info africa

As such, Mouctar Sy thinks that, “Mamady Doumbouya came at a time when Guineans needed him, so we are very happy, very comforted to be at the palace today to celebrate together, with Guinean youth, year 1 of the advent of the CNRD to power”.

Indeed, following a parade through the streets of Conakry, many Guineans found themselves at the People’s Palace. Met on the spot, Youssouf Sylla explains, “As there is really no war, we are proud of that, above all very happy. So that’s what we want for Guinea, that there is peace”.

>>> READ ALSO: Guinea: clashes in Conakry one year following the coup

Further on, this Guinean citizen indeed admits that despite “the unilateral projection of the ex-FNDC which still intends to demonstrate, but never mind, we are here to advocate peace, for the prosperity of the country. The 1-year-olds are in one way or another comparable to the eleven-year-olds of Alpha Condé”.

To mark the assessment that they consider positive of the FNDC, Sylla argues, “When I traveled inside the country, I saw realities, today there is pressure on many companies responsible for finishing the works.

While it is now true that the coming to power of the CNRD has facilitated the arrival in business of several young people, it should be noted that the opposition is still struggling to return to the dialogue table to find an agreement on the transition .

>>> READ ALSO: Guinea: the government is committed to keeping the CAN 2025 calendar

Diaboty Doré, a member of the opposition, explains that the army’s year one in power remains insignificant. He mainly highlighted the lack of dialogue between the government, led by the junta, and the opposition.

Today, no doubt, the main challenge for a way out of the crisis in Guinea is to bring all the socio-political actors of the country around a table.

South African police this week issued arrest warrants for five men in the case. Among them is Sarel Lehlanya Sello, who hails from Lesotho but is described as a “well-known” figure in the police service in the Johannesburg area.

More than 15% of the 2.2 million population of Lesotho, landlocked in the “rainbow nation” and economically dependent on its big neighbor, live in South Africa.

On the wanted poster, the wry-looking man wears a traditional Lesotho shepherd blanket: yellow and black, the distinctive colors of the members of the “Terene” gang. On his cap, the name which means “train” in the Sotho language, in reference to the great migrations to the South African mines in the 1970s, is visible.

>>> READ ALSO: South Africa: the 21 young people who died mysteriously in a bar would have been “asphyxiated”

Settlement of scores between rival gangs? Orderly murder? The police are stingy with comments, guaranteeing anonymity to anyone with information. Local authorities only specified that the suspects, wanted for 16 counts of murder and 7 attempts, are on the run “to a neighboring country”.

In Maseru, capital of Lesotho, it is difficult to untie the tongues on a gang war which, according to several local sources, has killed a hundred people over the past fifteen years. The “famo” has become almost clandestine, the representations are placed under strong police surveillance.

Money and jealousy

“It’s gotten out of control”, loose with AFP Morena Leraba, 37, a singer of “famo” of the new generation, who compares these rivalries to the gang war which marked the history of American rap in the 1990s.

The “famo” was born almost a century ago from the poems composed by black Lesotho labor during the long journeys to reach the South African diamond and gold mines.

>>> READ ALSO: Lesotho: diplomats expelled from South Africa for illegal sale of alcohol

“Nowadays, we would call it rap,” says Rataibane Ramainoane, founder of a local radio station, MoAfrika FM.

Recounting the languor of hundreds of kilometers of travel, the loneliness in the evening in the “shebeens” – clandestine bars under apartheid – or the harshness of work, these men gradually introduced instruments and the accordion became emblematic of a genre now considered “the soul of the country”.

“The famo is part of everyday life, in the street, taxi stations”, explains Morena Leraba.

White South African producers began to market recordings and by the end of apartheid some artists found success with records that sold thousands of copies.

What was until now a war of words on the model of modern rap “battles”, then becomes a commercial war.

“Some, jealous of those who sold better, began to eliminate them, literally,” says Rataibane Ramainoane. Radio stations accused of giving more airtime to one of the groups find themselves threatened: “It’s a miracle that I’m still alive,” says Ramainoane.

>>> READ ALSO: South Africa: rampant crime, murders still on the rise

After a spate of killings last year, Lesotho’s police minister tried to ban the wearing of traditional blankets associated with gangs, some of whose members are suspected of being involved in illegal gold mining in South Africa.

Their sulphurous reputation does not, however, prevent the party at the head of the ruling coalition in Lesotho from expressing a certain closeness.

The leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC), Nkaku Kabi, recently praised the members of “Terene” for having recruited many supporters, ahead of the legislative elections scheduled in a month in the constitutional monarchy.

On tour in Europe, Morena Leraba now spends little time in Lesotho. Describing a system that recruits “little brothers, who will sing and kill” in turn, he distances himself from a logic of “endless revenge”.

Overwhelmed, the fighters then threw themselves into the river in the hope of fleeing, but many drowned.

The Yezaram River is located in Borno State, near the Sambisa Forest, the main hideout of Boko Haram and the Islamic State group in West Africa (Iswap).

On Thursday and Friday, “more than 100 terrorists died, most of them by drowning while trying to cross the turbulent river”, said a high-ranking military officer.

>>> READ ALSO: Nigeria: 300 inmates escape prison following suspected Boko Haram attack

“Our soldiers pulverized the terrorists with air and ground attacks, forcing them to abandon their positions,” the officer added on condition of anonymity.

Four Nigerian soldiers died during the offensive, he said.

The soldiers, supported by Super Tucano planes and Alpha jets, carried out “mopping up operations in the villages of Busuwwa, Malum Fatari, Dagangari, Galtawa and Baram Kamaa”, said Bukar Grema, a member of an “anti -jihadist”.

“The majority of Boko Haram fighters drowned in the river and their bloated bodies were found floating on the surface on Saturday,” Grema added.

“More than 100 of them were recovered and buried by our men.”

Two residents confirmed his statements.

>>> READ ALSO: Nigeria: many dead in an “internal battle” between Boko Haram and Iswap jihadists

Most of the bodies were found in Busuwwa, 15km from the Sambisa forest, Bunu Ibrahim, a resident, told AFP.

Nigerian Defense Minister Bashir Salihi Magashi told reporters on Monday that there had been massive ground and air operations once morest jihadists in the past week, but did not give a specific toll.

The conflict that started 13 years ago in northeast Nigeria between the authorities and jihadists has claimed the lives of 40,000 people and forced two million others to flee their homes, according to the UN.