International

A suicide bomber killed 15 army recruits and wounded 20 more as they queued outside a military training camp in Mogadishu yesterday, military and hospital sources said. The attack is the deadliest in the Somali capital in 18 months. The explosion happened at around 0900 (0600 GMT) according to eyewitness Mohamed Adan, an army officer at the base. “I have counted about 15 new recruits who have been killed in the blast,” he said. Adan said the bomber had slipped in among the recruits queueing up outside the General Dhegobadan Military Camp when the explosion occurred. Speaking on national radio, army chief Odowa Yusuf Rage, said, “The new recruits were in a queue outside the entrance of the Dhegobadan military camp preparing to enter the base before the suicide bomber sneaked into the line and blew up himself.” Rage claimed, “10 young men who wanted to join the national armed forces were killed and 20 others wounded.” However, sources at the main Madina hospital and the morgue confirmed to AFP that 15 had been killed. “We have received 15 dead bodies from today’s blast, some of them had serious shrapnel wounds and all of them were young men approximately between twenty to twenty-seven years of age,” said a mortuary employee. Grieving mother, Maryama Hussein, said, “I lost one son, he is dead, his body is in the hospital.” Hundreds of new recruits to the Somali National Army are trained at Camp Dhegobadan every year, primarily to fight against Al Shebaab insurgents. Yesterday, Al Shebaab claimed responsibility for an attack on a nearby Turkish military training facility known as Camp Turksom, around 600 metres away, but there was no evidence of an attack having taken place there. That base was, however, the target of a similar but botched attack in June 2020 when a suicide bomber attempted to conceal himself among recruits before being discovered and shot dead.

At least 15 people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide bombing as recruits lined up outside an army camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu, a Reuters witness who counted the bodies at Madina Hospital said. Officials at the hospital confirmed the dead were killed in an attack earlier in the day at a checkpoint outside the General Degaban military training camp in the capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Militant group al Shabaab frequently carries out bombings in the Horn of Africa country. Dozens of people crowded outside Madina Hospital searching for their missing relatives. "My son is dead. I have seen with my eyes. Many boys perished. They were asked to come for recruitment and then bombed. The government is still hiding other casualties," said Amina Farah, sobbing as she collapsed into the arms of family members at the hospital. Government officials were not reachable for comment. Army recruit Ahmed Ali, who was struck in the head by shrapnel, told Reuters at the hospital: "The place was overcrowded with new recruits and soldiers when the blast occurred." A Somali military officer, Odawaa Yusuf Rage, told state media earlier on Tuesday that 10 new recruits had been killed, and 20 others wounded, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives.

Algeria held parliamentary elections yesterday that the ruling establishment hopes will turn a page on political unrest amid a crackdown on dissent, but even by mid afternoon few people had voted. Two years after mass demonstrations forced a veteran president to step down in Algeria’s biggest political crisis for decades, the authorities are still struggling to quell the protest movement. Yesterday’s vote followed a presidential election in 2019 and a referendum on an amended constitution last year, but many Algerians still think real power is wielded by the army and security forces. Polls closed at 1900 GMT and results are expected today. The election authority said only 14.5% of voters had cast ballots with four hours left to vote. By comparison, some 33% had voted with three hours left to vote in the 2019 election, when final turnout was 40%. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said decisions were made by the majority of those who voted, regardless of turnout. “This election is a new step to build a new Algeria,” he said after voting outside the capital, Algiers. Schoolteacher Ali Djemai, 33, started queuing early to cast his vote in the city.  “We hope the next parliament will be a force pressing for change that the majority want,” he said. But in the Kabylie region, often a focus of political opposition, riot police guarded polling stations where activists sought to burn ballot boxes and some voting centres closed early. The “Hirak” protest movement that forced Abdelaziz Bouteflika from the presidency two years ago wants to oust the old ruling elite and stop the army interfering in politics. It sees any elections before that as a charade. “Elections will not give the regime legitimacy, and repression and arrests will not stop the people’s peaceful revolution,” said Samir Belarbi, a prominent Hirak figure. Though the government publicly welcomed Hirak as a movement of national renewal and jailed senior former officials, police also cracked down on it with arrests. The parties that have dominated for decades were damaged by corruption charges against Bouteflika’s allies, creating space for independents and moderate Islamist parties to seek more votes. “There is a real chance for change.We need to be focused and patient because a system change won’t happen overnight,” said Mohamed Mouloudi, a candidate for Al Bina Islamist party. At a central Algiers cafe, 42-year-old post office worker Djamel Badir said the election would change nothing and he would not vote. “Our parliament is powerless,” he said. Parties that gain a strong position in parliament are likely to be part of Tebboune’s next government, which faces a looming economic crisis. Foreign currency reserves have dropped by four fifths since 2013 as energy revenue fell and successive governments have failed to diversify the economy or spur strong private sector growth.

