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Troops from neighboring Eritrea have “started to evacuate” the conflict-hit Tigray region
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
They said that Supreme State Security prosecutors and criminal court judges have renewed detentions, including for scores of their clients, without transporting detainees to hearings or giving lawyers the opportunity to enter pleas.
Between May 2 and May 9, Supreme State Security prosecutors and criminal courts - responsible for reviewing pretrial detention beyond five months - extended pretrial detention almost automatically for all detainees who were up for renewal.
A lead lawyer at a local human rights organization said that on May 4, 5, and 6, the Cairo and Giza terrorism circuits of the criminal court system renewed the detention of roughly 485, 745, and 414 defendants in over 100 cases.
A senior lawyer at the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information told Human Rights Watch that Supreme State Security prosecutors have, since May 2, similar to the criminal courts, renewed the detention of almost all defendants in cases they oversee without hearings.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution and criminal courts rarely release detainees from pretrial detention or present evidence justifying continued detention.
Ethiopia, one of the only two independent African nations at the time, was invaded on October 3,1935 by Facist Italy under Benito Mussolini. The Italians, seeking revenge for their prior
humiliating loss to Ethiopia over 40 years earlier, committed countless atrocities on the independent African state. Poisonous gas, aerial bomabrdment, flame throwers and
concentration camps were all employed against the ill equipped Ethiopian people.
Black outrage throughout the world was unified. The League of Nations,
forerunner to the UN, was criticized sharply for supplying weapons to Italy and
not to Ethiopia. Such actions confirmed Black suspicion that the war was of racial
motivation and sought to extinguish the last light of African power in the world.
From Kingston to Johannesburg, from Detroit to Ghana, form Port-of-Spain to
Paris, Black men and women offered to go fight in defense of Ethiopia. And as
battles raged between Ethiopians and Italians in Africa, battles raged between
Blacks and Italians in the streets of New York. In South Africa, Black workers
began a lengthy march up the continent to assist their African brothers in Ethiopia.
Elsewhere, ex-service men discarded their European and American citizenships to
bring their military expertise to the defense of Ethiopia. The exiled Ethiopian
Emperor Haile Selassie became a near legendary figure to many. Not before or
ever since was such a strong sense of Pan-Africanism seen throughout the world.
And though Italy succeeded in defeating the African nation, Blacks everywhere
would continue the struggle until Ethiopia was free.
Djibouti lies in northeast Africa on the Gulf of Aden at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. It borders Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. The country, the size of Massachusetts, is mainly a stony desert, with scattered plateaus and highlands.
Republic with a unicameral legislature.
Ablé immigrants from Arabia migrated to what is now Djibouti in about the 3rd century B.C. Their descendants are the Afars, one of the two main ethnic groups that make up Djibouti today. Somali Issas arrived thereafter. Islam came to the region in 825.
Djibouti was acquired by France between 1843 and 1886 through treaties with the Somali sultans. Small, arid, and sparsely populated, it is important chiefly because of the capital citys port, the terminal of the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway that carries 60% of Ethiopias foreign trade. Originally known as French Somaliland, the colony voted in 1958 and 1967 to remain under French rule. It was renamed the Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967 and took the name of its capital city on June 27, 1977, when France transferred sovereignty to the new independent nation of Djibouti. On Sept. 4, 1992, voters approved in referendum a new multiparty constitution. In 1991, conflict between the Afars and the Issa-dominated government erupted and the continued warfare has ravaged the country.
The dictatorial president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had run the country since its independence, finally stepped aside in 1999, and Ismail Omar Guelleh was elected president. In March 2000, the main Afars rebel group signed a peace accord with the government. The fighting, severe drought, and the presence of tens of thousands of refugees from its war-torn neighbors, Ethiopia and Somalia, have severely strained Djiboutis agricultural capacity.
