Metro

30 Burundian soldiers killed in Al-Shabab militants attack in Somalia

Published

1 year ago

May 5, 2022

The Burundian military has confirmed that at least 30 of its soldiers were killed and 20 others injured in an attack by al-Shabab militants on an African Union base in southern Somalia on Tuesday.

According to the report, 10 of the soldiers who were part of the AU Peacekeeping force stationed in the war-ravaged Somalia, died on the spot while the rest of the soldiers succumbed to their wounds while receiving treatment at different hospitals.

The report added that other soldiers are still missing following the attack which the al-Qaeda has since accepted responsibility for.

In a statement on the militants’ Telegram channel, al-Shabab said it killed 173 soldiers in the attack on the AU base in the village of El-Baraf, about 150 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

Though the casualty figure has not been independently verified by officials, military sources say at least 161 soldiers were at the camp at the time of attack.

A Somalian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said soldiers had intelligence that al-Shabab was gathering in a nearby village about 48 hours prior to the attack. He said the soldiers prepared to defend themselves and dug trenches but were caught by surprise by the enormity of al-Shabab explosives detonated at the camp.

He added that the militants used three truck bombs, one of which fell into a ditch, estimating the militants detonated about 20 kilograms of explosives, and that 450 militants overran the camp.

The official also said 20 al-Shabab militants were killed in the attack.

Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiyec who posted on Twitter on Wednesday, said there are no words strong enough to condemn the terrorist attack against the Burundian contingent.

“I join with all of Africa which has just lost sons and daughters … to console the hard-hit families,” Ndayishimiyec wrote.

Late last month, the al-Shabaab group has launched a mortar attack on the Somalian parliament during a joint session where six people were injured while last week, the group also Al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for a blast at a seaside restaurant in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where six people were also killed and several others wounded.

Related Topics:African Union Al-Shabaab Attack Featured

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Metro

Rwandan President, Kagame sacks over 200 military personnel in major shake-up

Published

9 hours ago

June 7, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame has sacked over 200 soldiers including top military brass and commanders from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) in a massive shake-up.

The dismissed officers include the former Commander of the Reserve Forces, Maj. Gen. Aloys Muganga, and Brig. Gen. Francis Mutiganda, a former Head of External Security in the National Intelligence Services, as well as 14 senior officers.

The announcement of the sacking of the officers which was contained in a statement released by the RDF on Wednesday, did not give reason for the sackings, but the move come a day after the president reshuffled the top echelon of the country’s military, which saw the firing of the Defence Minister and an Army Chief.

The sacking of the soldiers has further heightened tension between Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, with each side accusing the other of working with rebels to topple one another’s governments, according to reports in local media.

Metro

UN war crimes court declares Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga unfit to stand trial

Published

10 hours ago

June 7, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

An 88-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga has been declared unfit to stand trial by judges at a United Nations War Crimes Court in The Hague.

In a decision published by the court on Wednesday, the judges acknowledged that Kabuga was no longer able to actively participate in his trial, and rather proposed an alternative process that aims to resemble a trial but does not allow for a conviction instead of stopping the proceedings completely.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial,” the publication said.

“The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, therefore, finds that Mr. Kabuga is not fit for trial and is very unlikely to regain fitness in the future.

“It is therefore agreed to adopt an alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction,” it added.

Kabuga who was arrested in Paris where he had been in hiding under a false identity for several years, was one of the most wanted suspects of the Rwandan genocide, and was charged at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda with genocide and crimes against humanity.

At his initial arraignment in September last year, the ICC heard that Kabuga was alleged to have been the main financier of the ethnic Hutu militias who slaughtered over 800,000 minority Tutsis as well as political opponents during the genocide in 1994.

According to the UN, Kabuga, a wealthy businessman from the Hutu ethnic group, had established and financed an infamous media outfit, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which was notorious for inciting violence and promoting the targeting and elimination of individuals from the Tutsi ethnic group who were referred to as “Cockroaches”.

Kabuga was arrested in Paris in 2020 after decades on the run and sent for trial in The Hague where he pleaded not guilty to charges of sponsoring the infamous Hutu radical radio station urging people to kill Tutsi “cockroaches”.

He also denied supplying machetes and supporting the murderous Interahamwe Hutu militia.