The Jim Bakker Show

Expectations low as Syria’s warring sides meet

By Olzhas Auyezov and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

ASTANA (Reuters) – Syria’s warring sides met for talks for the first time in nine months on Monday, with frosty initial exchanges suggesting chances of a significant breakthrough were slim as the country’s six-year-old conflict ground on.

They sat opposite each other at a round table in a hotel conference room before a day of negotiations – sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana – got under way.

Both delegations said the focus was on the country’s ceasefire, a fragile precursor to a wider political solution.

But Bashar al-Jaafari, the head of the delegation representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said negotiators for the rebel forces had been rude and unprofessional, accusing them of defending “war crimes” committed by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as Nusra Front.

A rebel source said opposition representatives planned to negotiate with the government side only via intermediaries.

Mohammed Alloush, the head of the opposition delegation, told delegates he wanted to stop “the horrific flow of blood” by consolidating the shaky ceasefire and freezing military operations, saying Iran-backed militias had to leave Syria.

Russian news agency TASS cited a draft communique in which Moscow, Ankara and Tehran would commit to jointly fighting Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and set up a mechanism for trilateral monitoring of the ceasefire, which took effect on Dec. 30.

But fundamental divisions also remain between pro-Assad Russia and Turkey, which has supported anti-Assad rebels – including whether Syria’s president should stay in power or, as the rebels are demanding, step down.

There were no senior government figures among the delegations in Astana and Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said it expected the meetings to be over by midday on Tuesday.

OVERSEEING CEASEFIRE

Some observers said the talks, which UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is attending, could help jump-start U.N.-led negotiations that were suspended in late April.

De Mistura said it was crucial to get a mechanism to oversee and implement a nationwide ceasefire in place to build confidence.

“That by itself … would be a major achievement,” he said, adding he hoped Astana could pave the way for direct talks between the government and opposition in Geneva next month.

The Astana talks pointedly exclude the West, though Kazakhstan, with the backing of Moscow and Ankara, extended an invitation to the new U.S. administration last week, which Washington declined.

Iranian officials have said they strongly oppose U.S. involvement, though George Krol, the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, attended as an observer.

Turkey and Russia – each for their own reasons – both want to disentangle themselves from the fighting. That has pushed them into an ad hoc alliance that some people believe represents the best chance for progress towards a peace deal, especially with Washington distracted by domestic issues.

The opposition arrived in Astana aware that the fall of their former urban stronghold, Aleppo, has shifted the momentum in the fighting in favor of Assad.

On Sunday, war planes bombed rebel-held areas of western Syria, killing 12 people in one location, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while insurgent shelling of Aleppo killed six.

“The ceasefire is clinically dead, but the Russians and Turks want to keep it alive to send a message to the international community that they are the ones in charge of the Syrian situation,” said Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman.

(Additional reporting by John Irish, Denis Dyomkin and Kinda Makieh in Astana, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in Dubai and Thomas Perry in Beirut; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov/Christian Lowe/Andrew Osborn; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Iraqi general’s tour suggests tough fight ahead in west Mosul

destroyed buildings as a result of the battle of mosul

By Michael Georgy

MOSUL (Reuters) – Residents of east Mosul held up their children and took selfies with Iraqi counter-terrorism commander Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi after his men cleared Islamic State fighters from their neighbourhoods.

But his tour on Saturday of homes once occupied by the militants was a reminder of the dangers ahead as security forces prepare to expand their offensive against the Sunni militants into west Mosul.

Flanked by bodyguards in the Mohandiseen neighbourhood, Saadi got a firsthand view of Islamic State’s meticulous planning and reign of terror as he moved from house to house, greeted by locals as a hero.

In one home were a set of instructions on how to make bombs. A large bucket was filled with screws that were packed into explosives to kill and maim. Beside the leaflets were a pair of industrial rubber gloves, wires and detonators.

Nearby a thick book described how to use Russian machine guns. Militants were also well-versed on how to employ anti-tank missiles.

The battle for Mosul, involving 100,000 Iraqi troops, members of the Kurdish security forces and Shi’ite militiamen, is the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

Iraqi security forces have retaken most of east Mosul, with the help of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes which flattened rows of buildings in Iraq’s second-largest city.

The next phase, expected to kick off in a few days, could prove more difficult.

Western Mosul has many narrow streets and alleyways that tanks and other large armoured vehicles cannot pass through.

