Headline

Chief Of Air Staff Hints On When Insurgency, Banditry Would End

Published

4 years ago

November 16, 2021

The Chief of Air Staff, Isiaka Oladayo Amao, has assured Nigerians that the end of the savagery of insurgents and bandits was in sight.

This is coming few days after Brig. Gen. Dzarma Nkusu was killed in a reported ambush alongside other troops by the fighters of Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) in Askira Uba Local Government Council of Borno State.

The Air Chief appeared before the Senate Committee on Air force on Tuesday to defend its 2022 budget alongside other senior air force officers.

He told the Senate Committee that the insurgents of whatever faction, Boko Haram or ISWAP, have been devastatingly decimated and degraded with attendant loss of fighters and weapons on weekly basis, making many of them surrender voluntarily.

“Required onslaughts tactically and strategically are already mapped out to rout out the remnants of the insurgents attacking villages and military outposts in a pretence of still being potent.

“In line with the core mandate of the Air force and military generals, the territorial integrity of Nigeria is being protected against the insurgents and bandits who in no distant time, will be completely wiped out “, he said.

He added that as the 2021 budgetary allocations given the Air Force was judiciously used in prosecuting the war against the insurgents and bandits as well as improving the welfare of officers and men, the 2022 allocations, will also be expended judiciously for similar purposes.

“In the face of challenges at hand, prudence and accountability have been the guiding principle of implementation of budgetary allocations by the Nigeria Air Force.

In his remarks before the session went into a closed-door, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibn Bala Na’ tasked the military outfit to use all the resources within its disposal in routing out the remnants of the insurgents in particular and make the forests inhabitable for bandits, Kidnappers and all forms of criminals.

“The Air Force and by extension, the military generally, deserved commendation from Nigerians as far as the war against insurgency and banditry are concerned but Nigerians want these enemies of the Nation to be completely defeated as soon as possible.

“For us on this Committee and in the National Assembly, required Appropriations in terms of procurement of weapons, armaments and enhancement of the welfare of officers and men in the military, shall be made since the essence of governance itself is security and welfare of the citizenry.”

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

12 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

12 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

12 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP