Government forces and rebels in Sudan’s war-torn border regions say they are preparing for another bout of fighting after the latest talks in Addis Ababa failed to reach a deal.

The African Union-mediated talks ended last month without a temporary ceasefire being agreed in Darfur, mired in conflict since 2003, and South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where rebels have been battling since 2011.

Now the rainy season that leaves roads in the regions impassable has ended, both sides are braced for more fighting.

“We are preparing to defend ourselves,” said Arnu Lodi of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, which is based in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

“Our troops are in high morale, well trained and prepared,” Lodi said.

Sudan’s military also says it is on high alert in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

“We know that they are preparing and we are preparing too,” said spokesman Colonel Ahmed Khalifa al-Shami.

The military had been tracking the rebels’ movements during the talks, Shami said, declining to give further details.

The latest negotiations came during a period of calm in Sudan’s conflict-hit peripheries.

President Omar al-Bashir announced a two-month ceasefire in September to persuade rebels to join a national dialogue in Khartoum.

The period coincided with the wet season, when torrential rains usually halt fighting, but the SPLM-N accused Khartoum of carrying out air raids.

“Despite the military’s commitment to the ceasefire announced by the president, it hasn’t abandoned its duty to train, mobilise and protect the country,” Shami said.

No end in sight

Bashir has been battling ethnic insurgents in Darfur for 12 years, after they rebelled against Khartoum, complaining of marginalisation.

The SPLM-N rose up in 2011 for similar reasons.

Khartoum unleashed troops, bomber jets, helicopter gunships and militia to try to crush the insurgencies, with the International Criminal Court indicting Bashir for alleged war crimes in the Darfur conflict.

The talks in Addis Ababa were the 10th round between the SPLM-N and Khartoum, and Darfuri rebels held simultaneous talks with a second government delegation.

The negotiations ended with the SPLM-N and government accusing each other of plotting to reinforce their positions in South Kordofan and Blue Nile under cover of a humanitarian ceasefire.

For the past two years, the government has mounted offensives in the dry season, which starts in November.

The talks’ failure means another is likely but a decisive victory still seems far off.

“It’s going to inflict a lot of human suffering but it will not end the insurgency,” said Magdi al-Gizouli, an independent political analyst.

In April, government-allied militia ambushed the Justice and Equality Movement’s forces in Darfur, capturing and destroying dozens of their vehicles in a major defeat.

Sudan’s military says Darfuri rebels now occupy just pockets of land, notably the hilly Jebel Marra area in the centre of the region.

“The Sudanese Armed Forces will try to contain the SPLM-N as far as possible just like the situation in Darfur, where you have pockets in Jebel Marra that don’t threaten anything,” Gizouli said.

Difficult terrain

In previous offensives, the military has pounded rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile with artillery, jet bombers as well as ground attacks with militia and troops.

But the hilly Nuba Mountains area of South Kordofan is still a major obstacle for the Khartoum regime.

“The terrain is difficult. It doesn’t lend itself to fighting, it’s very mountainous,” said a source in Khartoum familiar with the conflict.

“I think the SPLA-N has taken advantage of the rainy season to reinforce its positions,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

For civilians in rebel-controlled areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile that the government denies aid organisations access to, renewed fighting will inflict further misery.

Nearly 150,000 children in South Kordofan and Blue Nile have not been received vaccinations because of a lack of access, with 500,000 people displaced in the two states, the United Nations says.

Fighting in Darfur has left another 2.5 million displaced in the western region, with at least 300,000 dead, according to the UN.

“The civilian population is captive to the fighting armies,” Gizouli said.

newvision.co.ug

Troops of the Nigerian Army are continuing their advancement towards the main camp of the Boko Haram sect in Sambisa.

During the encounter, the troops freed many hostages and dislodged some Boko Haram insurgents, who fled on sighting them.

Army sources told DAILY POST that the Boko Haram fighters cannot escape into towns as there were many check points at all Sambisa exits and entry routes.

The troops discovered a tunnel the sect uses as hideout from military air strikes.

They also destroyed Boko Haram flags, motorcycles, among other properties.

Some images of the operation were obtained by DAILY POST Thursday night.

The Somali army said the U.S. carried out an air strike on a southern Somalia town where a resident said Islamist-militant fighters from the al-Shabaab group are active.

The town of Kuunyo-Barrow, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, was rocked by two explosions in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Sharifo Enow, a resident, said in a phone interview. One blast occured at a gas station used by militants, and another on the outskirts of town, he said.

“We believe that a U.S. air strike hit al-Shabaab targets in Kuunyo-Barrow,” Lieutenant-Colonel Mohamed Nur Hiirey said in a phone interview from the nearby town of Barawe. “We do not know exactly who was targeted in the attack. Further details are sketchy because the area is controlled by the militants.”

The U.S. has carried out several drone strikes in Somalia since last year to help the government combat the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group. A raid in September 2014 killed the group’s former leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane. The U.S. declared al-Shabaab a terrorist organization in 2008.

bloomberg.com

A group known as the Bomb Blast Victims Association of Nigeria has called on the Nigerian military to redouble their effort of meeting the December deadline of stamping out terrorism from the country.

