(Fifth in an occasional series as time and events allow)
The opening narrative for the most important nation:
You know it when you SITE it, be it a female suicider (waves of 'em, some as young as 8 years old, hard to believe, I know), killings in Cameroon, the retaliatory air strikes, the invasion of Niger, the loss of a military base as an alliance is
formed and "Nigeria’s electoral commission will postpone Feb. 14
presidential and legislative elections for six weeks to give the new
multinational force time to secure northeastern areas."
Looks like the Goodluck is running out. Not even praying will help him now. Boko Haram has crossed the border and expanded its assault on Chad, but has been beaten back, thus requiring another threat SITING (maybe you should see this before buying into the Jewish war propaganda that is called a new$paper over here). The US military is standing by on the border with Cameroon, to assist if needed. Avoid bus stations, churches, and markets. A new offensive has been launched and South African mercenaries are a big part of it (mostly immigrants). As for the regular abuse of human rights, the military has no clue and ISIS has gained an ally in Nigeria, as terror threat in Africa grows worse!!
Thankfully, the suicide bombings and executions have stopped as the Boko ghosts shield themselves with children in a ‘‘phenomenon of criminal dimension,” and the election campaign has finally gotten underway (then extended) after the delay. A former general who once ruled with an iron hand has won, we are told, and the people are rejoicing (as is the U. S.) Then the hard reality set in. A drug dealer (and transgender TV program inspiration) was elected senator, and you would have to be an idiot not to see the agenda before you:
"Child suicide bombers rise in Nigeria" Associated Press May 27, 2015
GUBIO, Nigeria — Children are now being seen as potential threats after an ‘‘alarming spike’’ in suicide bombings by girls and women being used by Boko Haram militants in northeastern Nigeria, the UN children’s agency said Tuesday.
I'm getting tired of that narrative, sorry.
Tuesday’s report came as Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state visited the site of the latest Boko Haram attack and surveyed the damage: 37 people killed Sunday, 400 buildings razed, including mosques, and 22 vehicles and dozens of motorcycles torched.
It’s not known how many thousands of boys, girls, and women have been kidnapped by Boko Haram but new abductions are being reported every week....
It cries out for US intervention in some form or fashion, doesn't it?
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So what do you do if the claims of the propaganda pre$$ are phony and the real dangers to kids is this?
"28 Nigerian children killed by lead poisoning from gold mining" Associated Press May 16, 2015
LAGOS, Nigeria — Twenty-eight children have died from lead poisoning linked to illegal gold mining in a remote west-central village, Nigerian health officials said, even as doctors are still treating thousands from an earlier outbreak.
Dozens more children are sick in the Rafi area of Niger state and action must be taken quickly if they are not to suffer irreversible neurological damage, Michelle Chouinard, Nigeria director for Doctors Without Borders, said Friday.
Her organization still is responding to a 2010 mass lead poisoning, in Zamfara state, that killed 400 children and left many paralyzed, blind, and with learning disabilities.
The region’s gold deposits are mingled with lead, and the local “artisanal mining” practice of taking the ore home for crushing results in exposure to lead-filled dust especially toxic for children, officials said.
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Every few years there is a report of such things, but all's fair in the search gold -- including citing God and using guns!
"Suicide bomber kills seven outside bus station in Nigeria" by Haruna Umar Associated Press May 17, 2015
POTISKUM, Nigeria — A teenage suicide bomber blew herself up and killed seven other people Saturday outside a bustling bus station in the northeast Nigerian town of Damaturu, the state medical director said. It was the latest in a string of attacks by the country’s Boko Haram extremists.
The attack occurred two weeks after Nigeria’s military said it destroyed about 20 insurgent camps and freed some 700 kidnapped women and children in the Sambisa Forest, where they said the main insurgent fighting force was trapped.
Hundreds of militants attacked the biggest military base in northeastern Nigeria on Wednesday night but were repelled by government troops at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, the most populous city in northeastern Nigeria.
On Friday, Boko Haram seized back the border town of Marte, officials said.
A week ago, a gunman and suicide bomber attacked a business school in Potiskum, near Damaturu, killing a student and leaving many injured.
Thousands have died in the nearly six-year-old Islamic uprising, about 10,000 last year alone, and more than 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes....
There are more refugees now than during World War II.
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Related:
"Nigerian drug agents on Saturday arrested a senator-elect wanted by the United States in a nearly 20-year-old heroin trafficking plot that was allegedly the basis for the TV hit ‘‘Orange Is the New Black.’’ Buruji Kashamu is under house arrest at his Lagos home, spokesman Ofoyeju Mitchell of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency said."
