l'AFRiQUE...and other stories

Chad  has sent troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) to fight rebels who have seized Bria, a key mining town in a diamond-rich region.

CAR President Francois Bozize reportedly asked the neighbouring country for help after his own army failed to repeal the attack.

The rebel coalition accuses Mr Bozize of failing to comply with the terms of a peace treaty signed in 2007.

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Source: BBC

At least two police officers have been wounded in the Somali capital Mogadishu after a car bomb exploded next to a police department building in an attack claimed by the insurgent al-Shabab group.

Police said the bomb went off on Friday after they had arrested the driver of a car suspected of carrying explosives.

Officers said they were waiting outside the criminal investigations department for bomb disposal experts when the explosives in the car detonated.

The attack was the latest in a wave of assaults in war-torn Mogadishu.
    
“We had seized this car earlier in the morning and detained the driver, who is alive and under arrest,” Mohamed Ali, a police officer, said. “It went off prematurely as we were waiting for bomb experts to come and disarm the car.”

The blast destroyed the gate to the police department and shattered the windows of buildings nearby. The explosion set ablaze cars parked in the compound, residents said.

The criminal investigations department is located near other government offices in central Mogadishu.

Shabab claims responsibility

Al-Shabab, which is allged to have ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the blast in a post on Twitter. They said the car bomb was triggered remotely by their mujahideen, or holy warriors.

“The mujahideens managed to get a car bomb into the complex before exploding it remotely 30 minutes later,” the group said in its online message.
    
Al-Shabab aim to overthrow Somalia’s weak leaders and institute Islamic rule. They have been fighting the Transitional Federal Government since 2007. Their online posts went on to say that al-Shabab would be embarking a “new campaign” to target bases associated with the TFG and any foreign governments.
    
The group has intensified the frequency of attacks in Mogadishu since withdrawing from most of its bases in the capital in August last year.

“This is happening because al-Shabab are able to hide themselves with people returning back to Mogadishu,” Colonel Omar Mohamed, of the police’s criminal investigations department, told Al Jazeera shortly after the attack.

Al-Shabab fighters control large parts of central and southern Somalia, but are facing increasing pressure from regional armies, including Kenyan troops in the south and Ethiopia’s army in the south and west.

Thousands of Somalis are fleeing into the capital after African Union-backed government troops have launched renewed attacks on Shabab positions on the outskirts of the capital.

More than 7,200 people have fled into the city from the rebel-held Afgoye corridor, a 40 kilometre (25-mile) stretch of makeshift camps along a road, home to some 410,000 people, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

“UNHCR fears for the safety of the displaced and we urge all armed groups and forces to make the protection of civilians a priority,” the agency said.

Source: Al Jazeera

Senegalese troops have clashed with suspected separatist fighters in the troubled Casamance region, leaving three soldiers dead and six wounded, military and hospital sources say.

The clashes took place in Sindian, 50km north of the regional capital Ziguinchor, as troops were providing security for people and their property against “armed groups who terrorise them”, a military source told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

“Yesterday [Monday] at dusk… we clashed with Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC) rebels, we counted three dead and six injured,” the source said.

A nurse at a hospital in Ziguinchor confirmed that three bodies, and six wounded, had been taken in.

The Casamance is separated from the rest of Senegal by Gambia and is the theatre of West Africa’s longest running conflict with the MFDC fighting for independence since 1982.

The conflict, which has seen periods of quiet and surges of violence, has not reached the levels of bloodshed of other wars in the region but has nonetheless claimed thousands of lives over the past three decades.

Several peace accords have failed, the MFDC is reportedly riven with divisions and rebels are often implicated in large-scale hijackings and the harassment of villagers.

Violence soared over November and December with 23 people, including 10 civilians, killed in fighting.

President Abdoulaye Wade, who promised upon his election in 2000 to solve the crisis in 100 days, visited the region which has remained a thorn in the side of his government last weekend as he campaigned for a third term in February 26 polls.

He proposed a plan which involved disarmament, demining, and five major agricultural projects. 

Source: Al Jazeera