Mother-of-three Grace Godwin was preparing food on Christmas Eve when her husband burst into the kitchen and ordered her and the children to run and take cover in the bush after gunmen were spotted in a nearby village.

Soon they heard gunfire, starting an hours-long attack by suspected nomadic herders who rampaged through 15 villages in central Plateau state on Sunday, killing at least 140 people with guns and machetes, officials, police and residents said.

It was the bloodiest violence since 2018 when more than 200 people were killed in Nigeria's central region where clashes between herders and farmers are common.

"We returned at 6 the next morning and found that houses had been burnt and people killed. There are still people missing," Godwin said by phone.

"There is no one in Mayanga (village), women and children have all fled."

It was not immediately clear what triggered Sunday's attacks but violence in the region, known as the "Middle Belt", is often characterised as ethno-religious - chiefly Muslim Fulani herdsmen clashing with mainly Christian farmers.

But experts and politicians say climate change and expanding agriculture are creating competition for land, pushing farmers and herders into conflict.

Nomadic cattle herders are from northern Nigeria, which is getting drier and becoming more prone to drought and floods. That is forcing them to trek further south, where farmers are increasing production as the population rapidly expands.

That means less land for nomads and their cattle, supporting the view among local people that the conflict is based on the availability of resources rather than ethnic or religious differences.

"These attacks have been recurring. They want to drive us out of our ancestral land but we will continue to resist these assaults," said Magit Macham, who had returned from the state capital Jos to celebrate Christmas with his family.

Macham was chatting to his brother outside his house when the sputtering sound of a petrol generator was interrupted by gunshots. His brother was hit by a bullet in the leg but Macham dragged him into the bush where they hid for the night.

"We were taken unawares and those that could run ran into the bush. A good number of those that couldn't were caught and killed with machetes," he said.

Plateau governor called the violence "unprovoked" and police said several houses, cars and motorcycles were burnt.

President Bola Tinubu, who has yet to spell out how he intends to tackle widespread insecurity, described the attacks as "primitive and cruel" and directed police to track down those responsible.

Reuters

Governor of Plateau State, Celeb Mutfwang says no fewer than 64 communities in the state have been displaced by terrorists who are occupying the areas and some schools.

Speaking on the recent attacks in the state, Mutfwang highlighted the immense burden placed on the state by the continuous displacement of citizens due to terrorist activities.

He told Channels TV on Tuesday that they celebrated Christmas with heavy heart with not less than 17 communities attacked.

He said, “When people are dislocated from their villages and they have to run for shelter, now we are struggling to provide shelter for these people that have been displaced and dislocated from their communities.

“If they stay away from those communities for a sustained period of time, the terrorists would come in. As I am talking to you today (Tuesday), in Riyom Local Government, in Barikin Ladi Local Government, schools have been occupied by these terrorists for a number of years now.

“We have not less than 64 communities that have been displaced and their lands have been taken over by these terrorists.”

Furthermore, the Governor condemned the perceived inaction under the previous administration, stating that residents felt the terrorists were given official government backing.

He emphasized that the current occupation of schools did not happen overnight, with some having been seized for as long as five years.

“Under the last regime the feeling among people in Plateau State particularly the victims of these terrorists attacks is that it looks as if the terrorists were given official government backing to be able to terrorise them because little or nothing was done to repel those attacks.

“I can tell you these schools that are being occupied, it didn’t just start now, some of those schools have been occupied in the last three, four, five years.

“Children therefore in those schools have not been able to go to school, they have to relocate, we even have primary health care centres abandoned because of these terrorists which means that our health care system is put in jeopardy, what do we need to do? I think this is where the president needs to come in,” he added.

Daily Trust

Israeli military says Gaza ground offensive has expanded into urban refugee camps

Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities and ordering residents to evacuate. Gaza’s main telecom provider announced another “complete interruption” of services in the besieged territory.

The military’s announcement of the new battle zone threatens further destruction in a war that Israel says will last for “many months” as it vows to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its Oct. 7 attack. Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller areas in search of refuge.

The U.S. said Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss topics including transitioning to a different phase of the war to maximize focus on high-value Hamas targets, improving the humanitarian situation, and planning for governance and security in Gaza after the war.

Despite U.S. calls for Israel to curb civilian casualties and international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was deepening the fighting.

“We say to the Hamas terrorists: We see you and we will get to you,” Netanyahu said.

Israel’s offensive is one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds women and children, have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, whose count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The agency said 240 people were killed over the past 24 hours.

The U.N. human rights office said the continued bombardment of middle Gaza had claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve. The office noted that Israel had ordered some residents to move there.

