The organization, which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, has monitored violence against Christians in Nigeria since 2010 through a team of criminologists, lawyers, journalists, security, and peace and conflict studies graduates.
Nigeria has been marred by violence in the last decade-plus due to the rise of extremist organizations in the northeast like Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State’s West Africa Province.
In recent years, massacres carried out by radicalized Fulani herders against predominantly Christian farming villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt have also driven communities from their homes.
Additionally, bandit gangs have been responsible for carrying out kidnappings along some major highways.
The United Nations estimates that about 2 million people have been internally displaced across Nigeria and 11 million people in need of assistance. An additional 550,000 are said to be displaced in neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“While 100 percent of the victims of Jihadist Herdsmen attacks across Nigeria are Christians, the estimated 4,000 Christians killed by Boko Haram were part of the estimated 6,000 [people in total] massacred by the sect since June 2015,” the report explains.
Berlin police suspect political violence as SECOND car of AfD member torched in Germany within days
A trend of assaulting non-mainstream politicians over their views seems to be taking root in Germany, with a car owned by the head of the AfD party’s Berlin branch being set on fire in the second such incident in over a week.
Arsonists set ablaze a greyish Skoda belonging to Nicolaus Fest, provisional head of Alternative for Germany’s Berlin branch and member of the European Parliament, on Tuesday night. While the arson attack didn’t destroy the entire car, it badly damaged the engine and the front part of the vehicle.
The Berlin wing of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party believes the incident was due to their dissenting views. “The arsonists sit in the strategy-making back rooms of the traditional parties, in which new hate campaigns against the AfD are devised every day,” it tweeted, posting an image of the damaged car.
Berlin police have confirmed the incident and launched an investigation into the damage of property due to “a possible political motivation.”
Fest, who is also a member of the European Parliament for AfD, lashed out at the
“left-wing violence,” adding that the other parties “cheer on leftist radical perpetrators behind such acts.”
The arson is only the latest in a string of attacks on AfD members.
Last January, an explosive device was ignited near the party office in the eastern town of Doebeln. Later that month, an AfD state chairman was beaten unconscious in Bremen by masked assailants.
Earlier this month, the right-wing party’s chief’s car was also set on fire in Gablenz, Saxony, with police unable to find the perpetrators to this day.
Now we have far-left violence rising in Germany; far-right extremists began to emerge in numbers after 2015, as did the AfD. All of the above came out of the hair-brained move to throw open Germany's borders to Muslim migrants without any real screening. The majority were single, young men or boys, not families trying to escape the horrors of war. In Europe, these men congregate together and form gangs that rape and pillage with little consequence, and sell drugs, guns, anything that is not typical Germany.
The government created this mess and has done little but to criticize and ostracize anyone who does want to do something about the rapidly deteriorating situation in German society. This is why these groups are rising, and they will continue to rise as long as the Government keeps treating the symptoms rather than the disease.
Hamas members denied access to lawyers in
Saudi 'terrorism court'
Palestinian group denounces prosecutions as 'unjust,' after 68 people are denied access to attorneys during mass trials
Relations between kingdom and Hamas have soured since election of US President Donald Trump (AFP)
By Adam Khalil in Gaza City, Gaza Strip
Dozens of Palestinians and Jordanians who were arrested in Saudi Arabia for their alleged ties with Hamas have been denied access to lawyers and charged in swift hearings in groups of five.
A source within the Hamas leadership told Middle East Eye on Thursday that chaos had ensued in Riyadh's "special terrorism court" when 68 Palestinian and Jordanian citizens faced trial on Sunday.
The kingdom's public prosecutor issued several charges against the detainees, including "joining a terrorist entity, financing a terrorist entity, and covering up information," in reference to the Palestinian group based in Gaza.
The source said that each the sessions was quick, with the detainees denied the opportunity to defend themselves and barred from accessing attorneys and having family visits.
Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told MEE that the group had not undertaken any actions that might have jeopardised its relationship with the kingdom.
He said the charges against the accused were unjust, adding that the movement had exhausted every effort to try and resolve the situation.
