Updated 1230GMT
The Westminster Magistrate’s Court has issued an arrest warrant for Brigadier Priyanka Fernando of the Sri Lankan army earlier today, having found him guilty of committing public order offences whilst stationed in London.
Fernando was found guilty of violating sections 5 and 4A of the Public Order Act, with the court stating that his actions were threatening, caused harassment, and that he intended them to be so.
Tamil News
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Tamils in the North protested in solidarity with tea estate workers campaign for a raise in their minimum wage.
Up-country Tamils have been protesting and campaigning for several months for the daily minimum wage for tea easte labour to be raised to 1000 rupees.
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The United States navy will begin an operation to transfer its cargo between planes at Sri Lanka’s main airport in Colombo, where goods will then be sent to its vessels at sea.
The transfer operation, scheduled for later this month, will only see “non-lethal supplies” transferred between aircraft, according to a US embassy press release, and is the third reported operation to have taken place in the last few months.
Similar transfer operations also took place in August 2018 and...
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Over 100,000 new cases of tuberculosis were detected in Tamil Nadu in 2018, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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A Chinese company is planning to build a new cement plant in Hambantota.
Sri Lanka’s deputy minister for development and international trade said the land allocation and environmental assessment for the project had already been completed and the plant was expected to start production in May 2020.
The company is expected to source 40 per cent of the raw material locally and gradually increase on the number.
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India has agreed to fund the refurbishment of facilities of the Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Batticaloa through a grant of over 270 million Rs (LKR).
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Monday by India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, with Sri Lankan Minister Rauff Hakeem present.
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Sri Lanka’s national airline is owed 122.3 million rupees in outstanding costs for chartered flights taken during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency.
The outstanding amount, of which Rs. 114 million is attributed to the Presidential Secretariat and the remainder to the foreign ministry, was for several flights out of 65 chartered by Rajapaksa between March 2009 and December 2014, including to Israel, South Africa, Italy and Bolivia.
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Sri Lanka’s Minister of Finance & Media Mangala Samaraweera met with Lord Tariq Ahmad, the UK Minister of State for the UN and Commonwealth, and the Prime Minister’s Envoy on Preventing Sexual Violence, in Westminster on Monday.
Discussions reportedly were on the topic of “[Human Rights] & Reconciliation and other matters of...
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The Sri Lankan military said it was not aware of the issuing of an arrest warrant for Brigadier Priyanka Fernando by a UK court yesterday, stating that it was “not concerned” over the matter.
"If a warrant has been issued then the relevant authorities must follow the due procedure in order to inform us formally" Media Spokesperson of Sri Lanka Army Brigadier Sumith Atapattu told...
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Sri Lanka’s current defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando stated that his government would be arresting a group of soldiers accused of committing murder, in a surprise announcement on Monday.
He said that a group of 11 soldiers would be arrested in coming weeks, accusing them of having committed a crime - but did not elaborate on the specific incident he was referring to.
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Britain’s Petitions Committee has called on the UK government to give a “revised response” to a petition which has gathered over 17,000 signatures, calling on Britain to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court.
The Petitions Committee, made up of a group of MPs who oversee the petitions system, said the response from Britain to the petition “did not directly address the request of petition”.
The Committee has “therefore written back to the Government to ask them to...
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The British Foreign Office stands accused of “shredding history” after it emerged that it had destroyed almost 400 files related to its links with the Sri Lankan government as it waged a war against the Tamil armed struggle.
A freedom of information request by the Morning Star found that the Foreign Office had destroyed nearly twice as many files on its engagement with Sri Lanka from the 1970’s onwards, than it had previously admitted.
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The Sri Lankan navy arrested four Indian nationals for attempting to allegedly attempting to enter the country illegally.
The men were detained in seas off the Northern province in two dinghies.
The navy have accused them of illegal immigration and taken them to their base at Kankasanthurai.
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Farmers and local residents celebrated the annual 'Ulavar Vizha' or farmers' festival on January 18 in Palachcholai, Porathivu Pattu, Batticaloa.
Families with children gathered to celebrate the harvest and traditional farming.
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Students from the Hindu College in Kalviyankadu, Jaffna protested this morning against the authorities failure to curb the increased use of drugs in Jaffna.
Condemning the violent attacks related to the use of drugs, students accused authorities of allowing the ongoing smuggling of drugs into the region.
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Civil society organisations and women's rights group protested in Jaffna on Sunday against Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the planned Counter Terror Act (CTA).
"Say no to PTA & CTA" and "don't take away rights by PTA & CTA", protesters demanded, as they gathered...
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A group of Sinhala villagers led by a Buddhist monk disrupted a Thai Pongal celebration at a Hindu temple in Mullaitivu last week, as tensions continued to flare in the area with the construction of a large Buddha statue.
