The link below gives a good understanding of the why and how to the destruction and bloodshed going on in Yemen to which the MSM doesn't bother to give even the first syllable in the country's name. Rumor has it (and as we know, rumors tend to become factual soon enough) that Saudi Arabia and its allies are transporting large batches of the undesirables from Syria and brand new ones from Nigeria, to Yemen. If true, expect many more refugees trekking their way away from Yemen and into the countries whose powers-that-be are deeply involved in each and every war ongoing on our planet.
From SouthernHirak ....The economic and political gains accrued by Saleh and his allies in North Yemen after unification meant that they could not let the south slip from their hands under any circumstances so unity was then imposed by force.
Unity by force is an occupation of South Yemen.
After the war of 1994 the south was seen as "spoils of war" and the elite of the north can do to the south as they please. So Saleh and his allies from the Islah party (Muslim Brotherhood, Alqaeda) began a campaign of assassinations of southern leaders, military officers, and activists. After the campaign of assassinations, thousand of military checkpoints were set up throughout the south and were ordered to kill and/or imprison secessionists.
Also, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his allies from the Islah party (Muslim Brotherhood) settled and financed Alqaeda (AQAP) in South Yemen in order to subdue southerners and keep South Yemen in shambles while northern security forces enforced the full occupation of South Yemen and Saleh and his allies looted southern land and resources. ....
....Mandatory retirement was forced upon 467,649 employees of the army, without giving them retirement benefits.
Confiscation of 42% of southern land specifically in Aden and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of northerners to the south in order to alter the demographic landscape of the south.
25 years of looting southern resources from oil and gas to agriculture and fisheries.
That's on top of constant killing of southerners and attacks on southern cities and villages by northern forces.....
Some of the countries in it, either in major or minor roles: USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Yemen, Nigeria, France with (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad ) Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Norway, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Novorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Chechnya, Somalia, Iran, India, South Korea, North Korea, Central African Republic, Kenya, Tunisia, The Philippines, Egypt, Albania, Serbia, China, Sudan, South Sudan, Bukina Faso, Palestine, Georgia, Chad, Spain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nepal, Congo, Uganda, Romania, Mexico, Gambia, Haiti, Cameroon, Chad, Algeria, Venezuela, Thailand, Argentina, Vietnam, Myanmar, Georgia, Burundi, Senegal, Macedonia
The architects of never-ending wars are going back to the NATO-created Utopia of Libya. For starters, the NATO leader flies into the "new and improved" Utopia "targeting al Qaeda." From Reuters U.S. conducts 'counter terrorism strike' against al Qaeda-linked target in Libya The U.S. military conducted a "counter terrorism strike" on Saturday night against an al Qaeda-associated militant in Libya, the Pentagon said on Sunday. "We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," Defense Department spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said in a statement...
The report below suggests that the US airstrikes missed the one-eyed terrorist. From Stripes The U.S military says it launched weekend airstrikes targeting and likely killing an al-Qaida-linked militant leader in eastern Libya charged with leading the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed at least 35 hostages, including three Americans. An Islamist with ties to Libyan militants, however, said the airstrikes missed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, instead killing four members of a Libyan extremist group the U.S. has linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans......
Link below has a nice database showing statistics and maps of residence from where most of the 700+ British Muslims that have left UK for the jihadi army . The origins of most of those Muslims are Pakistan and Mid-East. Of course, the BBC does not divulge that ... that's my opinion. From BBC At least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, British police say. About half have since returned to Britain. Most of those who went to the conflict zone are thought to have joined the militant group that calls itself Islamic State. This BBC News database details the stories of those who have died, been convicted of offences relating to the conflict or are still in the region. The information on these pages has been compiled from open sources and BBC research. Some details have been withheld for legal reasons or are unavailable.....
From NewsWeek Chad Says Boko Haram Responsible for Bombs that Killed 27 At least 27 people, including four suspected Boko Haram Islamist fighters, were killed and 100 others were injured on Monday in two attacks in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, which the government blamed on the Nigerian militant group. The attacks, which included at least one suicide bomb, are the first of their kind in Chad, an oil-producing nation and a major Western ally which has spearheaded offensives on al Qaeda-linked groups in Maliand on Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. "Boko Haram is making a mistake by targeting Chad," Communications Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari said on state television. "These lawless terrorists will be chased out and neutralized wherever they are.".......
From News24 Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari is planning to visit Cameroon to cement a regional fighting force against Boko Haram, he told AFP on Monday. Buhari met his counterparts from Niger, Chad and Benin at a summit in Abuja last week but Cameroon's leader Paul Biya was noticeably absent and represented by his defence minister. The two countries have long had strained ties, in part over a bitter territorial dispute but also after Boko Haram mounted cross-border raids into northeast Nigeria from Cameroon's far north. Buhari visited Niger and Chad in his first week in office and said he would have gone to Cameroon's capital Yaounde for talks with Biya had he not been invited to attend the G7 summit in Germany..... From VICE In a Southern Libya Oasis, a Proxy War Engulfs Two Tribes Tuareg fighters with heavy weapons patrol the jagged precipice of windswept Tendi Mountain, with its panoramic view over the remote Saharan oasis of Ubari. This mountaintop is the strategic focal point of an ongoing bitter tribal fight between the Tuareg and the Tebu for who controls the town. A deadly battlefield for nine months, Ubari's downtown is held hostage by Tebu snipers who have blocked the one rutted road leading into town. Homes and businesses are destroyed; families scattered; the airport, once popular with tourists, is deserted; and Libya's sprawling oil fields in the desert beyond remain offline.......
The instigation from the powers-that-be to make the brainwashed puppets amongst us to rise up in revolution against governments or entities that the powers-that-be have taken a dislike to, continues to continue. This time it's in full swing with the minority Albanians in Macedonia From BBC About 2,000 people have marched in Macedonia's capital, Skopje, demanding equal rights for the Albanian minority. They also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his party's junior coalition partner, the ethnic Albanian DUI. The country's leaders agreed last week to hold early elections by next April, in an attempt to end months of turmoil.........
