WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia stages major airstrike on Ukraine; one missile enters Polish airspace

Russia struck critical infrastructure in Ukraine's western region of Lviv with missiles early on Sunday, Kyiv said, in a major airstrike that saw one Russian cruise missile briefly fly into Polish airspace according to Warsaw.

Moscow launched 57 missiles and drones in the attack that also targeted the capital Kyiv, two days after the largest aerial bombardment of Ukraine's energy system in more than two years of full-scale war, Kyiv said.

"There were two preliminary hits on the same critical infrastructure facility that the occupiers targeted at night," Lviv's regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The strike used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which are harder to shoot down, he added, without identifying the facility.

The energy ministry said equipment caught fire when a critical energy facility in the Lviv region was attacked, causing it to lose power. It was unclear if they were talking about the same facility.

Air defences destroyed 18 of 29 inbound missiles and 25 of 28 attack drones, the air force said.

There were almost no details about what had been damaged, but the targeting of critical infrastructure could indicate Russia is trying to keep up pressure on the energy system after its strikes caused widespread blackouts on Friday.

The energy ministry said Ukraine, which has been exporting power in recent weeks, had sharply increased imports of electricity and stopped exports on Sunday after attacks on the energy infrastructure.

Several explosions rang out in Kyiv in the early hours as air defences destroyed about a dozen missiles over the capital and its vicinity, said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration.

There was only minor damage from the attack, he said.

Small groups of people huddled for safety underground in a central Kyiv metro station in the early hours, some of them sleeping on camping mats.

Moscow has been pounding Ukraine for days in attacks portrayed by Moscow as revenge for Ukrainian attacks that were conducted during Russia's presidential election.

The wreckage of a downed Kh-55 cruise missile was found in a Kyiv park, officials said.

"For the third pre-dawn morning this week, all of Ukraine is under an air alert and has been advised to seek shelter," U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink posted on X.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

POLISH AIRSPACE

Poland's armed forces said a Russian cruise missile launched at the region of Lviv had violated Poland's airspace.

"The object entered Polish space near the town of Oserdow (Lublin Voivodeship) and stayed there for 39 seconds," it said on the social media platform X. "During the entire flight, it was observed by military radar systems."

Poland's army spokesperson, Jacek Goryszewski, told reporters that the missile travelled about 2 km (1.2 miles) into Polish airspace before returning to Ukraine.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Warsaw said it would demand an explanation from Moscow.

Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Warsaw would continue to support Ukraine both militarily and on the humanitarian side.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian forces lost up to 360 troops in Avdeyevka area over past day

Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 360 military personnel, two tanks, and five armored combat vehicles in the Avdeyevka direction per day, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

"The enemy lost up to 360 military personnel, two tanks, five armored combat vehicles and nine cars. During the counter-battery battle, the following were hit: a US-made M777 howitzer, an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer, two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems and a D-30 howitzer," the ministry said.

Donetsk area

The Ukrainian military lost up to 300 troops, a US-manufactured M113 armored personnel carrier and an M119 howitzer in the Donetsk area over the past day, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

"In the Donetsk direction, after active fighting the Battlegroup South units took more advantageous positions, defeated the enemy in the areas of the settlements of Kleshcheyevka, Krasnoye and Kurdyumovka of the Donetsk People's Republic, and also repelled a counterattack by formations of the 80th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces in the area of the settlement "Krasnogorovka, Donetsk People's Republic. The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 300 military personnel, a US-made M113 armored personnel carrier, 3 vehicles, a US-made M119 howitzer, a D-30 towed gun and a field ammunition depot," the statement said.

Kharkov region

The Russian military destroyed up to 40 servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as Vampire and Mars multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) in Kharkov region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"In the Belgorod direction, Russian units continue to carry out measures to identify and destroy sabotage and reconnaissance groups of the Ukrainian armed forces in the border regions of Ukraine. As a result of fire damage to manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian armed forces in the areas of the settlements of Potikhonovo and Zemlyanka of the Kharkov region, up to 40 military personnel as well as Czech-made RM-70 Vampire multiple rocket launcher and Germany-made Mars Mars multiple launch rocket system were destroyed," the ministry said.

South Donetsk direction

The Battlegroup East forces have improved the tactical position in the South Donetsk direction, the Ukrainian army lost up to 140 military personnel over the last 24 hours, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

"In the South Donetsk direction, forces of the Battlegroup East improved the tactical situation and inflicted fire defeat on the formations of the 31st brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine in the area of the village of Urozhaynoye, Donetsk People’s Republic. According to the ministry, enemy losses amounted to up to 140 military personnel, two armored combat vehicles, five cars, a Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzer and a Rapra anti-tank gun," the report says.

Kupyansk direction

The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Kupyansk direction reached 140 servicemen and the M777 artillery system over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"In the Kupyansk direction, units of the Battlegroup West defeated the manpower and equipment of the 14th, 32nd mechanized and 57th motorized infantry brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the areas of the settlements of Sinkovka, the Kharkov region and Terny, Donetsk People's Republic, and also repelled three enemy counterattacks. The losses of Ukrainian armed forces consisted of up to 140 military personnel, a tank, two pickup trucks, a US-made M777 artillery system, an Msta-B howitzer and two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems," the ministry said.

Reuters/Tass

Western deception has been with Africa forever.

1493: Pope Alexander VI issued a papal bull, Inter Caetera, proclaiming the right of Spain and Portugal to enslave Africans and own the land. They were subjects. They stole your people and your land.

