Nigeria: EFCC and ICPC charge the Youths to be Active Participants in the anti-Corruption War

As the EFCC and ICPC prepare to merge in accordance with the Oronsaye-led panel on the restructuring of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the two bodies have beckoned on the youths to champion the anti-corruption campaign. The youths are the trustees of posterity according to Benjamin Disraeli but the current situation and trend in Nigeria nay Africa does not portray such a reality. The youths are docile while the elders are pathetically brutal; preventing the youths from rising.

CAJ News reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are hopeful their newly-announced partnership will curb corruption in the country. EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, re-affirmed the commitment of the agency to continue combating the menace.

He said the EFCC would not relent in its efforts to rid Nigeria of economic and financial crimes. Larmode said his organisation would collaborate with other stakeholders in the initiatives aimed at tackling corruption. “Corruption has become a cancer worm that is eating up the nation. As such, all hands must be on deck to check the menace," Larmode said during a five-nation Youth Integrity Camp government organisations and youth bodies organised.

The event was held under the auspices of the Anglophone West Africa Youth Integrity Camp. It drew participants from Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone. The programme aims to engage youths as stakeholders in the fight against graft. According to the ICPC, the initiative is geared towards increasing awareness on anti-corruption issues.

"It is also aimed at establishing a network of youth leaders who are empowered and motivated to use their dynamism and innovative minds to fight corruption, demand transparency and accountability and promote integrity," ICPC stated. The ICPC had once initiated such a move geared towards initiating the youths, most especially students in higher institutions, in the anti-corruption war but just as it is usually with the general Nigerian policy syndrome; it only survived more on paper than in practicality.

Election in Mali: On the Road to Peace or a Pathway to Crises?

President Dioncounda Traore, Mali's interim leader has met with members of two northern Tuareg separatist groups apparently for the first time in a build-up for peace to secure the elections scheduled to be held on Sunday. This move provoked anger among many in the country's south due to the rising ethnic tensions.

The aim of the election is to unify the nation after a March 2012 coup allowed Tuareg rebels and their al Qaeda-linked Islamist allies to seize the West African nation's desert north. France intervened earlier in the year, displacing the militants who have continued with brittle sporadic attacks.

The Tuareg rebels last month agreed to take their fighters off the streets in exchange for a promise of negotiations with the new government after the elections. This allowed the Malian army gained entrance into their controlled-territory. The rebels after the French-led intervention had simmered down captured some of the Islamists who outsmarted them in a 10-month long attacks.

Representatives of the MNLA and its ally, the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, was to meet with military officials to review progress in implementing the preliminary peace deal signed in neighbouring Burkina Faso. "We spoke of peace and reconciliation," Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assale, head of external relations for the Tuareg MNLA rebels, said following the closed-door meeting at the presidential residence late on Sunday.

But many in the capital Bamako viewed the unannounced visit with the president, during which Traore broke the Muslim holy month of Ramadan's traditional daytime fast with the Tuareg leaders, as an affront. "Dioncounda may forgive them, but the people will not," said Bamako resident Youssouf Toure. This statement makes the peace after election in doubt especially if the candidate that emerges the winner is not accepted by an aggrieved party.

Light-skinned Tuaregs like the Sudanese-Arabs have been blamed for attacks on black Malians in the northern city of Kidal and for the abduction of four election workers and a deputy mayor in another northern town last week. Two of the Tuareg delegation are named in arrest warrants for alleged crimes committed during the occupation of the north. The Tuaregs had also vowed to expel all blacks from their vicinities before the peace deal; signalling a fear of another South-Sudan-Sudan-Darfur encounter.

Pirates Hijacked Vessel off the Coast of Gabon

Barely some weeks after West and Central African leaders met to discuss the rising case of piracy and insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea, pirates struck again. The new technique really worked perfectly well. The pirates seemingly boarded the Malta-flagged Cotton tanker, carrying a partly loaded cargo of fuel oil, on Monday near Port Gentil, Gabon, in the first reported attack in that region in the past five years, Turkish operator Geden Lines said according to Reuters.

