Over 50 militants killed in Somali battle
The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) has confirmed that more than 50 Al-Shabaab militants were killed during intense fighting on Friday in the southern Somali town of Bariire.
According to the statement released by AUSSOM on Sunday, the joint operation—conducted in coordination with the Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF)—targeted positions held by the al-Qaeda-linked group in Bariire, a strategic agricultural hub located 73 kilometers southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
AUSSOM rejected recent media claims suggesting that its own forces had suffered heavy casualties during the clash. Ambassador El Hadji Ibrahima Diene, Special Representative of the African Union Commission Chairperson (SRCC) for Somalia, said that AU and Somali forces “are determined to recapture Bariire town and other territories still under Al-Shabaab control to ensure lasting peace and security for the people of Somalia.”
Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent groups, Al-Shabab in particular, have been carrying out regular attacks in several African states, including those in the Sahel region – Burkina Faso, Mali, and Somalia in East Africa. The group continues to carry out raids, bombings, and targeted assassinations in an effort to destabilize the Somali government and regional security structures.
In July, a military helicopter deployed under the AU mission crashed at Mogadishu’s international airport, killing five personnel.
Previously in the same month, another helicopter, operated by Burundian troops, made an emergency landing in the Middle Shabelle region during an evacuation mission. While Al-Shabaab claimed to have shot down the aircraft, AUSSOM stated that the chopper was forced to land due to a technical malfunction. All crew members survived that incident.
In a separate attack in May, at least 10 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the Damanyo military base in Mogadishu, targeting a group of teenage recruits waiting to enlist. Al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Togo: Muslims have murdered at least 54 civilians and eight soldiers in jihad attacks this year
The government forces cannot defeat the jihadis. Who is arming and funding the jihadis?
Togo confirms over 60 killed in Al Qaeda-linked attacks
Africa News, July 30, 2025 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
As insecurity spirals in Togo, the country’s foreign minister says a group affiliated with Al Qaeda has killed at least 54 civilians and 8 soldiers so far this year.
The comments to news agency, Reuters, was a rare official acknowledgement of the death toll in attacks.
Robert Dussey said there have been 15 incidents in northern Togo, which borders on Burkina Faso, perpetrated by the insurgent group Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin.
Togo has seen a rise in jihadist activity in recent years, as groups linked to Islamic State and Al Qaeda spread from the West African Sahel region….
Nigeria: Muslims murder seventeen Christians in jihad raid on village in Plateau state
The overall objective is to drive the Christians out entirely, or at very least reduce them to a tiny, subjugated minority, and to impose Islamic rule over the whole country. And to do the same thing in neighboring states.
Fulani Herdsmen Kill 17 Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria
Morning Star News, August 5, 2025:
ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Monday morning (Aug. 4) killed a Christian woman in a village in Plateau state, Nigeria, the latest of 17 Christians slain in the area since July 15, sources said.
The herdsmen raided Njin village at about 10 a.m., said resident Dorcas Ishaya.
“Fulani herdsmen are at it again,” Ishaya said in a message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “This morning at 10 a.m., Monday, August 4, they attacked Njin village in the Kopmur area of Mushere chiefdom, in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau state, killing a Christian woman.”
Area resident Ezekiel Tongs added in a message that the assailants robbed and torched properties.
“These herdsmen did not just attack the village but also carted away domestic animals from houses of Christians,” Tongs said. “Many houses have been burned down, and many Christians displaced.”
Nigerian troops were reportedly dispatched to the area.
Ishaya also said that two Christians were shot and killed in an ambush in the Bokkos area on July 15, “and their bodies burnt to ashes.”
A community leader from the area, Yohana Margif, said on Friday (Aug.1) that armed Fulani herdsmen have driven Christians from nine villages that they are now occupying….
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds….
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