15102019 - What Benin, Niger must do to get borders reopened — FG

*Members of the National Guard block a road during an operation to halt a caravan of migrants and
asylum seekers from Africa, the Caribbean and Central America, hours after they embarked
towards the United States (Jose Torres/Reuters)
Pro-Trump massacre video prompts media
condemnation
American
media
groups have urged
the White House to condemn
a parody video
showing the US president
massacring media
outlets and political rivals.
The White House Correspondents’
Association
said it was “horrified”
and urged Mr Trump to
denounce the video.
It was on shown at an
event organised by American
Priority, a pro-Trump
group. Organisers said
the video had been part
of a “meme exhibition”.
President Trump’s 2020
re-election campaign has
disavowed it.
Campaign spokesman
Tim Murtaugh told the
BBC on Sunday: “That
video was not produced
by the campaign, and we
do not condone violence.”
On Monday, White
House spokeswoman
Stephanie Grisham wrote
on Twitter that Mr Trump
had “not yet seen the video”.
“But based upon everything
he has heard, he
strongly condemns this
video,” she said.
However US media
groups demanded that
the president personally
censure the video, which
was played at a Trump
resort in Miami, Florida,
last week. “All Americans
should condemn this depiction
of violence directed
toward journalists and
the President’s political
opponents,” said Jonathan
Karl, president of the
White House Correspondents’
Association.
Violent clashes erupt as Spanish court
jails Catalonia leaders
Protests erupted in Bar
celona after Spain’s
Supreme Court sentenced
nine Catalan separatist
leaders to between nine and
13 years in prison.
The separatists were convicted
of sedition over their
role in an illegal independence
referendum in 2017.
Another three were found
guilty of disobedience and
Turkey-Syria offensive: Assad’s army
‘enters Manbij’
Syria’s army has moved
swiftly into towns and
villages in the north-east of
the country, setting up a potential
confrontation with
Turkish-led troops.
State media said Russianbacked
Syrian forces entered
the town of Manbij as
part of a deal reached with
Kurdish-led forces previously
allied with the US.
Meanwhile, Turkish
troops and allied Syrian
militias were gathering
near the town as they continued
their incursion. Turkey’s
offensive aims to push
Kurdish forces from the border
region. Syrian state media
said government forces
had entered Manbij, in the
area where Turkey wants to
create a “safe zone” cleared
of Kurdish fighters. Earlier,
the army pushed into Tal
Tamer and Ain Issa, where
residents celebrated their
arrival.
The deal is seen as a boost
for President Bashar al-Assad
as his troops return to
those areas for the first time
since 2012. The deployment
came hours after the US
announced that up to 1,000
American troops would
leave northern Syria.
The Turkish offensive and
US pullout have been internationally
criticised as the
Kurdish-led fighters were
crucial allies of the coalition
against the Islamic
State (IS) group in Syria.
There are fears about a possible
resurgence of IS and
the escape of prisoners
amid the instability.
On Monday, President
Donald Trump said a “small
fined, but not jailed. All 12
defendants denied the
charges.
Large crowds of pro-independence
protesters clashed
with police at Barcelona’s
international airport.
Footage showed people
attempting to break
through a police line blocking
one area of the building,
while in another, officers
hit protesters with batons
and attempted to disperse
the crowds with gas.
Thousands of Catalan independence
supporters also
marched in the city centre,
blocking some streets and
access to metro stations.
After the ruling, a new arrest
warrant was issued for
former Catalan President
Carles Puigdemont, who is
living abroad. Mr Puigdemont
told a press conference
that Catalonians were victims
of a “strategy of repression
and revenge”.
Some of the 12 leaders
sentenced on Monday had
held prominent positions in
Catalonia’s government
and parliament, while others
were influential activists
and cultural advocates.
During four months of
hearings, they told the court
in Madrid that they were
victims of an injustice in a
trial built on “false” charges.
Tensions high as Mozambique gears up
for high-stakes elections
Tensions are high in
Mozambique on the
eve of elections which will
likely see President Filipe
Nyusi and his ruling Frelimo
party maintain their
grip on power amid fears the
violence that marred the
campaign may continue on
polling day.
While Nyusi is widely expected
to win a second term
in Tuesday’s presidential
vote, the main opposition is
eyeing the opportunity for
a strong performance in
provincial and legislative
races. The polls will mark
the first time provincial
governors, previously appointed
by the president, will
be elected in Mozambique
According to local NGO
The Centre for Public Integrity,
44 people were killed
footprint” of US personnel
would remain in southern
Syria to continue to fight the
remnants of IS.
According to the Kurdishled
Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), Sunday’s
agreement will allow the
Syrian army to deploy
along border areas controlled
by Kurdish forces to “repel
[Turkish] aggression”.
during the election campaign
- most in road accidents
and some in a stadium
stampede at a pro-Nyusi
rally, but seven were murdered.