'Unjust'
Hamas was established in 1987 and is generally viewed in the Arab world as a legitimate resistance movement against Israel’s occupation of Palestinians lands.
A number of its founders and close associates have lived in the kingdom where large donation campaigns were launched for the movement, some with official Saudi blessings.
But the kingdom's relationship with the Gaza-based faction appears to have soured since the election of US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel.
In May 2017, during an Arab-American summit held in Riyadh, Trump called Hamas a terrorist group. About year later, in February 2018, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir followed suit, a move Hamas denounced at the time as a dangerous precedent.
After Sunday's mass trials, Hamas issued a statement denouncing the proceedings as "unjust," saying it was closely following the situation.
"The Palestinians arrested by the Saudi state security police have committed no crime other than having the honour of defending Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque," the statement said.
Saudi Prince bin Salmon is smart enough to know that it is to his advantage to keep relations with the USA and Israel warm. Both are enemies of Iran and Saudi Arabia needs help to curb the expansionism of Iran in the Middle East. This is a precedent for an Arab state to try Arabs for terrorism against Israel.
It's just weird! As the western world gets more antisemitic by the day, the Middle East is becoming friendlier.
'Political, not judicial'
Among those arrested was Muhammed al-Khoudary, 82, who managed Hamas' relationship with Saudi Arabia for about two decades.
Abdul Majed, Muhammed al-Khoudary’s brother, who lives in the besieged Gaza Strip, described the trials as "comical and absurd." Abdul Majed told MEE that the Saudi indictment did not indicate what a "terrorist entity" is, or whether the entity was operating against the kingdom.
He said the accused would next appear in court on the 12th of Ramadan, which corresponds to 5 May.
Hamza Abu Shanab, a political analyst with close ties to Hamas, described the proceedings as "political, not judicial."
He said the majority of Palestinian and Jordanian detainees had lived in Saudi Arabia for many years, some of whom were born on its territory, and practiced charitable work with the knowledge and coordination of the Saudi authorities.
Last year, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor expressed deep concern for the cases of at least 11 Palestinians, arguing that there was "no legal basis for detaining these people without informing their families of their whereabouts by the Saudi authorities."
According to the monitor, the kingdom is holding thousands of prisoners, including many on political grounds, in Dhahban, where human rights activists say many are subjected to torture, humiliation and abuse.
J&K: Three terrorists affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen
arrested in Kupwara district
In Jammu & Kashmir, police on a specific information busted a Hizbul Mujahideen terror module active in Kralpora area, northwest of Srinigar, of district Kupwara. Three terror associates affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen, have been arrested.
They were having close contacts with terrorist commander Bashir Peer. The arrested associates have been identified as
Aijaz Ahmad Payair, Mohd Altaf Payair and Abdul Rouf Malik.
These individuals were active in the area for the last eight months and were involved in various subversive activities and providing shelter and other logistic support to terrorists. The trio were also tasked with recruiting terrorists in kupwara district.
During the course of investigation arms, ammunition and other incriminating material was also recovered.
Case has been registered in Kralpora Police Station in this regard and further investigation in the matter has started.
Pakistani Army Training Terrorists in Camps Along Border - Reports
© AP Photo / Mohammad Sajjad
New Delhi
(Sputnik):
India has been accusing Pakistan of providing a safe haven for terrorist outfits. In February 2019, Jaish-e-Mohammed took responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy of Indian troops that killed 40 individuals, heightening tensions between the two countries.
The Pakistani Army was found training 25 Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists near the Bhawani post in Jammu and Kashmir, according to intelligence sources.
The sources claimed that terrorists were being trained at a launch pad by JeM commander Abu Hamza, where eight Baloch Regiments of the Pakistani Army were posted.
After training, the terrorists were meant to go to India from the Rajouri, Poonch, and Jammu side of the border in six groups, the sources said.
India has been claiming that terror outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab were getting aid from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The reports of links between Jaish, Jammu and Kashmir-based Hizbul Mujahideen and Punjab-based Khalistani militants have been making the rounds for some time.
