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THE KEY WITNESS IN ABDULAZIZ MURTALA NYAKO; SON OF IMPEACHED GOV OF ADAMAWA STATE, MURTALA HAMMA-YERO NYAKO CASE IS DEAD. The key witness in the suit against Abdul-Aziz Nyako, son of the impeached governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, is dead. He is Maadai Dan-Tsoho. The family and political sources reported that Mr. Dan-Tsoho died of asthma attack on Tuesday in Yola, the Adamawa State capital. Mr. Dan-Tsoho took over as the regional manager of Zenith Bank, North Eastern operations. Kashim Shetima, the current Governor of Borno State . He was suspended from his job when he agreed to testify in this suit. He was noted for his aggressive investments and had major stakes in the new Azman Airlines, Azman petroleum and a chain of real estate holdings in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. He was also the owner of Dan Tsoho hotel, a high brow Hotel in Malamre District in Jimeta, the state capital. His death is expected to introduce hiccups in the prosecution of the younger Nyako, who was taken to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The EFCC through its Head, Media and Publicity Wilson Uwujaren, said that the organization did not have information on the death of their principal witness. “I don’t have this information right now,” he said and added that he needed to get in touch with those involved in the case for more details. The younger Nyako was declared wanted by the EFCC after they instituted a case of stealing, abuse of office and money laundering against him recently. He is currently being interrogated over alleged illicit funds traced to companies in which he has interest. The younger Nyako have been asked by the commission to explain how over N15 billion belonging to Adamawa State was allegedly laundered into the accounts of five companies – Blue Opal Nigeria Limited, Crust Energy Nigeria Limited, Blue Ribbon Multilinks Limited, Tower Assets Management Limited and Blue Ribbon Bureau De Change – said to be owned by him.
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HUMAN RIGHTS Amnesty International: 'unprecedented' impact of conflict on African citizens' lives and rights. Amnesty International's annual report 2014/15 says conflict and insecurity have afflicted the lives of countless people across Africa. DW spoke to Amnesty's Africa Director for Research NETSANET BELAY. The 2014/2015 State of World Human Rights report calls the global response to human rights shameful and ineffective, but it also refers to the remarkable achievements of many states in pursuing the UN's Millennium Development Goals. So what are the key issues affecting African countries in this year's report? Africa is seeing deepening violent conflicts in several countries. Its impact on peoples' rights, lives, safety and security is unprecedented. 2014 was the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. The African Union (AU) committed itself to ending conflicts by 2020 but what we are seeing is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and human rights in the context of conflicts in Africa. We've seen a persistent pattern of war crimes being committed. Thousands of civilians have died as a result of these conflicts, millions are facing displacement and other forms of abuse including sexual violence and abductions. So that is one key challenge that Africa was facing last year. And given that most of the underlying causes have not been addressed, our projection is that the likelihood of violent armed conflict in Africa escalating even further seems evident. These conflicts affected human rights in Africa? In almost all cases, the conflicts are marred by gross violations of human rights laws. Civilians have been subjected to indiscriminate attacks by conflicting parties. We're not only talking about acts by armed radical groups like al-Shabab and Boko Haram, but the response of government forces to conflict has been equally brutal. We have seen this in Nigeria. In cases like South Sudan and the Central African Republic, we have seen how civilians have fallen victim in the cycle of violence. What about freedom of expression? We have seen the restriction of the freedom of expression and free assembly in far too many places in Africa. Some of them include those countries that have a consistent record of restricting fundamental freedoms, like Eritrea, Ethiopia or Burundi. We've also seen new legislations introduced in the name of counter-terrorism. These measures are being used to suppress dissent and affects journalists and activists. We've seen this in Ethiopia and Gambia. In countries like Angola, Burundi and Gambia, we've also seen the violent crackdown on peaceful protestors. One group that has frequently been subjected to human rights violations is sexual minorities. Has there been any improvement in this? Indeed, we believe that 2014 has seen a couple of landmarks in that area. In May 2014, the African Commission of Human and Peoples' Rights passed a resolution calling for the protection of the rights of all individuals irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity and religious belief. We've also seen some progressive judicial decisions coming in from countries like Uganda, where the infamous anti-homosexuality bill was struck down by a court. We saw a similar ruling in Botswana – a high court overturned a refusal by the Department of Labor and Home Affairs to register an organization representing the LGBTI community. So these are small signs of hope that we've seen in the last year. However we continue to observe worrying signs, attacks and the discrimination of the LGBTI community in Africa. Some countries have introduced regressive legislation, such as Gambia, which has introduced new crimes like "aggravated homosexuality", as they