WASHINGTON – Four months into a social media ban, communications businesses and civil rights groups in Ethiopia are feeling the impact. Strict regulations are making it harder for them to reach audiences or verify information.

In March, the country blocked access to Facebook, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube nationwide following a disagreement with the country’s Orthodox Church, where some religious leaders called for protests.

But human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the ban violates freedom of expression and goes against Ethiopia’s constitution, laws and international treaties.

“The restriction further stains the country’s already dismal record on media freedom,” Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty’s deputy director for East and Southern Africa, said in a statement shortly after the ban was introduced.

The ban has created challenges for those who use social media to share news or to promote their businesses. And while they can use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to circumvent the ban, some say that limits their ability to reach audiences within Ethiopia.

Until the ban was imposed, social media influencer and filmmaker Luna Solomon used the platforms to make advertisements for products and institutions.

An architect by training, she is better known for her videos aimed at young people. She has over 140,000 followers on TikTok alone, and she  gained recognition for her film “Behind the Surface,” which examines childhood trauma.

Luna says she can create her work using a VPN, but doing so limits her from reaching new followers and limits her income.

“When we use a VPN, it always changes the country of location. So, the audience is also determined according to proximity,” she told VOA. “It doesn’t reach the people we intend to reach, and that reduces the engagement, viewership and page reach.”

Luna said it is also creating obstacles for generating money.

“It has impacted the income we get, especially when it is in dollars. We cannot withdraw money using PayPal or other trading applications because our location always varies, and the system flags us,” she said.

The ban was imposed following tensions in February, when three archbishops in Ethiopia’s Oromia region broke away from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and announced a new structure.

The move resulted in clashes where at least three people were killed in Shashamene, over 200 kilometers south of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

Church leaders and supporters then staged a protest and blacked out their social media pages to express solidarity.

Bahru Zeinu, deputy director of Digital Transformation Ethiopia and CEO of Africom Technologies, estimated that the ban has forced 30 million internet users in the country to use VPNs to access social media.

“This situation has caused many problems. After the ban and the introduction of VPNs, internet and social media users have decreased because VPN service is expensive,” he said.

Bahru, whose association focuses on policy and legislation related to digital issues in Ethiopia, said his organization informally submitted a request to lift the social media ban but has not yet received a response.

“They always respond saying they are working on it. Yet to be honest, as the association spokesperson and as an individual expert, the ban should not take this long. It is not even justifiable,” he said.

Some Ethiopian nongovernmental organizations and civic institutions, including the Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy, have cited concerns about the ban’s impact on the right to freedom of expression and how it has hampered documentation of rights abuses.

Atnafu Brhane, the organization’s program director, said they have submitted an open letter to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office.

“For the past six years, we had been vocal about how the interruption of the internet affects human rights,” Atnafu told VOA. “And our letter explains how the internet interruptions worsen human rights violations, how various parties can use this opportunity to avoid reporting human rights violations. And it is preventing various sections of society from receiving medical treatment or other services.”

Ethiopia is not alone in restricting access to the internet during times of tension or unrest. In its 2022 Freedom on the Net report, Freedom House found several countries, including Ethiopia, China, Cuba, Russia, Iran and India, all had blocked social media or messaging apps.

Abiy’s government has also imposed similar bans since coming to power in 2018, including during the war in Tigray.

“The shutdown has prevented people in Tigray from sharing their stories and reporting on actions by combatants that human rights groups have described as mass atrocity crimes, limiting opportunities for accountability and global solidarity,” Freedom House said in its report.

In response to VOA’s request for comment, internet and telephone provider Ethio Telecom said via messaging app, “The decision didn’t come from us. Please contact other government officials.”

Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamru said in a presentation on June 23 that her organization was waiting for signals from officials to open internet access.

VOA’s request for comment, sent via messaging app to the spokesperson for the Ethiopian prime minister’s office, went unanswered.