At least seven southern separatist fighters were killed and dozens of people injured Friday in a motorcycle blast near a market in the Yemeni city of Zinjibar, an official said. The security official in Zinjibar, capital of the southern province of Abyan, said civilians were among the 28 injured. "The booby-trapped motorcycle exploded as a truck carrying combatants passed by to enter the market," he told AFP. The blast came hours after an official from the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) was killed in Aden by unidentified suspects. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for either attack. The STC last year joined a power-sharing unity government, which is fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the country's north. Its fighters have also played a decisive role in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, forcing the militants to retreat into rural areas. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) took advantage of the war since 2014 between the government and Huthi rebels, bolstering its presence in southern Yemen. The United States, which considers AQAP the terror group's most dangerous branch, has targeted it with drone strikes over the past two decades.

One student was killed and at least 10 people were kidnapped when gunmen raided a school in northern Nigeria, officials told Reuters on Friday. The gunmen attacked the main campus of the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic in Zaria, Kaduna state, late on Thursday, shooting sporadically and abducting two lecturers and eight students, according to Samuel Aruwan, the state's commissioner of internal security. Two students were shot, one fatally, while the other was being treated in hospital, Aruwan said. Aliyu Kofa, chairman of the school's chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), said two lecturers and about 10 students were kidnapped. He added that the bandits had released families of the staff, who were also initially abducted. The kidnappers had yet to make any ransom demands, according to Kofa and Aruwan. Kidnappings by armed men, commonly referred to as bandits, have become endemic in northern Nigeria. More than 800 students have been abducted since December, most recently early this month when nearly 200 were taken from a school in Niger state.

Tens of thousands of malnourished children risk dying in hard-to-reach areas of Ethiopia's conflict-wracked Tigray region, now hit by famine, the United Nations said Friday. ‘Without humanitarian access to scale up our response, an estimated 30,000-plus severely malnourished children in those highly inaccessible areas are at high risk of death,’ UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva. His comments came after the UN on Thursday said some 350,000 people in Tigray were facing famine, while two million more people were just a step away from those extreme conditions. ‘There is famine now in Tigray,’ UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said, warning that ‘every expert you speak to will tell you this is going to get a lot worse’. Lowcock said fresh data showed the number of people classified as being in famine conditions was ‘higher than anywhere in the world at any moment since a quarter of a million Somalis lost their lives in 2011’. The UN has said that more than 90 percent of the more than five million people in the Tigray region need emergency food aid, and has urgently appealed for more than $200 million to scale up its response. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into the northern region in November to detain and disarm leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the region's former ruling party. He said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps. Though he vowed the conflict would be brief, fighting continues more than six months later and reports of atrocities -- including the widespread use of rape -- are proliferating. Many leaders have warned of a major catastrophe. The United States and the European Union on Thursday issued a plea for greater international efforts to tackle the emerging famine. International aid organisations have complained repeatedly that they are being denied access to the region by Ethiopian forces and troops from neighbouring Eritrea.  