In April 2000, experts estimated some 150,000 people, or more than one-quarter of the population, needed food aid. The UN agreed to spend $2.7 million to increase the city of Djiboutis port facilities since it is a crucial regional grain terminus. In 2002, Djibouti
Amnesty International has documented torture, unlawful detention and sexual abuse of children escaping Boko Haram in the Northeast
At least 10,000 people, including many children, have died in military detention during the conflict
UK funding a flawed 'rehabilitation' centre - full investigation needed into deaths at the site
'This must serve as an urgent warning to the UK Government currently supporting a military abusing the very people it's meant to be protecting' - Kate Allen
Nigeria must urgently address its failure to protect and provide education to an entire generation of children in the Northeast, a region devastated by years of Boko Haram atrocities and gross violations by the military, Amnesty International warned today in a chilling new report.
The 91-page report, 'We dried our tears': Addressing the toll on children of Northeast Nigeria's conflict, examines how the military's widespread unlawful detention and torture have compounded the suffering of children from Borno and Adamawa states who faced war crimes and crimes against humanity at the hands of Boko Haram.
Between November 2019 and April 2020, Amnesty interviewed more than 230 people affected by the conflict, including 119 who were children when they suffered serious crimes at the hands of Boko Haram, the Nigerian military, or both.
Thousands, including children, held in military detention
Children who escape Boko Haram territory face a raft of violations by the Nigerian authorities, including crimes under international law.
A 14-year-old boy whom Boko Haram abducted as a young child before he fled and was placed in detention by the Nigerian military, said: \"The conditions in Giwa are horrible.
CANDACE
EMPRESS OF ETHIOPIA (332 B.C.)
Alexander reached Kemet (Ancient Egypt) in 332 B.C., on his world conquering rampage.
But one of the greatest generals of the ancient world was also the Empress of Ethiopia. This
formidable black Queen Candace, was world famous as a military tactician and field
commander. Legend has it that Alexander could not entertain even the possibilty of having
his world fame and unbroken chain of victories marred by risking a defeat, at last, by a
woman. He halted his armies at the borders of Ethiopia and did not invade to meet the
waiting black armies with their Queen in personal command.
[Capital FM] Nairobi -- Fiery Tanzanian politician Godbless Lema, who was arrested in Kenya while fleeing persecution has been freed.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR warns hundreds of thousands of urban refugees across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa are resorting to desperate measures to survive as the economic impact of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, takes hold.
The U.N. refugee agency says urban refugees are most seriously affected by the measures and unable to meet their most basic needs.
UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley says many urban refugees are at risk of exploitation and falling into debt.
Many urban refugees are also living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions and are particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus,” he said.
He says governments across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region so far have included refugees in COVID-19 response plans.
By SAM OLUKOYA Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian protests against police brutality continued Friday for the ninth day, with demonstrators fending off attacks from gangs suspected to be backed by the police, warnings from the Nigerian military, and a government order to stop because of COVID-19. In Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, protesters blocked the road to the international airport and the main highway into the city. The Lagos-Ibadan highway, one of Nigeria's busiest, is the main road linking the port city to the rest of Nigeria. Protesters in the capital, Abuja, dedicated the day to Nigerians they charge […]
The post Nigeria's anti-police brutality protests block major roads appeared first on Black News Channel.
Ethiopia's confirmed Covid-19 cases on Sunday reached 582 after 88 more infections were confirmed, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said in a statement.
This is so far the highest daily increase in the Horn of Africa country, which on Saturday reported 61 new confirmed Covid-19 cases.
The Ministry of Health said all 88 new Covid-19 cases are Ethiopian nationals – 51 males and 37 females – with their ages ranging between 8 to 75 years.
The Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health also said that 152 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 have so far recovered from the virus.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of Covid-19 on March 13.
The Second Italo-Abyssinian War was Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia, a process it began after the 1885 Partition of Africa. Italy was defeated in its first attempt at conquest at the battle of Adwa in 1896, allowing Ethiopia to become the only African nation to remain free of European control. Italian colonial forces however still remained in neighboring Eritrea and Somalia, and it was only a matter of time before the two nations would clash again.
The prospect of war increased dramatically after the fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, took control of Italy in 1922. He sought Ethiopia for its resources but also to salvage the pride of the only European nation defeated by an African country. Taking Ethiopia would have also completed the Italian domination over the Horn of Africa.
