Tag: Nigeria

On The War Front

Donny has threatened so many countries that it is hard to keep up…..but the most ‘popular’ is of course the Venezuela thingy….now Congress is set to intervene (?)….

The Senate is expected to vote on Thursday at 5:00 pm Eastern Time on a bipartisan War Powers Resolution that would block President Trump from attacking Venezuela without congressional authorization, a vote that comes amid reports that he is reviewing several options for starting a war with the country.

…

The resolution to stop the boat strikes failed in a vote of 48-51, with Sen. Paul and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) being the only Republicans supporting the measure, but the bill to prevent a war with Venezuela may have more GOP support.

POLITICO reported on Wednesday that at least four other Senate Republicans are questioning the legal rationale for the boat strikes, signaling they may support the Venezuela War Powers Resolution. They include Senators Mike Rounds (SD), Todd Young (IN), Susan Collins (ME), and Jerry Moran (KS).

(antiwar.com)

Next is the threat to punish Nigeria for its situations that the dullard is DC do not like…..

First, the self-evident: Despite President Trump’s order that the Pentagon prepare to intervene militarily in Nigeria to protect Christians from attack by Islamic militants, U.S. forces are unlikely to be able to end a decades-long insurgency that has claimed lives across sectarian lines in Africa’s most populous country, military officials say.
The American military cannot do much to quell the violence unless it is willing to start an Iraq- or Afghanistan-style campaign, the officials said, something that no one appears to be seriously contemplating. But they said there were some steps available to American war planners that could have limited impact on the militants.
The Air Force could conduct airstrikes on the few known compounds in northern Nigeria inhabited by militant groups, officials said. American drones like the MQ-9 Reaper and the MQ-1 Predator could attack a few vehicles and even a handful of convoys. And American forces could team up with Nigerian soldiers to raid villages to root out insurgents who have ensconced themselves in rural hamlets in the country’s north.
You know there was a time when some of these situations could be handled by diplomacy….but that was in the past and we know have very little diplomatic clout anymore.
Do we really want to be attacking anyone who displeases Donny and his ragtag band of incompetents?
Just wondering.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”

Nigeria In The Eye Of A Storm

We know that our Little Donny has aspirations of change in Venezuela to the point that he is willing to kill civilians and start an ugly chapter for the US.

He has even gone so far as to threaten the African nation of Nigeria.

And he is using the persecution of Christians as an excuse for his unsavory behavior.

A day after suggesting Nigeria could face sanctions for allegedly failing to rein in the persecution of Christians in the West African country, President Trump returned to social media to up his threat. He posted Saturday that the US “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,” per the AP, adding, “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action.” Trump had announced Friday that he would designate Nigeria “a country of particular concern” as it relates to religious freedom, a move that had been pushed by some US lawmakers.

The Nigerian government vehemently rejects Trump’s claims, the AP reports, and analysts say that while Christians are among those targeted, the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, where most attacks occur. Trump elevated his warning after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu earlier on Saturday pushed back against designation. “Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so,” Tinubu posted, saying the protections are guaranteed by Nigeria’s constitution.

Designating a “country of particular concern” under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act is an executive prerogative that normally follows recommendations from both the congressionally mandated US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the State Department. Nigeria was first placed on the “country of particular concern” list by the US in 2020 in what the State Department called “systematic violations of religious freedom.” However, the designation didn’t single out attacks on Christians. The State Department usually releases its annual “Report on International Religious Freedom” in the spring, but it hasn’t yet done so this year.

Seriously?  To protect Christians?  What about the attacks in Israel by those curly-q thugs lovingly called ‘settlers’ which are no better than a roving band of armed assholes that do not like Christians…..can we expect chastisement by Donny?

Do not count on it.

Just over the weekend…..

Over the weekend, a group of armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank staged an attack on American journalist and Drop Site News contributor Jasper Nathaniel and a group of Palestinians he was accompanying. Footage recorded by Nathaniel, a U.S. citizen, shows more than a dozen masked men chasing him and his group down a dirt road.

Already horrifying, the story soon became even more egregious. When Nathaniel contacted the U.S. Embassy to report the attack, he was told that his own government could not protect him. As independent journalist Jeremy Loffredo—who was recently detained by the IDF for the “crime” of doing journalism without military permission

As Israeli Settlers Attack Americans, When Will We Say ‘Enough’?

And that is the most recent example.

Then what is it about all these ‘attack’ talk….let’s take a look-see….Venezuela–oil, Nigeria–oil….do we need to go any further?

All this bully and simple chest thumping is typical and proves just what a hypocrite and racist this tool is….

The US will be better off when this dick is gone!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18May20

It is sad enough that 30 million people are unemployed and having to subsist on the unemployment benefits to make ends almost meet…….now there are those that are committing fraud over these benefits and NO it is not some persons in this country….Nigeria is the culprit.

