Terrorism Watch

  A Month after kidnap and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, women's rights protesters marched on London's Parliament Square on Saturday (April 3). © Provided by WION The protesters chanted slogans and protested what they said had been a lack of action by government and police services. Sarah Everard disappeared on March 3 and her body was found on March 12. Women's safety on Britain's streets, as well as both sexual and non-sexual aggression against women, have become major issues in the country since Everard's initial disappearance. A vigil was held in her memory the following night near where she was last seen. London's Metropolitan Police, which said the vigil broke COVID-19 lockdown rules, faced accusations of acting with undue force after a number of women were pinned down and then dragged away in handcuffs after the crowd refused orders to disperse. An independent watchdog said on March 30 that police had acted approp

  At least five jawans were killed in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, sources said, adding that 20 others have been injured. © Provided by News18 At least Five Jawans Killed in Gunfight With Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur, 9 Maoists Dead According to Chhattisgarh Director General of Police DM Awasthi, the encounter broke out in the forests of Silegar in the Tarem area on the Sukma-Bijapur border when a joint team of security forces was out on an anti-Naxal operation. Bastar Inspector General P Sundarraj told ANI that as per initial information, at least nine more Naxals have been killed and around 15 others were injured in the encounter. “We will need more time to confirm this. As per our estimates, there were 250 Naxalites there,” he said. The body of a woman Naxal has also been found at the encounter site, said DIG (Naxal Operations) OP Pal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths of the jawans. “My thoughts are with th

  Three people were killed and four injured after a shooting at a North Carolina house party. Wilmington Police said officers responded early Saturday to the scene where "a gunfight had erupted." The shooting follows a violent month in the US. Three people died and four were injured after a shooting at a house party early Saturday morning in Wilmington, North Carolina. According to a series of tweets and a post on the Wilmington Police Department's Facebook page , officers responded to a call that shots were being fired. After arriving at the location just after midnight, officers found "a gunfight had erupted inside the house during a house party." The department did not immediately identify a motive or publicly named the victims. "Our hearts go out to all affected by this senseless violence, and we ask that anyone with information surrounding this incident please come forward so that we may find justice," the post said. "In my more

PARIS--A particular Turkish Islamist association stands as an example of the pro-Erdogan Islamist groups whose presence the French government seems bent on curbing. The Turkish religious association founded by the mentor of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has no place in France as it goes against French values, the government spokesman said Thursday. The Milli Gorus association has courted controversy in France in recent weeks by refusing to take part in a government-coordinated charter against Islamist extremism and over its backing of a new mosque in the eastern city of Strasbourg. Tensions between Paris and Ankara are also running high after a series of rows between Erdogan and President Emmanuel Macron, who warned last week that Turkey would meddle in 2022 presidential elections. “I consider that this is an association which goes against the values of the (French) Republic, which fights against the values of the Republic, against equality between women and men, against human dignity

PARIS--From the French role during the Rwandan genocide to its colonial-era crimes in Algeria and the looting of indigenous art, President Emmanuel Macron has gone further than his predecessors in recognising some of the darker chapters of his country’s past in Africa. But historians say more needs to be done to restore France’s image on a continent where its long history of meddling in former colonies has created a poisonous legacy, particularly for young Africans. The latest development in France’s reckoning with its past came on Friday, when an historical commission set up by Macron concluded that France bore “overwhelming responsibilities” in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The commission’s report accused France, which had close ties to the Hutu regime behind the massacre of ethnic Tutsis, of being “blind” to preparations for the mass killings, though it found no evidence of French complicity in the bloodshed. The French presidency said it hoped the report would engineer an “irreversibl

  The remains of a Swiss woman held hostage for more than four years in Mali have been found and identified, the Swiss foreign ministry says. Béatrice Stöckli was a Christian missionary in Timbuktu when she was kidnapped by jihadists in 2016. A fellow hostage released last year had said Ms Stöckli had been killed by her al-Qaeda-linked captors. A body recently handed over to Mali's authorities has been confirmed as hers using DNA. Ms Stöckli had been briefly held by Islamist militants once before in 2012. Malian and international armed forces have been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency in the north of the country that first emerged in 2012. Holding hostages for ransom, along with weapons and drug smuggling, are key to the survival of many groups in the vast desert region. BBC Africa Live: Updates from the continent A quick guide to Mali Ms Stöckli was held by al-Qaeda's Sahel affiliate, Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). News of her death came after  the rele

The sudden display of mutual affection between citizens of Algeria and Morocco is likely to have flummoxed many international observers. Rabat – A social media campaign in Algeria has sparked an online explosion of messages of respect and mutual understanding between Morocco and Algeria. Citizens of the two countries, amid a geopolitical stand-off expressed their mutual respect and admiration online. The “Moroccans are not my enemy” campaign in Algeria has drawn wide responses from both countries.  The campaign has a simple yet powerful message, saying “Moroccans are not my enemy, I love the people of Morocco.” The social media campaign soon went viral and sparked a Moroccan response. Citizens of Morocco reciprocated with a “Algerians are not my enemy, I love the people of Algeria” campaign. The sudden display of mutual affection between citizens of Algeria and Morocco is likely to have flummoxed many international observers. Amid border tensions, a conflict in Morocco’s Western Sahara