The initial conflict that sparked the war took place at Wal Wal, an oasis in the Ogaden Desert in 1934. On November 22, 1934, Italian forces marched fifty miles into Ethiopia and clashed with Ethiopian troops at Wal Wal, leaving one hundred and fifty Ethiopians and two Italians dead. The League of Nations evaluated the conflict and exonerated both nations, although Italy was the clear aggressor. Great Britain and France, which dominated the League, hoped to prevent Italy from becoming an ally of Nazi Germany. Taking advantage of this situation, Mussolini signed agreements with France and the United Kingdom, thus isolating Ethiopia and forcing it to face Italy alone.
The impending attack from the Italians prompted Emperor Haile Selassie I to recruit and mobilize the Army of the Ethiopian Empire. His approximately half-million-man legion was armed with mostly bows and spears, with the exception of those who owned outdated rifles, some of which remained from the conflict forty years earlier. Only a quarter of the army had any combat training. With a miniscule arsenal of outdated artillery and anti-tank or aircraft guns, and a handful of planes including some piloted by African Americans and other volunteers, the Ethiopian nation was
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and growing tensions in the country, Burundi will, on Wednesday, hold general elections.
The small African country of the Great Lakes region and its 11 million inhabitants are trying to emerge from a deadly political crisis born of President Nkurunziza’s controversial candidacy for a third term in April 2015.
Unlike Ethiopia, which postponed its August elections because of the COVID-19, Burundi has decided to maintain them at all costs, like Mali, Benin, and Malawi.
The country, which could face a major health crisis, is preparing to turn the page on Nkurunziza, whose last years in power were marked by massive human rights violations that left at least 1,200 people dead, according to a UN report released in 2017, and pushed some 400,000 people into exile at the height of the crisis.
A man of the seraglio who is apparently not as tough as his mentor Nkurunziza, of whom he is presented as the “Heir”, Mr. Ndayishimiye is a favourite in Wednesday’s election in view of the omnipotence of the ruling party.
The rights group said in a report that victims were accused of being supporters of the Oromo Liberation Army, the breakaway armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front, which the government had previously declared a terrorist movement but which has been unbanned by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“Security forces have continued to violate human rights despite reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and this is due to widespread impunity and lack of accountability for those violations,” Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher Fisseha Tekle said.
Security forces have continued to violate human rights despite reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and this is due to widespread impunity and lack of accountability for those violations.
“The report is further proof that the new administration has not parted ways with the practice of forcefully stifling dissent, committing egregious human rights violations and carrying out extrajudicial killings,” the Oromo Liberation Front and the Oromo Federalist Congress, an opposition party, said in a joint statement, calling on the government to investigate the findings.
Based on interviews with 80 victims or direct witnesses of violence, Amnesty’s report said the Ethiopian army and regional security forces in Amhara and Oromiya were involved in inter- ethnic killings, mass arbitrary detentions and rape.
#EndSARSNow: NGO SAYS JUSTICE \"NEEDS TO BE SERVED\" IN NIGERIA
The anti-police brutality movement #EndSARSNow that has seen Nigerian youth take to the streets over the last two weeks, erupted Tuesday evening when armed security forces opened fire on a group of demonstrators in Lekki, Lagos city.
The exact number of resulting wounded and fatalities is still unconfirmed.
Amnesty International is currently taking steps to get official figures - according to Director in Nigeria, Osai Ojigho, who gives insight into the incident based on the human rights organisation's credible sources on the ground.
Osai Ojigho : The eyewitness accounts that we received last night and the views that we got and various other sources that were shared point to the fact that they were military officers. So it is important that they actually investigate this and find out what happened. What were they doing there? Were they there to protect the protesters? Were they there to stop something from happening? Were they given orders to shoot at unarmed people? It would be important for the authorities to give that information today. But for us where we sit, people have died, people have been injured and justice needs to be served.
In order to attain a just conclusion to these events, the human rights lawyer outlines the necessary legal avenues to take.
Osai Ojigho : So the first thing is the individual culpability of officers and commanders who have actually perpetrated these acts of violence against protesters and the populace. because it is not only protesters who have been affected. Earlier on in the protests, there were also individuals who were not part of the protesters who were hit by stray bullets. That is 1.