Someone stepped in:
"Nigerian judge suspends move to extradite senator-elect to US" Associated Press May 26, 2015
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s federal high court Monday ordered drug agents to release a newly elected senator and suspend its extradition proceedings on 20-year-old drug charges related to the TV hit ‘‘Orange Is the New Black.’’
It also ordered the withdrawal of armed agents who have besieged the home of Senator-elect Buruji Kashamu since Saturday.
Judge I.N. Buba ordered the federal attorney general and the chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to appear in court before noon Tuesday to show why he should not charge them with contempt of court.
He said all parties should desist from any action until a court ruling scheduled Wednesday on a previous suit by Kashamu to prevent his extradition.
A Chicago grand jury in 1998 indicted Kashamu for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the United States. Prosecutors charge he was the kingpin of a heroin trafficking ring there in the 1990s.
Kashamu has said the prosecutors really wanted his dead brother, whom he closely resembled.
Kashamu’s spokesman had said the drug agents did not have an arrest warrant. But the agency insists it does have one, according to spokesman Ofoyeju Mitchell.
‘‘The extradition move by the NDLEA for Kashamu to answer drug trafficking charges is legal,’’ he said. ‘‘The agency has not violated his rights and will continue to work within the confines of the law.’’
Drug agents surrounded Kashamu’s home on Saturday, days before senators are to be sworn into the new legislature on Friday. The drug agency said he was under house arrest.
Kashamu’s spokesman, Austin Oniyokor, said Kashamu is the victim of a political conspiracy.
After years of inaction, the United States has requested his extradition, according to Nigeria’s drug agency. Asked for comment, a US State Department official said the department does not comment on law enforcement matters.
The moves come as Kashamu appears to have lost the perceived protection of outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, who was defeated in March elections.
A previous request to extradite him from Britain failed in 2003. Kashamu spent five years in a British jail before he was freed over uncertainty about his identity. He was carrying $230,000 when he was arrested there. A dozen people long ago pleaded guilty in the case, including Piper Kerman, whose memoir was adapted for the Netflix hit ‘‘Orange Is the New Black.’’
I've never seen and don't plan to.
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I'm sure that is not the only reason Jonathan ran out of Goodluck:
"US signals willingness to widen role in fighting Boko Haram in Nigeria" by Michael R. Gordon New York Times May 30, 2015
ABUJA, Nigeria — As Nigeria swore in a new president Friday, the Obama administration signaled that it was prepared to expand military cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the US delegation to the inauguration, discussed the increased military assistance in a meeting with Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s new leader.
“Something we can do quickly is to send advisers,” said a senior State Department official, who could not be identified under department policy. “It could be related to intelligence; it could be something very simple, related to things like logistics.”
Let the occupation of Nigeria begin.
Kerry was among the dignitaries from more than 30 nations who attended the inauguration of Buhari, 72. The ceremony, which marked Nigeria’s first handover of power from one political party to another since the end of military rule in 1999, was held in Eagle Square.
Wearing a light brown Muslim gown and holding a Koran, Buhari promised to uphold Nigeria’s Constitution.
“I belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody,” he said in his inaugural address, highlighting his anticorruption theme.
Buhari also promised to persevere until “Boko Haram is completely subdued.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, faces several economic problems, which have been aggravated by corruption and poor security.
And it's the seat of Islamic insurgency in the area, hmmm.
Concern over Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect that has been mounting deadly attacks against government and civilian targets for years, grew after its April 2014 abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.
That abduction led to a widely publicized “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign, which was aimed at raising international concern about the kidnapping and which Michelle Obama supported in a White House radio address.
All over a staged and scripted piece of fraud!
Since then, Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, the terrorist group that has proclaimed a caliphate in much of Iraq and Syria.
Despite concern about Boko Haram, US efforts to expand military cooperation with Nigeria diminished during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, who was defeated in the March election.
I think I just smelled the stench of a rigged election!
US officials expressed frustration with human rights abuses and corruption in Nigeria’s military, and Jonathan’s government complained that the United States was intervening in its internal affairs.
And now he is out!
Btw, Jonathan was also cozying up to China. Another reason he needed an electoral dispatch.
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There was another brief report before the latest slaughter:
"Bomb hits market in Nigerian city, injuring four" by Haruna Umar Associated Press June 01, 2015
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — A bomb wounded four people Sunday in a market in Maiduguri, a day after 30 people were killed in the northeastern Nigerian city by a suicide bomber and attackers firing rocket-propelled grenades.
The Boko Haram militant group is suspected in the attacks which followed Friday’s inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who said he is moving the headquarters for the Nigerian military’s fight against the extremists to Maiduguri from the capital of Abuja.
Sunday’s blast came from explosives concealed in bags of charcoal at the Gamboru market, said trader Jafar Aminu.