This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Amharic Service.
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A South African court on Wednesday ruled against the government and ordered it to reconsider its decision to terminate the special permits allowing nearly 200,000 Zimbabwe nationals to live and work in the country.

The government’s decision was set to force Zimbabweans to return home if they didn’t obtain regular work visas, even if they have children who were born in South Africa and are South African citizens.

In its ruling, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria said the Department of Home Affairs’ decision in 2022 to end the special exemption for citizens from neighboring Zimbabwe was “unlawful” and “unconstitutional” because it didn’t follow “a fair process” of consultation.

The permits were extended until at least June 28 next year under the court ruling.

The department initially set a deadline of June 30 this year — Friday — for the termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit system. That deadline was recently extended to the end of the year.

Around 178,000 Zimbabwe nationals live in South Africa under the scheme. It was introduced in 2010 in an attempt to deal with a surge in migration by Zimbabweans escaping the economic woes of their home country, which have persisted.

The Helen Suzman Foundation NGO and a group advocating for the rights of migrants in South Africa took the government’s Department of Home Affairs to court over its decision.
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Fighting raged in the Sudanese capital on Tuesday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, after paramilitaries seized Khartoum’s main police base.

Fighting in the city between the army led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo is now concentrated around military bases.

At the same time in Sudan’s west, the conflict is worsening to “alarming levels” in Darfur, the United Nations warned.

Since the war erupted on April 15, the RSF has established bases in residential neighborhoods of the capital while the army has struggled to gain a foothold on the ground despite its air superiority.

As the RSF fights to seize all of Khartoum, millions of people are still holed up despite being caught in the crossfire without electricity and water in oppressive heat.

Late Sunday, the RSF said it had seized the headquarters, on Khartoum’s southern edge, of the paramilitary Central Reserve police, sanctioned last year by Washington for rights abuses.

On Tuesday the RSF attacked army bases in central, northern and southern Khartoum, witnesses said.

Mawaheb Omar, a mother of four who has refused to abandon her home, told AFP that Eid, normally a major event in Sudan, will be “miserable and tasteless,” as she cannot even buy mutton, a usual part of the feast.

Looting, violence

Burhan took to state television on Tuesday to urge “all the young people of the country, and all those who can defend it, not to hesitate to do so … or to join the military units.”

The United States, Norway and Britain, known as the Troika, on Tuesday condemned “widespread human rights violations, conflict-related sexual violence, and targeted ethnic violence in Darfur, mostly attributed to soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias.”

RSF are descended from Janjaweed militia unleashed by Khartoum in response to a rebel uprising in Darfur in 2003, leading to war crimes charges.

In the current fighting, the RSF has been accused of looting humanitarian supplies, factories and houses abandoned by those displaced by the fighting or taken by force.

Dagalo responded to these accusations on Tuesday in an audio recording posted online.

“The RSF will take swift and strict action” against those in its ranks who have carried out such abuses, he said.

The RSF had said Monday evening that it was beginning to try some of its “undisciplined” members and announced the release of “100 prisoners of war” from the army.

Since the beginning of the conflict, both sides have regularly announced prisoner swaps through the Red Cross, without providing the exact number of those captured.

Dagalo, a former Darfur militia chief, also warned against “plunging into civil war.”

The U.N. and African blocs have warned of an “ethnic dimension” to the conflict in Darfur, where on Tuesday, Raouf Mazou, the U.N. refugee agency’s assistant high commissioner for operations, told a briefing in Geneva there is a “worsening situation” in West Darfur state.

“According to reports from colleagues on the ground, the conflict has reached alarming levels, making it virtually impossible to deliver life-saving aid to the affected populations,” he said.

New fronts

Elsewhere in the country, new fronts have opened against the army from a local rebel group in South Kordofan state, south of the capital, as well as in Blue Nile state on the border with Ethiopia.

In South Kordofan, authorities have decreed a nighttime curfew to curb the violence.