The second is Nigeria needs to recognise that it has an international obligation under international human rights law to ensure that the safety and security of people within its territory are protected.
President Muhammadu Buhari had previously issued a statement last week denouncing excessive force used by the police - and also acknowledged officers in the country who are upright. Many now speculate on his stance since Tuesday's shootings and many others question the silence from other Africa leaders.
Osai Ojigho : It would be good to see the political leadership in the African Union and ECOWAS actually come out to say, \"Nigeria, we are seeing what is happening. You need to preach nonviolence.\" This is not a time to be silent.
Not at all silent and still raising their voices - undeterred by the very same police brutality they seek to end in the country, are Nigerian youth and the NGO Director applauds their resilience.
Osai Ojigho : The events of the last two weeks, on the one hand, have been inspiring to see people come out to express themselves. The overwhelming support they've received all over the world has been an eye-opener and it was a positive feeling - you know, that Nigerians are coming out and they are speaking truth to power.
May 16: Cases pass 300 mark
\tTotal confirmed cases = 306 (new cases = 19)
Total recoveries = 113 (new recoveries = 1)
Total deaths = 5
Active cases = 189
Tests within 24-hours = 4,044
Total tests = 53,029
\tAs of May 9, Ethiopia had recorded 210 cases, it means that it took a week for the next 100 cases to be registered.
Number of cases (new cases)
May 8th = 194 (16)
May 9th = 210 (29)
May 10th = 239 (11)
May 11th = 250 (11)
May 12th = 261 (2)
May 13th = 263 (9)
May 14th = 272 (15)
May 15th = 287 (19)
May 16th = 306
\t
May 15: 287 cases, returnees hit 10,000 – UN says
\tTotal confirmed cases = 287 (new cases = 15)
Total recoveries = 112 (new recoveries = 4)
Active cases = 168
\tAll the new cases involve men.
IOM report by BBC
May 14: 272 cases, record for one-day testing
\tTotal confirmed cases = 272 (new cases = 9)
Total recoveries = 108
Active cases = 157
Tests over 24-hours = 3,580
Total tests so far = 45,278
\tAll nine cases are Ethiopians, five male and four female.
May 10: 239 cases, Abiy appreciates US support
\tSunday May 10 new cases were 29 raising the total national tally to 239.
May 7: Tigray’s first cases takes tally to 191
\tEthiopia’s northern Tigray region recorded four cases of COVID-19, the first in the region.
The quarrel is over the rate at which Ethiopia fills the reservoir behind the dam and its effect on water supplies downstream in Sudan and Egypt—for who the Nile is the primary water source.
On and off since construction started, Egypt has threatened to go to war to secure continued access to the Nile waters.
If Egypt attacked Ethiopia, the antiquated idea that the Nile is a common good to which all have natural rights would collapse.
The Nile has two major tributaries—the White Nile is the headwaters and primary stream of the river, and the Blue Nile, containing 80 per cent of the water and originates in Ethiopia.
For now, Uganda should be able to collect custodian’s fees from South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt, and invest it in protecting the polluted Lake Nalubaale from which the Nile flows, and the real estate of the river that sits on its territory as it flows north.
Protests against police brutality in Lagos turned bloody on Tuesday despite a state-wide curfew, with eyewitnesses telling CNN that multiple demonstrators have been shot by soldiers. Demonstrators have taken part in daily protests across the country for nearly two weeks over widespread claims of kidnapping, harassment, and extortion by a police unit know as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Tuesday […]
Ethiopia is in east-central Africa, bordered on the west by the Sudan, the east by Somalia and Djibouti, the south by Kenya, and the northeast by Eritrea. It has several high mountains, the highest of which is Ras Dashan at 15,158 ft (4,620 m). The Blue Nile, or Abbai, rises in the northwest and flows in a great semicircle before entering the Sudan. Its chief reservoir, Lake Tana, lies in the northwest.
Federal republic.
