INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2016

War not over after Boko Haram ousted from forest bastion

KANO: Nigeria has recently trumpeted a major vic- restricted, claims from both sides cannot be inde- “The islets are between one and two square kilo- tory in its battle against Boko Haram, claiming that pendently verified. metres and the fresh water and abundant fish in the its army has routed the jihadists from their forest lake make them habitable,” said Gamandi, who has bastion, but the war against them is far from over. ‘A convenient sanctuary’ fished in Lake Chad for 40 years. After years of devastating battles and a recent surge According to a military source who asked not to Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of a Boko in attacks, the fear in Nigeria is that Boko Haram will be named, Boko Haram jihadists have been “tremen- Haram faction recognised by the Islamic State group, simply decamp from the Sambisa forest enclave to dously weakened and are trying to avoid confronta- has already been living on the lake since his group other areas nearby. tion ... by hiding in some obscure locations.” Islamists split from Shekau’s leadership in August, residents Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari routed from Sambisa have reportedly fled to areas and vigilantes say. Should Shekau and his troops announced on Christmas Eve that a months-long on the edge of the forest, islets on Lake Chad as well move there, it is unclear whether the two rival fac- campaign had led to the “final crushing of Boko as villages on the Cameroon border. tions will end up battling each other. Haram terrorists in their last enclave in Sambisa “They were sighted in large numbers in ... the Forest”. Kala-Balge area,” said a vigilante helping in the fight, The next battleground? The Nigerian military said troops were chasing referring to a region near Cameroon. Cameroonian troops have intensified their opera- fleeing Boko Haram militants, claiming that the fight The head of the fishermen’s union in Borno tions along their nation’s frontier with Nigeria, against the jihadists was in its final stages. But on state, the epicentre of Boko Haram’s seven-year where fleeing Boko Haram fighters have also sought Thursday, Boko Haram’s elusive leader Abubakar insurgency, said some fighters had regrouped on refuge, according to a vigilante in the Nigerian bor- Shekau appeared in a video to dispute the govern- Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria, Niger, der town of Banki. ment’s claim. Cameroon and Chad. “Cameroon has upped security along the border “We are safe. We have not been flushed out of It provides the jihadists with a “convenient sanc- which has forced fleeing Boko Haram (fighters) to anywhere,” Shekau said in the 25-minute video, tuary”, with its 400 islets covered with dense vegeta- head to Kala-Balge, where Nigerian troops are flanked by masked armed fighters. tion that makes aerial detection and ground opera- deploying”, said the vigilante, who did not want to As access to the conflict zones is heavily tions dangerous, Abubakar Gamandi said. give his name. — AP gets new premier, ending political turmoil

BUCHAREST: Romania’s president yesterday named social- that he had joined the party very young as an outlet for his democrat Sorin Grindeanu as the nation’s new prime minister, leftist convictions. bringing to a close weeks of uncertainty since the left won a After his nomination Wednesday by PSD leader Liviu parliamentary vote on December 11. Dragnea, Grindeanu said he would obey the party chief. The centre-right president signed the official “Mr Dragnea is the president of the PSD, it’s very simple,” decree naming Grindeanu, a 43-year-old former communica- he said. Dragnea had withdrawn his own bid to become prime tions minister, as the new premier. minister because of a conviction that bars him from office. Grindeanu now faces a confidence vote in parliament on his programme and cabinet nominees. The vote must take Second nomination place within the next 10 days. Dragnea however made no secret of the fact he was look- NEW YORK: A pedestrian asks directions from two ing for a candidate close to him. heavily armed counterterrorism officers stationed “I wanted a man I could trust, a man who wouldn’t use his in Times Square, Thursday, in New York. — AP government position as a springboard,” he said. He also said he would not abandon his own ambitions of Three Miami officers fired power, branding as “unjust” the laws barring him from office over charges of electoral fraud. over target practice ‘jokes’ Before Grindeanu, the PSD had proposed the previously lit- tle-known Shhaideh after its thumping poll victory on MIAMI: An internal Miami police investigation has found December 11 when it won 45 percent of the vote, enough to three rookie officers joked in a group chat about using the form a majority coalition with its partners ALDE. city’s primarily black neighborhoods for target practice, a Shhaideh, 52, who has only five months ministerial experi- newspaper reported yesterday. ence, is from Romania’s small and long-established Turkish According to investigation documents obtained by the minority, but her Muslim faith is not thought to have been the Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2hxDZZp), the officers told an problem. investigator they were only joking. The newspaper said offi- Instead the focus was likely on her husband, 54, who cers Kevin Bergnes, Miguel Valdes and Bruce Alcin were fired worked in the Syrian agriculture ministry for 20 years before two days before Christmas. It said Alcin is African-American emigrating to Romania in 2011 and marrying Shhaideh the and Valdes has a black grandfather. same year, according to the PSD. The remarks upset colleagues and came as the depart- : Picture taken on December 28, 2016 shows Website HotNews cited unnamed sources as saying that ment is under supervision of the US. Romanian social-democrat Sorin Grindeanu during a press the security services had “strongly cautioned” against Department of Justice following a series of police shoot- conference in Bucharest. Romania’s centre-right president Shhaideh’s nomination because of the closeness of her ings. “It was senseless, young and reckless. It shouldn’t be tol- Klaus Iohannis yesterday named Sorin Grindeanu as the husband and his two brothers to President Bashar al- erated,” Justin Pinn, an African-American member of a civilian nation’s new prime minister. — AFP Assad’s regime. board tasked with monitoring Miami’s federal policing agree- This might have made giving Shhaideh the necessary ment, told the paper. “Officers are supposed to be guardians The nomination sought to put an end to a political crisis security clearances to be the NATO member’s prime minister not warriors. I don’t think what they expressed reflects the sparked when Iohannis rejected a previous candidate who problematic. values of the department.” would have been the country’s first female and first Muslim On Tuesday after Shhaideh’s rejection, Dragnea said the Attorney Stephen Lopez, who represents the three officers, prime minister. PSD was considering its options including moving to sus- said the remarks were taken out of context and that there was The president offered no reasons for his rejection of Sevil pend Iohannis or going to the constitutional court. no misconduct. “Two of the officers have black blood pump- Shhaideh, initially put forward by the Social Democrats (PSD), However, any attempt by the PSD to remove the head of ing through their veins,” he told the newspaper. but there was speculation that it was due to her Syrian hus- state would have been problematic because Iohannis was “To say that they’re racist is outrageous and ludicrous.” band’s background. entitled to request a second proposal for premier. Police union president Lt. Javier Ortiz maintained that the Sources close to the president had indicated on Thursday The PSD eventually agreed to make a new proposal, stat- officers should have been reprimanded, not fired since their that Grindeanu was considered a “better solution.” “Iohannis is ing that it would be their “final” effort to avoid “political war”. “messages were in poor taste, but weren’t in any way racial.” hoping for a smoother, less conflictual coexistence than he The PSD’s election triumph came barely a year since The incident happened June 30 as the three officers were had with former prime minister ,” who was forced anger over the nightclub fire that killed 64 people forced it responding to other rookie officers’ questions about shooting to resign in November 2015 after street protests erupted over from office. ranges in a WhatsApp chat they often communicated in, the a deadly nightclub fire. The inferno was blamed on corruption-something paper said. According to documents obtained by the Herald, Grindeanu is seen in Romania as a “disciplined soldier” Brussels has long complained about since Romania joined the officers-in-training shared department information on within the PSD ranks and said himself in a recent interview the EU in 2007. — AFP that thread. — AP