The piracy was on an oil products tanker with 24 crew on board off the Gabon coast, the vessel's operator said on Wednesday. "The company is in contact with the families of the 24 Indian crew members on board and the appropriate authorities have been contacted," Geden Lines said in a statement.

The Gulf of Guinea is really under real and imagined threats with the piracy scourge. It includes Nigeria, Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire as well as Gabon and remains a major source of oil, cocoa and, increasingly, metals for world markets. International navies are not actively engaged in counter-piracy missions in the region.

The anchorage of vessels off West African coastal nations, with little protection makes them readied target for criminals unlike waters off Somalia and the Horn of Africa, where ships can move past at high speed with armed guards on board.

The UN had earlier lauded the efforts of the West African leaders who met in Cameroon on the rising case of piracy and even called for the intervention of a multinational naval force. "The attack occurred around 200 nautical miles (NM) further south than the previous most southerly attack, which was around 160NM southwest of Bonny Island (in Nigeria) on 26 April," security firm AKE said.

"It therefore marks a significant expansion of the geographical range of Gulf of Guinea piracy. It also demonstrates the regional nature of the illegal fuel trade, the supply of which tankers such as Cotton are generally hijacked for."

Peace Coming Home: Malian Army Enters Kidal

Just as the United Nations peacekeeping force took over security affairs with the 6000-strong Ecowas force in Mali, it wasn't long enough before the malian military entered the northern city of Kidal on Friday afternoon, returning for the first time since they were chased out 16 months ago by a Tuareg separatist group, and later by an army of al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

"It was around 17:00 that the soldiers entered Kidal and penetrated Camp 1 inside the city. The Malian military was accompanied by the French military, just as they were when our soldiers entered Timbuktu and Gao," said Lt Col Souleymane Maiga, the director of information and public relations for the Malian military.

Kidal, like the rest of northern Mali, fell to a mixture of rebel groups in March of 2012 following a coup that toppled the democratic leader. It remained in rebel hands during the past six months, even after French forces launched a military intervention to free northern Mali from the fighters, succeeding in liberating all of the other major towns. Tuareg rebels re-entered Kidal in February and March of this year, erecting roadblocks, levying taxes and creating a de facto Tuareg state.

The Tuareg groups controlling Kidal signed an agreement last month, seen as the road-map for election to be held and paved the way for the return of Mali's military. The entry of the military removes one of the major obstacles to an upcoming presidential election, scheduled to take place in just three weeks; presumably by July 28.

"The Malian army arrived in Kidal," said Deputy Mayor Abda Ag Kazina. "There were two demonstrations - one was to support the army. The other was to prevent the army from returning. There were shots fired in the air and the protesters dispersed," he said.

Mali's north and south could easily be two different countries - inhabited by radically different ethnic groups. Kidal is home predominantly to Tuareg and Arab ethnic groups, both lighter skinned than the sub-Saharan ethnic groups common in the south, where the capital and the seat of power is located. The Tuaregs had recently threatened to sack all the blacks which brought possible fear of a Sudan-South-Sudan-Darfur triad.

West Africa has high potential for Investment boost in Agriculture - OECD

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says agricultural investment in West Africa will grow “very significantly” by 2050 as the population expands and people move from rural areas to cities. West Africa is the world's largest cocoa producer with Cote D'Ivoire producing over 40% of world's output in cocoa.

West African urbanization is increasing at the fastest rate in the world, Karim Dahou, an executive manager at the OECD’s directorate for financial and enterprise affairs, said in an interview at a conference in London. Population in West Africa has doubled every 20 years since 1960 and in cities the number of people has tripled, he said.

“In West Africa, the natural resources are conducive to huge agricultural output, there’s water, there are a lot of hydro-resources,” Dahou said at the Agriculture Investment Summit. “Our agricultural outlook by 2050 is very optimistic in terms of the growth of the sector globally, and including in Africa.”

Investment in West African agriculture will expand as the world tries to meet growing local and global demand, he said. The amount of capital invested per farmer in Africa is “very low,” one sixth of that in Asia and one fourth of that in Latin America, according to Dahou. That’s the reason why yields for many crops in the region are stagnant, he said.

