Africa

Two Soldiers, Five Volunteers Killed in Burkina Attack

Two Burkina Faso soldiers and five civilian defense volunteers have been killed during an ambush on a military patrol in the restive north of the country, security sources said Tuesday. The attack occurred on Monday as soldiers from the military detachment in Banh in Loroum province were carrying out a patrol in the area, the sources said. “Two soldiers were killed along with five civilians,” a security source told AFP. Another security source said the civilian casualties were “defense volunteers who were with the military unit during the patrol,” adding two soldiers also died. The source said four others in the patrol were wounded, without giving further details. Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist alliance GSIM claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming to have killed “nine soldiers” in an ambush and taken weapons and vehicles, in a text sent to AFP late Tuesday. The Mali-based GSIM (Group to Support Islam and Muslims) comprises several different jihadist groups in the Sahel. On May 11, jihadists killed eight Burkinabe soldiers during an attack close to the Niger border in Yagha province, security sources said at the time. Burkina Faso is part of a regional effort to battle an Islamist insurgency, along with neighboring Mali and Niger, Mauritania and Chad. However, …

Read More »

Jihadists Attack Nigeria Town Where Girls Abducted

Jihadists have carried out a rare attack on the northeast Nigerian town of Dapchi, where more than 100 schoolgirls were abducted two years ago, military sources and residents said Tuesday. One soldier was killed and three wounded as fighters believed to be from an Islamic State group affiliate looted shops and torched the home of a local chief in the assault Monday, the sources told AFP. The attack comes days before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when jihadists who have waged a 10-year insurgency usually ramp up their deadly assaults in the region. Fighters suspected to be from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction stormed the town, leading to a fight with troops in which sources said the soldier and five jihadists were killed. Resident Bashir Manzo said the insurgents spent over four hours in town before soldiers backed by a military jet confronted them. Dapchi was the scene of the abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls by ISWAP in February 2018. The girls were later released although the only Christian among them is still being held by the group after she reportedly refused to renounce her faith. The decade-long conflict in northeast Nigeria has …

Read More »

In rare admission, US Africa Command says it killed 2 civilians in Somalia airstrike

The US military said it inadvertently killed two civilians over a year ago in an airstrike against al-Shabaab in Somalia

Read More »

South Africa to deploy 73,000 more troops to enforce COVID-19 lockdown

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to deploy more than 73,000 extra troops to help implement a nationwide coronavirus lockdown

Read More »

UN sanctions Central African Republic rebel group leader Miskine

The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Central African Republic rebel group FDPC leader Abdoulaye Miskine

Read More »

Nigeria records first coronavirus death in conflict-hit Borno state

Nigeria confirmed its first coronavirus infection in insurgency-hit Borno, after a medic with Doctors Without Borders died from COVID-19

Read More »

Burkina Faso security forces accused of executing 31 detainees in Djibo

Burkina Faso's security forces allegedly executed 31 unarmed detainees in the northern town of Djibo, Human Rights Watch said

Read More »

Nigeria security forces kill 18 in coronavirus lockdown enforcement

Nigerian security agents killed 18 people in their enforcement of measures to curb coronavirus, a figure higher than the documented toll inflicted by COVID-199

Read More »

Haftar’s Libyan National Army forces fire on Tripoli after losing western towns

Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army forces rained rockets on the capital Tripoli after being ousted by government loyalists from a string of towns to its west

Read More »

US airstrike targets al-Shabaab near Kismayo, covering Somali troops

A US airstrike is said to have killed 10 al-Shabaab militants in defense of Somali National Army troops near Kobon in the country's south

Read More »