Khalistani militants are seeking to create a separate country "Khalistan" in the Punjab region as a homeland for Sikhs, while Hizbul Mujahideen is a Kashmiri militant group seeking independence for Kashmir from India.
Three terrorists killed in Nagrota in the Jammu region in an encounter on 31 January 2020, also had links with Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Khalistani militants in Punjab.
An overground worker arrested in the 31 January encounter had revealed that a group of terrorists associated with Jaish existed in Amritsar, a city in the Indian state of Punjab that shares a border with Pakistan.
Sherbrooke, QC, woman Édith Blais, abducted in Burkina Faso, found alive in Mali
Head of the United Nations mission in Mali said Blais
and her companion appear to have escaped
CBC News
Édith Blais, centre, and Luca Tacchetto, left, meet with Canada's ambassador to Mali, Michael Elliott, after being found in Mali. (MINUSMA, the UN Mission in Mali)
A Canadian woman and her Italian travelling companion who were suspected to have been abducted in West Africa 15 months ago have been found.
Édith Blais, 34 of Sherbrooke, Que., and
Luca Tacchetto 30, had been travelling by car in southwestern Burkina Faso, heading to Togo to do volunteer work, when they vanished around Dec. 15, 2018. They were last seen in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in southwestern Burkino Faso.
The United Nations mission in Mali, MINUSMA, confirmed to CBC News that the pair is now free in neighbouring Mali.
Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the head of MINUSMA, said preliminary information suggested Blais and Tacchetto escaped their captors. A civilian vehicle then found them near Kidal and took them to a United Nations camp, he said.
Global Affairs Canada said it's aware of the report of their release.
François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦✔
@FP_Champagne
I just spoke to Edith Blais and Luca Tacchetto. I can confirm they are safe. I would like to thank my counterpart from Mali @t_drame and the President @PresidenceMali, the @UN_MINUSMA and Burkina Faso for their cooperation. We look forward to Edith returning home.
"We look forward to Édith being able to return to Canada and reunite with her family and loved ones," Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement Saturday.
"The government of Canada will continue to engage Mali and Burkina Faso at the highest levels, and will work with international partners to pursue those responsible for this crime and bring them to justice."
Al-Qaeda and other militant groups have operated in northern Mali for more than a decade and have kidnapped a number of Western hostages, typically holding them until ransoms are paid.
Senior Liberal cabinet ministers met with Blais's family in Quebec's Eastern Townships region in January 2019 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time he believed Blais was still alive.
Another Canadian, Kirk Woodman, was found dead in northern Burkina Faso in 2019, near the border with Mali and Niger. An executive with a Vancouver-based mining company, Woodman had been kidnapped a day earlier by gunmen as he worked on a gold mining project.
Whether they escaped or whether a ransom has been paid, we will have to wait and find out. Hopefully, both get home soon.
US woman sentenced to 13 years for using cryptocurrency
to fund ISIS
..
A New York woman sent over $150,000 to the Islamic State of Iraq
and al-Sham (ISIS). Much of that was in crypto.
By Mathew Di Salvo
A US woman was on Friday sentenced to 13 years in prison for sending over $150,000 to terrorist organization ISIS—much of it in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Zoobia Shahnaz, of Long Island, New York, pleaded guilty in November 2018 for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The Department of Justice announced yesterday that
Shahnaz sent over $150,000 to people and groups in Pakistan, China, and Turkey that were affiliated with ISIS. The money had been raised fraudulently—as part of her heist,
Shahnaz used stolen credit cards to buy around $62,000 in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Shahnaz also planned to move to Syria to join ISIS and had researched the group online. Jihad-related propaganda—including a photo of a suicide belt and a night vision scope—was found at her home in Long Island, the Department of Justice said.
Shahnaz, who had previously worked as a lab technician in a Manhattan hospital, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 31, 2017 while attempting to board a flight to Turkey—a common entry point to Syria, according to the Department of Justice.
