MUSLIM HATE FOR DOCTORS
By AFP - Agence France Presse
October 20, 2022
Rebels
killed seven people and kidnapped a nurse during an attack overnight in
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, targeting two health centres,
local sources said Thursday.
"They
even killed sick people," Norbert Muhindo, a nurse at the referral
clinic in the town of Maboya, in the Beni territory of North Kivu
province, told AFP.
The
rebels belonged to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a movement
presented by the jihadist organisation Islamic State as its affiliate
in Central Africa, Muhindo said.
The raiders arrived in Maboya "around midnight", he declared, adding: "There were many of them. They said 'We want war'."
The
attackers first set fire to the health centre, where they killed three
people, before heading into the centre of the town, where three more
killings were reported.
Muhindo
said they moved on to "the Tinge hospital owned by the Protestant
community", about 1.5 kilometres (almost a mile) from the Maboya health
centre.
At Tinge, "they killed a sentry and took a nurse with them," he said.
Roger
Wangeve, president of the civil society of the Bashu chiefdom (an
administrative body), confirmed the incursion, blaming "ADF rebels" who
"burned the Tinge hospital and the Maboya referral health centre".
According to Wangeve, the rebel force later "burned and looted villages".
The provisional toll of seven dead was confirmed by a police source who asked not to be named.
After
a few weeks of calm, attacks have apparently resumed in the Beni
territory, where the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been engaged in
joint operations against the ADF for almost a year.
The
ADF, which originated in western Uganda, is accused of massacres of
civilians in the east of the DRC and jihadist attacks at the end of
2021 in Uganda.
Eastern
DRC has been destabilised for nearly three decades by the presence of
more than a hundred local and foreign armed groups, including the ADF.
The
DRC's provinces of North Kivu and Ituri have been under a state of
siege since May 2021, but the exceptional measure has so far failed to
stop the violence.
The
joint DRC-Ugandan operation said that the ADF was being "pursued in
depth, is... rootless and very often attacks urban centres."
It called on the public to be vigilant and tip off the authorities about any suspicious movement.
The
statement added that six ADF rebels had been killed in Beni's Rwenzori
sector had been killed and nine others, including a woman,
"neutralised" farther north in Ituri.
Items
that were captured during these operations, whose dates were not given,
included an AK-47 assault rifle, eight ammunition clips and four
"rockets", as well as two mobile phones and five solar panels.
Armed
Fulani Kill Doctor, 17 other Christians in Nigeria
Predominantly
Muslim herdsmen attack in Niger, Plateau states.
June 24,
2021
JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Armed Fulani shot a Christian doctor to
death on June 17 in Niger state, Nigeria following attacks that killed 17
Christians in Plateau state.
Precious Emeka
Chinedu was killed after five Fulani herdsmen walked into the private hospital he operated in Salka
village, Magama County, and abducted him the evening
of June 17, area residents told Morning Star News. Chinedu was later shot to
death, said area resident Emmanuel Ezeugo.
“His dead body
was found by the local vigilantes the following morning in the bush where he
was shot and killed by the herdsmen,” Ezeugo told
Morning Star News.
A long-time
friend, Baridueh Badon,
confirmed the killing.
“His killers,
who are herdsmen, came to the hospital, specifically asked for him, didn’t harm
anybody, collected his money, took him away, and killed him without asking for
ransom,” Badon told Morning Star News. “What did he
do wrong? Your blood will keep crying until justice is done.”
Chinedu had
moved to Niger state after finishing medical studies at the University of
Ibadan, Oyo state, to start the hospital, he said.
“Everyone
loved him, always smiling, and he was one of the most hard-working persons I
have ever known,” Badon said. “His hospital boomed
because he was saving lives. If you had any problems, Emeka would be there to
help.”
About 1,000 Christians
have been displaced in Niger state following herdsmen attacks on their villages
and are in urgent need of shelter, food and health care, according to
humanitarian agency Global Christian Missions.
“The entire Sakaba and Wasagu local
government areas of Niger state have been completely sacked by Fulani herdsmen
terrorists,” Moses Godspecial, vision coordinator for
the agency, told Morning Star News. “These Christians ran to various villages
in Kamaia Local Government Area in Kwara state, also in north-central Nigeria.”