Israel said it would no longer grant automatic visas to U.N. employees and accused the world body of being “complicit partners” in Hamas’ tactics. Government spokesman Eylon Levy said Israel would consider visa requests case by case. That could further limit aid efforts in Gaza.

Residents of central Gaza described shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps. The built-up towns hold Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war, along with their descendants.

“The bombing was very intense,” Radwan Abu Sheitta said by phone from Bureij.

The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate a belt of territory the width of central Gaza, urging them to move to nearby Deir al-Balah. The U.N. humanitarian office said the area ordered evacuated was home to nearly 90,000 people before the war and now shelters more than 61,000 displaced people, mostly from the north.

The military later said it was operating in Bureij and asserted that it had located a Hamas training camp.

The telecom outage announced by Paltel follows similar outages through much of the war. NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet outages, confirmed that network connectivity in Gaza was disrupted again and “likely to leave most residents offline.”

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said several countries had sent proposals to resolve the conflict following news of an Egyptian proposal that would include a transitional Palestinian government in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. He did not offer details of the proposals.

REGIONAL SPILLOVER

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel faces a “multi-arena war” on seven fronts — Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. “We have responded and acted already on six of these,” he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Iranian-backed militia groups around the region have stepped up attacks in support of Hamas.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq carried out a drone strike on a U.S. base in Irbil on Monday, wounding three American service members, according to U.S. officials. In response, U.S. warplanes hit three locations in Iraq connected to a main militia, Kataib Hezbollah.

Almost daily, Hezbollah and Israel exchange missiles, airstrikes and shelling across the Israeli-Lebanese border. On Tuesday, Israel’s military said Hezbollah struck a Greek Orthodox church in northern Israel with a missile, wounding two Israeli Christians, and fired again on arriving soldiers, wounding nine.

“Hezbollah is risking the stability of the region for the sake of Hamas,” said Israel’s military spokesman, Daniel Hagari.

In the Red Sea, attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen against commercial ships have disrupted trade and prompted a U.S.-led multinational naval operation to protect shipping routes. The Israeli military said a fighter jet on Tuesday shot down a “hostile aerial target” above the Red Sea that the military asserted was on its way to Israeli territory.

The USS Laboon, a Navy destroyer, and American fighter jets shot down 12 drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land-attack cruise missiles in the southern Red Sea that were fired by the Yemen-based Houthis over a 10-hour period Tuesday, according to the Pentagon. U.S. Central Command said there was no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries.

A MASS GRAVE

More than 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes. U.N. officials say a quarter of the territory’s population is starving under Israel’s siege, which allows in a trickle of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies. Last week, the U.N. Security Council called for immediately speeding up aid deliveries, but there has been little sign of change.

In an area Israel had declared a safe zone, a strike hit a home in Mawasi, a rural area in the southern province of Khan Younis. One woman was killed and at least eight were wounded, according to a cameraman working for The Associated Press at the nearby hospital.

In response, Israel’s military said that it wouldn’t refrain from operating in safe zones, “if it identifies terrorist organization activity threatening the security of Israel.”

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 others hostage. Israel aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity.

President Joe Biden and Qatar’s ruling emir, Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, spoke on Tuesday, discussing the urgent effort to secure the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens. The leaders also discussed the ongoing efforts to facilitate increased and sustained flows of life-saving access to humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza, citing militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without presenting evidence.

At the Kerem Shalom border crossing, U.N. and Gazan medical workers unloaded a truck carrying about 80 unidentified bodies that had been held by Israeli forces in northern Gaza. They were buried in a mass grave.

Medical workers called the odors unbearable. “We cannot open this container in a neighborhood where people live,” Marwan al-Hams, health emergency committee director in Rafah, told the AP. He said the health and justice ministries would investigate the bodies for possible “war crimes.”

The Israeli military announced the deaths of two more soldiers, bringing the total killed since the ground offensive began to 161.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine strikes Russian naval landing warship, Moscow admits damage

Ukraine struck a large Russian landing warship in Crimea with cruise missiles in an overnight attack that killed at least one person and could hinder any Russian attempt to seize more Ukrainian territory along the Black Sea coast.

The Russian defence ministry, cited by the Interfax news agency, said Ukraine had used air-launched missiles to attack the Crimean port of Feodosia and that the Novocherkassk large landing ship had been damaged.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had briefed President Vladimir Putin in detail about the attack, the Kremlin said. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a move Kyiv and the West condemned as an illegal seizure.

Ukrainian Air Force Spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said he thought it would be hard for the Novocherkassk - which can carry tanks and armoured vehicles and be used to land troops ashore - to re-enter service.