Jihadists are expected to put up a much tougher fight to hold on to their last stronghold in Iraq.

“We expect to enter the west in the next few days,” said Saadi, shortly after tearing down an Islamic State poster in anger.

Mosul, the largest city held by Islamic State across its once vast, self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, has been occupied by the group since its fighters drove the U.S.-trained army out in June 2014.

Its fall would mark the end of the caliphate but the militants are widely expected to mount an insurgency in Iraq and inspire attacks in the West.

DRONES, TORTURE CHAMBER

The group’s determination and organisation were evident in several homes toured by Saadi.

Laminated guides on the range of various weapons could be found on the floor or on tables.

One house was clearly dedicated to the production of small drone aircraft used for both surveillance and attacks. Several lay scattered on the floor.

A document with Islamic State logos asked detailed questions about the type of drone mission, either bombing, an explosive aircraft, spying or training.

There was section on who will manage the aircraft’s power on any particular mission and a checklist on structural integrity.

Islamic State ruled eastern Mosul with zero tolerance for dissent, routinely shooting or beheading anyone branded an opponent to their radical ideology.

Saadi’s men were tipped off Islamic State had converted a villa on the street he was standing on into a prison and torture chamber. People were held on the top floor in rooms with steel bars.

“We were told that the neighbours would hear screaming from the house,” said Saadi. “They imprisoned anyone that challenged them. Anyone who refused to fight for them.”

Across town, overlooking the Tigris River dividing east and west, the former Ninewah Oberoi Hotel offered another glimpse into Islamic State, which changed its name to Hotel of the Inheritors.

“It was a place for them for the gatherings of the foreigners (fighters) and suicide bombers,” said

Saadi, standing on the hotel’s rooftop. “Five stars … in order to encourage them.”

Gunshots rang out, and explosions could be heard, a precursor to the upcoming campaign in west Mosul.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Syrian rebels bitterly divided before new peace talks

By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents appear more divided than ever as they prepare for peace talks next week, demoralized by their defeat in Aleppo and unable to unite into a single force to defend their remaining territory.

The new diplomacy led by Assad’s Russian allies has exposed yet more splits in a rebellion that has never had a clear chief, with rebel factions long fractured by regional rivalries, their ties to foreign states, and an ideological battle over whether to pursue Syrian national or Sunni jihadist goals.

Several leaders have became prominent only to be killed in the nearly six-year-old conflict and numerous military and political coalitions have come and gone. After the rebels’ defeat in Aleppo last month, the latest effort to unify the jihadist and moderate wings of the insurgency collapsed.

By contrast Assad is as strong as at any time since the fighting began, his Russian and Iranian backers committed to his survival while the differing agendas of foreign states backing the rebels have added to their divisions.

The delegation of rebels that will attend the talks with the Syrian government starting on Monday in the Kazakh capital Astana represents only part of the moderate opposition that has fought Assad in a loose alliance known as the Free Syrian Army.

Most are from groups fighting in northern Syria with the backing of Turkey. Other rebel groups seen closer to the United States and Saudi Arabia have been left out.

The delegation will be led by Mohammad Alloush, the politburo chief of the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, which is at the more moderate end of the Sunni Islamist spectrum and has its main stronghold near Damascus.

Alloush, who lives outside Syria, has not been appointed to the role because he wields influence over the rebellion as a whole — he does not. He was chosen because he is a member of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), an alliance set up with Saudi and Western support in 2015.

The HNC itself, the broadest opposition body formed since the war began, has not been invited to Astana.

Its chairman, former prime minister Riad Hijab, is the nearest thing the moderate opposition has to “a face”. But his role is closer to that of a spokesman for the myriad groups on the ground and he will not be in Astana either.

The HNC has said it hopes the Astana talks will be a step towards new peace talks in Geneva. But while Russia says Astana aims to supplement Geneva, some in the opposition fear Moscow is trying to supplant the U.N.-backed process with its own and wants to increase divisions in the rebel camp.

“Going to Astana has more danger than going to Geneva,” said

Mohammad Aboud, a member of the HNC.

“In Geneva, there was a political front for the opposition

that had gained international recognition while in Astana there

is a lot of ambiguity and with Russia sponsoring this and being

an occupying force and not a mediator.”

He said “polarisation may increase” in the opposition and

added: “This is perhaps one of the real goals of the Russians –

to increase the division.”

