Aba, Nigeria | AFP | A dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed after clashes between pro-Biafra supporters and Nigerian security services was relaxed on Monday, as the government blasted social media “quacks and internet trollers” for stoking tensions. The Abia state government in the country’s southeast last week ordered people off the streets …
Read More »One-fourth of Centrafricans displaced by conflict: UN
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Simmering unrest and clashes in the chronically unstable Central African Republic has led a “record number” of 1.1 million people — about a fourth of the population — to flee their homes, the UN said Friday. UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Andrej Mahecic said the …
Read More »Empty villages, Rohingya on the run: Who is left in Myanmar’s Rakhine?
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | A military campaign to wipe out Rohingya insurgents has rained violence down on Myanmar’s Rakhine state, sending nearly 390,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees fleeing for sanctuary in Bangladesh. Around 30,000 Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus have also been displaced, as ethnic and religious hatreds carve through the state. …
Read More »War crimes prosecutor renews call to arrest Libya commander
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Wednesday renewed her call for the immediate arrest of a senior Libyan commander wanted for war crimes, amid allegations he has killed more people. Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli “stands accused of serious crimes. I therefore call again on …
Read More »Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to address nation next week on Rohingya crisis
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi will address the crisis engulfing Rakhine state next week, in her first speech since scores were killed in violence that has sent nearly 380,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh and sullied her reputation as a defender of the oppressed. A …
Read More »Murdered UN experts ‘deliberately misled’ in DR Congo
Paris, France | AFP | Two UN experts who were killed six months ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo were deliberately misled about the safety of the place where they were shot dead, French radio said Wednesday. In an investigative report published on its website, Radio France International (RFI) …
Read More »The Rohingya militants who tipped Rakhine into crisis
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the militant group which tipped Myanmar’s Rakhine state into a crisis, on Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire until October 9. Deadly attacks by ARSA began on August 25, provoking weeks of operations by Myanmar’s troops and police which have sent …
Read More »‘Horrifying surge’ of violence in C. Africa: Amnesty
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Civilians in a central province of the strife-torn Central African Republic are enduring “a horrifying surge in torture, pillage and forced displacement”, Amnesty International reported Friday. “Women have been raped, men murdered, villages destroyed, and the region’s UN peacekeeping force has proved ineffective in stemming these …
Read More »HRW accuses Mali, Burkina troops of sweeping rights abuses
Bamako, Mali | AFP | Malian and Burkinabe soldiers have killed, tortured and disappeared civilians while trying to root out jihadists in central Mali, Human Rights Watch said Friday. “Mali and Burkina Faso military operations to counter the growing presence of Islamist armed groups in central Mali have resulted in …
Read More »Thousands attend first Mogadishu night-time football match in decades
Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | Several thousand fans on Friday watched the first night-time football match to be played in Mogadishu since chaos descended on the Somali capital nearly three decades ago, raucously backing their respective teams in what the mayor called a “historic” event. The match — the final …
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