Author: M Barbu

Measuring Boko Haram’s Impact on State Security Services

The Nigerian state security apparatus has a long history of human rights violations. Most recently, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious Nigerian police unit, made international headlines for its brutality and a wave of massive protests calling for its disbandment—which were then quashed by security services in a horrifying massacre of peaceful protestors. In many instances, the military’s response to Boko Haram has been similarly heavy-handed and indiscriminate. Abuses have been well-documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and even the State Department. A former colleague of mine gained access in 2017 to a prison holding suspected Boko Haram operatives, where he confirmed the abhorrent conditions and presence of significant numbers of women and children. Nevertheless, members of the military and police have also been victims of Boko Haram in their own right.

Turkey Seizes Alleged Top ISIS Man

Turkish authorities on Sunday said they had arrested a top ISIS commander and close aide of the terror group’s former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a military raid conducted last week in Istanbul.

Lethal Mediterranean Claims More Libyan Lives

At least 11 Libyans fleeing their homeland to Europe drowned on Sunday after their overcrowded boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration reported.

US is whipping up fear of China because Washington simply cannot contemplate a world it does not dominate

According to research by Stop Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Hate, there were nearly 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, not including those that have occurred the most recently.

America’s annual threat assessment has highlighted the dangers posed by China. The manufactured hysteria about Beijing’s supposed intentions reveals a country unnerved at the prospect of losing its global preeminence.

On the Insidious Discourse of “Terrorism” in the US and How it Functions to Demonize Palestine Advocates and Muslims

Professor Heike Schotten — Still captured from We Will Not Be Silenced webinar at the University of Massachusetts Boston

After Heike Schotten, Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB), co-organized and moderated a webinar at the University of Massachusetts Boston entitled We Will not Be Silenced: The Repression of Academic Freedom and Resistance, from Leila Khaled to UMass Boston, UMB’s public records access office received a request from the Zionist Advocacy Center in New York “pursuant to the provisions of the Massachusetts Public Record Law” for emails from and to the webinar participants that use the terms “Israel,” “Palestine,” “Leila Khaled,” or “We Will Not Be Silenced” between June 1, 2020-October 25, 2020.

Reports from Afghanistan: General’s comment, blast, cost

U.S. general: Afghan forces could face ‘bad possible outcomes’

A May 2, 2021, Washington datelined AP report said:

Afghan government forces face an uncertain future and, in a worst-case scenario, some “bad possible outcomes” against Taliban insurgents as the withdrawal of American and coalition troops accelerates in the coming weeks, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

West Darfur Victims Committee calls on Sudan govt and UN to protect civilians

The El Geneina Victims Committee has called on the UN Security Council to send forces to protect the people in West Darfur, citing the inability of the Sudanese regular forces to protect civilians, and accusing some members of the regular forces of being involved in the attacks.

The committee representing the victims of violent attacks on various neighbourhoods in El Geneina and the adjacent camps for the displaced in early April, expressed their concerns in a press conference in the West Darfur capital on Sunday.

US Envoy Heads to Horn of Africa

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sending his special envoy for the Horn of Africa to the region Tuesday in a bid to de-escalate tensions.

In a statement, Blinken said Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman will visit Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan through May 13.

Ethiopia ‘at a crossroads’ amid spiraling ethnic conflict

Aba Yosief Desta preferred not to discuss the ethnicities of victims in the widening conflicts threatening Ethiopia’s unity.

A wooden cross in hand, the Orthodox monk in yellow robes insisted that victims of massacres “have the same face.”

Speaking to The Associated Press from the city of Gondar, where he manages a diocesan office, he reflected on the first known massacre of the conflict in the neighboring Tigray region. Ethiopia’s government says ethnic Amhara were killed, but ethnic Tigrayan refugees have told the AP they were also targeted.