Four peacekeepers from Chad were killed, and 19 others wounded, when armed elements launched a complex attack against the mission’s camp in Aguelhok, located in the Kidal region in the northeast of the country.   “The Secretary-General recalls that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law and that sanctions can be applied against those responsible”, his Spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said in  a statement . “He calls on the Malian authorities to spare no effort in identifying and promptly holding to account the perpetrators of this heinous attack.” Heavily armed terrorists The assault occurred around 6:15 a.m. local time. Helicopters were dispatched to the scene to evacuate the wounded. "Peacekeepers valiantly repelled a complex attack carried out by several heavily armed terrorists,"  MINUSMA  said in  a statement , issued in French, noting that several of the attackers were also killed. The mission strongly condemned the attack, describ

Al-Shabab says it launched a suicide attack on the Bariire base while simultaneously attacking the nearby Awdhigle base. Al-Shabab fighters patrol a market in Mogadishu in 2009 [File: Mohamed Sheikh Nor/AP Photo] Al-Shabab fighters attacked two military bases belonging to the Somali National Army early on Saturday morning. The bases, located 100km (60 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu, were struck by two explosions, witnesses said. A third explosion targeted a convoy of troops rushing to the bases from the capital after the attack. “The assailants tried to attack but thanks to our brave soldiers who knew about the tricks of the assailants, the militants were defeated and their wounded and dead bodies are strewn around, we will provide you the details later,” army chief General Odowa Yusuf Rage told reporters. Hussein Nur, a military officer, said the army lost “several” soldiers in the attack on Bariire and Awdhigle bases, without giving a precise number. The army sent in reinf

French energy giant Total has shut its operations and withdrawn all staff from a site in northern Mozambique following last week's deadly jihadist attack in the area, security sources said Friday. "Total has gone," a security source in Maputo told AFP, adding that "it will be hard to persuade them to return" this year. And a military source added, "all the facilities are abandoned. "Total made a decision to evacuate all of its staff", after drone surveillance showed insurgents were in areas "very close" to the gas plant in Afungi. Another source confirmed the were reports that insurgents were not far from the site. Afungi peninsula is only 10 kilometres (six miles) from the town of Palma, which came under attack more than a week ago, resulting in the death of dozens of people, including at least two expatriate workers.  The brazen assault on March 24 was the latest in a string of more than 830 organised raids by the Islamist militants ov

Thousands of displaced people stream into Pemba and other parts of northern Mozambique after attack on town of Palma. Luis Nhachote 2 Apr 2021 There were scenes of joy and desperation at Pemba port after the arrival of hundreds of internally displaced people [Emidio Jozine/Reuters] Maputo, Mozambique  – The camera shows a crowd, before quickly zooming in on the faces of three women. They are all wailing. Thrusting microphones in their faces, journalists try to elicit some comment, but the inconsolable women are hardly audible, their incoherent utterances interspersed by long cries. They are among the thousands of people to have arrived in Pemba, the capital of the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, after fleeing a devastating attack last week on the town of Palma the left a  trail of death and destruction  in its wake. The government has confirmed the deaths of dozens of people, including Mozambican and foreign nationals. Some were decapitated. Vehicles were also burned, state buildi

They are known locally as al-Shabab, Arabic for "youth", but it seems to be just a handy nickname as they don't have any known affiliation with Somalia's jihadi rebels of the same name. With more than a week of fierce fighting including beheaded bodies in the streets, the battle for the northern  Mozambique  town of Palma has highlighted the southern  Africa  country's insurgency and threats to its multibillion-dollar investments.  Here's a look at what is known about the rebel group and the challenges facing Mozambique.  WHO ARE THE REBELS? They're mostly unemployed young Muslim men from Cabo Delgado, the northernmost province on the country's long  Indian Ocean  coastline.  For centuries, most people there have been Muslims who traded with Swahili dhow sailors and coexisted with Catholicism brought by Portuguese colonial rulers.  Despite rich natural resources, the province has been one of Mozambique's least developed, with low levels of educatio

Libya’s civil war entered its 7th year this month  with no end in sight . In Afghanistan, conflict has raged on and off since the Soviet invasion in 1979. America’s Afghan war is now its longest ever, part of the open-ended US “global war on terror” launched after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks. Yemen’s conflict is in its sixth pitiless year. In Israel-Palestine, war – or rather the absence of peace – has characterised life since 1948. Somalis have endured 40 years of fighting. These are but a few examples in a world where the idea of war without end seems to have become accepted, even normalised. Why do present-day politicians, generals, governments and international organisations appear incapable or uninterested in making peace? In the 19th and 20th centuries, broadly speaking, wars commenced and concluded with formal ultimatums, declarations, agreed protocols, truces, armistices and treaties. Neat and tidy endings, even if sometimes illusory, are rarer these days. According to a survey