WIDENING DIVISIONS

Russia’s peace moves have also exacerbated the split between the moderate and jihadist wings of the insurgency, fuelling tensions that have spilled into confrontation in Idlib, the rebels’ main remaining foothold.

A ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey last month has excluded the main jihadist group in northwestern Syria, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, while a spate of air strikes targeting its leaders have increased mistrust in the rebel camp.

All this plays further to Assad’s advantage, as his Russian and Iranian allies want to lead diplomacy over Syria, with Donald Trump indicating he will cut backing for the moderate Syrian opposition as U.S. president.

The rebels going to Astana say the meeting must focus on shoring up the ceasefire and will resist political discussions although Assad has said he is open to such talks.

“If Astana is just about a mechanism for a ceasefire, and humanitarian access, then it is positive. But it won’t be good if they discuss political affairs in Astana because that will amount to the marginalization of the other political forces,” said one FSA commander.

After years of failed international diplomacy, Moscow says it wants to advance peace by dealing directly with rebels fighting on the ground. It says the aim of the talks, which Iran will also attend, is to consolidate the ceasefire.

Turkey, which backs the revolt against Assad, is also behind the new peace drive and is widely believed to have put pressure in the rebels to go to Astana.

This reflects its shifting goals in Syria, where its priorities are now shaped around combating Kurdish militia and Islamic State near its border.

UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK

The outlook for the moderate rebels is more uncertain than ever as Trump has signaled he will cut American support for rebels who have been armed under an aid program backed by the United States, Arab states and Turkey.

An invitation to Astana has been sent to the United States, but Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been left out.

The rebel divisions have long worked in Assad’s favor in the conflict, which grew out of protests against Assad and his government in March 2011 and is estimated to have killed several hundred thousand people.

Assad’s foreign allies have had a critical role in helping to shore up his control over a rump state in western Syria, even as large swathes of territory in the east and north remain in the hands of Kurdish militia and Islamic State.

Many of the rebels fighting Assad in western Syria have themselves fought Islamic State, and at times the Kurds. While they are in retreat, they still hold significant territory including nearly all of Idlib province in the northwest.

Jihadist groups such as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, were left out of the latest ceasefire. Adding to the tensions among the rebels, Fateh al-Sham’s leaders have been targeted in a spate of recent U.S. air strikes, fuelling accusations of treachery among rebel groups.

Fateh al-Sham launched an attack on another powerful Islamist group, Ahrar al-Sham, in Idlib province on Thursday. Until recently both sides were at the heart of the merger talks.

Sheikh Abdullah al-Mohaisany, a Saudi Islamist cleric who has played a prominent role in Syria mobilizing support for the insurgency, called the failure of the merger talks a “saddening, regrettable” moment that left Idlib vulnerable to attack.

“If the attack on Idlib starts … the people will say ‘come on, let’s merge’,” he said in comments to an Islamist media outlet on YouTube after the rebels were dislodged from Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city and economic hub before the conflict.

“But it will be too late.”

(Writing by Tom Perry, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Most Islamic State commanders in Mosul already killed, Iraqi general says

By Isabel Coles

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – Most Islamic State (IS) commanders in Mosul have been killed in battles with Iraqi government forces that raged over the past three months in the eastern side of the city, an Iraqi general said on Thursday.

The fight to take the western side of Mosul, which remains under the jihadists’ control, should not be more difficult than the one on the eastern side, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi told Reuters before embarking on a tour of areas newly retaken.

Assadi’s Counter-Terrorism Service announced on Wednesday that almost all of the city’s eastern half had been brought under government control.

“God willing, there will be a meeting in the next few days attended by all the commanders concerned with liberation operations,” he said, replying to a question on when he expects a thrust into the western side of Mosul to begin.

“It will not be harder than what we have seen. The majority of (IS) commanders have been killed in the eastern side.” He did not give further details.

Since late 2015, government forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air power have wrested back large amounts of northern and western territory overrun by IS in a shock 2014 offensive.

On Thursday, regular Iraqi army troops captured the Nineveh Oberoy hotel, the so-called “palaces” area on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and Tel Kef, a small town just to the north according to military statements in Baghdad.

The army is still battling militants in al-Arabi, the last district which remains under their control east of the river, said one of the statements.

Over 50 watercraft and barges used by Islamic State to supply their units east of the river were destroyed in air strikes, the U.S. envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurty, tweeted.