In Plateau
state, also in north-central Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen killed 17 Christians in
various attacks this month.
At least 14
Christians were killed in an attack on June 13 on Sabon Layi
(Kushe) village, Kuru District, of Jos South County,
sources said.
Area resident
George Dung said armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the village at about 9 p.m.
“So far, 14
corpses of Christians killed have been recovered as of 1 a.m. [June14],” Dung
told Morning Star News in a text message.
Seven other
Christians were wounded and were receiving treatment at Jos University Teaching
Hospital (JUTH) and Enos Hospital, Miango, local
sources said.
Area residents
Mathias Dilyep and Isaac Solomon confirmed the attack
to Morning Star News. Area Sen. Istifanus Gyang, a member of Nigeria’s parliament, the National
Assembly, issued a statement in which he demanded the government immediate stop
such attacks.
“We need more
reinforcement of security operatives in our various communities to curtail this
heinous act,” Gyang said. “Government has a burden,
which is constitutional, that is to protect lives and property, so the
government has to take responsibility for its citizens.”
Police
spokesman Gabriel Ogaba said the Plateau State Police
Command had received a report of 10 persons shot dead in Sabon Layi.
“Personnel of
the command and the military have been deployed to the affected area,” he said,
adding that investigations were underway.
On June 12 in Miango District, Fulani herdsmen attacked Zogu village in Bassa County,
killing two Christians.
Ezekiel Bini,
president of the Irigwe Development Association,
issued a statement on June 14, saying herdsmen also wounded two Christians in
the attack. They were receiving treatment at Jos University Teaching Hospital
and at Enos Hospital in Miango town, he said.
“It’s
unfortunate that we have continued to bury our people on every attack by Muslim
Fulani gunmen without anything being done to stop the killings by the
authorities,” Bini said.
Also on June
12, a Christian farmer identified only as Bulus was
shot dead by a group of herdsmen as he worked his fields at about 9 a.m. in the
predominantly Christian community of Dong, Jos North County, an area resident
said.
“Christians in
Dong village are becoming endangered,” area resident Beatrice Audu told Morning Star News. “Bulus
was striving to provide decent living for his family. For how long should we
continue to live like this?”
Nigeria was
the country with the most Christians killed for their faith last year (November
2019-October 2020), at 3,530, up from 1,350 in 2019, according to Open Doors’
2021 World Watch List report. In overall violence, Nigeria was second only to
Pakistan, and it trailed only China in the number of churches attacked or
closed, 270, according to the list.
Nigeria led
the world in number of kidnapped Christians last year with 990. In this year’s
World Watch List list of the countries where it is
most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria broke into the top 10 for the first
time, jumping to No. 9 from No. 12 the previous year.
Numbering in
the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise
hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views,
but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s
All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted
in a recent report.
“They adopt a
comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa
Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent
symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian
leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian
communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully
take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it
difficult for them to sustain their herds.
The APPG
report noted that tribal loyalties cannot be overlooked.
“In 2015,
Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, was elected president of Nigeria,” the group
reported. “He has done virtually nothing to address the behavior of his fellow
tribesmen in the Middle Belt and in the south of the country.”
The U.S. State
Department on Dec. 7 added Nigeria to its list of Countries of Particular
Concern for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious
violations of religious freedom.” Nigeria joined Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran,
North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the list.
In a more
recent category of non-state actors, the State Department also designated
ISWAP, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis,
ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban as “Entities of Particular
Concern.”
On Dec. 10 the
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, issued a statement calling for
investigation into crimes against humanity in Nigeria.
Female Suicide
Bomber Strikes Hospital in Pakistan, 9 Killed
The blast took
place in front of the emergency gate of District headquarter hospital Dera Ismail Khan district of the province, Deputy
Superintendent of Police Iftikhar Shah said.
Updated:July 21, 2019
Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan): A female
suicide bomber struck outside a hospital in Pakistan on Sunday as the wounded
were being brought in from an earlier shooting against police, in a complex
assault claimed by the Pakistani Taliban that killed a total of nine people and
wounded another 30.
