UN ‘fails’ to promote justice in Sudan: ICC

Africa

UNITED NATIONS, June 21, (Agencies): The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court accused the UN Security Council on Wednesday of failing to take action against countries that didn’t arrest Sudan’s president to face charges of genocide in his country’s Darfur region.

Fatou Bensouda told the council that more than 13 years after it referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC, the victims have yet to see President Omar al-Bashir or the four other men alleged to be most responsible arrested or face justice.

She urged the council “to take concrete action” against countries that refused to arrest al-Bashir, and she outlined ICC cases currently taking place against Uganda, Chad and Jordan.

84 soldiers, police killed:

Cameroon’s prime minister says 84 soldiers and police have been killed during months of fighting with separatists who seek an English-language state.

Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Wednesday announced a new $220 million emergency humanitarian assistance plan for hundreds of thousands of civilians that the government says live in precarious conditions because of separatist attacks.

Yang says civilians, mostly in rural areas, have paid the highest price of the “ugly war imposed by the terrorists.” He appeals for national solidarity.

English speakers have called for reforms and greater autonomy, alleging their marginalization by French speakers. The English-speaking community accounts for about one-fifth of Cameroon’s 25 million people.

Bombers target military:

Fifteen people were injured when two female suicide bombers targetted the edge of a military barracks in northeast Nigeria, police said on Thursday. Soldiers shot dead one woman as she tried to get into the informal market at the base of 333 Artillery Nigerian Army in Maiduguri on Wednesday evening.

Borno state police spokesman Edet Okon said the woman’s explosives detonated when she was shot. A second bomber blew herself up in a nearby motorised rickshaw, he added. “As a result of the explosions, the two bombers died instantly while 15 persons were injured and were rushed to the hospital for treatment,” he said in a statement.