Category: Judicial

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Somalia Welcomes International Court Decision on Kenya Maritime Dispute

Somalia has welcomed the International Court of Justice decision giving it the right to control much of the 100,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean following a dispute with its neighbor, Kenya. Somalia called on Kenya to respect the court verdict. Kenya says it will not abide by the court’s decision.

On Tuesday evening, Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo said his country accepts the International Court of Justice verdict.

The Somali leader said that in respecting international laws, the Somali federal government accepts the court ruling in line with international laws and norms. He said Somalis hope Kenya’s government will respect the supremacy of international law and forgo what he described as its “misguided and unlawful pursuits.” He said Somalia hopes Kenya will take the verdict as an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the two countries and cooperation between their people.

Kenya and Somalia have been involved in a court battle since 2014 over where each country’s border in the Indian Ocean starts and ends.

After a seven-year process, ICJ president Joan Donoghue delivered the much-awaited ruling over the border dispute.

“[The court] decides that the starting-point of the single maritime boundary delimiting the respective maritime areas between the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Republic of Kenya is the intersection of the straight line extending from the final permanent boundary beacon PB 29 at right angles to the general direction of the coast with the low-water line,” said Donoghue.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has criticized the court decision and alleged the court has no jurisdiction over the matter.

He said the decision will damage its relations with Somalia.

Kenya argued in court there was an agreed boundary between the two countries but the court said Kenya’s claim was not consistent because it signed a memorandum of understanding acknowledging the matter was in dispute.

The judges unanimously decided there was no agreed borderline between the two countries.

The court awarded Somalia the bulk of the territory while adjusting the border slightly northward.

Nabil Orina, an international law expert, said the adjustment was meant to address Kenya’s security and economic interests.

“The court agreed that there was a need to slightly adjust the equidistant line northwards in order to accommodate Kenya which will be significantly cut off if the line remains like that. So, that’s why the line was again redrawn. So, in this case, then Kenya gained a bit of maritime territory but a bigger chunk of that went to Somalia.” said Orina.

The Hague-based court also rejected Somalia’s demand for compensation for Kenya’s past economic activity in the area.

It remains to be seen how the two East African nations manage the border situation as the region faces pressing issues, including terrorism.

Source: Voice of America

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After Raids, 6 Migrants Killed in Shooting at Libya Detention Center

At least six migrants were shot dead at a Tripoli detention center on Friday, the head of the U.N. migration agency’s Libya mission said, as many reportedly escaped from the facility and others gathered in nearby streets.

Overcrowding triggered chaos at the Ghot Shaal center, with people sleeping in the open and different security forces present, said Federico Soda, the Libya mission head for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“Shooting started,” he said, adding that at least six people had been killed.

Libyan security forces have cracked down on migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers over the past week, detaining more than 5,000.

There are hundreds of thousands of migrants in Libya, some seeking to travel to Europe and others coming to work in the major oil exporter.

They routinely face violence in a country that has had little peace for a decade, with many held in detention centers that the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said were crowded and unsanitary, and where Amnesty International on Friday said they face torture and sexual abuse.

Libya’s Government of National Unity was not immediately available for comment.

A decade of strife

The country has been in crisis since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Moammar Gadhafi, and much of it is controlled on the ground by local armed forces that operate independently of the government.

Numerous videos posted on social media on Friday, which Reuters could not immediately authenticate, showed dozens of people pouring through a gap in a fence, and larger numbers marching through Tripoli streets.

Two residents said they had seen large numbers of migrants running through the streets in that area.

Soda said security forces in Tripoli had detained at least 900 migrants later Friday, a group that likely included many of those who had fled the detention center.

A Reuters journalist who had seen dozens of migrants sitting on the floor surrounded by guards said that there was a very heavy security presence around the area and there had been sporadic sounds of shooting.

UNHCR said earlier on Friday that it was increasingly alarmed about the situation for migrants and refugees in Libya after more than 5,000 had been arrested in the recent crackdown.

“The raids, which also involved the demolition of many unfinished buildings and makeshift houses, have created widespread panic and fear among asylum-seekers and refugees in the capital,” it said in a statement.

