed of all elements of terror,” AMISOM said on its Twitter feed.

reuters.com