"We can see how powerful the explosion was, what the detonation was like. After that, it’s very hard for a ship to survive, because this was not a rocket, this is the detonation of munitions," he told Radio Free Europe.

Ukraine had used cruise missiles in the attack, without specifying what kind, Ihnat said. Both Britain and France have supplied Kyiv with such missiles.

Russia has hinted it may try to seize more Ukrainian territory along the Black Sea coast. Putin earlier this month said that Odessa, the headquarters of Ukraine's own navy, was "a Russian city."

Footage posted on Russian news outlets on Telegram, purportedly from the port, showed powerful explosions detonating and fires burning.

Unverified social media videos purporting to capture the strike showed a vast explosion and ballooning flames lighting up the night sky. An unverified daytime photograph, which Ukrainian bloggers claimed showed the ship's remains, depicted a charred, elongated clump of debris emerging out of the water by a dock.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said on Telegram that one person had been killed. The RIA news agency said four people had been injured.

Although a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made little in the way of battlefield gains and the Russian military has regained the initiative in several places, Ukraine has been able to launch a series of attacks on Crimea, the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, inflicting serious damage.

Previous attacks have targeted ships in dry docks, warships moored in the main port of Sevastopol, airfields, the main Black Sea Fleet HQ building, and the bridge which connects southern Russia to Crimea.

Throughout the war, Russia has used its fleet to impede Ukraine's access to the Black Sea, the main export route for the agriculture and steel exports that formed a significant chunk of the country's economy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy quipped on Telegram that his air force had added to Russia's submarine fleet by damaging the landing ship.

"There will not be a single peaceful place for the occupiers in Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote.

The Ukrainian air force said its pilots had attacked Feodosia at about 0230 (0030 GMT), destroying the Novocherkassk.

"And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!" the commander of Ukraine's air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said on Telegram.

Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said on Telegram it was obvious that Russia would not release detailed information about the attack at a time of war, but said Russia needed to do more to protect its assets in Crimea.

"It's clear that Crimea's air defence systems must be strengthened. And it is clear that it (Ukraine) needs to be deprived of the opportunity to hit Russia," Markov said.

Feodosia, which has a population of around 69,000 people, lies on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula.

** Russian forces shell Kherson rail station, one policeman dead -Ukraine interior minister

Russian forces shelled the railway station in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday as a train was set to evacuate residents, killing one policeman and injuring four people, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

Klymenko said about 140 civilians had been at the station in the early evening and quick action by police to direct them away saved many lives.

"Thanks to the clear actions of the police, everyone was successfully taken to safe places," Klymenko said on Telegram. "Unfortunately, a police lieutenant from the Kirovohrad region lost his life due to the shelling. ... Two more police officers are in the hospital with shrapnel wounds."

Two civilians were also being treated for shrapnel wounds.

Kherson was captured by Russian forces in the first days of the February 2022 invasion but retaken by Ukrainian forces a little more than a year ago. It is under constant attack from Russian forces entrenched in new positions on the east bank of the Dnipro River, with shelling very heavy in recent days.

Video posted on social media showed debris and shattered building materials in different areas of the station.

Ukrainian railways said evacuees were taken from the station by bus northwest to the town of Mykolaiv, which has been subject to fewer Russian attacks. Delayed trains were rescheduled.

The general prosecutor's office said Russian shelling had struck other infrastructure sites and dwellings in the city.

Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson's military administration, had earlier reported a series of Russian attacks using different weapons. Four people were injured.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zaluzhny concedes Ukrainian forces pulled out of Maryinka

Ukrainian troops have retreated from the town of Maryinka in the Donetsk People's Republic, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said at a televised news conference.

"Ukrainian troops have withdrawn. In some places they have entrenched themselves in the vicinity of Maryinka, and in other places - a little further away," he said.

Zaluzhy also said that "the city of Maryinka no longer exists".

On Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russian Armed Forces liberated Marinka in the Donetsk People's Republic, which means they drove Ukrainian artillery further away from Donetsk and made it possible to improve the city’s defenses against strikes. According to Shoigu, over the past nine years, Ukraine turned the town, located five kilometers from Donetsk, into a powerful fortification with underground passages. It was "cracked open thanks to the decisive actions of our servicemen," he said.

Reuters/Tass

It is part metaphor, part myth and part history. Thomas Hobbes thought life there was nasty, brutish and short. John Locke disagreed, proclaiming that it was where people first learnt how to own things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau described it as the place where people were born free, before they became ensnared in chains. Robert Nozick thought that people were so desperate to escape it, there was an inevitable result: the creation of a state.