On Monday U.N. investigators said abuses against migrants and refugees in Libya were “on a widespread scale … with a high level of organization and with the encouragement of the state … suggestive of crimes against humanity.”

Source: Voice of America

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Dozens Dead in South Sudan Intercommunal Fighting

At least 36 people were killed in clashes between four communities in South Sudan over the weekend, according to Warrap state officials.

Warrap Governor Aleu Ayieny Aleu called the latest wave of fighting in in Tonj East and Tonj North counties “devastating.” He told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus radio program that the clashes were linked to cattle raids and revenge attacks.

Thousands have fled the region and at least 36 others were injured, Aleu said. Many could not be transported to medical care due to flooding and the poor condition of roads.

“The bigger problem is how we can transport the wounded civilians to hospital,” Aleu said. “Here I appealed to humanitarian partners to quickly step in, since the situation is normalizing, to transport these victims to hospital.”

Due to the flooding which destroyed several roads, government forces were unable to reach areas of the fighting.

Tonj East County Commissioner John Deng Kook told South Sudan in Focus that armed young men from two communities in the area continue to engage in deadly clashes, but he declined to name the individuals involved.

“The fighting was linked to a cattle theft, that some youth from Rek community stole cows from Luanyjang and when the youth perused the [area], then fighting erupted there on Saturday and on Sunday,” Tonj East County Commissioner John Deng Kook told VOA. “The other communities came for revenge.”

The clashes displaced thousands of local residents, said Father Ajaknei Aguer, who works with a Roman Catholic church mission in Romic, Tonj East county.

“We have relocated ourselves to another place due to heavy fighting in the area that was approaching the town of Romic,” Aguer said. “Personally, I have seen people wounded being carried out by their relatives and some died immediately due to a lack of health service.”

State officials sponsored a peace conference between residents of Tonj East and Tonj North counties in Romic, where resolutions were drafted that called for uniform disarmament, compensation for victims and victims’ families, and the return of looted property to rightful owners.

Commissioner Kook said the only way to end the clashes is to carry out a thorough disarmament campaign and establish a strong justice system.

Source: Voice of America

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Suspected Jihadis Kill 14 Soldiers in Burkina Faso

Suspected jihadis killed 14 soldiers Monday in an attack in northern Burkina Faso, the defense ministry said, in the latest bloodshed to hit the region plagued by Islamist violence.

“The military detachment of Yirgou” in the Centre-Nord region’s Barsalogho department was “the target of a terrorist attack” around 0500 GMT on Monday, junior defense minister General Aime Barthelemy Simpore said.

“Fourteen soldiers were killed during the fighting and seven wounded were evacuated,” he said in a statement, with the death toll higher than the nine given earlier by security sources.

“Several terrorists were neutralized during the response,” he added, praising the soldiers’ “great fighting spirit.”

A ground and air counteroffensive was immediately launched to “neutralize the attackers,” he added.

A security source told AFP an enormous amount of equipment was lost, with some burned and some taken away by the attackers.

Burkina Faso has seen regular, deadly jihadi attacks since 2015, mostly in the northern and eastern regions close to the Mali and Niger borders.

But on Saturday, it was the south that was hit, with two soldiers killed by a makeshift bomb in Larabin near the Ivory Coast border.

Back in the north, five soldiers were killed during a reconnaissance mission in Mentao last Wednesday, also by a makeshift bomb, the armed forces said.

In mid-September, a suspected jihadi attack killed six gendarmes escorting fuel tanks for a mining company.

Such attacks, normally blamed on jihadi groups affiliated to the Islamic State or al-Qaida, have killed around 2,000 people and forced more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.

Source: Voice Of America

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In Nigeria, Civilian Patrols Try to Deter Kidnappings, Other Crime

Auwal checked his two guns before another night of patrolling his village in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kaduna.

“I have decided to arm myself with these guns to protect my family because the government has failed to keep us safe,” said Auwal, whose real name — like those of other volunteers and of the village itself — is not disclosed here for security reasons.

