NEWS - The African Mirror

Mar

20

2024

Gunmen in Nigeria kidnap about 100 in weekend attacks

NEWS

GUNMEN in Nigeria kidnapped around 100 people, including women and children, in two weekend attacks in Kaduna state, residents and police said. Kidnappings by criminal gangs demanding ransoms have become an almost daily occurrence in Nigeria, especially in the north, with authorities seemingly powerless to stop them. Kaduna police spokesperson Mansur Hassan confirmed the incident in Kajuru Station village on Sunday night but could not give a figure on those missing. He said security agents had been deployed to rescue the villagers. Tanko Wada Sarkin, a village head, said 87 people were taken. "We have so far recorded the return…

Mar

20

2024

By NYASHA CHINGONO

Zimbabwe sect leader accused of child abuse is denied bail

NEWS

THE leader of a religious sect in Zimbabwe was denied bail after being arrested last week for suspected child abuse when police found 251 minors working on his farm and 16 graves. Ishmael Chokurongerwa, 56, described by police as a "self-styled prophet" appeared in court in the town of Norton near the capital Harare on Tuesday along with seven of his church members who also face charges. They were not asked to plead. Denying them bail, Norton magistrate Christine Nyandoro argued that Chokurongerwa could use his influence to interfere with witnesses and that there would be a public outcry if he was…

Mar

21

2024

By CAMILLUS EBOH

Nigerian court denies separatist leader Kanu bail, orders trial

NEWS

A Nigerian federal court denied separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu bail and instead ordered an accelerated trial of a pending seven-count terrorism charge against him. Kanu, a British citizen who leads the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, disappeared from Nigeria after skipping bail in 2017. He was arrested in Kenya in 2021 and charged in Nigeria with terrorism. In December, Nigeria's Supreme Court overturned a judgement by a lower court that dropped the terrorism charges against Kanu, setting the stage for his trial to commence. "I will respond to all charges and the court will see that they are all lies,"…

Mar

19

2024

By ABDIQANI HASSAN

Somali forces, foreign navies prepare attack on hijacked ship

NEWS

SOMALI police and international navies were preparing to attack a commercial ship that was hijacked by pirates last week, the Puntland region's police force said, two days after Indian commandos rescued another cargo vessel held by pirates. The MV Abdullah was hijacked off the coast of Somalia last week, the latest of more than 20 attacks since November by Somali pirates who had laid dormant for nearly a decade. On Saturday, the Indian navy rescued another cargo vessel, the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen, which had been seized in December, freeing its 17 crew members and arresting 35 pirates. The police force from the semi-autonomous region…

Mar

20

2024

By HELGA DICKOW

Chad presidential election: assassination of main opposition figure casts doubt on country’s return to democracy

NEWS

THE assassination of Chad’s main opposition leader, Yaya Dillo, is hanging heavy over presidential elections due in early May. Dillo was killed on 28 February when the headquarters of the opposition Party Socialiste sans Frontières (Party of Socialists without Borders) in the Chadian capital N'Djamena was besieged by the newly formed Rapid Reaction Force. It’s not the first violence meted out to the opposition. In October 2022 Chadian security forces killed hundreds of protesters. They were protesting the extension of the transition to democracy from 18 to 36 months and the decision of transitional president Mahamat Idriss Déby to stand…

Mar

20

2024

By CRISPIAN BALMER

Egyptians thought Regeni was British spy, Italian court told

NEWS

EGYPTIAN police detained an Italian student in Cairo because they thought he was a British spy, taking him to a security facility where he was tortured and murdered, an Italian prosecutor told a Rome court on Monday. Italy has charged four Egyptian security agents with kidnapping and killing Giulio Regeni, a postgraduate student at Britain's Cambridge University, in Cairo in 2016. The four men are being tried in absentia and have never responded publicly to the accusations. The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly denied any state involvement in Regeni's disappearance and death. "The overall picture that has emerged is that of a web…

Mar

20

2024

By PHIL STEWART

US warned Niger about ties to Russia, Iran before junta revoked accord, Pentagon says

NEWS

U.S. officials travelled to Niger last week to express concerns about the country's potential development of ties to Russia and Iran before the ruling junta revoked an accord governing the roughly 1,000 U.S. military personnel there, the Pentagon said. The Pentagon added it was seeking clarification about the way ahead. Niger said on Saturday it had revoked "with immediate effect" its military accord with the United States that had allowed Pentagon personnel to operate on its soil. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. government had "direct and frank" conversations in Niger ahead of the junta's announcement, and was continuing…

Mar

19

2024

By TIFE OWOLABI and OPE ADETAYO

Nigeria military denies reprisal attack after 16 troops killed

NEWS

MEN in army uniform ransacked and burned homes in Nigeria's oil-producing Delta state days after youths killed 16 soldiers sent there to resolve a land dispute, residents said, but the defence chief denied military involvement. Residents said soldiers attacked the riverside Okuoma community of a few hundred people on Sunday while looking for those responsible for Thursday's killings. Tam Oburumu, who fled from his home, said uniformed men were going around looking for weapons and ransacked houses before torching them. "The damage for now is huge, a lot of houses were burned," Oburumu said by phone from a nearby village where he…

Mar

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Indian Navy seizes ship from Somali pirates and rescues 17 crew

NEWS

INDIAN naval forces including special commandos seized a cargo vessel that had been hijacked by Somali pirates, rescuing 17 crew members, a spokesperson for the navy said. The navy said in a post on social media platform X that all 35 pirates aboard the ship, the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel Ruen, had surrendered, and the ship had been checked for the presence of illegal arms, ammunition and contraband. The Ruen had been hijacked last year and the navy said it had intercepted the vessel on Friday. The vessel may have been used as the base for the takeover of a…

Mar

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Ghana says repairs on subsea cables could take five weeks

NEWS

REPAIRS on damaged subsea cables that are causing internet outages across West and Central Africa are expected to take at least five weeks before completion and full-service restoration, Ghana's communications regulator said. The break in the cables has led to widespread disruption of internet and telecommunications-linked businesses, including banks, mobile phone operations, money transfer agencies and stock exchange markets. Ghana's National Communications Authority said it held a meeting with the four subsea cable landing service providers - Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, owned by data centre operator Equinix, South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3) and the West Africa Cable System (WACS) - and…