Salim Riaz
Khan, a senior police officer in Dera Ismail Khan,
said gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on police in a residential area, killing
two. He says the bomber then struck at the entrance to the hospital, killing
another four police and three civilians who were visiting their relatives. He
said eight police were among the wounded, and that many of the wounded were in
critical condition.
Inayat Ullah,
a local forensics expert, said the female attacker set off 7 kilograms (15
pounds) of explosives packed with nails and ball-bearings.
The blast
damaged the emergency room and forced it to shut down, according to a hospital
official, who said the wounded were taken to a military hospital. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
The Pakistani
Taliban claimed the attack but did not acknowledge that the bomber was a woman.
The group has launched scores of attacks going back nearly two decades, but
almost all of them were carried out by men.
Pakistan's
military has carried out several major operations in recent years against the
Pakistani Taliban and other militants in areas along the porous border with
Afghanistan. The violence has declined, but the militants still make their
presence known through occasional attacks, mainly targeting security forces and
religious minorities.
Five dead in suicide blast at Nigeria leprosy
hospital
June 28, 2015
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - At least five people
have been killed and 10 wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside
a leprosy hospital on the outskirts of the northeast Nigerian city of
Maiduguri, emergency services said Sunday.
The bomber, who tried to gain access to the
hospital, detonated his explosives outside the building at around 5:30 pm (1630
GMT) on Saturday.
"Five people were killed and 10 others
injured near the Molai leprosy hospital when a male
bomber blew himself up," said Mohammed Kanar,
regional coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency.
"The bomber had wanted to gain entry into
the hospital but was contemplating how to pass through
security checks at the gate when the bomb went off."
He added: "We took the bodies and the
injured to the specialist hospital (in Maiduguri)."
Local resident Ibrahim Bulama
said the bomber was one of three men who were dropped off near the hospital by
a SUV vehicle.
"They looked around for a while, obviously
trying to sneak into the hospital," Bulama said,
adding that the facility was being guarded by civilian vigilantes who are
assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram Islamist insurgents.
"Suddenly, the explosives on one of them
went off. The other two fled in the confusion. Five people were killed and 10
others injured."
- 'The Boko Haram bandits' -
There was no immediate claim of responsibility
for the bombing, but Nigeria's Borno state, where the
attack took place, has been the hardest hit by the Boko Haram insurgency which
has left at least 15,000 people dead.
Boko Haram, which has been fighting to
establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria since 2009, has
intensified its campaign of violence in the last month.
Danlami Ajaokuta,
a civilian vigilante fighting Boko Haram, confirmed the hospital explosion and
added that there had been a failed suicide attack by two women in Jakarna village, about 40 kilometres
(25 miles) from Maiduguri on Saturday afternoon.
"Two female suicide bombers died when the
explosives on one of them went off prematurely while they were waiting for a
bus along the highway in Jakarna," Ajaokuta said.
"Residents from the village heard a huge
explosion and when they arrived at the scene they
found one of the bombers in parts while the other lay dead face down.
"Her explosives were still intact."
Ajaokuta added that bus drivers
have been refusing to pick up female passengers on the road outside Maiduguri
since March, when three female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a bus stop
in the area.
More than 250 people have been killed in
violence since May 29 when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office, according
to an AFP toll.
Buhari has made the fight against Boko Haram a
top priority.
On Sunday he condemned the latest attacks by
"the Boko Haram bandits".
Describing the perpetrators as "cowards
who lack any moral inhibition and any iota of humanity," he warned that hey would find no safe haven in Nigeria as they would be
"hunted down without mercy and compromise."
The armies of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon
have been fighting a joint campaign against Boko Haram for several months,
pushing militants out of captured towns and villages.
Afghan security guard shoots dead 3 American
doctors at hospital
Published April 24, 2014
FoxNews.com
The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan confirmed Thursday that three American doctors
-- including a father and son -- were killed by an Afghan security guard who
opened fire at a Kabul hospital.
"With great sadness we confirm that three
Americans were killed in the attack at CURE Hospital," said a statement
posted on the Embassy's Twitter page. "No other information will be
released at this time."
The shooting was the latest in a string of
deadly attacks on foreign civilians in the Afghan capital this year.
