NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Soldiers killed: Boko Haram extremists killed at least 50 Nigerian soldiers in an ambush near Goneri village in northern Yobe state, according to military officials. The attack, one of the deadliest against troops recently, came as the military tried to launch an offensive against the militants that began over the weekend, according to a military official with knowledge of the operation. The troops were able to fight back and escape from the ambush on Saturday, he said. They were at a place called the Gorge and when they advanced they were attacked from the rear. Boko Haram militants inflicted heavy casualties by firing on the vehicles with rocketpropelled grenades and guns. Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands in its 10year insurgency in northern Nigeria.
2 Activist slain: Unidentified gunmen shot to death a lawyer and activist who defended a rural tract against development near the Mexican city of Cuernavaca, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday. The governmental commission issued a statement condemning the killing of Isaac Medardo Herrera on Monday night. Herrera had led a fight over at least four years to stop plans to build a housing development on the Los Venados tract, an environmentally sensitive woodland area in Jiutepec, just south of Cuernavaca. The development was halted, and the area was supposed to be used as a nature reserve.
3 Terrorism convictions: A court in southern Poland has convicted three Polish men of terrorism charges related to the torching of a Hungarian center in Ukraine in early 2018. The court in Krakow sentenced two of the men to prison terms and one to supervised release and community service. Ukrainian officials have suggested Russian links to the two attacks in February 2018. Ukraine’s thenforeign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, said at the time that the attacks on the Hungarian center in Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia region, where over 100,000 ethnic Hungarians reside, were attempts to destabilize the country.
4 Migrants suffocate: More than 60 undocumented migrants believed to be Ethiopians have been found dead in a cargo truck in Mozambique’s northwestern Tete province. The truck entered Mozambique from Malawi and was stopped early Tuesday at a checkpoint in Moatize, near the Zambezi River. When authorities heard bashing noises coming from inside the container, they ordered the driver to open it and they found 14 survivors inside as well as the bodies. The deceased died from a lack of oxygen, according to officials. The Mozambican driver later admitted he had been hired to smuggle the migrants from Malawi to Mozambique. The survivors will be screened for the coronavirus and quarantined, health officials said. Mozambique is a transit route for African migrants trying to reach South Africa.
5 Musician dies: Manu Dibango, who fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music, died Tuesday with the coronavirus, according to his music publisher. He was 86. The Cameroonborn saxophonist, who gained international fame with his 1972 song “Soul Makossa,” died in a hospital in the Paris region, Thierry Durepaire said. Dibango was hospitalized with an illness “linked to COVID19,” his official Facebook page said last week. “Soul Makossa” was one of the earliest hits in the nascent world music scene, including a catchy hook copied by some of the world’s biggest pop stars. In 2009, Dibango filed a lawsuit against Michael Jackson and Rihanna, claiming they had stolen his music in “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” and “Don’t Stop the Music,” respectively. Jackson settled out of court.