call it, subjecting people to long sentences and including punishments like the death penalty. A similar legislation was introduced in Chad. People are also seeing harassment by the police, various forms of discrimination by the state and continuing failure by governments to protect citizens. What do you think should be done to address the violations of human rights? One of our specific demands calls on the UN Security Council members to renounce their veto right in situations of mass atrocities like genocide and crimes against humanity. We believe a similar robust response is needed on the part of regional bodies such as the African Union Peace and Security Council. Secondly we are calling on governments to stop paying lip service and take action to assist those fleeing conflict and persecution. NETSANET BELAY is Amnesty International's Africa Research and Advocacy Director. But that's to be expected given the atrocities committed in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Central African Republic and other countries. "This has been a devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights and for those caught up in the suffering of war zones," the secretary general of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, wrote in the foreword. And the human rights campaigning group strongly criticises governments. "In the year marking the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, politicians repeatedly trampled on the rules protecting civilians, or looked away from the deadly violations of these rules committed by others," Mr Shetty said. "The United Nations was established 70 years ago to ensure that we would never again see the horrors witnessed in the Second World War. "We are now seeing violence on a mass scale and an enormous refugee crisis caused by that violence. "There has been a singular failure to find workable solutions to the most pressing needs of our time." 'Powerful signal' One such workable solution, Amnesty International suggests, would be for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain - to agree not to use their right of veto to block action in response to situations of genocide and other mass atrocities. Salil Shetty takes the view that this would be a "game changer" for the international community and the tools it has at its disposal to help protect civilian lives, He also believed it would send a powerful signal to perpetrators that the world would not sit idly by while mass atrocities took place. The idea that the five powers would voluntarily renounce their veto rights in such circumstances has been around for some time. Indeed the French government has been at the forefront of such an initiative, and it seems to have been gathering momentum. Amnesty says it intends to get the weight and influence of its seven million supporters and activists behind it. It argues that if the use of the veto in the Security Council had already been restrained in this way then it could have prevented Russia using its veto repeatedly to block UN action over the violence in Syria. This might have resulted in President Bashar al-Assad being referred to the International Criminal Court, in achieving greater access for badly needed humanitarian aid and in further ways of helping civilians. The British government has not yet made a specific commitment in favour of the voluntary renunciation of the veto. But the Foreign Office said in response to the Amnesty report: "The proposal put forward by France offers an important contribution to the wider debate on reform of the Security Council. "The United Kingdom wholeheartedly supports the principle that the Security Council must act to stop mass atrocities and crimes against humanity. "We cannot envisage circumstances where we would use our veto to block such action." Amnesty International fears that 2015 could be another bleak year for human rights. It predicts that more civilian populations will be forced to live under the quasi-state control of brutal armed groups. There will be deepening threats to freedom of expression and other rights including violations caused by new draconian anti-terror laws and unjustified mass surveillance. It also says and there will be a worsening humanitarian and refugee crisis. But Amnesty says its aim is to get governments to "stop pretending that the protection of civilians is beyond their power". Cycle of violence It acknowledges that the coming into force last year of the Arms Trade Treaty was a success. But it wants much more to be done to tackle what it calls "the bloody legacy of the flooding of weapons into countries where they are used for grave abuses by states and armed groups". Anna Neistat, Amnesty's senior director for research, said: "Huge arms shipments were delivered to Iraq, Israel, South Sudan and Syria in 2014 despite the very high likelihood that these weapons would be used against civilian populations trapped in conflict. "When IS took control of large parts of Iraq it found large arsenals, ripe for the picking." The human rights group also argues that further restrictions on the use of explosive weapons, which cannot be precisely targeted or which otherwise have wide effect in populated areas, could have helped to save thousands of lives lost in recent conflicts. If Amnesty is robust in its challenge to governments, the British government maintains that it is an exaggeration to accuse the international community of paralysis. The Foreign Office said the Security Council had acted effectively on a number of issues over the past year for example, 100,000 peacekeepers were deployed globally, to address conflicts and help states build peaceful societies. "The underlying drivers of abuse are discrimination, impunity and inequality," said Mr Shetty. "If we do not stop these, all we will have is a cycle of violence."