From VICE The Number of Migrants Trying to Reach Europe via Greece Has Surged by 500 Percent The number of migrants and refugees crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece has increased by 500 percent since last year, according to European border control agency Frontex. In comparison, the number of migrants attempting the perilous journey across of the Mediterranean to Italy has gone up just 5 percent, Frontex executive director Fabrice Leggeri said Wednesday. "When you close off a migration route, another one opens up elsewhere," Thibaut Jaulin, a research fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research (CERI) at Sciences Po in Paris, told VICE News. European authorities have beefed up surveillance along the Libya-Italy migrant route in an effort to prevent the recurring tragedies in the Mediterranean. In April, naval border monitoring operation Triton saw its budget tripled from 3 million euros ($3.4 million) to 9 million euros ($10.2 million) a month.......... From NYTimes Explosion Destroys Ancient Cultural Heritage Site in Yemen Capital A protected 2,500-year-old cultural heritage site in Yemen’s capital, Sana, was obliterated in an explosion early Friday, and witnesses and news reports said the cause was a missile or bomb from a Saudi warplane. The Saudi military denied responsibility. The top antiquities-safeguarding official at the United Nations angrily condemned the destruction of ancient multistory homes, towers and gardens, which also killed an unspecified number of residents in Al Qasimi, a neighborhood in Sana’s Old City area. “I am profoundly distressed by the loss of human lives as well as the damage inflicted on one of the world’s oldest jewels of Islamic urban landscape,” said the official, Irina Bokova, the director general of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization..........
Our Saudi ally, just like our other blood thirsty ally Israel, takes deliberate and malicious aim at civilian residences to kill kids and their moms. From Reuters Nine people were killed when Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed a district in the Yemeni capital Sanaa inhabited by relatives of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, residents and medics said. The air raid, which also wounded at least 60 people, came ahead of planned U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva aimed at ending Yemen's civil war that has drawn in regional powers, including the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. Residents said the warplanes had targeted vacant houses in Bait Me'yad, a district near the heart of Sanaa that is home to a number of relatives of Saleh, whose loyalists are allied with Houthi forces, the dominant armed faction in the conflict. Mohammed Yahya, an eyewitness, said two missiles struck two Saleh relatives' houses while the third crashed in the middle of the neighborhood, causing several casualties. Another witness said three explosions shook the neighborhood. "We felt as if the house was going to collapse over our heads," said the man, identified as Ali Ahmed. "We ran, with the children, and hid under the stairwell. It was terrifying." Medical sources said nine people who had suffered severe injuries died on arrival at hospital while 60 others were under care at three hospitals in the capital. The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said most of the victims were women and children......
From CTV Britain to send more troops to Iraq Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain will send 125 more troops to Iraq to train local forces fighting the Islamic State group. The deployment brings to 275 the number of U.K. personnel helping the Baghdad government and Kurdish authorities battle the militants. Cameron made the announcement Sunday at a meeting of G-7 leaders in Germany, saying IS terrorism poses one of the world's biggest challenges.....
From Independent Obama sending 450 more troops to Iraq in face of Isis offensive The US will send as many as 450 additional troops to Iraq in the face of an aggressive Isis offensive that has seen the Islamic militants take control of large swaths of territory in that country. The additional troops are not being sent to join ground forces in Iraq, but instead will be used to help train more Iraqi soldiers to fight Isis, the Associated Press reported. The White House said it would open another US training site in Iraq, bringing the total number of facilities to five.........
From Guardian Israel exonerates itself over Gaza beach killings of four children last year Israeli investigation says missile attack that killed boys aged between nine and 11 was ‘tragic accident’ in findings contradictory to journalists’ reports from scene The Israeli military has cleared itself of culpability in one of the most controversial incidents in last summer’s Gaza war: a missile attack that killed four children on Gaza beach and injured a number of others. Israel’s advocate general’s office said the attack, which led to the death of four boys aged between nine and 11 was a “tragic accident”. An account of the investigation, posted late on Thursday by military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner, said the strike had targeted a “compound” which had been known as belonging to Hamas’s Naval Police and Naval Force (including naval commandos)”. But journalists who attended the scene in the immediate aftermath of the attack – including a reporter from the Guardian – saw a small and dilapidated fisherman’s hut containing a few tools where the children had been playing hide-and-seek...........
More on Israel's chutzpah from Craig Murray: The Killing of Children. The Guardian has for once done a very good job of outlining the stark gap between the truth, and Israel’s “report” into the killing of four young children playing by the beach. It may be argued that this terrible tragedy is itself pretty irrelevant given that the Israelis killed 700 other children in Gaza that year. But the maintenance of this ludicrous, macabre and yes, evil, propaganda is fundamental to the self-image of many Israelis. They still contrive to see themselves as the good guys, under constant threat – despite the fact that Israel kills well more than a hundred for every Israeli killed. This denial of the truth and claim of victimhood extends to the accusation of anti-Semitism trumpeted at every critic, including this one, despite the fact that I have the highest respect for the immense cultural and scientific achievements of the Jewish people. Israel is a different question entirely. It is this absolute divorce of propaganda from reality that makes Tony Blair an ideal figurehead. Blair has now become head of a Council of Europe (loosely) linked body which claims to exist to promote tolerance, but in fact exists entirely to promote extreme Islamophobia and to shut down criticism of Israel. And it is a further sign of the estrangement from reality of the influential Israelis behind Blair’s appointment that they believe Tony Blair will influence public opinion positively in their favour. A remarkable example of confirmation bias.........
From ForeignAffairs Expanding the Caliphate. ISIS' South Asia Strategy For over a year, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has been attempting to expand into South Asia. ISIS has developed a loose organizational structure in Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided money to local groups, and adopted a confrontational approach to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda—all on al Qaeda’s home turf, no less. Its goal is straightforward: to co-opt disaffected local militants in an effort to build influence and power in the region. ISIS in South Asia, which it calls the Islamic State of Khorasan, is larger than most recognize, boasting between several hundred and several thousand fighters. And its push into the subcontinent has led to numerous skirmishes with the Afghan Taliban, the largest and best-organized militant group in Afghanistan. In early June, for example, ISIS and Taliban fighters engaged in pitched battles in Shinwar, Achin, and other districts in Nangarhar province....
