WHAT'S NEW?
Loading...

Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land

Fault Lines investigates the threats facing Colombian farmers struggling to return to their land.

The stakes have never been higher in Colombia.

As landmark peace talks continue with the rebel FARC group, the government is also trying to return land to the millions of people displaced by the conflict.

But despite attempts at land reform - the issue that started the war decades ago - people are still being driven off their land by right-wing paramilitaries that the government says are gone, making a lasting peace seem unlikely.

Fault Lines travels through the Colombian jungle with farmers determined to remain on their land and investigates the threats they face to return.

Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land
Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land
Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land
Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land
Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land
Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land
Colombia: The Deadly Fight for Land

 

Nigeria children killed and school razed

Attackers hurl explosives and spray gunfire into dormitories, hacking and burning some students to death.

Boko Haram, which destroyed these vehicles in Bama last week, is being blamed for the latest attack [Reuters]
Boko Haram fighters killed at least 59 people as they slept in an attack on a boarding school in Nigeria's troubled northeast, police said.

The attackers reportedly targeted only male students and "spared" girls at the Federal Government College in the town of Buni Yadi in Yobe state, which teaches pupils aged 11 to 18.

Gunmen hurled explosives into residential buildings, sprayed gunfire into rooms and hacked or burned some students to death.

All of the school's 24 buildings were then burned to the ground, Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said.

"Some of the students' bodies were burned to ashes," said Rufai.

Bala Ajiya, an official at the Sana Abachi Specialist Hospital in Yobe's capital Damaturu, said some bodies were discovered in nearby bushland where students who had escaped with bullet wounds had died from their injuries.

The raid at 2am (1am GMT) on Tuesday bore the hallmarks of a similar attack last September in which 40 died.

People whose relatives were studying at the college had surrounded the morgue and were desperately seeking information about those killed, forcing the military to take control of the building to restore calm.

Yobe has been one of the hardest hit areas in Boko Haram's four-and-a-half year uprising, which has killed thousands of people.

Emergency rule

It is one of three northeastern states to be placed under emergency rule in May last year when the military launched a massive operation to crush the uprising.

The name Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" and the rebels have carried out waves of school attacks, especially in Yobe, where scores of students have been slaughtered in the past year.

The state is one of three in the country's northeast to be placed under emergency rule in May last year when the military launced a massive operation to crush the uprising.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the region since the emergency measures were imposed, despite the enhanced military presence.

Boko Haram, declared a "terrorist organisation" by Nigeria and the US, has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Egyptian Christians found dead on Libya beach

At least seven bodies with gunshot wounds to the head found in eastern Benghazi city battling armed groups.

Libyan police have found seven Egyptian Christians shot dead on a beach in eastern Libya, security officials and local residents have said.

A police officer told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the bodies were found with gunshots to the head outside Benghazi, where assassinations, kidnappings and car bombs are common and armed groups are active.

"They were killed by headshots in execution style," a police officer said. "We don't know who killed them."

A local resident and an Egyptian worker, who asked not to be identified, said unknown gunmen had arrived at the Egyptians' Benghazi home and dragged them away the night before.

Security sources said those killed were Christians. No further details were immediately available about how they were killed or whether they were shot on the beach.

No group has claimed responsibility.

Three years after the revolution that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's weak government and army struggles to control brigades of former rebels and armed fighters in a country awash with weapons.

Last month, a British man and a New Zealand woman were shot execution-style on another beach 100km to the west of the capital, Tripoli.

 

 

 

 


 

South Sudan violence targeting hospitals

Aid group Doctors Without Borders say ongoing violence has created a 'climate of utter disrespect and fear'.

Doctors without Borders discovered at least 14 dead bodies in a Malakal hospital during the weekend [AFP]
Warring fighters in South Sudan have looted hospitals and murdered patients in their beds, cutting lifesaving healthcare to hundreds of thousands of people, according to a humanitarian organisation.

Warning of an "alarming pattern of lootings and attacks on patients" and health facilities, Doctors without Borders said on Wednesday that their crucial work was being strangled by a "climate of utter disrespect and fear".

S Sudan aid workers assess hospital attack
The organisation, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres [MSF], said that medical care had "come under fire, with patients shot in their beds, wards burned to the ground, medical equipment looted, and, in one case, an entire hospital destroyed."

"Assaults on medical facilities and patients are part of a broader backdrop of brutal attacks on towns, markets and public facilities," said Raphael Gorgeu, MSF head of mission in South Sudan.

Thousands of people have been killed and almost 900,000 forced from their homes by more than two months of fighting between rebel and government forces, backed by troops from neighbouring Uganda, AFP news agency reported.

Atrocities committed
Atrocities have been committed by both sides, whether during the initial clashes that marked the start of the conflict in the capital Juba on December 15, or during repeated battles for strategic towns across the impoverished but oil-rich nation.

Recent heavy battles between rebels and government troops have been over the key northern oil hub of Malakal, which has exchanged hands several times between warring sides.

MSF discovered at least 14 dead bodies in a hospital in Malakal during last weekend, Associated Press news agency reported. It said several of the victims had been shot while lying in their beds.

"Malakal is deserted, with houses burned throughout and countless dead bodies strewn in the streets...I can find no words to describe the brutality," said Carlos Francisco, MSF's emergency coordinator in the town.

In the flashpoint region of Leer, hometown of rebel chief Riek Machar, MSF's hospital was razed to the ground.

"The destruction from fire was unbelievable... the fridges where we used to keep the vaccines cold were just melted white blobs," Maynard said, after returning to Leer to assess the damage.

"Now nearly 300,000 people have no access to a hospital, nor any general healthcare....there's nothing left in the hospital that is useable."

 

Deadly car bomb hits Somali capital

Al-Shabab claims it carried out suicide bomb blast in Mogadishu that killed at least 10 people.

A suicide bomber drove his car into a tea shop near the intelligence service headquarters [AFP]
At least 10 people were killed in an explosion when a suicide bomber drove his car into a tea shop near the national security headquarters in Somalia's capital, a senior police officer said to the Reuters news agency.

The al-Qaeda linked group, al-Shabab, said it carried out the attack on Thursday and threatened more.

"We are responsible for the car bomb blast," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

"We targeted the national security forces who were sitting in the tea shop. Today's blast was part of our operations in Mogadishu and we shall continue," he added.

The blast is the second in almost a week after al-Shabab said it was behind an attack on the president's palace on Friday.

"A bomber swerved his car bomb into a tea shop where national security men were sitting and blew up. So far we have confirmed 10 people dead including national security forces and civilians. The tea shop was completely destroyed," Colonel Abdikadir Hussein, a senior police officer, told Reuters.

