Month: July 2021

Boko Haram Islamists killed five Cameroonian soldiers and a civilian in an attack in the far north of the country, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

The attack took place on Monday night near the border with Nigeria, where operations by the Islamist group have been on the rise.

Three soldiers and one civilian were also wounded in the attack, the statement read on state radio said.

A group “of heavily armed terrorists of the Boko Haram sect, aboard several light tactical vehicles, attacked the command post … near Zigue,” a few kilometers from the border with Nigeria, the statement said.

Some militants were also killed, the statement added, without elaborating.

“Troops remain on high alert throughout the far north and across the border to prevent further attacks,” it said. The group appears to have “regained strength following internal restructuring,” it added.

Members of Boko Haram and a splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), have been mounting increasingly deadly attacks against security forces and civilians in the far north of Cameroon, as well as in neighboring Nigeria, Niger and Chad.

They frequently abduct civilians, especially women and children.

Boko Haram fighters killed eight Cameroonian soldiers on Saturday in Sagme, a few dozen kilometers from the border with Nigeria.

Their insurgency began in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria before spreading through the region.

Since then, more than 36,000 people — mainly in Nigeria — have been killed, and three million forced to flee their homes, according to U.N. estimates.

In 2016, the group split into two branches: the faction led by its long-time leader, Abubakar Shekau, and ISWAP, affiliated with the Islamic State group.

Boko Haram confirmed in mid-June that Shekau had been killed in fighting with ISWAP.
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A look at the best news photos from around the world.
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Tunisian troops blocked the head of parliament from entering the building early Monday, hours after President Kais Saied announced he had fired Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended parliament for 30 days.  

Saied, a political independent, said he was acting in response to the country’s economic woes and political deadlock and added that the country’s constitution gave him that authority.  

The move follows weeks of political turbulence in the country – fueled in part by public anger over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Rached Ghannouchi, the parliament speaker and head of the dominant Ennahdha party, called the president’s actions a “coup” and said the legislature would continue its work.  

Two other main parties in parliament also called it a coup, which the president rejected.  

A U.S. State Department spokesman said that the United States is closely monitoring the developments and that any solution to Tunisia’s political and economic troubles should be based on the country’s constitution.  

“Tunisia must not squander its democratic gains,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Monday. 

U.S. Representatives Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ted Deutch, chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa and Global Counterterrorism, said they were “seriously concerned” by the events in Tunisia.  

“We call on all parties to respect and adhere to the rule of law,” they said in a statement Monday. 

Saied’s announcement drew crowds of demonstrators into the streets of the capital, Tunis, and elsewhere to celebrate, reflecting people’s anger at parliament to address the country’s problems. 

There were also protesters outside the parliament building who were against the president’s actions, and clashes took place between the opposing groups.  

Tunisian authorities shut down a live broadcast of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, alleging that its correspondent appeared to encourage the small crowd of protesters to chant against the government. The broadcaster reported that its office in the Tunisian capital was sealed shut and that journalists were not being allowed to enter.  

Tunisia has struggled economically for years, and along with political challenges, it has dealt with a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths.  

Political analyst Amin Mustafa told VOA that “most Tunisians have been badly hurt by the ongoing economic crisis and high unemployment, so the issue of suspending parliament is not likely to arouse a strong negative reaction.”  

The influential Tunisian Federation of Labor declared Monday that it considers “all measures taken by the president to be legal.”  

Edward Yeranian in Cairo contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters. 
 
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According to Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, their docking module Pirs was detached from the International Space Station on Monday, July 26. The module was used by Russian spacecraft and cosmonauts making spacewalks at the ISS since 2001. Pirs, attached to a Russian cargo spacecraft, pulled to a safe distance from the space station and with a controlled deorbit was sent burning up through the atmosphere. A new Multipurpose Laboratory Module will soon replace Pirs at the ISS.
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Pakistan said Monday dozens of Afghan border forces, including several officers, took refuge on the Pakistani side after being unable to hold their military posts apparently in the wake of advances by Taliban insurgents inside Afghanistan.
 
Stepped up Taliban attacks in recent weeks have forced hundreds of pro-Afghan government forces to escape to Tajikistan, Iran, China and Pakistan, enabling the insurgents to seize landlocked Afghanistan’s strategic border crossings with these neighbors.
 
The Pakistani military said in a statement Monday that a local Afghan army commander at the border crossing in the northwestern town of Chitral late Sunday “requested…for refuge and safe passage for 46 soldiers and police, including five officers…due to [the] evolving security situation in Afghanistan.”
 
The Afghan personnel “have been provided food, shelter and necessary medical care as per established military norms” and they will be repatriated to the Kabul government after due process, the statement added.
 
The Pakistani army noted that in early July it had also given “refuge/safe passage” to a group of 35 Afghan border forces under similar circumstances before they were handed over to Kabul.
 
There was no immediate response from Afghan officials.  
 
Reports said the soldiers were stationed in the eastern Afghan border province of Kunar, the scene of heavy fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces.
 
The insurgents have stepped up attacks against Afghan security forces and captured vast territory since early May, when the United States and NATO allies officially began pulling their last remaining troops from Afghanistan.
 
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, traditionally plagued by suspicion and deep mistrust, deteriorated after the Taliban captured the town of Spin Boldak earlier this month, which serves a major trade route between the two countries.
 
There are several border crossings between the two countries, which share a 2,600-kilometer historically open border.
 
Kabul has consistently accused Islamabad of allowing the Taliban to use sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to direct attacks inside Afghanistan.
 
Pakistan rejects the accusations and says it has over the past five years unilaterally constructed a robust fence and hundreds of new forts along most of the Afghan frontier, effectively preventing illegal movements in either direction.
 
Islamabad also accuses Kabul of providing shelter to anti-Pakistan militants to orchestrate cross-border terrorist attacks, charges Afghan authorities deny.
 
Bilateral relations between the two countries hit a new low earlier in the month when the Afghan government recalled all its diplomatic staff from Pakistan over the brief kidnapping of the daughter of the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad.
 
The Pakistani interior minister said last week, while addressing a news conference, that investigators have not found any evidence substantiating Kabul’s claims their ambassador’s daughter was kidnapped. The minister, however, called for the investigation to formally conclude in line with local laws and for close cooperation between the two countries to continue.
 
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