Tag: africa

The Persecution of Nigeria’s Christians by Muslims is Medieval in its Horror

The persecution of Nigeria’s Christians by Islamising Muslims is medieval in its horror, says Tom Goodenough in the Spectator. “Villages are surrounded in the dead of night by bandits who rape and kill the inhabitants. No one is spared: women and children are among those butchered.” Here’s an excerpt.

The Makurdi Diocese, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt Benue state, has been hit badly by this savage violence. In 2024, 549 locals in this diocese alone were murdered and dozens more kidnapped. Over 3,700 people in Makurdi have been killed since 2015. Villages have been effectively wiped off the map. Over a million Nigerians, terrified of what might await them, have chosen instead to live in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps.

Wilfred Anagbe, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Makurdi, home to about a million people, says the massacres are a systematic attempt to kill Christians and Islamise the region – and that the authorities are turning a blind eye to the killing of Christians:

The quest to Islamise the land is high on the agenda of some of the most powerful and influential Muslims in Nigeria. There is a campaign to take land to spread Islam. Militant Fulani herdsmen are destroying society. They steal and vandalise. They kill and boast about it. They kidnap and rape – and they enjoy total impunity from the elected authorities.

The militiamen responsible for these attacks often target non-Muslims in isolated communities who are far from help. Anagbe says that these jihadists are, as with Isis, motivated by the spoils of war, and use their religion as an excuse. The rewards are certainly rich: Benue is Nigeria’s bread basket. The farms are fertile and well-tended. For years, Christian farmers have looked after these lands. But many now face an impossible choice: stay put and risk their lives, or flee – abandoning their farmland to the herdsmen.

“When they attack, they destroy churches and burn houses and schools,” Anagbe tells the Spectator. Several of the priests he is responsible for have been gunned down – so, too, have dozens of worshippers at churches in his diocese. …

“The experience of the Nigerian Christians today can be summed up as that of a Church under sustained Islamic emasculation and persecution,” [Anagbe] told a reception in [the UK] Parliament last month. ‘We must mobilise to ensure that we roll back this dark cloud of rabid religious intolerance and accompanying violence by radical Islam in Nigeria.”

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DHS To Revoke Temporary Protected Status For Afghans, Cameroonians In US

Thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians living in the United States will have their temporary protected status (TPS) revoked in the coming months, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Monday.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has terminated TPS designations for Afghanistan and Cameroon as she determined that the countries’ current conditions no longer warrant protections, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

As The Epoch Times’ Aldgra Fredly reports, the decision will affect about 14,600 Afghans, who are set to lose their legal status in May, and approximately 7,900 Cameroonians, whose protected status will expire by June.

McLaughlin stated that Noem decided to terminate Afghanistan’s TPS designation following a review by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which had also consulted with the State Department.

TPS is a designation that allows individuals from countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary events the ability to remain in the United States.

Global Refuge, a U.S.-based nonprofit refugee resettlement agency, has condemned the DHS move to revoke protections for Afghan nationals and urged the government to reverse its course.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, stated that Afghanistan has been facing a humanitarian crisis under Taliban rule, which seized power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

In a statement, Vignarajah called the decision to revoke protections for Afghans “a morally indefensible betrayal,” saying that the individuals could face oppression if deported to Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan today is still reeling from Taliban rule, economic collapse, and humanitarian disaster,” she said. 

“Forcing them back to Taliban rule, where they face systemic oppression and gender-based violence, would be an utterly unconscionable stain on our nation’s reputation.”

CASA—which organizes working-class black, Latino, African-descendant, Indigenous, and immigrant communities—said that ending TPS for Cameroonians would put them at “severe risk” due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Central African nation.

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Somali Criminal Allowed To Stay In UK Because Deportation Would “Stress” Him Out

In yet another incredulous case, the British justice system has decided in its infinite wisdom that a Somali criminal will be allowed to stay in the UK because returning him to his home country would cause him too much “stress”.

Yes, really.

The Telegraph reports that a judge in the upper immigration tribunal ruled that the asylum seeker would suffer “stress” if deported to his homeland, which would worsen his mental health, thereby breaching article three of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects against persecution and inhumane treatment.

The unnamed man, jailed for unspecified crimes, is a schizophrenic who hears voices, and has also been dependent on alcohol for almost twenty years, according to the report, another factor which led to him being allowed to stay in the country since arriving way back in 1999.

The Home Office has argued that the man, who has been granted anonymity, would be able to get medications he needs in his home country, but the judge still ruled against them.

