KANO, Nigeria: Boko Haram fighters opened fire on a group of loggers in a remote village in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, killing four people, a survivor and a militia leader said.
Gunmen on motorcycles attacked the loggers while they were loading firewood into pickup vans at Maiwa village, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, they said.
The gunmen burned three vehicles laden with firewood heading to the volatile city.
“Four loggers were shot dead by the Boko Haram gunmen who also burnt three vehicles loaded with firewood,” said Ibrahim Liman, a leader of a militia force fighting the insurgents.
He said other loggers escaped the assault.
The attackers, who rode on six motorcycles, struck at the logging site around 4:40 p.m. (1540 GMT), said logger Haruna Dahiru.
“Sixteen of them (Boko Haram) came on six motorcycles, riding in twos and threes, and opened fire on us without saying a word,” he said.
“They killed four of our colleagues and set fire to three pickup vans we loaded with firewood to bring to Maiduguri to sell,” he added.
Boko Haram’s violence has killed over 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.
Most of the displaced rely on food handouts from aid agencies while others have turned to felling trees which they sell to buy food.
The jihadists have increasingly targeted loggers, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and the local militia fighting them.
In August Boko Haram fighters decapitated three loggers near Aisa-Wulomari village, 40 kilometers from Maiduguri while returning to the city.
In April eight loggers were killed and their bodies burnt by the insurgents at Kayamla, 10 kilometers from Maiduguri while collecting firewood in a bush.
Government troops fended off a second Boko Haram attack Saturday on a military base in Kanamma village in neighboring Yobe state, locals said.
The Islamists had invaded the base in eight trucks, but were repelled by soldiers in a gunbattle that lasted around two hours.
Boko Haram kills four loggers in NE Nigeria
Boko Haram kills four loggers in NE Nigeria
Germany backs Israel after Iran war in first high-level visit
It was the first visit by a senior foreign official since the war between Iran and Israel, which ended on Tuesday after a ceasefire was announced.
“We must deepen our support for Israel,” Dobrindt said, speaking amid the rubble in Bat Yam, south of the coastal hub of Tel Aviv, where an Iranian strike killed nine people including three children.
Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran on June 13, saying it was aimed at keeping the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the German visit a gesture of “solidarity” and urged the international community to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on June 17, on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Canada, said Israel was doing the “dirty work... for all of us” by targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Israel has acknowledged being hit by more than 50 missiles during the 12-day war with Iran, resulting in 28 deaths, but the true extent of the damage may never be known due to stringent media restrictions.
In Iran, Israeli strikes killed at least 627 civilians and injured nearly 4,900, according to official figures.
Russia launches biggest aerial attack on Ukraine since the start of the war
KYIV: Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the 3-year-old war.
Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine’s air force, told the Associated Press that the overnight onslaught was “the most massive air strike,” on the country, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles. The attack targeted regions across Ukraine, including western Ukraine, far from the frontline.
Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish air force said Sunday.
Kherson regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said one person died in a drone strike. Six people were wounded in Cherkasy, including a child, according to regional Gov. Ihor Taburets.
The war shows no signs of abating as US-led international peace efforts have so far produced no breakthrough. Two recent rounds of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement.
Three killed, over a dozen hospitalized as crowd surges at eastern India Hindu festival
- Autopsies are planned for the deceased to determine the exact cause of death
- Coastal temple town of Puri comes alive each year with the grand ‘Rath Yatra’
NEW DELHI: Three people were killed and more than a dozen hospitalized Sunday following a sudden crowd surge at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India, a senior government official said.
“There was a sudden crowd surge of devotees for having a glimpse of the Hindu deities during which few people either fainted, felt suffocated or complained of breathlessness,” said Siddharth Shankar Swain, the top government official in Puri.
Swain said that 15 people were rushed to a local government hospital, where three people were pronounced dead and the other 12 were discharged. Autopsies are planned for the deceased to determine the exact cause of death.
Tens of thousands of devotees gathered in the coastal town early Sunday at Shree Gundicha Temple near the famous Jagannatha Temple to catch a glimpse of the deities onboard three chariots, Swain said.
The coastal temple town of Puri comes alive each year with the grand “Rath Yatra,” or chariot festival, in one of the world’s oldest and largest religious processions. The centuries-old festival involves Hindu deities being taken out of the temple and driven in colorfully decorated chariots.
The festival is one of Hinduism’s most revered events and draws hundreds of thousands of devotees annually from across India and the world.