Nigeria’s media and activists fear their country is slipping into repression after the government suspended Twitter in Africa’s most populous nation, where hyper-connected youth embraced the platform as a means of protest. The decision on Friday, days after Twitter deleted a remark from President Muhammadu Buhari, has already provoked international outcry over freedom of expression and calls for protests online and on the street. “It is very important we push back and fast, because they could go further,” said a social media executive at a major TV station who asked to remain anonymous. More than 120mn Nigerians have access to the Internet, and nearly 40mn of them have a Twitter account — 20% of the population, according to Lagos-based researcher NOI Polls. France, by comparison, has only 8mn Twitter users. Nigeria’s numbers are explained in part by its large and youthful population, but also the influence of its diaspora and the online fame of its film and Afropop stars, said Manon Fouriscot, co-founder of the Afrique Connectees consultancy. Studies also show that more than other social media platforms, Nigerians “use Twitter to give voice to the voiceless and engage government on issues that they feel are going wrong in the country in real time”, according to NOI Polls. Last October, the #EndSARS protest movement against brutality by the country’s SARS — or Special Anti-Robbery Squad — police unit, which expanded into a call for broader reform, first exploded on Twitter before taking to the streets. Backed by Afropop icons with millions of subscribers, and then relayed by major international influencers, #EndSARS was the most shared hashtag in the world for two days. The protests that followed were the largest in modern Nigerian history, raising fears of wider instability before security forces cracked down on demonstrators. Some Nigerian broadcasters are concerned the move against Twitter is part of a more general crackdown on the media. The industry needs to work together to “adopt a strong and common answer,” said the social media TV executive, who has several thousand followers on Twitter. Independent broadcaster DAAR Communications announced it had filed a complaint for damage to its economic interests. Others, such as Arise TV, were still using Twitter to share news from their offices in England or the US. “Twitter is, in Nigeria, and more and more on the continent, a means for civil societies to express themselves, to mobilise, to alert international public opinion,” said Fouriscot, an expert in the use of social networks in Africa. Nigeria’s government said the Twitter suspension was needed because the platform had been used for activities that could destabilise the country. Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohamed yesterday defended the ban and said Twitter must register and licence locally for the suspension to end. “Nobody in actual honesty can accuse Nigeria of stifling freedom of expression, if anyone wants to be honest. But there’s one line you must not cross,” he said. Abuja’s decision got a nod of support on Tuesday from former US president Donald Trump, who himself is banned from Twitter and Facebook. “More countries should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech,” his statement said. The US-based social media giant last week said it was deeply concerned about Nigeria’s decision and is in engaged with the government over the suspension. Kian Vesteinsson, a research analyst on Technology and Democracy for the Freedom House think tank, said Nigeria had already been tightening online media controls in recent years.

Assimi Goita, the Malian colonel who has overthrown two presidents in the past nine months, said he would oversee a transition toward democratic elections as he was sworn in as interim president on Monday. Goita, a 38-year-old special forces commander, had already been declared president by the constitutional court last month after ousting Bah Ndaw, but was formally sworn in on Monday during a ceremony in the capital Bamako. He is under pressure from regional and international powers to ensure elections go ahead next February as scheduled, who worry the political upheaval could jeopardise gains made against insurgents based in the country's desert north. Goita's advisers have suggested that the initial timetable for elections could change. "The situation offers us the opportunity to put the process of transition back in the direction desired by the people," said Goita, who had traded his camouflage fatigues for a dark gray officer's uniform and a yellow sash. He said he was committed to implementing "the actions necessary for the success of the transition, notably the organisation of credible, fair and transparent elections that are held as scheduled." Goita was one of several colonels who overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last August. A transitional government that would oversee an 18-month transition to democratic elections was then put in place with Ndaw as president and Goita as his vice. Goita last month ordered the arrests of both Ndaw and the prime minister for not informing him about the details of a cabinet reshuffle, which he alleged violated the transitional charter. Both later resigned while in custody. West African regional bloc ECOWAS and the African Union last week suspended Mali from their organisations, although they declined to impose further sanctions. The World Bank said on Friday it had temporarily paused payments to the country. Former colonial power France, which maintains more than 5,000 troops in Mali to combat militants, said it would temporarily suspend joint military operations with Malian troops but would continue to operate in the country separately. Choguel Maiga, an opposition leader and former prime minister, is expected to be appointed prime minister in the coming days, which could be enough to satisfy some of the calls for a civilian-led government.