The man is described as having a “high level of vulnerability” and “complex needs” with “the severity of his mental health problems closely linked to his stress levels and use of alcohol,” according to the tribunal.

Lawyers assigned to the guy argued that he has “no real prospect” of returning to Mogadishu and making a living and that any financial support he would receive would be “limited”, and that he has a “history of being financially exploited”.

The Home Office has a program to offer financial support to foreign criminals being deported through the Facilitated Return Scheme. In other words, the government even offered to pay for the guy’s rehabilitation in Somalia.

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American men convicted of elaborate plot to overthrow Congo government charged by feds

Three Americans repatriated to the United States from Congo were charged Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department with staging an elaborate coup attempt aimed at overthrowing the African nation’s government.

A fourth man alleged by prosecutors to be a bomb-making expert was also charged for aiding the plot.

The complaint arises from the set of allegations that resulted in three of the defendants being detained in Congo and receiving death sentences that were later commuted to punishments of life imprisonment.

In the culmination of a long-running FBI investigation, the Justice Department accused the men of providing training, weapons, equipment and other support to a rebel army that was formed to try to overthrow the government last year.

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This 7,000-year-old mummy DNA has revealed a ‘ghost’ branch of humanity

Today, the Sahara Desert is one of the most inhospitable places on our planet. But it wasn’t always this way. 

Roll the clock back 7,000 years, and the Sahara was a lush, green savannah, teeming with wildlife, dotted with lakes – including one the size of modern-day Germany. It was, in other words, the perfect place for our ancient ancestors to settle.

But who were they? We might finally know.

Scientists have successfully analysed the DNA of two naturally mummified individuals from the Takarkori rock shelter, in what is now southwestern Libya. Their findings reveal something extraordinary: these ancient people belonged to a previously unknown branch of the human family tree.

The two women belonged to a so-called ‘ghost population’ – one that had only ever been glimpsed as faint genetic echoes in modern humans, but never found in the flesh.

“These samples come from some of the oldest mummies in the world,” Prof Johannes Krause, senior author of the new study, told BBC Science Focus. It is, he explained, remarkable that genome sequencing was possible at all, given hot conditions tend to degrade such information. 

Genome sequencing is the process of reading the complete set of genetic instructions found in an organism’s DNA – a kind of biological blueprint.

Earlier studies had examined the mummies’ mitochondrial DNA, which is much more limited. It’s passed down only through the maternal line, and is far shorter than the full genome found in the cell nucleus.

“There are around 16,000 base pairs in mitochondrial DNA,” Krause said. “That might sound like a lot, but compared to the whole genome, which has 3.2 billion, it’s just a fraction.”

So what did the team discover from this newly unlocked genetic treasure trove?

First, they found that this lost lineage split from the ancestors of sub-Saharan Africans around 50,000 years ago – about the same time other groups were beginning to migrate out of Africa. 

Remarkably, this group then remained genetically isolated from other groups of humans for tens of thousands of years, all the way through to the time when these two women died around 7,000 years ago. 

“It’s incredible,” Krause said. “At the time when they were alive, these people were almost like living fossils – like something that shouldn’t be there. If you’d told me these genomes were 40,000 years old, I would have believed it.” 

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Zimbabwe Axes All Tariffs on US Goods

The president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has suspended all tariffs on goods from the United States, a few days after the White House imposed an 18 percent rate on imports from the African country.

On Saturday, Mnangagwa wrote on X: “The principle of reciprocal tariffs, as a tool for safeguarding domestic employment and industrial sectors, holds merit. However, the Republic of Zimbabwe maintains a policy of fostering amicable relations with all nations, and cultivating adversarial relationships with none.”

He said, “In the spirit of constructing a mutually beneficial and positive relationship with the United States of America, under the leadership of president Trump, I will direct the Zimbabwean government to implement a suspension of all tariffs levied on goods originating from the United States.”

“This measure is intended to facilitate the expansion of American imports within the Zimbabwean market, while simultaneously promoting the growth of Zimbabwean exports destined for the United States,” he added.

Zimbabwe’s main trading partners are South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and China, but it does export tobacco and rice to the United States.

President Donald Trump imposed what he called reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world on April 2, declaring it “Liberation Day in America.”

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DR Congo Offers Trump Minerals in Exchange for Help with Rebels

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in which he offered extensive mineral rights to the U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund in exchange for military assistance against the Rwanda-backed insurgent group M23.

The February 8 letter, which has not officially been disclosed to the public, was allegedly reviewed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday.