If you thought the Nigerian prince scam was all there was….then think again……

The Secret Service has detected a large-scale foreign attack on the U.S. unemployment system that is processing record numbers of jobless claims amid the pandemic, according to The New York Times. 

In a Secret Service memo obtained by the Times, the agency described the attack as a well-organized Nigerian fraud ring that could lead to “potential losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“We are actively running down every lead we are getting,” Roy Dotson, a special agent who specializes in financial fraud at the Secret Service, said in an interview with investigators obtained by the Times. 

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/498160-secret-service-unearths-overseas-fraud-ring-stealing-millions-in-unemployment

It is sad that fraudsters use the pandemic to enrich themselves.

My opinion is these people are worse than lowly slugs and should be punished harshly.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–30Apr20

It appears that the people in South Mississippi have something in common with the people of the African country of Nigeria….they think they are immune to Covid-19…..

First of all, Nigeria where 3 in ten people think they are immune to this virus…..

Despite the daily rise in the number of infected persons, nearly three in every ten Nigerians believe they have some form of immunity to the coronavirus, a recent poll reveals.

The latest survey from NOIPolls Limited, a country-specific polling service, shows that poor knowledge and perception of the virus is still rife, even as fact-checkers and health officials work furiously to provide accurate information and save lives.

Nigeria has 442 infections as of Thursday night with 13 deaths but about 6 per cent of Nigerians in the survey consider the COVID-19 outbreak in the country to be fake.

They believe the outbreak “is real in other countries but not in Nigeria.” Some said it is propaganda and a means for the government to embezzle funds. Others said they have not seen anybody infected by the virus in their states, hence their disbelief.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202004170279.html

Then there are those countries that are saying they have NO cases…..

Most of the world’s countries and territories have reported coronavirus cases—and 166 of them have reported deaths—but a few dozen locations are still virus-free, or claim to be. According to Reuters, all but 33 of the 247 countries and territories recognized by the United Nations have reported COVID-19 cases as of last week, though the list of 33 includes three secretive and authoritarian countries in Asia. North Korea’s claim not to have had a single case is widely considered about as believable as Kim Jong Il’s claim to have shot 11 holes in one on his first-ever round of golf, while authorities in Turkmenistan have reportedly been arresting people for even talking about the virus.

In Tajikistan, which also claims to have had no coronavirus cases, there has been a steep rise in reports of fatal pneumonia cases; some people are not being allowed to see the bodies of deceased relatives, Radio Free Europe reports. Apart from Lesotho in southern Africa, the other countries and territories with no reported cases are islands, most of them small, isolated ones in the Pacific. Only eight of the 29 countries and territories in Oceania have reported cases. Others, including Nauru, Niue, and Palau, have declared national emergencies and banned visitors. “Their best bet without a doubt is to keep the bloody thing out,” Colin Tukuitonga, a doctor from Niue living in New Zealand, tells the BBC . “Because if it gets in then you’re stuffed, really.”

Now for the statement I just made about the people in South Mississippi……

When we go out to the market these days less than half the people are wearing masks and good percentage are unaware of the 6 foot rule until I remind them to back the f*ck up.

A group came around the neighborhood looking for tree trimming jobs and out of the 5 man team not one was wearing a mask and going door to door asking for work…..

Apparently the people in South Mississippi are listening to the bullshit the president is spreading as news…..and think they are immune…all this bad news is for others they do not need to adhere to it.

If anyone comes to the door without a mask I let my MoMo greet them with snarls, teeth and barking.

Image

…….and she watches…….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Jan18

I try to write about it when troops are killed in the line of duty for they do not always make the news….depends on the events and situations of the day.

Sometimes the deaths are not always troops on the mission…..like this story that did not make the news…..

Gunmen ambushed two Americans and two Canadians traveling through Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state, kidnapping them and killing two policemen, a state police spokesman says. The foreigners were heading south from Kafanchan in Kaduna state to the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday night when they were ambushed around Kagarko, Kaduna state police spokesman Mukhtar Aliyu says. “The two police escorts attached to them engaged the kidnappers in a fierce gun battle, which resulted in the unfortunate death of the two police officers,” he said. The kidnapped visitors are investors who were setting up solar stations in villages around Kafanchan, according to Aliyu.

Security officers, including an anti-kidnapping unit, have been sent to the area to try to rescue the North Americans and to apprehend their abductors, Aliyu says. Global Affairs Canada spokesman John Babcock says Canadian officials are aware that two citizens were reportedly abducted, the AP reports. The government would not provide details due to privacy issues, he says. Kidnappings for ransom are common in Nigeria, especially on the Kaduna-to-Abuja highway. Two German archaeologists were seized at gunpoint last year less than 60 miles northeast of Abuja and later freed unharmed. Sierra Leone’s deputy high commissioner was taken at gunpoint on the highway in 2016 and held for five days.