1885: Africa was a Dark Continent. It required colonisation to become civilised. Europe would bring change and civilise Africans. They stole your raw materials and truncated your self-development.

1940: When over a million Africans fought in Europe, North Africa and the Far East during the Second World War, the West convinced them they were dying for freedom and democracy. But where in Africa do they receive freedom and democracy? Indeed, Apartheid was inaugurated in 1948 in South Africa.

When will this deception come to an end? So, Gabon and Niger were democracies before the 2023 coups? You must be using the wrong dictionary to define democracy. Cameroon under the invalid Paul Biya is a democracy? You must be confusing the Mali Empire with the modern country of Cameroon. And the presidents who rule for as long as they want practising democracy?

You need a little education.

Recent developments in Africa’s political space, particularly the growing number of military takeovers, have informed fresh queries around the expressions of neo-colonialism in Africa and the commitment to liberal democracy as the ideal political model for the region. The point of reference for these queries is the ceremonial reactions from the acclaimed “champions of democracy” in the West, who waste no time issuing condemnations at every instance of “democratic failure” on the continent without any actual commitment to ensuring that power indeed lies with the people. Not only have these champions of African interests – the United States, Britain and France – touted democracy as the best system of political organisation to achieve political stability and economic prosperity in Africa, but they have also prosecuted wars, allegedly in its defence, that have cost millions of lives and destabilised entire regions. However, it is not enough to accuse our benevolent friends in the West of hypocrisy without providing compelling proof of double-dealing in delivering their duties as democratic crusaders. After all, in a democratic setting, all are innocent until proven guilty. 

As a philosophy of government, democracy has existed since the Greco-Roman times. However, its foray into Africa can be traced to the eve of independence when Britain and France introduced forms of local representation as concessions to indigenous demands for independence. Thus, from 1959, parliamentary elections and other democratic institutions started to become commonplace on the continent. But, as it would turn out, this democratic experiment, which formed part of the third (global) wave of democracy, was to be short-lived – derailed as it was by fluctuating Western interests on the continent. 

Guiding Western interest in Africa from the 1950s was the ideological war between the West (mainly the US) and the Soviet Union. The “Cold War”, as it came to be known, was the first incident to unmask the real intentions of the West for post-colonial Africa. In their quest to emerge as the world’s sole superpower, the US and the Soviet Union, who actively strove to undermine each other’s influence by, among other things, advancing their political ideologies around the world, turned to Africa as another important frontier of conquest. While the Soviet Union armed African revolutionary movements against their Western colonial overlords and provided support to openly communist governments, Washington concluded that, to effectively check the spread of Soviet influence on the continent, it was more expedient to enthrone biddable leaders in African states than it was to woo them with any ideological arguments or economic incentives.

Anxious to ensure power was handed over to reliable politicians, Britain and France became eager participants in the US policy in Africa. Together, the US and its allies targeted venal local strongmen, preferably with military backgrounds and authoritarian tendencies, who, in collaboration with its intelligence agencies, ousted legitimate/democratic governments. Notable victims and beneficiaries of this plot included (in the former category) Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of Congo DRC, Sylvio Olympio of Togo and (in the latter category) Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo DRC and Gnassingbé Eyadema of Togo, to mention a few. Consequently, thirty-three African countries that achieved independence between 1956 and 1970 became authoritarian immediately or not long thereafter. 

Another demonstration of the complete disregard that the West has for democracy, peace/stability and human rights in Africa is its willingness to engulf the entire region in conflict so that it can achieve its “strategic interests”. Once again, we begin from the Cold War era where, having recently come out of a highly destructive war in Europe (in 1945) and being cautious of engaging in another, the West and the Eastern Bloc turned Africa into the site of their proxy wars. In southern Africa, where the US considered both Angola and Mozambique as areas of “strategic interest”, Washington armed the 200,000 Portuguese conscripts, who went on to fight a protracted war against local nationalist revolutionaries, with imported weapons, which included defoliants and napalm. In Angola, the US, in cooperation with Apartheid South Africa, backed the National Union for Total Independence (UNITA) against the country’s (Soviet-backed) leading national liberation front, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). There were also similar cases in northern Africa where Sudan was funded and armed by the US against Egypt and Ethiopia, who had also pitched their tents with Moscow. These conflicts and the resultant proliferation of arms saw the loss of millions of African lives from war and famine and a general destabilisation of the region. 

While the West cannot be said to have been directly involved in all the occasions of transition from democratic to authoritarian rule, in more than a few instances, the leaders of newly independent democratic/multi-party African states seized the opportunity of Western patronage to quickly switch to one-party/despotic rule. In other cases, it was the corruption, resource mismanagement, “tribalism”, patrimonialism, clientelism and imperialism perpetrated by a Western-backed ruling political class which formed the basis of military takeovers (coups). Nevertheless, in this atmosphere of quasi-democratic rule, full-fledged despotism, military rule and Apartheid – where national resources were siphoned by kleptocratic regimes and millions of Africans either became refugees or died as a result of civil wars, hunger, and human rights abuses – our Western “friends” were content to look the other way if the government in place proved itself an ally of Washington.      

Perhaps the most glaring example of the West’s democratic hypocrisy in Africa was its age-long support for the highly racist and politically repressive Apartheid regime in South Africa. Like the French, who were able to cajole Washington into believing that they were fighting communist-backed insurgents in Algeria, the South African Apartheid regime, for forty years, posed as the last bastion against communists in Africa – an attitude that was able to secure a steady flow of Western arms. This, alongside the West’s tacit approval, allowed for one of Africa’s most despicable shows of human debasement, carried out in the name of imperialism and racial superiority. After all, as President Ronald Regan remarked in 1981, South Africa was “essential to the free world in its production of minerals we all must have”.  

The end of the Cold War changed Western attitudes towards Africa. Without the Soviet threat, the West leaned more towards development diplomacy and foreign aid regimes as the main thrust of its foreign policy in Africa. Foreign aid to Africa, however, turned out to be a Trojan horse. Already saddled with the task of building vibrant economies while also harmonising the aspirations of the different ethnic nationalities which characterised them, African countries, especially in Francophone Africa, also had to grapple with the undermining economic and political agreements they had been coerced into signing with their erstwhile colonial overlord as a condition for independence and continued patronage. To make matters worse, some African countries were, at the end of the Cold War, either fighting or had just come out of civil war. This, combined with the widespread corruption and mismanagement of national resources which characterised Africa’s tyrannical governments, put many African countries at the mercy of international monetary agencies (the International Monetary Fund – IMF – and World Bank) and their financiers whose aid they were now heavily dependent on. 

At first, these Bretton Woods institutions were content to grant loans/aid, at debilitating interest rates no less, to authoritarian leaders who used them to perpetuate themselves in power and, in return, provided the former with mineral and other economic concessions. However, without the Cold War pressures, more emphasis was placed on the liberalisation and capitalist/free-market aspects of US foreign policy to guarantee return on investments. Soon enough, Structural Adjustments Programmes (SAPs) were introduced as a precondition for further loans/aid. Said adjustments, which demanded limited government intervention in the public sector, i.e. removing government subsidies in energy (fuel/gas), education and health care, brought untold hardships to already suffering populations. And as research has shown, poverty and non-tax revenue make for the ideal democratic environment. In other words, “When the government is not beholden to citizens for its funding, there is less accountability and less reason to democratise” (Tilly 1990). Instead, leaders simply use the “free” funding from natural resources (oil) and foreign loans/aid to buy enough support to remain in power. 

Judging from the various expressions of Western interests in Africa over decades, it goes without saying that the West simply pays lip service to ideologies when convenient. Although many Africans might not object to the cynical pragmatism that has always guided Western foreign policy in Africa, I dare say they will not stand for the continued lies and hypocrisy that have characterised Western reactions to African developments. Even if the above-described instances of Western hypocrisy in Africa were to be argued to be in the past, it is a living past for Africa.  

Africa, today, still has authoritarian governments in place whose political repression and human rights abuses go on unchecked by our democracy and rule of law-loving friends in the West. After being siphoned by kleptocratic governments, our commonwealth still finds its way to Western banks, where it sits and improves the local economy. Western interests continue to impoverish Africans and destabilise their regions. So, Africans are today saying to the West, its diplomats, presidents, and the other agents of its propaganda: “Your gambit in Africa is up. Our people are awakened!”   

The West has sold you a fake product called democracy. Africans, your vote is not a sign of democracy. It is no more than a deception. There is no democracy without accountability. You are just voting thieves to power. There is no democracy without transparency. You are just using your votes in support of crooks and thugs. There is no democracy without good governance. Your vote is facilitating theft. Maybe you are waiting for your turn to steal. There is no democracy without development. Your vote is moving you back to the Stone Age. Even early humans knew when to replace stones with iron during the Stone Age. Africa, you don’t have a democracy. Anyone you have not appointed cannot disappoint you! Citizens are being deceived, and they are deceiving themselves. Organise yourselves at various levels and think of alternatives to democracy or, at the minimum, how accountability and transparency will form the core of your democratic practices. Your lifetime president is not a Democrat. He is an authoritarian kleptocrat far worse than the combination of Doris Payne, Stephane Breitwieser, Simon Leviev, Veerappan, Derek Smalls, Vincenzo Peruggia, Bonnie and Clyde, Natwarlal, Carl Gugasian, Frank Abagnale, Anna Sorokin, Albert Spaggiari, Jesse James, Anthony Strangis, and Bill Mason. Do you know these names?

Traditionally, when founders start a business, the first thing they seek is financing, even before mastering the numbers. They mistakenly believe that generating the first sales indicates the liquidity and health of the business.

I have known companies that generate up to $5 billion in sales but, behind the scenes, lose half or more of that in operational expenses. Sales are important but not the true indicator of the cash the company has.

Cash is the lifeblood of companies. It is the fuel that propels them forward and helps them grow. You can keep a company moving with operational issues or a deficient strategy but without cash, the game is over. So, how can you bring your enterprise to optimize and grow its cash flow to avoid coming to a halt?

Often, when founders approach banks or investors, it seems like they speak a different language because what matters to financers is not how much has been sold but how much cash flow there is.

Therefore, the best time to approach investors is when the company is stable and you don't have cash problems – they will see your balances and know you are ready to inject that money into growth, since you don't need to use it to pay off debts.

To understand your cash flow, you need to know everything about your cash conversion cycle, which is, the time it takes for every penny invested in your company (whether in production, sales, marketing, etc.) to come back to your pocket.

The longer your cycle, the more time it takes for that capital to return to you, and the greater your cash flow problems will be. This happened to the technology company Dell.

When Michael Dell started his company in 1984, he ran it in the typical way a business operates: He deposited cash to get inventory to produce computers, assembled them, sent them to a distribution center, and then waited for customer sales.