The Troika expressed “deep concern” about the fighting in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, as well as Darfur, that “risked further broadening the conflict.”

Hundreds of civilians have fled over the border to Ethiopia because of the fighting reported around Kurmuk in Blue Nile, the U.N. said.

This adds to the ever-increasing number, now almost 645,000 people, who have fled to neighboring countries, mostly Egypt and Chad, according to the latest International Organization for Migration data. About 2.2 million people have been displaced within Sudan, the agency said.

A record 25 million people in Sudan need humanitarian aid and protection, the U.N. says.
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The United States on Tuesday accused companies in the United Arab Emirates, the Central African Republic and Russia of engaging in illicit gold deals to help fund the mercenary fighters of Russia’s Wagner Group.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement it has sanctioned four companies linked to Wagner and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that it alleged were used to help pay the paramilitary’s forces fighting in Ukraine and undertaking operations to support Russian interests in Africa.

“The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries like the Central African Republic and Mali. The United States will continue to target the Wagner Group’s revenue streams to degrade its expansion and violence in Africa, Ukraine, and anywhere else,” Brian Nelson, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.

The State Department said the sanctions were unrelated to Wagner’s short-lived mutiny last weekend against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s defense leadership for its handling of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The sanctions block any assets the companies hold in the U.S. and prohibit them from engaging in new deals in the U.S.

Wagner has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali and other countries, and has fought some of the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, including at Bakhmut. Wagner was founded in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

The sanctions were imposed on Central African Republic-based Midas Ressources SARLU and Diamville SAU; UAE-based Industrial Resources General Trading; and Russia-based DM, a limited liability company.

Russia’s embassy in Washington and Industrial Resources did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters could not immediately reach a spokesperson for Midas Ressources, Diamville or Limited Liability Company DM.

Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov, a Russian national, was also sanctioned. The Treasury Department accused him of being an executive in the Wagner Group and said he worked closely with senior Malian officials on weapons deals, mining concerns and other Wagner activities in the country.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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Authorities in Zambia have arrested former President Edgar Lungu’s son and daughter-in-law on charges of money laundering and possessing property believed to be proceeds of crime worth more than $5 million. Lungu’s Patriotic Front Party has described the move as continued persecution of Lungu’s family by the government.

Police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga told VOA on Tuesday that Dalitso Lungu and his wife, Matildah, have been arrested in their capacity as directors of Saloid Traders Limited.

He said they are accused of owning 69 motor vehicles and other properties believed to have been proceeds of crime.

Hamoonga outlined the charges.

“Police have arrested and charged Dalitso, aged 36, and Matilda Likando Milinga, aged 36, for the offense of possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime, contrary to Section 71 of the Forfeiture of Proceeds of Crime Act of 2010. Dalitso Lungu has also been arrested and charged for the offense of money laundering. The duo has since been released from police custody and will appear in court soon,” said Hamoonga.

The arrests come a week after Zambian authorities announced the seizure of some 20 properties linked to Dalitso, former President Lungu’s wife, Esther, and daughter Tasila.

Brian Mundubile, one of the lawyers for Dalitso and his wife, confirmed the arrests and charges.

Mundubile also confirmed Tuesday on WhatsApp to VOA that his clients have since been released on bail pending a court appearance soon.

He added that the Lungus should be accorded the dignity of their status as the former first family.

Mundubile described his clients’ arrests as unnecessary actions meant to harass them. He said the government must be clear about their intentions regarding the family instead of embarrassing them. Mundubile notes that the arrests have caused pain and anger to the Lungu family and does not think this is the way for the state to go.

The Zambian president of anti-corruption group Transparency International, Sampa Kalunga, says his organization has been following with keen interest cases that have to do with corruption — especially cases involving the Lungu family and former officials in Lungu‘s government.

He adds that law enforcement needs to follow through on the cases to the end.