Mogul’s five bridges across the Tigris had already been partially damaged by U.S.-led air strikes to slow the militants’ movement, before Islamic State blew up two of them.

“God willing, there will be an announcement in the next few days that all the eastern bank is under control,” Assai said.

A Reuters correspondent saw army troops deploying in an area by the river as mortar and gun fire rang out further north.

On one of the streets newly recaptured from Islamic State, men were reassembling breeze blocks into a wall that was blown up by a suicide car bomb several days ago.

Prime Minister Hailer al-Badri said late on Tuesday that Islamic State had been severely weakened in the Mosul campaign, and the military had begun moving against it in the western half. He did not elaborate.

If the U.S.-backed campaign is successful it will likely spell the end of the Iraqi part of the self-styled caliphate declared by the ultra-hardline Islamic State in 2014, which extends well into neighboring Syria.

Several thousand civilians have been killed or wounded in the Mosul fighting since October.

(Additional reporting by Saif Hameed; editing by Mark Heinrich and Robin Pomeroy)

Deaths from Nigerian refugee camp air strike rises to 90, could reach 170: MSF

people walk at the site of a bombing attack

GENEVA (Reuters) – The death toll from an accidental Nigerian air strike on a refugee camp in the town of Rann has risen to around 90 people, and could be as high as 170, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement on Friday.

Tuesday’s strike on the northeastern town in Borno state, which had Boko Haram militants as its target, has led to an investigation by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF). The inquiry’s report is due to be submitted no later than Feb. 2.

The aid group, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said the higher figure of 170 comes from reports from residents and community leaders.

“This figure needs to be confirmed,” said Bruno Jochum, MSF General Director, in the statement.

“The victims of this horrifying event deserve a transparent account of what happened and the circumstances in which this attack took place.”

Borno is the epicenter of Boko Haram’s seven-year-long attempt to create an Islamic caliphate in the northeast. The insurgency has killed more than 15,000 people since 2009 and forced some two million to flee their homes, many of whom have moved to camps for internally displaced people.

“A Nigerian airforce plane circled twice and dropped two bombs in the middle of the town of Rann, which hosts thousands of internally displaced people,” MSF said.

“At the time of the attack, an aid distribution was taking place.”

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said the strike had destroyed 35 structures, and hit 100 meters from what appears to be a Nigerian military compound, raising questions about why precautions were not taken to avoid harming civilians.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Paul Carsten; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Russia says joins forces with Turkey to bomb Syria militants

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday Russian war planes had joined forces with Turkish jets to target Islamic State militants holding the town of al-Bab around 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Aleppo.

Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official, said in televised comments it was the first time the air forces of Russia and Turkey had teamed up in this way.

The operation had been conducted in agreement with the Syrian government, he said.

Rudskoi said the Russian air force was also providing air support to Syrian government troops who he said were trying to fight off an Islamic State assault around the town of Deir al-Zor.

Russian jets were also backing a Syrian army offensive near the town of Palmyra, he said, where he warned Islamic State militants might be planning to blow up more of the ancient city’s historical monuments.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin)

In northern Aleppo, children return to school used as Islamic State prison

schoolchildren sit on mats as they return to school in Aleppo after Islamic State driven out

By Khalil Ashawi

AL-RAI, Syria (Reuters) – Sifting through ripped up textbooks and writing on broken whiteboards, Syrian children returned this week to a dilapidated small-town school that was used by Islamic State militants as a prison for more than two years.

With no chairs or desks, around 250 children huddled in classrooms on mats to stay off the cold concrete at the Aisha Mother of the Believers school in al-Rai, in the northern Aleppo hinterland near the Turkish border.

The students, aged 5-15, were given notebooks and pens on their first day back on Monday by seven volunteers who teach reading, writing and maths and helped get the school habitable again over the past six weeks.

“(I feel) joy, because I was able to bring back to school this number of students in a short period,” said volunteer Khalil al-Fayad. “(But also) heartbreak because of the bad condition (of the school).”

The school previously taught 500 students before being seized 2 1/2 years ago by Islamic State insurgents, who slapped logos on school bags bearing the slogan “Cubs of the Caliphate”, residents said.

The principal and teachers fled the area when Islamic State took over and parents stopped sending their children to the school, which closed after two months and was used to house prisoners of the ultra-hardline jihadists.

Volunteers set about trying to return the school to its previous standards last month in al-Rai after Syrian Free Army rebels backed by the Turkish military ousted Islamic State from the area.

