Day: February 5, 2023

KATSINA (Nigeria)— A gang of cattle thieves has killed 41 vigilantes in Nigeria’s troubled north in a forest ambush, police said.

The incident happened on Thursday in Katsina state when scores of vigilantes from several villages in the Bakori district mobilised to track down the gang, which had stolen cattle from a local the previous day.

Katsina state police spokesman Gambo Isah said late Friday the vigilantes were ambushed by the thieves, who killed 41 and injured two others.

He said the vigilantes were armed with Kalashnikov rifles.

“The hoodlums shot and killed 41 Yansakai (vigilantes) and wounded two,” he said, adding that their bodies had been recovered.

“A joint security operation is currently ongoing with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book,” he added.

Local residents said 52 people had been killed in the attack in Yargoje forest in the neighbouring Kankara district.

“The police went into the forest between Thursday and Friday and brought 52 bodies of the vigilantes in two batches,” Idris Usman said.

He said dozens of other vigilantes were also brought to the hospital with injuries.

Another local, Abdullahi Sada, gave the same toll, saying the attackers were from neighbouring Zamfara state.

Katsina is among several states in northwest and central Nigeria terrorised by criminal gangs who raid villages, kill residents, kidnap for ransom, steal cattle and burn homes after looting them.

The gangs maintain camps in a vast forest straddling the states of Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Niger.

The southern part of Katsina, including Bakori and Kankara, lies near the border with Zamfara and have been repeatedly targeted by gangs based in the adjoining state.

More than 300 schoolboys were kidnapped by bandits in Kankara in December 2021. The pupils were taken to Zamfara and released after ransom was paid.

Local communities then formed vigilante groups to fight attacks by criminal gangs.

But the militia were outlawed by state authorities for lack of basic security training which, they say, exposes them to unnecessary danger.

“This unfortunate loss of lives of these vigilantes was the result of taking laws into their (own) hands,” Ibrahim Ahmad Katsina, security adviser to the governor said.

“We have told communities not to go after terrorists when they attack them but to promptly inform security agencies,” he added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches.

The three Christian leaders spoke out on LGBTQ rights during an unprecedented joint airborne news conference returning home from South Sudan, where they took part in a three-day ecumenical pilgrimage to try to nudge the young country’s peace process forward.

They were asked about Francis’ recent comments to The Associated Press, in which he declared that laws that criminalize gay people were “unjust” and that “being homosexual is not a crime.”

South Sudan is one of 67 countries that criminalizes homosexuality, 11 of them with the death penalty. LGBTQ advocates say even where such laws are not applied, they contribute to a climate of harassment, discrimination and violence.

Francis referred his Jan. 24 comments to the AP and repeated that such laws are “unjust.” He also repeated previous comments that parents should never throw their gay children out of the house.

“To condemn someone like this is a sin,” he said. “Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”

“People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God Loves them. God accompanies them,” he added.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recalled that LGBTQ rights were very much on the current agenda of the Church of England, and said he would quote the pope’s own words when the issue is discussed at the church’s upcoming General Synod.

“I wish I had spoken as eloquently and clearly as the pope. I entirely agree with every word he said,” Welby said.

Recently, the Church of England decided to allow blessings for same-sex civil marriages but said same-sex couples could not marry in its churches. The Vatican forbids both gay marriage and blessings for same-sex unions.

Welby told reporters that the issue of criminalization had been taken up at two previous Lambeth Conferences of the broader Anglican Communion, which includes churches in Africa and the Middle East where such anti-gay laws are most common and often enjoy support by conservative bishops.

The broader Lambeth Conference has come out twice opposing criminalization, “But it has not really changed many people’s minds,” Welby said.

The Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, the Presbyterian moderator of the Church of Scotland who also participated in the pilgrimage and news conference, offered an observation.

“There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away,” he said. “There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whomever he meets.

“And as Christians, that is the only expression that we can possibly give to any human being, in any circumstance.”

The Church of Scotland allows same-sex marriages. Catholic teaching holds that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

Source: Voice of America

South Africa has recorded two confirmed imported cases of cholera, the health department said Sunday, as it called for vigilance.

The cases were of sisters who had in January traveled to Malawi, where a cholera outbreak since last year has claimed more than 1,000 lives as of January, the highest on record in the country.

“Both patients had developed symptoms on their return to Johannesburg,” the health department said in a statement.

“A close contact (household family member) of one of the patients was admitted to hospital on 4 February with diarrhea and dehydration, and is considered a possible case,” it said, adding laboratory test results were pending.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae and can be deadly if left untreated. It is mainly spread by contaminated food and water.

Cholera is not endemic in South Africa, the health department said. The last outbreak in the country was in 2008-2009 when about 12,000 cases were reported following an outbreak in neighboring Zimbabwe which led to a surge of imported cases and subsequent local transmission.

Source: Voice of America

One U.N. peacekeeper was killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday when a helicopter operated by the peacekeeping force came under fire while in the air, the U.N. mission called MONUSCO said.

The helicopter was able to land in the provincial capital Goma. It was attacked after taking off from the city of Beni in the early afternoon.

One peacekeeper was also severely wounded in the attack, MONUSCO said in a statement, which did not say who might be responsible. The statement did not say what weapon was fired at the helicopter or what caused the casualties.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission of around 18,200 personnel has been deployed in eastern Congo since taking over from a previous U.N. operation in 2010. Its mandate includes supporting the Congolese government’s effort to stabilize a region racked by rebel violence.

Eight peacekeepers were killed last year when their helicopter crashed in a part of North Kivu province, where the Congolese army was fighting a rebel group known as the M23.

Source: Voice of America