Dell took between 60 to 90 days to see his invested capital return. In a short time, he ran out of cash, and as a result, was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Michael Dell, along with Tom Meredith, quickly reconfigured this model: They gave customers the opportunity to design and configure computers according to their wishes and once they paid, production began.

This way, Dell reduced its cash conversion cycle from 63 days to minus 21 days, having enough capital in advance for production.

The more you know about your cash flow, the more options you'll come up with to benefit your company. Simple strategic changes can make a huge impact, like reducing costs or increasing your price by 1 percent, according to cash flow expert and co-founder of Cash Flow Story, Alan Miltz. 

How can you prioritize cash to favor your cash flow? Consider models that utilize recurring payments (such as monthly subscriptions used by streaming, phone, and service companies), prepayments (like Dell, Tesla, and Threadless), or memberships (like Costco).

These models ensure enough oxygen to be strategic and seize opportunities when they arise.

After coaching CEOs for more than 10 years, I've learned and emphasized to business leaders the importance of having at least three months of working capital in cash to anticipate any eventuality.

It is time to master the numbers so that cash is not one of your main concerns but instead becomes a catalyst for your growth.

Inc

The abducted Kuriga schoolchildren in Kaduna State have been released by their abductors.

The state governor, Uba Sani, announced their release on his verified Facebook page in the early hours of Sunday.

The governor did not go into details of their release, but commended President Bola Tinubu, National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Nigerian Army.

He wrote, “In the name of Allah the Beneficient, the Most Merciful, I wish to announce that our Kuriga school children have been released.

“Our special appreciation goes to our dear President, Bola Tinubu, for prioritizing the safety and security of Nigerians and particularly ensuring that the abducted Kuriga school children are released unharmed. While the school children were in captivity, I spoke with Mr. President several times. He shared our pains, comforted us and worked round the clock with us to ensure the safe return of the children.

“Special mention must also be made of our dear brother, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu for his exemplary leadership. I spent sleepless nights with Ribadu finetuning strategies and coordinating the operations of the security agencies, which eventually resulted in this successful outcome.

“The Nigerian Army also deserves special commendation for showing that with courage, determination and commitment, criminal elements can be degraded and security restored in our communities.

“We also thank all Nigerians who prayed fervently for the safe return of the school children. This is indeed a day of joy. We give Almighty Allah all the glory.”

Daily Trust

Nigeria Police Force on Saturday confirmed that six of its officers were killed in an ambush in Delta state.

It also disclosed that six other officers are missing in action.

The ambush happened in Ohoro Forest, Ughelli North Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta.

This was contained in a statement on Saturday by the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Muyiwa Adejobi.

“The bodies of six (6) of the slain officers have been recovered after a fierce search conducted by a combined team of police officers and other security outfits.

“The Force is focused on the search for the other six (6) officers; while all their families have been duly contacted,” the statement said.

Adejobi gave the names of the deceased officers as Abe Olubunmi, Friday Irorere, Kuden Elisha, Akpan Aniette, Ayere Paul, and Ejemito Friday.

He also identified the missing officers as Onoja Daniel, Onogho Felix, Emmanuel Okoroafor, Joel Hamidu, Moses Eduvie, and Cyril Okorie.

According to the FPRO, following the development, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, “mandated the deployment of all necessary resources and personnel to apprehend those responsible for this senseless killing of our officers”.

This, he said has “led to the arrest of five (5) suspects in connection with the preceding incident and the killing, who are currently volunteering information necessary for the rounding up of all the perpetrators”.

The development comes days after 17 soldiers of the Nigerian Army were killed in Ughelli South LGA of Delta State.

Daily Trust

A man detained on suspicion of involvement in the Crocus City Hall attack has said he was promised a reward of 500,000 rubles ($5,400), according to a video posted on RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan’s Telegram channel.

"I shot down people at the Crocus for money; [I was promised] about 500,000," he said.

The detainee added that half the money had been transferred to his card, while he had been promised he would receive the other half later. He lost the card while trying to escape from law enforcement officers.

Tass

UN chief says it's time to 'truly flood' Gaza with aid and calls starvation there an outrage

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres stood near a long line of waiting trucks Saturday and declared it was time to “truly flood Gaza with lifesaving aid,” calling the starvation inside the enclave a “moral outrage.” He urged an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Guterres spoke on the Egyptian side of the border not far from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israel plans to launch a ground assault despite widespread warnings of a potential catastrophe. More than half of Gaza’s population has taken refuge there.

“Any further onslaught will make things even worse — worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for hostages and worse for all people in the region,” Guterres said.

He spoke a day after the U.N. Security Council failed to reach consensuson the wording of a U.S.-sponsored resolution supporting “an immediate and sustained cease-fire.”

Guterres repeatedly noted the difficulties of getting aid into Gaza, for which international aid agencies have largely blamed Israel.

“Here from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness … a long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other,” he said.

About 7,000 aid trucks are waiting in Egypt’s North Sinai province to enter Gaza, Gov. Mohammed Abdel-Fadeil Shousha said in a statement.

Guterres added: “It is time for an ironclad commitment by Israel for total … access for humanitarian goods to Gaza, and in the Ramadan spirit of compassion, it is also time for the immediate release of all hostages.” He later told journalists that a humanitarian cease-fire and hostage release should occur at the same time.

Hamas is believed to be holding around 100 hostages as well as the remains of 30 others taken in its Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and sparked the war.

When asked about Guterres’ comments, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to a social media post by Foreign Minister Israel Katz accusing the U.N. chief of allowing the world body to become “antisemitic and anti-Israeli.”