Police in northwest Nigeria's Kebbi state told AFP Sunday that the death toll from an attack by a gang of cattle thieves on seven villages Thursday had risen to 88. The region has struggled with decades-long communal clashes over resources but more recently some groups have become more violent, looting, killing and kidnapping for ransom. "Initially 66 bodies were recovered but 22 more have been found," Kebbi state police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar said, adding that the search for more bodies was ongoing. Dozens of assailants on motorcycles attacked seven neighbouring villages in Danko-Wasagu district on Thursday, Abubakar said. The gunmen targeted the villages of Koro, Kimpi, Gaya, Dimi, Zutu, Rafin Gora and Iguenge, he said. Many people were still unaccounted for Sunday after fleeing the attacks. "The search is still going on and more bodies could be found. So, the toll is not conclusive yet," said Abubakar. Policemen were deployed to the area over the weekend to forestall further attacks, he said. The assailants were believed to have launched the attacks from neighbouring Zamfara or Niger states where criminals are known to maintain camps. In April, nine policemen were killed in the area in a shootout with gunmen who invaded a village in nearby Sakaba district to steal livestock, Abubakar told AFP at the time. Northwest and central Nigeria are a hub of criminal gangs known locally as bandits, who raid villages, harass residents and burn down homes. The gangs maintain camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states. Nigeria's security forces, who are also battling a more than decade-long jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country, are being stretched thin. Gangs in the northwest have recently stepped up attacks on schools, kidnapping hundreds of students to squeeze ransoms from authorities and parents. More than 700 children and students have already been kidnapped by gunmen for ransom since December, often from schools in remote areas, where pupils live in dormitories with little security protection. State authorities in Niger state said they were negotiating with gunmen who seized 136 children from an Islamic seminary last weekend. The attackers released 11 of the pupils who were "too small and couldn't walk" very far, the authorities previously said. Nearly 700,000 people have been internally displaced in northwest and north central Nigeria in February, according to the UN's migration agency IOM, as a result of violence. In Zamfara, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said it was struggling to respond to growing needs. Between January and April, MSF said it treated 10,300 children in Zamfara for severe acute malnutrition, measles, malaria and other conditions. "This is 54 percent higher than in the same period last year," said an MSF doctor, Godwin Emudanohwo. "People here need food, safe water and vaccinations now," said Emudanohwo in a statement. "What is happening here is a humanitarian emergency that needs urgent attention and a fast and proper response," said Froukje Pelsma, MSF head of mission in Nigeria.

Suspected religious militants have massacred at least 114 civilians in Burkina Faso’s volatile north in the deadliest attacks since religious violence erupted in the west African country in 2015, officials said yesterday. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore denounced an attack near the borders with Mali and Niger where religious militants linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have been targeting civilians and soldiers. “We must remain united and solid against these obscurantist forces,” he said, condemning a massacre that left at least 100 people dead in Solhan as “barbaric” and “despicable”. The worst attack occurred during the night of Friday to Saturday when “armed individuals staged an incursion” into Solhan, a security source said. “The toll, which is still provisional, is about 100 dead, men and woman of different ages,” the source said with the government confirming the toll. Assailants struck around 2am (0200 GMT) against a position of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland (VDP), a civilian defence force which backs the national army, before attacking homes and carrying out “executions”, a local source said. The VDP was set up in December 2019 to help Burkina’s poorly-equipped military fight religious militants, but it has suffered more than 200 fatalities, according to an AFP tally. The volunteers are given two weeks’ military training, and then work alongside the security forces, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties. The government said in a statement that “terrorists”, a term for religious militants, killed civilians of all ages and set fire to homes and the main market. “In addition to the heavy human toll, the worst recorded to date, homes and the market were set on fire,” another security source said, voicing concern that the “still temporary toll of a hundred dead may increase”. The government said that “the defence and security forces are at work to neutralise these terrorists and restore calm to populated areas”. A security forces official said that men were deployed to secure populated areas in order to remove and bury bodies. The authorities have declared three days of national mourning, ending tomorrow night at 11.59pm. Solhan, a small community around 15km from Sebba, the main city in Yagha province, has been hit with numerous attacks in recent years. On May 14, Defence Minister Cheriff Sy and military top brass visited Sebba to assure people that life had returned to normal, following a number of military operations. The massive attack by suspected religious militants came hours after another attack on Friday evening on Tadaryat village in the same region, which claimed the lives of at least 14 people, including an armed volunteer who had come to help them. Since 2015 Burkina Faso has struggled to fight back against increasingly frequent and deadly religious militant attacks from groups including the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS). The attacks first started in the north near the Mali border, but have since spread to other regions, particularly in the east. Around 1,400 people have died and more than 1mn have fled their homes. (File photo) An Armoured Personnel Carrier of the French Army patrols a rural area during an operation in northern Burkina Faso along the border with Mali and Niger. (AFP)

At least 11 Tuareg civilians have been killed near Menaka in Mali's troubled northeast, a pro-government coalition of armed groups announced Saturday. The attack at Agharangabo, was carried out on Thursday by unidentified assailants, said the group, called Plateforme des Mouvements du 14 juin 2014 d'Alger. A local elected official who asked not to be named confirmed the report to AFP. Agharangabo and Menaka are part of a large swathe of the country where the government has little or no control, and which is prey to regular attacks from militants. Agharangabo lies 65 kilometres northwest of Menaka. Since 2012, the region has suffered attacks from militant groups as well as deadly clashes between the different communities living there. Rival armed groups have also fought there. Plateform put out a list of the 11 people it said had been killed and said their livestock had also been stolen. "These are summary executions of 11 civilians by unidentified armed men," said the local official, who did not wish to be named for security reasons. "It happened on Thursday in the course of three attacks on civilians in this zone," he added.