Archeologists have found the oldest known human ancestors in Ethiopia, including Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba (c. 5.8–5.2 million years old) and Australopithecus anamensis (c. 4.2 million years old). Originally called Abyssinia, Ethiopia is sub-Saharan Africas oldest state, and its Solomonic dynasty claims descent from King Menelik I, traditionally believed to have been the son of the queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The current nation is a consolidation of smaller kingdoms that owed feudal allegiance to the Ethiopian emperor.
Hamitic peoples migrated to Ethiopia from Asia Minor in prehistoric times. Semitic traders from Arabia penetrated the region in the 7th century B.C. Its Red Sea ports were important to the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Coptic Christianity was brought to the region in A.D. 341, and a variant of it became Ethiopias state religion. Ancient Ethiopia reached its peak in the 5th century, then was isolated by the rise of Islam and weakened by feudal wars.
Modern Ethiopia emerged under Emperor Menelik II, who established its independence by routing an Italian invasion in 1896. He expanded Ethiopia by conquest. Disorders that followed Meneliks death brought his daughter to the throne in 1917, with his cousin, Tafari Makonnen, as regent and heir apparent. When the empress died in 1930, Tafari was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I.
Haile Selassie, called the “Lion of Judah,” outlawed slavery and tried to centralize his scattered realm, in which 70 languages were spoken. In 1931, he created a constitution, revised in 1955, that called for a parliament with an appointed senate, an
Sudan so͞odăn´ [key], officially Republic of the Sudan, republic (2011 est. pop. 36,740,000), 718,723 sq mi (1,861,484 sq km), NE Africa. It borders on Egypt in the north, on the Red Sea in the northeast, on Eritrea and Ethiopia in the east, on South Sudan in the south, and on the Central African Republic, Chad, and Libya in the west. Khartoum is the capital and Omdurman is the largest city.
Sections in this article:
Over 40 stadiums and arenas have been transformed into polling sites in an effort to combat Black voter suppression.
On the evening of October 20, 2020, Nigerian army soldiers opened fire at a crowd of protesters in Lagos who were calling for an end to police brutality.
Ethiopia is one of East / Horn of Africa’s least impacted nations as compared to rate of COVID-19 case growth and infection of its neighbours.
May 19: 365 cases with 60 new cases in three days
\tTotal confirmed cases = 365 (new cases between May 17 – 19 = 60)
Total recoveries = 120 (new recoveries = 8)
Active cases = 238
\tEthiopia’s case count spiked on Monday by 35 new cases (a daily record) whiles 14 new cases were recorded today.
Concerns had been raised by analysts over the spate of new case increases after it took just a week to go from 200 to go past the 300 mark as against a much lengthier period from 0 to 100 and 100 to 200.
Kenya is past 900 confirmed cases as of today.
Major African stats: May 19 at 6:00 GMT:
\t\tConfirmed cases = 88,264
\t\tNumber of deaths = 2,832
\t\tRecoveries = 33,898
\t\tActive cases = 51,534
Anti-government demonstrations gripped several countries in the Middle East in early 2011, and protests in Libya followed those in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain. The crackdown by the government in Libya, however, was the most vicious. The protesters took to the streets on Feb. 16 in Benghazi, the countrys second-largest city, demanding that Qaddafi step down. The next day, declared the Day of Rage, saw the number of demonstrations burgeon throughout the country. Security forces began firing on protesters, and by Feb. 20 Human Rights Watch estimated that as many as 200 people had been killed by troops. Several government officials and diplomats defected, and members of the military joined the ranks of the opposition as the government attacks on civilians grew increasingly brutal. Some reports had fatalities numbering near 1,000 or more. Qaddafi refused to resign, but offered to double the salaries of public workers and freed some Islamic militants from jail. Protesters dismissed the move as a hollow gesture and continued their actions throughout the country. Qaddafi enlisted the help of mercenaries as the number of defections by troops swelled. He cast blame for the uprising on the West, which he claimed wants to assume control of Libyas oil, and Islamic radicals who want to expand their base.