Ghana and Nigeria are leading investments in agriculture in the region, he said. Nigeria, which spends $10 billion a year importing wheat, sugar, rice and fish, plans to boost domestic food production by 20 million metric tons by 2015, according to Akinwunmi Adesina, the country’s agriculture minister.

Cash crops such as cocoa and coffee in West Africa won’t be under threat as the region tackles food security and may even facilitate access to food as they bring in revenue, Dahou said. There’s enough land available to expand and improve yields for both food and cash crops, he said.

“The issue is not really space, it’s intensification,” Dahou said. “That’s what African agriculture, especially West African agriculture, needs.” President Obama also dropped a similar hint in his week-long visit to Africa when in Senegal where he took smooth swipe at China. Obama emphasised on food security for Africa as well as democracy.

West African Leaders Call for the Presence of Multinational Naval Force for Maritime Security

West African leaders seem to be waking up from slumber but as usual, almost powerless to walk out of bed alone without external supports. The leaders held maritime security summit in Cameroon due to the growing cases of piracy in the resource-rich Gulf of Guinea.

Member states of Economic Community of West African States and Economic Community of East African States took part in the summit held in Yaounde. The participating states signed a Memorandum of Agreement on joint prevention and repression of illegal activities in the gulf which will establish a concrete basis for the two regional blocs to share intelligence, conduct joint patrols and jointly repress piracy in their maritime domain.

The Memorandum of Agreement among ECOWAS, ECCAS and the Gulf of Guinea Commission on Maritime Safety and Security in West and Central Africa is the policy statements of the heads of state and government on maritime safety and security; as well as a Code of Conduct on the fight against piracy, armed robbery and illegal maritime activities.

President Alassane Ouattara of Cote D'Ivoire stated that a multinational naval force is needed to curb and stem the tide of the rising activities of pirates in the Gulf of Guinea which have overtaken that of the coast of Somalia. In 2012, 960 maritime personnels were abducted in the Gulf of Guinea compared to 861 off the Somali coast.

Killing Africa's Future: Mali's Crisis Disrupts Schooling of 700,000 Children - Unicef

The education of some 700,000 children in Mali has been disrupted due to the violence in the country according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The organisation  added that there is an urgent need to rebuild schools, train teachers and provide learning supplies.

Since the violence began over a year ago, at least 115 schools in the north were closed, destroyed, looted and sometimes contaminated with unexploded ordnance. Of the 700,000 children affected, 200,000 still have no access to school, UNICEF said in a news release.

Many teachers were among those displaced and have not returned to the northern part of the country. Instead, they are working in the already overcrowded schools in the south, which cannot cope with the amount of displaced students from the north.

"When a teacher is afraid to teach and when a student is afraid to go to school, the whole education is at risk," said UNICEF's Representative in Mali, Françoise Ackermans.

In the north, only one in three schools is now functioning. In some towns, all schools remain closed, as is the case in Kidal, while in others a few have opened. Five per cent of schools have now reopened in Timbuktu.

UNICEF noted that the violence has also had a significant psychological impact on children, who have reported hearing gunshots at school and at home.

The agency said it is working with the Malian educational authorities to accelerate the return of children to school. Since December, UNICEF has trained 1,190 Malian teachers to provide psychological support and mine-risk education to children. In addition, more than 16,000 children have received educational materials across the country.

Other UN agencies have continued to work in Mali to assist the estimated 1.2 million people that have been affected by armed operations.

This was a war that  was started covertly by the West and now they claim to be the 'rescuer.' Mali was a country that enjoying relative peace and flourishing democracy till the United States started pumping cash into her military on the one hand and France started bribing rebels on the other hand.

Those who ignited the fire are now the firefighters; appearing in deceitful robes like saviours.

Beyond the Invasion: Western Designs for Mali

The United States is likely to eventually resume direct support for Mali's military, but only after full restoration of democracy through elections, the head of a visiting US Congress delegation said.

Senator Christopher Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, led the first American congressional visit to the West African nation since France sent a military force there last month to halt the advance of al Qaeda-allied islamists.

The United States and United Kingdom have been providing airlift and refueling support for the French-led operation involving hundreds of French and African troops that has driven the Islamist rebels from a string of northern Malian towns in the last five weeks.