“As much as we applaud this, but [at] the same time, we would like to make a caution to the law enforcement agencies that they do a good job on investigations on gathering evidence so that we do not see cases which only end up at either seizing properties or being withdrawn by the courts,” said Kalunga.

The acting president of Lungu’s Patriotic Front Party, Given Lubinda, addressed party members in Lusaka on Tuesday and advised them to brace for more arrests of Patriotic Front Party members.

He accused authorities of only focusing on PF members in their fight against corruption.

“We have a team of lawyers who are ready to defend us. There are even other lawyers who are coming on board to come and join the team of our lawyers to defend you, so don’t be cowed. Continue to organize. Continue to mobilize the party. Don’t be scared. Zambia is for us all,” said Lubinda.

Current President Hakainde Hichilema has said multiple times that the fight against corruption is not aimed at political opponents but is meant to protect the country’s public funds.
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A man was stoned to death after being accused of blasphemy in northwest Nigeria, authorities and activists said, sparking outrage on Monday from rights groups worried about what they said were growing threats to religious freedom in the region.

Usman Buda, a butcher, was killed Sunday in Sokoto state’s Gwandu district after he “allegedly blasphemed the Holy Prophet Muhammad” during an argument with another trader in a marketplace, police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i said in a statement Sunday night.

Residents shared videos that appeared to be from the scene showing a large crowd that included children pelting stones at Buda on the floor as they cursed him.

Rufa’i said a police team was deployed in the area but when they arrived, “the mob escaped the scene and left the victim unconscious.” He was later declared dead at Usmanu Danfodiyo Teaching Hospital in Sokoto, Rufa’i said.

The killing was the latest attack rights campaigners have said threatens religious freedom in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim northern region. Blasphemy carries the death penalty under Islamic law in the area.

Amnesty International Nigeria’s office said the failure to ensure justice in such cases would encourage more extrajudicial killings. “The government is not taking the matter seriously and that has to change,” Isa Sanusi, acting director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said.

Sokoto Governor Ahmed Aliyu said residents should not take laws into their hands. But he also warned that his government would “deal decisively” against anyone found guilty of blasphemy.

“Sokoto people have so much respect and regard for Prophet Muhammad … hence the need for all the residents to respect [and] protect his dignity and personality,” Abubakar Bawa, his spokesman, said.

Many of those accused of blasphemy never make it to court for trial. Last year, a student in Sokoto was beaten and burnt to death for alleged blasphemy while a man was killed and set ablaze for the same reason in the capital city of Abuja also in the northern region.

The police in Sokoto said it has opened an investigation into the latest incident, though arrests are rare in such cases.

“Even where arrests were made, there were serious allegations that those arrested were either later released or the whole case is jeopardized. This is very dangerous, and it shows the Nigerian authorities are deliberately not willing to do the right thing to fix this dangerous situation,” Sanusi added.
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A Somali American who came to the U.S. as a refugee is now helping chart the future of her state as an elected representative. Mohamud Mascadde sat down with Hodan Hassan for a one-on-one interview in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in this story narrated by Salem Solomon
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Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it had seized the headquarters of a heavily armed police unit Sunday as it sought an edge in its war with the army during heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum.

The RSF said in a statement that it had taken full control of the camp belonging to the Central Reserve Police in southern Khartoum, and posted footage of its fighters inside the facility, some were removing boxes of ammunition from a warehouse.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the footage or the RSF statement. There was no immediate comment from the army or the police.

Since late Saturday, fighting has surged in the three cities that make up the wider capital — Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman — as the conflict between the army and the RSF entered its 11th week.

Witnesses also reported a sharp increase in violence in recent days in Nyala, the largest city in the western Darfur region. The U.N. raised the alarm Saturday over ethnic targeting and the killing of people from the Masalit community in El Geneina in West Darfur.

Khartoum and El Geneina have been worst affected by the war, though last week tensions and clashes escalated in other parts of Darfur and in Kordofan, in the south.