Gunmen seized 136 children from a religious seminary in central Nigeria at the weekend, the state government said, the latest in a string of such incidents plaguing Africa's most populous nation. The Niger state government first reported the raid on the school in the town of Tegina on Monday, but did not indicate the number of children seized. Armed gangs are terrorising inhabitants in northwest and central Nigeria by looting villages, stealing cattle, and taking people hostage. More than 700 children and students have already been kidnapped by gunmen for ransom since December. ‘Niger State Government has confirmed the number of students abducted by bandits at the Salihu Tanko Islamic School, Tegina... to be 136,’ the local government wrote on Twitter late on Wednesday. The state deputy governor Alh Ahmed Mohammed Ketso said that security agencies were ‘doing their best but don't have enough logistics,’ adding that more help was needed to equip them to confront the criminals. The attackers did release 11 of the pupils who were ‘too small and couldn't walk’ very far, the authorities previously said. The Niger state government said it did not pay ransoms. ‘We are trying to negotiate to see how we can bring them back safely’, the deputy governor said.  

The International Criminal Court has asked Sudan to hand over one of the key people accused of war crimes and genocide in Darfur and an ally of ousted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the visiting chief ICC prosecutor said yesterday. The accused, Ahmed Haroun, asked in May to be sent to The Hague, the court’s headquarters, complaining that he would not receive a fair trial in Sudan. Chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told a news conference that Bashir, in prison in Khartoum, was still wanted by the ICC and that the court was willing to negotiate with the Sudanese government on where his trial should be held. Bashir had for years resisted ICC warrants against him and four allies, including Haroun, over the conflict in Sudan’s western region that killed an estimated 300,000 people and drove 2.5mn from their homes. They face charges at The Hague of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed by pro-government forces in Darfur beginning in 2002. The military-civilian transitional government that replaced Bashir in 2019 has said it will cooperate with the court. ICC investigators will travel to Darfur to continue speaking with victims of the violence, Bensouda said. She said she did not sense any opposition from Sudanese officials over handing over Haroun, which she said would need to happen before July so that he could be tried alongside defendant Ali Kushayb, who handed himself over to the court last year.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday took aim at the judiciary after a recent ruling scuppered his plan to change the constitution ahead of next year’s general elections. In a speech celebrating Madaraka Day, marking the country’s attainment of self-rule in 1963, Kenyatta singled out several court decisions that have put him at loggerheads with judges. In 2017, the Supreme Court made a historic ruling cancelling his victory in a presidential election over widespread irregularities. He won a further term in a re-run which was boycotted by the opposition. Then in May, a High Court ruled his reforms known as the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) were illegal. “From nullification of a presidential election in 2017 to an attempt to stop the will of the people as expressed through BBI, the judiciary has tested our constitutional limits, but not broken them,” Kenyatta said in a televised speech. “We must follow the rule of law and obey the decisions of the courts but the sovereign and supreme voice of the people of Kenya must also be followed.” Kenyatta was addressing a crowd in the lakeside city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, where hundreds of supporters gathered, many not wearing masks. Kisumu has emerged as a new Covid-19 hotspot in Kenya in recent days, and was where the country first detected the Delta variant, first identified in India. Kenyatta said that the nullification of his presidential win in 2017 had cost the East African country an estimated 1tn shillings ($9.3bn). “The field of independence has been expanded in the judiciary, and so the field of their responsibility should respond to the summons of nationhood,” said Kenyatta, adding that court decisions “should be accompanied by a burden of choice.” The BBI reforms seek notably to expand the executive in what is billed as an attempt to curb election violence, blamed on the current winner-takes-all electoral system. But critics see the move as a bid to create a prime minister post for Kenyatta, who is not allowed to seek a third term in 2022.

