Nigeria: More Deaths Reported as Nigeria Chaos Rise

Abuja ----Eight people including police officers have been shot dead in a gun attack in northern Nigeria, in the spiraling religious violence in the country, as nationwide fuel strike hits second day.

Gunmen suspected belonging to the Islamist Boko Haram group stormed into a pub late at night in the town of Potiskum in northern Yobe State and opened fire, before speeding away on a motorcycle, the state’s Police Commissioner Tanko Lawal told Reuters news agency.

A doctor in the town said eight bodies including those of five policemen, a bartender, a customer and a 10-year old girl were brought to the morgue. Yobe is one the states where the government has declared a state of emergency following upsurge of violence.

The shooting comes after five people died in the mainly Christian southern state of Benin when a Mosque and an Islamic school were torched. The extremist Islamic sect Boko Haram which simply translates to “Western education is forbidden” has been staging numerous attacks targeting the Christian and animist southerners in the north. Thousands continue to flee areas marked with ethnic and religious violence that has claimed over 80 lives in recent weeks.

Nigeria’s Nobel Peace Laureate Wole Soyinka has warned that the country could face a new conflict similar to the 1960s civil war days after President Goodluck Jonathan warned that the violence blamed on Boko Haram was worse that the war which killed over one million people.

“It's not an unrealistic comparison -- it's certainly based on many similarities... We see the nation heading towards a civil war," said Soyinka.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday held discussions with Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru following release of a UN report on possible links between Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda affiliates in Northern Africa.

Elsewhere, tens of thousands thronged into streets throughout the country on Tuesday in second day of protest against sharp increase of fuel prices following removal of fuel subsidies, doubling the price of the commodity.

Protestors want President Jonathan to reverse the removal of the subsidy which many see as their only welfare benefit worth of $8 billion, money the government says it needs to improve the country’s woeful infrastructure.

Kigali, Rwanda

Rwanda’s Kagame, Cleared of Habyarimana Assassination Claims

A French report into the 1994 Rwandan plane crash that killed then-leader Juvenal Habyarimana has cleared President Paul Kagame of assassination allegation, declaring downing of the plane a coup d'état by Hutu extremists.

The technical report by ordered by a new judge presiding over the inquiry seen to be based on much more solid evidence, brings important development into the 17-year old Habyarimana assassination row, taking away much of the force from the theory that he was killed by President Kagame’s then RPF rebels.

The court on Tuesday concluded that the missile was fired from a distance of up to 1km away from the plane which was about to land at Kigali airport. According to the experts, at the time the area was held by government forces, making it difficult for forces loyal to Kagame to be in the area, therefore shoot down the plane.

The 6 April 1994 plane crush triggered the genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days of carnage and pillaging.

Kigali Tuesday welcomed the report praising the commission for high quality investigations.

“Today's findings constitute vindication for Rwanda's long-held position on the circumstances surrounding events of April 1994,” said Rwandan foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo in an official statement.

“With this scientific truth, Judges (Marc) Trevidic and (Nathalie) Poux have slammed shut the door on the 17-year campaign to deny the genocide or blame its victims.

“It is now clear to all that the downing of the plane was a coup d'etat carried out by extremist Hutu elements and their advisors.”

Earlier in 2006 a French judge accused Mr. Kagame and his allies of killing Habyarimana, prompting him to break off relations with Paris. The 2006 inquiry which claimed the missile was shot from 4km away has been criticised for failing to visit the area of the attack and interview those accused alongside Kagame.

The Habyarimana family has expressed displeasure with the report, questioning credibility of the experts. They want the inquiry to find out who had bought the alleged Russian missile used in the attack, because it would help identify those behind the attack.