In the Democratic Republic of Congo, government soldiers have clashed with rebel fighters for the first time in nearly six months near the city of Goma, Aljazeera reports.
This comes just days before Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, is due to visit the eastern city.
Police this morning besieged the Monitor Publications Limited offices located in Namuwongo – a Kampala suburb reportedly in search the controversial letter written by the Coordinator of Intelligence Services Gen. David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza.
In Nigeria the government has offered an amnesty to Islamist militants who surrender and said 17 people had been killed on the fifth day of a military operation to try to crush the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, Reuters reports.
In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi-deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
In the Central African Republic, a UN envoy says the country has collapsed into “a state of anarchy” and the UN Security Council must impose sanctions and mandate a neutral security force to restore order, Aljazeera reports.
Margaret Vogt, UN representative to the Central African Republic, painted a grim picture of the situation since rebels ousted President Francois Bozize on March 24. Continue reading →
In the Central African Republic a U.N. envoy on Wednesday urged the Security Council to consider imposing sanctions on rebels accused of severe rights violations including rape, maiming, recruitment of child soldiers and forced marriages, Reuters reports.
Margaret Vogt also told the council that a neutral security force should be deployed to “contain the current state of anarchy” in the mineral-rich state, where the Seleka rebels seized power on March 24, toppling President Francois Bozize.
In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in three states after a series of deadly attacks by Islamist militant groups, the BBC reports.
In a televised statement on Tuesday, the president said, “I hereby declare a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.”
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has secured a license to continue operations as a Retirement Benefits Scheme, in accordance with the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority Act of 2011.
Receiving the license on May 13 in Kampala, the Fund’s Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said that securing of the license is further testimony that the Fund is prepared to operate in a competitive environment when the sector if fully liberalized.
Scores of police officers have been killed during attacks in Nasarawa state in central Nigeria, CNN reports. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
In apparently unrelated incidents on Tuesday, two Nigerian soldiers were killed farther northeast, in the city of Bama in Borno state, during coordinated attacks on multiple targets by more than 100 Boko Haram militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons mounted on vehicles, said Joint Task Force spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa.
In Nigeria, suspected fighters from the Nigerian group Boko Haram have staged an attack on the northeastern town of Bama, freeing over 100 prison inmates and leaving 55 people dead, Aljazeera reports.
Around 200 heavily armed members of Boko Haram arrived in buses and pick-up trucks and carried out the coordinated strike on Tuesday, first hitting the army barracks and the police station before breaking into the town’s prison, military spokesman Sagir Musa told the Reuters news agency.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron is to host an international conference in London to help Somalia end more than two decades of conflict, the BBC reports.
The conference will focus on rebuilding its security forces and tackling rape which is a largely taboo subject in Somalia.
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