South African Stephen McGowan, who was kidnapped by al Qaeda from the Mali tourist town of Timbuktu in 2011, has been released and is back home, foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said on Thursday, like reported by reuters.com.

McGowan, who had been touring Mali on motorbikes with a German, a Swede and a Dutch national, was undergoing medical tests but had no major injuries, Nkoana-Mashabane told a news conference. No ransom was paid, she added.

“We would like to warmly welcome him back home and wish him good health, good fortune in his life as a free man. It is with sadness though, that his dear mother… passed on in May 2017 without seeing her son back home,” she said.

Swede Johan Gustafsson, who was kidnapped alongside McGowan from a Timbuktu restaurant, was freed in June. The kidnappers had demanded 5 million dollars for his release, but the government rejected it, Swedish Radio said.

Their German friend was killed in the initial kidnapping, while Sjaak Rijke of the Netherlands was freed in 2015 in a raid by French special forces.

In a video that emerged a month ago, after Gustafsson’s release, a bearded McGowan did not appear to know his freedom might be imminent.

“It’s a long time to be away,” he said. “Until when do you think this will come to an end? Now we’re making a new video, but I don’t know what to say. It’s all been said in the past. It’s all been said in previous videos I’ve made.”

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb began as a spin-off from an Islamist movement that fought Algeria’s government in the 1990s.

It was pushed into north Mali the following decade, where it pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s movement and build a network of fighters across the Sahara.

They have been responsible for dozens of kidnappings of Westerners and scores of attacks on security forces across West Africa.

Somalia-based al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militants on Wednesday opened fire on a bus carrying 50 passengers in the Kipini area of Kenya’s southeastern Lamu County, killing three passengers, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

Confirming the attack, a senior police officer from Lamu County who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media, said the attackers who were hiding in a dense forest area had shot at the passenger bus despite their presence but police managed to repel the attackers

“There were some who were injured and rushed to Witu Hospital,” he said, adding that police have offered escorts in areas close to the Somali border since 28 teachers on a bus to Nairobi had been killed killed.

Pictures of the bus belonging to the Kipini Raha company riddled with bullet holes circulated on social media platforms in Kenya, with many calling for the government to ensure Kenyans are more secure during the election period.

In a statement via their radio station in Somalia, the militants had promised to carry out attacks in Kenya during the campaign period.

Kenyans are scheduled to vote in legislative and presidential elections on Aug. 8.

Germany and France support the battle against terrorism and human trafficking in the Sahel region, like reported by deutschland.de

Germany and France want to host a conference of supporters in the battle against terrorism and human trafficking in the Sahel zone. It is planned for September in Berlin, said a spokesperson of the German Federal Ministry of Defence. At present, efforts are being made to persuade more countries to take part, he continued, whereby the emphasis will be not only on money, but also on support in the form of training, equipment and infrastructure for the security forces in West Africa. Spain and Italy have already signalled interest, he stated, and representatives of the United Nations and the European Union will be invited.
“It is important for us to bring other European partners on board”, Federal Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) said beforehand in Niger, where she was visiting a construction site for the future headquarters of the G5 Sahel States. The Minister indicated that Germany would be supplying some 50 utility vehicles such as lorries, forklifts and fire trucks to Niger by the end of 2017. France will then be responsible for training the drivers. Von der Leyen has already provided Niger’s security forces with motorcycles, trucks and phones worth five million Euros.

New prospects

The G5 Group was established in 2014, with the members being Mauretania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The region is currently facing the challenge of Islamic terrorist militias. Germany and France seek to support the Sahel states in the battle against terrorism and combat the causes of the outflow of refugees.

Together with the European Union, both countries resolved at the 19th Franco-German Council of Ministers in July 2017 to expand their development cooperation with the states in the Sahel zone. The goal of the joint “Alliance for the Sahel” is to provide vocational training and investments in agriculture and infrastructure to create jobs above all for young people. Germany and France wish to support the five states in combatting corruption, too.

These measures fit into the “Federal Government Africa Policy Guidelines” drawn up by the German Federal Foreign Office, which emphasize the goal “to strengthen African ownership by empowering African partners to carry out successful crisis prevention and effective crisis response.” To this end, Germany seeks to support countries with training, advice and equipment for the armed and security forces.

The U.S says it will train and provide technical support to personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to enhance its operations in the counter-terrorism campaign, like reported by nta.ng.

Mr Michael Bonner, the Senior Police Advisor U.S. Embassy, stated this when he visited Ibrahim Abdullahi, the state NSCDC Commandant in Maiduguri on Tuesday.

Bonner said that such support had become necessary in view of NSCDC’s contributions in promoting national security, especially in the protection of critical infrastructure.