Two of the dead Americans were a father and
son, Minister of Health Soraya Dalil said, adding
that the third American was a Cure International doctor who had worked for
seven years in Kabul.
One of the doctors has been identified as Dr. Jerry Umanos,
who practiced pediatric medicine at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago,
officials from the center said.
Dalil said an American nurse
also was wounded in the attack.
"A child specialist doctor who was working
in this hospital for the last seven years for the people of Afghanistan was
killed, and also two others who were here to meet him, and they were also
American nationals, were killed," Dalil said.
"The two visitors were father and son, and a woman who was also in the
visiting group was wounded."
The alleged attacker was a member of the Afghan
Public Protection Force assigned to guard the hospital, according to District
Police Chief Hafiz Khan. He said the man's motive was not yet clear.
"The shooter, who was not an employee of
CURE, has been identified as a member of the security detail assigned to the
hospital, shot himself after the attack," CURE Hospital said in a
statement. "He was initially treated at the CURE Hospital and has
now been transferred out of our facility into the custody of the government of
Afghanistan."
"Five doctors had entered the compound of
the hospital and were walking toward the building when the guard opened fire on
them," Torkystani said. "Three foreign
doctors were killed."
According to its website, the Cure
International Hospital was founded in 2005 by invitation of the Afghan Ministry
of Health. It sees 37,000 patients a year, specializing in child and maternity
health as well as general surgery. It is affiliated with the Christian charity
Cure International, which operates in 29 countries with the motto "curing
the sick and proclaiming the kingdom of God."
The attacker had emerged from surgery in the
afternoon and was in recovery at Cure International before being questioned, Dalil added.
The Afghan capital has seen a spate of attacks
on foreign civilians in 2014, a worrying new trend as the U.S.-led military
coalition prepares to withdraw most troops by the end of the year.
It was unclear whether the Taliban were behind
Thursday's shooting, though the insurgents have claimed several major attacks
that killed foreign civilians this year, an escalation after years of mostly
targeting foreign military personnel and Afghan security forces.
In January, a Taliban attack on a popular Kabul
restaurant with suicide bombers and gunmen killed more than a dozen people,
while in March gunmen slipped past security at an upscale hotel in the Afghan
capital and killed several diners in its restaurant. Two foreign journalists
were killed and another wounded in two separate attacks.
The hospital shooting is also the second
"insider attack" by a member of Afghan security forces targeting
foreign civilians this month.
On April 4, an Afghan police officer shot two
Associated Press staff working in the eastern province of Khost,
killing photographer Anja Niedringhaus and wounding
veteran correspondent Kathy Gannon.
Attackers Kill 3 North Korean Doctors in
Nigeria
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 10, 2013
POTISKUM, Nigeria (AP) — Assailants in northeastern Nigeria killed three North
Korean doctors, beheading one of the physicians, in the latest attack on health
workers in a nation under assault by a radical Islamic sect, officials said
Sunday.
The deaths Saturday night of the doctors in Potiskum,
a town in Yobe state long under attack by the sect known as Boko Haram, comes
after gunmen killed at least nine women administering polio vaccines in Kano,
the major city of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.
The two attacks raise new questions over
whether the extremist sect, targeted by Nigeria's police and military, has
picked a new soft target in its guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings
across the nation.
The attackers apparently struck at the North
Korean doctors inside their home, said Dr. Mohammed Mamman,
chairman of the Hospital Managing Board of Yobe State. The North Korean doctors
had no security guards at their residence and typically traveled around the
city via three-wheel taxis without a police escort, officials said.
By the time soldiers arrived at the house, they
found the doctors' wives cowering in a flower bed outside their home. At the
property, they found the corpses of the men, all bearing what appeared to be
machete wounds.
An Associated Press journalist later saw the
North Korean doctors' corpses before they were moved to nearby Bauchi state for
safe keeping. Two of the men had their throats slit. Attackers beheaded the
other doctor.
The doctors lived in a quiet neighborhood
filled with other modest homes in the town. There wasn't room to house them at
the hospital, where they would have had some security protection, Mamman said.
Initially, doctors at the hospital who worked
with the physicians identified them as being from South Korea, while police
identified the dead as being from China. Ultimately, Mamman
of the health board told journalists those killed were from North Korea and had
lived in the state since 2005 as part of a technical exchange program between
the state and the North Korean government.
