DAKAR: Armed men killed 34 soldiers and wounded 14 others in western Niger near the tri-state border with Mali and Burkina Faso, the defense ministry said.
The attack was carred out around 9 a.m. Thursday in Banibangou by attackers using eight vehicles and more than 200 motorbikes, the ministry said in a statement.
The government said its forces killed dozens of attackers it called “terrorists,” adding that search operations by land and air were being conduted to find additional assailants.
Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group.
Following military coups in the three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. The three countries have vowed to strengthen their cooperation by establishing a new security alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States.
But the security situation in the Sahel, a vast region on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, has significantly worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed by Islamic militants and government forces.
Armed men in western Niger kill 34 soldiers and wound 14, authorities say
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Armed men in western Niger kill 34 soldiers and wound 14, authorities say
Ukrainian parliament approves new government, lawmaker says
KYIV: Ukraine’s parliament voted in favor of a new government under prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Thursday, according to lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The new cabinet includes two of Svyrydenko’s former deputies — Oleksiy Sobolev as minister of economy, agriculture and environment, and Taras Kachka as a deputy prime minister for European integration — as well as Svitlana Hrynchuk as energy minister.
Man jailed in UK after releasing rats outside mosque
- Edmund Fowler caught on CCTV committing offense 4 times
- Mosque manager: Community members ‘scared of further harassment’
LONDON: A man has been jailed in the UK after being filmed dumping wild rats outside a mosque in the city of Sheffield, The Independent reported on Thursday.
Edmund Fowler, 66, was caught on film unloading the rodents from the back of his car outside Sheffield Grand Mosque. Footage showed the rats running through the mosque’s fence into the grounds of the building.
Fowler did this a further three times between May and June before being charged. He pleaded guilty to four counts of racially aggravated harassment at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court, which sentenced him to 18 months in jail and banned him from going near a mosque for a further 18 months upon release.
The mosque’s manager said in a statement that community members “are scared of further harassment and are now too scared to come to the mosque.”
French court overturns town’s burkini ban after woman threatened with fines
- The seaside town of Carry-le-Rouet had implemented the ban in June 2024
- The ban was largely irrelevant until July 2, when an 18-year-old Muslim woman from the city of Marseille went to the town’s beach
LONDON: The Marseilles administrative court has reversed a burkini ban on a French Riviera beach after police threatened fines against a teenager and her family for wearing the Muslim swimsuit, The Times reported on Thursday.
The seaside town of Carry-le-Rouet had implemented the ban in June 2024, but it was found by the court to be a “serious and illegal breach of fundamental freedoms” following the incident.
The ban was largely irrelevant until July 2, when an 18-year-old Muslim woman from the city of Marseille went to the town’s beach.
Two municipal officers spotted her in the sea and ordered her out using whistles. Her family asked what she had done wrong, and the officers said the woman’s garment was “not acceptable,” according to her brother Islan.
The police called for reinforcements. Five gendarmes who arrived later threatened the 18-year-old with fines unless she and her family left the beach.
Islan said the family then left the area. “My sister has taken it badly,” he added. “She is afraid to go out now, does not communicate with other people and avoids talking about what happened.”
The incident led to the Human Rights League seeking a court order overturning the town’s burkini ban.
Over the past decade, about 20 towns and cities on the French coast, including Cannes, have tried to ban the Muslim swimsuit on secular grounds, though almost all the bans were denied or later overturned.
In 2004, France banned Muslim headscarves in schools after MPs decided that the garment violates the secular values of the state education system.
Niqabs and burqas were outlawed in public in 2011 based on concerns that criminals could conceal their identities using the religious garbs.
Protester in UK threatened with arrest by armed police over Palestinian flag
- Laura Murton, 42, held signs saying ‘Free Gaza’ and ‘Israel is committing genocide’
- Amnesty International UK describes footage of incident as ‘very concerning’
LONDON: British armed police threatened a peaceful protester with arrest under the Terrorism Act after accusing her of supporting Palestine Action, the activist group that was banned earlier this month.
Laura Murton, 42, held signs saying “Free Gaza” and “Israel is committing genocide” at the demonstration in the city of Canterbury, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Officers told her that she had expressed views supporting Palestine Action. Neither of the signs held by Murton mentioned the group by name.
Murton, who filmed her encounter with the armed police officers, asked whether she supported any banned groups and replied: “I do not.”
One officer told her: “Mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that — all come under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government.” He added that the phrase “Free Gaza” expressed support for Palestine Action.
The government’s proscription of the group means it is an offense to express support for it and is punishable by law.
The officer accused Murton of committing that offense, and said she would be arrested unless she provided her name and address, which she did.
Murton told The Guardian: “I don’t see how anything I was wearing, how anything I was displaying, anything I was saying, could be deemed as supportive of the proscribed group.
“It’s terrifying. I was standing there thinking, this is the most authoritarian, dystopian experience I’ve had in this country, being told that I’m committing terrorist offenses by two guys with firearms.
“I ended up giving my details, and I really resent the fact I had to do that because I don’t think that was lawful at all.”
Lawyer’s representing Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, said in court submissions that the group’s proscription would likely produce a “wide chilling effect on speech and assembly of those seeking to speak out against Israel’s serious violations of international law.”
One of the officers who confronted Murton said: “We could have jumped out, arrested you, dragged you off in a van.” The police were “trying to be fair” in dealing with her, he added.
Murton said she was motivated to protest because “day to day, people are getting killed (in Gaza), and I can’t handle that … I can’t handle sitting and doing nothing.”
Amnesty International UK’s law and human rights director, Tom Southerden, described the footage as “very concerning.”
He added: “We have long criticized UK terrorism law for being excessively broad and vaguely worded and a threat to freedom of expression. This video documents one aspect of exactly the kind of thing we were warning about.”
Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara
JAKARTA: A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province on Thursday, with a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) depth and no tsunami potential, the country’s geophysics agency said.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
