International

The Crescent for the month of Dhul Hijjah 1442 was not seen today, this year’s Hajj will be on the 19th July, 2021, while the Eid Al Adha will be on the 20th of July, 2021.

According to a BBC report, it was a group of 28 foreign mercenaries, including retired Colombian soldiers, who assassinated Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse earlier this week, police say.

After a gun battle in the capital Port-au-Prince, 17 were detained, some at the house they were using, others after entering Taiwan’s diplomatic compound. Police killed three suspects, and eight are still being sought. Bloodied and bruised, arrested suspects were shown to the media on Thursday, along with a slew of seized weapons.

It is still unclear who organised the attack and with what motive.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the attack took place when gunmen broke into the president’s home in Port-au-Prince, shooting him dead and wounding his wife. According to authorities, Mr Moïse, 53, was found lying on his back with 12 bullet wounds and a gouged eye.

Martine Moïse, 47, was seriously wounded and is in a stable condition after being flown to Florida for treatment. Police said the hit squad included mainly Colombians, along with two Haitian-Americans. Found in the suspects’ possession were firearms, sets of US dollar bills, the president’s personal chequebook and the server that held surveillance camera footage from his home, Le Nouvelliste newspaper reported. Taiwan confirmed that 11 of the suspects were arrested after breaking into a courtyard at its compound.

Angry civilians had joined the search for the gunmen and helped police track down some who were hiding in bushes. The crowd set fire to three of the suspects’ cars and destroyed evidence.” We Haitians are appalled; we do not accept it,” one man told the AFP news agency. “We are ready to help because we need to know who is behind this, their names, their background so that justice can do its job.”

By Salisu Yusuf

Almost 20 years since the September 11 attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, the last Friday’s swift vacation of Bagram Airbase by the U.S forces, the situation in Afghanistan gets worst. The country is becoming more divided; social strife grows, and citizens become more disenchanted. Hostilities between the Hazara Shia minority and mainly Pashtun Sunni majority increases. All over the country, people feel less secure in groups and individually as each one is afraid that the rival militia may attack them. The hitherto communal Afghanistan is fast turning individualistic, especially as a result of Talibans’ follies, misrule, the failure of the sectarian/tribal leadership, the role of Ulama and by the Russian occupation in the 70’s and ’80s, as well as the U.S’s so-called war on terror.

I have never seen a religious sect that clings to power and unorthodoxly turns to folly like the Taliban. They have crossed religious, ethical lines. They ask their members to attack hospitals, with women under labour, children receiving natal care, and other defenceless people receiving treatment. In one instance in 2020, they struck a maternity hospital belonging to the international organisation Medicines Sans Frontiers in Kabul. They gruesomely murdered 24 victims, including impoverished women, children, and babies. A week-old baby was among the dead; another two-week-old baby survived though his mother could not. There has not been a worse unnatural disaster!

Moreover, coordinated, reciprocal attacks by both Sunni and Shia militants are on the rise. I have not seen thoughtless sects like the two groups in Afghanistan/Pakistan axis, where each group asks its members to attack the other while performing obligatory prayers in mosques! And when such attacks are carried out, while the victims’ relatives nurse them and mourn other fatalities, the attackers get euphoric as they believe that they have fulfilled a religious duty. Outrageously they think that should if they die in the process, they would directly go to paradise – as if it belongs to their fathers!

 In addition to such senseless attacks, the Taliban has stepped up on a campaign against girl-child education. As a result, hundreds of innocent girls have been killed on their way to schools because, to them, girls’ education is a deviation from the norm. 

In one such horrendous attack, the vocal Malala Yusafzai is lost to the West. The girl was 11 when she’s shot in the head on her way to school. The girl’s crime was pleading to the Taliban to let girls pursue their educational careers. As the saying goes, the rest is history. Malala is now an Oxford University graduate in philosophy, politics and economics. 

Malala is lost to the West with her two young brothers. Pakistanis could only watch her on T.V. addressing the U.N. Assembly, celebrating her birthday, or receiving Nobel Prizes. If she had not been shot, she would have been in Pakistan, and a practising Muslim, whose talent might have been used in teaching and aspiring young girls. Girls like Malala could have been used to heal the growing social division between Sunni and Shia; alas, she’s lost to Europe.