Abdullahi Hassan, the district commissioner of Mogadishu's Abdiasis district, said the target of the attack was a national security car passing the tea shop.

A Reuters witness counted eight bodies.

Al-Shabab ruled most of the southern region of Somalia from 2006 until 2011 when African Union forces drove them out of Mogadishu and then expelled them from most urban centres.

The group, which wants to impose a strict version of Islamic law, still holds swathes of rural territory in southern Somalia and some smaller towns, including the major coastal stronghold of Barawe.
 

 

Nigeria agents 'seize passport of bank chief'

Former minister says agents plan to arrest Lamido Sanusi who was suspended as governor of central bank by the president.



Nigerian security agents have seized the passport and are plotting to arrest the internationally respected banker who was ousted as central bank governor after he revealed that billions of petrodollars are missing from the treasury, a friend and former cabinet minister has said.

The agents who seized Lamido Sanusi's passport at Lagos airport said they were "acting on orders from the villa in Abuja," meaning the president's official residence, said Nasir El-Rufai, a former minister for the capital territory who is now in the opposition.

Sanusi's lawyers are filing a suit for alleged breach of his right to free movement, and for threats of arrest and malicious prosecution without basis, El-Rufai told the AP news agency on Friday.

El-Rufai said his and Sanusi's contacts at the State Security service had tipped them off that agents have obtained a warrant to arrest Sanusi.

The spokeswoman for the State Security service, Marilyn Ogar, did not respond to requests for comment.

'Financial recklessness'
President Goodluck Jonathan's suspended Sanusi on Thursday for "financial recklessness and misconduct."

The governor, whose first term was due to expire in June, had reported that $50bn worth of oil sold by the state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had not been paid to the government, sparking unease among the ruling elite who are often criticised for not being tough on corruption.
He later lowered the estimate to $20bn.

The Senate Committee on Finance last week ordered an independent forensic audit into the missing money.

Sanusi told a Nigerian TV station on Thursday that the law does not allow the president to remove the governor without the consent of the senate.

"The central bank is an independent institution, [and] there is a section of the act that says the president cannot remove the governor without two-thirds of the senate," Sanusi told Channels Television in Lagos, the commercial capital.

"There was a reason for that section. You cannot go round that section by saying, 'I'm not removing you, I'm suspending you,'" Sanusi added, according to a report from Reuters news agency.

"You cannot do that because it undermines the entire principle, and if the idea is under the interpretation act, or if the president appoints so he can suspend, the president doesn't appoint - he proposes and the senate confirms, so the governor is actually appointed by both the president and the senate and therefore should be removed by both."

Reuters said Sanusi did not want his job back but wanted to question the legality of the move. 

Billions missing
Sanusi said the decision should be challenged "so that governors coming after me will not refuse to act, or will not refuse to be independent for fear that they will be suspended".

Reacting to allegations of financial recklessness, Sanusi told Al Jazeera the charges by the president were "unsubstantiated" and that his work had been approved by the board of the central bank.

"The moment this issue started and the letter [about funds] leaked, I had many people in power basically coming to advise me to keep quiet ... My response was that I was not going after anyone," Sanusi said. 

In the TV interview, Sanusi said there were no reasonable grounds for the president to make allegations of financial recklessness against him.

He said although the central bank's accounts for 2013 were audited those of the NNPC had not been audited since 2005.

"We already audited for 2013 and an institution that has not been audited for, God knows, eight years," Sanusi said. "You know nobody talks about financial recklessness." 

Plaudits for Sanusi
The governor's suspicion of massive fraud at the heart of one of the world's most opaque national oil companies has put pressure on Jonathan a year ahead of elections, when he is already reeling from a failure to quell an increasingly violent Islamist insurgency in the north.

The NNPC has repeatedly denied Sanusi's allegations.
Sanusi was named as the Central Bank Governor of 2010 for both the African continent and the entire world, by the prestigious Banker magazine.

The editor of the magazine said then that few candidate names generate an overall consensus on judging panels but that Sanusi had been chosen unanimously as the best global central bank governor of the year.

Appointed in the midst of a debt crisis in 2009, Sanusi is also credited with reforming Nigeria’s banking sector by taking controversial decisions, including firing the chief executives of eight leading banks over huge non-performing loans.

Attack on Nigeria town leaves scores dead

More than 1,500 buildings razed and some 400 vehicles destroyed in the latest assault by armed groups in the northeast.


Both security personnel and civilians are being targeted by Boko Haram during their attacks [Reuters]
At least 115 people have been killed in Nigeria's northeast, more than 1,500 buildings razed and some 400 vehicles destroyed in the latest attack by armed groups, witnesses said.

Wednesday's night attack on Bama came as a traditional ruler accused the military of being scared to confront the fighters, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Sitting amid the smoking ruins of his palace, the shehu, or king, of Bama, Kyari Ibn Elkanemi, charged that the government "is not serious" about halting the violence.

The attack on Bama, an agricultural and commercial town, came the day the leader of the Boko Haram, a group blamed for widespread violence in the northeast, warned leading Nigerian Muslim politicians and religious and traditional leaders that his fighters would target them for pursuing democracy and Western-style education.

In the video message, punctuated by the crackle of automatic gunfire, Abubakar Shekau said: "The reason I will kill you is that you are infidels, you follow democracy ... Whoever follows democracy is an infidel and my enemy."
Shekau spoke in the local Hausa and Kanuri languages in the video, obtained by the AP on Thursday through channels that have provided previous communications.

Many more Muslims than Christians have been among the thousands of people killed in the 4-year-old rebellion by his Boko Haram.

Islamic state
The name means "Western education is forbidden", and the group aims to transform Nigeria into an Islamic state, even though half the more than 160 million citizens are Christians.
Boko Haram killed 106 people in Ighze village on Sunday, according to official figures, making it one of their deadliest assaults so far.

The military denied that Boko Haram were better armed or motivated and said it was making progress, but that no country facing terrorism had defeated it completely.

 
President Goodluck Jonathan ordered extra troops into northeast Nigeria in May to crush Boko Haram, which opposes Western influence and wants to create a state ruled by Islamic law in the country's largely Muslim north.

However, the offensive, backed by air power, has so far failed.

The fighters have retreated into the remote, hilly Gwoza area bordering Cameroon, from where they mount deadly attacks against civilians they accuse of being pro-government, and are abducting scores of girls.