An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians now shelter in Rafah after fleeing Israel’s offensive elsewhere.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said an Israeli ground assault on Rafah would be “a mistake” and unnecessary in defeating Hamas. That marked a shift in the position for the United States, whose officials have concluded there is no credible way for getting civilians out of harm’s way.

Netanyahu has vowed to press forward with military-approved plans for the offensive, which he has said is crucial to achieving the stated aim of destroying Hamas. The military has said Rafah is Hamas’ last major stronghold and ground forces must target four battalions remaining there.

Again on Saturday night, Israelis protested in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against Netanyahu and the government amid fears that surviving hostages held in Gaza are in ever-worsening conditions months into the war.

Israel’s invasion has killed more than 32,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, while leaving much of the enclave in ruins and displacing some 80% of the enclave’s 2.3 million people. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that the bodies of 72 people killed had been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours.

The Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but has said women and children make up the majority of the dead. Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths and accuses it of operating within residential areas.

Fighting raged Saturday around Gaza’s largest hospital. Israel’s military says it has killed more than 170 militants in Shifa hospital since its raid began Monday, and the commanding officer of the Southern Command, Yaron Finkelman, on Friday said “we will finish this operation only when the last terrorist is in our hands.”

Nearby Gaza City residents told The Associated Press that Israeli troops had blown up several residential buildings.

“They are emptying the whole area,” said Abdel-Hay Saad, who lives on the western edge of Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood. Another resident, Mohammed al-Sheikh, said that intense Israeli bombardment was “hitting anything moving.”

Associated Press footage showed columns of smoke billowing over the hospital area.

The Health Ministry said five wounded Palestinians trapped at Shifa had died without food, water, medical services. It previously said Israel’s military had detained health workers, patients and relatives inside the complex. The military claimed it wasn’t harming civilians, patients or workers.

“These conditions are utterly inhumane,” the World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on social media late Friday,

Elsewhere, an older woman and five children were killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike on an area between Rafah and Khan Younis, health authorities said.

Hunger has become deadly, too. The U.N. and Israel’s government again traded allegations over the lack of aid delivery to northern Gaza, the first target of Israel’s offensive in the war and where anguished parents have reported watching children scavenge for bread in the rubble.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — “the backbone of assistance in Gaza,” Guterres said — said Israel had again denied permission for an aid convoy to deliver to northern Gaza. The agency, known as UNRWA, said that two months have passed since a convoy could reach there.

Israel’s government replied by contending again that hundreds of aid trucks are waiting for the U.N. and partners to distribute it.

“No time for misinformation. Enough,” UNRWA’s communications director, Juliette Touma, told AP in response.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine loses up to 350 troops in Avdeyevka area in past day

Ukraine lost up to 350 troops in the Avdeyevka area in the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"In the Avdeyevka area, units of Battlegroup Center carried out active operations, moving to more advantageous positions and hitting the troops and equipment of the 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade, the 23rd and 53rd mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed forces near Netailovo, Umanskoye, Ocheretino and Toretsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic. <...> The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 350 troops, two armored combat vehicles and five motor vehicles," the statement reads.

Russian forces also repelled 12 counterattacks by the 25th Air Assault Brigade, the Third Assault Brigade, the 24th and 75th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces near Novgorodskoye, Semyonovka, Orlovka, Tonenkoye and Berdychi in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine not involved in Moscow attack, says Kyiv spy-agency spokesman

Ukraine was not involved in Friday's shooting attack near Moscow and suggestions of a Ukrainian link "have nothing in common with reality," a spokesman for Kyiv's military spy agency said on Saturday.

Russia's FSB security service said "all four terrorists" behind the attack at a concert hall near the capital had been arrested while heading to the Ukrainian border, and that they had contacts in Ukraine.

"This is of course another lie from the Russian special services, which has nothing in common with reality and does not stand up against any criticism," Andriy Yusov, of the Defence Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence, told Reuters.

He added: "Ukraine was of course not involved in this terror attack. Ukraine is defending its sovereignty from Russian invaders, liberating its own territory and is fighting with the occupiers' army and military targets, not civilians."

His remarks echoed those of presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, who denied any Ukrainian link in comments on Friday evening and again on Saturday. Podolyak wrote on X on Saturday that "any attempts to connect Ukraine to the terrorist attack are absolutely untenable".

Tass/Reuters

Curses and magical beliefs are woven together in African politics. A study found out that virtually all African leaders come to power emboldened by beliefs in local magical spells. Francisco Macias Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea from the time of the country’s independence in 1968, till 1979 when he was overthrown, was a perfect fit of this. A strongman and one of the most brutal dictators in human history, Nguema reportedly killed between 20,000, to 80,000 out of the total Guinea population of about 200,000 to 300,000 people. This led to his country being nicknamed the Dachau of Africa. The Dachau Concentration Camp, built by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in March, 1933, is located in the medieval town of Dachau in Bavaria, Southern Germany. It was where Hitler’s hounded political opponents were warehoused. Nguema was perceived, as Nigerians perceived General Sani Abacha during his reign, to be mentally unstable. Medical reports that backed this up emerged even from his early career. For instance, a report in 1968 by the French foreign intelligence service, SDECE, claimed that Ngueman suffered mental disorders and venereal diseases. Claims of this ruthless dictator’s mental situation were further compounded by his rumoured addiction to regular usage of drugs like cannabis. This, he was said to consume through its edible drink derivatives of bhang andiboga which have strong hallucinogenic effects.