Auwal belongs to a volunteer youth patrol trying to protect the community from criminal gangs — so-called bandits — who swoop in on motorcycles to kidnap people, steal livestock and otherwise spread terror.

With abductions and violent attacks rampant in northern Nigeria, some civilians like Auwal have grown impatient with government security forces’ inability to protect them and have taken up arms themselves.

Kaduna state is at the epicenter of violence that has traumatized Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. Kidnapping for ransom has surged, with Kaduna’s government reporting 1,723 people kidnapped in the first six months of 2021, compared with nearly 2,000 for the entire previous year. Many of the bandit attacks have been deadly, with at least 545 people killed from January through June.

Buhari’s pledge

The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, elected in 2015 after campaigning to improve security, has faced criticism for the rising violence. In early September, Buhari ordered security agencies to step up their efforts to protect the public, especially in the besieged north.

Separately, several states — Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina — in September began trying to curb bandit gangs by banning motorcycle use, limiting petrol sales and interrupting telecommunications service.

Meanwhile, some communities have become increasingly self-reliant. Aliyu, another young man in Auwal’s village, said rising insecurity compelled him to join the patrols, which sometimes get donations of weapons and money from elders and other neighbors.

“This has become necessary to keep our families safe,” Aliyu said. “Cattle rustlers and kidnappers have been terrorizing us. … They are killing us, too. We can’t fold our arms and allow this to continue.”

Nasiru Sani’s support for community patrols came after an attack on his family’s compound one night in December.

“Through the window, I saw six people with guns. They shouted, ‘… We are Boko Haram. We will kill you if you don’t open the door,’” Sani said. “They put their guns through my window and started firing into the room. I held one of the guns, but they overpowered me. They shot me several times.”

The 40-year-old spoke from the Kaduna hospital where he was treated in January for multiple gunshot wounds. While recovering, Sani also was trying to free his pregnant wife.

“They kidnapped my wife,” Sani said, “and demanded a ransom of 500,000 naira” — just over $1,200. “We raised the money and sent someone to deliver it. But they abducted the messenger, too, and asked for more money.”

Sani’s wife finally was released in late February, after he paid a total of 1 million naira, or more than $2,400. She gave birth to a son in March.

Risks of civilian patrols

When communities resort to armed civilian patrols, members often are risking their lives. In Kaduna state, bandits killed at least four vigilantes in Dande village in May and another five in Udawa community in September, according to local media reports. In neighboring Niger state, bandits killed 30 vigilantes in a single incident in June.

Sometimes, patrols suffer self-inflicted wounds.

Neighborhood patrols say they’ve been getting guns through back channels, especially after a 2019 federal ban on civilian gun ownership. But those weapons can be defective, as a man named Jafar explained. His homemade gun unexpectedly discharged during patrol, wounding his hand. Nonetheless, Jafar reasoned, “It’s better to sustain this injury than to be kidnapped from my house. Kidnappers may demand a ransom that I cannot afford.”

Armed civilian patrols have been accused of vigilante justice, including summary executions. In Niger state alone, at least 86 people were arbitrarily killed in the first four months of 2021, according to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a group representing ethnic Fulani herders.

Security analysts have attributed most kidnapping attacks to young, nomadic Fulani men, fueling anti-Fulani sentiment that has exposed others to random attacks. Fatalities have been reported in other parts of the country, too.

The federal ban on civilian gun ownership is reinforced by Kaduna state law, said the state’s security commissioner, Samuel Aruwan. He said violators face prosecution.

“It is illegal to possess firearms without a license,” he said. “… There is no justification for individuals or citizens to take arms against fellow citizens. If you feel someone is threatening you, you should report to security agencies.”

Contrary view

In August, northern Katsina state’s Governor Aminu Bello called for civilians to arm themselves against so-called outlaws. But some security experts say arming civilians escalates problems.

“In certain instances, community leaders or militia leaders distribute weapons,” security expert Kabir Adamu told VOA’s Hausa Service. “The consequence … is it further drives the conflict.”

Source: Voice of America