Earlier on Wednesday, Boko Haram fighters attacked the house of an army general in the village of Buratai in Borno state, killing a soldier guarding it, Borno state police chief Lawal Tanko said.
He said General Umar Tukur Buratai, who is stationed in the southern oil-rich Niger Delta, was not there at the time of the assault, which had inflicted "minimal damage".

Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, derives more than 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings from oil.

Children on the front lines of conflict

Why do some countries still use child soldiers?



A file picture from August 2006 showing a young fighter in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  (EPA/TUGELA RIDLEY)
Why are more than 250,000 kids around the world still being used as child soldiers? Last month the UN reported that 6,000 children may be involved in fighting in the Central African Republic. Other countries where armed groups have reportedly exploited children include Syria, South Sudan and Myanmar. What's being done to protect children from participating in armed conflict? We'll speak to two former child soldiers at 19:30 GMT.


Blast targets Lebanese army post in Hermel

Two soldiers and a civilian killed and 15 others wounded in attack that is claimed by Jabhat al-Nusra group.


Explosion targets lebanese army post in Hermel [Reuters]
A suicide bomber has killed two Lebanese soldiers and a civilian with a car bomb near an army checkpoint in northeast Lebanese city of Hermel, security sources have said.

The latest bombing, in a country destabilised by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, was the third such attack in recent weeks in Hermel, a predominantly Shia Muslim area of Lebanon near the border with Syria.

The bomb was set off when soldiers at the checkpoint became suspicious of the man in the vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, the sources said.

More than a dozen others were injured of which five are from the army and 10 are civilians.
The explosion happened at Assi Bridge near entrance of Hermel city. 

Jabhat al-Nusra claims attack
Jabhat al-Nusra in Lebanon has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam said: "The attack on the military establishment exceeds a normal crime. We urge everybody to unite."

It follows a suicide bombing of the Iranian cultural centre in Beirut that killed eight people on Wednesday.

That attack was claimed by an armed Sunni group which said it carried out the bombing as a reprisal for the military involvement of Shia Hezbollah group and Iran in the war in neighbouring Syria.
Hermel in the Bekaa Valley is a stronghold of the Hezbollah. A series of attacks have struck Shia areas in Lebanon over the past months, killing and wounding scores of people.
A blast in the town earlier this month killed at least three people.

Mass rival protests staged in Venezuela

Police and anti government protesters engaged in violent confrontation in the capital Caracas.




Caracas - Venezuelans have held a new wave of demonstrations as both supporters of the government and opposition staged major rallies in a country that has been roiled by violence in recent days.
Pro-government "Chavista women" held a march "against fascism" on Saturday in Caracas, while the opposition staged a rally for "peace". 

At a pro-government rally in the capital, where an Al Jazeera correspondent estimated thousands in attendance, Caridad Blanco, a retired person, told Al Jazeera: "The opposition is causing the violence. I am afraid to go to Chacao [a pro-opposition area]. "We are rallying here for peace and our homeland.

"My life had improved greatly. In 1999, there were 300,000 pensioners. Now there are three million. 

"My mother worked as an ironing lady. She had no pension before but now she does. This is an example of what our government has done," she added.

Daisy Perez, a cleaning lady and government supporter, told Al Jazeera: "We have created more employment [during the socialist period], schools and universities have been built."

'Social crisis'
An hour into the opposition rally, thousands of demonstrators had gathered, our correspondent estimated, but thousands more were seen heading towards the rally on foot and via the subway.

"At some point, the government will have to sit down and have proper discussions with the opposition," Alexis Perez, a student from Simon Bolivar University at the opposition rally, told Al Jazeera. "We are facing a social crisis."

Al Jazeera's Chris Arsenault, reporting from the capital, said: "Today represents a classic show of force by both camps.

"They are trying to prove they have public support in what has become a drawn-out battle.
"I don't imagine there will be serious violence today in Caracas because the rallies are happening in opposite zones of the city."

Henrique Capriles, governor of Miranda state and a main opposition leader, says that planned events are intended as peaceful protests to show public discontent over high crime, food shortages and other problems facing Venezuela.

Capriles has called on marchers to focus on demanding that authorities disarm pro-government "collectives" blamed for attacking demonstrators.
At least eight people have died and more than 100 have been injured in violence connected to the protests that initially began peacefully.

President Nicolas Maduro's government warned it could cut off gas supplies to restless areas.
Protests began on February 2 in the western city of San Cristobal led by students angry over the soaring crime rate. Social media campaigns helped unrest spread to Caracas and other major cities, intensifying over the past two week.

Maduro, who denies any links to the armed groups, says the protests are part of a "coup d'etat in development" instigated by Washington and conservative ex-Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.

Call for dialogue
US President Barack Obama earlier urged the Venezuelan government to address the "legitimate grievances" of protesters; remarks which Maduro said were interference in Venezuela's internal affairs.
Maduro challenged Obama on Friday to meet him for talks. "I call a dialogue with you, President Obama... between the patriotic and revolutionary Venezuela and the United States and its government," he said.

"Accept the challenge and we will start a high-level dialogue and put the truth on the table," Maduro told a news conference with foreign reporters.

Caracas and Washington have not exchanged ambassadors since their respective envoys were withdrawn in 2010. Venezuela has expelled eight US diplomats over the past year, including three on February 16.

Oil-rich Venezuela's main customer for its key export is the US, yet strained relations between the countries have worsened under Maduro.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, but under Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, the economy has faltered, violent crime has increased and inflation is some of the highest in the region.

Supporters of the elected government say their situation has improved because of subsidised food programmes, new universities, and health centres built by the state in long-neglected poor areas. 

Mexico's most wanted drug lord arrested

Joint Mexican and US forces arrest Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman in Sinaloa state, who had been on the run for 13 years.



Mexico's most wanted man, drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo or "Shorty", has been captured in Mexico in what marks a major coup in a grisly fight against drug gangs.

After 13 years on the run, Guzman was captured early on Saturday morning in a hotel in Mazatlan, a resort city located on the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, by US and Mexican law enforcement officials,
The US had offered a $5m reward for information leading to the arrest of Guzman, who is accused of being behind much of the drug violence that has plagued Mexico for years.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that the apprehension of Joaquin Guzman is a landmark achievement, and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States.

"Guzman was one of the world's most wanted men and the alleged head of a drug-running empire that spans continents," Holder said.

"The criminal activity Guzman allegedly directed contributed to the death and destruction of millions of lives across the globe through drug addiction, violence, and corruption."

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said: "The operation led by the Mexican government overnight to capture Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman Loera is a significant victory and milestone in our common interest of combating drug trafficking, violence and illicit activity along our shared border."
The DOJ hailed the arrest of Guzman and expressed their willingness to further collaborate with Mexico to secure the border region.