More importantly, Nguema believed strongly in magic. While he was president in the 1970s, he openly advertised steep romance with sorcery. For him, voodoo was a vehicle of instilling fear in the people of Equatorial Guinea. He often dropped the narrative at public events that his occult powers were drawn from a collection of skulls he arrayed in the presidential palace. The belief that Nguema was as well a sorcerer permeated the nooks and crannies of Guinea. He also flaunted frequent conversations he claimed to have had with the dead, most especially with the same persons he had ordered their execution. To reinforce the narrative of his spiritual invincibility and supernatural reputation, Nguema arranged his own escape from sponsored assassins. Thus, in 1979, upon his ouster in the coup masterminded by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Ngueman Mbasogo, Nguema was ordered to be executed by firing squad. However, it became a herculean task sourcing his executioners. No one dared volunteer to execute the old sorcerer. The belief which permeated the whole of the minds of citizens of Equatorial Guinea was that Nguema was a mythical shapeshifter. He had the powers to make a return journey from the land of the dead in the form of a tiger and thus seek vengeance from his executioners. It was so bad that the government of Mbasogo had to import Muslim executioners from Morocco who eventually carried out his death sentence. As the last breath escaped his nostrils, Nguema was rumoured to have cursed Morocco. In a country plagued by belief in sorcery, sympathetic magic and witches, Morocco’s crisis which came later were attributed to the tiger, Nguema, which laid curse on Morocco for lending Mbasogo the sharpshooters who brought his life to an end. 

In the light of this, how powerful are curses, or how effective is their perception? In the killing of 17 soldiers of the Nigerian Army in the Okuama Community of Delta State on March 14, 2024, discourses on the curse of oil came to the front burner. Oil resource, generally held to be a blessing to nations, is in the same mould believed to be a curse to them. Nigeria and Venezuela took their rightful positions in that narrative. Were the soldiers martyred in Okuama part of the curse of oil on the Nigerian soil?

Discourses on the link between resources and curse gained currency in the early 1970s. The proposition put forward was that, countries that are richly endowed with natural wealth are most times plagued by violence, do not do well economically, politically, and socially when compared to poorly endowed countries. Two scholars, Paul Collier, a British development economist and Anke Hoeffler, German economist, political scientist, were known for their pioneering works on resource curse. They concluded that resources directly invite loot-seeking rebellion, as well as sociopolitical and institutional decay. Indra de Soysa, (2015) too, in “Oil and the ‘new wars’: Another look at the resource curse using alternative data”, Development Studies Research, 2:1, 64-76 argued that there were empirical evidence which supports the ‘resource curse’ argument in that oil abundance raises the probability of political violence.

This can only be the explanation of the gory scene in Okuoma community in oil-dominant area of the Niger Delta where seventeen soldiers which included a commanding officer, two majors, one captain and 12 soldiers were brutally murdered. The troops from the 181 Amphibious Battalion deployed in the Bomadi region were reportedly ambushed after they heeded calls to maintain peace between two communities who were locked in skirmishes over land. After their killing, the soldiers and officers were said to have been maniacally decapitated and butchered in the most horrendous manner. While some had their hearts ripped out of their chest cavities, others’ bodies were thrown into the river. Reports claimed that some of the recovered bodies had their stomachs ripped out. Incessant clashes over land, many a times deadly and requests for compensation for oil spills by energy companies in the Niger Delta are singsongs. None of these compares to the inhuman killing of these soldiers and officers which has raised critical questions in need of straight answers.

The question that agitates the minds of many compatriots is whether and how an innocent and dispassionate intervention to keep peace among two fighting communities could have earned the soldiers this level of beastly killing. While many have volunteered tongue-in-cheek analyses of the most logically coherent thing that could have led to the horrendous killing, perhaps the most profound of such was offered by former editor of The Guardian newspaper and Niger Delta leader of thought, Abraham Ogbodo. Ogbodo granted Arise TV interview last week. And he said: “It is not true that a misunderstanding between an Urhobo community and an Ijaw community could actually bring that level of crisis, that level of tragedy that we witnessed. It is not true. It’s not about communal crisis. What level of communal crisis? The combined population of those communities will be less than 2,000 human beings. Where will they get the capacity to wreak that level of havoc? To deliver that degree of tragedy, where will they have the capacity? It’s not possible. It’s like a crime taking place in all these drug enclaves in Latin America, and you will be looking for something else other than drugs. There is no crime that happens in Niger Delta that does not have crude oil and the arising benefits, and how those arising benefits can be allocated,” he said.

A very critical issue raised by Ogbodo was the nature of the military intervention. “What was actually compelling about a peace mission in that place that will require the strategic team going for a tactical mission? So, it shows that there are so many things underlying that we are not talking about. If it was actually for a peace mission, wouldn’t it have been for those community leaders to be summoned to the base in Bomadi for discussions to be held? This was not done - instead, the entire leadership of the battalion went to Bomadi and be so exposed, and if a mission like that was being carried by the strategic team, why was there not enough tactical cover that they were just gotten and taken out like that so cheaply? The Nigerian military! That is uncalled for. So, you will see that there are so many things that are wrong.”

