Rebels
Russians nationals detained in Chad desert say they are tourists
A group of Russians detained by the police in a part of northern Chad where the army has been battling a rebel invasion from Libya said on Wednesday that they were tourists who had come to sightsee in the Sahara Desert. The roughly 10 Russians were picked up last week by the police near the town of Faya Largeau because they were in a military operational zone, according to national police spokesperson Amane Issac Azina. Azina said they had not broken any laws and had not been arrested, but rather evacuated to the capital N’Djamena for their own safety. “We decided this time to visit the Republic of Chad because it is very interesting,” one of the Russians, Alexey Kamerzanov, told Reuters at an N’Djamena hotel. “Usually world travellers do not visit the Republic of Chad because it’s not the...
‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero never joined rebels – co-accused
Paul Rusesabagina, the ex-hotelier immortalised in the film “Hotel Rwanda”, never belonged to a rebel group that sought to overthrow President Paul Kagame, one of the former rebels accused with him of terrorism told a court on Wednesday. “Rusesabagina was never a member of the National Liberation Front (FLN), he was a civilian … He is not a soldier,” former FLN spokesman Callixte Sankara told the court in Kigali. He said the prosecution had presented no evidence to substantiate its claim that Rusesabagina had given orders to the FLN, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in past years that it said were aimed at ousting the president. Sankara is one of 20 Rwandans being tried alongside Rusesabagina, who is 67. Prosecutors describe them as fighters for the FLN. Most were captured in s...
Chad accuses CAR of killing six of its soldiers
The Chad government on Monday accused the Central African Republic (CAR) of killing six of its soldiers in an attack on an outpost in the south of the country. “The Central African armed forces attacked the outpost of Sourou in Chad on Sunday morning … killed a Chad soldier, injured five and kidnapped five others who were then executed in Mbang on the Central African Republic side,” Chad’s Foreign Minister Cherif Mahamat Zene said in a statement. The CAR regularly accuses its northern neighbour of supporting armed rebel groups from inside Chad. The identity of the alleged CAR rebels is yet to be confirmed but a senior Chad security official told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, that the rebels were members of Unity for Peace in Central Africa (UPC). The UPC is one of CA...
Myanmar junta imposes martial law in town
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup on February 1, with protests almost daily against military rule across the country and ethnic militias stepping up attacks, overrunning military posts. Myanmar’s junta has declared martial law in a town in Chin State after blaming “armed terrorists” for attacks on a police station and a bank, state media reported, amid an upsurge in fighting between the military and ethnic rebels in border areas. In the face of widespread opposition, the junta has struggled to retain order amid daily protests in cities and fighting in border states since overthrowing elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end tentative steps towards democracy. The unrest in the town of Mindat on Wednesday and Thursday involved about 100 people using homemade guns to attack a police st...
African Union mission urges return to ‘constitutional order’ in Chad
An African Union mission recommended on Wednesday that Chad’s military share power with a civilian president, as one of three options towards restoring constitutional order following last month’s killing of president Idriss Deby. A military council led by Deby’s son Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power in April after his father was killed while visiting troops opposing a rebel insurgency. The African Union, which could suspend Chad over the military takeover, sent a fact-finding mission to develop strategies for a return to constitutional order and democratic governance. In a report, the mission recommended the AU’s security council could support the military transition as it stands, while appointing a special envoy to ensure the military keep their promise to organise elections with 18 months...
Chadian rebels, government forces clash in area where slain leader was shot
Government troops and rebels clashed on Thursday in a region of western Chad where president Idriss Deby Itno was killed earlier this month. The fight in the desert region of Kanem, near Chad’s border with Niger, pits Libya-based rebels against forces loyal to a new military junta led by Deby’s son. Fiercely criticised for authoritarianism and inequality, Deby was seen as a trusty ally by many Western countries including the former colonial power France. He was seen as a stabilising force in the fight against jihadism in the wider Sahel region on the southern fringes of the Sahara desert. “Fighting is continuing in Kanem — we are going to have continue to fight, otherwise they will destabilise us,” junta spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna told AFP. The Military Transition Council (CMT...
Chad rebels ready for ceasefire; opposition presses for civilian rule
Rebels in northern Chad are ready to observe a ceasefire and to discuss a political settlement after the battlefield death of President Idriss Deby last week, a rebel spokesman said on Sunday. The rebels, known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), came over the northern border from Libya on April 11 calling for an end to Deby’s 30-year rule. They came as close as 200-300 km (125-185 miles) from the capital N’Djamena before being pushed back by the army. Deby was killed on Monday while visiting troops at the front, just after he won an election. His death shocked the Central African country, which has long been a Western ally against Islamist militants. The air force has since bombarded rebel positions, the military and rebels said. The military said on Saturday it had “annih...
US: Chad rebels heading towards capital from north
The United States said rebel fighters in Chad appeared to be moving towards the capital N’Djamena and ordered non-essential staff to leave, warning of possible violence. A spokesman for the rebel Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) said its fighters had “liberated” the province of Kanem, some 220 km (136 miles) from the capital N’Djamena, but the government denied this. “The authors of these false statements are not even on the ground, but somewhere in Europe,” the government said in a message posted to Facebook. A day earlier the British government urged its citizens to leave Chad because of information that two rebel convoys on the move, one near the town of Faya, some 770 km (478 miles) northeast of N’Djamena, and another by the town of Mao, the provincial capital of Kanem. On S...
India arrests 75 in Kashmir after local elections
The Indian government has arrested at least 75 Kashmiri political leaders and activists to forestall political unrest after an alliance of Kashmir’s regional political parties won local elections, leaders and a police official said on Saturday. The District Development Council elections, concluded early this week, were the first local polls since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the special status of the Muslim-majority region last year. New Delhi then cracked down on the opposition and rounded up hundreds of people to preempt protests and violence. The latest detentions, which include separatist leaders and members of the banned Jamat-e-Islami group, were for preventive custody, said a senior police official, who asked not to be identified. But Imran Nabi Dar, spokesman f...
Ethiopia to push on Tigray’s capital as surrender deadline passes
Ethiopia’s prime minister warned on Tuesday that a deadline for rebel northern forces to lay down arms had expired, paving the way for a final push on the Tigray region’s capital in a two-week conflict destabilising the Horn of Africa. The post Ethiopia to push on Tigray’s capital as surrender deadline passes appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Six killed after soldiers, rebels clash in India
Three Indian soldiers and three suspected rebels were killed in fighting near the de facto Kashmir border with Pakistan, the army said Sunday, in the deadliest clash to hit the contested region in months. The fighting began early Sunday after soldiers detected “suspicious” movements in the northern forested Machil area near a military fence that marks the de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC), Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. One Indian border guard and one suspected militants were killed in an initial exchange of gunfire before more troops were “rushed to the area”, he said in a statement. Two more soldiers and two more suspected rebels were later killed while two other injured troops were taken to hospital, Kalia added. The clash was the deadliest since April when nine suspected m...
Mali junta postpones transfer of powers meeting as cracks emerge
Mali’s military junta on Saturday postponed the first meeting on the transfer of power after rising tensions with the group that sparked the August 18 coup. The junta had invited civic groups, political organisations and former rebels to consultations on Saturday, but said in a statement that the meeting was postponed at the last minute to a later date due to “organisational reasons”. A protest coalition that had campaigned against former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the June 5 Movement, was not invited to the meeting and accused the new military rulers of trying to hijack the coup. The group has demanded that the military junta give it a role in the transition to civilian rule, in keeping with its role in spearheading Keita’s ouster. The military has promised to do so, though without...
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