Drugs' war
Authorities in Chicago last year dubbed Guzman the city's first ‘Public Enemy No.1’ since gangster Al Capone.
His arrest deals a major blow to Mexico's biggest drug cartel, an empire that stretches along the Pacific coast and smuggles drugs to the US,  Europe and Asia.

Mexican forces were acting on a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Agency and US Homeland Security intelligence, an official said.
The arrest is a major coup for the 14-month administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto, which captured the head of the ultra-violent and powerful Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, in July 2013.

Nearly 80,000 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico since former President Felipe Calderon sent in the army in early 2007 to quell the powerful drug bosses, a policy Pena Nieto has criticised but found tough to break with.

Blast targets Lebanese army post in Hermel

At least two soldiers killed and 15 others wounded in attack that is claimed by Jabhat al-Nusra group.


Explosion targets lebanese army in Hermel [picture source LBC]
A suicide bomber has killed two Lebanese soldiers with a car bomb near an army checkpoint in northeast Lebanese city of Hermel, security sources have said.

The latest bombing, in a country destabilised by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, was the third such attack in recent weeks in Hermel, a predominantly Shia Muslim area of Lebanon near the border with Syria.
The bomb was set off when soldiers at the checkpoint became suspicious of the man in the vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, the sources said.

The explosion happened at Assi Bridge near entrance of Hermel city. 
At least 15 people have been injured of which five are from the army and 10 are civilians.

Jabhat al-Nusra claims attack
Jabhat al-Nusra in Lebanon has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam said: "The attack on the military establishment exceeds a normal crime. We urge everybody to unite."

It follows a suicide bombing of the Iranian cultural centre in Beirut that killed eight people on Wednesday.
That attack was claimed by an armed Sunni group which said it carried out the bombing as a reprisal for the military involvement of Shia Hezbollah group and Iran in the war in neighbouring Syria.

Hermel in the Bekaa Valley is a stronghold of the Hezbollah. A series of attacks have struck Shia areas in Lebanon over the past months, killing and wounding scores of people.
A blast in the town earlier this month killed at least three people.

Egypt's Morsi urges revolution from court

Morsi stands accused in a case that charges him and 130 others over prison breaks during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.


A defiant Morsi has interrupted past court proceedings by saying that he is still Egypt's legitimate leader [AP]
Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi called on his followers Saturday to continue their "peaceful revolution", during his trial on charges related to jailbreaks and attacks on police.

Morsi appeared in court on Saturday in a case that charges him and 130 others over prison breaks that freed some 20,000 inmates during the 18-day revolt in 2011 that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
"The revolution of the people won't stop - continue your peaceful revolution," Morsi said from the dock on Saturday.

Spotlight
Follow our ongoing coverage of the political crisis in Egypt

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood still stages diminishing weekly protests despite a crackdown that has killed more than 1,400 people since the military overthrew him in July.
The court adjourned the trial, one of four for Morsi, until February 24.
The deposed president and 19 other suspects are charged over the jail break. Some 130 people - including members of the Palestinian Hamas group and the Lebanese Hezbollah - are charged in the case, with many being tried in absentia.
Morsi himself was freed in a prison break that accompanied the turmoil of Egypt's 2011 revolution before becoming the nation's first freely elected president a year later.
Police officers’ acquittal
An Egyptian court acquitted six police officers Saturday on charges of killing 83 protesters during the country's 2011 revolution, the latest in a string of trials that rights group say failed to hold the country's security forces accountable for demonstrators' deaths.

The police officers' case involved the killing of protesters in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and included the former head of security and of the riot police.

Prosecutors alleged that commanders armed police with live ammunition and allowed officers to shoot at protesters in front of police stations from nearby rooftops.

Not one of the police officers charged with killing protesters in 2011 are behind bars, leading rights groups to accuse Egypt's judiciary of protecting security forces at the expense of justice.
"The consecutive regimes did not have the political will to hold the criminals accountable, allowing them to go away with it," said rights lawyer Ahmed Ezzat, who works with the prominent Freedom of Though and Expression group.

Iraq announces 72-hour truce in Fallujah

Halt in military operations come weeks after gunmen took control of city and parts of Anbar province.


Fighters have taken control of the city of Fallujah in January [EPA]
Iraq's defence ministry has announced a 72-hour halt to military operations in the city of Fallujah, which has been held by anti-government fighters since January.

Saturday's announcement raises the possibility of a negotiated end to the crisis, during which gunmen also seized parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, west of Fallujah.

"Military operations taken against selected terrorist organisation targets in Fallujah have been stopped for 72 hours," the ministry said in a statement of the city just a short drive from Baghdad.
The decision was taken "in response to goodwill and frequent communications with forces of good and people calling for peace, and to stop the bloodshed in Fallujah," it added.

The takeovers in Anbar province are the first time anti-government forces have exercised such open control in major cities since the bloody fighting that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

More than 370,000 people may have been displaced by Anbar violence, according to the UN.
Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings.

Violence has killed more than 580 people so far this month and upwards of 1,550 since January 1, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

Police fire tear gas at Istanbul protesters

Thousands gather in Turkish city to denounce new laws increasing government control over the courts and the Internet.


At least five people were reportedly detained following clashes between police and protesters [AFP]
Turkish riot police have fired tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators in central Istanbul protesting against what they see as authoritarian new laws from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
Officers backed by water cannon on Saturday evening cleared demonstrators from the main Istiklal shopping street, some chanting "Everywhere Taksim, Everywhere Resistance", a reference to weeks of protests last year.

Tear gas spread into shops and restaurants as police chased proteters into side streets, in the second such protest in recent weeks, the Reuters news agency reported.

At least five people were detained, according to the AP news agency.
Battling a corruption scandal, Erdogan's ruling AK Party has pushed through laws tightening government control over the Internet and courts this month, and has proposed a bill envisaging broader powers for the national intelligence agency.

"[Prime Minister] Tayyip Erdogan, don't pull the Internet plug," read one banner among the crowds.
"We are here because we are sick and tired of Tayyip's angry scolding and AK Party laws trying to limit every freedom we have," said Sinem Gul, a 26-year-old architect.

Erdogan's critics see the new laws as an authoritarian backlash against the corruption inquiry shaking his government, which his supporters say is a plot against him by powerful US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who wields extensive, if covert, influence over the police and judiciary, Reuters reported..

EU criticism
Social media and video-sharing sites have been awash with leaked recordings presented as evidence of government wrongdoing since the corruption scandal erupted in December.
The government said the laws - including the Internet bill which allows web pages to be blocked within hours - protect privacy and defend democracy.