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UPFA MP and former Minister Duminda Dissanayake said he was confident that the jailed leader of the Sinhala extremist Bodu Bala Sena group Galagodaaththe Gnanasara would be freed on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day, after visiting the monk in prison this week.
“The Thera should be released on the Independence Day after considering the service he rendered to the country, to Sinhala Buddhists and his struggle to protect the Buddhism in the country,” Dissanayake told reporters after visiting...
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Photograph: Hiran Priyankara for the Sunday Times.
Sri Lanka’s police claimed to have seized a haul of high powered explosives and arrested at least four men who are accused of belonging to “a radicalised local group of Muslims”.
The discovery was reportedly made as the police were investigating the vandalism of Buddha...
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Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) officers arrested a former LTTE cadre yesterday.
The 40-year-old man, who is understood to have undergone an amputation, has been identified as Suthan, from Karanthai Palai.
Accusing him of possessing weapons at his house, the TID have said two pistols, 150 bullets and locally made gun were found at his address.
The TID have taken him to Vavuniya for further inquiry.
The arrest is part of a series of...
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The leader of the hardline Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), Udaya Gammanpila, accused the Tamil National Alliance MP, M A Sumanthiran of controlling the Sri Lankan government.
Saying that Sumanthiran had become the "unofficial prime minister of Sri Lanka", Gammapila was quoted by Adaderana as saying, "now, MP Sumanthiran is the guidance behind Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and...
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An Indian national, Tara, been arrested in Sri Lanka for alleged involvement in a kidney trafficking racket, the Deccan Herald reported.
Sri Lankan police said Tara had confessed to the crime and had been a victim of the kidney racket herself.
Tara is a resident of MES colony in Malavalli town, Karnataka.
Read more here.
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Speaking at an event to mark Thai Pongal in Toronto last week, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for justice and accountability in Sri Lanka, as dozens of Canadian politicians from across the political spectrum praised the Tamil diaspora’s contributions.
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Local villagers in Mullaitivu have documented how a Sinhala Buddhist monk has been leading increasing efforts to construct a large Buddha statute that encroaches on a generations old Hindu temple.
The construction, which is taking place in the Karaiththuraipattu division in Mullaitivu, is reportedly being...
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Human rights organisations in the Philippines and around the world have denounced Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena’s praise of the Philippine president’s campaign against illegal drugs, which has been internationally condemned for its brutality.
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Residents of Paddalipuram, Trincomalee protested on Thursday over the lack of teachers at the village schools.
The village, which falls under Muttur division, has experienced a shortage of teacher and educational support staff over a number of years...
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A Tamil detainee at Vavuniya prison died at the local hospital yesterday.
Kesavan Sasikumar, aged 41, had been receiving treatment for ill health.
He was arrested for alleged drugs smuggling.
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Despite calls to end their involvement in civilian life in the Tamil homeland, Sri Lankan troops held a Thai Pongal service at Oddusuddan temple on January 15.
Uniformed personnel from the 59th, 64th and 68th Divisions arranged the event and gave food and snacks to...
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Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has arrested the deputy mayor of Akkaraipattu Municipal, Abdul Gaffoor Asmy on January 16.
Asmy was reportedly arrested for failing to comply with a TID arrest warrant.
Unverified reports suggest the TID was investigating him following an anonymous letter they received linking him to Islamic State and over his failure to repay debts.
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The Mannar court has granted permission for a representative of the families of the disappeared to accompany a team transporting bone samples from the Mannar ‘sathosa’ mass grave for analysis in the USA.
Following a petition filed by families of the disappeared, the Mannar magistrates court ruled that a representative of the families should be included in the team.
Samples of bones from the mass grave, where over 300 skeletons have been excavated, will be taken to the US for...
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The French government is to meet with Sri Lankan authorities to clamp down on boat migration to Réunion, the Indian Ocean island which forms an overseas department and region of France.
In ten months, four boats from Sri Lanka have landed at Réunion carrying a total of 80 migrants. Some have been returned.
In the French Senate on Thursday, the senator for Réunion questioned the government on the issue and said, “beyond the human tragedy, the opening of this new migration route...
World News
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An attack on a hotel complex, DusitD2, in Kenya’s capital, left 21 people dead, several injured and 50 unaccounted for last week, with a total of 700 people evacuated from the hotel complex.
Shortly after the attack Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya, said “all terrorists have been eliminated”, blaming Al-Shabab militants.
The attack started just after 3pm on Tuesday with an explosion in the car park of the hotel. This was followed by a suicide bomb in the hotel foyer,...
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Israel has come under criticism for the opening of a new highway in the occupied West Bank, separating Palestinian and Israeli traffic between villages of Anata and Azzayim.
