armed men - The African Mirror

Jan

2024

Six killed in disputed region bordering Sudan, South Sudan

SIX people including a senior local administrator were killed in an ambush by armed men in the Abyei region claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, local officials said. The oil-rich region experiences frequent bouts of violence, where rival factions of the Dinka ethnic group - Twic Dinka from South Sudan's neighbouring Warrap State, and Ngok Dinka from Abyei - are locked in a dispute over the location of an administrative boundary. Abyei Deputy Chief Administrator Noon Deng and his team came under attack along the road from Abyei to Aneet town when they were returning from an official visit…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Six killed in rare attack near Malian capital

NEWS

UNIDENTIFIED armed men killed six people at a checkpoint 70 km (44 miles) east of Mali's capital Bamako, the security ministry said. It did not say who was responsible for the attack, which took place overnight on Thursday in an area in southwestern Mali that has been relatively untouched by the Islamist insurgency ravaging central and northern regions. Three of the people killed were members of the security forces and three were civilians, the ministry said in an online post, without giving further details. Mali is struggling to stem the insurgency that took root after a 2012 coup and has…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

American nun (83) abducted in Burkina Faso

NEWS

ARMED men have kidnapped an 83-year-old American nun in northern Burkina Faso, the bishop of the local diocese said. The bishop did not know the identity of the kidnappers. Militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, have taken over large swathes of territory in Burkina Faso and conduct frequent attacks on the army and civilians. A Canadian was found dead after a kidnapping there in 2019. The nun was named in a statement as Suellen Tennyson, of the Catholic congregation Marianites of Holy Cross. She was kidnapped on Monday night in the parish of Yalgo, part…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Armed men kill at least 30 in northern Nigerian villages

NEWS

BOSAN YAKUSAK ARMED men killed at least 34 people in two villages in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna in the early hours of Monday, the state government and two residents said. The Kaduna government said in a statement that 34 people were killed in the village of Madamai. One resident, speaking by phone, said he counted 44 corpses in the local mortuary from attacks on Madamai and neighbouring Abum village. Another local resident said around 30 people had died. The government statement said security forces who had gone to the scene came under fire but forced attackers to withdraw…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

73 Nigerian school children abducted

NEWS

ARMED men kidnapped 73 children from a school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara in the latest mass abduction in the region, police have said in a statement. Police said a large number of armed bandits invaded the Government Day Secondary School in the village of Kaya in rural Zamfara state at 11:22 am local time (1022 GMT). "The command ... has deployed search and rescue team that was mandated to work in synergy with the military to ensure the safe rescue of the abducted students," Zamfara police spokesman Mohammed Shehu said in the statement. Armed gangs seeking ransoms…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Ethiopian troops kill armed men behind deadly village attack

NEWS

ETHIOPIAN troops clashed with armed men involved in a deadly attack in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region, killing 42 of them and seizing bows and arrows and other weapons, state-affiliated Fana TV has reported. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he was sending more soldiers to secure the region bordering Sudan, the day after unidentified gunmen killed more than 100 people in a village there. Ethiopia has been grappling with outbreaks of violence since Abiy was appointed in 2018 and accelerated democratic reforms that loosened the state's iron grip on regional rivalries. "The massacre of civilians in Benishangul-Gumuz region is very tragic,"…