The families of the slain have IST prayers and may their loved ones rest in peace.

That be it for today……wishing all my readers a good evening and hopefully we will meet again tomorrow here on IST……chuq

Boko Haram on the Back Foot?

Over a year ago the world was shocked by a group known as Boko Haram when it kidnapped over 250 school girls on a raid on their school.  Social media was frantic blogs were written and the news was dire on the fate of these girls.

In case it has slipped from your memory maybe I can help a wee bit……

About 8 months ago the world was shocked and outraged that 276 young women had been kidnapped by a terror group known as Boko Haram…….six months later no body outside Nigeria could care…

Source: Bring Back Our Girls – In Saner Thought

Today, when was the last time you heard #BeingOurGirlsBack?  My guess is about a year or so….funny how something that meant so much to the world can be crapped on by events elsewhere.

Let me help…..several countries including the Us has sent resources to Nigeria to aid the government in their on-going battle with Boko Haram….no one is saying for sure what those “resources” are….but we helped…and that is what is important, right?

Anyway….there have been stories that the leader of BH has been killed by the Nigerian army and some girls have been rescued….but what about the rest of the girls and what about the terrorist group today?

In case you are interested….and you should be……there has been a report on this situation by the International Crisis Group…….

Boko Haram is losing ground, resources and fighters. But defeating the group and preventing a future insurgency needs more than military success. The 14 May summit in Abuja is an opportunity for Nigeria and its Lake Chad basin neighbours to prepare and implement what’s been long overdue: a holistic response to the extremist group.

Source: Boko Haram on the Back Foot? – International Crisis Group

Just in case you can tear yourself away from the massive silliness of an election……and in case you actually care about what has happened and not just wanting to be part of some trendy crap!

Biafra: The Future Of Days Past

Back in the late 1960’s when I served in the US Army with the 9th Infantry Division I use to further my studies by pouring through papers when there was a break in the action looking for stories that were not what many would call “major” stories….back in those days was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the headlines…..but buried deep in an English newspaper that I had got from some Aussie friends I found the story of a tiny break away republic of Biafra….

In case you are not old enough to recall this conflict….I will let Britannica explain it……..

Biafra, secessionist western African state that unilaterally declared its independence from Nigeria in May 1967. It constituted the former Eastern Region of Nigeria and was inhabited principally by Igbo (Ibo) people. Biafra ceased to exist as an independent state in January 1970.
In the mid-1960s economic and political instability and ethnic friction characterized Nigerian public life. In the mostly Hausa north, resentment against the more prosperous, educated Igbo minority erupted into violence. In September 1966, some 10,000 to 30,000 Igbo people were massacred in the Northern Region, and perhaps 1,000,000 fled as refugees to the Igbo-dominated east. Non-Igbos were then expelled from the Eastern Region.

Attempts by representatives of all regions to come to an agreement were unsuccessful. On May 30, 1967, the head of the Eastern Region, Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Odumegwu Ojukwu, with the authorization of a consultative assembly, declared the region a sovereign and independent republic under the name of Biafra. General Yakubu Gowon, the leader of the federal government, refused to recognize Biafra’s secession. In the hostilities that broke out the following July, Biafran troops were at first successful, but soon the numerically superior federal forces began to press Biafra’s boundaries inward from the south, west, and north. Biafra shrank to one-tenth its original area in the course of the war. By 1968 it had lost its seaports and become landlocked; supplies could be brought in only by air. Starvation and disease followed; estimates of mortality during the war generally range from 500,000 to 3,000,000.

The Organization of African Unity, the papacy, and others tried to reconcile the combatants. Most countries continued to recognize Gowon’s regime as the government of all Nigeria, and the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union supplied it with arms. On the other hand, international sympathy for the plight of starving Biafran children brought airlifts of food and medicine from many countries. Côte d’Ivoire,Gabon, Tanzania, and Zambia recognized Biafra as an independent state, and France sent Biafra weapons.

Biafran forces were finally routed in a series of engagements in late December 1969 and early January 1970. Ojukwu fled to Côte d’Ivoire, and the remaining Biafran officers surrendered to the federal government on January 15, 1970. Biafra, on the point of total collapse, thereupon ceased to exist.

(encyclopedia Britannica)
Why would this be interesting today?  It appears that the secessionist thought did not end in 1970…..the idea of a separate republic of Biafra is as alive today as it was then……Why would there be any interests in this situation?

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has warned his country will “not tolerate” another independent Biafra. The leader, who took office in May 2015, told Al Jazeera while on an official visit to Qatar his administration will not engage in a dialogue with pro-Biafran activists.