Now every time we read about "Taliban" attacks, we will have to wonder if it was really the Taliban or ISIS as the headchoppers are already in residence near the border regions. From HuffingtonPost Taliban Attack Afghanistan Checkpoints, Kill At Least 20 Police Taliban fighters overran multiple checkpoints in a nighttime raid in Afghanistan's volatile southern Helmand province, killing at least 20 police officers as the battle raged into Saturday, authorities said. The assault came as Afghanistan's military acknowledged the Taliban controls at least four districts across the country. The attacks in Helmand hit police checkpoints in the Musa Qala district, said Mohammad Ismail Hotak, the head of the province's joint coordination of police and military operations.........
The Kurdish people, the people with the least religious beliefs fight best because they fight for themselves and their families' freedom not for some uncaring god. If only they were given better weapons .... but no, it won't happen. The powers-that-be don't want the Kurds to store those weapons and use them later to carve out their own land from allies Iraq and Turkey. Jihadis carving out land for the Saudis' wahhabism is fine with the USA and allies ... decent folks like the Kurds doing it .... nah, nah nada. From BusinessInsider The Kurds are pushing deeper into an ISIS stronghold on the Syria/Turkey border The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards an Islamic State-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the jihadists' stronghold of Raqqa province in a campaign backed by U.S.-led air strikes. Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman, told Reuters the YPG and smaller Syrian Arab rebel groups fighting alongside it had begun the move towards Tel Abyad after encircling the Islamic State-held town of Suluk 20 km (12 miles) to the southeast.......
From UnderstandingWar ISIS’s Wilayat Sinai Attacks International Base Recent attacks in Egypt on the one-year anniversary of the fall of Mosul indicate that ISIS’s affiliate in the Sinai may seek to target the Western military forces and the Egyptian state over the course of the next six weeks. ISW assessed that ISIS’s most dangerous course of action during the month of Ramadan would be to attack international forces in Iraq in order to deter U.S.-led coalition involvement in Iraq and Syria. Wilayat Sinai’s attack on the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) airbase at al-Jura on June 9 suggests that ISIS may pursue this operation in the Near Abroad as well, specifically in Egypt over the next 4-6 weeks. In addition the unattributed suicide attack in Luxor on June 10 raises the possibility that Wilayat Sinai may attempt to undermine Egypt’s tourism industry and military in order to pressure and distract the state. This threat is heightened during Ramadan, but also fits within ISIS’s larger strategy to foment disorder and expand operations into the Middle East and North Africa...............
From Reuters After 11 weeks of air strikes that have failed to change the balance of power in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is running out of options to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's exiled government to Sanaa. Despite the destruction of much of their heavy weaponry, the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control most of the country's populated west and still daily attack Saudi territory with mortar fire or missiles. The possibility of a ground operation in support of the ragtag local groups still fighting the Houthis in Aden, Taiz, Marib and al-Dhala appears to have been discounted by the Saudis and their allies in an Arab coalition from early on. Riyadh may soon have to face an unpalatable choice: accept the de facto control of its foes over Sanaa and cut a deal, or keep fighting with the risk of Yemen sinking into total chaos, becoming a permanent threat to Saudi security. .........
The last decade+ senseless wars have taken a toll on the now displaced and stateless children that will last, via them, to the next 3 or more generations. Imagine that much anger, hatred, mistrust, confusion and acrimony towards the West and their fellow coreligionists! Can you walk in their shoes and imagine that for at least a minute or two? From ForeignPolicy The Worst of All Horrors. Psychologists in Iraq, a country long afflicted by violence, say they’ve never seen more terrible trauma than that caused by the Islamic State. ...........By now living in a state of prolonged displacement, the girl was cutting her arms and saying things like, “I am crazy,” “I am worthless,” and “I have lost my mind,” Hassan recounts. Hassan, who looked very tired in a recent Skype interview, describes how, in his first six sessions with the girl, he tried relaxation therapy and family therapy. In the next session, he will try scream therapy, which is when a patient vents repressed anger or frustration through yelling. Whatever works at this point. The same goes for the three or four other patients Hassan treats each day.................
From DailySabah As the number of Yemenis who are in need of assistance increases with more than 20 million people severely affected by the humanitarian crisis, the rights group called for a permanent cease-fire ahead of U.N.-sponsored talks. According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 80 percent of the Yemeni population, or around 20 million people, have been affected by the fighting and are in need of aid. As the crisis continues in the country, the number of Yemenis who need humanitarian assistance has been steadily increasing. "20.4 million people are now estimated to be in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, of whom 9.3 million are children," Jeremy Hopkins, Deputy Representative of UNICEF, said from the capital, Sana'a. "The de facto blockade on Yemen's ports, though there is some easing, means fuel is not coming into the country, and since pumps are mechanized, that means over 20 million people don't have access to safe water," he added.......
Heritage sites destroyed in Syria. The wahhabis' intention of erasing all signs of Christianity in Syria is being accomplished aided by the so-called "Christian" nations of the West.
From Time Pentagon: Price Tag for War Against ISIS Is $2.7 Billion The U.S. has spent more than $2.7 billion on the war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since bombings began last August, and the average daily cost is now more than $9 million, the Pentagon said Thursday......
From OSCE Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 14 June 2015 The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM observed numerous ceasefire violations at and around Donetsk airport. The SMM visited weapons holding areas and observed that some weapons previously documented were no longer present, both at government-controlled and “DPR”-controlled sites. During the weekend, fighting intensified in Donetsk, with substantially more shelling observed. The level of violence in areas around “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”)-controlled Donetsk airport remains high. Over a period of two days, the SMM at the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) observation point at Donetsk central railway station (“DPR”-controlled, 8km north-west of Donetsk city centre) observed a total of at least 594 explosions caused by incoming and outgoing artillery and mortar fire, as well as small arms and light weapons (SALW), including heavy machine-gun fire. The SMM concluded that the explosions occurred at locations to the north, north-west, north-east, west, and south-west and at distances ranging between 2 and 10km from its position..........