Nigerian authorities said on Tuesday that about 200 children had been seized in the latest school kidnapping in its violent north but they ruled out securing their freedom by paying a ransom. Police were trying to track the route the kidnappers had taken with the children, who were seized in a raid on an Islamic school in north-central Niger state on Sunday, a local government official told Reuters. A warplane was also flying over the area to try to spot them, the official said. Gunmen on motorbikes attacked the town of Tegina on Sunday afternoon. One person was shot dead during the attack and a second person was seriously injured. Local authorities put the number of kidnapped students at about 200. Deputy governor Ahmed Mohammed Ketso told reporters the state government was pursuing the kidnappers and efforts were being made to identify them. "We don't pay ransom to abductors. We are trying to negotiate to see how we can bring them back safely," he said. More than 700 students have been kidnapped for ransom since December by armed groups after raids on schools and universities in northern Nigeria. The government denies paying ransoms but is widely believed to have done so. President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday condemned the kidnapping during a briefing on the incident and urged security agencies to secure the immediate release of the children. Police officers have been posted at schools in the region as a stepped-up security measure, Ketso said.

* Museveni says 'we already have clues to those killers' * Gunmen attack car carrying general in Kampala district * Minister is former head of army and ex-police chief * Several senior officials killed in unsolved attacks * Security 'lacking' in all of Uganda - former MP Gunmen opened fire at a car carrying a Ugandan government minister in an attempted assassination on Tuesday, wounding the former army commander and killing his daughter and driver, the military and local media said. Four attackers on motorcycles sprayed bullets at a four-wheel drive vehicle carrying General Katumba Wamala, the minister of works and transport, in the Kampala suburb of Kisasi, local television station NBS reported. President Yoweri Museveni condemned the attack, blaming it on criminals, terrorists and "pigs who do not value life". In a Twitter post, he said that authorities already had clues in the case, and the criminals responsible would be defeated. Images circulating on social media showed Wamala with his mouth open, in apparent distress beside the car and his light-coloured trousers splattered with blood. Police investigators later combed the area, poring over bullet holes in the car's windows and body and casings on the ground. The private NTV Uganda television broadcast social media footage of Wamala speaking in hospital. Referring to his daughter, who was in the car with him, he said: "I have survived, we have lost Brenda... The bad guys have done it, but God has given me a second chance." Army spokeswoman Brigadier Flavia Byekwaso told Reuters: "There was a shooting involving him ... he is hurt and he's been taken to the hospital, his driver was killed." A government official said a local resident was also shot and wounded in the incident and was in hospital. Wamala once served as head of Uganda's police, which over the years has been accused of human rights abuses by rights groups, including arbitrary arrests and torture of opposition activists. The police deny carrying out rights abuses. There have been several unsolved assassinations and mysterious deaths of high profile officials in the east African country in recent years that have fuelled speculation about perpetrators and their motivations. Victims have involved a lawmaker, a senior police officer, the country's top public prosecutor, senior leaders and others. Nearly all were committed by gunmen on motorcycles. The attempt on Wamala's life took place in the same suburb in the capital where in 2017 gunmen on motorcycles sprayed bullets at a vehicle carrying a senior police officer. That police officer, Felix Kaweesa, was killed alongside his bodyguard and driver. In 2019, the government installed a CCTV camera system on main roads in Kampala and other big towns to curb such high profile homicides and other major crimes. But many Ugandans have complained the CCTV network has not helped police solve a lot of killings involving opposition activists and even ordinary Ugandans. Former opposition MP Latif Ssebagala told reporters he hoped the incident would prompt investigators to look afresh at the unsolved killings. "This is very unfortunate because when you see that even those who are guarded, even those who are in military attire are not feared, can be attacked, then that will explain that the entire country in terms of security is lacking," he said.