Washington has also been sharing intelligence to back the operation, but ruled out sending its own ground troops mainly because of Afghanistan and Iraq's experiences as well as its battered image in the Islamic world.

Coons, heading a four-member delegation from the US Senate and House of Representatives, said both French and African military commanders were happy with the support that Washington was providing, but he indicated they might welcome more.

Asked if increased US support for the military intervention could materialize, Coons said US law prohibited direct assistance to Mali's armed forces because of the military coup there last year that toppled the elected government.

"After there is a full restoration of democracy, I would think it is likely that we will renew our direct support for the Malian military," Coon said.

French and African forces are hunting the Islamist insurgents who have retreated to Mali's remote Northeast, and Malian interim President Dioncounda Traore has said presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in July.

Coons said al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM and its allies in Mali and elsewhere posed a "very real threat" to Africa, the United States and the wider world and he said the United States wanted to be part of the response to this security challenge.

Before last year's coup in Mali - led by a US-trained Malian army captain - the American military had been providing combat training to several Malian army battalions.

But this was quickly suspended after the coup, which plunged Mali into chaos and led to the occupation of its Saharan north by jihadists who hijacked a rebellion by Tuareg separatists.

Although the French-led offensive has driven the bulk of the Islamist forces northwards back up to the Algerian border, there are fears their fighters and sympathizers could strike back with reprisal attacks in Africa and elsewhere.

The election in Mali will be largely determined by Western whims and caprices. France, UK and America's energy interest will determine who wins or not and this will likely contribute to more insurgencies which has always characterised Western interference in nations. This could ruin France's international accolade though they do not care  for as long as the uranium keeps coming.

French Gift to Mali Islamists

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The revelation by the former US ambassador shows that most of the wars fought by Western Nations are wars they covertly or overtly financed. The heavy weapons used by Islamists in Mali came from NATO's supply against Gaddafi.

The ambassador reveals:

In recent years France and other European countries have channeled millions of dollars in ransom payments to Al Qaeda-linked militants, according to a former US ambassador to Mali. The militants are thought to be from the same groups now fighting French troops in the troubled North African state.

In an interview aired on a French channel on Friday, Vicki Huddleston, who served as ambassador from 2002-2005, said that France had paid $17 million to free French hostages seized from a uranium mine in its former colony Niger in 2010.

She added that at least $89 million could have been paid out through intermediaries by European countries between 2004 -2011. North Africa's AQIM military organization has been active in northern Mali since 2003. The militants have kidnapped dozens of hostages for ransom over the last 10 years.

The incoming invasion of Africa is really on course.

APC of Nigeria: Theory of the Armoured Personnel Carrier

The battle began, for the survival of a nation at war with itself. Cloudburst sounds all over the sky. Citizens wail. At the battlefield, victory is being announced. A party in the war wins. Yes! Victory. Years gone, the war never ends, the opposing sides are fragmented. With maximum chutzpah, the victorious says it will stay on for 50 years. 50 what?! The citizens cry. Agonies and pains. All expect transformation, though not miraculous but in deed and in truth they wait to see. Disappointment speaks. The homeland of tears.

The divided oppositions try yearly to offset the balance and strength of the massive firepower employed by the victor. Though seemingly poorly trained in the art of statecraft, soldiers in the victorious wing understands the esoteric undertone of stirring the water to catch fishes. Divide and Rule; victory is assured. It sets up different tiny and minute groups within the opposition, funds them and deploy them as a veritable too of distraction.

The only alternative is the voice. The united voice of the oppositions. Though all animals are equal in crime and the anomalies combating the homeland but some are more reasonable than others. Soldiers trapped in the trench call out loud. They clamour for change over the loss on the battlefield. They echo the cries of the homeland. They are all culpable though for the destruction but some soldiers are better of. They have their Armoured Personnel Carrier packed in the thick jungle of war but cannot get there because they lack the voice.

Selfish and vainglorious interests impede change and charge. The only way to counter the trenches and 'formidable' fortress of the winning and victorious side is the deployment of the APC and its monumental missiles. The missiles of the people. The undaunting voice. The commanders of the different units have never agreed on any single line of action but the APC smiles from afar in wait of usage. Covered with dust, it seems the last option otherwise the entire homeland will blow up beyond repair. Critics and foreign rapists already pray for that.