Meanwhile, in Canada our soft justice system doesn't know whether it's coming or going. From NanaimoDaily RCMP arrest Winnipeg man on suspicion of possible terrorist plans. RCMP have arrested a Winnipeg man on the suspicion that he may carry out terrorist activities or help a terrorist group. Aaron Daniel Driver, 23, was arrested after a raid Thursday in a suburban home. He appeared briefly in court Friday, where police filed an application for a peace bond that could impose limits on Driver's activities....
From CBC Human Rights Watch raises concerns over B.C. terrorism trial. Canadian police using U.S. post-9/11 tactics to target vulnerable individuals in sting operations, group claim A terrorism trial underway in British Columbia runs disturbingly parallel with an emerging trend in U.S. anti-terror efforts targeting some of society's most vulnerable people, says an international human rights group. Human Rights Watch members have been observing the case of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, two Vancouver-area residents found guilty earlier this month of plotting to decimate the provincial legislature with pressure-cooker bombs.
Some of the countries in it, in major or minor roles:
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Yemen, Nigeria, France with (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad ) Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Norway, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Novorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Chechnya, Somalia, Iran, India, South Korea, North Korea, Central African Republic, Kenya, Tunisia, The Philippines, Egypt, Albania, Serbia, China, Sudan, South Sudan, Bukina Faso, Palestine, Georgia, Chad, Spain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nepal, Congo, Uganda, Romania, Mexico.....
From PressTV: Egyptian security forces have detained five people during a fresh anti-government protest staged by supporters of the country’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. The arrests were made on Friday when riot police intervened to break up the protest rally held by pro-Morsi demonstrators in the al-Mamoura neighborhood of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The protesters responded by throwing Molotov cocktails at police vehicles in the area. Egyptian security guards also attacked similar anti-Cairo demonstrations in a number of other cities, including Beni Suef, Faiyum, and Giza on Friday.......
From CBC: Islamic extremists killed 35 people and kidnapped at least 185 in an attack near the town where nearly 300 schoolgirls were taken hostage in April, witnesses said Thursday. In Sunday night's attack on the village of Gumburi, most of the kidnapped were young women, children and members of a civilian defence group fighting Boko Haram, according to residents, a security official and a local government officer. Teenager Aji Ibrahim said he was lucky to escape into the bushes. "No doubt they were Boko Haram members because they were chanting 'Allahu akbar' (God is great) while shooting at people and torching houses," he told The Associated Press. News of the attack took days to emerge because the militants have destroyed communications towers and people walked for days to avoid areas under extremist control........
Boko Haram kidnapped 185 women and children, killed 32 people in raid this week, Nigerians say. http://t.co/d4Wnlq9oPZ
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 18, 2014
From BBC: Mount Sinjar: Islamic State siege broken, say Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are claiming their biggest victory yet against Islamic State (IS) militants. They say they have broken the IS siege of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis and other displaced Iraqis have been trapped since August. IS controls a swathe of Iraq and Syria, where it has declared a caliphate. Meanwhile, the Pentagon's top officer says US air strikes have killed several high-ranking military leaders of IS in Iraq. The Kurdish offensive against IS forces besieging Mount Sinjar began early on Wednesday with the most intensive round of air strikes yet by US and coalition forces - 45 in all...........
A photograph showing 32 alleged militants killed in action by the Pakistan military in the country's Khyber Agency pic.twitter.com/YLtiDjYmBx
— عمران خان (@PTI_Famliy) December 19, 2014
From Alkhbar: Iraq: ISIS executes at least 150 women for refusing to marry its militants The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) executed at least 150 women who refused to marry its militants in the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar, Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights said. According to a ministry statement released Tuesday, ISIS militants carried out a number of attacks in Fallujah and buried the victims in mass graves in one of the city’s neighborhoods. "At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah by a militant named Abu Anas al-Libi after they refused to accept jihad marriage," the statement said. "Many families were also forced to migrate from the province’s northern town of al-Wafa after hundreds of residents received death threats." The ministry also said on Tuesday that 10 children died and were buried in the desert after ISIS forced away their families away from the city of Haditha in Anbar, keeping them stranded.......
Fulan Nasrullah writing at VineyardSaker: Who Are The Boko Haram? .....There are four groups, three of whom are allied to each other. They are namely: 1. Jamaa’atu Ahlis-Sunnah Lid-Da’wati Wal-Jihaad of Abubakar Shekau 2. Jamaa’atu Ahlis-Sunnah Ahlis-Sunnah Lid-Da’wati Wal-Jihaad of Sheikh Bukar Al-Barnawi …. Group of the People of The Sunnah(Traditions) For the Call/Propagation (Evangelism) and The Struggling/Striving 3. Ansorul-Muslimiina Fii Bilaadis-Sudan led by Abu Usamah Al-Ansori ….. Helpers Of The Muslims In The Lands of The Sudan (Sudan is a classical Arabic term referring to the entire part of Muslim Africa that runs from Senegal and the Atlantic to the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Some historians also include Ethiopia and Somalia up to the Juba and Shabelle regions in it 4. Haraktul-Muhajiriina wal-Mujahidiin led by Khalid Al-Barnawi. Movement of Those Who Have Migrated and Those Who Are Striving…….. ......Their Views Of Al-Baghdadi….. Shekau and his group have links with Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and his group that date back to May/June 2014 when a delegation from Shekau arrived in Ar-Raqqoh in Syria to seek an agreement of cooperation with Al-Baghdadi and his then Islamic State of Iraq and Sham. The agreement was reached and half a dozen technical advisors from the ISIS are said to have come to Nigeria via Chad and Cameroon to train Shekau’s forces. Apart from those technical no substantial support from Al-Baghdadi flowed to Shekau. ...... .....Shekau’s objective is totally indiscernible to me. If he wants to conquer the whole Nigeria or just a part, I simply cannot tell. The others wanted revenge for 2009(Sheikh Bukar Al-Barnawi), defence of Muslims against the alleged plots of Christian Association of Nigeria and the fanatic neo-Zionist churches that are found in Northern Nigeria e.g ECWA (Evangelical Communion Of West Africa and COCIN (Church of Christ In Nigeria) with islamophobic ideologies and known consorts of Israel’s Mossad (Sheikh Abu Usamah Al-Ansori), and joining the global Jihad against the enemies of Islam (America and pro- American Muslim regimes) and waging Jihad to protect Muslim lands (Khalid Al-Barnawi), respectively. ......
