Al Shabaab militants attack African Union base in Somalia

Al Shabaab militants attacked an African Union (AU) base in southern Somalia early on Tuesday, the Islamist group and residents said, and said they had killed dozens of soldiers.

The al Qaeda-aligned militants said one of their fighters rammed a car bomb into the base and then gunmen poured inside the facility run by the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, AMISOM.
Al Shabaab said 50 peacekeepers were killed in the attack on Janale base, about 90 km (55 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu. In the past, the group has exaggerated the number of troops it has killed and officials have played down losses.
“Now Janale base of AMISOM is under our control,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.
AMISOM disputed al Shabaab’s claims that the militants had routed its peacekeepers.
“AMISOM can confirm that the base is still under AMISOM control. Reports that the base has been taken over and our weapons captured are false,” the AU peacekeeping force said on its Twitter feed, without giving details on casaulties.
Captain Bilow Idow, a Somali military officer based in a town near Janale, said the base was effectively cut off as the militants had destroyed a nearby bridge.
“No reinforcement can reach there,” Idow said. “There is much death and damage.”
Government officials could not be reached for comment.
“After morning prayers we heard a big explosion followed by heavy gunfire in the AMISOM base. We do not have further details as we are indoors,” Janale resident Ahmed Olow told Reuters.
Al Shabaab, which wants to topple a Western-backed government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia, has also carried out attacks against neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Uganda to retaliate for troops being sent to Somalia as part of the AU peacekeeping force.

Violent clashes erupt ahead of Ivory Coast election

One person was killed as protesters torched vehicles and clashed with police in several Ivory Coast towns on Thursday, witnesses said, in the first major outbreak of trouble ahead of next month’s presidential election.

The protests were called by part of the opposition a day after the release by the Constitutional Council of the official list of 10 contenders running in the October 25 poll, including incumbent Alassane Ouattara.
Opposition groups urged anti-Ouattara marches on the grounds that both of his parents were not Ivorian—the same objection cited ahead of deadly unrest in 2010-2011 that left more than 3,000 dead following a presidential poll.
Then president Laurent Gbagbo, who is to stand trial for crimes against humanity in November in The Hague over the unrest, had refused to step down and acknowledge Ouattara’s victory at the ballot box.
The worst clashes took place in the western village of Logouata between rival groups armed with knives, clubs and rocks, local sources told AFP.
One elderly man was killed in the unrest and several houses were set on fire, witnesses said. A number of injured people were taken to hospital in the nearby town of Sinfra.
There were also violent scenes in Gbagbo’s western hometown Gagnoa where protesters erected barricades and set fire to tyres, local residents and a security source told AFP.
In Bonoua, hometown of his wife Simone Gbagbo, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for her role in the post-poll unrest, a security source said police used teargas when clashes broke out between southerners and northerners.
In the Yopougon district of the capital, Abidjan, protesters set fire to a bus and stoned another, AFP reporters said.

Nigeria bomb blast hits Yola camp for Boko Haram refugees

Nigeria bomb blast hits Yola camp for Boko Haram refugees
25 minutes ago
 From the section Africa
Map of Yola in Nigeria
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A bomb has exploded at a camp in north-eastern Nigeria for people who have fled their homes because of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.
Emergency services told the AFP news agency that at least three people were killed in the blast caused by an improvised explosive device.
It occurred at the Malkohi camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of Yola in Adamawa state.
Yola has been seen as a relative safe place for those fleeing the violence.
Africa Live: News updates
Two million people have been forced from their homes since the militant Islamist group Boko Haram launched its insurgency in northern-eastern Nigeria in 2009.
According to Amnesty International, at least 17,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Although the militants lost their strongholds this year, they are still active and there has been an upsurge in suicide attacks since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May.