A statement signed by the group’s chairman, Kayode Olatunji, on Wednesday, charged the military to increase their surveillance and information gathering on the activities of terrorists during the yuletide season.

According to the group, the fight against insurgency should be supported by all Nigerians as terrorism constitutes a major threat to the country’s existence.

The group said, “This fight is for our corporate existence and survival as a nation,”

“Putting an end to insurgency was surely one of the reasons why Nigerians massively voted for the present Muhammadu Buhari-led Administration of the All Progressive’s Congress, APC.”

Expressing optimism that the government was equal to task in ensuring that terrorism is wiped out of the country, the group said terrorists had caused untimely deaths of many people, destroyed valuable property , and has maimed many people.

“Nigerians now live in pain, fear and hopelessness due to the tragic conditions in which they have found themselves,” the group said.

dailypost.ng

Cameroon’s army has killed at least 100 Boko Haram militants and freed 900 hostages in a Nigeria border operation, according to the army and defence ministry.

“In the course of this operation, at least 100 members of Boko Haram were killed. Nine hundred hostages detained by Boko Haram were freed,” said army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck.

The same figures have been cited in a brief statement on state television. The army is understood to have carried out the operation with backing from a regional anti-Boko Haram task force.

Cameroon has been a target for attacks since it became part of an 8,700 strong regional task force aimed at defeating Boko Haram with troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Benin, Reuters reports.

On Tuesday night suspected Boko Haram militants detonated two suicide bombs in north Cameroon, where suicide bombings are becoming almost daily occurences.

“There was a double suicide attack last night in Waza in the far north of Cameroon with a toll of six dead, including the three kamikazees [attackers],” Michel Oumarou, deputy prefect for Waza, said, though one source told the agency the death toll was likely higher.

Security forces killed a third suicide bomber before she was able to carry out an attack, they added.

The militants are believed to have travelled from Nigeria to attack the border town. Boko Haram extremists in the country have begun using teenage suicide bombers and planting landmines, senior military official Col. Jacob Kodji told Associated Press.

The extremist group has expanded its attacks into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and two Cameroonian soliders were killed on Monday by a landmine planted in the northern Cameroonian village of Gangse, he added.

independent.co.uk

Boko Haram is growing and threatening to spread further eastwards from Nigeria as far as the Central African Republic (CAR), despite heightened efforts by the Nigerian military and a regional task force, the top United Nations aid official in Cameroon told Reuters.

The Nigerian-founded organization—recently ranked as the world’s deadliest militant group—has expanded operations in the neighboring countries in recent months, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

However, Najat Rochdi, UN Resident Coordinator in Cameroon, said that the militant group continues to carry out almost daily suicide-bombing attacks in the region, such as the blast at a Shiite procession in Nigeria’s Kano state on Friday that killed scores of pilgrims.

Rochdi added that Boko Haram has made significant inroads into Cameroon and raised concerns that it would continue expanding eastwards towards the conflict-ridden CAR.

“’We used to have pockets of Boko Haram, it’s definitely expanding,’ Rochdi told Reuters.

‘It looks like they are trying to break through inside [Cameroon] but also towards the borders in the east, the borders with Central African Republic.’

Boko Haram—which pledged allegiance to Daesh (the ISIL) in March—was responsible for 6,664 deaths in 2014, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2015 produced by the Institute of Economics and Peace at the University of Maryland.

The group has launched a spate of attacks in northern Cameroon in recent months, and Rochdi warned that the insurgency could impact Cameroon’s economy and radicalize disaffected young people, who could end up joining the militant group.

International maritime groups on Tuesday amended the boundaries of a high-risk security zone in the Indian Ocean, in a move expected to streamline trade between India and the Gulf but increase the risk of attacks by Somali pirates.

The reduction of the BMP4 High Risk Area (HRA) – which has been in place since 2012 to indicate piracy-prone waters in response to an increasing number of attacks on trade vessels at that time – came into force on December 1, following intense lobbying by the Indian government.

India had claimed the zone had the effect of diverting ships along the Indian coast, complicating trade routes and causing congestion and collisions.

In a statement issued in October, India’s Ministry of Shipping said: “The extended HRA came almost near the Indian coastline up to as close as about 35 nautical miles from the baseline. This was an unwarranted encroachment into India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“International maritime traffic density came hugging the Indian coastline to avoid the HRA. This led to maritime congestion culminating in three reported instances of collisions between merchant ships and fishing vessels and the fatalities of five Indian fishermen.

“It also led to the proliferation of armed security guards on board merchant vessels to deter piracy attacks and hijackings. There have been cases of firing by guards on Indian fishing boats and a couple of Indian fishermen have lost their lives.

“This has further led to an increase in the presence of unregulated foreign owned and operated floating armouries near India’s coastline, potentially jeopardising Indian maritime security interests.”

India argued that the Indian Navy and Coast Guard had provided escorting facilities to ships in the Arabian Sea, as well as 24-hour security to foil any potential attack. As a result, no pirate attack or hijacking had occurred in the last three years, it claimed.

