ConflictBarometer_2016

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Borno, killing 164 militants.
In March, a total of 259 Boko Haram militants were killed in
military attacks. For instance, during a clearance operation,
military forces killed 58 fleeing fighters in Baga, Borno, on
March 23. Furthermore, suicide bombings and raids by Boko
Haram resulted in 63 deaths leading to a total of 324 fatalities
in this month.
On April 4, Nigerian troops claimed to have captured Khalid
al-Barnawi, the leader of the Boko Haram splinter group
Ansaru, but did not provide proof. The same day, Chadian
troops stopped a convoy delivering weapons from IScontrolled
territory in Libya to the Lake Chad region. On April
30, clashes between Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram left
30 Fulani dead in Alau, Borno [→ Nigeria (farmers – pastoralists)].
In May, the death toll decreased to 79 and marked the least
violent month of the year. Most of these incidents took place
in the area of the Sambisa Forest. On May 9, for instance, the
Nigerian troops recaptured four villages from Boko Haram,
Bala, Karege, Harda and Marka 3, Borno, killing 16 militants. In
the village of Puchi, Borno, the inhabitants lynched two Boko
Haram militants when the militants tried to collect taxes from
them.
In June, violence increased again and led to approx. 300
deaths, many caused by intense fighting over the town of
Bosso near the Nigerien border. On June 3, hundreds of Boko
Haram militants attacked a military post in Bosso, Niger, killing
30 Nigerien and two Nigerian soldiers and taking control over
the city of Bosso. Reportedly, Nigerien troops recaptured the
town by the next day but Boko Haram seized control again
two days later. On June 9, joint forces from Niger and Chad
managed to take back control over Bosso. In the assault on
the city the troops killed approx. 130 Boko Haram militants.
In July, all 140 conflict-related deaths were confined to
Borno. On July 9, two suicide attackers struck two mosques
in Damboa, Borno, killing nine people.
In August, the Nigerian Army intensified their air strikes in the
Sambisa Forest, which led to the majority of the 383 deaths
in this month. On August 20, the Nigerian Air Force deployed
a helicopter to attack a Boko Haram camp in Malam Fatori and
Kangawa, Borno, killing approx. 300 militants. The Nigerian
Army claimed that in one of these air strikes Shekau was fatally
wounded. However, Boko Haram released a video on
September 25 that showed Shekau.
In September, the conflict caused 187 deaths. The Nigerian
Army recaptured the town of Mallam Fatori in Borno, which
was held by Boko Haram since 2015. This operation led to
an unidentified number of deaths on both sides. Furthermore,
the Shekau faction and the al-Barnawi faction reportedly
clashed in the Monguno area of Borno.
The month of October accounted for 90 conflict-related
deaths. On October 17, Boko Haram militants struck a military
base in the town of Gashigar, Borno, leaving 13 soldiers
wounded and an unknown number missing. Boko Haram
claimed to have killed 20 soldiers. Furthermore, recently deployed
naval units of the Nigerian Army attacked Boko Haram
camps at Lake Chad on October 28, killing 37 Boko Haram militants,
while one vigilante died. Throughout October, three
suicide bombings in Maiduguri, Borno, caused ten deaths. In
one incident, the suicide bomber was shot by a Nigerian army
sniper before he was able to detonate his explosive belt.
82
In November, violence increased again to 158 conflict-related
deaths. On November 28, Boko Haram militants ambushed
a military convoy, guarding local government officials on the
Bama road in Borno. The fighters detonated an IED and shot
at the convoy. According to military sources, the attack was
repelled and led to the death of 30 militants.
In total, the conflict accounted for 126 deaths in December.
As last year, the Nigerian government claimed to have
technically defeated Boko Haram. Buhari announced that the
Nigerian army destroyed the so-called Camp Zero in Sambisa
Forest, a former military training ground, that allegedly served
as Boko Haram's headquarters. The army first bombarded the
area around the camp with aircrafts and helicopters and then
deployed ground forces. In contrast to the claims of Boko
Haram's defeat, the group carried out several suicide bombings
throughout December. On December 9, two female suicide
bombers killed 58 civilians on a market in Maiduguri. On
December 18 and 26, three female suicide bombers died in
the attempt to detonate explosive belts as they were stopped
by Nigerian military forces. Two days later, Nigerian government
claimed to have captured al-Barnawi three months earlier.
nre
RWANDA – FRANCE
Intensity: 1 | Change: | Start: 2004
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
Rwanda vs. France
other
The dispute over the juridical reappraisal of the 1994 Rwandan
genocide between Rwanda and its former colonial power
France continued.
On January 12 and 14, General Jean-Claude Lafourcade, who
had headed France's UN-mandated Operation Turquoise during
the Rwandan genocide, appeared as an assisted witness
before the High Court of Paris. He was questioned over the allegations
of leaving Tutsi to be attacked by Hutu in the western
Bisesero hills in June 1994. Lafourcade refuted the accusations
during the hearings, saying that at the time there
had been a general underestimation on the international side
concerning the scope of the killings and local authorities' involvement.
In 2005, genocide survivors had filed a complaint
in France, stating the French troops had been promising to return
to Bisesero on 06/27/94, but when they came back three
days later, hundreds of Tutsis had already been killed.
On July 6, Octavien Ngenzi, a former Rwandan mayor, and his
predecessor, Tito Barahira, were convicted of crimes against
humanity and genocide over the 1994 massacres before the
Paris Court of Assizes. They were found guilty of crimes
against humanity, massive and systematic summary executions
and genocide in their village of Kabarondo, Eastern
Province, where around 2,000 people seeking refuge in a
church had been killed. It was the second trial by the court
unit created in 2012 to deal with war crimes. They had already
been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by the
Rwandan people's courts, known as gacaca, in 2009.
On October 8, France reopened its inquiry into the 1994
assassination of then-president of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana.
Rwanda's former chief of staff Faustin Kayumba