Nigeria: Boko Haram Defends Attacks

Abuja--Leader of Nigeria’s dreaded Islamist group Boko Haram has defended recent attacks on Christians as justifiable revenge for deaths of Muslims.

In a 15-minute video posted on YouTube, Imama Abubakar Shekau, wearing a red and white turban, a bullet-proof jacket, flanked by two Kalashnikov rifles, spoke in his native Hausa saying that the recent killings were reprisal to attacks on Muslims in recent years in northern Nigeria.

 “Christians, everyone knows what they have done to us and Muslims ... we were attacked and we decided to defend ourselves and, because we were on the right path, Allah has made us stronger,” he said.

Mr. Shekau warned President Goodluck Jonathan that this matter was beyond his power and that the country’s security forces which he termed as their primary target would not be able to defeat the group. He said the group could only hold talks with the government in accordance of Islamic teachings.

Thought to have been killed two years ago, Shekau is now understood to have taken over control of the group from its founder Mohammed Yusuf killed in police custody in 2009 following a military operation in its strong-hold of Maiduguri in which 700 people were killed.

Boko Haram which translates to “Western education is forbidden” in Hausa, fights for establishment of Islamic “sharia” laws throughout Nigeria, a multi-cultural nation with a population of 160 million people, divided between a largely Muslim north and south, inhibited mainly by Christians and animists.

Recent spate of violence by the group has claimed several lives, including the deadly Christmas bombings that left over 40 people dead. In the latest attack adding to Tuesday’s gun attack in Yobe State that left eight dead including a 10- year old child and five policemen dead, four people were shot dead in the same state, at a gas station by gunmen on motorbikes, a trademarked move by the group.

Yobe is among the four states where a state of emergency has been declared by President Jonathan following a surge in ethnic and sectarian violence, as thousands continue to flee flash areas.

Mr. Jonathan among other leaders including  Nigeria’s Nobel Peace Laureate Wole Soyinka have condemned the violence, warning that the country could face a new conflict similar to the 1960s civil war in which one million people were killed.

Juba, South Sudan

Aid Groups in Major South Sudan Emergency Operation

Humanitarian aid agencies are planning on a major emergency operation in remote areas in South Sudan affected by the interethnic clashes that has left unknown number of people dead, displacing thousands others.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan Lise Grande said on Saturday that aid groups were responding to a call for help from the South Sudanese government following the recent wave of intertribal clashes.

Grande said the emergency operation is going to be one of the most complex and expensive in South Sudan since signing of the peace agreement with the north in 2005, bearing that most areas can only be accessed by air.

“Delivering assistance by air is hugely expensive compared to delivery by road. Unfortunately, in the areas affected in Jonglei, we don't have a choice,” she said.

She added that aid agencies in South Sudan are overly stretched due to dealing with swelling number of refugees fleeing military operations in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, apart from helping over 360,000 South Sudan natives returning from Sudan since 2010.

The Juba government has said it will launch investigations into the violence in which a mob of 6000 armed men from the Lou Nuer ethnic group are said to have marched to Pibor town in Jonglei State targeting the Murle community in late December and early January.

According to UN reports three whole villages were razed to the ground in the attack and an estimated 60,000 people have been affected by the violence and are in dire need of high-nutritional food and other basic supplies.

Government officials in Jonglei say that thousands were killed in the raid but gives no exact figure, which media reports have put the death toll as high as 3,000. The South Sudanese government since then has declared Jonglei State a national disaster area.

The two communities have had a history of cattle-raids and systematic attacks in the region where cattle is highly important as a store of value. Most recently in August an estimated 600 people were killed when the Murle community attacked the Lou Nuer.

The violence is seen to pose major challenge to Africa’s newest state which became independent from Sudan in July following an overwhelming vote in favour of the secession last January.

The January referendum was part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 that ended the two decade-long north-south civil war.