Cameroon’s army has freed 24 of around 80 hostages kidnapped in a raid by Boko Haram Islamist fighters based in neighbouring Nigeria.

Many children were among those abducted in the attack, which left three people dead. However, a defence ministry spokesman, Colonel Didier Badjeck, said: “The Cameroon army was able to free about 24 hostages taken yesterday by Boko Haram in the far north. They were freed as defence forces pursued the attackers who were heading back to Nigeria.”

Most of those kidnapped – around 50 – were children aged between 10 and 15, with 30 adults, according to a senior army officer.

Boko Haram has brought territory the size of Belgium under its control in northern Nigeria and the Nigerian army has been unable to deal with its depredations. The group, which has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in its bid to carve out an Islamic state, has also targeted Cameroon and Niger over the past year as it seeks to expand its zone of operations.

Sunday’s kidnappings, among the largest abductions on Cameroonian soil, came as neighbouring Chad deployed troops to support Cameroon’s forces in the area.

The army officer said that the early-morning attack had targeted the village of Mabass and other villages along the porous border. Soldiers intervened and exchanged fire with the raiders for around two hours, he added.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma confirmed the attack, in which he said three people had been killed, as well as the kidnappings. He was not able to say with certainty how many people had been taken in the raid.

“There was a Boko Haram attack on several localities in the Far North region. The assailants burnt down about 80 homes and kidnapped several inhabitants including women and very young children,” he said.

In an attack that gained worldwide attention last year, its fighters kidnapped around 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria.

It has stepped up attacks in the region as Africa’s biggest economy prepares for a February 14 presidential election.

In a video posted online this month, a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to step up violence in neighbouring Cameroon unless it scraps its constitution and embraces Islam.

Faced with increased violence along the border, Yaounde has deployed thousands of additional troops, including elite soldiers, to the area.

A convoy of troops from Chad arrived in Maroua, the main town in Cameroon’s Far-North Region, to support the fight against Boko Haram, late on Saturday, Colonel Badjeck said on Sunday.

Chad has a reputation as one of the region’s best militaries and helped French forces drive al Qaeda-linked Islamists from northern Mali in 2013. Government officials in N’Djamena say the deployment to Cameroon includes around 2,000 soldiers, armoured vehicles and attack helicopters.

Ghana’s President John Mahama, who currently heads West African bloc ECOWAS, said on Friday that regional leaders will seek approval from the African Union next week to create a new force to fight Boko Haram.

Source: Christian Today

David Cameron has made a strong defence of Communities Secretary Eric Pickles who has come under fire from Britain’s Muslim leaders after calling for mosques and imams to work harder to fight Islamist radicalisation.

Cameron said everyone had a responsibility to fight extremism. He said the letter was the most “reasonable, sensible, moderate” letter that Mr Pickles could possibly have written.

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Pickles and communities minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon wrote: “You, as faith leaders, are in a unique position in our society. You have a precious opportunity, and an important responsibility, in explaining and demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity,” the ministers wrote.

“We believe together we have an opportunity to demonstrate the true nature of British Islam today. There is a need to lay out more clearly than ever before what being a British Muslim means today: proud of your faith and proud of your country. We know that acts of extremism are not representative of Islam, but we need to show what is.”

The letter led to protests from Muslim leaders. Harun Khan of the Muslim Council of Britain said: “We will be writing to Mr Eric Pickles to ask that he clarifies his request to Muslims to ‘explain and demonstrate how faith in Islam can be part of British identity’.

“Is Mr Pickles seriously suggesting, as do members of the far right, that Muslims and Islam are inherently apart from British society?”

Mr Cameron said: “I think it is absolutely right to write this letter, to say that we all have a responsibility to fight extremism.”

Answering questions after a speech today on employment in Ipswich, the Prime Minister said: “Anyone who reads this letter, and I’ve read the letter, will see that what he’s saying is that British Muslims make a great contribution to our country, that what is happening, in terms of extremist terror, has nothing to do with the true religion of Islam.

“It’s being perverted by a minority who have been radicalised.

“But everyone needs to help dealing with this problem of radicalisation.

“And anyone, frankly, reading this letter who has a problem with it, I think really has a problem. Because I think it’s the most reasonable, sensible, moderate letter that Eric could possibly have written. And, frankly, all of us have a responsibility to try and confront this radicalisation and make sure we stop young people being drawn into this poisonous, fanatical death cult that a very small minority of people have created.”

In the letter, Pickles and Ahmad wrote: “We have recently seen terrible atrocities committed in Paris. Finding the right response to these events is a challenge for everyone. The hijacking of a great faith to justify such heinous crimes sickens us all. As Muslims around the world have made clear, such actions are an affront to Islam.

“And yet, amid the carnage, came a sign of hope – over three million people of all backgrounds marching to defeat the gunmen and to protect our values: free speech, the rule of law, and democracy.

“We are proud of the reaction of British communities to this attack. Muslims from across the country have spoken out to say: not in our name.

“But there is more work to do. We must show our young people, who may be targeted, that extremists have nothing to offer them. We must show them that there are other ways to express disagreement: that their right to do so is dependent on the very freedoms that extremists seek to destroy.

“We must show them the multitude of statements of condemnation from British Muslims; show them these men of hate have no place in our mosques or any place of worship, and that they do not speak for Muslims in Britain or anywhere in the world.

“Let us assure you that the Government will do all we can to defeat the voices of division, but ultimately the challenges of integration and radicalisation cannot be solved from Whitehall alone. Strong community-based leadership at a local level is needed.”

Source: Christian Today

A damning report claims that “staggering” global inequality means the combined wealth of the richest 1 per cent of the world is set to overtake the rest of the population in 2016.

Released just before the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the report by Oxfam warns that “Global wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated among a small wealthy elite”, while a billion people are forced to live on less than $1.25 a day.

Titled “Wealth: Having it all and wanting more”, the report claims that the wealthiest 1 per cent, a list of 80 people including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, saw their share of global wealth increase from 44 per cent in 2009 to 48 per cent in 2013. If this trend continues at the current rate, it will exceed 50 per cent next year.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said in a statement released ahead of the conference: “Do we really want to live in a world where the one per cent own more than the rest of us combined? The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast.”

Byanyima criticised world leaders for promising to tackle extreme inequality, but failing to “walk the walk”.

“It is time our leaders took on the powerful vested interests that stand in the way of a fairer and more prosperous world,” she said.

“Business as usual for the elite isn’t a cost free option – failure to tackle inequality will set the fight against poverty back decades. The poor are hurt twice by rising inequality – they get a smaller share of the economic pie and because extreme inequality hurts growth, there is less pie to be shared around.”

Byanyima will co-chair the forum in Davos, and has pledged to use Oxfam’s high-profile to further its agenda. It is calling on governments to reduce tax dodging, invest in health and education and promote gender-equality through economic policies, among other goals.

Source: Christian Today