While all the crisis and controversies around the continent of Africa continues, it’s been a rather bloody week in Nigeria, just when the country was celebrating 100 years of its existence.
The Boko Haram sect struck again, and 29 students in Yobe State, Nigeria were killed by members of the sect.
The insurgents reportedly arrived at the college at about 3:00am in 11 Hilux vans when the pupils were already asleep on Tuesday, February 26.
They were said to have set locked hostels on fire, before shooting and slitting the throats of those who tried to climb out of the windows. Some were burnt alive.
There has, however, been a case of conflicting death toll. While the Yobe State Police Commissioner, Mr. Sanusi Rufai said that Boko Haram members killed 29 of the students, an official at the specialist hospital Damaturu, Bala Ajiya, told Reuters by telephone that the death toll had actually risen to 59.
In other parts of Africa, South Sudan is in grave danger of being jeopardized based on incessant brutal attacks on medical facilities, especially because both patients and staff are being targeted.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been effectively denied lifesaving assistance, as fighting between the government and rebels since mid-December has displaced about 860,000 people in total. We take a look at the town of Malakal, which has literally become a shadow of itself.
We also take a look at Uganda after it chose to take the moral route and signed an anti-gay bill into law despite warnings from Washington. The law, which toughens penalties for gay people does have some consequences though and that includes jeopardizing foreign aid, with many critics, particularly in the west, but we focus on how Ugandans feel about it.
Updates From Egypt
An Egyptian court has sentenced 26 people to death for founding a “terror group” with the aim of attacking ships using the Suez Canal. The men were also accused of manufacturing missiles and explosives.
The sentencing came after the new Prime Minister Designate, Ibrahim Mahlab, vowed he would “crush terrorism in all the corners of the country”.
Mr Mahlab has been put in charge of forming a new government following the surprise resignation of Interim Prime Minister, Hazem Beblawi and his cabinet.
Also in Egypt, it’s been a year since a hot air balloon caught fire and plummeted to the ground on February 26, 2013 and a special ceremony was put together in the Egyptian city of Luxor to remember the 19 people killed.
The ultimatum given by an alleged terrorist group called Ansar Al Maqdes, which warned all foreign tourists to leave Egypt, has not been taken for granted by the Egyptian government. It opted to beef up security while some of the tourists remained defiant in the face of terror.
Meanwhile, despite the terrible state of things in South Sudan, there is some positive news. Children who have gone through a difficult period in the last few months after fighting broke out in their homes have been brought together by the United Nations.
This was done to re-establish contact between the children and their parents so as to bring them back together.