Ideas about the “state of nature”—how people lived before politics organised itself into governments—have held the attention of philosophers for centuries. Discovering whether it played out as imagined was nigh-on impossible. And yet thinking about what people would do without a government helped answer profound questions. What are the limits of political power? Is the modern state something that citizens would freely choose?

Now, after all this theorising, three economists think they have some empirical answers. According to Robert Allen of New York University, Abu Dhabi, Leander Heldring of Northwestern University and Mattia Bertazzini of the University of Nottingham, the key to understanding the emergence of modern politics is not a metaphor, but the constantly shifting courses of ancient rivers in Iraq. The first states, they argue in a paper published in the American Economic Review, were glued together not as shelters from violence, as Hobbes believed, but by economics.

The banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, Iraq’s two longest rivers, are home to some of the world’s oldest settlements. Mesopotamia, which 5,000 years ago refined the first known system of writing, earned the area the reputation of “the cradle of civilisation”. The paths of these rivers shift, as floods and droughts cause their beds to flood. When a shift came, some ancient farmers were left without water for their crops.

Allen and his co-authors investigate whether the timing of changes to a river’s course had anything to do with when the number and size of settlements grew. They do so by looking at the effect of the first recorded shift in 2,850BC. This presented farmers with something close to the choice imagined by philosophers when theorising about the state of nature. Those left behind by the river could revert to nomadism. Or they could band together to build irrigation systems to ferry water from distant rivers.

A philosophical question is therefore transformed into something akin to a laboratory experiment, only one set thousands of years ago and extending hundreds of miles across. Moreover, the results of the experiment are clear. A 5km-by-5km square in the basin left behind by a river was 14% more likely to have a settlement, marked by a public building such as a temple or marketplace, 150 years after the shift than in the 50 years before it. Each square was 12% more likely to have a built canal, a form of artificial irrigation that made farming far from rivers possible. Five new cities were created, and only three abandoned. Esnunna, one city along a new tributary of the river, became much bigger.

This, Allen and his co-authors say, is evidence that that the fist states were formed by farmers co-operating for economic reasons. A canal network would have been too large a cost for any to bear alone. But by spreading the cost, the construction was worth it for each. Such decisions were momentous. They represent some of the earliest examples of governments providing infrastructure in return for taxes, and thus the genesis of the earliest states.

The authors then divide centuries of thinking on the origins of states into two camps. The first, which they say ranges from Daron Acemoglu, an influential economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to Karl Marx, supposes that states ultimately emerge from a process of social bargaining. The rich and high-status seize power for personal gain, and periodically dole out services, such as a road, school or police force, in order to keep populations on board. But if this had been the case in Mesopotamia then it would have been in the areas that a river shifted towards that settlements would have formed. After all, they developed richer and more fertile farmland, yielding a bigger tax take.

That Mesopotamian farmers seem to have chosen to band together as the river shifted away lends support to the second camp. Philosophers in this group, who include Locke and Rousseau, contend that governments emerged when people chose to co-ordinate themselves, swapping their freedom to do whatever they wanted for a state that mediates disputes and provides a degree of safety. Allen and his co-authors analyse only Mesopotamian Iraq, but they argue that their results ought to apply more generally to other fledgling states. Governments, in other words, are chosen rather than foisted upon their citizens.

Meandering path

This is quite the landgrab by economists, seizing terrain that is more commonly occupied by political theorists. The study is not flawless. Perhaps an unknown conquest explains the spread of settlements in the period under consideration. Maybe the authors are wrong and the pattern does not hold elsewhere. There were already six cities and many more settlements in the Mesopotamian Valley before its rivers really began to move, and some had existed for a thousand years. The authors insist that they are only interested in how new governments form, but there is a chance they have in fact captured older ones spreading.

The paper is nevertheless bold and valuable. Philosophers have sought for centuries to explain why states emerge. Too little time has been spent considering whether economic factors might have been at play. Although transforming the state of nature into a specific time and place means losing some of its complexity, doing so opens the door to the sort of experiment that could only have been imagined by earlier philosophers. If Hobbes or Locke could have studied something approximating the state of nature about which they were theorising, they surely would have tried.

The Economist

An 85-year Harvard study discovered that the most important thing that brings us happiness in life is positive relationships, and your friendships are a huge component.

Maintaining long-term friendships that are stable is one of the seven practices of people who live to be happy and healthy, the study found.

Yet, each of our friendships can look different, and it turns out that your friendships shouldn’t all look the same.