Here comes the armoured personnel carrier, a dancing golden weapon of war. The stealth of fear and perplexity for the victorious party. A drone with a political mission. The soldiers are the same but the mission is of the people only if the people will look at the years of pains and inhumanity. They have to rise. The APC must shield all from the bullets of the ruling party. It must break the trenches of warfare already planned. All must be able to queue at its back for utmost protection. All the landmines of poverty must be uprooted.

The nation the APC is about to lead to battle is the trigger of Africa. Africa waits for Nigeria. If Nigeria divides, Africa falls. Neo-colonialism will assume an unprecedented dimension. The launchpad of the APC should not be personality attacks. The warheads should not be abuse and senseless unethical views. Arguments are for advancements. Arguments must occur but it must be for developments not who gets what, when and how. Arguments must be about Nigeria not Hausa, Igbo, Niger Delta or Yoruba.

The APC must be a guardian angel. Internal Democracy must be the prism through which all arguments and discussions shall be viewed. The people not only cry of the battle but also because their homeland lacks any concrete ideology. Programmes and course of actions must be explicit in the new theatre of political war. Being tired of the ruling and winning party is not the main headache, the main morass is being led without focus. The people are led blindly. We have indigenous acts before Europe, the dynamism of the APC on the battlefield will be the marriage of history and modernism.

The principle of soldiers in an APC is always 'All for One, One for All.' Soldiers in an APC fight together as one for surviaval and victory. None looks for personal glory. If one falls, others weep. Need and aspirations must be based on societal demands not personal aggrandizement. Soldiers in the APC must learn to SACRIFICE for the people not SACRIFICE the people like the Boko Haram and various unknown gunmen as well as militant events. The people must SPEAK through the APC.

Clashes in Senegal: 3 Senagalese and a French Die

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As France battles Islamists in Mali, another flashpoint seems to rear its ugly head in Senegal. The long-standing but internationally silent religious face-off in Senegal led to the death of four.

Four people, one French and three Senegalese nationals, were killed in Senegal's Southern Casamance region in clashes between suspected separatist rebels and government soldiers late Friday, a military source said.

He added that the death of the French citizen may not be related to the long-running war for independence in the mostly Christian Southern region of Senegal, which is predominantly Muslim.

West Africa is gradually turning into a complete haven of and for militants and islamic fundamentalists. This trend could consume the sub-region if not quickly checked and curbed.

Piracy in Africa: The End of a New Beginning

Maritime insecurity in Africa, particularly in connection with acts of piracy, has constituted an important field of study for security researchers in recent years.

It has also frequently made local and global media headlines. Despite this trend, the focus in recent reports is starting to shift away from alarm towards detailing the diminishing threat of piracy around Somalia. Large-scale pirate activities there appear to be on the wane, but in what ways can we reasonably expect 2013 to be different from the past, in East Africa and elsewhere?

So far in 2013 the most notable event has been the increase in piracy incidents off the West African coast, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea. This continues the trend in 2012 noted by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) where, despite a sizeable drop in the number of attacks in East Africa from 237 in 2011 to 75 in 2012, a total of 58 incidents were recorded in attacks off the West African coast in 2012, compared to 49 in 2011.

Increased naval patrols and capacity and the adoption of lessons and practices suitable to passage through these sea lanes and areas can account for the drop in attacks and might prompt hopes that piracy will eventually pose an insignificant security threat.

However, the attacks off West Africa differ from East African incidents mainly due to one factor - violent criminal acts are now connected with the movement of oil. The most recent attack took place off Côte d'Ivoire on 21 January 2013 when a large oil tanker named ITRI was hijacked, also demonstrating that the problem is not geographically limited to the Gulf of Guinea.

Crews in such cases are often assaulted while illegal oil bunkering occurs - a practice whereby the ship is drained of oil, which is subsequently spirited back to shore and either sold or refined.