One of my friends, who is generally well informed, tells me that the Boko Haram gang has always been a ploy to get the Nigerian govt. to tow the line of interested parties both inside Nigeria and outside it. The reason being that Nigeria was becoming economically very steady and is considered to be the topmost economical power in Africa. He said he had even seen something about Nigeria joining up as a partner with South Africa in the BRICS fold, or even as a full member of the group. I pooh-poohed my friend's opinion and was told to keep my eyes open to see how many negative stories on Nigeria come out on a daily basis ... not only about the Boko Haram atrocities but other political stuff that would not usually make it in the Western MSM when similar happens to other African countries. I thought I would look into my friend's claims. Below, just a few from the most recent news.
From MorningStarNews: Massacre in Predominantly Christian Gwoza, Nigeria Said to Leave 100 Dead. Boko Haram shooting, fire-bombing and slashing terrify fleeing residents. After weeks of sacking villages and destroying church buildings around Nigeria’s northeastern town of Gwoza, Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on Wednesday (Aug. 6) killed an estimated 100 people in the predominantly Christian town, sources said. The shooting, fire-bombing and slashing of men, women and children in Gwoza, Borno state, as initially the military reportedly fled before an insurgent force backed by international terrorist groups, began at about 4 a.m., producing eyewitness assertions that Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, had taken control of the town of more than 276,000 people. Local residents reportedly said at least 100 people had been killed..... From SowetanLive: Boko Haram suspects kill 10, abduct 100 in northern Nigeria At least 10 people were killed and about 100 young men abducted by suspected members of Islamist terror group Boko Haram from north-eastern Nigeria, local newspaper Punch reported Friday. Armed men attacked the village of Doron Baga in Borno State on Sunday, witnesses, who fled to Borno State capital Maiduguri, told reporters. The young men had been kidnapped to be forcefully recruited into Boko Haram's ranks, said Doron Baga resident Halima Alhaji Adamu. Her husband was killed during the attack, she said....
And, then there's a news item from Townhall USA which relies on the Baptist Press on something that a "Nigerian Relations Expert" has told the Baptist Press. Who is this "expert" who seems to know more than what the Nigerian press reports?
Nigeria death toll higher than reported. The death toll from Boko Haram's takeover of the predominantly Christian town of Gwoza is nearly 1,000, not the 100 included in many reports, Nigerian relations expert Adeniyi Ojutiku told Baptist Press. The Nigerian military abandoned their weapons and fled Gwoza as Boko Haram attacked Wednesday (Aug. 6), burning government buildings, killing residents and taking hostages. Some residents managed to flee to the mountains bordering Cameroon and are without food or water; others made it 85 miles north to Maiduguri, Associated French Press (AFP) and others reported.......
YES ... Boko Haram is definitely playing havoc in Nigeria, but are some people purposely fudging the numbers to get a bigger slice of funds from certain sources to fight this menace. Let's not forget that Nigerians are infamously known for committing fraud (or are those "I have million dollars for you" emails which seem to come from Nigeria, also a pre-conceived plan to demonize the country?)
See how foggy the following info is. It's just come out today.
From AllAfrica: Nigeria: Chadian Troops Rescue Boko Haram Hostages. Officials say security forces in Chad have rescued Nigerians who were recently kidnapped by Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group. The abductees were snatched last Sunday by the militants in a raid on a Nigerian town near the border with Chad. The militants, along with nearly 100 kidnapped Nigerians, were stopped at the border by Chadian soldiers. It was not immediately clear what the soldiers did with the Boko Haram militants and whether the rescued Nigerians were sent home.....
From IndependentUK: Nigeria committing ‘war crimes’ to defeat Boko Haram. The Nigerian government is terrorising part of its population and committing possible war crimes in its battle against Boko Haram, according to a documentary to be broadcast on Monday night..... ....Nigeria is now Africa’s biggest economy. But in the north, home to most of the nation’s 80 million Muslims, people are among the poorest in the country. The north is the heartland of the Islamist group, Boko Haram. This year alone, Boko Haram have killed more than 2,000 people, most of them civilians.....
And below, the LA Times manages to slur Nigeria and China in the very beginning of the article.
In Nigeria, child beggars are easy recruits for Boko Haram extremists They scurry between vehicles in the traffic-choked cities of northern Nigeria, small boys in tattered clothing armed with begging tins.
Known as the almajiri, the youngsters, some no older than 5, have flooded the streets for the nearly 15 years since a tsunami of cheap Chinese imports and a dysfunctional electrical system began destroying the region's once-thriving textile manufacturing industry. Many more children have streamed in from rural areas since similar collapses of the fishing and agriculture sectors left their parents unable to feed them.......
Are you beginning to see the pattern, or do you need to see more?
It looks like Cameroon is dancing to the tune of those who wish to imprison Nigeria. The below from TodayNigeria:
BOKO HARAM: Cameroon orders military to hide intelligence from Nigeria. It has been revealed that Nigeria’s neighbour, Cameroon has issued a directive to all its military commanders in charge of border areas with Nigeria to keep all critical information about Boko Haram away from the country. In the directive, which was obtained by Punch, Mr. Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation reportedly told the commanders to withhold crucial information about the insurgents from Nigeria.
Sadi, had in the letter with Decree no …G/D/MINATD, with the title, ‘Strong Message’ addressed to the Commander, Rapid Intervention Brigade, noted that Cameroon did not want the grave security situation in Nigeria to spill over to the country. He stated also that information on Nigeria from western countries portrayed Nigeria in a negative manner. He charged the Cameroonian forces to be vigilant along the border to prevent further spill over of Boko Haram violence into the country. The minister said the Cameroonian Head of State, Mr. Paul Biya, had charged all the units to ensure that activities of the insurgents were not allowed to get into the country........
