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page 20 NIGER 50,000 flee Boko Haram attacks in Niger About 50,000 people have fled a town in Niger’s troubled southeast after deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, the United Nations said Tuesday. The attacks began Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger’s Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria. […]

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NIGER

50,000 flee Boko Haram attacks in Niger

About 50,000 people have fled a town in Niger’s troubled southeast after deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The attacks began Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger’s Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria.

“An estimated 50,000 people or so fled,” UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

A total of 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and “many” injured, according to authorities.

Edwards said most of those fleeing the violence walked westwards to Toumour, some 30 kilometres west of Bosso.

“Many people are reportedly traumatised and worried about their safety. People are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance,” he said.

A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who fled the violence.

However, Niger’s defence minister Assoumana Malam Issa has said that the military had regained control Bosso.

EU

Migrant crisis: EU to boost Africa aid to stem influx

The EU has presented a new aid plan to curb the influx of African migrants via Libya, building on the deal it reached with Turkey in March.

The European Commission aims to boost partnerships with nine countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Jordan, Libya, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said project funding could eventually reach €62bn (£48bn; $70bn).

Controversially it may include security help for Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Mr Avramopoulos said €8bn of EU budget funds could go into the migration partnership in 2016-2020. But in the long term the commission believes it can attract bigger sums in private investment.

EU partnership programmes specially tailored to each country’s conditions are being developed for nine countries initially: Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia. The plan is to expand such aid later to more countries.

MALAWI

Albinos face ‘unprecedented’ killings – Amnesty

Albinos in Malawi are being targeted in an “unprecedented wave of brutal attacks”, Amnesty International said Tuesday, blaming police for failing to tackle a scourge fuelled by ritual practices.

At least 18 albinos, who have white skin because of a hereditary condition that causes an absence of pigmentation, have been killed across Malawi since November 2014.

Five others are still missing after being abducted, the London-based rights group said in a report.

The report titled “We are not animals to be hunted or sold” painted a chilling picture, with the body parts of victims, including children, routinely hacked off for use in witchcraft.

“The unprecedented wave of brutal attacks against people with albinism has created a climate of terror,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty’s director for Southern Africa.

The actual number of people killed may be much higher, Amnesty noted, as many cases go unreported due to the secretive nature of ritual practices in rural areas.

TURKEY

Istanbul bomb attack on police bus kills 11

A car bomb attack targeting a police bus has killed seven officers and four civilians in central Istanbul. It was the fourth major attack in Turkey’s largest city this year.

No group has claimed it, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to the involvement of Kurdish militants.

Turkish media said four people had been arrested but gave no details. The banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and one of its offshoots have claimed previous attacks on security forces.

The attack happened near the city’s historic Beyazit Square neighbourhood, a major tourist attraction, and an Istanbul university building.

The explosives were remotely detonated as the bus passed through the busy Vezneciler district at the morning rush hour, Istanbul’s governor, Vasip Sahin, said.

About 36 other people were injured, he added.

SYRIA

Defiant Assad vows to liberate every inch of Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to “liberate” every inch of the country lost to rebel groups the same way his forces recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

In a televised speech on Tuesday before the country’s new parliament, Assad told politicians that the situation on the ground was much better than it was months ago and was improving by the day.

“As we liberated [Palmyra] and before it many areas, we will liberate every inch of Syria from their hands. Our only option is victory, otherwise Syria will not continue.”

In the speech, Assad also hardened his position on UN-sponsored peace talks, stressing that Syria would be ruled by a “unity government” not a “transitional governing body” as called for by the opposition.

“We will not agree to any topic outside the statement of principles we presented to the UN. We just won’t accept it,” Assad defiantly told parliament.

UNITED STATES

Clinton clinches Democratic nomination

Hillary Clinton faces the last major contest of the primary campaign on Tuesday having already been declared the Democratic presidential nominee, making her the first woman in history to lead a major party bid for the White House.

The declaration that Clinton had won the support of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination came from the Associated Press late on Monday, before voting was due to commence in primaries in California and five other states.

The legitimacy of AP’s declaration, which was announced 24 hours earlier than her campaign expected, was immediately called into question by Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders.

The Vermont senator’s campaign issued a defiant statement that condemned the media’s “rush to judgment” and signalled that the Vermont senator was willing, if possible, to contest the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in July.

CHINA

China bans civil servants, students from Ramadan fasting

The Chinese government has imposed its customary ban on civil servants, teachers and students from fasting during Ramadan in a mainly Muslim region in Northwest China.

In the Xinjiang region where Muslims form 58 per cent of the population, restaurants have been ordered to keep normal opening hours.

While the majority of Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the holy month, the Chinese Communist party is officially atheist.

Human rights groups have blamed clashes between the region’s 10 million-strong Uighar Muslim minority and state security forces on religious and cultural restrictions.

A notice on a government website in the central Xinjiang city of Korla read as: “Party members, cadres, civil servants, students and minors must not fast for Ramadan and must not take part in religious activities.

EGYPT

Egypt puts former auditor on trial

Egypt’s former top auditor, who was sacked after highlighting government corruption, has gone on trial accused of spreading “false news”.

Hisham Geneina was fired in March, soon after estimating corruption cost Egypt $67.6bn (£46.3bn) over four years.

Mr Geneina said the figure was based on an exhaustive study, but a presidential commission concluded that he had misled the public with “foreign” help.

The former judge denies the charges and says they are politically motivated.

Critics say the prosecution raises questions about President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s avowed commitment to fighting corruption.

KENYA

Gov’t bans all demonstrations

The Kenyan government has banned all types of demonstrations.

Kenyan Security Minister Joseph Nkaissery said the move was to save lives and protect properties.

Current demonstrations pushing for the dissolution of the electoral commission were violent, he said.

Attorney General Githu Mungai was also at the press conference, which was broadcast live – reiterating that the constitution only allowed peaceful demonstrations and picketing, not violent protests.

People disobeying the order would be arrested, Mr Nkaissery said.

Several people have been killed in recent demonstrations organised by the opposition alliance Cord.

Led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, it wants members of the electoral commission to resign ahead of next year’s presidential election.

B/Faso

Warrant for Ivory Coast speaker scrapped

Burkina Faso has cancelled an international arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s parliamentary speaker Guillaume Soro, the prosecutor has said.

Interpol had refused to help execute the warrant because it was linked to political crimes, Alioune Zanre added.

The warrant was for Mr Soro’s alleged role in a short-lived coup in Burkina Faso in September.

Authorities listened to phone recordings linking him to the coup, reports said at the time.

Mr Soro has always denied that his was the voice on the tape.

The speaker is an ally of Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara. Mr Soro led the New Forces rebel group during Ivory Coast’s 2011 civil war.