Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{At least eight people killed, including refugees, by series of explosions along highway in Maiduguri.}

At least eight people have been killed in multiple suicide blasts along a highway in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, officials said.

Two of those killed on Wednesday were civilians in a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of the city.

Police said five adult, male suicide bombers detonated explosives.

At the vast Muna camp, blasts triggered fires which burned down tents, Tijjani Lumani, a coordinator at the camp, told the AFP news agency.

“There were four explosions inside the camp. The bombers struck at different locations around 4:30am.” Lumani said.

The camp houses tens of thousands of people who have fled violence in Nigeria’s north, where the government is fighting the armed group Boko Haram.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but Maiduguri has been frequently targeted by Boko Haram fighters.

According to eyewitnesses, the bombers had sneaked into the camps late on Tuesday night alongside those who sell charcoal to refugees, who use it to cook their food.

There have been several attempted suicide bomb attacks near the Muna camp, Lumani said.

“We are vulnerable to Boko Haram. They can strike in the camp at any time,” he said.

“All the suicide bombers who attacked the Muna garage just across the road from the camp and surrounding areas came in through the city gate only hundreds of metres from the camp.”

Wednesday’s blasts were the latest blamed on suicide bombers, who continue to pose a threat to civilians despite military claims of success against Boko Haram.

Four people were killed on Saturday when suicide bombers blew themselves up in a village near Maiduguri.

On Tuesday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met security chiefs in the capital Abuja to review the security situation in the country. The nearly seven-year Boko Haram crisis topped the agenda of the review, according to a presidential aide.

Maiduguri, the state capital of Borno state, is the birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed the lives of over 20,000 people and forced 2.6 million from their homes since 2009.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Conflict-hit countries have only 3-4 months before millions are at risk of famine, Red Cross says.}

The world has as little as three months to save millions of people from famine in Yemen and Somalia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

The medical charity needs $300m to bring emergency assistance to a total of five million people in Yemen, Somalia and northeast Nigeria, as well as areas of South Sudan where famine has already been declared.

The funds will ensure that five million of the 20 million people at risk of famine and starvation receive immediate and essential aid, said Red Cross director of operations Dominik Stillhart.

“Food, water, shelter, and healthcare is required immediately,” he said.

“We are on the ground and delivering aid in all four countries. We witness the massive suffering. Millions of people are denied the very basics to survive.”

Earlier this month, the United Nations announced more than 20 million people were facing famine in the four countries, and it needs to raise $4.4bn in funds by July.

In South Sudan, the UN said about 3.4 million are in need of help after being displaced by fighting between government forces and armed groups loyal to the former vice president Riek Machar.

While several districts in South Sudan are already facing famine, Stillhart said Yemen and Somalia have a three-to-four-month “window” before it sets in there.

About 300,000 people, meanwhile, face acute malnutrition in northeast Nigeria.

UN and food organisations define famine as when more than 30 percent of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition and mortality rates are two or more deaths per 10,000 people each day, among other criteria.

Stillhart said that aside from addressing the immediate threat of starvation, the international community must also tackle “the root causes of the crisis”.

Source:Al Jazeera

{A religious TV channel in Senegal has blamed an unidentified saboteur for the “satanic trick” that led to a hardcore porn film being shown on air.}

Touba TV’s viewers were shocked when explicit sexual content appeared on their screens between 13:10 and 13:30 local time on Monday.

The privately run TV station had initially said that a troublesome “network bug” had led to the blunder.

Touba TV is run by Senegal’s influential Mouride Islamic sect.

The channel has laid a complaint with the authorities to identify the culprits.

The pornographic material ran during a popular programme, Tarixu Juma for about 15 minutes.

“As a religious channel, the management of Touba TV and all our audience members are outraged and unreservedly condemn this criminal act which seems to be sabotage and a satanic trick designed to undermine a channel which is known to stand for Islamic values and teachings,” Touba TV management said in a statement.

The channel broadcasts religious programmes promoting Islamic values and teachings.

It is not clear how the perpetrators accessed the station’s network.