‘‘The explosion did not kill anyone but injured four persons, including one whose arm was completely ripped off by the blast,’’ Aminu said.
The market in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, has been hit by several attacks that have killed dozens of people in the past three years.
Maiduguri is the birthplace of Boko Haram, which for nearly six years has led an Islamic uprising in northeastern Nigeria that has killed an estimated 13,000 people in a campaign of bombings, hit-and-run attacks and abductions.
A multinational offensive this year forced the insurgents from towns where they had declared an Islamic caliphate.
Nigeria’s military says Boko Haram’s main fighting force is trapped in the northeastern Sambisa Forest. But the insurgents keep attacking Maiduguri, which is 125 miles away.
Maiduguri’s population of 2 million has swelled with hundreds of thousands of refugees who have been forced from their homes.
That's where the print hit the tree line.
Thirteen people were killed Saturday in Maiduguri when Boko Haram fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades on the western outskirts — a new tactic that destroyed several homes, according to witnesses.
Later Saturday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Maiduguri mosque, killing 16.
Also Sunday, the insurgents attacked the town of Fika in the neighboring state of Yobe. No one was killed, but several government offices were burned down and shops were looted, said local merchant Modu Fika.
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Related:
"Truck explosion kills 69 in Nigeria.... Nigeria has the highest road accident rate in the world, as well as the largest number of deaths per 10,000 vehicles, according to a report by the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute. It said road accident deaths are the third leading cause of all deaths in the West African nation that is Africa’s biggest oil producer."
After terrorists and the state.
"Boko Haram attack on northern Nigerian city kills 20" Associated Press June 03, 2015
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Boko Haram again attacked the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Tuesday, waking residents with deafening explosions in the early hours of the morning and then a suicide bombing that witnesses said killed as many as 20 people.
The extremist group which seeks to impose Islamic law across northern Nigeria has repeatedly attacked Maiduguri, the largest city in the northeast, since the newly elected president has designated it as the new headquarters in the war to curb the Islamic uprising.
‘‘We are under siege,’’ Sumaila Ayuba, her voice shaking, told The Associated Press by telephone just after midnight from her home on the city’s western flank after her sleep was shattered by the explosions. ‘‘The shooting is quite deafening. Please, we need prayers.’’
Hours later, a man blew himself up at Gamboru cattle market, the site of previous bombings, officials said. One witness said he counted at least 20 bodies. The National Emergency Management Agency said 10 people were killed and many others injured. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Over the weekend, more than 30 people died in another Boko Haram assault involving another suicide bombing and rocket-propelled grenades.
Print ended there.
Some onlookers began stoning the agency’s rescue workers, for unknown reasons. Soldiers fired into the air to disperse the crowd.
I'm thinking Nigerians know about false flags.
Also Tuesday, Boko Haram released a new video that allegedly shows militants shooting wounded Nigerian soldiers in the head and beheading a man in civilian clothes as well as charred parts claimed to be the remnants of a downed Nigerian jet fighter.
Here we go again!
The video, the first released since it pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, has no sign of longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, previously a mainstay of the group’s videos.
There was no explanation for his absence. Nigeria’s military has claimed many times to have killed Shekau — only to have him later resurface.
Yeah, the ghosts of Al-CIA-Duh and ISIS, yup!
In Tuesday’s video, an armed fighter said Boko Haram still holds several northeastern towns and has thousands of fighters — claims impossible to substantiate.
The video gloats over alleged disunity in the multinational force that in March announced it had driven Boko Haram from all towns and villages. Nigerian neighbors Chad and Niger have said the fight against Boko Haram would be long over if they had better cooperation from Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari is traveling to Chad and Niger on Wednesday on his first official trip outside Nigeria, spokesman Garba Shehu said.
The chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibril, said the military chiefs briefed Buhari on the security situation, especially the fight against Boko Haram, and received a presidential directive to move the military headquarters for the fight against the insurgents to Maiduguri.
The uprising has killed some 13,000 people and driven 1.5 million from their homes.
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On the other side of the continent:
"Burundi general claims to oust President Nkurunziza" New York Times May 13, 2015
NAIROBI — An army general in Burundi said Wednesday that the military had ousted President Pierre Nkurunziza, setting off celebrations in the streets among protesters who had been trying to block the president’s bid for another term.
“President Pierre Nkurunziza is removed from office,” Major General Godefroid Niyombare said in a radio broadcast in the capital, Bujumbura.
In justifying the coup, Niyombare said the president had killed opponents and protesters, overseen a corrupt government, and — by seeking a third term — disregarded the 2000 peace agreement and the 2005 constitution to end the country’s civil war.
