Monday 27 ,Jan 2025 {HMC} Suspected Islamist fighters killed at least 20 Nigerian soldiers, including a commanding officer, after attacking an army base in a remote town in northeastern Borno state, security sources and residents said Sunday.

Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters have mainly operated in Borno, targeting security forces and civilians, in the process killing and displacing tens of thousands of people.

The latest assault happened Friday, when ISWAP members arrived on gun trucks and attacked the army’s 149 Battalion in Malam-Fatori town, gateway to the border with Niger, two soldiers and residents said.

One of the soldiers who survived the attack told Reuters by phone that troops were taken by surprise as the militants “rained bullets everywhere.”

“We tried so much to repel the attacks and after more than three hours of gun duel, they overpowered us, killing our commanding officer, a lieutenant colonel,” the soldier said, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

He said 20 soldiers died while several were injured.

A Nigerian army spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Residents who left the town said some of the militants were seen in Malam-Fatori as late as Saturday night.

Malakaka Bukar, a member of the local militia recruited to help the army, said the militants also burned buildings, forcing some residents to flee the town.

“They preached to some of the residents,” said Bukar.

Although weakened by military assaults and internal fighting over the years, Boko Haram and ISWAP have stepped up attacks in Borno since the turn of the year, killing dozens of farmers and fishermen in series of raids.

source voa

Monday 27 ,Jan 2025 {HMC} Human Rights Watch is expressing concern about civilians in the eastern Congolese city of Goma now that M23 rebels have taken control of the city. Fighting between M23 and Democratic Republic of the Congo forces has displaced 400,000 since the start of this year, according to the United Nations. Goma’s capture by the rebel group further threatens civilian lives and could cause more displacement, the rights group said.

Residents of Goma in eastern DR Congo shared videos Monday of M23 rebels patrolling the city, with some cheering as the fighters walked through the streets.

Blaise Karege is a Congolese political and security researcher in eastern Congo. He said the rebel group has been received well, and the reasons for the ongoing conflict have changed.

“The residents are singing in the streets, and they are behind the rebel group,” he said. “I don’t know if all of that is for the love, or fear, of M23. I cannot tell. Previous conflicts were much about politics, but today, the conflict has a more tribal dimension, too, and today, it appears M23 has a lot of support.”

The M23 rebel group launched an offensive to seize Goma several weeks ago, taking areas closest to the border with Rwanda, which is widely believed to support M23 — something the Kigali government denies.

The Congolese army and its allied militias, Wazalendo, have fled the city, according to local reports. The U.N. mission in Goma said it has received some men in Congolese uniforms and some in plain clothes who handed over their weapons.

Human Rights Watch said it’s now concerned about the safety of Goma civilians, many of whom fled to the city to escape violence and abuse from eastern Congo’s many armed groups, including M23.

Clementine de Montjoye, a senior Human Rights Watch researcher, said concerns of rights groups and NGOs for civilians are at an all-time high.

“We have documented extensively how they have executed people,” she said. “There have been cases of rapes, gang rapes, arbitrary detention, and extortion, and last night, we heard reports of looting inside Goma by the Wazalendo armed group. At the same time, M23 also has a long history of committing abuses against civilian populations, and since the resurgence of M23 … we have documented how they have executed people they accuse of supporting the Congolese army or Congolese government.”

M23 says it is fighting to protect communities who have faced abuse and attacks from the Congolese army and other militia groups.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called on M23 to end hostilities and withdraw from occupied territories in eastern Congo.

Karege said the group won’t be vacating the city that easily.

“Today, they say they are not going to leave the city because they are protecting their parents and children,” he said. “But this is going to give them a certificate to speak and engage with the government in Kinshasa so that they can resolve this issue without conflict. Leaving Goma, Masisi, and Ruchuru won’t happen,” he said, referring to other population centers in the region.

M23 first captured Goma in 2012 but agreed to leave after signing a peace agreement with the Congolese government.

