The United States is demanding the Democratic Republic of Congo release “accurate” election results and warned of sanctions against anyone who tries to undermine Congo’s democracy.

“Those who … threaten the peace, security or stability of the DRC or benefit from corruption may find themselves not welcome in the United States and cut off from the U.S. financial system,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino warned Thursday.

Election commission head Corneille Nangaa told reporters in Kinshasa that results of the Dec. 30 presidential vote may be delayed because of a slow vote-counting process.

Nangaa said about 20 percent of the ballots have been collected from polling stations across the vast central African country, which lacks a well-developed road network. He also said the system of manually collecting and compiling vote totals is not helping the process.

The electoral commission had planned to use the internet to collect vote totals. But it gave up those plans after the opposition alleged the system was vulnerable to fraud.

Election results are to be published by Sunday, with the new president set to be inaugurated Jan. 15.

Pre-election polls indicated that opposition figure Martin Fayulu was the favorite to replace outgoing President Joseph Kabila. Kabila backed his former interior minister, Emmanuel Shadary.

The Catholic Church in Congo said Thursday it has election results showing one candidate clearly winning, but did not say who. A senior church body called on the government to publish accurate results.

By law, only the electoral commission can announce election results in Congo.

Congo has never seen a peaceful transfer of power since winning independence from Belgium in 1960.

Last week’s election was originally scheduled for 2016 but was delayed as Kabila stayed in office past the end of his mandate, sparking protests that were crushed by security forces, leaving dozens dead. 
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A Nigerian Air Force helicopter crashed in combat, killing five crew members, as fighting raged against extremists for control of the strategic town of Baga in the northeast, the military said Thursday.

The crash occurred Wednesday at Damasak in northern Borno state, according to a tweet by air force spokesman Ibikunle Daramola. Officials did not say what caused the crash.

The military has been fighting to regain control of Baga, which the extremists seized last week. The town is a key base for a multinational force fighting the extremists. Many residents have fled to the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

The fighting for Baga has been intense, the chief of army training and operations, Maj. Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, told reporters. “It’s a ding-dong situation but we are engaging them,” he said last week. “We are not in total control but Boko Haram have not taken control of Baga, either.”

The base in Baga, close to the border with Chad, has weapons, ammunition and other equipment that are a key target for the extremists, who also overran the base in 2015.

The Islamic State West Africa Province, an offshoot of the decade-old Boko Haram extremist group and the largest IS-linked extremist group in Africa, claimed to kill or wound “dozens” of soldiers in the latest attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group that monitors extremist communiques.

Fifty-three police are missing, according to a senior police officer in Maiduguri, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Use of drones

Nigeria’s defense minister, Mannir Dan-Ali, on Wednesday reiterated the military’s commitment to ending Boko Haram’s insurgency. He spoke to the press while on his way to neighboring Chad to discuss extremist activity in border areas.

Nigeria’s government recently confirmed the extremists had begun using drones, calling it a “critical factor” in a rise in attacks against military bases. The military rarely announces death tolls, but the government in November acknowledged dozens of soldier deaths.

President Muhammadu Buhari at the time held an urgent meeting with member countries to “enhance the capacity” of the multinational force.

The nearly decade-old Boko Haram insurgency has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and thousands of abductions. The unrest and displacement of millions of hungry people have turned northeastern Nigeria into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
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Towns and villages in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone regions are being deserted as battles rage between separatists and the country’s military. The fighting intensified after President Paul Biya’s New Year’s message in which he insisted that his military would neutralize separatists who refuse to lay down their arms.

A senior Cameroon military official, who did not wish to be named, warns in a report that visiting the mostly deserted northwestern town of Kumbo he will need military protection.  

He says separatist fighters have been launching heavy attacks in the area and may be among the few people left on the streets.  

On a ride through the streets of Kumbo, under military protection, it’s clear that most houses, markets and public places are abandoned while some homes and schools have been torched.

But Kumbo resident Mbiybe Tatah says that many locals are fleeing because they are afraid – not of separatists but of the military.  They accuse Cameroon troops of burning their houses and shops in retaliation for failing to inform on separatist fighters hiding in their villages, he says.

“These armed military men just shoot at random and they term (call) people in Kumbo terrorists,” he says.

Tatah says people began fleeing after President Paul Biya’s New Year’s speech.  

Many observers had expected Biya to announce the release of some separatist leaders in a bid for peace.  But, he instead repeated a vow to eliminate all those who refuse to stop fighting and lay down their weapons.  

The governor of the English-speaking northwest region, Deben Tchoffo, refutes claims that the military retaliates against civilians.  

But he says they cannot allow separatists to terrorize people and destroy what Cameroon has built since independence.

“The head of state is still asking those that were misdirected to lay down their weapons.  If not, they will be neutralized.  I am therefore launching an appeal to those of the northwest region to heed to the call of the head of state.  If not, they will be neutralized.”  

Tchoffo says there have been many casualties since fighting intensified after Biya’s speech but he did not give figures.

Abdoul Jinguil Mussa, a crisis management expert with the Lake Chad Basin Commission, says Cameroon needs an independent body to lead peace negotiations with the separatists.

“People have died on both sides of the conflict. A lot of families have been displaced, property has been destroyed. That is why we say the best solution is when both parties have agreed that they are both losing. We need both parties to sit together in good faith, let the mediator be someone neutral, someone who is going to be there for peace to reign,” Mussa said.

Cameroon’s unrest began in November 2016 when English-speaking teachers and lawyers demonstrated against the growing dominance of French in the officially bilingual country.

Separatists took over the movement and started demanding independence for the English-speaking North West and South West regions.

In October 2017, Cameroon’s separatists declared what they called the English-speaking Republic of Ambazonia and vowed no cooperation with the government in Yaounde.

Cameroon says over 1,000 people have been killed in fighting since, including 200 policemen and troops, while hundreds of thousands have fled to French-speaking regions.

 
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Democratic Republic of Congo’s Catholic bishops conference (CENCO) said on Thursday that results from Sunday’s presidential election in its possession show that one candidate has clearly won, but did not say which one.

Donatien Nshole, the CENCO secretary-general, in a press conference also called on the national electoral commission to publish accurate results. The commission says it will publish complete provisional results on Sunday at the earliest.

More than a third of polling stations in the Dec. 30 election were missing voting materials when polls opened, according to a CENCO report on Thursday which outlined various shortfalls in the election’s organization.

 
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Seven people were arrested in central Mali Wednesday, the day after 37 civilians were killed when armed men attacked a village in the region in the latest clash between warring communities, the government said.

Following the New Year’s Day massacre in the village of Koulogon, in the central Mopti region, “Mali army forces were rushed to the scene,” the civil protection ministry said in a statement, adding they “arrested seven suspects” without giving details on those detained.

Tuesday’s attackers were believed to be traditional Dogon hunters who targeted the village of Fulani herders.

The same Mali army mission also went into Bobosso village, near the Burkina Faso border, following arson attacks, killing one suspect and detaining 24 others, the ministry said.

France helped Malian forces stave off a jihadist insurgency that took control of large parts of the troubled north in 2012, but since the death in November of Fulani jihadist figure Amadou Koufa, inter-group conflict has increased.

The violence is fueled by accusations of Fulani grazing cattle on Dogon land and disputes over access to land and water.

The U.N. recorded more than 500 civilian deaths in the area in 2018.

“Large-scale operations” are in preparation with the ministry of defense to deal with the intercommunal violence, the civil defense ministry said in its statement.
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