And, see how the New York Times has woven in "Nigeria" in an article on Iraq which has no relevance in the least to Nigeria but the substitution of that word with "Libya" would have been more appropriate.
....After spending more than $1 trillion and losing some 4,500 soldiers’ lives, American politicians cannot dare reveal a dirty little secret: Iraq has since 2003 devolved into a combination of Lebanon and Nigeria — a toxic brew of sectarian politics and oil-fueled kleptocracy. The combination of religious rivalry and endemic corruption has hollowed out the Iraqi government, as evidenced by the country’s ongoing electricity crisis and the collapse of entire Iraqi Army divisions in the face of an advance by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, into Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, even though the Iraqi troops vastly outnumbered the militants.....
And, Ooooooo .... let's not forget the good Mr. Hillel Neuer with his 2 cents on Nigeria, while being so very mummy mum on Saudi Arabia and etc.etc.etc.etc.
Yes, its true. Once you start questioning everything you read that the MSM throw in your feeding bowl, you begin to see how well-versed the MSM has become in doublespeak while most of us are still relying on the good old commonsense lingo.
The following will give you an idea of what's happening over there while our attention is being taken away by the events in the Middle East and Ukraine. You would think Nigeria had enough problems on its hands what with the Boko Haram terrorism on a daily basis, but now the country will have to deal with the Ebola crisis too.
G+ #ebola Nigeria: 1 new Ebola death, 5 cases confirmed
By BASHIR ADIGUN and KRISTA LARSONAssociated Press ABUJA... http://t.co/xCxlyIfN88
— MSGU BOT (@MSGUBOT) August 6, 2014
From WSJ: U.S. Planes Searching for Boko Haram Abductees Spot Girls in Nigeria Groups Were Seen Together in Remote Locations, Raising Hopes They are Kidnapped Students..... .....The surveillance suggests that at least some of the 219 schoolgirls still held captive haven't been forced into marriage or sex slavery, as had been feared, but instead are being used as bargaining chips for the release of prisoners. The U.S. aerial imagery matches what Nigerian officials say they hear from northern Nigerians who have interacted with the Islamist insurgency: that some of Boko Haram's most famous set of captives are getting special treatment, compared with the hundreds of other girls the group is suspected to have kidnapped. Boko Haram appears to have seen the schoolgirls as of higher value, given the global attention paid to their plight, those officials said......
Boko Haram become the hunted and the killed. Why can't the military just shoot them down instead of capturing them and slitting their throats? Don't they have guns?
From DailyMail: Held down so their throats can be slit before being dumped into a shallow grave. But now it is Boko Haram ‘terrorists’ who are savagely executed by the Nigerian army Footage emerges of Nigerial soldiers appearing to slit throats of insurgents Boko Haram suspects are held down next to mass grave before execution Video obtained by Amnesty International amid claims of Nigerian 'war crimes' Nigerian Defence says it is investigating the footage, taken in March From BBC: Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram is accused of unleashing a new weapon of war - the female suicide bomber, fuelling concern that its insurgency has entered a more ruthless phase. Four of them - all teenage girls - carried out attacks in the biggest northern city, Kano, last week, leading to social media sites going viral with speculation - dismissed as unfounded by the government - that Boko Haram had turned some of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April into human bombs. At the same time, government spokesman Mike Omeri said the security forces had arrested three people in neighbouring Katsina state - including two girls aged 10 and 18 - with explosive belts strapped around them.
Now, the world has even more displaced people. UN's Humanitarian orgs are overwhelmed.
From ArabNews: Attacks by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria’s crisis-hit northeast have forced nearly 650,000 people from their homes, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said Tuesday, an increase of nearly 200,000 since May. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) for its part reported that about 1,000 people trying to escape the fighting had fled to an uninhabited island on Lake Chad across Nigeria’s northeastern border. “The group, mainly women and children, is in urgent need of food, water, shelter and medical care,” the UNHCR said. They reached the remote island of Choua on Thursday after fleeing a Boko Haram attack in their hometown of Kolikolia, according to the refugee agency. Chad has pledged to send two helicopters to the island to help evacuate the Nigerian refugees to a nearby area where they can be temporarily settled with host communities, the UNHCR added. The refugee agency said it was sending staff to the area to coordinate the relief effort.....
Secret weapons. Snakes and Bees are driving some of the killers from the forests into the arms of the military.
Oliver Becker writing at VICE: ....Snakes and Bees Are Driving Boko Haram Out of the Forest Boko Haram militants have fled from deep within the Nigerian forest in the northeast of the country, after incessant snake bites and bee stings became too much for them to bear, according to local media reports. Two suspected Boko Haram fighters were captured by the Nigerian civilian JTF army after they fled from the Sambisa Forest, in Borno State. The gunmen reportedly said they were being attacked by mystical bees and snakes that had already killed many other insurgents. “We decided to flee when almost all our comrades are leaving the Sambisa because of constant attacks by snakes and bees, which we were told was as a result of Chibok abducted schoolgirls,” one of the two militants told Nigerian newspaper, the Vanguard. Apparently, bees and snakes are feared by Boko Haram fighters, as they are known to cause fatal injuries or make people disappear. It is also believed the bites and stings are in retaliation for the group's civilian kidnappings and killings in the surrounding region. “We were told that the aggrieved people who had suffered from our deadly mission, including the ghosts of some of those we killed, are the ones turning into the snake and bees,” added another militant.......
That's what our politicians do to the military personnel who return with multiple ills and need help from those who destroyed their health and lives ... but instead they get kicked around. Where's the glory in being a soldier and going off to wars? First and above all, most of the wars are illegal and unnecessary, and secondly, when the soldiers come back, many of them sans a limb or two and almost all of them with mental disorders, what do our politicians do? They ignore the veterans, completely.
