attacks

A Cameroonian soldier was killed and three others were wounded during a two-night attack by Boko Haram terrorists from 19 to 20 May. The assault occurred in Kerawa, a locality on the border with Nigeria, within the Kolofata sub-division of the Mayo-Sava division in the Far North region.

A member of the local vigilante committee said the assailants, who came from Nigeria, targeted a Cameroonian military post. “After opening fire on the post, the assailants quickly fled towards the Nigeria-Cameroon border,” he stated.

The recent attack highlights an alarming trend, as Boko Haram terrorists have become more aggressive since March, utilising previously unseen sophisticated weaponry during their operations. Notably, one major incident occurred on the night of March 24 to 25, 2025, in Wulgo, in the Logone-et-Chari division, where 12 Cameroonian soldiers lost their lives. 

This week’s deadly assault serves as a reminder that, despite claims of a retreat by the terrorists, the threat they pose remains constant within the Lake Chad Basin. Even with strong responses from the Cameroonian army, Boko Haram continues to conduct violent operations, instilling fear and destabilising the border areas with Nigeria. This comes despite repeated assertions from the military that they have broken the back of Boko Haram in the region.

As part of its intensified violent campaign, Boko Haram/ISWAP increased the deployment of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) along critical highways in the Lake Chad region, especially in Nigeria. Over the past month, numerous IED detonations occurred, resulting in casualties among both civilians and security forces.

Recent developments have seen two significant bridges – one in the Gujiba local government area of Yobe State and the other in the Biu local government area of Borno State – damaged by IED blasts attributed to the terrorist group. These incidents have significantly disrupted mobility, making entire routes perilous and putting commuters at heightened risk of attacks, particularly in resettled communities that are already unstable.

The destruction of these essential infrastructures also threatens humanitarian efforts and the region’s economic stability. Human rights groups, humanitarian organisations, and local media have cautioned for months that resettling populations without adequate security measures may expose them to reprisals and further displacement.

Israeli attacks come as residents of Lebanon’s southern districts prepare to vote in municipal elections on Saturday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has denounced a wave of Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, calling on the international community to pressure Israel to respect a ceasefire reached in November with Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said on Thursday that the Israeli military struck a building in Toul, a town in the Nabatieh governorate. The army had earlier warned residents to evacuate the area around a building it said was used by Hezbollah.

Lebanese media outlets also reported Israeli bombardment in the towns of Soujod, Touline, Sawanna and the Rihan Mountain – all in the country’s south.

In a statement, Salam’s office said the Israeli attacks come at a “dangerous” time, just days before municipal elections in Lebanon’s southern districts on Saturday.

The contests are expected to be dominated by Hezbollah and its allies, and there have been growing concerns about the safety of voters, especially in border towns, amid the continued Israeli occupation of parts of southern Lebanon.

“Prime Minister Salam stresses that these violations will not thwart the state’s commitment to holding the elections and protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese,” his office said in its statement.

As part of the November ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of that demarcation line.

For its part, Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon but it has kept troops in parts of south Lebanon. It argues it must maintain a presence there for “strategic” reasons.

The truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in southern Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said its forces had carried out several strikes targeting Hezbollah sites and killed one fighter in the southern Lebanon town of Rab el-Thalathine.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the Israeli army’s claim.

Separately, a shepherd was injured in a different Israeli attack nearby, the NNA reported.

The Israeli military said its forces also “struck a Hezbollah military site containing rocket launchers and weapons” in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon.

The NNA described Israel’s attacks as some of the heaviest since the ceasefire went into effect.

A BRITISH tourist has been arrested in Namibia over an alleged series of sex attacks on San tribal children at a cultural “living museum” in the remote north-east of the country.

Douglas Robert Brooks, 65, was detained on Sunday at the Ju’/Hoansi Living Museum near Grashoek after allegedly offering sweets to local children in exchange for naked photos and inappropriate touching.

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He now faces 38 charges, including rape, indecent assault, human trafficking and child exploitation, under
Namibia’s Child Care & Protection Act of 2015 and international protocols.

Brooks also faces charges of crimen injuria, which means a deliberate attack on a person’s dignity through the use of vulgar or racially offensive words or gestures.

The pensioner allegedly persuaded 33 minors to strip and allow him to touch their private parts, with the promise of sweets he had brought to the camp.

He appeared at Grootfontein Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon, where prosecutor Erastus Christian laid out the charges. No plea was taken.