With shattered windows, bullet strewn walls, debris and broken equipment still present, there is plenty left to do for the team of volunteers, who say they are seeking funding from local and Turkish authorities.

“(I) fear not being able to continue what we are doing if the situation remains the same and the lack of support continues,” Al-Fayad said.

(Writing by Patrick Johnston; editing by Mark Heinrich)

As caliphate crumbles, Islamic State lashes out in Iraq

People look into the remains of a car after being bombed

By John Davison

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two days after Iraqi forces launched a new push against Islamic State in Mosul, bomb blasts ripped through a marketplace in central Baghdad – the start of a spate of attacks that appear to signal a shift in tactics by the Islamist group.

The Sunni jihadists have targeted Shi’ite Muslim civilians. Raids on police and army posts in other cities, also claimed by Islamic State, have accompanied the bombings.

The attacks show that even if Islamic State loses the Iraqi side of its self-styled caliphate, the threat from the group may not subside.

It will likely switch from ruling territory to pursuing insurgency tactics, seeking to reignite the sectarian tensions that fueled its rise, diplomats and security analysts say.

In addition to operations in and around Baghdad, IS has carried out attacks in the region and Europe as it has come under pressure in Syria and Iraq.

In Iraq, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are driving IS out of Mosul, its largest urban center in the vast territories it seized 2-1/2 years ago there and in neighboring Syria.

Iraq’s government is aware of the challenge it faces in stemming the IS threat after Mosul.

“Terrorism uses the weapon of sectarianism in Iraq and Syria … in order to drive people and communities apart and take control of them,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Iraqi politicians and officials in Baghdad on Saturday.

“(We must) not allow the conditions that existed before Daesh (Islamic State),” he said, urging politicians to shun sectarianism and pledging to fight corruption, which plagued security forces before Islamic State’s big advances in 2014.

As well as improving security, authorities must involve local people in intelligence efforts and improve the lot of marginalized Sunnis, especially the 3 million displaced by fighting, the analysts said.

Failure to do so could give IS, also known as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL, space to regroup and sow sectarian strife.

Islamic State’s main target in a post-Mosul insurgency would likely be Baghdad and surrounding areas, a senior Western diplomat told Reuters.

“What you’re seeing now are elements of Daesh that were left in Anbar (province) following the liberation of Ramadi, Falluja, Hit, Haditha … they’re also being reinforced across the border from Syria,” the diplomat said.

‘HIGHER TEMPO’ OF ATTACKS

Iraqi forces last year drove the jihadists out of strongholds in Anbar, the heartland of Sunni tribes who resent the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad.

Some militants went to ground in those areas, as Iraqi forces have dealt them a big blow there and in Mosul, the diplomat said. But they are making their presence felt again with recent attacks.

Repeated use of vehicle bombs this month, a trend that had dropped off in Baghdad by late last year, shows that militant networks around the capital have been revived, said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“We’ve certainly seen ISIS move to a slightly higher tempo at the start of the year,” he said.

“It’s going to be a long struggle because these networks adapt, so you might disrupt them for a six-month period but they’re determined to reappear.”

Through new attacks mostly targeting Shi’ites, the Sunni extremist group aims not only to distract from military losses but to raise sectarian tensions.

Authorities must address grievances such as corruption and Sunni disenfranchisement that IS has exploited if growing violence is to be avoided, foreign and Iraqi observers said.

The battle for Mosul has brought some intelligence successes, according to military officials, who say local informers have been crucial in helping troops take on the militants.

KEEPING SUNNIS ON SIDE

Iraqi troops have tried to avoid killing civilians even as IS hides among and targets them. Residents glad to be rid of the group, which conducted public executions and cut the hands off thieves, have largely welcomed Iraqi forces.

“The question is, can they keep that trust?” said Baghdad-based security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises the government on Islamic State, arguing this would be tougher in areas closer to Baghdad.

“Intelligence in cities retaken from IS (near the capital) is weak. They’ve used local sources to arrest people, but suspects are often released with a bribe.”

As it swept through Iraq in 2014, IS exploited feelings in some Sunni areas that Shi’ite-dominated security forces were targeting them.

Current gaps in intelligence could be plugged through a delicate handling of relations between the state and those communities, another senior Western diplomat said.

For example, Sunni policemen should be trained and sent into the areas with a Sunni population, the diplomat said.