Those rhetorical questions are key to resolving the fog that surrounds the killing of the soldiers and officers. To be sure, their loss has bored a huge crater on the heart of the country. From whatever prism one may look at it, Nigeria and, especially, their immediate families, may never recover from the losses. Apart from the huge investment Nigeria made into their trainings, many of their family members may never be the same again after the departure of these breadwinners of theirs. Having once suffered the death of a loved gallant soldier, it is easy for me to decouple the nature of the grief that envelopes the families of those slain military men. The goriness of their deaths makes the need to unravel the crime urgent. Doing so will also bring closure to agitations that lead to life-threatening incessant violence that happens in the crime scene, apologies to Ogbodo, that the whole Niger Delta region has become.

We have heard, since the agitations from the Ken Saro-Wiwas, of how resource-wealthy states like Nigeria are perennially enmeshed in provision of lower levels of public goods in terms of education, health and general wellbeing of the oil-producing communities. Researchers of resource curse have also found out that there is a general malaise among governments of resource-rich countries which reflects in their neglect of citizens and institutions of the oil-bearing communities. There is a growing intensity of social anger accruing from communities like Okuama against the operators of state. It is anger at how their nature-endowed resource has given access to easy money and unearned income by undeserving buccaneers in Nigeria. The truth is, if successive governments had prioritized the peace of oil-bearing communities and had taken a more than casual interest in it, the officers barbecued like chickens for a festival in Okuama may be alive today.

The truth is that, soldiers and policemen posted to oil-bearing communities are not innocent peace-keepers. They are grossly enmeshed in the crude craze that is the daily existential pursuit of Niger Delta communities. It is not news that soldiers deployed to oil-rich communities are alleged to be heavily enveloped in the oil-bunkering trade. Some of them even possess their own bunkering crew. This is a pestilence in the Niger Delta. Indeed, illicit trade in crude oil and violence are said to be the only thriving industry in Nigeria’s oil-producing communities. In the words of Ogbodo, “everything is subordinated to oil.” This is in agreement with scholarly arguments which say that resource wealth gives birth to weak institutions that are lax in maintenance of peace and security. Groups within the state then capitalize on this weakness to organize armed violence which they deploy to capture rents. The result is that a resource-dependent state like Nigeria is landlord to persistent violence in its oil-bearing communities. This is because institutions that are expected to bring peace and harmony like the army and police are either too weak to monopolize violence, cannot stop the oil resource itself from inviting looting or have become part and parcel of the problem. In the process, the financing of gory violence by individual state actors like the one in Okuama becomes a fait accompli.

There is also the resource jealousy and resource monopoly angle to the killing of the soldiers in Okuama. The resource-bearing communities see the rest of Nigeria as parasites reaping where they did not sow. On visits to Abuja, the communities see glittering streets paved by their oil money, compared to the despoliation of their lands and the crude-smeared waters they drink. They also know that fat leeches in power and their accomplices from other parts of Nigeria acquire toad-like stature from the wealth of their oil. Niger Deltans thus naturally develop a revenge complex against these Nigerian bugs. Take a look at the list of 17 soldiers killed in Okuama. You will discover that a particular section of the country takes a giant share of the fatalities. None of them is from the Niger Delta. This reflects how the Nigerian state sucks the nectar of Niger Delta while leaving its withered land to its fate.

The macabre manner in which those soldiers and men were murdered was not ordinary killing. It bears the traits of a revenge killing, or a Muti murder. A widespread killing tactic in South and Southern Africa, Muti is a form of human sacrifice. It is meant to achieve power, energy or good fortune and undertaken only after body parts have been precisely harvested while the victim is still alive. The aim is to allow the victim’s shrill cry go up to the sky, in the belief that it would summon deities. Only yesterday, a media report said the Defence Headquarters had confirmed recovering decomposing hearts of some of the soldier victims of the Okuama tragedy. Gouging out hearts, if not for ritual purposes, is a sadistic revenge method that is not undertaken by run-of-the-mill criminals. Could the murderers have been allies of the soldiers and thus saw them as betrayers?

It must be said that some other scholars have said that it is not wholly true that all oil-rich countries suffer the curse of chronic instability and violence. Nor that these countries’ resource opens up warfare in the oil-bearing communities. And that, like the rumoured curse placed by Nguema on Morocco, is a figment of imagination. This was the path trodden by Ross Michael (2012) in The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. While Venezuela, Angola and Nigeria affirm the greed thesis of oil resource, states and countries like Texas in America and Saudi Arabia show that the thesis may not be entirely true. These are countries not fraught with Nigeria and her allies’ oil curse manifestations.

The way out of the curse of oil is effective practice of federalism. States where oil resource is found should be allowed to administer it while they pay royalties to the federal government. If we do this, militancy and crises over land which necessitate soldiers being drafted to make peace would be a thing of the past.

Nigeria must unravel the killing of the officers and men of the Nigerian Army who met their untimely deaths in Okuama. Unraveling it will need openness and getting to the brass-tacks of the matter. It must be done by an independent entity, independent of the military. The military cannot be the accuser and judge in its own case. The first thing to examine is the claim of the peace mission that the felled soldiers were alleged to have come to Okuama for. There are claims that the Urhobo and Ijaw that make up the community were not at war with each other; at least not to the level that could warrant “a peace mission”. So if this is the case, why would a whole battalion invade a community that is not at war, with the most plum of its officers? Second, did the “peace-keeping force” fire first at the members of the community, as claimed by some of them? At what point were the officers and men ambushed? In answering these questions, we would be drilling into the base of the issue. It must be done for the sanity of the country.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life ~ Jude 1:21.

Introduction:

It’s that time of the year again when many people demonstrate their keenest interests in increasing their personal growth, productivity and impacts on earth, beseeching the throne of God with prayers and fasting, just to break through the limits of the past and make the new year better than ever.

