Tag: africa

US Bombs Somalia for the 90th Time This Year

US Africa Command said in a press release on Monday that its forces launched an airstrike in Somalia on November 8, marking at least the 90th time that the US has bombed the country this year.

AFRICOM said the strike targeted the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and that it was launched about 40 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso, a remote area of the Cal Miskaad mountains. The command offered no other details about the strike, as it had stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on civilian harm earlier this year.

“Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” the command said.

The US backs local security forces in Puntland, as the US-backed Federal Government, which is based in Mogadishu, doesn’t control the territory. In 2024, the Puntland government withdrew from the federal system in response to President Hassan Sheikh’s move to amend the constitution.

The Puntland government has come under criticism recently over reports that the UAE has been shipping weapons to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan through an air base in Bosaso. The RSF has been accused of committing genocide in Sudan, and its fighters committed atrocities against civilians after it took the city of El Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region in October.

The US has been providing Puntland with significant air support in its war against Somalia’s ISIS affiliate. At the end of October, AFRICOM conducted airstrikes in Puntland’s Caal-Miskaad mountains for three consecutive days.

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Onward Christian Soldiers

Somewhere between New York’s Studio 54 disco and the White House, Donald Trump became infused by militant Christianity. At the same time, he also seems to have been imbued by the most extreme, far-right Zionism.

Politics do odd things. Trump may espouse a lot of oddball causes, but he’s no fool. He lives and breathes politics.

This week’s political rabbit out of the hat is, of all places, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nations, with 232 million rambunctious people. As with many of today’s world problems, Nigeria was a creation of British imperialism. The British took a very large swathe of West Africa comprising all sorts of peoples, religions and tribes, drew a line around its borders, and called it Nigeria.

Northern Nigeria, which abuts the Sahara, was predominantly Muslim. Southern Nigeria, where vast stores of oil were eventually discovered, became largely Christian thanks to intense British missionary activity. The two huge communities occasionally squabble or fight, most often over land disputes, cattle rusting and kidnapping of women.

This behavior is common all over West and Southern Africa. Its victims number less than black people killed each year in Chicago’s endemic urban violence.

It’s nonsense to say Nigeria is racked by anti-Christian violence. The tribal conflict that it suffers is small-time violence whose numbers and severity have long been played up by fundamentalist Christians in the United States who preach holy war against Muslims everywhere. Most of these militant Christian fundamentalists look at Trump as a second savior. He has carefully cultivated this image.

The Christian far right is a key component of Trump’s supporters. The late far-right Christian advocate, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated was a key spokesman for Trump’s Christian moment. The Christian Right has long been focused on Africa, raising funds for anti-Islamic causes. The most notable were efforts to break the regions of Darfur from Sudan in 2018, and the current conflict in the same region as Sudan is being pulled apart.

Most impressive was US support in 2011 for secessionist, primarily Christian South Sudan – another oil rich area. South Sudan broke away with US help from Sudan, then proceeded to fall into tribal chaos and banditry. Christian groups in America had urged on this dismemberment of Sudan and even, in some cases, supplied arms to the south Sudanese rebels.

Many fundamentalist Christian voters get much of their world news from the propaganda mill at Fox News or church-issued news bulletins. Many approve Trump’s proposal that US troops be sent to Nigeria to succor Christians without being able to locate Nigeria on a map. All this fits in with efforts by the Trump administration to vilify Muslims in general or ban them from the US.

Let’s hope the 82nd Airborne Division is not about to be dropped onto Abuja Nigeria on some sort of later-day Crusader mission to please the folks in Biloxi, Mississippi. Trump vowed no more Third World wars (China excepted) and now he’s stepping right into one of totally unpredictable outcome and no sense whatsoever. Some in the White House are urging Trump to conquer all the world’s oil producers. He wants to be King of Oil on top of king of most everything else.

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World War Gorka

News comes this weekend that the ‘Department of War’ now has Nigeria in its crosshairs. Taking to Truth Social on Saturday, Trump let loose on the Nigerian government, warning that,

…If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities, I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians.”

In this administration some Christians are more cherished than others; Trump and Co. have shown zero sympathy for the scores of Palestinian Christians murdered by the IDF and Benjamin Netanyahu, a frequent and honored guest at the White House and on Capitol Hill. That aside, the planned Nigeria operation is clearly the product of the capacious imagination of Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s chief counter-terrorism adviser.

Who is this Gorka?

Before coming to the White House he was a radio host (“America First with Sebastian Gorka”) and a pitchman for Relief Factor, a dietary supplement. America First? An odd name for a program hosted by someone with British, Hungarian and American citizenship – and with probable ties to foreign intelligence. Those ties cost him a job during Trump’s first term. After his ignominious exit from the White House in 2017, Gorka spent the Biden interregnum glued to Trump’s side, appearing alongside a gaggle of future Trump II officials during Trump’s trial in New York.