Pro-Biafrans call for the independence of the Biafran territories forcibly annexed to Nigeria during the British colonisation, which ended in 1960. They hold regular marches across the country’s south-east calling for a breakaway and the release of their leader Nnamdi Kanu, head of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob).

Pro-Biafran activists in southeastern Nigeria have been urged to create a Biafra United Front to continue their struggle for independence and defend themselves against Nigeria’s alleged violence. The Washington-based Organisation of Emerging African States (Oeas), which fights to achieve “true freedom” in Africa, is now calling on all pro-Biafran groups to put aside their internal differences and come together to achieve independence.

This to me is the beginning of a possible US involvement in an internal Nigerian problem…..why?

US troops have been deployed to Nigeria’s neighbor Niger in an attempt to counter the rise and the raids by Boko Haram……

…….around 100 US troops have been deployed in the West African nation of Niger in what officials said was the establishment of a new drone base there to spy on Islamist fighters in the Sahara and support French forces in the region.

“This deployment will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region,” Obama said in a letter to Congress published on the White House website.

US troops have been used in the past to help a “friendly” government….and with the US expanded presence in the world and especially in West Africa….it is a situation that needs to be watched and analyzed…..it is only a matter of time before this explodes yet again and the US may well be drawn into yet another insurrection that could mean more violence directed at Americans…..

Bring Back Our Girls

About 8 months ago the world was shocked and outraged that 276 young women had been kidnapped by a terror group known as Boko Haram…….six months later no body outside Nigeria could care less….

For an event that turned the world into a ranting, raging machine can be forgotten so easily…..just plain sad.

Source: Abandonment of ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ – Al Jazeera English

The world was outraged as I have said and yet what are they doing about this problem known as Boko Haram?

I am so glad you asked……

A long-awaited regional task force is set to begin raids on Boko Haram’s last enclaves when the rainy season ends soon, the U.N.’s top official in West Africa said.

Nigerian and Chadian forces early this year forced the militant group, which has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, to cede large swathes of territory in northern Nigeria, undermining its six-year campaign to carve out a caliphate.

The 8,700-strong joint force, headquartered in Chad’s capital N’Djamena with troops from Chad, Niger, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon, was supposed to be fully functional in July.

But plans were not finalised until late August, and some observers have bemoaned a lack of progress since.

The African Union and the Lake Chad Basin Commission signed a memorandum of understanding in October giving final implementation guidelines and the United States has sent troops to provide intelligence and other assistance.

The expected joint raids will have to adapt to the changing nature of the enemy, which once attacked with hundreds of fighters aboard scores of vehicles but has been reduced to isolated bands, Chambas said.

(Reuters)

Finally something will be tried to end the reign of terror that Boko Haram has exerted over the region.

Once the media moved on the world stop caring about the fate of these young women…..that is shameful as well as pathetic that the media has that much power to control people’s concerns.

 

Nigeria: How To De-Fang a Viper

For about a year Boko Haram ran rough shod over the Nigeria Army…..in the north of the country Boko has had its way…..that is until recently.

The Nigerian Army has found a way to take on Boko and win.  They, the Army, has made great strives by recuing about 300 girls and women that had been taken by Boko in the past…..plus Boko seems to be on the run from the onslaught of the Nigerian Army……..

The question now is……what lit the fire under the Nigerian Army to have such successes……..and the answer is…….

 

South African mercenaries’ secret war on Boko Haram – Telegraph.

More Good News From Nigeria

Awhile back the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of young women……and they have been attacking and kidnapping ever since.  Recently the Nigerian Army rescued about 300 people from Boko Haram and in a stroke of good luck the Army has struck again……..

Another estimated 100 children and 60 women were rescued from Boko Haram yesterday, just a day after another rescue operation freed nearly 300. Nigerian troops ran the rescue operation in Sambisa Forest, during which one of the hostages and one soldier were killed, CNN reports. Troops are now working to destroy militant camps—they’ve hit nine so far—in the forest. “Many of those kidnapped have undergone psychological trauma and indoctrination,” says an army spokesman—and indeed, some of the 293 women and girls rescued earlier in the week had been so indoctrinated by Boko Haram, they actually opened fire on their rescuers, the AP reports.

A counselor who has treated other Boko Haram hostages says this is not uncommon, and that hostages can also become attached to militants they are forced to marry. Experts say many of the rescued women and girls will need intensive psychological treatment. The Nigerian military earlier said the 293 women and girls rescued were not the “Chibok girls” taken more than a year ago, launching the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, but now the army spokesman says it’s too early to tell who they are. “The processing is continuing, it involves a lot of things because most of them are traumatized and you have got to put them in a psychological frame of mind to extract information from them,” he says.

Slowly but slowly the Nigerian Army seems to be capable of taking on Boko Haram and winning…..if their luck keeps up they may soon have all the women and children that have been taken by the group…….

I wish them good hunting.