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BREAKING: Bomb Kills Worshippers In Church

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A bomb killed at least 10 people and wounded 39 others after ripping through a church in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, an attack blamed on suspected Islamists.

Details of the attack are hazy, but Congolese military spokesman Antony Mualushayi said the “terrorist act” happened in a Pentecostal church in North Kivu province’s Kasindi, a town on the border with Uganda.

A Kenyan was arrested following the bomb blast, he added, although the perpetrator of the attack in the turbulent region remains unclear.

The explosion killed at least 10 people and wounded 39, Mualushayi said, revising up an initial death toll of five. Both tolls were provisional, he said.

Joel Kitausa, a local civil-society figure, also put the death toll at 10 and said 58 people had been wounded.

But the spokesman for Uganda’s military operation in the DRC, Bilal Katamba, said on Sunday evening that 16 people had been killed in the blast and 20 were wounded.

“The attackers used an IED to carry out the attack and we suspect ADF is behind the attack,” he added.

AFP was unable to independently confirm the death toll.

The DRC’s communications ministry said on social media that the attack was apparently carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – which the Islamic State group claims as its affiliate in central Africa.

The ADF is one of the deadliest of the more than 120 armed groups in eastern DRC, many of them the legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the century.

It has been accused of slaughtering thousands of Congolese civilians and carrying out bomb attacks in Uganda. ADF operatives have also planted bombs in towns in North Kivu in the past.

Bomb Kills Worshippers
In 2021, the United States labelled the ADF a “foreign terrorist organisation” with links to the Islamic State group. The militia is active mainly in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province.

The same year, a joint Congolese-Ugandan military operation began targeting the ADF inside the DRC.

But the attacks have continued.

A report by independent experts for the UN Security Council, released in December, said the ADF had “continued its geographic expansion” despite the Congolese-Ugandan military operation, killing at least 370 civilians since April 2022.

It also warned that the ADF was changing tactics: opting for “more visible and more lethal” bomb attacks in urban areas, said the report.

In April last year, for example, a woman detonated a suicide vest in a bar in North Kivu’s capital Goma, according to independent UN experts. Six people died in the attack and 16 more were wounded.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi placed North Kivu and Ituri under a so-called state of siege in 2021 in a bid to stem the violence, with military officials replacing civilian administrators.

The measure has also largely failed to stop attacks against civilians.

The DRC’s presidency condemned Sunday’s attack, as did the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the impoverished nation of over 90 million people.

Tags: Security, nation, attackers, woman, social media, United Nations

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Speaker Tunis Pledges Support For ECOFEPA

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By Gloria Ikibah

Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Dr. Sidie Mohammed Tunis, has pledged his unflinching support for the ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association Network ECOFEPA in its attempts to increase participation for self-development in politics and entrepreneurship.

Speaker Tunis who stated this at the formal opening of ECOFEPA Women and Youth Leadership symposium, on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Guinea Bissau, with the theme: Unleashing the potentials of Women and Youth in Politics and Entrepreneurship; asserted that the meeting epitomizes the action stage for women’s involvement in decision-making bodies.

He also commended ECOFEPA for always beaming their search light on issues that affect women and youth in the ECOWAS Sub-region and for firmly reinforcing the need to mentor the next generation of decision makers to bridge existing gaps and bestow sound political and decision-making legacies to them, reaffirming that until they as Members of Parliament replicate ourselves in the younger generation in multiple dimensions to deliver a democratic system that is anchored on good governance and societal growth and development, they cannot credit themselves for success.

Dr. Tunis acknowledged that the event amplifies ECOFEPA’s deliberate resolve to consistently pursue the dreams of its founding Members and recommend for members of Parliament to track generational transfer of knowledge, skills and all it takes to tackle the challenges of the future ahead.

In her address, the 2nd Vice President of ECOFEPA, Madam Gabriella Fernandes, commended the ECOWAS Commission for its outstanding support in enhancing the activities of the association to achieve its goals for women’s integration and empowerment in politics.

She said that the resources mobilized by the ECOWAS Commission will allow the association to host its upcoming symposium in Togo March 2023.

Hon. Fernandes reiterated that the symposium will spark the beginning of efforts to launch their projects and synchronize activities in the areas of leadership and entrepreneurship, which have the propensity to boomerang and catapult women’s advancement into decision-making in the ECOWAS region.

Earlier, the Youth Representative for the West Africa Youth Assembly, Mamadu Djalo, said everyone is aware of the social pressure and barriers that women and youth face daily, in trying to climb up to the political power, and employed men in Africa who control the political powers, to ensure that such power is balanced.

According to Djalo, Women and youth are very isolated for too long, and that there is need for the men to work together with both youth and Women to fill the sense of belonging, as the deliberation cannot be realistic without the participation of the youth and women.

She therefore called for the creation of a youth parliament in order to give them a voice.

Tags: women, Africa, growth, ECOWAS, President, Politics

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Again, one injured as container crushes bus in Oshodi

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By Francesca Iwambe

A 20-ft container crushed a commercial bus in the Oshodi area of Lagos State on Wednesday afternoon, injuring a commercial bus driver.

It was gathered that this is the latest container-related accident experienced in the state in the space of three days.

Eye witnessed confirmed that Wednesday’s accident at Oshodi was caused by a brake failure.

While the passengers in the bus were said to have escaped without an injury, the same could not be said of the bus driver whose degree of injury could not be ascertained as of press time.

Eight people were crushed to death by a 20-ft container that fell off a truck in the Ojuelegba area of Lagos on Sunday.

This is coming barely 24 hours after the Ojuelegba tragedy, a 40-ft container fell off another truck in the Dopemu area of the state on Monday, causing traffic on the road.