Category Archives: Africa

January 17, 2013

Militants Grab U.S. Hostages

Posted on January 17, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

As many as eight foreign nationals were kidnapped by Islamist militants from a BP gas installation in the south of Algeria. WSJ’s David Gauthier-Villars and Dow Jones’s James Herron look at the links to the French attack on militants in Mali.


About 40 foreigners were abducted in a raid on the In Amenas gas facility, above. An Islamist group fighting the French in neighboring Mali claimed responsibility for the attack.

Militants with possible links to al Qaeda seized about 40 foreign hostages, including several Americans, at a natural-gas field in Algeria, posing a new level of threat to nations trying to blunt the growing influence of Islamist extremists in Africa.

As security officials in the U.S. and Europe assessed options to reach the captives from distant bases, Algerian security forces failed in an attempt late Wednesday to storm the facility.

A French effort to drive Islamist militants from neighboring Mali that began with airstrikes last week expanded on Wednesday with the first sustained fighting on the ground. France’s top target, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the Algeria kidnappings, calling it retaliation. The claim couldn’t be verified, although AQIM has its origins in Algeria and operates across a swath of Africa.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would take “necessary and proper steps” in the hostage situation, and didn’t rule out military action. He said the Algeria attack could represent a spillover from Mali.

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Posted in Africa, Islam, Kidnapping

January 15, 2013

Mali-based Islamists pledge attacks on French soil

Posted on January 15, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

“France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France,” Abou Dardar, a leader of Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of the Mali-based groups with ties to al Qaeda, told the AFP news agency.

Islamist fighters in northern Mali have pledged to strike “at the heart” of France, after a joint Malian-French offensive – which has entered its fourth day – began pushing back al Qaeda linked rebels controlling the region.

A military offensive to reclaim Mali’s north from Islamist forces entered a fourth day on Monday, as al Qaeda linked-rebels promised to launch attacks on French soil in retaliation to the government’s decision to intervene in the unstable West African country.

Malian and French soldiers, backed by heavy French military air support, pushed back rebel fighters from the central town of Konna over the weekend, while a dozen French fighter planes, including four Rafale jets, hit rebel targets in the cities of Goa and Kidal, deeper in the country’s rebel-held north. Residents in Goa said French air raids had struck bases and destroyed weapons depots.

Nevertheless, Malian soldiers continued to struggle against well-equipped Islamist militants, who on Monday seized control of the small, central town of Diabaly, putting them 350 kilometres (220 miles) from the capital Bamako.

“They took Diabaly… after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army, which was not able to hold them off at that moment,” French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France’s BFM television.

Also on Monday, Islamists vowed to strike back at France.

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Posted in Africa, Europe, Islam, Terrorism

January 8, 2013

South Africa: Women Drinking To Harm Babies to claim benefits (Video)

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Mothers in one of South Africa’s poorest areas are drinking heavily to deliberately damage their unborn babies – just so they can claim disability benefits.


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Posted in Africa, Child Abuse, Entitlements

January 7, 2013

Tourism in Mali Collapses as Rebels Wreak Havoc

Posted on January 7, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Cities such as Timbuktu, Djenné, Mopti and the capital city of Bamako have traditionally been huge draws for tourists from the U.S., Britain and France. But now they sit empty, looking like ghost towns as the “toubabs” — as the Malians call white people — are advised by their governments to stay away.

As the world hears reports of political instability in countries such as Mali, most of the coverage focuses on armed conflicts, people fleeing their homes and governments being toppled, but not enough attention has been given to an equally important sector of the Malian economy: Tourism.

The religious-based campaign waged by Islamist rebels put them in control of two-thirds of the country, by some estimates. Cities such as Timbuktu, Djenné, Mopti and the capital city of Bamako have traditionally been huge draws for tourists from the U.S., Britain and France. But now they sit empty, looking like ghost towns as the “toubabs” — as the Malians call white people — are advised by their governments to stay away.