In October, an agreement was reached with the Contact Group for Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (GCPCS) and other international maritime authorities to shrink the HRA away from India.

The move is expected to speed up trade between India and the Gulf as ships take a more direct route, however, security experts have warned it could make them vulnerable to attack by “opportunistic” Somali pirates.

It could also either push up insurance costs for ships passing through the HRA or prompt some to continue sailing close to India to avoid any higher insurance costs.

Gerry Northwood, COO of UK-based maritime security company MAST and a former Royal Navy counter-piracy commander, told Arabian Business: “With the new HRA in place, ship owners may start to take a more direct route between the Gulf of Oman and the southern tip of India. Previously, many vessels were routing along the Indian coast to avoid the HRA and this was disrupting Indian coastal traffic and fisheries.

“On the other hand, should vessels see this reduction as a green light to take a more direct route between the Gulf of Oman and India, I believe they should continue to think very carefully about the level of risk to their vessel.

“Somali pirates have previously demonstrated that they can operate in the centre and northern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and vessels that are high risk with a low freeboard and slow speed should continue to take armed security in that area.”

He added that the HRA reduction will be watched closely by the insurance industry and wider business community, as “any return to the level of piracy seen in the western Indian Ocean in 2011 and 2012 would have a very detrimental effect on insurance rates and some companies’ revenues.”

Somali piracy cost the global economy a reported $6 billion in 2012. The Joint War Committee at global insurer Lloyd’s of London is due to meet later in December to discuss the likely financial impact of the redrawn HRA in the Indian Ocean.

arabianbusiness.com

The United Nations today said that renewed fighting between armed forces in Somalia’s central Galmudug region and semi-autonomous Puntland to the north have killed more than 30 people and forced 40,000 people to flee according to estimates.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that UN aid agencies and international humanitarian organisations have temporarily relocated because of the latest fighting which began on November 28.

Dujarric said this has left a gap in providing basic services to vulnerable communities in the area though local non—governmental organisations are providing mobile health care, water and sanitation services.

He said the UN humanitarian agency continues to warn that Somalia’s needs “are immense,” with an estimated 4.9 million people in need of assistance and 1.1 million displaced around the country.

thehindu.com

The Nigerian military has denied the reported attack on a military base in northern Nigeria.

ABC News reports Monday evening that Boko Haram fighters attacked a military base in Ularamu, and destroyed the compound.

The newspaper said after soldiers, yet to be accounted for, disappeared, residents picked up arms and stopped Boko Haram from overrunning their town.

“Locals fought the militants through the night until military reinforcements arrived on Monday morning,” it said.

However, the military has maintained that no soldiers were missing, but there were reports of searches being conducted to find the 107 missing troops.

The latest report came barely two weeks after Boko Haram insurgents at Gudunbali, Borno State attacked the 157 Battalion of the Nigerian Army.

Over 100 soldiers, including their commanding officer, were reported missing.

Army spokesman, Col. Sani Usman, said the troops had returned, but images showing dead soldiers emerged online, questioning his comment.

dailypost.ng

West Africa’s Boko Haram Islamist militant group is expanding and there is only a small window of opportunity to stop it, the top U.N. aid official in Cameroon said on Monday.

Najat Rochdi, U.N. Resident Coordinator in Cameroon, said the group’s strategy was to demonstrate its power by almost daily suicide bombings, often by young girls, while trying to gain territory.

Its offensive was bankrupting Cameroon’s economy and destroying a fragile society, especially influencing the young.

“Boko Haram is giving them a sense, because they are convincing them that it is a sacrifice for the better. So we have to show them that they don’t have to die to have a better life,” Rochdi told Reuters.

There was a chance to do so in Cameroon because Boko Haram recruits were driven by poverty and marginalization.

“If it was Jihadism, we all know, it’s very difficult to compete with God. But because it’s just about having a voice and empowerment and economic opportunities and believing in a future, that’s something we know how to do.”

Boko Haram declared allegiance to the Islamic State group in March and stepped up its suicide bombing campaign, more than tripling Cameroon’s number of displaced people to 158,000.

The group emerged in Nigeria, but it now straddles the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, with numbers estimated at 40,000 and ambitions to set up an oil-rich Islamic state around Lake Chad, Rochdi said.

“We used to have pockets of Boko Haram, it’s definitely expanding. It looks like they are trying to break through inside the country but also towards the borders in the east, the borders with Central African Republic.”

The impact on farming and markets had more than doubled the number of food-insecure people to 2.2 million people, and more than 15 percent of children were acutely malnourished, she said.

The U.N. is trying to counter Boko Haram by re-establishing markets and the jobs that go with them, and getting children back to school. The danger is that Boko Haram could grow and link up with other Islamist groups, potentially triggering a worse refugee crisis in Europe than the one seen this year, Rochdi said.

“Investing in today and reversing the trend is investing in a better security and stability of Europe tomorrow. And tomorrow is really tomorrow, not 2030,” she said. “It’s doable. But it’s really a very small window of opportunity. If you ask me the same question next year, the answer will be no.”

reuters.com