The renowned Greek philosopher Aristotle narrowed down three types of friendships that we all have. And Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor who teaches a course about how to manage happiness, believes we need all three friendships to truly feel happy in life.

These are the three types of friendships, according to Aristotle, that appeared in Brooks’ article titled “The Best Friends Can Do Nothing for You” which he shared in the Harvard happiness course:

1. Utility friendships: “Think about the relationships you have with people with whom you work, or with whom you do business. These relationships tend to be transactional in nature,” wrote Brooks.
2. Friendships based on pleasure: “This type of relationship is based on mutual admiration because each person draws pleasure from the other. If a person finds their friend funny, interesting, and a source of enjoyment, it is likely a friendship of pleasure,” Brooks wrote in his article.
3. “Perfect” friendships: “By Aristotle’s standards, perfect friendships are those between people who have a mutual love for something that not only brings them together, but elevates their behavior to virtue. A relationship is perfect not when it is based on utility or pleasure, but when it is focused on improving the circumstance of the other person,” Brooks notes.

Utility friendships aren’t always the most satisfying, and pleasure friendships may not deepen beyond shared interests — but both are important.

These two kinds of friendships are useful for advancing in life, “but they don’t usually bring lasting joy and comfort,” Brooks wrote. While we need utility and pleasure friendships, “we can’t afford to risk these connections through confrontation, difficult conversations, or intimacy,” says Brooks.

For this reason, “perfect” friendships are extremely necessary to have in life, in addition to the other two types of friendships, for true satisfaction.

“You might not be able to put it into words, but you probably know how these ‘perfect’ friendships feel,” Brooks wrote.

“They often feature a shared love for something outside either of you, whether that thing be transcendental (like religion) or just fun (like baseball), but they don’t depend on work, or money, or ambition.”

CNBC

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said that Nigerians applying to change their date of birth on the National Identification Number (NIN) database will now be required to provide an electronic civil registration and vital statistics system (e-CRVS) certificate from the National Population Commission (NPC).  

The Commission stated this in new guidelines for date of birth change it released on Sunday via its X handle. In addition to the certificate, NIMC said copies of other valid documents such as identification and application letter for modification will now be addressed to the DG/CEO, NIMC.  

Before now, only an affidavit and the payment of N15,000 are required for the modification of age and other modifications on the NIN system. 

According to the Commission, with the new guidelines, date of birth modification can only be done once in a lifetime and only at NIMC enrolment centres.  It warned that its licensed agents are not allowed to do date of birth modification and other forms of modification. 

Applicants express concerns 

Meanwhile, some Nigerians seeking to modify their date of birth on the NIN database have expressed concern that the new guideline would further extend the delay in getting the modification done at NIMC.

There have also been allegations of extortions and intentional delays at the NIMC centres.  

• However, the new Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, said she was working to end all forms of unethical practices within the Commission. She also recently announced that the Commission has cleared over 2.5 million backlog of modifications to NIN.  

The e-CRVS 

President Bola Tinubu last month launched the e-CRVS of the NPC, a platform that digitalizes all civil documentation such as birth and stillbirth registration, birth attestation, adoption, marriage notification, divorce notification, migration, and death. 

• According to the Chairman of the NPC, Nasir Kwarra the e-CRVS was part of Nigeria’s way of complying with the resolutions of the African Ministers Conference held in 2022 and scaling up the automated process in Nigeria. 
• He added that the system provides a digital certificate in all cases, an accessible verification platform to registered organizations, and has a central management system (dashboard) that depicts and analyses collated civil registrations into vital statistics for proper decision-making.” 
• The chairman said that the process marked a complete departure from traditional paper-based recording of vital events to a state-of-the-art digital solution that conforms to international best practices. 
• He added that the eCRVS system would revolutionize how vital events were recorded, tracked, and analyzed in the country. 

Nairametrics

Following attacks by assailants on some communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State between eve of Christmas and Monday morning, the death toll from the incident has risen to 113.

Transition Committee Chairman of Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, Monday Kassah, confirmed that 113 persons were killed in the attacks on the villages.

Spokesperson for Operation Safe Haven, Oya James, confirmed the incident, saying the attack took place on Saturday night while residents of the community were asleep. “Following the attack, security personnel were deployed to prevent any breakdown of law and order in the area. There was uprising after the incident but the situation has been brought under control,” James had said.

While giving update on the attack on Monday, he confirmed to journalists that 113 bodies were recovered from the attacks.

He added, “The attacks were well coordinated; not fewer than 20 different communities were attacked by the bandits.

“As I am talking to you, we have recovered 113 dead bodies from those communities. We have recovered more than 300 injured; some were taken to hospitals in Jos and some to a hospital in Barkin Ladi while others have been taken to hospitals in Bokkos.