The fighters launched a new offensive in 2021, accusing the Congolese government of failing to honor the peace agreement from eight years before. The government in Kinshasa insists the group must disarm before any negotiations can take place.

source voa

Monday 27 ,Jan 2025 {HMC} Sierra Leone’s information ministry said Sunday it was investigating media reports that European cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers is in the country and benefiting from high-level protection there.

Two sources told Reuters on Friday that Leijdekkers, who was sentenced last June in absentia to 24 years in prison by a Dutch court for smuggling more than 7 tons of cocaine, had been in Sierra Leone since at least early 2023.

A spokesperson for the Dutch prosecutors’ office said in response to questions from Reuters about Leijdekkers’ whereabouts that he has been living in Sierra Leone for at least six months. Leijdekkers is on Europol’s list of most wanted fugitives.

In a statement, the Sierra Leonean ministry said the country’s police were ready to collaborate with the Dutch government, Interpol and other international law enforcement agencies about the case.

The statement said the country’s president “attended numerous family events during the festive season” and “has no knowledge about the identity and the issues detailed in the reports about the individual in question.”

Reuters was not able to reach Leijdekkers.

Videos and photos verified by Reuters of a church Mass in Sierra Leone on Jan. 1, 2025, show Leijdekkers, 33, sitting two rows behind Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio.

In the images, Leijdekkers was sitting next to a woman who three sources said was Bio’s daughter Agnes and who they said was married to Leijdekkers. Reuters could not confirm the relationship.

Bio’s daughter and the Dutch lawyer who last represented Leijdekkers in the Netherlands did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Three sources told Reuters Leijdekkers was benefiting from high-level protection in Sierra Leone, which international law enforcement officials say is a transshipment point for large volumes of Latin American cocaine headed to Europe.

The Sierra Leonean information ministry said the government had not received any formal communication on Leijdekkers from any state or institution, and was resolute in ensuring the country would not become a haven for any organized crime.

source voa

Monday 27 ,Jan 2025 {HMC} U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called Sunday on Rwandan forces to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and halt support for fighters advancing on the key Congolese city of Goma.

M23 fighters backed by several thousand Rwandan troops have been quickly advancing toward the city, which lies along DRC’s eastern border and is home to more than a million people.

Several foreign peacekeepers have been killed in the mounting violence around Goma.

“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the escalating violence” and “calls on the Rwanda Defense Forces to cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory,” said a statement from his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

Guterres had previously referred to a U.N. experts’ report citing Kigali’s backing of the M23 but had not explicitly called on Rwanda to withdraw from DRC territory.

In his statement Sunday, made after three U.N. peacekeepers in eastern DRC had been killed within 48 hours, Guterres emphasized that “attacks against United Nations personnel may constitute a war crime.”

The U.N. in the meantime has begun to evacuate “non-essential” staff from the major city of Goma in eastern DRC, a United Nations source told AFP.

During an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council session Sunday, permanent member states France, Britain and the United States called on Rwanda to pull its forces back.

But others, including China and the African nations holding rotating council seats, did not specifically name Kigali.

The Security Council as a whole has yet to accuse Rwanda of taking part directly in the conflict, simply underlining the importance of the DRC’s territorial integrity.

But the French ambassador to the U.N., Nicolas de Riviere, indicated Sunday he was working on a Security Council statement that would “call a cat a cat,” a phrase essentially meaning to state directly what something is without sugarcoating it.

He urged the Council to condemn what he said was a grave threat to regional peace and security.

Congolese foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner went further, urging the Council to impose sweeping economic and political sanctions on Kigali.

She accused Rwanda of having sent new troops into eastern DRC on Sunday, actions which she said amounted to a “declaration of war.”

But Rwanda’s ambassador to the U.N., Ernest Rwamucyo, rejected the accusations, accusing Kinshasa of being responsible for the deteriorating situation and failing to make a “genuine commitment to peace.”

He suggested that the U.N. peacekeepers in the DRC had joined a “coalition” seeking regime change in Rwanda.

The fighting in the region has forced some 230,000 to flee their homes.