Fighting has intensified since a series of cease-fire deals agreed at talks led by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah failed to stick. The talks were adjourned last week.

The Central Reserve Police have been deployed by the army in ground fighting in recent weeks. It had previously been used as a combat force in several regions and to confront protesters demonstrating against a coup in 2021.

It was sanctioned last year by the United States, accused of using excessive force against protesters.

Left alone

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been using airstrikes and heavy artillery to try to dislodge the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, from neighborhoods across the capital.

“Since the early morning in north Omdurman we’ve had airstrikes and artillery bombardment and RSF anti-aircraft fire,” 47-year-old resident Mohamed al-Samani told Reuters by phone. “Where are the Jeddah talks, why did the world leave us to die alone in Burhan and Hemedti’s war?”

In Nyala, a city that grew rapidly as people were displaced during the earlier conflict that spread in Darfur after 2003, witnesses reported a marked deterioration in the security situation over the past few days, with violent clashes in residential neighborhoods.

“Today I left Nyala because of the war. Yesterday there was bombardment in the streets and bullets going into homes,” Saleh Haroun, a 38-year-old resident of the city, told Reuters.

There was also fighting between the army and the RSF last week around El Fashir, capital of North Darfur, which the U.N. says is inaccessible to humanitarian workers.

In El Geneina, which has been almost entirely cut off from communications networks and aid supplies in recent weeks, attacks by Arab militias and the RSF have sent tens of thousands fleeing over the border to Chad.

On Saturday, U.N. Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani called for safe passage for people fleeing El Geneina and access for aid workers following reports of summary executions between the city and the border and “persistent hate speech” including calls to kill the Masalit or expel them.

Of those uprooted by the conflict in Sudan, nearly 2 million have been displaced internally and almost 600,000 have fled to neighboring countries, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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Somali refugees are heading to the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya to register for IDs, in hopes of securing relocation to the U.S. and other Western countries. The rush follows the creation of a program that allows Americans to sponsor refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Juma Majanga reports from the Dadaab camps.
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Artillery fire, airstrikes and gun battles rocked Sudan’s capital Saturday, witnesses told AFP.

While fighting rages, relief efforts have stalled after more than two months of conflict between rival generals.

Houses in Khartoum shook from the fighting that continued unabated, residents said, with entire families sheltering in place, running low on vital supplies in the baking summer heat.

The United Nations says nearly 1.5 million people have fled the capital since violence erupted in mid-April, pitting the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, and those who remain in the city have had no electricity since Thursday, several residents told AFP.

The battle for power between army chief Abdel-Fattah Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has killed more than 2,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Aid blocked

Two-thirds of health facilities in the main battlegrounds remain out of service, according to the Sudanese doctors’ union. The few hospitals still operating are extremely low on medical supplies and struggling to obtain fuel to power generators.

The U.N. says a record 25 million people, more than half of Sudan’s population, are in need of aid and protection.

Aid has reached at least 2.8 million people, the U.N. said, but agencies report major hurdles to their work, from visas for foreign humanitarians to securing safe corridors.

“The army is … loath to let aid into the capital, fearing that packages will end up in the RSF’s hands” as has happened before, “allowing the paramilitary to hold out longer,” according to think-tank the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The United States, which along with Saudi Arabia sought to mediate between the warring sides and ensure humanitarian aid can reach those in need, said Thursday it had put its efforts on hold.

“Both sides seek to use the humanitarian talks for tactical advantage … with the military demanding that the RSF vacate residential areas and the RSF demanding that the army cease its aerial barrages,” ICG said this week in a report.

Haven for mercenaries

No side appears willing to stand down, exacerbating the risk of prolonged conflict with regional ramifications.

More than 150,000 people have fled Darfur over the border to Chad, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Chad, which already hosted more than 680,000 refugees, needs massive financial and technical support to confront this “unprecedented migratory crisis,” Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo said Saturday.