This week, Turkish President Abdullah Gul ignored calls for a veto and signed the Internet bill into law, saying he had received government assurances that two disputed articles of the legislation would be amended.

The European Union has criticised the legislation and called it "a step back" for media freedom.
The corruption scandal poses one of the greatest threats to Erdogan's 11-year-old rule and his response, including dismissing or reassigning thousands of police officers and hundreds of prosecutors and judges, has betrayed what critics said are increasingly authoritarian tendencies.
Gulen has denied orchestrating the scandal and his supporters have said they are the victims of a witch-hunt.

In Pictures: Venezuela's protests escalate


Ongoing unrest across the country sets the streets on fire as violence threatens to spiral further.

Caracas, Venezuela - Political unrest and sporadic outbursts of violence have wracked parts of Venezuela since February 12. The story isn't new - members of the country's opposition claim the government is acting in an undemocratic way; supporters of President Nicholas Maduro say a vocal minority which can't win victories at the ballot box is attempting to cause chaos in the streets.

Government supporters were quiet on Wednesday and Thursday in the capital, but in Altamira Square, an opposition stronghold in eastern Caracas, student protesters burned rubbish and occasionally clashed with police on Wednesday and Thursday.

"We don't understand what they are trying to achieve by lighting fires on the streets," Omar Nasser, a pro-government activist told Al Jazeera. "They don't have a constructive or clear political project. They don't ask for anything when they protest."

After winning an election last year by a thin margin, Maduro and his governing socialists can't be challenged at the ballot box until 2016. Some opposition supporters say they can't wait that long for change and want Maduro to resign now. Others say they are fed up with insecurity, inflation and other social problems they say are worsening.

"There are many reasons for the protests: a lack of security, a bad economy and scarcity," Rey Quiros, a 27-year-old salesman, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday as he watched the demonstrations with a group of friends.

Pro-government candidates won more than three quarters of municipal seats in local elections in December, leading socialist supporters to say the opposition should get off the streets and find a way to better appeal to people.

Both sides agree that the situation could spiral out of control, but for now the demonstrations are relatively small compared with past mobilisations in the country with the world's largest oil reserves. Several people have, however, died across the country in ongoing political violence.
/AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
Members of a pro government "colectivo", march in downtown Caracas, Venezuela on Thursday.


/AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
President Nicolas Maduro and his supporters say the escalating protests against his socialist government in the oil rich but economically struggling country are part of an attempted coup sponsored by right wing and "fascist" opponents in Venezuela and abroad


/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators faced off in streets blocked by burning barricades in several provincial cities on Thursday as protests escalated against President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government.


/AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
Following a dramatic surrender and a night in jail, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was due in court Wednesday to learn what charges he may face for allegedly provoking violence during protests against the socialist government in the divided nation.


/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Supporters of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez shout during a rally to promote peace in Caracas.


/AP Photo/Fernando Llano
A demonstrator waves a Venezuelan flag upside down near a barricade in La Boyera neighborhood in Caracas.


/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
At least five people have died since protests turned violent last week, with scores injured and arrested. The banner reads "I declare myself in civil disobedience."


/AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
The demonstrators, mainly students, blame the government for violent crime, high inflation, shortages of many products and the alleged repression of opponents.


/Stringer/Reuters
Opposition supporters in San Cristobal, some 410 miles (660 km) southwest of Caracas, stand over a monument of a tank which they dragged into the middle of the street during a protest against Nicolas Maduro's government.


/AP Photo/Alejandro Cegarra
An opposition demonstrator holds a poster that reads in Spanish "They are killing us" outside the Venezuelan Military Industries (CAVIM) in Caracas. Venezuelan opposition leaders condemned the government Thursday for its heavy handed attempt to subdue a protest movement with nighttime sweeps that have turned many parts of the country into dangerous free fire zones.

Homs mission 'a success' as Syria talks stall

Hundreds still trapped in Homs, with second ceasefire extension offered, while little progress made at peace talks.

Brahimi described the talks as 'laborious' and said both sides needed to cooperate [AFP]
The United Nations is to talk to rebels about the evacuation effort from Homs, with the city's governor, Talal Barzai, saying the Syrian regime was willing to have another ceasefire extension to allow more people to leave and more aid to enter.

Barzai told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the UN would speak to rebels by telephone to know the exact number of people still trapped inside the Old City, saying he thought there were between 500 and 800 people left.

 
He said that the aid mission in Homs, suspended on Tuesday for "logistical and technical reasons", would resume on Wednesday, as a second round of talks being held in Geneva to try to bring peace made little headway.
The Homs governor also said that other routes in and out of the city were being studied for the safety of the UN team and the evacuees they were helping.

Barzai also told Al Jazeera that the Syrian regime was willing to extend the ceasefire beyond its Wednesday evening deadline as long as civilians wanted to be evacuated and aid needed to reach them.

Intense aid effort

His comments follow four days of an intense relief effort from the UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which have tried to evacuate as many people as possible despite a violated ceasefire.

UNICEF reported on Tuesday that at least 500 children and 20 pregnant women were among the 1,130 people estimated to have left Homs since Friday, the first day of the ceasefire.

The aid work took place amid gunshots and mortarfire, with the attacks continuing to attract condemnation.
The US delegation in Geneva, the venue for the second stage of peace talks intended to end a civil war that has lasted almost three years, said that what had happened in Homs over the past few days was unacceptable.

A US State Department spokesman, Edgar Vasquez, said: "For days, UN convoys were targeted by mortars and snipers by groups who clearly did not want life-saving humanitarian assistance to get in. These humanitarian workers should be able to carry out their essential assistance work without being subject to violence."

"Laborious" Geneva
The concern was echoed by the UN Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is overseeing the talks in Geneva.
He told a news conference on Tuesday: "You know that Homs can be called a success that has been six months in the making. Six long months...but it was extremely risky. Our colleagues and also the admirable young people from the Syrian Red Crescent, volunteers all of them, took a lot of risks."

A weary-looking Brahimi urged both sides to cooperate for the sake of the Syrian people, describing the beginning of the second stage as "laborious".

"They come here at the initiative of Russia and America, with the support I think of the entire world, and everybody is looking at them, most of all the people of Syria. The people of Syria are thinking: "Please, get something going that will stop this nightmare and this injustice that is inflicted on the Syrian people".

On Friday, Brahimi meets Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gennady Gatilov, and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman. He also revealed that he would travel to New York next week to report to the UN Secretary-General and "most probably" to the UN Security Council.