More painful is the list of Nadia Nadim. A more intelligent and talented girl who’s also lost to the West. Nadia’s father was also killed by the Taliban when she’s a child. Under a false identity, the girl fled Afghanistan on a truck at just 11 years. She’s currently living in Denmark, studying reconstructive surgery. Nadia, like Malala, is lost to the West. Her colossal talent would have been more beneficial to Afghanistan because she’s a prospective scientist. Nadia speaks 11 languages. She also plays football for the Danish National Team, scores 200 goals, making her a celebrity.

If Nadia’s father lived, she would have been left to pursue her career, would have been in Afghanistan practising Islam. She could have been a medical doctor, possibly assisting thousands of Afghan women in need of medical care. But, alas, she’s lost to football, playing a celebrity role, her beauty being explored, etc. 

The above are a few lessons to Nigerian youth who sympathise with terrorist groups like Boko Haram. Such groups are in for regression rather than progression.

While the so-called Doha Peace Conference between the Afghan government and Taliban is in progress, the country is hotly on the brink of another civil war. The Taliban is advancing towards Kabul, inciting more antagonism while the country suffers from brain drain; indeed, it’s Talibans’ folly, but Western gains.

Salisu Yusuf teaches at the Department of English, Federal College of Education, Katsina. He can be reached via salisuyusuf111@gmail.com.

A group of unidentified individuals attacked the private residence of Haitian President Jovenel Moise overnight and shot him dead, Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said in a statement early on Wednesday.

Since 2020, gun violence surges across U.S. cities. President Joe Biden describes the shooting surge as an “endemic” and promises to do everything within his power to end it.

As Newsweek reports, the Fourth of July weekend was the most violent in the United States so far this year. According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which compiled data from cities across the country, “233 people were killed in the U.S. and hundreds more injured — from 5 p.m. Friday through Monday”.

The GVA data adds that the organisation is still gathering more information, indicating that the casualties figure can be much higher.

Mass shootings have a long history in the U.S. The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is, as they call themselves, “America’s longest-standing civil rights organisation”.

The powerful organisation advocates for people’s rights to own firearms, making it easier to procure guns in the United States. President Biden and his Democrat party are expected to challenge the NRA, which the Republicans largely back.

Record temperatures in British Columbia, Canada, and US cities, including Oregon, have resulted in the death of hundreds of people. The temperature reached up to 49.6°C (121.3F) on Sunday in parts of Canada, breaking a decades-old record.

The Oregon State Police said the state medical examiner’s office had received reports of 63 deaths. However, the heat is expected to subside by the weekend in most US cities.

The death toll is more devastating in Canada. According to a CNN report, at least 486 sudden deaths have been reported across the western coast of Canada near the US border.

“The 486 deaths currently entered represent a 195% increase over the approximately 165 deaths that would normally occur in the province over a five-day period,” British Columbia Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.

Experts warn against associating this directly to the climate change the world witnesses. Others say the two are connected like lung cancer is to smoking. They added that other parts of the world, too, see unpredictable weather conditions.

So far this year, northern Nigeria has recorded a low rainfall. As most farmers depend on the rain in the region, they expressed concern over the situation. Nigeria may face a food shortage as a result.

Reuters reports that police in India have registered three new cases against Twitter Inc. for allegedly hurting sentiments and promoting child pornography, marking an escalation in the row between the U.S. firm and Indian authorities.

The chages include ‘treason’ after showing what the Indian government calls an ‘incorrect’ map that excludes the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir and the Buddhist enclave of Ladakh from the country. Twitter did not comment on cases related to India’s map, while the microblogging site generally allows pornographic content on its platform.

The current cases come up in addition to a public relations nightmare and a backlash from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that has in recent weeks repeatedly criticized it for not complying with a new set of I.T. rules. Twitter allegedly refuses to abide by the rules.

Unlike Nigeria, India has yet to ban Twitter. However, observers fear that that will happen and would be a massive blow to the U.S. company. The two countries have some of the largest and most vibrant Twitter users in the world. Thus, banning it would have a far-reaching impact on its market value.

The fugitive leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has been re-arrested and returned to Nigeria for trial, Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, announced on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to the minister and the State Security Service (SSS), collaborations with international agencies led to the arrest of Mr Kanu. He and his co-defendant face treasonable felony charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja. He is also charged for evading arrest and inciting violence.