Terrorism's crypto habit
That cryptocurrency is used to fund terrorism is nothing new. As reported by Decrypt, a report released last year by the Washington, DC-based Middle Eastern Media Research Institute revealed that a number of terrorist groups—among them ISIS, Al-Qaida, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood—use messenger app Telegram to raise cryptocurrency and coordinate attacks.
In response to the growing threat, financial regulators worldwide have ramped countermeasures that prevent terrorists from using crypto to fundraise for campaigns.
The Financial Action Taskforce, the global standard-setter for measures against money laundering and terrorist financing, recommended that governments implement policies that require crypto companies to share information about customers between each other when processing transactions.
Perhaps ahead of the curve, terrorists aren't putting all their faith in crypto. For terrorists, cash is still king, according to a report released last year, since it’s easier to manage than crypto.
Hezbollah commander prosecuted in Austria for terror finance
Military leader lived 13 years in Austria, sending money to Lebanon
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Hezbollah fighters put Lebanese and Hezbollah flags at Juroud Arsal, Syria-Lebanon border (photo credit: REUTERS)
BERLIN--
Prosecutors in the Austrian state of Carinthia started a trial against an alleged Hezbollah commander who spent 13 years in the central European country while reportedly involved in terror finance.
The trial has triggered outrage, according to the Kronen mass circulation paper, because the Lebanese-born man is not awaiting trial in prison.
The Kronen wrote:
‘What seems strange is that the alleged terrorist is free and not in custody, “adding that "The public prosecutor has not made an application," the court said. The trial will formally start in early April.
The unnamed Hezbollah military leader has lived in Carinthia for 13 years. The authorities accused him of working for the Islamic Shi’ite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The indictment states that the Hezbollah commander is a member of a terrorist organization and engaged in the finance of terrorism activities. He could face a ten-year prison sentence.
The paper said that a similar case involving an accused jihadi terrorist resulted in a late arrest. The Jerusalem Post has reported that the Hezbollah operatives who blew up an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria fled to Lebanon and the authorities in Beirut refused to extradite the accused terrorists. The Hezbollah men murdered five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver during the bus bomb attack in 2012.
In 2019, Peter Gridling, the director of the Austrian federal agency responsible for combating terrorism, said
the biggest danger for Austria is Islamic terrorism.
Austria’s 2018 intelligence report, the most recent document on covering terror threats, lists Islamic terrorism but does not address the danger in specific terms. For example, the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah organization is not listed. The US government under both the Obama and Trump presidencies have designated Iran the top state-sponsor of international terrorism.
Austria’s intelligence agency did not even mention the Islamic Republic of Iran in its report. Assadollah Assadi , a Vienn-based Iranian diplomat, was arrested in 2018 in connection with a plot to blow up an Iranian dissident event near Paris in 2018
Austria and the European Union have merely classified Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing” a terrorist entity. The USA, England, the Netherlands, the Arab League, Israel and a number of Latin American countries designated Hezbollah’s entire movement a terrorist organization.
Hezbollah’s leadership has declared itself a unified organization without political and military wings.
Germany’s Bundestag passed a December resolution urging the federal government to outlaw Hezbollah activities in the country.
390 schools opened in northern Syria’s Peace Spring area
BY DAILY SABAH
A girl in a school in northern Syria's Tal Abyad, which was cleared of terrorists with Operation Peace Spring in October 2019.
As a part of recovery efforts, 390 schools have been opened in northern Syria’s Peace Spring area which was cleared of YPG/PKK terrorists with a military operation in late 2019, Turkey’s National Defense Ministry said Saturday.
“Wounds opened by the YPG/PKK who took away the educational rights from Syrian children are finally being healed,” the ministry said in a video released on Twitter.
“In this context, 390 schools have now been opened by the #TurkishArmy in the #PeaceSpring area and 34,946 students are now attending school,” it added.
Since 2016, Turkey has conducted three successful operations in northern Syria against the YPG/PKK and Daesh – Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016-2017, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, and Operation Peace Spring.
Operation Peace Spring was launched on Oct. 9 to eliminate YPG terrorists from the area east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria in order to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.