By calling it a coup I suspect the propaganda pre$$ is not on board with this move? I can't imagine why they wouldn't like it; is someone telling them to stop something?
It was not immediately clear whether the general had the backing of the army, or whether a coup had been carried out successfully.
But soon after the announcement, police officers who had been clashing with protesters in downtown Bujumbura began withdrawing, while demonstrators began honking car horns and cheering.
Nkurunziza was scheduled to be out of the country Wednesday, attending a conference in Tanzania with other East African leaders to discuss the unrest in Burundi. News agencies reported that an aide to the president had dismissed reports of a coup, saying that any claims that the president had been ousted were “a joke.”
Yeah, ha-ha.
Hundreds of protesters have been demonstrating in the capital for more than two weeks against the president’s bid for a third term in office.
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"Thousands of refugees pour into Rwanda from Burundi; Political turmoil triggers exodus of over 50,000" by Kevin Sieff Washington Post May 13, 2015
WASHINGTON — Two decades after the end of Rwanda’s civil war, thousands of refugees are streaming in from neighboring Burundi, seeking refuge from their own volatile political situation.
Last month, Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, erupted in violent protests in response to an announcement that President Pierre Nkurunziza would seek a third term in the June elections. That move violated the constitution, his opponents said.
Clashes involving antigovernment demonstrators, security forces, and ruling-party supporters have left several people dead and dozens injured.
More than 50,000 Burundians have entered Rwanda and other neighboring countries since mid-April, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. On a continent plagued by refugee crises, the exodus represents a new challenge for Rwanda, which already was a haven for 74,000 refugees, most of them from Congo.
Another genocide in the deepest part of Africa?
More than 25,000 Burundians have crossed into Rwanda recently, while nearly 18,000 have sought asylum in Tanzania and almost 8,000 in Congo, according to the UN agency.
‘‘We appeal to leaders of Burundi to do everything in their power to bring the country back to a peaceful situation,’’ Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement last week.
Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that Nkurunziza’s decision to seek reelection ‘‘flies directly in the face’’ of Burundi’s constitution.
Was he the one obstructing troops entering the C.A.R.?
The situation threatens to devolve into ethnic violence along the same lines of the country’s brutal civil war, which lasted from 1993 to 2005. Like Rwanda’s conflict, Burundi’s war pitted ethnic Hutus against Tutsis. After the conflict ended, Burundi remained one of the world’s poorest countries, its citizens dependent largely on subsistence farming and international aid.
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"Rival forces face off in Burundi’s capital; Coup attempt splits military, sparks battles" by Andrew Njuguna and Melanie Gouby Associated Press May 15, 2015
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Gunfire and explosions rang out Thursday as military forces backing an attempted coup against President Pierre Nkurunziza battled troops loyal to him over key sites in Burundi’s capital, while his office reported he had returned to the country.
Weeks of turmoil in this impoverished Central African country boiled over Wednesday when an army general announced that Nkurunziza was being ousted.
The president was in Tanzania at the time for a meeting with regional leaders about the political crisis. Late Thursday, his office revealed on Twitter that Nkurunziza was back in Burundi, although the report could not be independently verified.
So they waited until he left the country to do it?
The report also said Nkurunziza saluted the patriotism of the police and the patience of the Burundian people. His office had earlier said he had urged calm and said the situation was under control....
Police withdrew from the streets of Bujumbura after Major General Godefroid Niyombare’s coup statement, and people thronged Bujumbura’s streets and applauded soldiers who rode by in tanks and trucks.
It's looking like a popular effort, thus the word coup is attached to it by my propaganda pre$$.
At least 15 people have been killed in demonstrations since April 26 over Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. Protesters say his candidacy violated the country’s constitution as well as peace accords that ended a civil war.
During the unrest, the military acted as a buffer between police and protesters.
The real power in Burundi?
Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, who chaired the summit on the Burundi crisis, said the region’s leaders condemned the coup and called for return to constitutional order.
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The coup failed, and....
"Seventeen security officials, including five generals, accused in the attempted coup of President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi appeared Saturday before a prosecutor who charged them with an attempt at destabilizing public institutions, lawyers of some of the suspects said. The suspected coup plotters include three army generals and two police generals, presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said. (AP)."
"Burundi leader appears after coup bid" Associated Press May 18, 2015
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi has made his first appearance in the capital since the attempted coup against his government last week.
Nkurunziza made a brief statement to journalists in the foyer of his heavily guarded presidential offices in Bujumbura on Sunday morning. He did not mention the failed coup plot or the protests that have rocked Burundi for weeks over his bid for a third term in office. Instead he described how he contacted the presidents of nearby African countries to discuss the threat from Somalia’s Islamic extremists, Al Shabab.