Mr Kanu was on bail when he fled the country in 2017. However, he resurfaced in Israel about a year later. He had also been very active on social media and the outlawed pirate radio station – Radio Biafra – where he gave directives to his lieutenants in the restive south-eastern states and beyond.

By Mohammad Qaddam Sidq Isa

While hosting his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, in Washington, DC, former US President Donald Trump decried the “murder of Christians” in Nigeria. He went ahead in his typical arrogant demeanour to effectively warn his guest that “We are going to work on that problem very, very hard because we cannot allow that to happen.” I straightaway blamed his blatant ignorance of the dynamics of the security crisis in Arewa on the sheer misrepresentation that some interest groups in Nigeria and their foreign accomplices always present to various US institutions, think tanks, public figures and NGOs. This, in turn, influences the US foreign policy
accordingly.

Interestingly, it’s a common practice among foreign governments, interest groups and organisations. They engage powerful public relations (PR) firms in countries with influence in global politics to manipulate public opinion in their favour by controlling the mainstream media in those countries, thereby influencing the international media in favour of the interest groups’ respective agendas, despite their moral or legal validity.

Foreign interest groups also engage influential domestic lobby groups in such countries to advocate for favourable government policies that advance their foreign clients’ economic, political, or diplomatic interests. The corridors of power and PR circles in Washington, DC, Paris and London are particularly attractive to these foreign clients.  Of course, Washington, where lobbying is a multi-billion-dollar industry, is particularly notorious in this regard.

Nigeria’s apparent lack of interest in such expensive services is quite understandable. The country has been involved in a few struggles for politico-economic influence significant enough to warrant a strategic investment in a sustained international PR campaign and/or international lobbying. It has also never faced any strategic threat of politico-economic domination.

However, Arewa, which is the largest region of the country, has long been a victim of unfair demonisation by some ethno-regional and religious interest groups engaged in systematic peddling of a misleading narrative around the world over the dynamics of the persistent security crises. According to their plan, the aim is to influence global public opinion, which includes presenting Nigerian Christians as victims of targeted and systematic persecution at the hands of Arewa Muslims. These interest groups spare no effort in promoting this narrative to gain broader traction globally. For instance, General TY Danjuma (Rtd), a former Minister of Defence, and Taraba

The Governor of the State, Darius Ishaku, attended an event in the United States. It was convened by the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) in partnership with 21 Wilberforce and Heritage Foundation. There were delegates from the US government, leading NGOs, Frank Wolf, and a former Congressman. They discussed the “killings of Christians in Nigeria”, albeit in a relatively diplomatic way that time around, which couldn’t conceal their actual prejudice.

Besides, in 2016, an international organisation, OpenDoors, which describes itself as “the world’s largest outreach for persecuted Christians in the most high-risk places”, released a report claiming that Nigeria was the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. Also, a year later, the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee Chairman on Africa, Global Health, Human Rights and International Organisations, Christopher Smith, equally claimed that Nigeria was the most dangerous place for Christians in the world. 

Now, in the absence of an alternative narrative, this ridiculously simplistic and blatantly biased narrative continues to gain ground in social and official circles in various European countries, the United States and other countries, which gives it unearned credence it. In contrast, in reality, there is nothing like the targeted persecution of Christians in Nigeria. After all, Arewa Muslims are the most affected people in the ethno-religious conflicts in the region, including the Boko Haram terror campaign that’s indiscriminate and primarily targets Muslim communities. Likewise, the victims of the armed bandits massacring people in the area are mostly Muslims.

On a lighter note, while millions of Boko Haram terror survivors who have managed to escape from their villages and towns languish in poorly equipped internally displaced camps across Arewa, many non-Arewans and indeed non-Muslim Nigerian illegal immigrants in Europe. Other Europe-bound would-be Nigerian illegal immigrants stranded in Libya and other North African countries masquerade as Boko Haram terror survivors. Thus, they claim asylum in

Europe and several secure it with all the privileges attached, even though they have never been anywhere close to the crisis areas or perhaps even the region.

It’s indeed a pity that there is practically no single Arewa interest group with the potential to tackle this challenge. Arewa intellectuals appear to prefer setting up largely bogus NGOs to access trap-ridden foreign funding. Therefore, until such an interest group is established, it’s high time foreign-based Arewa associations like the US-based Zumunta Association began to engage equally with think tanks, NGOs, and government institutions in their respective bases. They need to offer an alternative narrative to enable the global audience to compare and see the truth in light of reality.