If he has any talent at all (itself a debatable proposition) it is for ass-kissing. Here he is on Facebook in late September posting about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s eulogy for Charlie Kirk:

I was born a Catholic and have walked this Earth for 54 years. Before dedicating a quarter of a century to Counterterrorism, my first degree was in Philosophy and Theology.

But I will say for the record, I have never seen a human being encapsulate in 90 seconds the meaning of Jesus Christ like Acting National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Thank you Sir.

No. Thank you, Sebastian.

Gorka is not merely a fool. He is a religious fanatic (there being significant overlap between the two categories).

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Nigerian President Denies Existence of a Christian Genocide and Denounces Trump’s Threat of Military Intervention

Nigeria has rejected President Trump’s threat of military intervention to protect the country’s Christian population.

As Christians continue to be massacred at the hands of Islamist militias in the northern region of the most populous African country, Trump has sounded the alarm and said he may even use military force to protect them.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

However, the Nigerian government has pushed back on this idea and denied that the persecution of Christians is even taking place.

Politico reports:

The U.S. cannot unilaterally carry out any military operation in Nigeria over its claims of Christian persecution in the West African country, a Nigerian presidential spokesman told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The military threat from Donald Trump is based on misleading reports and appears to be part of “Trump’s style of going forceful in order to force a sit-down and have a conversation,” according to Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

…

“When it comes to matters of military operation in Nigeria, this is a matter that two leaders have to agree on,” he continued. ”It is not something unilaterally you can do especially since that country is a sovereign state and that country is not aiding and abating that (crime).”

Tinubu has also rejected the designation and promised to work with the U.S. government and foreign partners ”to deepen cooperation on protection of communities of all faiths.”

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Nigerian President Responds to Trump’s Call for Military Action Against Christian Persecution

The Nigerian government on Sunday responded to a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States could take military action in the African nation if its government does not more to curb the persecution of Christians there by Islamic terrorists.

“We welcome U.S. assistance as long as it recognizes our territorial integrity,” Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, told Reuters.

On Saturday, Tinubu rejected accusations of religious persecution against Christians and defended Nigeria’s “sincere efforts” to protect religious freedom.

“The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” Tinubu said in a statement released on X. “Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.”

He also said Nigeria is a country that also has “constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths,” adding that his government will work with the United States on this matter.

In a Saturday post on Truth Social, Trump stated that Islamic terrorists were carrying out mass killings of Christians and that the religion is “facing an existential threat” in the West African country.

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Trump Warns U.S. Military ‘May Very Well’ Go into Nigeria ‘Guns-a-Blazing’ over Killing of Christians

President Donald Trump warned that if the Nigerian government continued to allow Christians in the country to be killed, the United States military “may very well” go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump instructed the Department of War to “prepare for possible action,” adding that if the U.S. does attack, “it will be fast, vicious, and sweet.” Trump also threatened to “stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria” if the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said in his post.

Trump continued: “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

Trump’s warning comes after he previously said that Christians were “facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” and pointed out that “thousands of Christians are being killed” by radical Islamists.

The President also took action to designate Nigeria as a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” and asked Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) to work together “to immediately look into this matter” and report back to him with their findings.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump said in a post on Friday. “I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ — But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like it happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”

In response to Trump’s comments about the “mass slaughter” of Christians in Nigeria, Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Maitama Tuggar denied that there was a genocide occurring in the country.

“For the avoidance of any doubt, and out of respect for all the victims and survivors around the world of this unique and appalling crime against humanity, let the record show that there is no genocide, now or ever, in Nigeria,” Tuggar said in a statement to Newsweek.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu — a Muslim — has also denied there is religious persecution against Christians taking place, labeling it as “a lie from the pit of hell.”

Breitbart News’s Frances Martel reported that eleven years ago, in April 2014, Boko Haram terrorists “abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls from the Christian community of Chibok in northern Borno State.” More than “90 of the girls remain missing.”

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Trump Sounds Alarm on Christian Genocide in Nigeria — Pledges to Take Action Against Islamist Atrocities

President Donald Trump is sounding the alarm on Christian persecution in Nigeria.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump spoke out about the threats faced by Nigerian Christians at the hands of Islamist militias.

He wrote:

Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.

I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!

I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me.

The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!

This warning was underlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“The ongoing slaughter of thousands of Christians in Nigeria by radical Islamists and Fulani ethnic militias is both tragic and unacceptable,” he wrote.

”As President Trump said, the United States stands ready, willing, and able to act.”