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BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS KIDNAPS HONG LOCAL GOVT COUNCIL VICE CHAIRMAN. The Adamawa State Police Command on Wednesday confirmed the abduction of the Vice Chairman of Hong Local Government, Mr Bijida Yakubu, by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram. The Public Relations Officer of the command, Othman Abubakar, who confirmed the incident, said three vigilante members that were with Mr Bijida Yakubu lost their lives in the encounter. Mr Abubakar, who did not give details, however, said the police officers investigating the incident have so far recovered the vice chairman’s shoes which is part of an evidence of the abduction. A resident of Hong who identified himself as Hussaini said that the incident occurred in Gaya-fa'a Village of the area. “You know, insurgents attacked the village last week. The vice chairman who hailed from the village was on an assessment visit with some hunters when the insurgents attacked and over-powered them. “About seven insurgents were killed in the encounter before they over-powered the hunters and took away the vice chairman,” he said. Mr. Hussaini claimed that the abducted vice chairman was later allowed by his captors to call his wife with his cell phone before the device was switched off. The Chairman of Adamawa branch of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Sahabo Gurin, also confirmed the incident. Adamawa is one of the three states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. The insurgency has caused the death of about 20,000 people in northern Nigeria with hundreds of thousands of others displaced. The Nigerian military recently began a major offensive against the group, reclaiming some of the territory initially seized by the insurgents.
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THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO HAVE LAUNCHED AN ATTACK AGAINST RWANDAN HUTU REBELS IN THE EASTERN PART OF THE COUNTRY. The Democratic Republic of Congo's army on Tuesday launched an assault against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the volatile east of the country, military and official sources said. "Operations against the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) began in South Kivu early this morning and will last as long as these people resist," an officer in the armed forces (FARDC) said, asking not to be named. "We hear explosions here in Lemera, 30 kilometres from Mulenge," said Innocent Ndaheba, a local leader, referring to towns in South Kivu. "We've seen FARDC deploying over the past two days." Rwandan rebels have been active in North and South Kivu provinces since older members of the movement fled across the border in 1994. The Hutu rebels are accused of taking part in the mass slaughter in 1994 of some 800,000 people in Rwanda, mainly from the Tutsi minority, before a Tutsi-led rebel front seized power. "We're worried about collateral damage from these attacks," said Gode Mutama, who lives in Mulenge. "We live a few kilometres from the operations ground." Without elaborating, the army source said, "We have taken steps to protect the population." An official said the operation began in Uvira in the south of South Kivu and that the Congolese troops were acting without the support of troops in the large UN mission deployed in the DRC. The army officer confirmed that "unilateral operations" were taking place under the command of Brigadier General Espera Masudi in the Mulenge region, on the Uvira plateau. The assault was first announced by President Joseph Kabila's regime last month, with strategic, logistical and operational support initially offered by the UN mission MONUSCO which includes a brigade with a special UN mandate to take the offensive against armed groups. However, MONUSCO withdrew the offer when Kinshasa refused to remove two generals designated to lead the campaign, Bruno Mandevu and Sikabwe Fall, with both men having been accused of abuses by the United Nations. The FDLR is believed to number between 1,500 and 2,000 fighters. The rebels have been implicated in serious human rights violations, including killings, rape, looting and the forcible enlistment of children, in the two Kivus. The international community last year told FDLR to surrender by January 2, but barely 300 fighters turned themselves in. They included none of the leaders wanted by Rwandan and international justice.