Ron Paul writes: The VA Scandal is Just the Tip of the Military Abuse Iceberg. President Obama held a press conference last week to express his outrage over reports that the Veterans Administration was routinely delaying treatment to veterans, with some veterans even dying while on alleged secret waiting lists. The president said that, “if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it, period.” He vowed that, together with Congress, he would “make sure we're doing right by our veterans across the board.” The president is right to be upset over the mistreatment of US military veterans, especially those who return home with so many physical and mental injuries. Veterans should not be abused when they seek the treatment promised them when they enlisted. But his outrage over military abuse is selective. He ignores the most egregious abuse of the US armed forces: sending them off to fight, become maimed, and die in endless conflicts overseas that have no connection to US national security. It is ironic that the same week the president condemned the alleged mistreatment of veterans by the VA, he announced that he was sending 80 armed troops to Chad to help look for a group of girls kidnapped by the Nigerian Islamist organization Boko Haram. Is there any mistreatment worse than sending the US military into a violent and unstable part of the world to conduct a search operation that is in no way connected to the defense of the United States? As Judge Andrew Napolitano said last week, “Feeling sorry for somebody is not a sufficient basis for sending American men and women into harm’s way.” We are naturally upset over reports that Nigerian girls have been kidnapped by this armed Islamist organization. Unfortunately, cruel and unjust acts are committed worldwide on a regular basis. What the media is not reporting about this terrible situation, however, is that it was US interventionism itself that strengthened Boko Haram, and inadvertently may have even helped the kidnappers commit their crime. Back in early 2012, just months after the US-led attack on Libya overthrew Gaddafi and plunged the country into chaos, the UN issued a report warning about the proliferation of weapons from that bombed out country. UN investigators found -- eight months before the attack that killed the US ambassador in Benghazi -- that, "Some of the weapons ... could be sold to terrorist groups like al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram or other criminal organizations." The US, NATO, and the UN are guilty of creating the unrest currently engulfing much of northern Africa, as they all pushed lies to promote an attack on Libya that destabilized the region. Now the president is launching an intervention in Chad and Nigeria to solve the problems created by his own ...........
This is an example of what happens to citizens when their government is corrupt, inefficient and not willing to go after islamic militants because that would anger other Muslim politicians who are equally corrupt and as inefficient as their cohorts in the non-Muslim ruling party.
How proud the Caliphate of the United Kingdom must feel to know that one of Boko Haram's ringleaders is one of their own British-born and educated Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche. The Caliphate of the United Kingdom is giving the world a great many jihadists. How nice! How fitting! How to be expected!
Josie Ensor, and Colin Freeman writing at TelegraphUK: British-born Boko Haram 'ringleader' was 'radicalised at UK university' Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, arrested on suspicion of carrying out bomb attacks in Nigeria, threatened to cut off hands of non-believers while living in Britain. A British-born "ringleader" of the Islamist group responsible for the kidnapping of hundreds of school girls in Nigeria was radicalised while studying at a UK university, according to friends. Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, 29, was arrested on Wednesday in connection with two recent bombings carried out by Boko Haram in the Nigerian capital Abuja that killed nearly 100 people. He is suspected of co-masterminding the attacks - one in the suburb of Nyanya that killed 75 people on April 14 and a second attack just yards away which killed 19 people earlier this month. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for Mr Ogwuche, who was discovered after a reward of £100,000 led to his discovery in Sudan.
He had reportedly been learning Arabic at the the International University of Africa in Sudan and was held as he tried to obtain a Turkish visa in the capital, Khartoum. Mr Ogwuche, the son of a retired Nigerian colonel, was said by fellow students at University of Glamorgan in Wales to call himself "The Lion of God" and threatened to cut the hands and feet of non-believers while living in Britain. The Nigerian, who studied business science from 2007 until he dropped out in 2010, was a member of the university’s debating society and wrote on an online profile: “I used to be in the military back at home and my goal now is to be a successful businessman.” While living in South Wales his posts on his social media page became more extreme........
This is a good thing. This is a great thing. This is for the right reason. I hope there are no rules of engagement that bogged down soldiers in Afghanistan from doing a soldier's job. Boko Haram should be killed to the very last man, no prisoners, none.
Matt Gurney writing at NationalPost: .....For the last five years, Boko Haram’s fighters have ridden high, dealing the Nigerian security forces a series of embarrassing defeats. Their winning streak may have come to an end. While the Western world did little more than tsk-tsk when the Islamist separatist group planted bombs and machine-gunned civilians, the recent attack on a girls’ school may have been an outrage too many. With an estimated 300 school girls, aged 15-18, now held as sex slaves — “wives,” in Boko Haram’s warped description — the world has finally noticed what this wretched group of 21st century pirates have been up to. Rallies have been held, politicians and public figures throughout the West are posing for photos holding signs reading, “Bring back our girls.” And more tellingly, a quiet buildup of Western military might is now taking place — including, it is now being reported, Canadian forces. In a report for CTV News, national affairs reporter Mercedes Stephenson says that Canadian forces are not just preparing to deploy, but some are there already. This followed a recent announcement by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird that “there are Canadians who have arrived on the ground in Nigeria who are working with the United States and the United Kingdom to work on the freedom of these young girls.” There are reportedly more Canadian troops on the way, as well, including special forces personnel tasked with a “security” mission that may include hostage rescue but does not, notably, include hostage negotiation. The details of the Canadian military operation in the region are scant. Indeed, if you’ve read the above paragraph, you’re pretty much fully dialled in on what........
Now, the islamic bastards are declaring that they have converted the girls to islam and have released a video of a group of the girls hurdled together, sitting on the ground, donned in burkhas, reciting something from the hated muslim book. Boko Haram is the kind of vermin the armies of the West should be disintegrating, not "dictators" they happen not to like for political reasons. These are the kind of plague-ridden rats that we the people want to see minced into tiny little pieces. Do it!
From BBC: .....Nigeria kidnapped girls 'shown' in new Boko Haram video. A new video released by Islamist militants Boko Haram claims to show around 130 girls kidnapped from a school in Nigeria last month. The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said they would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed. He said the girls had converted to Islam. The video, released on Monday, claims to show them praying.....