“Security personnel have been doing their best; the difficult terrain reaching those communities made security agents not to reach there on time to prevent those attacks.”

The violence has spread to communities in Barikin LGA where houses were burnt.

Kasa said the casualty figure was increasing and that corpses were still being recovered by security agents, vigilantes and hunters combing the forest for missing persons. The council boss noted that several houses were burnt by the assailants, who also went away with farm produce belonging to the residents.

Meanwhile, Governor Caleb Mutfwang condemned the attack, describing the attack as barbaric, brutal and uncalled for.

A statement by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Gyang Bere, on Sunday said the governor directed security agencies to promptly apprehend the perpetrators responsible for the heinous act and ensure they face the full wrath of the law.

Bare said the governor expressed deep concern over the incident, urging communities to remain vigilant and report suspicious activities to security forces for immediate action.

The statement added, “On the importance of collective collaboration among rural communities, the governor assured that proactive measures would be taken by the government to curb the ongoing attacks on innocent citizens. He sympathised with affected families and urged them to find solace in God as the government diligently works to end the prolonged violence.”

Daily Trust

Egypt floats plan to end Israel-Hamas war. The proposal gets a cool reception

Israel and Hamas on Monday gave cool public receptions to an Egyptian proposal to end their bitter war. But the longstanding enemies stopped short of rejecting the plan altogether, raising the possibility of a new round of diplomacy to halt a devastating Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian plan calls for a phased hostage release and the formation of a Palestinian government of experts to administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, according to a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat familiar with the proposal.

The Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, said the details were worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar and presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments. Egypt and Qatar both mediate between Israel and Hamas, while the U.S. is Israel’s closest ally and a key power in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not comment directly on the proposal. But speaking to members of his Likud Party, he said he was determined to press ahead with Israel’s offensive, launched in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage.

“We are expanding the fight in the coming days and this will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished,” he said.

Hamas has continued to fire rockets into Israel throughout the fighting. Late Monday, it launched a barrage of rockets, triggering air raid sirens in the southern city of Ashkelon. AP video showed what appeared to be several interceptions by Israel’s rocket defense system. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The Egyptian proposal falls short of Israel’s declared goal of crushing Hamas. It also appears to be at odds with Israel’s insistence on maintaining military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war.

But Netanyahu faces heavy domestic pressure to reach a deal to bring home the more than 100 Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

As he vowed to continue the war during a speech in parliament, relatives of the hostages interrupted him and called for their immediate return. “Now! Now!” they shouted.

The rising death toll of Israeli soldiers from the ground operation also threatens to undermine public support for the war. The Israeli military announced the deaths of two more soldiers Monday, bringing the total killed in the war to 156.

Netanyahu’s War Cabinet was expected to meet late Monday. It was unclear if they would discuss the Egyptian proposal.

Hamas did not officially react to the proposal. But it is unclear if Hamas would agree to relinquish power after controlling Gaza for the past 16 years.

Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official who is believed to be based in Qatar, issued a statement repeating the group’s position that it will not negotiate without a “complete end to the aggression.” He said Hamas would not agree to a “temporary or partial truce for a short period of time.”

Word of the proposal came as Israeli airstrikes heavily pounded central and southern Gaza.

In the Maghazi refugee camp Monday, rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the wreckage of a strike the previous night. Records at the nearby Al-Aqsa Hospital seen by The Associated Press showed at least 106 people killed, making it one of the deadliest strikes of Israel’s air campaign.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization visited the hospital on Monday, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“The hospital is taking in far more patients than its bed capacity and staff can handle. Many will not survive the wait,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The war has devastated large parts of Gaza, killed more than 20,600 Palestinians and displaced almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million people.

U.N. officials have warned that a quarter of the population is starving under Israel’s siege of the territory, which allows in only a trickle of supplies.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas admitted to shooting dead a 13-year-old boy who was among a group of people who tried to seize aid from a truck. The shooting prompted a violent protest and rare public criticism of Hamas.

EGYPTIAN PROPOSAL

The Egyptian proposal is an ambitious bid not only to end the war but also to lay out a plan for the day after.

It calls for an initial cease-fire of up to two weeks during which Palestinian militants would free 40 to 50 hostages, among them women, the sick and the elderly, in return for the release of 120-150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, the Egyptian official said.

At the same time, negotiations would continue on extending the cease-fire and the release of more hostages and bodies held by Palestinian militants, he said. Israeli officials estimate that 20 of the hostages have died or been killed in captivity.