Ihsan al-Shammari, head of the Iraqi Centre for Political Thought, said Prime Minister Abadi grasps what needs to be done to eradicate the threat from Islamic State. The test will be achieving that in a difficult security environment.

“Rebuilding, bringing law and order, and returning the displaced … could be a road map for achieving calm,” Shammari said.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Dozens reported dead as Syrian army fights Islamic State

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Fighting between Islamic State and the Syrian army has killed dozens since Saturday in Deir al-Zor, where the militant group has launched an assault to capture a government enclave in the city, a monitoring group reported.

At least 82 people have been killed in the fighting, which is the heaviest in the city for a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

The dead comprised 28 from the army and allied militia, at least 40 Islamic State fighters, and 14 civilians, the British-based monitoring group said.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the army had killed dozens of Islamic State fighters in attacks on the group’s positions around Deir al-Zor.

Islamic State has held most of Deir al-Zor and the surrounding area since 2015, but the government has retained control of the airport and neighboring districts in the city, located in eastern Syria on the Euphrates river.

A U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab militias and rival Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups have pushed Islamic State from much of its territory in northern Syria, but it remains embedded in the country’s eastern desert and Euphrates basin.

Last month it recaptured the city of Palmyra, 185km (115 miles) southwest of Deir al-Zor, from the government in an unexpected advance that demonstrated its continuing military threat.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; editing by Giles Elgood)

Clashes in Nigeria’s divided heartland pile pressure on president

Displaced Nigeria families, fleeing from Boko Haram

By Alexis Akwagyiram

KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Hundreds of people have died in a surge of ethnically-charged violence in Nigeria’s divided heartlands, officials said, piling pressure on a government already facing Islamist militants in its northeast and rebels in its oil-rich south.

Locals in remote villages in Kaduna state told Reuters Muslim herders had clashed with largely Christian farmers repeatedly in recent weeks, in the worst outbreak of killings in the region since riots killed 800 after elections in 2011.

The fighting triggered by competition over scarce resources has come at a particularly sensitive time for Kaduna city, which is about to become the main air hub in central and northern Nigeria, after the capital Abuja’s airport closes temporarily for runway repairs in March.

Farmer Ibrahim Sabo said cattle herders armed with assault rifles raided his village Kalangai in southern Kaduna in November, forcing him and his family to hide in surrounding fields.

“We left everything we harvested and they took our cattle. We have been running ever since,” said the 75-year-old in Kakura village where he took refuge.

The violence has focused attention on President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who vowed to restore order in Africa’s most populous nation when he came to power in May 2015.

He held a five-hour session with senior security and army officials in Abuja on Thursday on how to tackle the unrest.

Security agencies are already deploying extra forces to secure Kaduna’s airport and its highway to Abuja, a route often targeted by kidnappers.

That all comes on top of an insurgency by Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast, beaten back last year by a military coalition of neighboring nations, but showing signs of a resurgence with a recent step-up in bombings.

Militants in the southern Niger Delta oil hub have said they are ready to resume pipeline attacks, and there have also been clashes between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims in Kaduna state.

FESTERING DISPUTES

Locals say the Kaduna violence grew out of festering disputes over territory in October and November, then escalated sharply, exacerbated by north-south, Muslim-Christian tensions in a patchwork nation.

Details of attacks and precise figures are hard to come by in the remote territory.

The national disaster agency NEMA said on Friday it had recorded a total of 204 deaths since October in Kafanchan and Chikun, two of the four municipal districts worst hit by the violence, with no details from the others.

Christian leaders released a statement late December saying 808 people had died – an estimate dismissed by Kaduna state police commissioner Agyole Abeh who did not give his own figure.

The authorities had already sent in reinforcements – 10 units, each with 63 police officers, using 20 armored cars, he added.

Community group, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, said herdsmen had been “unjustifiably accused and maligned” in the area and had also come under attack, prompting a cycle of revenge.

There were few signs of the promised police or army reinforcements outside the center of Kaduna city.

Tarmac roads gave way to red soil dirt tracks leading to Kakura, on the edge of the territory that has seen the worst fighting.

Another farmer, Yusuf Dogo, said dozens of armed herdsmen burned houses in his village of Pasakori in three quick raids, forcing 700 people to flee in October.

“They ran through our village and started shooting randomly,” he said. “Later, they brought their cattle and they ate everything.”

(Additional reporting by Garba Muhammad in Kaduna and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Andrew Heavens)

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