This could result in oil spills, particularly around the already ravaged Niger delta. Offshore oil platforms, often seen as a means of avoiding land-based political instability, are now potential targets and frequently beyond immediate aid. Terrorist attacks on vulnerable installations could also occur, further prompting increases in the number of operations in partnership with the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

Many of these acts will be reported as being criminal rather than piratical, as they do not all occur in international waters but rather within the sovereign borders of states, which are set at 12 nautical miles offshore, and are thus subject to countries' own laws and legal systems, rather than being subject to international law as is commonly the case off Somalia.

Meanwhile, that of Nigeria is gradually gathering international attention though it is still largely localised. If the menace is not check appropriately, West Africa might degenerate into another Somalia just as the Islamists are allowed fertile grounds.

Mali and the Burnt Manuscripts : A blow to History, Culture and Civilisation

Despite the claim by archivist that precious manuscripts have been safely moved earlier from Timbuktu to Bamako, some precious artifacts and manuscripts must also have been lost due to the destructive activities of the islamists in Mali.

A building housing over 60 thousand manuscripts from the ancient Muslim world and Greece was set aflame, raising fears of further damage to the country's cultural heritage after months of destruction by Islamists.

Timbuktu mayor Halley Ousmane, who is in Bamako, confirmed the fire at the Ahmed Baba Centre for Documentation and Research, which housed between 60,000 and 100,000 manuscripts, according to Mali's culture ministry.

"I spoke to my media officer this morning. What has happened in Timbuktu is dramatic," he said.

Ousmane said he had also been informed that Islamists had "burnt alive" a resident who had cried out "Vive la France".

The Ahmed Baba institute was set up in 1973. A new building was opened in 2009 following a bilateral agreement with South Africa to promote the conservation, research and promotion of the manuscripts as African heritage.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Monday indicated Rome was scrapping plans to provide logistical support for French-led forces in Mali due to a failure among the main parties to reach a political deal ahead of elections next month.

"I asked the leaders of the three parties of the majority to give their views but we did not receive the support we had hoped for," Monti, who is himself running as leader of the coalition of centrist parties, said in an interview with La7 television.

Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola last week said Italy would send a refuelling plane and two transport planes to carry troops and equipment in the conflict against Islamist-led rebels in Mali.

While expressing Italy's "strong support" for the operation, however, Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said that "internal political conditions" meant Rome could not offer concrete backing at the moment.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that London was "keen" to contribute more in addition to two transport planes and a surveillance aircraft which have already been provided.

The manuscripts are very crucial to West Africa as well as African civilisation and history. Most of them represent the earliest objective and undiluted accounts and experiences of travellers; most especially Arab traders and Islamic missionaries.

France has so far done the best. The French troops have successfully taken over Kidal, the last stronghold of the Islamists. Reports have it that some of the main leaders of the Islamists have escaped into neighbouring countries especially Nigeria.

Mali is being liberated

PARIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A French-led offensive in Mali that forced out al Qaeda-allied Islamist insurgents from the towns of Gao and Timbuktu at the weekend shows that Mali is slowly being freed, the French foreign minister said on Monday.

"Little by little, Mali is being liberated," Laurent Fabius told France 2 television. But Fabius cautioned that armed fighters from the Islamist alliance in north Mali, who had sought to impose Islamic law in the vast desert area, were now hiding and could reappear.

"The terrorist groups are carrying out a strategy of evasion and some of them could return in the north, primarily in Mali," Fabius warned. He declined to say whether France would intervene again if the militants returned.

Weekend gains by French and Malian forces capped a two-week offensive, involving warplanes and ground troops, launched to halt a southward push toward the capital, Bamako, by the loose coalition of Islamic militants.

French and Malian armoured columns forced fighters out of the central Malian towns of Diabaly and Douentza last week, and in recent days have inched their way northward.

"We are winning back a series of towns with the Malians," said Fabius, adding that troops from an African intervention force were preparing to deploy. Soldiers from Chad and Nigeria are already on the ground. (Reporting By Alexandria Sage)

Another Nigeria and Libya: Mali Forces and undue Executions

Mali could be on the verge of creating a haven for a long-term insurgency-style of continuous attacks that could gradually consume West Africa with the constant human rights abuses the Malian army has been accused of committing.

