Washington, United States | AFP | A graphic video apparently captured by the helmet camera of one of the US soldiers killed in an Islamic State ambush in Niger highlights the jihadists’ depravity, the Pentagon said Monday after IS released the footage. The Defense Department “is aware of alleged photos …
Read More »Trailed by legal woes, Netanyahu to meet ‘true friend’ Trump
Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have a brief respite next week from the deluge of legal woes he faces when he heads to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump. Even as he prepared for his trip, Netanyahu was again questioned by police in …
Read More »Mali insecurity continues, migrating to country’s center: UN
United Nations, United States | AFP | Insecurity in Mali “continues to rage” and is progressing toward the center of the country, according to an interim UN report. Members of Plateforme, an armed pro-government coalition, and the CMA rebel alliance, who were signatories to a 2015 peace deal, are seeing …
Read More »UN concedes training ‘gaps’ after DR Congo deaths
United Nations, United States | AFP | The United Nations on Friday conceded that an attack that killed 15 peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo late last year exposed “gaps” in how UN troops are trained. The December 7 attack in the Beni territory of North Kivu province was …
Read More »Congolese cross a lake to escape an inferno
Sebagoro, Uganda | AFP | A daily flotilla of wooden canoes makes the 10-hour eastward crossing of Lake Albert ferrying hundreds of refugees from DR Congo’s latest spasm of violence to the safety of Uganda. The repurposed fishing vessels come to Sebagoro beach crammed with the bedraggled and dispossessed survivors …
Read More »AMISOM warns UN against hasty withdrawal from Somalia
East African nations urge UN to review pullout of Somali peace mission Kampala, Uganda | AFP | East African representatives said Friday the drawdown of an African Union mission fighting jihadists in Somalia could “reverse gains” and urged the United Nations to reconsider plans to withdraw troops by December 2020. …
Read More »France, US ‘will not tolerate impunity’ on Syria chemical weapons
Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron and his US counterpart Donald Trump vowed there would be “no impunity” in the event of further chemical weapons use in Syria in a telephone call Friday. The leaders also urged Russia to put “maximum pressure” on its ally Damascus to …
Read More »Syria regime strikes rebel enclave as aid trucks wait
Wafideen Checkpoint, Syria | AFP | Syrian and Russian forces kept up military pressure on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta Thursday as their controversial unilateral truce failed to yield a humanitarian breakthrough. More than 40 trucks loaded with aid were unable to reach the 400,000 people living in the battered enclave, prompting …
Read More »Aid convoy blocked in Syria despite UN ceasefire order: official
United Nations, United States | AFP | About 40 trucks are loaded and ready to ferry relief supplies to Syria’s bomb-and-siege shattered Eastern Ghouta, but there has been no let up in fighting despite a UN ceasefire resolution, a top UN official said Wednesday. Mark Lowcock, the UN under secretary-general for …
Read More »Donors conference set for March for UN Palestinian agency
United Nations, United States | AFP | A donors’ conference will be held next month to help fill a funding gap at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees caused by the US decision to cut support, Sweden’s deputy UN ambassador said Tuesday. The March 15 conference in Rome, hosted by Sweden, …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price