South Sudan rebels opened fire on a U.N. peacekeeping base sheltering 30,000 civilians, killing one and wounding six in a possible war crime, the UN said late Wednesday.

Fighters in the rebel-held northeastern town of Malakal, capital of the key oil-producing Upper Nile state, opened fire on the UN base, with peacekeepers returning fire.

“Any attack on a protection-of-civilians site constitutes a direct assault against the United Nations and may constitute a war crime,” the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement, condemning the attack “in the strongest possible terms.”

“The wounded are currently receiving treatment at the hospital inside the UNMISS compound, and one is said to be in a critical condition,” it added.

Over 142,000 civilians are sheltering in U.N. bases across the country, and have been attacked previously by warring forces.

Malakal was attacked and captured Saturday by rebels led by ex-government General Johnson Olony, accused by aid agencies of forcibly recruiting hundreds of child soldiers.

Civil war began in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

A U.N. report this week described horrific violence in the latest fighting in the 18-month long war, where witnesses said the army gang-raped girls and torched them alive in huts.

On Wednesday, U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on six commanders. The six generals – three from the government forces and three from the rebels – were punished with a global travel ban and an assets freeze for their role in the worsening conflict.

The European Union and United States last year had already slapped sanctions on three of those listed by the U.N., apparently doing nothing to stem the violence.

Four years since South Sudan won its independence, two-thirds of the country’s 12 million people need aid, according to the UN, and one-sixth have fled their homes.

Chad’s chief prosecutor says that security forces have arrested one of the leaders of the Nigerian extremist group, Boko Haram.

Prosecutor Alhassim Khamis said in a statement on Monday that Bahna Fanaye, whose alias is Mahamat Moustapha, was apprehended on Sunday, along with two others. He said Fanaye co-ordinated the trafficking of weapons between Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad for the radical Islamic network.

Khamis said forces seized various weapons, communication materials, documents and more than 50 SIM cards from Fanaye’s home. He said a man described as the financier of the group was also arrested in another operation.

Khamis says that security forces have now detained 74 suspects.

Chad has been a major military ally with Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram, which has publicly threatened the Chadian president with retaliation.

Islamist extremists in Mali are attacking small villages in the southern part of the country in a fresh effort to hold ground. Jihadists linked to al Qaeda on Sunday attacked and briefly held the small Malian village of Fakola near Ivory Coast, the Associated Press reported. A government statement posted Monday on Facebook said the army deployed troops to the area to hunt down the jihadists, but they have yet to be captured.

Despite an active French counterterrorism force in the country, extremists in the last two months have carried out at least five verified raids on government buildings and military outposts, adding to an already well-established offensive in the center of the country.

Sunday’s attack on Fakola, which is about 190 miles south of Mali’s capital of Bamako, marked the second time in one month that jihadists targeted villages close to Ivory Coast.

At least 15 people were killed early on Monday in clashes pitting Somali and African Union troops against the Islamist group al-Shabaab near the southern port of Kismayo, officials said.

Eight al-Shabaab militants were killed, said regional administration spokesperson Abdinasir Seerar. An unspecified number of security force members were also killed, he said, though it was not clear if they were soldiers or local police officers.

Witnesses said civilians were also among those killed.

Al-Shabaab members trying to enter Kismayo airport attacked an army patrol but were defeated, Seerar said.

The militants also attacked an AU military base in Lafoole, 20km south of Mogadishu, police official Ismail Ali said.

Some of the Burundian AU soldiers and Somali police officers who were at the base were injured but repelled the attackers, Ali said.

The attack followed the killing of more than 50 Burundian peacekeepers in southern Somalia on Friday. Al-Shabaab spokesperson Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said on Sunday the group had their bodies and would publish photos of them.

The pro-insurgent radio Andalus said al-Shabaab had executed three men accused of spying on behalf of the United States and of helping its drones attack the group.

Hundreds of people witnessed the executions in the southern town of Saakow on Sunday, according to the report. It did not say if those executed were members of al-Shabaab.

The Nigerian military is alleged to have transferred over 100 suspected Boko Haram members from Maiduguri, Borno State, to unknown locations in the country.

This is coming against the backdrop of recent developments where economic activities were paralysed in Anambra State following unconfirmed reports that the federal government was planning to relocate Boko Haram detainees still awaiting trial in various parts of the North-east to the state,  but this has been denied by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)

However, THISDAY was informed of the transfer last week by a source who claimed that the Boko Haram suspects who were captured during the recent offensive against their hideouts in Sambisa forest and other locations were transferred in two batches.

According to the source, the first batch of over 50 Boko Haram Prisoners of War (PoW) were lifted out of Maiduguri Airport to an unknown location on June 21, 2015, while the second batch of over 50 were also transferred on the June 24 by the C-130 military transport plane.

The source further claimed that the captured terrorists were usually taken to the Kainji Air Force Base where they might be taken for trial or handed over to the appropriate authorities.

The source said: “A C130 aircraft came and lifted over 50 Boko Haram captured fighter to Abuja or where we don’t know probably to show President Muhammadu Buhari their efforts.

“We don’t know the reason why that was done. We don’t know whether our big men (military authorities) want to show the president how serious we have been in the fight against the Boko Haram boys. To me this was a waste of aviation fuel and other logistics. In fact, we don’t know.

“These Boko Haram boys were all captured from the bush (Sambisa forest). They did not have a hold anywhere any longer but were just running in the bush with or without riffles because they did not have anything to eat or drink again. They were so tired and battle-weary that it was easy to capture them alive. And normally, the Kainji Air Force Base, Maiduguri, is where these kind of terrorists were kept. So for now we don’t know why we are hearing from some airmen that the C130 was heading to Abuja.”

The source further disclosed that “a second batch went four days after but where they are carrying them to was still what we are to ascertain…
Because initially, the Kainji Air Force base underground is where suspected Boko Haram insurgents used to be kept whenever they were captured from Maiduguri.”

Meanwhile, all efforts to reach the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, were not successful, as text messages and calls were not responded to.

The South-east Zone of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged members of the public to disregard the reports of the relocation of Boko Haram detainees to Anambra State.

The party stated categorically that the rumour making the rounds was a “blatant falsehood.”
The party in a statement issued by its spokesman for South-east, Osita Okechukwu, said it had made contacts with the presidency and the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and that they promised that there was no iota of truth in the mischievous rumour.

Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the South-eastern zone  as well as other major towns of Anambra State were temporarily shut down on Saturday  as over 2000 traders  protested what they said posed a threat to their lives and means of livelihood.

The traders took to the streets to kick over alleged plan to transfer detained Boko Haram suspects to prisons in Anambra State.

As a result, all commercial outlets, including the Onitsha main market and other major markets were shut and commercial and social activities grounded throughout the duration of the protest which lasted for hours.

However, Okechukwu said: “We have made contacts with the presidency and the NPS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and they assured us that there is no iota of truth in the mischievous rumour.

“In the clarification, the NPS stated unequivocally that, “Most of the terror suspects are awaiting trial and so there is no way they can be moved to another state, because they must be tried in the state where they committed the crime.”

“They went further to state that their primary and traditional duty is to move detainees from prison to trial courts and wondered how easy it is move the detainees more than 1000 kilometres from Onitsha to Maiduguri if they are relocated?

“Accordingly, the South-east zone of the APC candidly appeals to our dear compatriots to disregard the blackmail and sinister rumour of rear-guard elements; who are yet to recover from their failure in the March 28 presidential election.

“We assure our people that the  change President Muhammadu Buhari promised is real: the seond Niger Bridge, federal roads, Enugu coal and other physical and social infrastructure in the South-east will be revamped,” he said.