KANO, Nigeria: Authorities in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state struck a peace deal at the weekend with criminal gangs to try to end years of violence, a government official said Monday.
Katsina is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorized by criminal gangs that the locals refer to as bandits.
The gangs raid villages, kill and abduct residents as well as torch homes after looting them.
The gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna states in the northwest region and Niger state in the country’s central zone and have carried out mass kidnappings of students from schools in recent years.
On Saturday, a dozen bandit kingpins met with local officials and community leaders in the town of Danmusa, where they renounced violence and pledged to turn a new leaf, Nasiru Mu’azu, Katsina state internal commissioner said.
“There was a peace meeting between 12 bandit leaders and the local community leaders in Danmusa where the bandits renounced their criminal activities and committed to peace,” Mu’azu said.
The bandits initiated the meeting, he said. “The community welcomed the overtures and agreed to a peace deal as long as the bandits are genuinely interested in peace,” he said.
As a mark of goodwill, the bandits surrendered weapons and released 17 hostages, with the promise to free more people they were holding.
Authorities in Katsina had earlier ruled out peace deals after the criminal gangs reneged on peace negotiations and returned to crime.
With no ideological leaning, the bandits are motivated by financial gains but their increasing alliance with jihadists from the northeast has been raising concern among authorities and security analysts.
In 2023, Katsina state governor Dikko Umar Radda established Katsina Community Watch Corps, comprising around 2,000 vigilantes to assist the military and police in fighting the bandits.
“We have been fighting the bandits for the past two years and the state governor has reiterated he will not negotiate from a position of weakness,” Mu’azu said.
“But since they on their own came forward and extended the olive branch, we have to give them that opportunity.”
In November last year, neighboring Kaduna state, which has rejected negotiation with bandits, signed a peace accord with the criminal gangs terrorizing Birnin-Gwari district.
Nigerian state signs peace pact with criminal gangs: official
https://arab.news/6atxc
Nigerian state signs peace pact with criminal gangs: official
- Dozen bandit kingpins met with local officials to renounce violence. With no ideological leaning, the bandits are motivated by financial gains
- As a mark of goodwill, the bandits surrendered weapons and released 17 hostages, with the promise to free more people they were holding
Eritrean president warns Ethiopia against waging war
- At the heart of the current tension, according to the Eritrean government, is landlocked Ethiopia’s long-held desire for a seaport.
NAIROBI: Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has warned neighbor Ethiopia against launching a new war between the bitter foes, with tensions high in the Horn of Africa region.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have had fraught relations since the former declared independence in 1993, with tens of thousands of people killed in a war between the two from 1998 to 2000.
At the heart of the current tension, according to the Eritrean government, is landlocked Ethiopia’s long-held desire for a seaport.
Afwerki, who has ruled Eritrea with an iron fist since independence, warned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he would not be able to simply overwhelm his country by weight of numbers — Ethiopia’s population is 130 million, compared to just 3.5 million people living in Eritrea.
“If he thinks he can overwhelm (Eritrean forces) with human wave attack, (he is mistaken),” Afwerki told state television channel Eri-TV.
“Before dragging the people of Ethiopia into unwanted wars or using them for another political agenda, the country’s internal problems must be first addressed and solved,” he said.
He called Abiy’s actions a “reckless” attempt to “divert attention” from domestic problems.
Abiy signed a peace deal with Afwerki shortly after coming to power in 2018, but a violent conflict erupted in Ethiopia’s Tigray province from 2020 to 2022 as Eritrea’s forces backed rebels there fighting Ethiopian troops.
At least 600,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to an African Union estimate.
Although a peace deal ended the fighting, Eritrea has maintained a military presence in Tigray and relations between the neighbors have deteriorated.
Abiy has repeatedly said Ethiopia must have access to the sea, but by peaceful means.
Last month, a report by a US monitoring group accused Eritrea of rebuilding its army and destabilising its neighbors.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel criticized the report by NGO The Sentry and blamed “the new tension in the region” on Ethiopia.
Eritrea had been under US arms sanctions that were lifted after the 2018 peace deal.
Eritrea is a single-party state which consistently ranks among the worst in the world for rights — in last place for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, and 175th out of 183 for human development in 2022, according to the United Nations.
Tsunami alert after powerful quakes strike off coast of Russia: USGS
- Earlier 5.0-magnitude and 6.7-magnitude earthquakes did not initially trigger a tsunami alert
MOSCOW: Three powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia’s far east on Sunday, triggering a tsunami alert, the US Geological Survey said.