Namibian police Inspector Maureen Mbeha said Brooks is accused of groping the breasts and backsides of 16 teenage girls, 14 teenage boys and three younger children.

Police say the alarm was raised by concerned parents, leading to his arrest just a day after arriving at the remote museum for his third annual visit.

It’s believed that his detention has since prompted further allegations.

Brooks entered Namibia on May 15 and drove six hours from the capital Windhoek to the camp, which is part of a network of seven
“living museums” set up by the Living Culture Foundation Namibia (LCFN), a German-Namibian organisation.

The museums are designed to preserve San traditions and culture by allowing visitors to observe and take part in daily activities such as bow-and-arrow hunting, fire dances, and traditional craft-making.

While some adult women remain topless in keeping with cultural norms, management said teenage girls are always fully clothed in leather antelope-skin dresses.

Tourists are explicitly warned not to give sweets to children due to the lack of dental care, and instead encouraged to donate to local groups who distribute gifts fairly.

The Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism has condemned his alleged actions stating they were “deeply disrespectful” to the people of the San.

A spokesman said: “The allegations are a serious violation of our law regarding the protection of minors and it is unacceptable for tourists to exploit them.

“We applaud the Namibia police for their swift actions in attending to this matter and are confident that the law and justice will take place in due course”.

Brooks has been remanded in custody by Magistrate Abraham Abraham and is due to reappear in court on June 19.

It is not yet clear if he will be transferred to a main prison.

The San – or bushmen as they were known in colonial times and a description some find outdated – are the oldest surviving civilisations in Southern Africa.

Their small stature and semi-nomadic lifestyle saw them persecuted and hunted and forced into poverty when their traditional hunting grounds were taken.

Some 2000 of the 30,000 San in Namibia remain faithful to their traditional roots, hunting and farming for survival, and do not entertain the modern way of living.

The San are thought to have diverged from other nomadic hunting groups some 200,000 years ago and spread out across Southern Africa surviving in the wild.

They are known for their “click language” and supreme hunting and tracking skills and knowledge of nature and do not believe in possessions but sharing.

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At least 52 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as pressure mounts on Tel Aviv to allow significant humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave to avert a looming famine.

Israeli air strikes and tank fire continued to pound the besieged territory on Wednesday. Among those killed were at least eight people in Gaza City, two people in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp and two people in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza.

The attacks come after Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need.

Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian agency, said no trucks were picked up from the Gaza side of Karem Abu Salem crossing, known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis, in southern Gaza.

Israel announced that 93 aid trucks had entered Gaza from Israel following an 11-week blockade.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum explained that most of those trucks had only received military clearance to enter the Palestinian side of the crossing.

“They are still stuck at the border crossing. Only five trucks have made it in,” Abu Azzoum said, adding, “This could be another sign of the systematic obstruction of aid in Gaza.”

Aid groups have said that the amount of aid that Israel is allowing is not nearly enough, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts a “smokescreen to pretend the siege is over”.

“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while, in fact, keeping them barely surviving,” said Pascale Coissard, the emergency coordinator in Khan Younis for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF.

The Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid would be able to continue deeper into Gaza for distribution.

A few dozen Israeli activists opposed to Israel’s decision to allow aid into Gaza while Hamas still holds Israeli captives attempted to block the trucks carrying the aid on Wednesday morning, but were kept back by Israeli police.

Israel is facing growing international pressure over its renewed offensive on Gaza.

The United Kingdom has suspended talks with Israel on a free trade deal, and the European Union said it will review a pact on political and economic ties over the “catastrophic situation” in Gaza. Britain, France and Canada have threatened “concrete actions” if Israel continues its offensive.

Pope Leo on Wednesday also appealed for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

“I renew my fervent appeal to allow for the entry of fair humanitarian help and to bring to an end the hostilities, the devastating price of which is paid by children, the elderly and the sick,” the pope said during his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday urged world leaders to take immediate action to end Israel’s siege on Gaza, issuing the appeal in a written statement during a visit to Beirut, where he is expected to discuss the disarmament of Palestinian factions in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

“I call on world leaders to take urgent and decisive measures to break the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said, demanding the immediate entry of aid, an end to the Israeli offensive, the release of detainees and a full withdrawal from Gaza.

“It is time to end the war of extermination against the Palestinian people. I reiterate that we will not leave, and we will remain here on the land of our homeland, Palestine,” Abbas said.

Since the war began in October 2023 following the Hamas attack that killed 1,139 people in southern Israel, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 53,573 people and wounded 121,688 others.