The opposition and government delegations remain at loggerheads. The opposition says the only way to end the conflict is to form a transitional government without President Bashar al-Assad, with the regime insisting his future is not a subject for discussion. Its focus remains fixed on dealing with "terrorism" - a term it uses for all armed opposition.

Tuesday's morning session, which saw Brahimi meet both sides simultaneously, was dominated by a failure on both sides to agree on an agenda. There was no afternoon session.

 

China and Taiwan hold historic talks

The two governments have not met since they split 65 years ago, following a brutal civil war that left millions dead.


China and Taiwan hold historic talks


China and Taiwan held their first government-to-government talks since they split 65 years ago after a brutal civil war - a symbolic yet historic move between the former bitter rivals, AFP news agency reported.
Wang Yu-chi, who oversees Taiwan's China policy, arrived in Nanjing on Tuesday for a meeting with his Beijing counterpart Zhang Zhijun on the first day of a four-day trip, a Taiwanese official said.
"That we can sit here today, formally getting together, formally holding meetings, together exploring issues that people on both sides of the strait care about - this represents a new chapter for cross-strait relations, and is a day worth recording," Wang said in initial remarks, AFP reported based on a statement.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reports from Beijing
Wang said he hoped Zhang could visit Taiwan "in the foreseeable future".
Taiwan is likely to focus on reaping practical outcomes from the discussions, such as securing economic benefits or security assurances, while China has one eye on long-term integration of the island, analysts say.
Tuesday's meeting is the fruit of years of efforts to improve relations.
But Beijing's communist authorities still aim to reunite all of China under their rule, and view Taiwan as a rebel region awaiting reunification with the mainland.

"For us to simply sit at the same table, sit down to discuss issues, is already not an easy thing," Wang said.

Shared history
Nanjing was China's capital when it was ruled by Wang's Kuomintang, or Nationalist, party in the first half of the 20th century.

When they lost China's civil war to Mao Zedong's communists in 1949, two million supporters of the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan.

The island and the mainland have been governed separately ever since, both claiming to be the true government of China and only re-establishing contact in the 1990s.

Over the decades Taiwan has become increasingly isolated diplomatically, losing the Chinese seat at the UN in 1971 and seeing the number of countries recognising it steadily decrease.

However, its military is supplied by the United States and has enjoyed a long economic boom.

Closer ties
Speaking to Al Jazeera, China analyst Andrew Leung said the talks were "by no means" aimed at unification.
"Most of the Taiwanese people want status quo and China knows that time is on her side. So China's in no hurry."

Al Jazeera speaks with China analyst Andrew Leung
"Most Taiwanese do not want to provoke China and all they want is for Taiwan businesses to grow.
There's this very strong demand for closer ties with the mainland. Not for immediate unification, but for much closer ties.
"The closer the two sides are tied together, the better it is for Beijing...the better it is also for Taiwan economically."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Iranians rally to mark 35 years of revolution 

Thousands gather in streets of Tehran to mark day that created Islamic Republic, ending the reign of US-allied shah.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the streets of the Iranian capital and cities around the country to mark the 35th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

In Tehran, huge crowds thronged central Azadi square on Tuesday for a speech by President Hassan Rouhani, his first major address to the public since his election in August.

Rouhani launched into the traditional anti-US rhetoric despite a significant political shift in Tehran, which resulted in his election last year as a leader pursuing a policy of outreach to the West.

"The people's vote had no role in running this country. This was a huge humiliation," Rouhani said, referring to the period when Iran was a constitutional monarchy.

"People wanted their views to be an influence [but] the big powers were interfering in the internal affairs of this country ... The Americans thought the country of Iran belongs to them. They interfered everywhere even on security issues."

The revolution was set in motion in 1979 after a siege began some 10 months following the fall of the US-allied shah.

Radical students stormed the US embassy, taking 52 people hostage. They were released after 444 days, and the seige ended Washington's diplomatic relations with Tehran.

More recently, Iran reached an interim agreement with Western powers to curb its nuclear programme, which the West suspects is meant to develop a nuclear bomb.

But while Tuesday's mood in Tehran is one of celebration, Al Jazeera's Soraya Lennie reported that Iranians still feel there is a lot that needs to be done to strengthen relations between the US and Iran.

"Yes, they want better relations with the United States, they're happy with the government and the diplomatic push from the government, but there's still so much anger in the people towards the history of Iran and the United States," Lennie said.

The slogan's of Tuesday's celebration express Iran's current feelings towards the US and include "we'll stand to the end", "we will stand up against and we are ready for all options on the table", and "we are ready for the great battle".

The first slogan is "obviously a reference to the United States and external pressures on Iran", Lennie said.
The second one is "of course a reference to President Obama, John Kerry and all options on the table including military ones", she said.

Lennie added that the third, like the first slogan, is also about external pressures on Iran.

Missile test 
Activities to mark the anniversary come a day after Iran "successfully tested" two missiles, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Iran's ballistic missile programme has long been a source of concern for Western nations because it is capable of striking its arch-enemy Israel.
"The new generation of ballistic missile with a fragmentation warhead, and a Bina laser-guided surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missile, have been successfully tested," Hossein Dehgan, the defence minister, said.
He said the new ballistic missile could "evade anti-missile systems" and was capable of "great destruction".





 

 

 

US condemns Afghan move to release detainees

US military says planned release of '65 dangerous individuals' is 'major step backward for rule of law in Afghanistan'.

President Obama administration has been pressing Afghan President Karzai to sign a bilateral security pact [Reuters]
US forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday condemned a decision by the Afghan government to move forward with plans to release additional detainees that the US believes pose a continuing threat to security.

The detainees in question are among 650 held at Bagram prison north of Kabul, whom Afghan authorities have marked for release on grounds of insufficient proof to prosecute them.

"United States Forces-Afghanistan has learned that 65 dangerous individuals from a group of 88 detainees under dispute have been ordered released from the Afghan National Detention Facility at Parwan," the US military force said in a statement.

"The release of these detainees is a major step backward for the rule of law in Afghanistan," it said.
"Some previously-released individuals have already returned to the fight, and this subsequent release will allow dangerous insurgents back into Afghan cities and villages."

The detainees have become another issue fueling tension in US-Afghan ties, as foreign troops present in Afghanistan since 2001 steadily withdraw.

Washington objects to freeing a total of 88 prisoners it regards as a threat to security.

Security pact
President Barack Obama's administration has been pressing President Hamid Karzai to sign a bilateral security pact that would allow some US forces to remain in Afghanistan beyond a deadline at the end of this year. But there has been little sign of him complying.