Burundi, Kenya, and Uganda contribute troops to the African Union force that is fighting Al Shabab in Somalia. The extremist rebels have retaliated by carrying out violent attacks in Kenya and Uganda.
He said his aim in contacting fellow presidents was to find strategies to stop threats to the security of Burundians.
Edouard Nduwimana, Burundi’s interior minister, called on protesters to stay off the streets Monday because the security forces would not be able to differentiate between protesters and extremists. An opposition activist said this is another way for the government to justify the illegal use force to discourage the demonstrations over Nkurunziza’s candidacy, which goes against the constitution’s limit of two five-year terms.
Are we all be played by the state?
The protests began April 26, a day after the ruling party made Nkurunziza its presidential candidate, and at least 15 people have been killed in the unrest.
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"Burundi deploys army amid protests" Associated Press May 19, 2015
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Army soldiers were deployed Monday for the first time in Burundi to quell street protests, putting the military into a precarious position amid persistent demonstrations against the president’s bid for a third term.
A group of soldiers confronting hundreds of demonstrators almost opened fire on each other amid a dispute on whether to use lethal force, sharply illustrating the difficult position the military has been thrust into.
Related:
"The U.S. has a strong relationship with Burundi’s military, which undoubtedly played a role in the State Department’s reluctance to label yesterday’s events a coup. Given the highly uncertain nature and potentially costly unintended consequences of coups, international actors would be wise to continue to unequivocally condemn coups. That said...."
It was considered a good coup by the CIA's newspaper.
In an apparent effort to assert greater control over the military, President Pierre Nkurunziza fired his defense minister, Pontien Gaciyubenge, who earlier this month had said the army would play a neutral role in the protests and respect the Constitution.
Nkurunziza also replaced his international affairs minister and trade minister, presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said.
The protests began three weeks ago after the ruling party named Nkurunziza as its candidate in the June elections. The situation grew more volatile last week when a general announced a coup, which collapsed within two days.
Police had tried to crush the protests at the cost of at least 15 lives.
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"Two killed in Burundi protests against president’s 3rd term" Associated Press May 22, 2015
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Two protesters in Burundi were shot dead Thursday, said the Red Cross, as pitched battles in the capital escalated between police and demonstrators opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said dialogue among the government, opposition parties, and religious organizations resumed Thursday, facilitated by the UN envoy to Burundi, Said Djinnit.
See: Catholic bishops withdraw support for Burundi elections
A protester from the capital’s Ngagara neighborhood was shot dead and another was killed in the Musaga district, Red Cross spokesman Alexis Manirakiza said.
Thirteen people were wounded in clashes, he said. Protesters have disregarded several orders by Nkurunziza banning the demonstrations.
Thursday’s deaths raise the number of people killed to at least 20, said the Red Cross.
The protests began nearly four weeks ago after the announcement of Nkurunziza’s candidacy. At least 431 have been wounded.
Police fired tear gas and live bullets, mostly in the air, at protests in Musaga Thursday. The protesters threw a hail of stones.
Residents stayed up all night on the roads fearing that police would attack them in their houses, said Pierre Chanel Ndayizeye, who was among the protesters.
They tried to prevent police from moving into Musaga with barricades of downed telephone poles and trees, he said.
Businesses shut down in the central business district of Bujumbura, the capital, when nearly 100 protesters maneuvered around police cordons and held demonstrations, the second time protesters managed to infiltrate the heart of city since the protests began.
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"Burundi will delay votes after unrest" Associated Press June 01, 2015
NAIROBI — Burundi’s government should postpone parliamentary and presidential elections for a six weeks because of unrest triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office, an emergency meeting for the heads of state from the regional East African Community urged Sunday.
Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, has been rocked by protests for the last five weeks since Nkurunziza’s candidature was announced.
Heads of states from Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya attended the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, a statement from the office of East African Community chairman, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, said. South African President Jacob Zuma also attended. The regional leaders called on Burundi’s government to use the time before the delayed elections to create an environment conducive for the polls, the statement said.
In other words, wait until we can sell you a rigged vote.
The statement said Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza was represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Nyamitwe while Rwanda was represented by its East African Community minister Valentine Rugwabiza.
Burundi’s parliamentary elections are scheduled for June 5 while presidential elections are slated for June 26. At least 20 people have died and 471 injured in the weeks of protests as police and demonstrators engage in running battles.
END PRINT
Burundi police have been accused of shooting protesters while the ruling party youth wing has been linked to threats and intimidation of those who oppose Nkurunziza.
Nkurunziza's Nazis?