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President Erdogan stated Turkey is ready to create a 32 km (20-mile) deep safe zone alongside its border with Kurdish-held Syria, running along the border from Afrin to the western bank of the River Euphrates.
The announcement follows President Trump's threat that the US will "devastate Turkey economically” if they attacked the Kurdish separatist militia known as the People’s Protection Unit (YPG).
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Spain's deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, met with Catalan’s Vice President Pere Aragones and spokesperson, Elsa Artadi in Madrid on Thursday.
The meeting came a day after the detaining of 13 activists, a separatist mayor, and a journalist on Wednesday for allegedly disrupting a high-speed rail line on October 1, 2018, the anniversary of the independence referendum, which was rejected by Madrid as 'illegal'.
The Catalan government has insisted that these detentions were...
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Israeli authorities have handed a Palestinian family an eviction notice demanding they leave their home in Occupied East Jerusalem.
The Sabbagh family was handed a notice on January 12th and given until January 23 to leave their homes. On Tuesday however, authorities agreed to suspend the eviction until a final decision was reached within a month.
The Sabbagh family numbers 45 people, including five Sabbagh brothers, their wives, children and grandchildren. Amongst them is 31-...
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Protests in Sudan calling for the resignation of President Bashir have resulted in the death of a doctor and a child.
Protests occurred in several cities across Sudan on Thursday but police were reported to have fired tear gas and live ammunition on demonstrates who tried to march on the presidential palace, in the capital, Khartoum.
The death of the doctor and child was first reported by the Sudan Doctors' Committee, a group linked to the opposition. The death has also since...
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The Afghan Taliban has warned the United States that it will withdraw from peace negotiations if they refuse to withdraw from Afghanistan, a central demand from the Islamist group throughout the 17 year conflict.
The warning comes a day after the Taliban reportedly attacked a compound in Kabul city killing five and wounding more than 110.
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The Indonesian government has denied its military used white phosphorus in West Papua, following a report published in an Australian paper detailing the unverified use of the chemical weapon against civilians this month.
According to the paper the attack occurred in the region of Nduga in West Papua. Photographic evidence published shows a villager with severe burns and a wounded leg, which has been attributed to use of white phosphorus.
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The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called on Bahrain to release the family members of prominent exiled activist, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, an outspoken critic of the Bahraini government who now lives in Britain.
A report released by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that the three relatives were being held because of their kinship to Alwadaei. Alwadaei’s brother in law, Sayed Nizar Alwadaei, his mother in law, Hajar Mansoor Hassan and...
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Five Israeli teenagers have been accused of stoning to death a Palestinian mother.
Aisha Rabi, a Palestinian mother of nine, was travelling by car with her husband and two daughters when she was struck on the head by a stone. She died near the settlement of Rehelim, in the occupied West Bank, on October 12.
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Nigeria’s security forces conducted a raid on the headquarters and three offices of the country’s Daily Trust newspaper in Maiduguri on Sunday, arresting two journalists, and seizing their laptops and mobile phones.
Uthman Abubakar, the north east regional editor and Ibrahim Sawab were both arrested during the raid. The Daily Trust is one of Nigeria’s largest newspapers. Sawab was released later that day, but Abubakhar remains in military custody with his location unknown.
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Myanmar’s authorities have ordered their army to launch operations to crack down on an ethnic Rakhine insurgent group after deadly attacks last week in the Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army (AA), an armed ethnic group fighting for more autonomy, carried out raids on four police posts in the town Buthidaung, North Rakhine. The attack took place on Myanmar’s Independence Day, leaving 13 police officers dead and nine injured.
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The United States House of Reprasentatives on Friday passed a bill separating Western Sahara’s aid from its programme in Morocco on Friday.
The new bill outlines language on Western Sahara in a separate section to Morocco. Previously text on aid for the region was covered under the remit of Moroccan aid.
Responding to the new US legislation on aid to the Western Sahara and Morocco, the Polisario Front envoy to Washington, said,
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Soldiers have attempted to take control in Gabon in an attempted coup, as the ruling president, Ali Bongo, remains abroad receiving medical treatment for a reported stroke.
Seizing control of national state radio, Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang, urged people to "rise up", with the message being carried on state television and social media.
AFP reported shots were heard close to the radio station, situated in the centre of Libreville.
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A US Navy Special Operations Chief is accused of breaking international law by indiscriminating killing Iraqi civilians and nearly a dozen other crimes, including stabbing to death a 15-year-old prisoner.
Edward Gallagher has pleaded not guilty when appearing at a hearing in San Diego’s naval base on Friday, with his official trial set to begin on February 19.
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More than three million women formed a 385-mile human chain in the state of Kerala in southern India this week, as they protested against a temple policy that banned admission for women.