Mali's army has sealed off a central town amid allegations that some of its soldiers had summarily executed dozens of people allegedly connected to rebel fighters. The experience of Nigeria in the Boko Haram menace ought to be a foundation structure for counter-activities on the rebels.

The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues said on Thursday that in the central town of Sevare at least 11 people were executed in a military camp near a bus station and the town's hospital, citing evidence gathered by local researchers.

Credible reports also pointed to around 20 other people having been executed in the same area and the bodies having been dumped in wells or otherwise disposed of, the organisation said. At Niono, two Malian Tuaregs were executed by Malian soldiers, according to the FIDH. All these executions and killings are properly documented.

The rights group, Human Rights Watch, said its investigators had spoken to witnesses who saw the executions of two Tuareg men in the village of Siribala, near Niono. The group also said witnesses had reported "credible information" of soldiers sexually abusing women in a village near Sevare, and called on the government to urgently investigate these incidents, AFP news agency reported.

The majority of the al-Qaeda-linked rebels being hunted by the armies are either Tuaregs or Arabs, reports say.

 But Mali's army has denied the claims. General Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele, the Malian army chief, promised that any soldier involved in abuses would be brought to book.

"One mustn't get confused. Every white skin is not a terrorist or a jihadist and among the enemy which attacked our different position were many black skins. We are among brothers, whether one is black or white."

Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defence minister, urged extreme "vigilance" against any abuses, saying the "honour of the (Malian) troops is at stake".

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said: "We cannot accept any rights violations. The international community will face a very serious situation if (the intervention force) is identified with abuses." The rebels in Mali are the same people NATO and the West armed against Gaddafi in Libya a Russian official said.

A circulating news now is that the rebels have become factional and one group is ready for negotiation. How credible this group will be is yet to be known as it is almost a tradition for rebel groups to split under such intense firepower.

Mali could end up becoming another Libya in which weapons will be freely circulated among groups after being delivered by Western powers. The Kremlin confirms this as well as Hillary Clinton in her statement delivered to congress on Wednesday.

Nigeria and her 190 Soldiers in Mali!!! A Mission of Jokes

Nigeria has decided to send 190 soldiers down to Mali after France has taken the initiative to combat the Islamists. What will be the effect of 190 soldiers in a vast land called Northern Mali?

Nigeria's act is at best laughable. The United Nations has given the West African body, ECOWAS the 'legal military framework' to tackle the insurgency but the body postponed any action all in the name of preparations. This is giving the Islamist rebels more time to get to Bamako.

Colonel Yerima said: “The degenerating crisis in the Republic of Mali compelled the decision of ECOWAS Heads of Government to intervene with a deployment of their military forces.

“Following this decision and in line with Nigeria’s acclaimed peacekeeping roles and in the spirit of African brotherhood, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has ordered the immediate deployment of Nigerian troops to Mali.

‘‘The President approved the deployment of a Battallion and in the next 24 hours, a Company of the Battalion [190] will be deployed. The remainder would be deployed later. Already, the Force Commander, Major General S U Abdulkadir, is on ground in Mali.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 2085 of December 2012 approved the deployment of ECOWAS Security Force to assist Mali in reclaiming the northern part of the country from Islamic militants. Nigeria is still largely unable to address the Boko Haram hazard.

West Africa has proven that Africa will continue to depend on foreign actions to tackle her morass and menace. The colonel even said the EU remains in close touch with all international actors including the AU, ECOWAS and the UN. I wonder what actions the AU and ECOWAS have taken. 

The US and NATO in Mali?

The stage could be set for the coming of the United States and NATO into Mali. NATO and the United Kingdom has reiterated that they will not intervene militarily in Mali with boots on the ground. UK has sponsored France with aircraft and ready to provide more logistics. The call within the Republican circle that Obama should respond to France is reminiscent of Libya.

France has called on the Security Council of the United Nations to discuss and this might shore of international support for the mission. The Islamists on their part have promised France a long war. The have being launching a counter-offensive to drive home the point that the war is continuous and could get to mainland France.

The Obama administration should give France whatever aid it needs to combat Islamist militants in Mali, the top Republican on foreign affairs issues said Tuesday. 

“I expect the Obama administration to honour appropriate requests for intelligence and logistics support from France,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said in a statement. “When confronting a shared threat, we should have our ally’s back.”