The East African Community also called for the immediate disarmament of all youth groups affiliated with political groups and asked Burundi’s leadership to exercise restraint and to ensure the right environment for refugees to return home. More than 90,000 people have fled ahead of polls.
Burundi’s protests boiled over on May 13 when an army general announced a coup while the president was in Tanzania attending a meeting of heads of states to discuss the crisis.
Nkurunziza’s opponents say his candidacy is violating the constitution which limits a president to two five-year terms. Nkurunziza maintains that he is eligible to run for a third term because he was elected by parliament for his first term and not by popular vote.
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Here is one way to slow them down:
"Cholera on rise for Burundi refugees" Associated Press May 23, 2015
KAMPALA, Uganda — An outbreak of cholera has infected 3,000 people in a Tanzanian border region where refugees fleeing political unrest in Burundi have massed, the UN Refugee Agency said Friday.
Some 300 to 400 new cases of cholera are being reported daily. At least 31 people — 29 refugees and two Tanzanians — have died of the disease, according to UN officials.
More than 64,000 Burundians have fled to Tanzania in recent weeks, the Refugee Agency said, escaping the unrest sparked by their president’s bid for a third term that many say is unconstitutional.
The UN agency and its partners appealed for help Friday, saying $207 million is needed to respond to the humanitarian crisis and assist some 200,000 Burundians who have taken refuge in Tanzania, Congo, and Rwanda.
The World Health Organization has warned that a ‘‘severe humanitarian crisis’’ is unfolding in Tanzania with refugees overwhelming health and sanitation facilities in the border area.
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Haiti has a problem with it, too, but it is rarely talked about anymore. Almost makes you think the supremacist paper is racist.
Any other votes to be cast?
"Harassment alleged as Ethiopians vote" Associated Press May 25, 2015
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopians voted Sunday in national and regional elections in which the ruling party is expected to maintain its iron-clad grip on power.
Related: Ethiopia spies on journalists based in US, researchers say
Some opposition leaders said their members had been harassed and beaten up while trying to cast their ballots.
A spokesman for the opposition Blue party, Yonathan Tesfaye, told the Associated Press that Sunday’s election was ‘‘full of games,’’ apparently referring to electoral malpractices.
‘‘We have received lots of complaints from our observers who were banned from observing the election process. The government has been using a number of techniques to harass them all day,’’ Yonathan said.
But the Ethiopian News Agency cited African Union as saying the voting had been mostly ‘‘orderly.’’ Shimelis Kemal, a state minister at the Government Communications Affairs office, said voter turnout was more than 85 percent and that the process had been peaceful.
The Election Board said late Sunday that polling will be extended until Monday in some universities and colleges where there had been a shortage of voting materials. Provisional results are expected in a week but final results won’t be released before June 22. More than 36 million voters were registered to vote in this East African nation of about 90 million people.
In 2010, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front won 99.6 percent of all parliamentary seats. Only one opposition lawmaker won a seat in an election that watchdog groups said was marred by intimidation and the harassment of opposition activists.
Human Rights Watch called that victory ‘‘the culmination of the government’s five-year strategy of systematically closing down space for political dissent and independent criticism.’’
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, a former university professor-turned-politician, has been leading the country since the death in 2012 of strongman Meles Zenawi, who built the ruling coalition into a powerful political organization. These are Ethiopia’s first elections since his death.
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Also see: South African opposition group elects first black leader
Good to see the roar over immigrants die down.
As we sail back around, look whose hauling in all the fish:
"China accused of illegal fish harvests; Greenpeace cites fleet off W. Africa" by Andrew Jacobs New York Times May 21, 2015
BEIJING — Chinese fishing fleets, driven by plummeting catches close to home, are flocking to West African waters, where they engage in ecologically ruinous bottom trawling, subterfuge, and other illegal activities that threaten marine resources in a region already under pressure from overfishing, according to a report issued Wednesday by Greenpeace.
Imagine if they were using depleted uranium munitions, 'eh?
The study, the result of a two-year investigation, says hundreds of Chinese-owned or Chinese-flagged vessels take advantage of weak enforcement by African governments to indiscriminately net tons of fish off the coasts of Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
Are there regulators bought off by industry like ours?
Among the worst offenders, Greenpeace said, is the state-owned China National Fisheries Corp., whose ship operators were said to have lied about their locations, underreported the amount of fish in their holds, and used damaging fishing methods that are largely banned in Chinese waters.
Strong stuff coming from Greenpeace.
“China is exporting to Africa the kind of destructive fishing practices that depleted local fishing grounds off the Chinese coast,” said Rashid Kang, director of the China Ocean and Forests campaign at Greenpeace.
Then why the big fight over the China Seas?
Btw, we have the same over here.