West African leaders will meet in Ghana on Sunday to discuss a response to Mali's second coup in nine months, with the new president Colonel Assimi Goita attending. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) invited Goita to come to Ghana's capital Accra for "consultations" ahead of an extraordinary summit on Sunday devoted to Mali, according to a letter from the 15-nation bloc seen by AFP. He flew to Accra on Saturday, military and airport sources said. In a statement on Facebook, the office of the Mali presidency said Goita would "take part alongside his counterparts in the sub-region". He had served as vice president since leading a coup last August that ousted the democratically elected president, with the roles of president and prime minister held by civilians after pressure from ECOWAS, which has served as a mediator. However on Monday, soldiers detained transitional president Bah Ndaw and prime minister Moctar Ouane, releasing them on Thursday while saying that they had resigned. The twin arrests triggered a diplomatic uproar and marked the second apparent coup within a year in the Sahel country. Mali's constitutional court completed Goita's rise to full power on Friday by naming him transitional president. With the junta going back on its previous commitment to civilian political leaders, doubts have been raised about its other pledges, including holding elections in early 2020. The junta said this week it would continue to respect that timetable, but added that it could be subject to change. The constitutional court said Goita would "exercise the functions of transitional president to lead the transition process to its conclusion". ECOWAS, which issued sanctions against Mali after the August coup before lifting them when the transitional government was put in place, will meet from 2:00 pm (1400 GMT) in Accra on Sunday. The 15-nation bloc has warned of reimposing sanctions on the country, as has the United States and former colonial power France. French leader Emmanuel Macron, during a visit to Rwanda and South Africa, said Saturday that he told West African leaders they could not back a country "where there is no longer democratic legitimacy or transition". Ndaw and Ouane's detention came hours after a government reshuffle that would have replaced the defence and security ministers, both of whom were army officers involved in the August putsch. On Friday, Goita said the army had had little choice but to intervene. "We had to choose between disorder and cohesion within the defence and security forces and we chose cohesion," he said. Goita added that he wants to name a prime minister from the opposition M5 movement within days. M5 spearheaded protests against former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020 that built up pressure ahead of his ouster, but it was excluded from key posts in the army-dominated post-coup administration. A rapprochement with the group might serve to soften domestic and foreign criticism of the military. Mali is regularly ranked among the world's poorest countries. The previous ECOWAS sanctions were felt hard by the country, which is reeling from numerous crises including a grinding jihadist insurgency.

At least 10 people in the city of Cali were killed in a day of anti-government protests, authorities said yesterday, as Colombia enters its second month of demonstrations that have met violent repression. President Ivan Duque announced on Friday he was deploying military troops to Cali while the nation marked a full month of Colombia-wide rallies that have morphed into a broad anti-establishment mobilisation. “Ten people” are dead, “this is the toll we have this morning” in events linked to Friday’s demonstrations, Cali’s security secretary Carlos Rojas told Caracol radio. Police said eight of the 10 were shot dead. He spoke after reports of violent street clashes. In one case, a representative from the Cali prosecutor’s office said an off-duty investigator had shot at a crowd, killing a civilian, before being lynched by protesters. Video footage showed a man lying in a pool of blood and another nearby wielding a gun; that man was then attacked by a group of people. “In the south of the city we had a real scene of confrontation and almost an urban war where many people not only lost their lives, but we also had a significant number of injuries,” said Rojas. After chairing a security meeting in the city, Duque announced on Friday “the maximum deployment of military assistance to the national police” would begin immediately. The official nationwide toll up to Friday in the month of violence was 49 dead, with many more wounded or missing. Human Rights Watch, which has been reporting a higher toll, says it has counted 63 deaths to date. It called the situation in Cali, a city of 2.2 million, “very serious.” Jose Miguel Vivanco, the rights group’s executive director for the Americas, urged Duque to take “urgent measures to de-escalate, including a specific order prohibiting agents of the state from using firearms.” Government mediation attempts have been largely futile, unable to contain the fury of increasingly politicised youth battered by the pandemic, angry over the country’s deep inequalities, and feeling their voices have not been heard. Economists say more than 42% of the country’s 50 million people live in poverty, with the pandemic plunging many of the most vulnerable into penury. A third of Colombians aged 14-28 are jobless and not in school, according to Hernando Gomez Buendia, author of the book Between Independence and the Pandemic, and that has led to growing resentment and defiance. Analysts link the government’s militarised history to its response to the protests. For more than 50 years, Colombia’s war against leftist Farc guerrillas eclipsed all other government priorities, with the state emerging from the conflict militarily strong but weak on social redress. In 2019, the year after Duque took power, students took to the streets demanding free and more accessible public education, better jobs and a supportive government. On April 28, fury at a proposed tax increase on the middle classes led people onto the streets again. Though the proposal was quickly withdrawn, it had triggered a broad anti-government mobilisation by people who felt they were left to fend for themselves in the health crisis, and who were further angered by the heavy-handed response of the security forces. Mostly peaceful protests by day have often turned into riots at night and running battles with the armed forces. Protesters have kept barricades burning countrywide and blocked dozens of key roads, causing shortages of many products. Meanwhile, Colombia continues to battle record levels of coronavirus infections. There have been more than 3.3 million confirmed cases, and over 87,200 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. That has left many Colombian hospitals near collapse.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst beach pollution crisis as tonnes of plastic waste from a burning container ship wash ashore, a senior environment official said yesterday. Fishermen have been banned from a 50-mile stretch of coast near the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl as an international firefighting operation went into a 10th day. “There is smoke and intermittent flames seen from the ship,” navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva told AFP. “However, the vessel is stable and it is still in anchorage.” Authorities are more worried about millions of polyethylene pellets washing up on beaches and threatening fish-breeding shallow waters. The affected seafront is known for its crabs and jumbo prawns as well as its tourist beaches. “This is probably the worst beach pollution in our history,” said Dharshani Lahandapura, head of Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment and Protection Authority (MEPA). Thousands of military and security personnel in hazmat suits are cleaning the beaches of plastic waste and other debris from the ship, which caught fire on May 20. The impact on mangroves, lagoons and marine wildlife in the region was being assessed. The jobs of thousands of fishermen are at risk, according to authorities, and the MEPA said a possible oil leak would only add to the devastation. Much of the ship’s cargo, including 25 tonnes of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, lubricants and other chemicals, appeared to have been destroyed in the fire, officials said. The X-Press Pearl caught fire as it waited to enter Colombo harbour and remains anchored just outside the port. Authorities believe the fire was caused by a nitric acid leak that the crew had been aware of since May 11. The 25-member crew were evacuated after an explosion on the vessel. Four Indian ships have joined Sri Lanka’s navy in the battle to contain the fire. Two vessels were equipped to deal with an oil slick, officials said. Salvage operations are being led by the Dutch company SMIT, which has sent specialist fire-fighting tugs. SMIT was also involved in dousing a burning oil tanker off Sri Lanka’s east coast last September after an engine room explosion that killed a crew member.

