Mercenaries
White House does not rule out Haiti request for U.S. troops
The United States is still reviewing a request for troops made by Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph to help secure key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Monday. Psaki said Haiti’s political leadership remains unclear and that it was vital for the country’s leaders to come together to chart a united path forward. Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins formed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. Haitian police said on Sunday they had arrested another key suspect. The death of the president has plunged the troubled country into deeper turmoil, and U.S. officials traveled there on Sunday to assess the situation and ...
Haiti asks US, UN to send troops after president’s assassination
Haiti has asked Washington and the UN for troops to secure its ports, airport and other strategic sites after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise opened a power vacuum in the crisis-hit Caribbean nation, an official said Friday. The United States has already said it will send FBI and other agents to Port-au-Prince, two days after Moise was shot dead in his home. In the wake of the slaying “we thought that mercenaries could destroy some infrastructure to create chaos … During a conversation with the US secretary of state and the UN we made this request,” elections minister Mathias Pierre told AFP. The US State Department and Pentagon both confirmed receiving a request for “security and investigative assistance” and said officials remain in contact with Port-au-Prince, but did not s...
President Buhari: Peace to Libya equals peace to West Africa
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday received the Chairman, Presidential Council of Libya, H.E Mohammed Younis Menfi, at the State House, Abuja. Buhari, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, stressed that a stable or unstable Libya held implications for countries in the Lake Chad Basin area, including Nigeria. “Republics of Chad, and Niger, have extensive borders with Libya, and they are our immediate neighbours. Whatever affects them affects us. The stability or instability of Libya will directly affect us,” he said. The President further stressed that the security of Nigeria was number one priority to him, noting that, “Unless a country or institution is secured, there’s no way you can efficiently manage it.” Buhari said he was happy that t...
Borno governor urges Nigerian government to seek external support to end insurgency
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno has called on the federal government to seek external support from neighbouring countries, in order to end insurgencies in Nigeria. Zulum, who is also the Chairman, North-East Governors’ Forum, made the call in Bauchi, on Wednesday, at the commencement of the ‘4th North-East Governors’ Forum meeting’. He lamented the high rate of insurgency, especially, in the Northeastern part of the country, and called on the new Service Chiefs to devise tactical measures to counter the current and future attacks in the region. “As it is now, especially in Borno state, violence being perpetrated by insurgents seems to be on the increase. “It has become a matter of tactical necessity for the new Service Chiefs to devise new and authentic strategy to counter the current att...
US: Malta seizes $1 billion in counterfeit Libyan money
Maltese authorities have seized counterfeit Libyan money worth $1.1 billion that was printed by a Russian firm and worsen the north African country’s economic problems, the US State Department said. There was no official statement on Saturday from Valletta although Malta Today newspaper had published a report about $1.1 billion in counterfeit money seized in Malta on its Facebook site that was no longer available. “The United States commends the Government of the Republic of Malta’s announcement May 26 of its seizure of $1.1 billion of counterfeit Libyan currency printed by Joint Stock Company Goznak – a Russian state-owned company – and ordered by an illegitimate parallel entity,” the State Department said. “The Central Bank of Libya headquartered in Tripoli is Libya’s only legitimate cen...
Libya’s GNA says it is targeting retreating renegade strongman’s forces
Libya’s internationally recognised government has launched air strikes against forces loyal to renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar after his forces announced they were pulling back from Tripoli front lines. Air strikes by the Government of National Accord (GNA) targeted several locations in the west of the country, including in the Haftar stronghold of Tarhouna near the capital, Tripoli, according to GNA army spokesperson Colonel Mohamed Qanunu. In Tarhouna, two military vehicles and a vehicle carrying ammunition that belonged to Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) were destroyed, the spokesperson said. On Thursday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said the GNA carried out five air operations against forces loyal to Haftar in the past 24 hours. A day earlier, the LNA announced it w...
Isa Pantami: PDP lambasts APC for ‘supporting terrorism through silence’
The Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives Congress and its leaders of a “conspiratorial silence in the face of the worrisome revelation in which a member of the Federal Executive Council and Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has been accused of affiliation with terrorist groups.” Pantami has been under fire of late over sermons he delivered in the past that allegedly had him sympathising with terrorist organisations – Al-Qaeda and the Taliban – a thing he says he has repented of. He has, however, received the backing of the Presidency which declared that calls for his resignation or sacking are tantamount to cancel culture. The ruling All Progressives Congress is yet to issue a statement on the comments made by the Minister concerning the terr...