SARAJEVO: Two migrants, a Syrian and an Algerian national found in possession of firearms were arrested in the Bosnian capital at the weekend, police said Monday.
It was the first time that police found weapons with migrants who have been passing through the Balkan country in growing numbers since the start of the year as they head toward western Europe.
“For the time being we do not know what they were planning to do with (the weapons),” a police spokeswoman told AFP.
“The two men tried to flee when police asked them for documents but they were quickly arrested,” spokeswoman Suvada Kuldija said.
The arrests were carried out on Sunday evening.
Police searched several locations linked to the two where they found and seized a “rifle, four guns, a silencer and more than 100 bullets of different calibres,” the spokeswoman added.
The 34-year-old Syrian national was officially registered with the authorities in charge of migrants, while police were verifying the status of the 23-year-old Algerian.
Since the start of the year, 15,000 migrants trying to reach western Europe have been registered in Bosnia, a minister said Sunday.
So far the influx does not compare with the hundreds of thousands who arrived in Europe via the ‘Balkans Route’ in 2015 and 2016, fleeing war and poverty across Africa and the Middle East.
The route was effectively closed in March 2016.
Now, most of the migrants, who enter Bosnia from Serbia or Montenegro, stay for a few days in Sarajevo before heading toward the northwestern town of Bihac.
Bihac is on the border with Europan Union member Croatia, where they try to sneak into the bloc.
Since the 1990s wars that marked the collapse of Yugoslavia, the Balkans have been considered a center for arms trafficking.
Militants who have carried out attacks in western Europe in recent years are also believed to have passed through.
Bosnia arrests Syrian, Algerian migrants with weapons
Bosnia arrests Syrian, Algerian migrants with weapons
Nigeria mosque bombing kills at least seven
- The bomb went off inside a crowded mosque in the city’s Gamboru market during early evening prayers
- Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state, home to a years-long insurgency by Boko Haram jihadis
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: An explosion ripped through a mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri and killed at least seven worshippers Wednesday, witnesses and security sources told AFP.
No armed groups immediately claimed responsibility for what anti-jihadist militia leader Babakura Kolo said was a suspected bombing.
Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state, home to a years-long insurgency by jihadist groups Boko Haram and an offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, though the city itself has not seen a major attack in years.
The bomb went off inside a crowded mosque in the city’s Gamboru market, as Muslim faithful gathered for evening prayers around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT), according to witnesses.
One of the leaders of the mosque, Malam Abuna Yusuf, put the toll at eight dead, though officials have not yet released a casualty count.
“We can confirm there has been an explosion,” police spokesman Nahum Daso told AFP, adding that an explosive ordnance disposal team was already on-site.
Kolo said that seven were killed.
He said it was suspected that the bomb was placed inside the mosque and exploded midway through prayers, while some witnesses described a suicide bombing.
It was not immediately clear how many people were injured, though witness Isa Musa Yusha’u told AFP: “I saw many victims being taken away for medical treatment.”
Videos taken in the aftermath and seen by AFP showed a person covered in blood writhing on the ground, and what appeared to be bodies covered by a sheet.
A security alert sent by an international NGO to its staff in Maiduguri, seen by AFP, advised its workers to stay away from the Gamboru market area.
Deadly insurgency
Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009 in a conflict that has killed at least 40,000 and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast, according to the UN.
Though the violence has waned since its peak a decade ago, it has spilt into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
And concerns are growing about a resurgence of violence in parts of the northeast, where insurgent groups remain capable of mounting deadly attacks despite years of sustained military operations.
Maiduguri itself — once the scene of nightly gunbattles and bombings — has been calm in recent years, with the last major attack recorded in 2021.
But reminders of the conflict are never far off in the state capital, where major military operations are headquartered.
Military pick-ups lumber through town daily, their beds filled with soldiers whose helmets shield them from the hot afternoon sun.
Evening checkpoints are still in effect, even as markets that once closed in the early afternoon throng into the night.
Meanwhile, in the countryside, the insurgency continues to rage, with analysts warning of an uptick in jihadist violence this year.