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IRAQI ARMY DOWNS TWO BRITISH PLANES CARRYING WEAPONS FOR ISIL TERRORISTS. Al-Anbar province, a senior lawmaker disclosed on Monday. “The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” Head of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to a Monday report of the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. He said the Iraqi parliament has asked London for explanations in this regard. The senior Iraqi legislator further unveiled that the government in Baghdad is receiving daily reports from people and security forces in al-Anbar province on numerous flights by the US-led coalition planes that airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIL in terrorist-held areas. The Iraqi lawmaker further noted the cause of such western aids to the terrorist group, and explained that the US prefers a chaotic situation in Anbar Province which is near the cities of Karbala and Baghdad as it does not want the ISIL crisis to come to an end. Earlier today, a senior Iraqi provincial official lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that US and Israeli-made weapons have been discovered from the areas purged of ISIL terrorists. “We have discovered weapons made in the US, European countries and Israel from the areas liberated from ISIL’s control in Al-Baqdadi region,” the Al-Ahad news website quoted Head of Al-Anbar Provincial Council Khalaf Tarmouz as saying. He noted that the weapons made by the European countries and Israel were discovered from the terrorists in the Eastern parts of the city of Ramadi. Al-Zameli had also disclosed in January that the anti-ISIL coalition’s planes have dropped weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL in Salahuddin, Al-Anbar and Diyala provinces. Al-Zameli underlined that the coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq. “There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid to ISIL terrorists through air(dropped cargoes),” he told FNA in January. He noted that the members of his committee have already proved that the US planes have dropped advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft weapons, for the ISIL, and that it has set up an investigation committee to probe into the matter. “The US drops weapons for the ISIL on the excuse of not knowing about the whereabouts of the ISIL positions and it is trying to distort the reality with its allegations. He noted that the committee had collected the data and the evidence provided by eyewitnesses, including Iraqi army officers and the popular forces, and said, “These documents are given to the investigation committee … and the necessary measures will be taken to protect the Iraqi airspace.” Also in January, another senior Iraqi legislator reiterated that the US-led coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq. “The international coalition is only an excuse for protecting the ISIL and helping the terrorist group with equipment and weapons,” Jome Divan, who is member of the al-Sadr bloc in the Iraqi parliament, said. He said the coalition’s support for the ISIL is now evident to everyone, and continued, “The coalition has not targeted ISIL’s main positions in Iraq.” In late December, Iraqi Parliamentary Security and Defense Commission MP disclosed that a US plane supplied the ISIL terrorist organization with arms and ammunition in Salahuddin province. MP Majid al-Gharawi stated that the available information pointed out that US planes are supplying ISIL organization, not only in Salahuddin province, but also other provinces, Iraq TradeLink reported. He added that the US and the international coalition are “not serious in fighting against the ISIL organization, because they have the technological power to determine the presence of ISIL gunmen and destroy them in one month”. Gharawi added that “the US is trying to expand the time of the war against the ISIL to get guarantees from the Iraqi government to have its bases in Mosul and Anbar provinces.” Salahuddin security commission also disclosed that “unknown planes threw arms and ammunition to the ISIL gunmen Southeast of Tikrit city”. Also in Late December, a senior Iraqi lawmaker raised doubts about the seriousness of the anti-ISIL coalition led by the US, and said that the terrorist group still received aids dropped by unidentified aircraft. “The international coalition is not serious about air strikes on ISIL terrorists and is even seeking to take out the popular (voluntary) forces from the battlefield against the Takfiris so that the problem with ISIL remains unsolved in the near future,” Nahlah al-Hababi told FNA. “The ISIL terrorists are still receiving aids from unidentified fighter jets in Iraq and Syria,” she added. Hababi said that the coalition’s precise airstrikes are launched only in those areas where the Kurdish Pishmarga forces are present, while military strikes in other regions are not so much precise. In late December, the US-led coalition dropped aids to the Takfiri militants in an area North of Baghdad. Field sources in Iraq told al-Manar that the international coalition airplanes dropped aids to the terrorist militants in Balad, an area which lies in Salahuddin province North of Baghdad. In October, a high-ranking Iranian commander also slammed the US for providing aid supplies to ISIL, adding that the US claims that the weapons were mistakenly airdropped to ISIL were untrue. “The US and the so-called anti-ISIL coalition claim that they have launched a campaign against this terrorist and criminal group – while supplying them with weapons, food and medicine in Jalawla region (a town in Diyala Governorate, Iraq). This explicitly displays the falsity of the coalition’s and the US’ claims,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said. The US claimed that it had airdropped weapons and medical aid to Kurdish fighters confronting the ISIL in Kobani, near the Turkish border in Northern Syria. The US Defense Department said that it had airdropped 28 bundles of weapons and supplies, but one of them did not make it into the hands of the Kurdish fighters. Video footage later showed that some of the weapons that the US airdropped were taken by ISIL militants. The Iranian commander insisted that the US had the necessary intelligence about ISIL’s deployment in the region and that their claims to have mistakenly airdropped weapons to them are as unlikely as they are untrue.
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