Dagalo’s RSF have their origins in the Janjaweed militias that former strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed in response to a rebellion by ethnic minorities in Darfur in 2003, drawing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“A collapsed Sudan could create a haven for transnational militants … mercenaries and traffickers who could plague the country’s neighborhood for years to come,” ICG warned.

Maha Abdullah, 50, a tearful Sudanese woman who was able to reach Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage, sees only one solution: “It needs God’s intervention to change things.”
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The United Nations called Saturday for immediate action to stop “wanton killings” of people fleeing El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, by Arab militias aided by paramilitary forces. 

For more than two months, the Sudanese army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. 

The deadliest violence has raged in Darfur, a vast western region on the border with Chad where the United Nations has warned the conflict has taken an “ethnic dimension.” 

“We are gravely concerned that such wanton killings are ongoing and urge immediate action to halt them,” U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement. 

“People fleeing El Geneina must be guaranteed safe passage and humanitarian agencies allowed to access to the area to collect the remains of those killed,” she added. 

The Geneva-based U.N. rights office said people who escaped to Chad had given “horrifying accounts of armed ‘Arab’ militia backed by the Rapid Support Forces killing people fleeing El Geneina on foot.”  

It said witnesses had given “corroborating accounts” of Arab militia targeting men from the non-Arab Masalit people.  

“All those interviewed also spoke of seeing dead bodies scattered along the road — and the stench of decomposition,” it said. “Several people spoke off seeing dozens of bodies in an area referred to as Shukri” about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Sudan’s border with Chad. 

The U.N. rights office said that all but two of the 16 people it interviewed testified that they had witnessed “summary executions” and the targeting of civilians on the road from El Geneina to the border between June 15 and 16. 

The United States said last week that up to 1,100 people had been killed in El Geneina, in a statement that attributed the atrocities “primarily” to the RSF paramilitary force. 

In its statement, the U.N. rights office said El Geneina had become “uninhabitable,” and that essential infrastructure had been destroyed and movement of aid to the city remained blocked. 

It called on the RSF leadership to “immediately, unequivocally condemn and stop the killing of people fleeing El Geneina. 

“Those responsible for the killings and other violence must be held accountable,” it said. “We urge the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor between Chad and El Geneina, and safe passage for civilians out of areas affected by the hostilities.” 
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Islamic extremists killed eight farmers and abducted 10 in an attack in northeastern Nigeria, officials said Friday — the latest in a volatile region that is a key part of the country’s breadbasket and where militants have threatened food supplies. 

The farmers were ambushed in the bush in the Borno state’s Mafa district Thursday. The attackers slit their throats, authorities said. 

Babagana Zulum, the state governor, said the attack was an attempt to “sabotage the successes of the government” as it struggles to have those displaced in Borno return to their villages and rebuild their lives. 

He said the security forces need to rise to the challenge but also urged residents to take individual precautions. 

“We must rise to our responsibility and address the situation,” Zulum said. “I’ve told the people to be resilient, and they should be security-conscious and avoid remote locations.” 

Islamic extremist rebels launched an insurgency in Borno in 2009 to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. At least 35,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced because of the violence by the militant Boko Haram group and a breakaway faction backed by the Islamic State group. 

Borno’s farming communities have been frequently targeted in recent months, raising fears of extreme hunger as U.N. agencies continue to warn of famine. 

On Friday, local villagers are mourning the slain farmers while also decrying inadequate security measures in remote and volatile areas. 

Modu Ibrahim, a resident, said there were no security forces where the farmers’ bodies were found. The extremists spared one teenager whom they asked to “deliver the message” about the attack to other villagers, Ibrahim said. 

The Islamic insurgency in the northeast has also overstretched Nigeria’s security forces as they continue to battle other crises across the country, including continuing clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farming communities in northwest and central regions of the West African nation.
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