Ella Shone’s small electric truck used to deliver milk but now she drives it around London, selling groceries and household goods that are free of plastic packaging. The 32-year-old bought her “top-up truck” last year after the first coronavirus lockdown got her thinking about innovative ways to reduce waste. She has found plenty of demand for her service, with customers scooping up dry groceries such as lentils or filling bottles from large dispensers of vinegar or washing detergent. On a rainy day in May, the 32-year-old plied a route to eight stops in the up-and-coming district of Hackney in northeast London. “It’s very straightforward: it’s a bit like a go-cart ride,” she said of driving the truck, which has a top speed of 30 miles per hour. But she admitted the steering can get “a bit bumpy”. At one stop, three customers bought dried mango, pasta, raisins and shampoo. The mobile shop was created to bring “packaging-free” shopping to people’s doors, tapping into a growing demand for deliveries during the stay-at-home restrictions. “I felt that there was a need to make it easier, to make it more accessible, more visible,” she said. Nevertheless, she wasn’t immediately sure her idea was viable. “When I started this, I thought I’d gone a bit mad on furlough leave”, she admitted. During lockdown, Shone was on government-subsidised leave from her job in sales at a company producing sustainable condiments. She decided to buy the truck with the money she saved during lockdown, wanting to offer a “community shopping experience”.  The truck deliveries launched in August last year and customers can book a stop online. The electric vehicles — known commonly as milk floats — were once commonly used by milkmen and women to deliver pint bottles of fresh milk on household doorsteps. Customers returned them for reuse and Shone says her truck prompts a “nostalgic” reaction. But she is responding to very current concerns over plastic packaging, which disintegrates over time, creating ubiquitous microplastic pollution. Activism targeting governments and corporations can help, she said, but added: “I think there’s a lot that needs to be done at consumer level.” The UK is the world’s second biggest producer of plastic waste per person behind the United States, according to Greenpeace. A study published in January by Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency found that the 10 largest supermarket chains in the UK reduced their use of plastic by just 1.6 percent in 2019, despite promises of change. Shone is nevertheless optimistic about people’s motivation to cut down on wasteful packaging. “During the pandemic, there has been a bit of a step back towards single-use (plastic) just because people are fearful of reusing something that might entail passing on Covid-19,” she said. “But against that tide, I think there has been a bit of an awakening in terms of our responsibility towards the environment.”