Touba is the holy city of the Mouride sect, which wields considerable political and economic power in Senegal.

Source:BBC

{Somalia’s al-Shabab militants have been distributing food to drought-stricken Somalis in what appears to be a bid to win public support.}

A similar initiative by the militants during the last famine in 2011 failed to boost their image. Not only did the UN blame al-Shabab for contributing to the 2011 famine but their acts of sabotage lost them public support.

The al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists blocked aid deliveries, burned food and even killed charity workers. More than 260,000 people died in that famine. Al-Shabab militants had undermined their own attempts at presenting a charitable image of themselves.
What has changed since 2011?

The UN has appealed for $863m (£700m) for the country and in an echo of the past, state-owned Radio Mogadishu recently accused the group of hindering relief efforts.
Could al-Shabab have learned from its past mistakes?

There are some signs that it has. The militants now want their efforts recognised favourably but they are still contemptuous of Western humanitarian organisations.
Al-Shabab says it has established drought committees to coordinate relief operations in six administrative regions. It constructed canals for farmers in some regions, as reported in September by the pro-al-Shabab radio, Al-Furqaan.

A new leader has taken over al-Shabab since Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a US airstrike in 2014.

While Godane was from the north, the majority of al-Shabab fighters are known to be southerners, with clan and family links to areas where the drought has hit hardest.

The current leader, Ahmed Omar, alias Abu Ubaidah hails from Kismayo and his deputy Mukhtar Robow alias Abu Mansoor is from Bay region – both in the south of the country.

It was Godane who led al-Shabab into a formal alliance with al-Qaeda in 2009. And it was he who was was in charge of the group when it attacked humanitarian operations in 2011.

{{What is al-Shabab’s approach?}}

Al-Shabab has embarked on a publicity campaign to announce details of its donations.

Somali Memo website published several unverified pictures on 6 March of what it said were al-Shabab militants distributing food to residents of Lower Shabelle region. Some of the footage showed trucks filled with what appeared to be food bags. One 50-kg bag was branded “product of Brazil”.

Al-Shabab’s Radio Andalus and the Somali Memo website have also carried several reports claiming the group distributed food in Bay, Bakol, Mudug, Hiraan, Lower Shabelle, and Galguduug regions.

Al-Shabab blames others for problems, including its foes from the African Union mission. Somali Memo website reported last April that aid was given to families in Gorome village which is “home to many people who fled there.. after Ethiopian troops burned down their homes”.

The group shows how it considers other needs beyond food. In Bakool, 80 families each received half a sack of flour, a sack of sorghum, 12kg of sugar, medicinal drugs, rugs, and plastic sheeting to protect them from the rain”, the website added.

It attempts to display an understanding of how much is needed. In Celbuur district, 230 families allegedly received aid from al-Shabab. “Each family received 25 kg of sugar, 25 kg of rice, 25 kg of flour, and two plastic containers of cooking oil. The food is enough to last more than a month,” Somali Memo website reported in March.
There are other reports of of al-Shabab’s charity work.

But aid to a few hundred families will not make much difference when the UN says that more than six million people in Somalia need assistance.

{{Can al-Shabab afford the food aid?}}

Al-Shabab says it buys some of the food from local markets. But its financial situation is unclear.

Through Radio Andalus, it has broadcast appeals to “business communities and the wealthy to assist their brothers” by donating food.

Al-Shabab’s economic fortunes have dwindled since it lost control of the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011 and the lucrative southern port city of Kismayo a year later.

The group still controls rural areas in parts of central and southern Somalia and gains revenue from illegal taxes levied on local communities and businesses.

In February, the UN said thousands of women and children had fled drought-hit Bay and Bakol regions into Ethiopia because the militants were taxing them and seizing their food, animals and land.

In March, al-Shabab militants burnt down a village on the outskirts of Jowhar, one of the areas worst hit by drought.

Al-Shabab “loaded tonnes of food and private property onto vehicles before setting the village on fire” and local authorities described the looting as “shocking”, Garoweonline website said.

Such attacks are likely to overshadow al-Shabab’s aid efforts.

Source:BBC