The chain stretched from the northern tip of the state in Kasaragod to the southern end in Thiruvanthapuram. The protest was organised by Kerala’s left-wing coalition government on Thursday however the disputes on this issue have been going on for three months.
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Demonstrations have been taking place in different regions of Sudan over the last month, including the capital Khartoum, calling on Omar al Bashir to resign as the country’s president.
The deadliest of the protests took place on Monday 31st December, as Sudanese security forces fired tear gas and bullets at demonstrators in Khartoum, who marched towards the President’s palace. Schools and universities across Sudan have been shut and state of emergency has been declared in some regions...
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An independence movement in southern Yemen has led growing calls for a referendum on secession in the south of the country, as conflict continues in what has been termed a modern “humanitarian disaster”.
The call for Yemen to separate from the north and western provinces has gained popularity in the South with groups stating that they will defend their land but has not be addressed by the international community.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC), a group which was...
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The United Nations reports that 85 former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) rebels have been killed since the signing of the peace agreement with the Columbian government in 2016.
UN Secretary General, António Guterres, notes that 14 ex-members of FARC were “murdered” within the last three months. The majority of these deaths fell in areas formerly occupied by FARC and where there is little state apparatus. This has allowed for other militant groups and reported drug...
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The Taliban has orchestrated a series of attacks killing at least 27 security officers and wounding dozens in northern Afghanistan.
Most of this violence was concentrated in the Sar-i-Pul Province where three attacks occurred killing 21 people. The Taliban have also attacked the centre of Sayad District, the village Qashqari, and security outposts along the highway linking Sar-i-Pul with Jowzjan. They were able to capture two of these outposts, wounding 25 security force members in...
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The Nigerian military has responded to charges of unjustifiably killing Shiite protesters on the outskirts of the capital Abuja, with senior officials defending the military's actions.
In their response they cite US President Donald Trump’s remarks regarding migrants heading towards the American border, stating, “they want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back”.
Footage released by the New York Times however reveals that the soldiers were unprovoked and...
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A suicide bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, has killed a separatist commander who was wanted for organising a suicide bombing attack against the Chinese Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing that took his life.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Chinese Consulate last month asserting that Beijing is an “oppressor” and that would not tolerate “China's military expansionism on Baloch...
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Chinese police has detained a number of students protesting over the take over of their Marxist society by university officials and members of the student association, following the detention of the leader of their society on the birthday of Chairman Mao.
Whilst the Chinese government supposedly supports the legacy of Chairman Mao, they have continued to crackdown on student organisations and recent graduates who have aligned themselves with labour activists, supporting factory...
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Syria’s state agencies reported that its army entered the Kurdish-held city of Manbij, on the invitation of the Kurdish YPG to protect it from a threatened Turkish offensive.
However US military officials and some locals have refuted the claim.
The New York Times said the move came as Kurds felt “betrayed” by the United States’ decision to withdraw from Syria and that the “request amounted to a United States ally [Kurds] calling on an enemy of the United States [Syrian...
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French investigators have dropped charges against nine Rwandan officials, including former defense minister James Kabarebe, who were suspected of playing a role in the 1994 plane crash which killed President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane alongside the French crew.
The crash preceded the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi minority which saw an estimated 800,000 people killed.
The investigation was dropped citing a lack of sufficient evidence.
Rwandan government officials... -
Russia has sent over one dozen fighter jets to Belbek military base in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which it has occupied since its annexation in 2014.
Witnesses told Reuters that they had seen Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets arrive in the air base on December 22.
The United States, United Kingdom and Lithuania have offered military assistance to Ukraine against the onset of Russian advances.
The US State Department offered to provide an additional US $10 million to...
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A former Serbian police chief and current official within the ruling Progressive Party, Goran Radosavljevic, has been banned from entering the United States due to allegations of human rights abuse.
In a statement the US State Department announced that they were publicly designating Radosavljevic under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2018 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Act.
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Four imprisoned Catalan leaders who are currently on a hunger strike have sent letters to over 40 European heads of state, calling for their case be heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The four leaders, Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, alongside 14 other separatist activists face accusations of engaging in rebellion, sedition, disobedience, and the misuse of public funds.
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Zimbabwe's post-election violence, following the victory of Emmerson Mnangagwa, which included the use of live bullets, has been criticised as "disproportionate and unjustified" by an investigation launched by the government.
The investigation, headed by the former South African President, Kgalema Motlante noted the “deaths of these six people and injuries sustained by the 35 others arose from the actions of the military and the police”.
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The Nigerian military has released a statement calling for the suspension of operations carried out by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the North East of Nigeria, accusing the organisation of having terrorist sympathies.
The statement was signed off by Onyema Nwachukwu, a colonel and deputy director public relations however, it remains unclear whether the military gained the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari before making this declaration...