August 7, 2021 – Djibouti News Gazette

August 7, 2021

Chibok Schoolgirl Freed in Nigeria Seven Years After Abduction, Governor Says

MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA, – One abducted girl from the Nigerian town of Chibok has been freed and reunited with her parents seven years after Boko Haram militants kidnapped her and more than 200 of her classmates, Borno state’s governor said on Saturday.

The raid on the school in the northeastern town one night in April 2014 sparked an international outcry and a viral campaign on social media with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.

Governor Babagana Zulum said the girl and someone she said she married during her captivity surrendered themselves to the military 10 days ago. Zulum said government officials had used the time since to identify her and contact her parents.

Some 270 girls were originally abducted by the Islamist group but 82 were freed in 2017 after mediation, adding to 24 who were released or found. A few others have escaped or been rescued, but about 113 of the girls are believed to be held still by the militant group.

Zulum said reuniting the girl with her relatives raised hopes that others still in captivity will be found. He said the girl will receive psychological and medical care as part of a government rehabilitation program.

Boko Haram first carried out mass school kidnappings in Nigeria, as did its later offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province, but now the tactic has been adopted by criminal gangs snatching schoolchildren for ransom.

In the latest attack last month bandits kidnapped schoolchildren from a boarding school in the state of Kaduna, the 10th mass school kidnapping since December in northern Nigeria, which has seen more than 1,000 students abducted.

Source: Voice of America

August 7, 2021

Covid-19: Five Ugandans charged for injecting people with water as covid jabs

KAMPALA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five Ugandans people were arraigned before the Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s Court and charged in connection with injecting more than 800 people with water instead of COVID-19 vaccines.

The group, including Francis Baguma, a 25-year-old student of Makerere University, who was allegedly masquerading as a medical doctor, denied the charges.

The group was charged with offences of a negligent act likely to spread infection, conspiracy to defraud and unlawful possession of government property.

They were denied bail and remanded to prison with the exception of Gloria Katushabe, an enrolled midwife, on the basis of being pregnant.

Under the charge of negligent act, prosecution alleges that the group and others still at large in June in Kawempe Division, Kampala District, unlawfully or negligently administered fake Covid-19 vaccines to employees of several factories, organisations and corporate entities. The organisations include Harris International, KCL Ltd Kitintale, United Bank of Africa, Diamond Trust Bank and MAKSS Packaging.

The 800 workers at these private companies received fake jabs and their companies paid for the vaccinations

This, the prosecution claimed, was done by the accused persons, knowing that their acts were likely to spread infection of any disease dangerous to human life.

Under the offence of conspiracy to defraud, the group are alleged to have fraudulently obtained more than Shs8m from Harris International Ltd in exchange of supplying fake Covid-19 vaccines, well knowing that the jabs are free.

Under the last offence of unlawful possession of government property, it is alleged that the group at Harris International factory, without lawful excuse or permission, had in their possession 694 pieces of auto disable syringes, which is the property of the government.

The group was arrested by the State House Health Monitoring Unit last month.

Upon clinical testing of the seized vaccines at the Government Analytical Laboratory, it was discovered that they were mainly composed of water more than any other chemicals.

Dr Warren Naamara, the director of the State House Health Monitoring Unit, at a news conference last month, said the recipients that received the fake jabs shouldn’t worry and that their life was not in danger.

The Health Ministry said there are 90,656 confirmed cases of the virus with 2,392 deaths in Uganda. The number of people vaccinated is just 1,427,897 out of a population of 44 million. — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: NAM News Network

August 7, 2021

LAGOS, Six teenage victims of human trafficking were rescued during a law enforcement operation in the southern state of Edo, Nigerian police said.

Philip Ogbadu, the state police chief of Edo, told reporters in Benin City, the state capital, that the victims, aged 16 to 19, were rescued on Friday by police operatives after an intelligence tip.

He said the victims were travelling to Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s capital, in a bus when they were intercepted by police operatives on the busy Benin-Lagos road.

The victims, who are from the southeast states of Delta, Edo and Enugu but all live in Edo, were recruited for the journey by a sister of one of them, he added.

Unyimen Johnson, associate project officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria, said at an event to commemorate the 2021 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons held in Benin City on July 30 that Nigeria remains a country of origin, transit and destination for human trafficking.

Driven by the demand for cheap labor and commercial sex, trafficking rings across borders and within countries capitalize on economic, social and political vulnerabilities to exploit their victims, Johnson said.

Source: NAM News Network

August 7, 2021

US blacklists five ‘terrorist leaders’ in Africa

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US State Department added five alleged senior members of jihadist groups in Africa to its terror blacklist, blocking access to any property or interests they may have in the United States.

Heading the additions was Bonomade Machude Omar, the senior commander of ISIS-Mozambique, who led the deadly attack on the Amarula Hotel in the town of Palma in March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

In the Palma assault, the jihadists reportedly beheaded residents and ransacked buildings, killing at least a dozen and displacing more than 8,000. Omar is also responsible for other attacks in Mozambique and Tanzania, Blinken said.

Also named on the State Department’s Specially Designated Global Terrorists list were Sidan ag Hitta and Salem ould Breihmatt, senior leaders of the Mali-based Al-Qaeda branch Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).

Ali Mohamed Rage, a spokesman for extremist militant group Al-Shabaab, and Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, an operations planner for the same group, were also included.

Blinken said both had planned attacks for al-Shabaab, which Washington deemed a terrorist movement in 2008.

“I am announcing the designation of five terrorist leaders in Africa… as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs),” Blinken said in the statement.

The State Department listing will freeze any assets the individuals may have in the United States and makes it a crime to assist them.

The United States “is committed to disrupting the financing methods of ISIS-Mozambique, JNIM, and al-Shabaab… limiting their abilities to conduct further attacks against civilians,” Blinken added. — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: NAM News Network

August 7, 2021

Deadly Fighting Erupts Between Rival Factions of South Sudan VP Machar’s Party

JUBA – Deadly fighting erupted Saturday between rival factions of South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar’s SPLA-IO, his military spokesman said in a statement.

The clashes erupted after Machar’s rivals declared this week they had deposed him as the head of the party and its military forces.

Armed forces led by a rival general in the party, Simon Gatwech Dual, launched an attack on Machar’s men, who had “repulsed the aggressors,” the spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel said.

Machar’s SPLA-IO forces killed two major generals and more than 27 “enemy” soldiers, while they lost three men, he added.

The fighting could not be independently confirmed and there was no immediate response from Gatwech Dual’s side.

Leaders of the military wing of Machar’s SPLM/A-IO said Wednesday they had deposed the rebel-turned-politician for failing to represent their interests.

The fighting could put pressure on the fragile 2018 power-sharing deal between Machar and his old foe President Salva Kiir.

Machar’s allies on Friday dismissed his ouster as a “failed coup,” insisting he was still in full control of the party.

Machar himself this week accused “peace spoilers” of engineering his removal.

The 68-year-old, a wily leader who survived years of bush warfare, attempts on his life and stretches in exile, served as vice president alongside Kiir in the first government post-independence from Sudan in 2011.

The pair had a falling out, though, and Machar was fired two years later. Troops loyal to each man turned their guns on each other, and South Sudan descended into five years of civil war.

Source: Voice of America