James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, has said that he did not expect the Afghan President to sign the much-delayed deal.

Last month, US officials objected to Afghanistan after the government directed the Afghan Review Board, a government body, to release 37 of the 88 detainees.

Tuesday's development appears to put those prisoners, and 28 others, closer to release, according to Reuters news agency.

An Afghan government official said that the prisoners could be released in a few days. A US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the prisoners could be set free very soon.

Basir Azizi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's attorney general, said that 65 prisoners were ordered to be released because "there was no incriminating evidence against them" and added that the fate of the remaining prisoners was being reviewed.

Meanwhile, two NATO civilian contractors were killed after a convoy of foreign military vehicles was attacked by a suicide bombed. Hezb-e-Islami, an armed group tied with the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Uganda church rejects anti-gay criticism

Stanley Ntagali says "homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture" after prelates urge support for homosexuals.

The anti-gay bill in Uganda was tabled before parliament in 2009 but was shelved due to sharp criticism [EPA]
The head of the Anglican Church in Uganda has criticised the position of UK archbishops on homosexuality, saying "homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture".

Stanley Ntagali was reacting to a letter written by archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu, leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion, in which the clergymen said that "victimisation or diminishment of human beings ... is anathema" to the Church of England and that the church was committed to "pastoral support and care of gay people".

The clergymen addressed their letter to primates of the Anglican Communion, and to the presidents of Nigeria and Uganda, saying it was in response to questions raised about the Church of England's attitude to new legislation in several countries that penalise gay people.

Sentamu, the archbishop of York, is originally from Uganda, whose parliament has passed an anti-homosexuality bill that still awaits presidential endorsement before it becomes law.
Last month, Nigeria enacted anti-gay legislation amid condemnation from rights groups.

Death sentence
Ntagali said the Church of Uganda was encouraged by the work of the Ugandan parliament in amending the anti-homosexuality bill, which had clauses stipulating a death sentence for people convicted of aggravated homosexuality - defined as sex acts committed with children by HIV-positive individuals.

Bur he said the teaching of the Anglican Communion from the 1998 Lambeth Conference "cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions".

"It was the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada’s violations of Lambeth 1.10 which caused the Church of Uganda to break communion with those Provinces more than ten years ago," Ntagali said.

"We sincerely hope the archbishops and governing bodies of the Church of England will step back from the path they have set themselves on so the Church of Uganda will be able to maintain communion with our own Mother Church."

Homosexuality is frowned upon by many African clergymen although their Western counterparts continue to urge tolerance and pastoral support for gay people.

The anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda was tabled before parliament in 2009 but was shelved due to sharp criticism from Western leaders who have called it "odious" and have threatened to cut aid to the East African nation if the bill becomes law.

President Yoweri  Museveni said last month he needed more time to review the bill, adding that it was passed by parliament without the minimum number of MPs required to be present in the house.

 

Nigerian airline back in the sky after crash

Dana Airline resumes flights 18 months after its plane crashed outside Lagos, killing 159 people on board and on ground.

Concerns have been raised about routine maintenance checks in Nigeria's aviation industry [Reuters]
A Nigerian commercial airline whose operations were suspended after a crash outside the city of Lagos killed 159 people has resumed flights, the company spokesman said.
Sam Ogbogoro said on Monday that Dana Air reopened with two flights, 18 months after the crash which also claimed lives on the ground.

"The airline is back in the sky. We are back in business. We have two flights today. The first has just left Lagos for Abuja," Ogbogoro told the AFP news agency.

Dana's operation was grounded after the crash on June 3, 2012. The airline was briefly cleared to fly again last January but a suspension was reimposed for safety reasons.

The McDonnell Douglas-83 aircraft that crashed in the Iju-Ishaga area of Nigeria's financial hub had taken off from Abuja.

Reports said relatives of those who died in the crash were angry that the airline had been allowed back into the skies. Many said they had not received compensation and other assistance promised by the airline.

Safety concerns
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of 170 million people, has seen a series of deadly air disasters that claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.

Concerns have been raised about standards of safety and routine maintenance checks, particularly involving domestic carriers.

On October 3 last year, a charter plane with 20 people on board suffered engine failure shortly after take-off from Lagos, crash-landing near a fuel depot and killing at least 14.

Nigeria's worst air accident was in 1973, when 176 people died in a crash involving a Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 flying from Jeddah to Kano, according to the Aviation Safety Network website.

Aviation minister Stella Oduah said in an interview published this month that when she took over in July 2011, the industry was a "liability", with severe problems in terms of safety and security.

But since then she said safety had been transformed and was now more compliant with international standards and best practice.

 

Gay Nigerians targeted as 'un-African'

Despite evidence of homosexual customs pre-dating the colonial era, intolerant laws are flourishing across Africa.

Ifeanyi Orazulike says his identity as a gay Nigerian is under attack [Chika Oduah/Al Jazeera]
 
Abuja, Nigeria - Fourteen years ago, at the age of 19, Ifeanyi Orazulike could no longer ignore his affections for men.

"I had these funny feelings that I could not explain," he says.
As the feelings evolved into a full-fledged attraction for the same sex, Orazulike, for the first time in his life, began exploring his sexuality, as a student in a university in south-east Nigeria.
"I sexually experimented," he says. "But I wasn't sure if I wanted to live as a homosexual."
Today, 33-year-old Orazulike is confident in his orientation. But here in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Orazulike knows that his identity as a gay Nigerian is under attack.
After news broke that President Goodluck Jonathan had on January 7 signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition bill, unanimously approved by lawmakers in May 2013, Orazulike joined activists in Abuja to develop strategies to protect the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer) community.
They conducted a series of meetings to discuss the law - that Human Rights Watch described as a "sweeping and dangerous piece of legislation" - which recommends penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for same-sex couples who publicly show affection, and for members of organisations who assist gay people. Same sex unions are punishable by a 14-year prison sentence.

Activists denounce Nigeria's anti-gay law
While condemned by the likes of the United Nations and the European Union, the law is praised by a majority of Nigerians, who have united under a banner of patriotism and what many perceive as a fight against Western imperialism. The president's spokesperson reportedly stated that the law "reflects the religious and cultural preferences of the Nigerian people".
The scorn that Orazulike now faces from Nigerians assaults his identity as a Nigerian. "People say I've been bewitched by the Western world," he says. "I will not denounce my nationality because of my sexuality."
The public debate on homosexuality goes beyond nationality. It has now become a controversial argument on Africa versus the Western world, with people such as Orazulike caught in the middle.
'Un-African'

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's well-publicised rejection of gay people being "worse than pigs or dogs" and homosexuality as an import from Western societies has been coupled with similar assertions from the Ugandan MP David Bahati who brought forward a 2009 bill in Kampala. The Ugandan proposal was reportedly inspired by Christian conservatives from the United States, most notably the embattled pastor Scott Lively - who is facing a lawsuit for his alleged involvement in "Kill the Gays" campaigns in Uganda.
They argue that homosexuality had no history in pre-colonial Africa and goes against African traditions.
People say I've been bewitched by the Western world... I will not denounce my nationality because of my sexuality.