El Salvador says Paris fashion show ‘glorifies’ criminals
SAN SALVADOR: El Salvador’s government on Saturday criticized a Paris Fashion Week show that made references to inmates at the country’s CECOT mega-prison, with President Nayib Bukele joking that he could send prisoners to France.
At Mexican American designer Willy Chavarria’s show in Paris on Friday, the white T-shirts and shorts worn by his models invoked the uniforms worn by inmates at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Bukele had the maximum-security prison built to hold gang members nabbed in his war against organized crime.
Also imprisoned at CECOT are 252 Venezuelans deported from the United States and accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
“We’re ready to ship them all to Paris whenever we get the green light from the French government,” Bukele wrote in response to an X post that said Chavarria was paying tribute to CECOT prisoners.
The president’s press secretariat said Bukele’s post showed his “firm stance against the attempt to glorify criminality.”
Since March 2022, Bukele has run an offensive against gangs under a state of emergency that allows arrests without a warrant.
The Trump administration has paid Bukele’s government millions of dollars to lock up migrants it says are criminals and gang members.
US President Donald Trump invoked a rarely used wartime legislation in March to fly migrants to El Salvador without any court hearing.
Lawyers for the Venezuelans deported to CECOT say the charges are without basis and the inmates are victims of physical and emotional torture.
UK considers envoy for Britons held abroad
- The government has not specified the terms of the role but it could be similar to America’s Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs
LONDON: Britain is preparing to emulate the United States by appointing an envoy tasked with freeing citizens arbitrarily detained abroad, as it faces calls to do more to bring them home.
High-profile cases like jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and imprisoned Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai have spotlighted the plight of Britons held in jails overseas.
The UK foreign ministry insists it continues to press such cases with governments, but relatives of detainees and human rights organizations complain of a lack of urgency and transparency.
“The government is committed to strengthening support for British nationals, including through the appointment of a new envoy,” a Foreign Office spokesperson told AFP.
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer has said an “Envoy for Complex Consular Detentions” is expected to be appointed “before the summer.”
The government has not specified the terms of the role but it could be similar to America’s Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, a position created in 2015.
Unlike the United States though, Britain does not take part in prisoner exchanges.
Professor Carla Ferstman, an expert on arbitrary detentions at the Human Rights Center at Essex Law School, said appointing someone would be the “clearest thing that the UK can do that it hasn’t done yet.”
“When you have someone at the highest level they command a certain level of respect,” she told AFP.
Abdel Fattah was arrested in September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false news” after sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.
He is still imprisoned despite a hunger strike by his mother and Britain’s foreign ministry saying it is pushing for his release “at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.”
His sister Sanaa Seif said an envoy would mean “a proper continued focus on” freeing detainees.
“It’s also important to have a focal point that can help coordinate between different government bodies so that they all work in synchronization,” she told AFP.
Seif believes the government should consider revising travel advice to Egypt too, a call also made by lawmakers who have suggested the government should sanction Egyptian officials as well.
“Is it not clear that words are no longer sufficient?” Conservative peer Guy Black asked in parliament’s House of Lords recently.
Ferstman said tightening travel guidance can be a powerful tool.
“It’s a big deal because all of a sudden tourists can’t get insurance and it’s harder for business travel to happen. There’s all kinds of implications,” she explained.
Amnesty International recently called for the government to develop a “clear strategy” to support arbitrarily detained Britons, including by demanding that UK officials attend trials.
The Labour government pledged in its general election-winning manifesto last year that it would introduce “a new right to consular assistance in cases of human rights violations.”
Amnesty also wants the government to call for a person’s “immediate release,” including publicly when it is requested by the family.
It said London took three years to publicly call for Lai to be freed, something his son Sebastian said “sends the wrong message” to “autocratic states.”
“The quicker we have the government speak out post-arrest, that’s the window of opportunity to have people released,” Eilidh Macpherson, Amnesty’s campaigns manager for individuals at risk told AFP.
UK officials say the government can be wary of accusations it is interfering in another country’s judicial system.
“Sometimes it may need to be quiet about what it’s doing, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of transparency,” said Ferstman.
Jagtar Singh Johal, a Sikh blogger from Scotland, was arrested in India in November 2017 while there for his wedding on accusations of being part of a terror plot against right-wing Hindu leaders.
He has not been convicted of a crime and in March was cleared in one of the nine charges against him.
The foreign ministry spokesperson said Foreign Secretary David Lammy “continues to raise concerns” about the detention with India’s government “at every appropriate opportunity.”
But his brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal complains of being kept in the dark.
“We don’t know what’s actually being said,” he told AFP.
Gurpreet said an envoy would be a “good thing” but until the position is in place, “We won’t know exactly what it means.”