The group said more than 450 Chinese-owned fishing vessels were operating off Africa, up from a dozen in 1985.
It said nearly a fifth of the country’s foreign fishing fleet operates off West Africa.
China’s Foreign Ministry, responding to the report, said Chinese fishing vessels that operate in the exclusive economic zones of African countries abide by the agreements they have struck with national governments.
Much of the research was conducted by a Greenpeace vessel that observed Chinese fishing boats as they worked the Atlantic Ocean near Africa.
Last fall, for example, it recorded illegal fishing by 12 Chinese ships operating in the territorial waters of Guinea at a time when the government was grappling with the Ebola epidemic. The report cited boats that fished in prohibited areas, lacked licenses, and used illegal nets with tiny mesh openings.
Good thing that has been beaten back.
Investigators documented 74 of 92 fishing boats that had turned off the tracking devices mandated by international maritime law; others had been manipulated to give out incorrect locations, including five ships that claimed to be operating in Mexican waters.
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Do you really know where that catch came from?
Whatever happened to the Somali pirates, anyway?
Also see:
World War III: Real Canadian Bacon
World War III: South American Sphere
World War III: Patrolling the Indian Ocean
World War III: Kerry Breaks Leg For War on Iran
Time for me to grab some lunch.
NDUs:
China seems to have trouble keeping boats afloat, but that's for another post.
"Nigerian military stands accused of war crimes; Human rights group cites 8,000 deaths in 4 years" by Daniel Magnowski and Paul Wallace Bloomberg News June 04, 2015
ABUJA, Nigeria — The Nigerian military and some of its most senior officers must be investigated for war crimes after more than 8,000 deaths over a four-year period, according to Amnesty International.
Why now? Why the AI pressure?
Since March 2011, more than 7,000 young men died in military detention, while more than 1,200 people were unlawfully killed since February 2012, the London-based rights group said in a statement handed to reporters Wednesday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Amnesty named and called for an investigation of three major generals and two brigadier generals, as well as four current and former chiefs of staff.
This after the change of government back to the old iron-handed junta. Hmmmm. That in no way excuses Nigeria's military; it's just a recognition of the convoluted world of propaganda I must sift through on a daily basis.
‘‘Thousands of young men and boys have been arbitrarily arrested and deliberately killed or left to die in detention in the most horrific conditions,’’ said Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary general. ‘‘It provides strong grounds for investigations into the possible criminal responsibility of members of the military, including those at the highest levels.’’
I'm thinking Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and -- with a new president -- Obama, Gates, Panetta, etc.
The propaganda pre$$ and $elf-$erving political parties would push division, but I think it would be good for the cleansing of the American soul. Others say we should give them blanket amnesty.
Nigeria’s military has been fighting to stop a six-year campaign by the Boko Haram Islamist group to impose its version of Sharia law on Africa’s biggest oil producer. Amnesty said in April that at least 5,500 civilians had been killed by Boko Haram since the start of last year.
Yeah, funny how they always show up there and not on a boat coming out of Myanmar.
At least 20,000 young males have been arrested by the armed forces since 2009, some as young as 9 years old, in response to the insurgency, Amnesty said. Most were arbitrarily detained and almost none have been brought to court, the rights group said, after receiving leaked military reports and interviewing 400 victims, witnesses, and senior Nigerian security officials.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who took office on May 29 after defeating Goodluck Jonathan in March elections, has vowed to crush the Islamist rebels. The military under Jonathan’s administration was dogged with allegations of human rights abuses, which the armed forces have denied.
Military spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade did not answer calls to his mobile phone or immediately reply to a text message seeking comment. Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman, declined to comment as he had not seen the report.
Amnesty staff met with Buhari before his inauguration and shared the findings of its investigation with his office, though there has not been an official response, Netsanet Belay, Africa director at Amnesty, said.
‘‘We repeatedly shared our own findings with all levels of Nigerian military and civil authorities,’’ Anna Neistat, senior director of research at Amnesty, told reporters. ‘‘No action has ever been taken in response to these requests. All of these violations continued unabated.’’
Neistat said authorities have accused the rights group of exaggerating the scale of the problem.
The allegations have limited US assistance to Nigeria’s battle against Boko Haram, which has been restricted by law against providing lethal arms because of the human rights record of the nation’s military.
Yeah, right, the U.S. isn't helping 'em because of the laws and human rights, uh-huh. Sigh.
Thanks for the afterthought throwaway.
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I'll throw this one your way, too:
"Zimbabwean court stops arrests of women at night; Nighttime raids by police ruled illegal and sexist" by Farai Mutsaka Associated Press June 04, 2015
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Women in Zimbabwe are starting to venture out at night without fear of being arrested on prostitution charges after the Constitutional Court ruled it was illegal and sexist for police to indiscriminately arrest women on the streets and in public establishments.