- Ifeanyi Orazulike, gay activist
Stories of homophobia in Uganda regularly feature in news headlines. President Yoweri Museveni has not yet endorsed a bill passed by lawmakers last month that would further criminalise homosexuality with life imprisonment sentences - and punishments for those who fail to "report" homosexuals.
"He has rejected the bill, but will reinforce the hate - saying that gays are abnormal," says Patience Akumu, a Ugandan journalist.

"He says these are abnormalities from the Western world, so he is saying things that Ugandans want to hear."
In Nigeria, where a man was reportedly lashed 20 times earlier this month after confessing to homosexual acts committed seven years ago, 26-year-old Yinka - who requested her last name not be published - reacted with outrage to being labelled "un-African" on account of her lesbianism.
"It's something that is on the inside. It's not like a 2014 thing. It's something that's on the inside. So it's not going to ever go away," she says. Yinka lives with her partner in the country's commercial hub, Lagos.
She had always admired her female schoolmates - but was "too afraid to come out to tell them", she said, revealing that she discovered lesbian pornography around the age of 13, while attending boarding school.
"I am who I am. This is me," she says.

A 2013 Pew survey that interviewed adult Nigerians found that 98 percent of respondents agreed that homosexuality "should not be accepted into society".
Amnesty International reported that 16 African countries do not have criminal laws against homosexuality, whereas 38 have made it illegal.
In Cameroon, anti-gay panic broke out in 2006 when three newspapers, La Météo, L'Anecdote and Le Soleil d'Afrique, began publishing names of people believed to be gay.
Meanwhile, Senegal was once touted as one of the most tolerant countries in Africa. But the rhetoric coming from national politicians here too, speaks of preserving "the national integrity" as a way of excluding same-sex relationships from "accepted cultural practices".
"We don't ask the Europeans to be polygamists," President Macky Sall told US President Barack Obama in 2013. "We like polygamy in our country, but we can't impose it in yours. Because the people won't understand it. They won't accept it. It's the same thing."

Corpses of gay people have been exhumed from graveyards across Senegal, with anti-gay activists stating the dead bodies were desecrating cemeteries.
We don't ask the Europeans to be polygamists. We like polygamy in our country, but we can't impose it in yours. Because the people won't understand it. They won't accept it. It's the same thing.
- Senegal's President Macky Sall, addressing US President Barack Obama
Back in Uganda, the outspoken pastor, Martin Ssempa, re-emphasised the "un-African" stance: "For us, it's a human vice. For them, it's a human right."

Expressions of African homosexuality
But scholars such as Marc Epprecht, a professor of history and cultural studies at Queen's University in Canada, denounce the idea of homosexuality being "un-African".
"Who gets to say who is an African? All these things have been politicised," Epprecht told Al Jazeera.
His field work in Zimbabwe, which culminated in an oft-cited book, Hungochani: The History Of A Dissident Sexuality In Southern Africa, led him to conclude that homosexuality in southern Africa had been demonstrated in varying forms over the centuries, and often held mystical connotations.
"Some people say they have the spirit of an ancestor of the opposite sex, so they cannot marry," he said.
Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde, a South African sangoma (traditional healer) told her story in a 2009 autobiography - in which she describes being possessed by the spirit of a deceased male ancestor. A lesbian, she attributes both her sexual orientation and healing powers to the personality of the spirit that lives inside her.
Historically, the expression of homosexuality varied throughout Africa.
"Being gay in South Africa is not the same as being gay in Cameroon," says Patrick Awondo, a Cameroonian scholar at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
For example, a pre-colonial tradition named the mevengu, carried out by the Beti people in Cameroon led women to gather and perform erotic behaviour together.
"This is why the ritual was stopped by French colonialists and Christian missionaries," says Awondo, who studied the custom for his doctoral dissertation. "One very important part of the ritual was the celebration of the clitoris. It was a kind of inversion of the male power, with women celebrating their sexuality."
Though customs like the mevengu are disappearing in Africa, remnants of such long-held homosexual patterns linger.
In northern Nigeria, the yan daudu - men who often appear dressed as women - are famed for their playfulness and sexual ambiguity.
"It's my belief that many of them are in fact gay or bisexual somehow, but they do not come out about it," says Rudolf Gaudio, who interacted with the yan daudu between the early 1990s and the early 2000s, while conducting research for his acclaimed book, Allah Made Us: Sexual Outlaws In An Islamic African City.
Further west, Ivory Coast's Abidjan and Senegal's Dakar were once known as gay hotspots, attracting large crowds to their nightclubs and parties, said Awondo. In Senegal, a minority group of men - known as gor digen, meaning "man-woman" in Wolof - sometimes dressed as women and worked as prostitutes.
"They were very famous and were used by politicians in public events," he says, noting the gor digen were around before and during the colonial era, and have only recently begun going into hiding.
Rock paintings by the Khoisan Bushmen, reportedly dating back at least 2,000 years, which illustrate same-sex sexual acts have also been noted.
Politics of gay identity
With such evidence of same-sex customs in Africa, scholars strongly refute the "un-African" argument of homosexuality, but often admit that the political identification of homosexuality is fairly new in Africa. Epprecht says gay people in Africa today are making their sexual orientation "a political statement", which may indeed be a more Western influence.
Historically, sexuality tended to be a private matter here. Now, African societies are grappling with the openness of sexuality in contemporary culture. These contemporary trends contribute to the rising criminalisation of same-sex relationships, paving the path for bills such as Nigeria's latest.
Activists say the new legislation threatens the human rights of many Nigerians, and could result in cases of blackmail, extortion, and Nigerians pretending to be gay in order to seek asylum in foreign countries on grounds of persecution.
"Nigerians are opportunists," Orazulike says. "They were filing for asylum before. How much now?"
Even Yinka's partner suggested that they file for asylum, but Yinka decided to stay to see how things play out - hoping that, maybe someday, Nigeria would tolerate people like her. She stands by her identity as an African, lesbian woman.
"I enjoy being with females," she says. "I enjoy being with my partner. I can't live without her."