Royce's comments come amid reports that France is beefing up its intervention to roll back Islamists who have taken over the northern part of the desert country and are threatening the rest of the country. The French intervention was requested by the country's president, who took over following a military coup last year that has been denounced by the Obama administration.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Monday the United States has a “responsibility” to help roll back the al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali.

“I welcome France taking the initiative to combat this serious security threat in West Africa,” Royce said. “The vast area of Northern Mali gives these al Qaeda-linked militants space to operate, and the weapons flowing out of Libya makes them deadly. This cancer could not go unaddressed.

“This isn’t avant garde for the French. They have shown leadership in working with Ivory Coast and other African governments to improve security. Paris understands the high stakes.”

If the United States is involved, then NATO cannot be extricated from Mali too. The fear is that another Libya might be brewing in West Africa and more weapons will be in circulation; hence, another vicious circle of violence and instability if they leave.

UN Security Council, Ecowas and Mali

UN Security Council and Ecowas to meet on Mali

France has called on the Security Council to hold a meeting to discuss the situation in Mali, where Paris intervened on Friday to help fight the Islamist insurgency there. The meeting will take place Monday afternoon, a spokesman for the French UN Mission Brieuc Pont, said in a tweet posted Sunday.

This comes as the French operation in its former African colony enters its third day. On Sunday, French fighter jets bombed strongholds in northern Mali, targeting airports as well as training camps, warehouses and buildings used by the Islamists controlling the area.  The militants are said to have links to al-Qaeda.

Ecowas on Monday made it known that the regional group will meet and discuss Mali. This comes after France, the erstwhile colonial master has taken up the challenge and lead to combat the Ansar Dine Islamists. The United Nations last year September gave Ecowas the green light to tackle the insurgency in Mali but the group decided to act in autumn giving the rebels more time to act and cover more tracks.

France has been heavily bombarding the rebels with heavy firepower but has met stiff and unflagging resistance from the islamists too. The rebels are reported to be in possession of heavy ammunitions with sophisticated trainings and military skills.

Nigeria, Boko Haram and Mali

Nigerian authorities arrested Mohammed Zangina , one of the ideologists of the terrorist group Boko Haram, accused of killing hundreds of people, CNN reports. The military spokesman was captured in the city of Maiduguru in the northeast of the country.

The terrorist group has killed more than 2,800 people, according to Human Rights Watch. Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked Nigerian villages and Christian churches in a campaign to impose strict Islamic law on Muslims in Nigeria.

The issue is not the arrests. Numerous have been reported including that of high profile politicians but nothing has come out of it. Everything we have successfully heard and witnessed are people walking freely in the so-called prisons and even in the society. Boko Haram suspects use mobile phones, eat perfectly well and still live like kings in the prisons.

None of them can be taken to court. When Boko Haram sneezes, Nigeria catches cold. Officials in government circles and among prison workers revealed that the fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom for Nigeria and the Jonathan administration.

With French involvement in Mali, more headache will be on for Nigeria because there could be a backlog of attacks. The insurgency can easily melt into Northern Nigeria and launch heinous attacks from there.

France in Somalia and Mali

A second French soldier has died from gunshot wounds after an attempt to rescue a French agent, Somalia's al Shabaab rebel group said Monday. The spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters that the group will display the bodies of the dead men.

French forces went into southern Somalia by helicopter on Saturday to try to free Denis Allex, held hostage since 2009. French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday the operation had failed despite the “sacrifice” of two soldiers. Musab claimed Allex was alive and his fate would be decided later.

David Cameron has reiterated that the United Kingdom will not drop boots on the ground in Mali. The UK has provided two C17 transport planes to aid the French effort. One is expected to leave France for Mali on Monday after having flown from the UK on Sunday. The aircraft is reported to have developed some mechanical faults.

The two missions have been surprises to France. Al Shabab proved to be very daring and dangerous. The fighting spirit, training, weapons and level of sophistication of the Ansar dine rebels in Mali is also alarming to France. France promised to leave Mali within weeks. The fear in West Africa should be the resultant effect it will have on insurgency in the region has Nigeria still battles Boko Haram.