This is new. Is it the next wave with the police after the race relations strife?
Before the ruling, women out at night were frequently arrested on allegations of being prostitutes. According to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, police had arrested up to 153 women on a single night, but men were not arrested on similar charges.
They didn't bust the Johns?
The court ruled May 27 that the practice was discriminatory and deprived women of equal rights and the right to liberty.
The case was pursued by women who were arrested in March 2014 under ‘‘Operation No to Robberies and Prostitution’’ in the Avenues, a suburb of Harare that has a red-light area. According to the charge sheet, the women were ‘‘standing in the street, looking for men to lure such that they will have sex and get payment thereafter.’’
The world's oldest profession. What to do about it, I dunno. Health and pragmatism seem to indicate legality, but cultural morality is then again degraded.
Police clampdowns often involved raiding drinking establishments at night to indiscriminately arrest women. Such dragnets had overtly sexist names such as ‘‘Operation It’s Time to Get Married.’’ At times, officers would arrest every female patron leaving a bar while letting the men go free.
I'm hoping they were well-treated and respected at the jail.
Officers regularly patrolled on bicycle, on foot, and on horseback, targeting women as early as 7 p.m. in downtown Harare and nearby residential areas. Women who had nothing to do with prostitution were often arrested.
Winnet Shamuyarira remembers being arrested when she was an 18-year-old high school student while walking in the city center as she left a school-organized function, and again while leaving a pub with her boyfriend. The first time, the school headmaster intervened. The second, she paid a $20 fine to avoid harassment and sleeping in filthy police cells, she said.
So it's a $hakedown kind of thing (seems common with police across the world, be it drug corruption or what have you. I know they get off at trial -- Philadelphia court case comes to mind -- but it $eems to be an idio$yncratic characteri$tic).
Tawanda Zhuwarara, a lawyer who represented women in the Constitutional Court case, said, ‘‘It is absurd to suggest that in this day and age, females are banned from being at certain places at night, that only men should enjoy a night out while women stay at home.’’
Not only that, unless it's all gays who wants to go out with it being all guys out there?
The raids have been going on for decades in Zimbabwe.
This is the first I remember seeing, although it's been a long strange trip these last 9 years.
During the first, Operation Clean Up in 1983, soldiers even broke into homes and demanded marriage certificates from men and women in bed together. Many Zimbabweans marry under customary law that provides no licenses.
Thousands of arrested women were carted off to camps for ‘‘rehabilitation’’ that included classes on skills like basket-weaving. Security forces even arrested women walking alone during the day.
Oh, the imagery all over the planet right now. Nothing better to do but wage war I guess. Gotta liberate the women (just ignore their dead friends and families and all that come with it).
The patriarchal nature of Zimbabwe’s traditional culture has for ages relegated women to second-class status. Activists say this resulted in women struggling to assert equality even where it is enshrined in the Constitution.
What is equality anyway? Is it equated with the right to be a soldier and kill like here in AmeriKa? Is the -- forgive me for the self-preserving paternalism for a moment -- wonderful, beautiful, and unique ability to procreate count for nothing?
After the court ruling, a palpable sense of freedom was felt among many women.
And that would be....?
‘‘I can go out to have a drink again,’’ Shamuyarira said. ‘‘This is so refreshing.’’
(Blog editor's chin slumps to chest. Apparently liberation is not a good healthy, peaceful life with a clean environment; it's the right to swill back booze and I would assume make yourself up with cosmetics. Liberating in a sense, save for the transition to sexual object and once again the slaves of femininity)
Police can still make arrests for prostitution, according to the law.
But sex workers also toasted the ruling. So it's illegal but look the other way? Okay.
At one urban street corner favored by prostitutes, there was even a truce of sorts, with police officers seen chatting with sex workers.
I wonder what they could possibly have been talking about.
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Of course, we all know how Zimbabwe views women; however, what I noticed is there was no mention of the monster Mugabe. I don't know if that means he is on his last legs or whether he is again cooperating with the USraeli empire and moving weapons in the region. How would I know? I'm reading a Globe. I would have to go elsewhere to find out such things, making this effort more and more futile.
In relation to the above, Ebola is back on the front page and it looks like the military was giving away anthrax. I listened to the radio a bit yesterday as I was working late and he indicated it was done to test sensors and the like, at least that is what the government is saying as the also claim no harm done, nothing to see here. One wonders if they were busted planning a massive, worldwide panic and martial law lockdown because of the "terrorists," but the fact that they have been shipping it for decades calls into question any of the claimed attacks.
That's the way I see from down below.