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Maternity hospital massacre leaves 460 dead: Fresh horror in Sudan as patients and staff are butchered, after 2,000 civilians were executed in two days

A maternity hospital massacre in Sudan has left 460 people dead just days after a 48-hour killing spree saw more than 2,000 civilians executed by paramilitary rebels.

The World Health Organisation said the Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, the city’s last remaining hospital, was on Sunday ‘attacked for the fourth time in a month, killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers’.

Two days later, ‘six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist, were abducted’ and ‘more than 460 patients and their companions were reportedly shot and killed in the hospital,’ by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, the organisation said.

Footage purportedly capturing the aftermath of the hospital massacre showed bodies scattered across the floor among debris and broken equipment.

‘I was performing surgery in the hospital when heavy shelling occurred. A mortar hit the hospital. I was so worried because the woman’s wounds were open, and everyone was running around me,’ Dr Suhiba, a gynaecologist, told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. 

The northeast African nation was plunged into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions about the future of the country between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the head of the paramilitary rebel group erupted. 

Following the most recent incident, allies of the army, the Joint Forces, said on Tuesday that the RSF ‘committed heinous crimes against innocent civilians, where more than 2,000 unarmed citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them women, children and the elderly’. 

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Social Media Uproar Ensues as Footage Emerges Showing Marxist Muslim Candidate for Minneapolis Mayor Pledging Loyalty to Somalia in a Foreign Language While Waving the Nation’s Flag

One of America’s most iconic cities appears to have fallen to the radical Islamist left thanks to unfettered immigration from hostile foreign nations.

On Thursday, a viral video emerged showing 35-year-old Minnesota Democratic State Senator and mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, a Muslim and son of Somali migrants, smiling and waving his native country’s flag. The footage appears to be from a rally held by Fateh in August at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis.

As one can see, he pledges his complete loyalty to Somalia while speaking in either Somali or Arabic and urging his fans to vote for him in November.

Can you believe this is happening in America?

Seeing this sickening scene infuriated several prominent social media conservatives, who declared this could be the end of Minneapolis and demanded his deportation (Fateh was born in Washington, D.C.).

As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, Fateh previously revealed his Marxist agenda for the city in a social media post back in July.

He called for increasing the minimum wage to $20 “to keep money in working people’s pockets and circulating in our local economy.” However, given that so many small businesses operate on small profit margins and fail to begin with, this would result in mass bankruptcies for those who stay in Minneapolis, while others flee the city.

Fateh also pushed for “rent stabilization,” also known as freezes, to protect workers. This would have the opposite effect, providing no incentive for companies to build additional housing.

Fateh also wants to ‘protect’ all of Minneapolis’s communities from President Donald Trump. To do so, he would refuse to let the Minneapolis Police Department cooperate with ICE, even if there is a raid on criminal aliens.

“Our residents deserve a mayor that will stand up to Donald Trump and say ‘no, not in our community,’” Fateh says.

He would deal with higher crime rates if it meant not interacting with his sworn enemy.

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US Bombs Somalia for Three Consecutive Days

The US has launched three more airstrikes in Somalia over three consecutive days, according to press releases from US Africa Command, as the Trump administration continues to bomb the country at a record pace.

AFRICOM said that it launched an airstrike on October 26 that targeted al-Shabaab about 25 miles north of the southern port city of Kismayo. That same day, the US-backed Somali government said a “precision airstrike” killed an al-Shabaab leader, though the town it said he was targeted in, Bu’ale, is more than 100 miles north of Kismayo, so it’s unclear if it was the same strike.

AFRICOM offered no other details about the strike as it stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm earlier this year. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” the command said.

The command also announced two separate strikes in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, launched on October 27 and October 28. AFRICOM said both strikes targeted the ISIS affiliate in the region and were launched about 53 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosasso, and shared no other details.

Puntland is not under the control of the US-backed federal government, so the US backs local forces in the region. AFRICOM previously announced airstrikes in Puntland on October 24 and October 26 as Puntland’s security forces said they were intensifying operations against ISIS fighters hiding in caves in the Cal-Miskaad mountains.

Puntland officials claim that the ISIS militants are largely defeated, something they’ve been saying for months. But local sources told Garowe Online that the militants are still entrenched in the area and have resorted to guerrilla tactics and are constantly moving between caves and valleys.

The US has dramatically increased its airstrikes in Somalia this year, and the latest three strikes bring the total number of US bombings in the country this year to 89. The Trump administration has shattered the previous annual record for US airstrikes in Somalia, which President Trump set at 63 back in 2019. For context, President Biden launched a total of 51 airstrikes in Somalia throughout his four years in office, and President Obama launched 48 over eight years.

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