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Police on the streets of Burundi’s capital have clashed with protesters opposing the president’s bid to seek a third term in office.
Two weeks ago, the ruling party announced President Pierre Nkurunziza would stand for a June election.
Since then, at least 13 people have died in protests “The police are shooting at us in broad daylight,” pointed out one protester. “The army is not helping us. But the protesters are not leaving. We have to stay here and fight.”
The president registered with the electoral commission on Friday after the constitutional court said that his first term did not count because he was picked by parliament rather than elected by the people.
It ruled that he could stand.
The UN refugee agency says more than 50,000 Burundians have fled to neighbouring countries Rwanda, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The United States has threatened visa bans and sanctions against those taking part in the widespread violence
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The United Nations says preparations are underway for an offensive against the rebels in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters on Thursday that the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) would carry out unilateral operations to drive out the Hutu militia based in eastern DR Congo. He made the remarks following a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in New York. "The Security Council has empowered us to act unilaterally. We are planning to that effect," media outlets quoted Ladsous as saying.
This comes as the rebels calling themselves the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) had been given until January 2 to turn themselves in or face an offensive by the UN and Congolese troops. Over 80 FDLR rebels surrendered in early January, but nearly 1,500 to 2,000 others are expected to still be in the remote jungles of the eastern DRC. However, a dispute over the inclusion of Congolese forces, with allegedly shady human right records, in the military operation against the FDLR has kept the DRC forces from launching a coordinated offensive against the rebels.
The FDLR includes Rwandan Hutus, who are thought to have taken part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which claimed the lives of at least 800,000 people, mainly from the Tutsi minority. A large number of the Hutu rebels fled to the neighboring DRC in fear of retaliation by Tutsi people when Paul Kagame, the current president of Rwanda, ended the genocide in July 1994, and rose to power. Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.
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A French parliamentary report published by some media houses in France says President Paul Biya’s continued stay in power is "illegitimate". On April 15, 2015, after the presentation of the report, Elisabeth Guigou, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, asked the French parliamentarians, "to enrich and clarify their text" - implied remove words that annoy. Cameroon Concord understands Elisabeth Guigou’s efforts were too little too late as the media had already made public some extracts of the parliamentary report. For his part, the Socialist deputy rapporteur noted that the word [illegitimate] in the case of President Paul Biya, was used by "experts" during the debate in the house.
This disavowal of the French parliamentarians who now criticize Biya is telling. For, after the re-election of Biya, in October 2011, for another term of seven years, France did maintain that the elections took place in acceptable conditions, while the United States, through the voice of its ambassador in Yaoundé, observed that the elections were flawed. The regime in Yaoundé will certainly respond that Paul Biya is indeed legitimate, by having been re-elected by 77.989% of votes, according to the Supreme Court, in a democratic election. The apologists of the CPDM, might even add, that they have no lessons to learn from Paris, Cameroon being a sovereign and independent country.
French ambassador to Cameroon, Christine Robichon, reported to the French national assembly that anti-French feeling is now a reality in Cameroon. She recently told a Douala based radio station that the image of France is deteriorating daily in Cameroon. It is vital to include in this report that mindful of all French conspiracies against the Cameroonian people aimed at destabilising the Cameroonian nation, we of this publication are saying that the solution to the current political crisis in Cameroon will only come from Yaoundé NOT Paris.
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Witnesses and security officials say at least 12 people have been critically injured when a gunman opened fire outside a school in Nigeria’s violence-plagued northeastern state of Yobe. Multiple students at the College of Administrative and Business Studies (CABS) in the city of Potiskum, situated about 575 kilometers (350 miles) northeast of the capital, Abuja, said the gunman arrived at around 8 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Friday, and opened fire at the school gate. They added that the assailant with explosives strapped to his body, detonated the explosives when he ran out of munitions. However, the explosion resulted in no other casualties. “We had just started a class when we heard gunshots coming from the direction of the gates and we instantly realized we were under attack which made us rush out of the class,” student Tijjani Musa said.
Mustapha Umar, another student, said the attacker managed to pass through the gates amid the bedlam that broke out after the shootout. He added the gunman “was chased by a group of students who were frantically trying to subdue him.” “When he ran out of ammunition he detonated the explosives under his robe, killing himself but no one from the crowd,” Umar noted. “We have evacuated 12 people with serious gunshot wounds to hospital from the scene of the shooting attack,” said a police officer, who requested anonymity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the act of violence, but Potiskum has on numerous occasions borne the brunt of similar militant attacks carried out by Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists.
Last November, at least 58 people were killed and another 117 injured when a bomber passed unnoticed at the Government Technical Science College in the city to detonate the explosives as students had gathered for an assembly. Boko Haram says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of the country since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far left about 15,000 people dead and displaced about 1.5 million.
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The Central African Republic (CAR) says it will take legal action against the French soldiers who have been accused of sexually abusing children in exchange for food at a refugee camp in the country last week. The CAR’s Justice Minister Aristide Sokambi made the announcement on Wednesday. “Legal action will be pursued... These are still very serious acts,” Sokambi said. Last week, a report titled Sexual Abuse on Children by International Armed Forces leaked by advocacy group Aids Free World suggested that 14 French soldiers serving in the African country as part of a peacekeeping force there had sexually abused a number of children, some as young as nine, in exchange for food between December 2013 and June 2014.
Following the accusations, France said it would carry out an investigation into the allegations. The CAR justice minister expressed regret that Paris had left the African country out of the investigations, adding that the public prosecutor would open an investigation and seek evidence already at the disposal of the French government.This comes as many people living at Bangui’s M’Poko airport, which has been used as a camp, have been experiencing widespread hunger as many have had their livelihoods destroyed in the country’s unrest.More than 1,000 people have been killed in the CAR since December 2013, when Christian militia launched coordinated attacks against the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government in March 2013.
French soldiers were sent to CAR to help African Union peacekeepers restore order following the outbreak of the sectarian violence.The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) says nearly one million people have been displaced in the CAR since the outbreak of the violence.
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More than 100 Cameroonians were kidnapped over the last three months by rebels in the Central African Republic, CAR. Armed militias have regularly invaded Cameroon territory from CAR and have kidnapped more than 100 people in villages in the districts of Touboro and Mayo-Rey in northern Cameroon. Cameroon Concord has gathered that more than 100 of our compatriots are hostages in CAR. These Cameroonian nationals were abducted by armed men and it has been almost impossible for the government of Cameroon to establish whether it is the Seleka or anti Balaka rebel group carrying out the kidnappings.
The CAR rebels abduct only Cameroonians who are able to pay ransoms. Among the abductees are breeders, traders and farmers including men, women, and sometimes young people with affluent parents. The hostage-taking has been regular in the villages such as Ouro Djodi, Barkari, Salama Ouro, Ouro Seyo, Flay, Butcher, Sri, and Karang Pandjama all sharing a long border of 300 km with the CAR. During their raids, the rebels make away with livestock such as goats, sheep, cattle, and food.
On March 20, more than a dozen people including the Mayor of Lagdo, were abducted in the village of Babio in Garoua-Boulaï . The last time Cameroon Concord intelligence officers in Yaoundé raised the issue of the kidnapped Mayor of Lagdo, a highly placed government official revealed that President Biya was fed up with the idea of paying ransoms and that the presidency believes and fervently too, that the Nordist leaders were faking the kidnappings and collecting money from government. Our source added that Minister Amadou Ali is under investigation and risk being arrested.
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