In Djenné, widely considered one of the oldest and most beautiful towns in West Africa, thousands of tourists came every year to see the fascinating mud-brick architecture. Now nearly every restaurant and hotel in Djenné is shuttered. From a peak of 30,000 tourists in 2005, there were only a couple dozen tourists in the past year, devastating the thousands of people in the town whose living is connected to the tourism industry.

“We can’t feed our families,” Badou Magai, a guide in Djenné for the past 10 years, told the Canadian-based Globe and Mail. “We’re suffering greatly. Everyone has gone away.”

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Posted in Africa, Revolutions/Rebellions

December 28, 2012

Jacob Zuma: Racism row after South African president says black people with pets are just copying white culture

Posted on December 28, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

President Zuma reportedly told an audience of black South Africans on Wednesday to stop adopting the habits of other cultures. ‘Even if you apply any kind of lotion and straighten your hair you will never be white,’ he said.


South African President Jacob Zuma has warned black Africans against owning and walking dogs, which he says is just copying white culture

He is not afraid to voice controversial opinions on anything from same-sex marriage to teenage pregnancy.

But now South African president Jacob Zuma has taken the bizarre step of warning black Africans against owning a dog.

President Zuma said that owning and walking a dog, and even taking one to the vet, were not African activities, and was just copying white culture.

The president, 70, who faces investigation by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog over an upgrade to his country home, is a proud Zulu and adheres to traditional practices – including polygamy. He has six wives and believed to have fathered 20 children.

Speaking at an event in KwaZulu-Natal province, he described people who love dogs more than humans as ‘having a lack of humanity’, Durban newspaper The Mercury reports

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Posted in Africa, Culture, Multiculturalism

December 24, 2012

Mali: Islamists take pickaxes to Timbuktu’s ancient mausoleums

Posted on December 24, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Armed groups occupying Timbuktu in northern Mali have used pickaxes to smash up any remaining mausoleums in the ancient city.


Tuareg rebels and other separatists and al-Qaeda linked militant groups took advantage of a coup in Mali in March to seize control of a vast chunk of territory where the Islamists have since imposed a brutal form of Islamic law

The rebels’ ruthless implementation of their version of Islamic law comes just days after the United Nations approved a military force to wrest back control of the conflict-ridden area.

“Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu, Allah doesn’t like it,” Abou Dardar, leader of the Islamist Ansar Dine group, told AFP. “We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area.”

Witnesses confirmed the claims.

Anything that doesn’t fall under Islam “is not good. Man should only worship Allah,” Mohamed Alfoul, a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said.

The vandalism of the Muslim saints’ tombs in the UNESCO World Heritage site came a day after other Islamists in the northern city of Gao announced they had amputated two people’s hands.

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Posted in Africa, Islam, Radicals, Terrorism, Vandalism

December 23, 2012

2012: A year of living dangerously for journalists across the world

Posted on December 23, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Twelve journalists died this year in Somalia, where the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab has been waging a violent insurgency against the Mogadishu-based federal government. All were murdered, according to CPJ, which says not a single killer of a journalist has been prosecuted in Somalia over the past decade.


Journalist Marie Colvin, second left, poses for a photograph with Libyan rebels in Misrata, June 4, 2011. She was among 67 journalists killed worldwide in 2012, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The civil war in Syria, targeted shootings in Somalia and continued violence in Pakistan made 2012 a particularly dangerous year for journalists, with at least 67 killed worldwide in direct relation to their work, according to an organization that defends press freedom.

The fatality numbers compiled through mid-December by the Committee to Protect Journalists represent a 42 percent increase over 2011. The committee says 2012 is on track to becoming one of the deadliest years for journalists since it began compiling records in 1992.

Coupled with snapshot figures showing a record-high number of journalists imprisoned worldwide – 232 on Dec. 1 – this year has been a year of living dangerously for those who work to gather and disseminate news, said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“You put all that together and it’s a very bleak picture,” Simon told NBC News on Thursday.

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Posted in Africa, Islam, Journalism, Murder

December 16, 2012

Kenya: Citizen Journalists Give a New Face to Nairobi’s Slums

Posted on December 16, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Through journalism, residents of Nairobi’s slums are taking it upon themselves to highlight injustices and create a balanced image of slum life.