“Absolutely, when you talk about safety and security in Nigeria, the primary concern is the North-East, and the state that needs attention the most right now is Borno.

“It is a great opportunity to meet NSCDC officers and hear from you how the U.S can assist you?

“We are also planning to train the NSCDC personnel on post-bomb blast investigation techniques.

“We have already put in place some courses that will run strictly for the NSCDC on critical infrastructure protection. “The course is designed to train about 25 officers of the NSCDC who will also train other officers of the command.’’

According to him, we are also looking at providing a joint training for the NSCDC and the Nigeria Police Force.

“The training includes counter-terrorism techniques to enable you to identify potential threats and protect people in soft targets as well as prevent terror attack,” he said.

According to Bonner, the NSCDC plays a vital role in community policing, in view of its closer ties with people in the society.

He said that the U.S. Embassy would liaise with some humanitarian organisations to assist the command improve its operations.

Responding, Abdullahi said the command had recorded significant success toward providing civic protection in the state.

He recalled that at the beginning of the Boko Haram insurgency, personnel of the command were not allowed to carry arms, noting that the trend did not deter them from their duties.

The NSCDC commandant said that the command had recorded successes in various operations against the insurgents in the state.

“We have arrested a lot of high profiled Boko Haram insurgents, their food and fuel suppliers, we also intercepted some cow rustlers and recovered a spiritual Book which the insurgents used to hypnotise new recruits,” he said.

According to him, the command has deployed personnel to some of the liberated areas and University of Maiduguri.

Abdullahi added that the command had also resolved more than 15,000 cases under its dispute resolution exercise.

The commandant listed lack of patrol vehicles and obsolete equipment as some of the challenges being faced by the command.

He stressed the need to rehabilitate offices of the command vandalised by the Boko Haram insurgents in the 27 local government areas of the state.

Fear of Boko Haram attacks has driven at least 7,000 people from Niger to seek refuge in Chad in the last week, and thousands more may cross the border if the violence escalates, the United Nations said, like reported by japantimes.co.jp.

The recent arrivals in Chad’s Lake region felt compelled to leave Niger after attacks by Islamist Boko Haram militants on their village and neighboring communities in the southeastern Diffa region, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).

Diffa has seen intense fighting over the past year between Niger’s army and Boko Haram militants. The region hosts almost a quarter-of-a-million uprooted people, from Niger and Nigeria, who have been forced to flee their homes by the violence.

“The new arrivals fled into Chad because they were scared of Boko Haram attacks … after a few took place recently,” UNHCR official Edward O’Dwyer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“They also said they felt exposed after Chad scaled back the number of troops in Niger due to a lack of resources,” he added.

Those who crossed the border into Chad said at least 10,000 more people could follow suit imminently due to fears over their safety in southern Niger, according to the U.N. agency.

Suspected Boko Haram fighters killed nine people and abducted dozens more in southern Niger last month, while female bombers killed two and wounded 11 at a U.N.-managed camp for the displaced in the first suicide attack in the region in a year.

This violence has stoked fears about Niger’s inability to stop Boko Haram crossing the desert border from their bases in Nigeria, with the frequency of the militants’ attacks having ramped up recently as their eight-year insurgency rages on.

Their bid to carve out an Islamic caliphate in the Lake Chad region has killed 20,000 people and forced at least 2.7 million to flee their homes across Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

“We are concerned that if the security situation deteriorates in Niger, more and more people will flee to Chad,” said O’Dwyer, adding that the UNHCR had a contingency plan prepared to provide aid in case of a spike in arrivals.

The U.N. agency said it had delivered items such as plastic tarpaulin and blankets to those uprooted from Niger, who have set up an informal camp near a site hosting Nigerian refugees.

Chad’s Lake region is home to at least 100,000 Chadians uprooted by violence, and 8,000 Nigerian refugees, says the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

At least 11 soldiers were killed and several others injured when al-Shabaab militants attacked a military convoy in a village southwest of capital Mogadishu, officials said according to aa.com.tr.

Ali Nur Mohamed, lower Shabelle region’s deputy commissioner, told reporters that heavily armed al-Shabaab militants attacked an African Union peace keeping mission and Somali military convoy near Golweyn village, located 140 kilometers (86 miles) from Mogadishu.

He confirmed 10 soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and one Somali soldier were killed and several others injured in the attack.

Police said the convoy was attacked when it was traveling between Golweyn and Bulo Marer district in the lower Shabelle region.

The Al-Qaeda affiliated insurgent group al-Shabaab claimed that it had killed more than 39 soldiers of the peace mission.