Eastern DRC has vast mining resources and is a complex landscape of rival armed militias which has seen violence ebb and flow since the 1990s.

source voa

Sunday 26, Jan 2025 {HMC} US President Donald Trump has said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza.

Trump said he had made the request to Jordan’s King Abdullah and planned to ask Egypt’s president on Sunday, too.

Describing Gaza as a “demolition site”, Trump said: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing”. He added that the move “could be temporary” or “could be long-term”.

Hamas has vowed to oppose any such action, and the comments will likely outrage Palestinians in Gaza, for whom it is their home. Jordan’s foreign minister said the kingdom was “firm and unwavering” in its rejection of displacing Palestinians.

A ceasefire is being observed in Gaza after a deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the war which began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 47,200 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

Most of Gaza’s two million residents have been displaced in the past 15 months of the war, which has flattened much of Gaza’s infrastructure.

The United Nations has previously estimated that 60% of structures across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and it could take decades to rebuild.

Trump made his comments while speaking to reporters on board the Air Force One.

“Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there.

“So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where maybe they can live in peace for a change.”

Trump did not give further details of the proposal, and the subject was not referenced in the White House’s official read-out of the call.

“Our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip endured death and destruction for 15 months… without leaving their land. Therefore, they will not accept any offers or solutions, even if they appear to be good intentions under the title of reconstruction, as announced by US President Trump’s proposals,” Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told the BBC.

“Our people, just as they have thwarted all plans for displacement and an alternative homeland over the decades, will also thwart such projects,” he added.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Abu Yahya Rashid, a man displaced in the southern city of Khan Younis said:

“We are the ones who decide our fate and what we want. This land is ours and the property of our ancestors throughout history. We will not leave it except as corpses.”

Decades of US foreign policy has committed to the creation of a Palestinian state, with Gaza as a key part. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects this.

Donald Trump has a long history of seemingly speaking off the cuff and floating ideas that never end up taking fruition.

However, the idea of encouraging Gazans to relocate to neighbouring countries has long been pushed by hardline right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government.

The former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from the Jewish Power party said he commended Trump “for the initiative to transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt”.

“One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration,” he wrote on X.

The current Israeli finance minister, the far-right settler Bezelal Smotrich, has also said Palestinians should emigrate to neighbouring countries to allow Jewish settlements to be re-established in Gaza.

Such comments outrage Palestinians and will dismay proponents of a “two-state solution” – the establishment of an independent Palestinian State alongside Israel.

There are fears amongst Palestinians that those around President Trump are pushing him in a more extreme direction when it comes to policy in the Middle East.

This month, Trump’s nominee to be the next US ambassador to Israel, the evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee, rejected the idea of there ever being a Palestinian state outright.

“The Palestinians had their chance in Gaza,” he said in a US television interview.

“And look what happened there.”

Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

Huckabee’s comments contradict six decades of US policy in the Middle East during which Washington has long pushed the concept of a “two-state solution”.

The US has previously said that it opposes any forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the occupied West Bank.

More than two million Palestinian refugees, most of whom have been granted citizenship, live in Jordan, according to the UN. They are descendants of some of the approximately 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the conflicts surrounding the formation of Israel in 1948.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled to Egypt since the war with Israel began, but they are not recognised there as refugees.

In October 2023, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians into the Sinai peninsula, and that the only solution was an independent state for Palestinians.

Some on Israel’s far-right want to return to Gaza and establish settlements there. Israel ordered a unilateral pull out in 2005, with 21 settlements dismantled and about 9,000 settlers evacuated by the army.

Trump’s comments came as displaced people were delayed from returning to their homes in northern Gaza after Israel accused Hamas of breaching the terms of a ceasefire deal.

“There is nothing there – there is no life, everything is demolished. But still to return to your land, to your home is a big joy,” one man anxiously waiting told the BBC.

In separate comments on Air Force One, Trump said he had ended former President Joe Biden’s hold on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

“They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time,” he told reporters on Air Force One.

The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.

But the war in Gaza led to renewed calls for the US to reduce or end arms shipments to Israel, because of the level of destruction caused by US weapons in the territory.

SOURCE BBC