The United States’ embassy
warned on Friday of
“credible threats” of violence
in Nampula City, advising
the US citizens to
avoid the northern city. A
travel advisory was also issued
for Xai-Xai, the capital
of Gaza province, where
this month the head of local
election observation efforts,
Anastacio Matavel,
was shot dead by a group of
special operations police.
“We’ve never had free and
fair elections, but these are
the worst yet because of the
gravity of the violence,” said
Alice Mabota, a veteran
human rights campaigner.
Mabota was running as an
independent, backed by the
new Democratic Alliance
Coalition, but her candidacy
was blocked over allegations
that some of her nomination
signatures were
fake.
Nampula, the country’s
biggest city outside of the
capital, Maputo, and the
adjoining city of Matola,
are run at the municipal level
by the main opposition
Renamo party.
Renamo leader Ossufo
Momade is the favourite to
win the governorship in
Nampula province - such a
result will see Momade becoming
the first provincial
governor from a party other
than Frelimo, which has
been in power since Mozambique
won independence
from Portugal in 1975.
Vanguard, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019 — 39
More than 100,000 affected
by floods in Cameroon’s Far
North region
Local authorities said on Monday that more than
100,000 people had been affected and many families
displaced after the Logone River in Cameroon’s Far North
region overflowed.
According to Oumara Maliki, the prefect of Mayo-
Danay division, the river overflowed early on Monday following
heavy rains on Sunday, triggering devastating
floods, which affected Mayo-Danay and Logone-et-Chari
divisions.
“The situation is still very disturbing and difficult. People
have lost everything they worked for, we are still to evaluate
what has been destroyed.
“We have cases of malaria, typhoid, and diarrhoea.
“We also have people who have been injured because of
the buildings that fell on them.
“We are trying to save them with very limited resources,”
Maliki added.
Authorities said that Rescue missions are searching for
missing persons, fearing the flooding impacts could be
aggravated by high levels of food insecurity and the degree
of poverty in the region.
Queen Elizabeth breaks from
tradition, wears lighter crown
Queen Elizabeth II, broke the tradition by wearing a
lighter crown for Monday’s state opening of parliament,
instead of the heavier one she had worn for the same event
64 times before.
The Imperial State Crown, encrusted with nearly 3,000
diamonds, was placed on a table close to the throne from
which she delivered her Queen’s Speech setting out Prime
Minister Boris Johnson’s work programme.
The 93-year-old monarch wore the lighter Diamond Diadem,
also known as the George IV diadem, as she read
the speech from a throne, accompanied by her eldest son
and heir, Prince Charles, 70.
The queen has previously worn the diadem en route to
state openings of parliament and for many other official
events.
In a BBC documentary in 2018, the queen said the Imperial
State Crown, which weighs 1.3 kilogrammes, was very
unwieldy.
The crown was made for the coronation of her father,
King George VI, in 1937 and worn by the queen for her
own coronation, as well as 64 previous state openings of
parliament.
“Once you put it on, it stays,” the queen told the broadcaster.
Tunisia presidential election: Kais
Saied declared winner
Independent law professor Kais Saied has won Tunisia’s
presidential election with 72.71 percent of votes, the country’s
electoral commission has confirmed.
Saied secured 2.7 million votes against one million received
by his opponent, Nabil Karoui, in Sunday’s runoff vote, the
commission said on Tuesday.
Karoui, a business tycoon who was in jail for most of the
campaign, conceded defeat earlier on Monday.
The electoral commission said turnout stood at 55 percent,
higher than during the first round on September 15, in Tunisia’s
second free presidential election since the 2010-11 uprising
that toppled long-standing ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Saied, 61, is an independent candidate with no political experience.
Backed by the conservative Ennahdha party, he has
pledged to fight corruption and support decentralisation.
His austere demeanour earned him the nickname “Robocop”
during campaigning, while his anti-establishment platform
helped to woo younger voters disenchanted with politicians
whom they accuse of failing to improve their lives since
the Arab Spring uprising.
Some 90 percent of 18-to-25-year-olds voted for Saied, according
to estimates by the Sigma polling institute, compared
with 49.2 percent of voters over 60.
Iran arrests opposition figure
‘directed by French intel’
Iran has arrested an opposition figure who had been “directed by
France’s intelligence service” and he is now in custody in the Islamic
Republic, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Monday.
Ruhollah Zam, who ran a “counter-revolutionary” Telegram channel,
has been detained in a “sophisticated and professional operation”
by the IRGC’s intelligence organisation, the IRGC said in a
statement.
Zam reportedly lived in exile in Paris, but the IRGC statement did
not specify when or where he was arrested.
The IRGC said he was “trapped” by its intelligence organisation.
It said this was despite the fact he had been “directed by France’s
intelligence service and supported by intelligence services of America
and the Zionist regime (Israel).”
The IRGC said they managed to “deceive” foreign services and
arrest him by “using modern intelligence methods and innovative
tactics”.
It said the operation showed Iran’s enemies were “lagging behind”
its own intelligence services.
Last year, Iran’s telecoms minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi
demanded Telegram shut Zam’s Amadnews channel, saying it
was inciting an “armed uprising”.