Joe Kibet, the mission’s spokesman in Somalia, on the other hand, denied al-Shabaab’s claims, saying the morning attack left only two of their soldiers injured.

“The convoy was only a platoon which comprises of less than 39 soldiers. We did not lose a soldier in that attack,” Kibet told local media.

Aliyow Adan, a police officer in the region, told Anadolu Agency that fierce fighting took place after al-Shabaab militants ambushed the convoy, and security forces killed more than 8 attackers.

Earlier on Sunday, a car bomb blast near a police station in Mogadishu killed at least five civilians and injured more than 12.

Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre described the bomb attack “as the deadliest attack in a month”.

The Nigerian Air Force said on Thursday that the Boko Haram terrorists were back to the Sambisa Forest area of Borno State, but said its fighter jets and attack helicopters had bombed the terrorists’ hideouts 108 times between April and July, 2017, like reported by punchng.com.

The Air Component Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, the military operation in the North-East, Air Commodore Tajudeen Yusuf, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Yola, Adamawa State.

Yusuf said some of the challenges with the air operations were thunderstorms and rainfalls, which impacted negatively on some air operations during the period.

He noted that there were days that flights had to be delayed or cancelled on account of poor weather.

He stated, “Intelligence surveillance and Reconnaissance reports through the second quarter of 2017 indicated a gradual return of the Boko Haram terrorist activities to the Sambisa Forest. There have been sightings of a few Boko Haram activities in the Sambisa general area, particularly in Parisu.

“Hence, the air component conducted significant ISR missions in the Sambisa general area. On July 3, an air interdiction mission was conducted on Alagarno Camp. Several solar panels were seen on buildings in the location, which indicated that it was being used as a Command and Control facility.

“The NAF conducted air interdiction missions with the F-7Ni, Alpha jets, L-39ZA, Mi-17 and the Mi-35M attack helicopters to neutralise the Boko Haram terrorist targets within the theatre.

“A total of 108 air interdiction sorties were conducted from April to June 2017.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, on Thursday, regretted that the nation’s troops, fighting the Boko Haram sect, could not dominate the environment in the rainy season like they did during dry season.

Notwithstanding the challenge, Dan-Ali said efforts were ongoing to stop the ambushes regularly laid by the terror group.

The minister spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting which acting President Yemi Osinbajo had with security chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Dan-Ali said the service chiefs were directed to move back to the Command Centre in order to be abreast of what was happening there.

The minister stated that it was resolved at the meeting that the government should procure more surveillance devices that would be able to see potential attackers from a distance.

Dan-Ali added, “We just finished a meeting with the acting President and the three service chiefs. We agreed that they should move back to the Command Centre and see what are the things happening there.

“We have also agreed that we should get more surveillance devices, cameras that will be able to see distant attackers coming to the position of our troops.

“Also, the rainy season is a difficult moment for us. We cannot dominate the environment like what we did during the dry season but effort is geared towards regaining our areas.

“We assure Nigerians that all these ambushes that are happening regularly would be stopped.”

A group of former separatist rebels in Mali killed “dozens” of members of a pro-government armed group before a UN helicopter monitoring the fighting crashed in the country’s north, sources told AFP Thursday.

The UN has confirmed two German crew members belonging to its MINUSMA peacekeeping mission were killed while observing the area near the city of Gao following the clashes.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said Thursday the helicopter “was conducting surveillance over Tabankort in the aftermath of violent clashes between the signatory armed groups,” when it came down in an apparent accident.

German army Vice Admiral Joachim Georg Ruehle said on Wednesday night the helicopter crew did not issue any distress calls and there were no firm indications as to the cause of the crash.

The clashes pitted former rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) against the Gatia pro-government group.

Both sides signed a 2015 peace deal aimed at curbing violence in Mali’s north and limiting the reach of jihadists, but the United Nations says deadly fighting between the groups has nevertheless increased in recent weeks.

“It was a very painful failure for the Gatia,” said a foreign security source. “Several dozen fighters were killed and dozens more taken prisoner,” the source added, noting that two CMA members were also killed.

Oumar Ag Acherif of the CMA told AFP that 50 Gatia fighters were killed and 39 more taken prisoner, adding the Red Cross had been asked to monitor the conditions in which the Gatia fighters were being held.

A Gatia base was dismantled afterwards, Ag Acherif added.

The Gatia admitted “losses” when a source who requested anonymity was contacted by AFP, but maintained the CMA had also lost men, and refused to confirm their base had been taken.

A source with the High Islamic Council of Mali, a religious authority, said late Thursday that its president was in the northern city of Kidal, a stronghold of the former rebels, to mediate between the groups.

Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

In 2012, key cities in Mali’s north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.