Earlier 5.0-magnitude and 6.7-magnitude earthquakes did not initially trigger a tsunami alert, but were followed by a 7.4-magnitude quake at 0849 GMT, prompting the USGS to warn that “hazardous tsunami waves are possible” within 300 kilometers (186 miles) of the epicenter in the Pacific, off the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Russia says it downed 142 Ukrainian drones, including 27 over Moscow region
- The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea
MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry and the mayor of Moscow said it had downed 142 drones overnight, including 27 over the Moscow region.
The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea.
The latest attacks included four drones headed toward the Russian capital, which were downed on Sunday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram around 1000 local time (0700 GMT).
According to Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia, four major airports serving Moscow – Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy – were affected, resulting in 134 flights being redirected.
By 1000 Moscow time, only two airports remained closed to air traffic – Vnukovo in the Moscow region and Grabtsevo in the Kaluga region.
Heavy rains in South Korea leave 14 dead and 12 others missing
- Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters of rain
SEOUL: Torrential rains that slammed South Korea for five days have left 14 people dead and 12 others missing, the government said Sunday.
One person was killed on Sunday after their house collapsed during heavy rain and another person was found dead after being swept by a swollen stream in Gapyeong, a town northeast of Seoul, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.
The ministry said eight people were discovered dead and six others were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong on Saturday after heavy downpours caused landslides, house collapses and flash floods there.
A ministry report said that six people remain missing in Gapyeong and the southern city of Gwangju.
Earlier last week, three people were found dead in a submerged car, and a person was also killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain.
As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, about 3,840 people remain evacuated from their homes, the ministry report said. The rain stopped in most of South Korea on Sunday, and heavy rain alerts have been subsequently lifted throughout the country, ministry officials said.
Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters (24-31 inches) of rain, according to the ministry report.
Tearful relatives await news from Vietnam wreck rescue
- The Wonder Sea boat was carrying 48 passengers and five crew members
- Rescue workers saved 11 people, and recovered the dead near the site of the capsizing
HALONG BAY, Vietnam: Relatives anxiously sat beside ambulances on the wharf of one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist sites on Sunday, waiting for news of loved ones who were on a tourist boat that capsized killing dozens.
Fruits and flowers were laid on the coast for the at least 37 killed in the wreckage on Saturday in what some called Ha Long Bay’s worst-ever disaster.
As rescuers worked into Sunday morning to salvage the sunken boat, a handful of people were still missing.
The tourist vessel called “Wonder Sea” had been carrying 53 people, including more than 20 children, around the UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to state media.
Hoang Quang rushed from Hanoi to Quang Ninh province at 2:00 am on Sunday for news of his cousin and her family who were on the boat when it capsized.
The couple – a housewife and fruit seller married to a bus driver – had “tried their best” to afford the trip around the world-famous bay.
“They found the body of (the husband), not my cousin yet,” Hoang said.
He was “so shocked” when he heard news of the incident and immediately went to the wharf with other worried family members.
“Suddenly the victims were my relatives – anyone would be scared. We didn’t know what to do, except to keep waiting,” he said.
“We think that as we are all here, she knew and she would show up. We are all so anxious... We just wish and pray for her to come back here to us.”
At Ha Long city’s main funeral home, AFP journalists saw bodies wrapped in red cloth being carried in on stretchers, as friends and relatives cried in front of more than a dozen coffins.
A 68-year-old man, who asked not to be named, rushed to the scene at 3:00 am, only to discover that his relatives – a young family of four, including two boys – had died in the capsizing.
“We were all so shocked,” he said tearfully. “This was a very sudden accident. They were just taking the kids out to the bay for summer holidays and it ended up terrible.”
The bodies of the mother and children had been recovered, but he was awaiting news of the father to be able to cremate them together.
“We know there is no hope,” he said.
The friend of another victim, a firefighter who had taken the trip with colleagues, said they had known each other since university.
“He was still single. We brought his body back to (his hometown) for burial early this morning,” the friend said.
He praised the rescue efforts and said provincial authorities had given families 25 million dong ($955) for each victim.
By early Sunday, the wreckage had been towed into the wharf and 11 people had been taken to a nearby hospital, where one more died later in the day.
Security guard Nguyen Tuan Anh spent the night on the wharf where ambulances were waiting to carry the bodies away – a scene he described as “painful.”
“I don’t think I have experienced this scene before. This maybe the worst accident ever in Ha Long Bay,” he said, adding it had been “unpredictable and also I think unpreparable.”
“The whirlwind came so sudden and so big. The wind blew off the framework of a big stage for a grand music show nearby,” he said.
Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.
Several hundred rescuers including professional divers, soldiers, and firefighters joined the search for survivors through the night and heavy rain, state media said.
“The whirlwind came just so sudden,” a rescue worker, who asked not to be named, said on Saturday.
“As the boat turned upside down, several people were stuck inside the cabin. Me and other rescuers pulled up two bodies and rescued one,” he said.
“The accident was so devastating.”