If you are on Twitter, use hashtag #BringBackOurGirls to tweet about the horrendous kidnapping of almost 300 young girls by Boko Haram. The names on the list below of the kidnapped girls show that there are not just Christian and Muslim girls, but also Jewish and Buddhist/Hindu.
Oops.... did I say California? Actually, I was thinking Nigeria. Sorry!
From YahooNews: .... Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight girls aged 12 to 15 from a village near one of their strongholds in northeast Nigeria overnight, police and residents said on Tuesday. "They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army color. They started shooting in our village," said Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe, where the attack happened. A police source, who could not be named, said the girls were taken away on trucks, along with looted livestock and food. The Islamist rebels are still holding more than 200 girls they abducted from a secondary school on April 14......
Nigerian women are extremely sad about how the West does not give a shit about what's happening to them and especially to their young girls who are at the mercy of Boko Haram. They are right about how the West plasters the news all over on their TVs when even one kid goes missing but when hundreds are taken in Africa, nobody seems to care. Our brave new world. Whether we want to admit it or not ... life in the West is precious but life in Africa and the rest of the poor countries of the world ... they can die like flies and nobody gives a damn. Life in the Middle East is definitely more precious than the blacks in Africa. Admit it and get it done it! Imagine if 200+ schoolgirls were kidnapped in the Middle East by one of the known or unknown terror groups there. Definitely there would be more hue and cry than what we are seeing being reported about the Nigerian kids. Now, imagine if 200+ schoolgirls, regardless of their color or creed, were kidnapped in one of the countries of the West. Need I say more. What a disgusting world we live in.
From BBC: ....The Nigerian government has been criticised for not doing enough to find and release some 190 schoolgirls abducted by militants two weeks ago. The Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for abducting the girls from their school in Chibok, Borno state. The BBC's Nkem Ifejika spoke to two women from Chibok who had travelled to the capital Abuja to take part in a demonstration calling for action.....
but does anybody give a fig? Will the almighty America and her ever-ready allies who focus on the Middle East but ignore Africa, will they for once have the courtesy to scan satellites' info to see where the 200+ innocent Nigerian school girls are kept in bondage by Boko Haram? Will drones be deployed/employed to get a mapping so the Nigeria's inefficient military and police force can be hand-fed the info to get them to move their butts? I doubt it.
Nigeria is one country that NATO would not be criticized for invading and taking over. The govt. there is so corrupt and inefficient, even the worst that NATO could do, would be a thousand times better than what the govt. does.
From TheGuardianUK: ....The colonial government had marked the forest out as a game reserve. Today, Sambisa has become one of the strongest bases of the Boko Haram insurgents who run back into its dark recesses anytime they have finished their slaughter of harmless citizens. The families of more than 230 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist insurgents two weeks ago threatened to go into the forest themselves to try and find their daughters. The girls, aged mostly between 16 and 18 years old, were rounded up at gunpoint after militants overpowered a military guard outside their boarding school in Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state. The Nigerian military have focussed their efforts against the group in this area........ ......According to Professor Umar Maryah of University of Maiduguri, the forest covers an area stretching approximately 60,000 square kilometres across the north east from Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi states along the Darazo corridor, Jigawa and right up to some parts of Kano State in the far north...... ......It actually took the intelligence services a long time to discover that the game reserve had become a hideout for the sect. They waited three years until several lives had been lost before acting reluctantly on the intelligence advises,” an intelligence source told the Nation. “As a matter of fact, Sambisa is not the only hideout of the insurgents.” The source said they believe the school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram two weeks ago are now “at the beck and call” of the group and fears that they “could become the latest sex slaves of the insurgents”. “The girls will be moved tactically from one base to another mostly in the night so that they cannot recognise where they were. They will finally end up in Sambisa or Algoni, the two most dreaded bases remaining for the managers of the nation’s security to bring down,” the source added. The source said Nigeria's intelligence agencies are willing to act to take down the Boko Haram base, but their efforts have been hampered by the government........ From ABC: ...Abducted schoolgirls: Parents protests in Nigeria over lack of action on missing students. .....Parents and supporters gathered outside government offices and pleaded for officials in Abuja to find the girls. "May God curse every one of those who has failed to free our girls," said Enoch Mark, whose daughter and two nieces were among the students abducted from the government girls secondary school..... ........President Goodluck Jonathan has faced scathing criticism over the attacks and the pressure has mounted since the kidnappings. Parents, who said they had little confidence in the military search effort, have scoured the bushlands of the remote region, pooling money to buy fuel for motorbikes and cars to conduct their own rescue effort. Pogo Bitrus, leader of a Chibok elders group, told AFP that locals had received various tips concerning the whereabouts of the hostages, with some reports saying they had been taken across borders into Cameroon and Chad.......
The news yesterday that almost all the girls were "freed" gave the impression that the Nigerian authorities (well known for their inefficiency) had actually managed to do something useful for once. Not so. We can continue to hold the very low opinion that we rightly have, at least those of us who speak our mind, of most of these African countries rife with inefficient police forces and a military apparatus filled to the brim with corrupt people and politicians equally corrupt ... from the very highest office to the lowest peon.
From BusinessWeek: ....The principal of the Nigerian school in the northeastern state of Borno where more than 100 girls were abducted said military claims that the majority were free are untrue. Only 14 out of 129 students gunmen abducted on April 14 have escaped, Asabe Kwambura, the principal of the state-run girls secondary school in Chibok, said by phone today. Yahaya Chibok, the managing director of Borno Urban Development Board, also said by phone that 14 students were free. The military said in a statement yesterday that eight were still missing. “There is no truth to the announcement of the military of freeing 121 students,” said Kwambura. “It’s only the 14 announced by Governor Kashim Shettima that we have seen,” she said, referring to the Borno state governor. Major-General Chris Olukolade, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said by phone today that Kwambura told the military yesterday that only eight students were still missing. “I feel bad that the military is trying to implicate me,” Kwambura said when asked about the statement the military attributed to her. Kwambura said someone she believed to be from the military called her yesterday asking about the number of girls abducted and those freed. She said she couldn’t say for sure how many were kidnapped but that 14 were free.....