Newspaper editor Vincent Achuka was behind schedule. The November issue of his Ghetto Mirror newspaper had arrived a week late from the printer, and he had an hour to finalise story assignments for the next. Then, he and his reporters had to distribute hundreds of papers by hand across Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum.

It was a typical Saturday morning in the life of a slum journalist.

Achuka’s Ghetto Mirror, one of Kibera’s most widely-read newspapers, is part of a community media movement in Nairobi’s slums. Armed with camera phones and flip video-cameras, young slum journalists churn out printed broadsheets and YouTube videos. They aim to give voice to marginalised communities and fight negative stereotypes of slums. Despite police harassment and little formal training, the reporters have become essential local news sources.

“We have only two weeks,” Achuka tells his reporters as he gives out assignments. “Let’s end the year on a good note.”

Modest beginnings

Achuka took over the Mirror in August 2011. In October 2012, the two-year-old paper increased circulation from 1000 to 2500 copies, changing its name from the Kibera Mirror to the Ghetto Mirror after it expanded to cover more slums. Apart from Achuka, who has a degree in public relations and mass communication, the mirror’s 22 reporters are from the slums and learned on the job. They do all the writing, photography and layout.

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Posted in Africa, Citizen Journalism, Journalism, Poverty

December 14, 2012

New Evidence Shows Mandela Was Senior Communist Party Member

Posted on December 14, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Had the proof been more widely disseminated decades ago, though, it would have been much harder for the Western establishment, including the U.S. government, to openly join forces with communist tyrants to support the controversial figure in his often-brutal guerrilla war.

Despite decades of Nelson Mandela denying that he was an official member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) during his Soviet-backed war on the Apartheid government, evidence uncovered recently by British historian Stephen Ellis shows otherwise. The new research confirmed that not only was the African National Congress (ANC) leader a member of the SACP, he may have actually been a senior official working with the party’s Central Committee.

Still, for 50 years, while admitting that he was influenced by Marx and other communist luminaries, Mandela has denied — in public, at least — that he was an actual member of the Communist Party. But now, documents discovered at the University of Cape Town by Stephen Ellis, a professor based at the Free University of Amsterdam, completely contradict Mandela’s bogus claims.

Among other evidence, Ellis found minutes from a secret SACP meeting of top leaders in 1982. The papers document a high-level Communist Party functionary’s discussion about Mandela having joined the SACP around 20 years earlier. That would mean he joined in the beginning of the 1960s, probably 1961 or 1962, well before he was prosecuted for, among numerous other crimes, membership in the outlaw party backed by some of the most ruthless tyrants on the face of the Earth.

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Posted in Africa, Cultural Marxism, Radicals

December 7, 2012

Racial Discrimination in Zimbabwe: A systematic program of abuse

Posted on December 7, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

In October 2001, while Philip Chiyangwa, former ZANU PF MP for Chinhoyi, and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo were addressing a meeting of farmers in Banket, Chiyangwa said: “… Anyone who supports the MDC will be eliminated.”


Ben Freeth is a dispossessed white Zimbabwean farmer who is now with the SADC Tribunal Rights Watch Zimbabwe.

“The campaign of intimidation spread to factories, businesses and offices; even embassies and aid agencies whom Mugabe accused of supporting the opposition were caught up in the mayhem,” Meredith said.

Mugabe used the resulting white exodus to his advantage at a rally in March 2002, stating: “All of you gathered here can see that whites want us to be their slaves and they are now closing shops and factories to throw you blacks into the streets so that you can turn against the government.”

He blamed his government’s failures on white farmers and the white population in general. Since the violent farm invasions of 2000, which targeted white farmers their families and their farm workers, the State propaganda machine – combined with ZANU PF indoctrination campaigns have impacted significantly on the white population.

The fallout for the entire country has been devastating. From Independence in 1980, approximately 90 percent of the white population has left Zimbabwe ? many in a completely destitute state.

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Posted in Africa, Ethnic Cleansing, Multiculturalism