Sadly, however, too many good people simply relive the “same year” many times over, year-in year-out, till they grow old and die. They shrink their dreams to fit the sizes of their fears and indulgences. But, that’s not how God intended us to live.

Yes indeed, no matter the season you’re in right now, you can still upgrade your life significantly and make this year the finest year of your life yet. However, this won’t just happen, you must accept responsibility and do something about it.

Though, there are many steps to take in this regard; albeit, I strongly believe that the place to start is to examine and reorder the status of our hearts towards God whose throne we've been bombarding with all manner of prayers since the beginning of the new year. Are we truly reciprocating His love for us (1 John 4:19)? Do we genuinely love Him in our hearts?

As far as I know, the most unfailing winning idea ever is your personal love for God. It generates a peculiar supernatural force that can make any man great on earth. This is a fantastic mystery!

No doubt, God’s love for us is expressly overwhelming (John 3:16). However, how we respond to it matters most to our destinies. God so loved us, and we must reciprocate it. Reciprocated love is the tonic of any relationship.

Genuine Iove for God is that compelling desire to please Him, to keep His commandments and to say yes to His Will (John 14:15; 15:10). It is an attribute, attitude and a lifestyle that every serious believer should vigorously pursue, without which no man can ever fully appropriate God’s love personally.

The greatest heroes and heroines with loads of outstanding achievements in the Scriptures were people propelled by their positive force of genuine love for God in their hearts. They demonstrated great courage and noble moral qualities, and had lived in the minds of God and men for successive generations.

David followed this route, and we clearly see how his life contrasted with that of Saul in 1 Samuel 13:-13-14. Saul was foolish in disregarding the commandments of the Lord, his reign was aborted and David was chosen to replace him.

God found David in the wilderness, and said that’s my king. When David was anointed, he left the wilderness for the palace, and he became an instant phenomenal personality (Psalm 89:20). A teenager became a national hero through the Lord’s uncommon favour, overnight!

If we may inquire here, what qualified David for this uncommon favour he enjoyed with God? It was simply his heart for God: he loved God and His kingdom. Although he was a bush boy, God brought him into divine limelight, because he demonstrated a commitment of love for Him in diverse ways.

Your commitment of love to God is what will single you out amongst the crowd, and make you extra-ordinary among ordinaries. When you are committed to God, even angels will run errands for you. Let’s all determine to be militant in our love for God on earth!

The Gains of Loving God

Basically, anything that’s important to God works by love (Galatians 5:6). Indeed, everything that the covenant provides works by love. Hence, when you give God your best in love, your prayers will turn to praise.

Your love for God defines the perimeter of your safety on earth. The big playing field where the believer may walk and exercise himself, without any fear of harassment or intimidation is defined by his love for God. It is the energy of God’s love that keeps us safe from evil.

Secondly, in love is everything connected, and in it every good thing in life can be collected (John 1:1-3). The love of God is so deep, so boundless and so encompassing (Ephesians 3:19). It shows us the lines, which we must not transgress and it equally throws His lines of pleasure in areas that mark our inheritance (Psalm 16:6).

What principle did Solomon engage to become fabulously rich? It was love for God (1Kings 3:3-4)! Thereafter, God gave him an outstanding, peculiarly outlandish supra-wealth. When you genuinely and outstandingly love the Lord, the good things of life will begin to pursue you.

Furthermore, loving God guarantees a torment-free life. Loving God and loving the world are mutually-exclusive (1John 2:5,15). You cannot love the world and love God at the same time. Only perfect love for God casts out the torment of fear (1 John 4:18).

Any adventure outside the Father’s love is a disaster waiting to happen! Any enterprise or advance outside it is like courting the viper’s fangs (Ecclesiastes 10:8). If the Word of God cannot correct you or re-orientate your life, you're in great danger and you're not safe.

See, the way of transgressors must be hard, naturally (Proverbs 13:15)! On the contrary, when you genuinely love the Almighty God, you supernaturally become torment free.

When you prove your commitment to Him by your qualitative love for Him, He will speedily heap on you an abundance of every good thing you could ever wish for, and all the good things of life will start running after you (Matthew 6:33). Assuredly, loving God is the most potent creative force for enjoying God's super abundant favour.

How To Show Your True Love for God

Fundamentally, your obedience to God’s commandments is the litmus test and the living proof of your love for Him. Biblical obedience can be indexed by the number of things, pleasures and propensities, you’re ready to give-up for God, your genuine love for humanity, and the quality time you’re happy to spend in His presence to worship, pray and study the Word.

When you truly love God, it will also reflect in your sacrificial giving and general services to His kingdom. And, it will show in your zeal and fire for the things of God, including your firm defense of His kingdom in your speech and other daily socio-political interactions, and so on. Watch out: you are what you do, not what you say you'll do!

Yes, obedience may come with painful costs; yet, it is in your moments of obedience that your destiny is shaped. Moreover, the pain of today is temporary, but the fruit of eternity is permanent. Don't give up. You cannot change the character of the devil, but you can change your attitude to events and happenings around you.

Friends, let’s settle our “accounts” with God today, we can’t “bank” on tomorrow. Receive grace to love God. Resist every seducing spirit working to lure you away from loving Him. Thereafter, every negative energy working against your advancement will be totally neutralized, and all doors appointed to usher in fulfillment and excellence to your destiny will be fully opened. You won’t miss it, in Jesus Name. Amen. Happy Sunday!

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Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

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