Egypt and Qatar would also work with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the rival, internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, to agree on the establishment of a government of experts, he said.

The government would rule Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period as Palestinian factions work toward presidential and parliamentary elections, he added.

In the meantime, Israel and Hamas would negotiate a comprehensive “all-for-all” deal, he said. This would include the release of all remaining hostages in return for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian militants’ halting of rocket attacks into Israel.

More than 8,000 Palestinians are held by Israel on security-related charges or convictions, according to Palestinian figures. Some have been convicted in deadly attacks on Israelis. While their release would be controversial, Israel has a history of agreeing to lopsided releases.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry spoke by phone Monday with Iran’s chief diplomat, Hossein Amirabdollahian, on the war in Gaza, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said. The statement said Shoukry discussed efforts to achieve a comprehensive cease-fire. It didn’t offer further details. Iran is a major supporter of Hamas.

In Washington, the White House declined to comment about the Egyptian proposal.

U.S. officials remain in close contact with Egypt and Qatar about getting more hostages released and several proposals have been floated, according to a person familiar with the talks. While the Egyptian proposal is viewed as a positive sign, the U.S. is skeptical it will result in a breakthrough, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind the scenes diplomacy.

INSIDE GAZA

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than two-thirds of the 20,674 Palestinians killed have been women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.

The offensive has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with shortages of food, medicines and other basic supplies.

With aid shipments limited, crowds have tried to seize some of the goods coming in on trucks. Hamas gunmen have been seen on top of some of the vehicles. The group says it is protecting the shipments, while Israel accuses it of stealing aid.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas acknowledged that a policeman with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry shot dead a 13-year-old boy, saying the shots were fired when a group of people tried to seize aid from a truck near the city of Rafah on Sunday, an official with Hamas government media office said Monday.

The shooting prompted a violent protest and rare public criticism of Hamas, which has shown little tolerance for dissent during its rule.

Enraged relatives of the slain boy, Ahmed Brikeh, attempted to attack a police station, burning tires and demanding the policeman be held accountable.

A relative, Mosaad Brikeh, blamed Hamas for the killing in video comments circulated on social media, accusing the policeman of shooting the boy “directly in his head.”

He said the family has previously cooperated with Hamas to secure the border area with Egypt. He called for the policeman to be held accountable, warning the family would prevent “any vehicles” from passing through the area.

The devastation of the war over the past weeks has brought sporadic eruptions of anger against Hamas, something that has previously been unthinkable during the group’s 16-year rule over Gaza.

Israel faces international criticism for the civilian death toll. It blames Hamas, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, without presenting evidence.

Late on Monday, the Israeli army said it had discovered the stolen car of the family of an Israeli hostage, Samer Al-Talalka, in a hospital compound in northern Gaza. Al-Talalka was among three hostages mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Gaza earlier this month.

The army said grenade fragments and bloodstains of another hostage were found in the vehicle. “The finding of the vehicle directly links the hospital to the brutal events of Oct. 7,” it said.

CHRISTMAS AMID WAR

Dozens of members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community held a Christmas Eve service in the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, which they have also used as a shelter. Last week, Catholic officials said that two Christian women were killed by Israeli sniper fire at the compound.

“This is not a feast,” said Kamal Ayad, whose wife and daughter were killed in the shooting. “This is a feast of pain for the Palestinian people.”

He said his only wish was for “peace and hope for a cease-fire.”

The service was held late Sunday, but details only emerged on Monday due to frequent internet outages.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian military liberates key Donbass stronghold – Moscow

Russian troops have fully liberated Maryinka, a key town in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced on Monday.

Maryinka – which has been legally part of Russia since last year's referendums –was a major Ukrainian military for many years. It is located immediately to the west of the city of Donetsk.

The minister broke the news during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Today, assault units with the troop grouping South fully liberated the town of Maryinka to the southwest of Donetsk,” Shoigu stated.

The liberation of the town opens up new opportunities for Russian troops and further damages Ukraine’s military capabilities, the minister said. The town, which has been the scene of fighting for nearly a decade since the early stages of the conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass, had been turned into a major stronghold by Kiev’s forces, Shoigu noted. An extensive network of underground tunnels and reinforced concrete bunkers was installed on almost every street, he added.

The Russian president congratulated all the troops involved “at different stages” in the struggle for Maryinka, stating that its liberation is an important milestone that will have a positive impact – pushing Ukrainian forces away from Donetsk, as well as providing Russian troops with wider operational freedom, Putin said.

The fighting over the DPR town intensified in recent months, with Russian forces gradually seizing control of key locations. The fighting left the town heavily damaged with no structure left intact, videos from Maryinka shared online show. 