“Your election has ushered in the golden age for America,” Tshisekedi told Trump. “Our partnership would provide the U.S. with a strategic advantage by securing critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, copper and tantalum from the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Tshisekedi asked Trump for unspecified military assistance and a “formal security pact” to push back M23, which has been advancing from the eastern reaches of the DRC to capture key cities and threaten the capital of Kinshasa.

A spokeswoman for Tshisekedi’s office confirmed the authenticity of the letter and said negotiations with U.S. officials over the DRC’s natural resources are already underway. A source told the WSJ that the White House National Security Council (NSC) requested a briefing on Tshisekedi’s proposal.

“The DRC is interested in partnering with the Trump administration to end the conflict and stop the flow of blood minerals via Rwanda,” Tshisekedi’s spokeswoman said.

The White House, on the other hand, refused to comment on the letter, which it described as “private correspondence to the president.”

The WSJ noted that the DRC has been separately attempting to work out a deal for securing its mining operations with former Blackwater CEO and founder Erik Prince. Blackwater is long gone, having been sold off in 2010, but Prince is involved with other private security operations and he is an outspoken supporter of President Trump.

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Key Coca-Cola & Pepsi Ingredient ‘Controlled By RSF Paramilitary In Sudan’

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is currently controlling access to a vital ingredient used in Coca-Cola and Pepsi across vast swathes of the country, according to a new report.

Gum arabic, an organic emulsifier derived from the sap of the acacia trees, is a major ingredient in a range of products, including the gigantic soft drink brands as well as soap, medicine, sweets and cosmetics. Around 70 percent of the world’s supply comes from Sudan, where the trees grow in a 200,000 square mile belt across the south of the country that is largely controlled by the RSF, according to Bloomberg.

Hisham Salih Yagoub, whose company Afritec is one of Sudan’s biggest international suppliers, told the news outlet that he regularly pays the RSF $2,500 per truck to allow transport of the product to the country’s ports.

“They stop the trucks and you have to pay for the trucks to move,” he said. “They either steal some of it or they make you pay.”

Since April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a brutal civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The country has fallen into a humanitarian crisis, with 12.5 million Sudanese displaced from their homes, according to UNHCR. Thousands are estimated to have been killed.

The RSF has been accused of widespread sexual assault, looting, torture and the summary execution of civilians, while the SAF has also been censured for indiscriminate bombing campaigns.

According to documents acquired by Bloomberg, the SAF has also introduced a range of fees that amount to roughly $155 per 100kg of gum arabic being sent out of Port Sudan, meaning any transportation of gum arabic out of the country likely involves payment to groups accused of war crimes.

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US & Israel Ask East African Countries To Resettle Palestinians

The United States and Israel have asked three East African governments to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza, according to US and Israeli officials who spoke to The Associated Press (AP).

On Friday, AP reported that the US and Israel began discussing the forced displacement of Palestinians last month with the governments of Sudan, Somalia and its breakaway region Somaliland.

This comes after US President Donald Trump suggested in February that the US could “take over” the Gaza Strip and expel Palestinians. His declaration prompted Egypt to draft an alternative plan for Gaza’s reconstruction, which has since been adopted by Arab leaders.

The $53bn Egyptian plan rejects the displacement of Palestinians and instead focuses on redeveloping the enclave without depopulating it. 

Earlier this week, Trump appeared to signal a retreat from the proposed mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. When asked about it during a meeting in the White House with Irish leader Micheal Martin, he said: “Nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza.”

However, AP’s report suggests that the US may have responded to the rejection of its displacement plan by Arab governments last month by looking further afield.

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Humans in Africa’s wet tropical forests 150 thousand years ago

Humans emerged across Africa shortly before 300 thousand years ago (ka)1,2,3. Although this pan-African evolutionary process implicates diverse environments in the human story, the role of tropical forests remains poorly understood. Here we report a clear association between late Middle Pleistocene material culture and a wet tropical forest in southern Côte d’Ivoire, a region of present-day rainforest. Twinned optically stimulated luminescence and electron spin resonance dating methods constrain the onset of human occupations at Bété I to around 150 ka, linking them with Homo sapiens. Plant wax biomarker, stable isotope, phytolith and pollen analyses of associated sediments all point to a wet forest environment. The results represent the oldest yet known clear association between humans and this habitat type. The secure attribution of stone tool assemblages with the wet forest environment demonstrates that Africa’s forests were not a major ecological barrier for H. sapiens as early as around 150 ka.

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