There are more than a dozen other North Korean
doctors posted to the state under the program, as well as engineers, Mamman said. He said all will receive immediate protection
from security forces.
"It is very unfortunate," Mamman said of the killings.
Yobe state police commissioner Sanusi Rufai
confirmed the attack took place and said officers had begun an investigation.
Rufai said officers had made 10 arrests after the killings, though police in
Nigeria routinely round up those living around the site of a crime, whether or
not there is any evidence suggesting their complicity.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack,
though suspicion fell on the Boko Haram sect.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western
education is sacrilege," has been attacking government buildings and security
forces over the last year and a half. In 2012 alone, the group was blamed for
killing at least 792 people, according to an AP count.
The sect, which typically speaks to journalists
in telephone conference calls at times of its choosing, could not be reached
for comment Sunday. In recent months, however, Boko Haram has not claimed any
attacks, raising questions about whether the shadowy sect that already had a
loose command-and-control structure had splintered into smaller, independently
operating terror groups.
Since late 2011, Potiskum,
about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of Nigeria's central capital, Abuja,
has been targeted by Boko Haram fighters in attacks. The attacks killed dozens
at a time and brought the deployment of a heavy contingent of police officers
and soldiers to the town.
For the last few weeks, however, Potiskum has been quiet. Soldiers still mount a series of
checkpoints throughout the town, where in the past the military has put
neighborhoods in lockdown and launched door-to-door searches for militants.
Oil-rich Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, maintains diplomatic
relations with North Korea, which faces international criticism over its
nuclear weapon program. In October, a delegation of Nigerian officials led by
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Viola Onwuliri
visited North Korea.
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency did not immediately report the
three doctors' deaths Sunday. In Pyongyang earlier Sunday, North Koreans marked
the Lunar New Year with pilgrimages to the giant statues of their late leaders.
Foreigners have been targets for such attacks
in the region in the past. Several Chinese construction workers have been shot
dead in recent months around the northeastern city of Maiduguri. That prompted
the Chinese government to contact Nigerian officials and ask them to provide
better protection for their citizens.
The killings of the doctors come after the
attack Friday on polio vaccinators in Kano, northern Nigeria's most populous
city. No group has yet claimed responsibility for that attack either, though it
follows alleged Boko Haram attacks now focusing on softer targets, like lightly
guarded mobile phone towers.
Those mobile phone tower attacks have limited
the ability of residents and security forces to call for help during attacks,
as well as have cut the government's ability to use the signals to track
suspected militants.
In a statement Friday, President Goodluck
Jonathan condemned the killings of the polio workers and promised that efforts
to cut child mortality wouldn't be stopped by "mindless acts of
terrorism."
"While the government will continue to do
everything possible to track down and apprehend agents of terrorism in the
country, the president has directed that enhanced security measures be put in
place immediately for health workers in high-risk areas," the statement
read.
Despite that promise, however, attackers were
able to kill the North Korean doctors and apparently slip away. Reuben Abati, a presidential spokesman, did not respond to a
request for comment Sunday.
French Muslim jailed for attacking gynecologist
Reuters
Friday, 26 January 2007
PARIS: A French Muslim who attacked a male
gynecologist for examining his wife just after she had given birth, saying it
was against Islam, has been jailed for six months by a Paris court.
Fouad ben Moussa burst into the delivery room
at a Paris hospital last November and shoved, slapped and insulted Dr
Jean-Francois Oury as he examined the woman after a
complicated birth, the prosecution said in court on Wednesday.
Police had to intervene to remove him.
Ben Moussa, a 23-year-old lorry driver,
apologized for the attack and said he had requested a female doctor. French
state hospitals comply with such requests when staffing permits but say
patients must accept treatment from the doctors on duty.
"This is a public and secular place,"
prosecution lawyer Georges Holleaux said of the state
hospital where the attack occurred. "This is not the place where one can
invoke religion to get different treatment."
French media have reported cases in recent
years of Muslim men barring male doctors from treating their wives, sometimes
resorting to violence, but legal cases against them are rare.
France's five million Muslims make up eight per
cent of the French population, Europe's largest Islamic minority.