On Feb. 27, the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Qaddafi and several of his close advisers. The sanctions included an arms embargo on Libya, a travel ban on Qaddafi and other leaders, and the freezing of Qaddafis assets. The Security Council also requested that the International Criminal Court investigate reports of widespread and systemic attacks on citizens. The UN sanctions followed unilateral action by the U.S., and the European Union also sanctioned Libya. By Feb. 28, rebels had taken control of Benghazi and Misurata and were closing in on Tripoli. The rebels organized a military and formed an executive committee, the Transitional National Council, illustrating that they could establish a
Sudan on Tuesday refused to sign agreements that will enable Ethiopia to start filling the waters of its $4.6 billion Renaissance Dam from July.
Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he refused to sign the agreement with Ethiopia due to \"technical and legal issues\" bordering on the dam's environmental and social impacts.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi told the United Nations, UN, in 2019: \"While we acknowledge Ethiopia's right to development, the water of the Nile is a question of life, a matter of existence for Egypt.\"
In spite of calls in Egypt for war if Ethiopia does not stop the construction, it is uncertain what a military reaction by Egypt will be, especially when both countries have no shared borders.
First, all sides need to accept that Ethiopia has a right to use the Nile waters for its development just as Egypt did in building its Aswan High Dam whose ten-year construction was completed in 1970.
In 1997, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda – an international court established by the UN in 1994 to judge people responsible for the genocide – indicted Kabuga for his role.
It was set up to perform the remaining functions of both the Rwanda tribunal and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The International Criminal Court was set up to hear cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression crimes.
From my experience working in Rwanda, Rwandans perceive international-based justice as aiding the conscience of the international community, which failed to intervene before or during the genocide.
The original warrant for his arrest was issued by the now-dissolved International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia, winner of the 1960 Olympic marathon (running barefoot), is born.
In a message to African leaders to mark the \"Africa Day 2020,\" commemorated by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), President Buhari said Africa has given the world a new hope by choosing the theme\"Silencing the Guns in the context of the COVID-19\" for this year's Africa Day.
Mr Buhari stressed the need for African leaders to ensure that every effort is made to ensure the success of silencing the guns on the continent, emphasising the need to sensitize Africans about the inseparable connection between peace and development.
\"Peace, security, unity and harmony are prerequisites for development in Africa,\" the Nigerian leader said, urging citizens all over the continent to innovate on how\"Silencing the Guns\" can be used to achieve peace and grow African economies.
He also urged regional economic groups, civil society organisations and the private sector in Africa to take full ownership of the theme of this year's celebration to strengthen collaborative efforts among member-countries of the African Union.
Africa Day is observed annually on 25 May, to commemorate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the precursor of the African Union, which was created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Boko Haram was responsible for the brutal deaths of more than 400 people in and around Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria in February and early March 2014. Among its victims were children watching a soccer match and dozens of male students at a public college in Yobe State, many of whom were burned or shot to death. The group was also blamed for a rush-hour bomb set off in April at a bus station in Nyanya, a city on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja, that killed more than 70 people.
In April, the group kidnapped about 280 girls from a school in the northeast with the intention of making the girls sex slaves. The mass kidnapping—and the governments slow response and inept attempts to rescue them—sparked international outrage and anti-government protests in Nigeria. A social media campaign sparked widespread news coverage of the kidnappings and put pressure on Jonathan to take action against Boko Haram.
In a videotaped message released in early May, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, said the group planned to sell the abducted girls and threatened to give their hands in marriage because they are our slaves. We would marry them out at the age of 9. We would marry them out at the age of 12. He also reiterated the groups core belief that Western education is a sin.
The U.S. sent a team from the State Department, the F.B.I. and the Pentagon, 80 troops, and manned and unmanned surveillance drones to Nigeria in May to help to locate the girls. Another 68 girls were kidnapped in June in Borno state; 63 of the girls escaped weeks later.
While the world was focused on the search for the girls, violence attributed to Boko Haram continued. About 100 people were killed in a suicide attack in Jos and dozens more died in a series of attacks on villages in May. The violence continued into the summer, with the military stepping up its attacks on the group. In late June, a bomb attributed to Boko Haram killed about two dozen people in Abuja, the capital. The attack on the city, which is located in central Nigeria,