Apart from serving as a stronghold for the Ukrainian military, Maryinka has also been one of the key staging points for attacks on Donetsk itself. The city has been subjected to indiscriminate missile and artillery shelling by Ukrainian forces on an almost daily basis during the conflict.

** Russia’s weapons industry outproducing West – deputy PM

Russia is outpacing Western countries in arms production despite the latter’s push to provide military support to Ukraine, Russian Deputy PM and Trade Minister Denis Manturov has said.

In a wide-ranging interview with RIA Novosti on Monday, Manturov offered a glimpse into the state of Russia’s defense industry, which has switched into a high gear to support the military as the Ukraine conflict is about to enter its third year.

According to the minister, Russia’s military factories have increased output and delivery rates by 10-12 times for certain categories of materiel and hardware. “Trust me, the numbers are huge,” he assured, although he declined to go into specifics, citing “certain nuances.” 

“I don’t want to boast but I can say that we have started picking up the pace in production and we accomplished that earlier than Western countries. How long this race will last – this is another question,” Manturov said, adding that Moscow has clear plans for future development.

Commenting on Western countries’ arms production plans, the minister declined to speculate whether they “will have enough juice” to keep up. “For the time being, we are outpacing them,” he added.

According to Manturov, Russia’s defense industry facilities have been operating smoothly, fulfilling at least 98% of all state orders. “This is a record, the highest level of fulfillment of state defense orders in the entire modern history of Russia,” he said, adding that total output has more than doubled compared to last year.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said earlier this month that Russia has managed to triple the production of armored units and double the production of aircraft, including drones, compared to last year. Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu also revealed that Moscow’s forces are receiving five times more artillery shells and missiles in 2023 than in 2022.

Meanwhile, in late March, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that the country’s defense industry was producing three times more ammunition than Western backers could send to Ukraine.

He also said that the US was producing 14,000-15,000 artillery shells a month, with plans to increase this number to 42,000 by 2024. However, according to Putin, this was not enough to satisfy Ukraine’s needs as it is burning up to 5,000 shells each day.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine carries out air assault on Crimea's port of Feodosia

Ukraine carried out an air attack on Feodosia in Crimea, Ukraine's air force commander said on Tuesday, after the Russian-installed governor of the Crimea said that the assault sparked a fire in the town's port area.

Commander of Ukraine's air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said on the Telegram messaging app, without providing evidence, that the attack destroyed a major Russian Navy vessel, the landing Novocherkask ship.

"And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!" said Oleshchuk.

The report could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Russia.

Both Russia and Ukraine have often exaggerated the losses they claim to have inflicted upon each other in the 22-month long war, while underestimated their own casualty and equipment losses.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said only that the Ukrainian attack resulted in a fire in the town's port area that was promptly contained.

"All relevant emergency services are on site," Aksyonov said on the Telegram. "Residents of several houses will be evacuated."

Footage posted on several Russian news outlets on Telegram showed powerful explosions and fires over a port area.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in a broadly condemned move in 2014.

** Ukraine draft law proposes lowering mobilisation age to 25 from 27

Text of a draft law posted on the website of Ukraine's parliament late on Monday proposed lowering the age of those who can be mobilized for combat duty to 25 from 27.

The proposed change comes as Ukraine's 22-month-old battle against Russia drags on. On Sunday, Ukraine and Russia exchanged claims over downed military aircraft, and on Monday Ukraine denied Russia's claim that its forces had seized the regional centre Maryinka in eastern Ukraine.

The draft text detailed which Ukrainian citizens would be subject to enrolment for military registration of conscripts and said it would apply to those "who have reached the age of 25."

An explanatory note signed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov summarized key provisions of the draft law, saying they included the "change of conscription age from 27 to 25 years."

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told his end-of-year news conference on Dec. 19 that the military had proposed mobilising 450,000-500,000 more Ukrainians, but that it was a "highly sensitive" issue that the military and government would discuss before deciding whether to send the proposal to parliament.

Zelenskiy, who has yet to back the proposal publicly, said on Dec. 19 that he wanted to hear more arguments for mobilising additional people. "This is a very serious number," he said.

Ukraine's troop numbers are not known, but in the past it has been said the country has around 1 million people under arms. U.S. officials estimate that hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine. Neither country publishes its casualty figures.

David Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskiy's party in parliament, said the government was working on the bill at the request of the military and that it was due to be introduced on Monday.

"The military needs a solution to its problems," he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app earlier on Monday. "Society wants to hear answers to all sensitive questions."

RT/Reuters