A major action by the Nigerian military against the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram as resulted in the freedom of 71 girls and women who had been held captive by the terror group.
Some of the women had been in the control of the terrorists for a year.
Close to 30 people were saved in a raid on Tuesday, with the remainder freed during an assault on two jihadist camps in Borno on Wednesday. The camps were about 22 miles southeast of the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.
Army spokesman Tukur Gusau said a number of terrorists were killed during the military raid.
The army has been focusing on raids that will free hostages in light of many of the hostages being forced into suicide terror attacks. Suicide bomber attacks spurred by Boko Haram have killed 47 people in the last week.
The group has also increased their campaigns of terror, killing 830 in just two months.
However, Nigeria’s military spokesman said a new multi-national group fighting the terrorists is about to go into service.
“Any moment from now, the operations or the Task Force will be manifest. In other words, we may not tell you (when it will commence), you will just see it,” Nigeria’s military spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade told AFP, who declined to give further details for strategic reasons.
Two young boys in Orange County, Florida are being hailed as heroes after running into a burning mobile home to save the lives of two other children.
Isiah Francis, 10, called 911 when he saw the fire. He then ran into the home with his friend, 11-year-old Jeremiah Grimes saw his friend rushing into the building and joined him. The two saved two young children who had been trapped by the flames.
Firefighters then arrived and rescued two other children.
“I was in the place first trying to get those little kids out to save their lives,” Francis said. “I was nervous because there was so much smoke. It was hard for me to see and all that.”
Isiah said that Jeremiah stood at the door and directed him through the heavy smoke until they found the youngest children.
“I took the infant, he took the older one and we ran back to his house,” Grimes said.
“Although we never advise entering a building on fire,” said Fire Chief Otto Drozd III, “we must recognize the courage it took for those kids to risk their own lives to save the lives of others.”
The children rescued by firefighters are in critical but stable condition at Arnold Palmer Hospital.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Nigerian Army’s successes against the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram continued this weekend with the rescue of more captured women.
Military officials say that 234 more women and girls were taken from a Boko Haram stronghold in the Sambia Forest. The total number of women and children rescued in the last week from the terrorists reached 527.
The girls and women are being given counseling to help them with the brainwashing attempts of the terrorists. Some of the women actually fired on the troops, leading officials to say that after forced marriages and long captivity, some of the women have been successfully convinced they are part of the terror network.
The military was unable to say if any of the captives were part of the 200 schoolgirls taken from Chibok that led to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The leader of Boko Haram had said those girls would be sold to other members of Boko Haram.
“I abducted your girls,” Shekau said in a 57-minute video earlier. “I abducted a girl at a western education school and you are disturbed. I said western education should end. Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married. I will repeat this: western education should fold up. I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of nine.”
The Nigerian army scored a major victory in their battle with Boko Haram, saving 293 women and girls from a Boko Haram camp.
The total included 200 girls although they were not the same girls kidnapped from Chibok last year that lead to the #BringBackOurGirls movement.
The raid in the Sambia Forest is the latest in a series of military movements in that region where Boko Haram had maintained a stronghold in their campaign against the government. The region is not far from Chibok, which had initially led to hopes the girls were from the Chibok kidnapping.
The terrorists announced they are changing their name to Islamic State’s West Africa Province after aligning their group with the terrorist group ISIS.
A security officer to the governor of Borno State, where the raided area is located, said that unless the military focuses on taking out the leader of Boko Haram, the kidnapping of women is going to continue.
“How could they rescue over 200 women without getting Shekau or the top B. H. commanders?” Hussaini Monguno asked of the New York Times. “How many were killed? Without clear explanation, people will always believe they just want to cover up.”
Cyclone Pam slowly churned over Vanuatu with violence so intense that it completely destroyed all buildings on some of the nation’s outer islands.
Relief workers are reporting entire towns flattened and widespread destruction. They say that it could be weeks before the number of dead can be counted. Radio and telephone communications have been down hampering rescue and relief efforts.
Survivors in outer islands have had to flash light using mirrors or have created giant letter “H”s from debris to get the attention of passing aircraft.
Australian foreign minster Julie Bishop said that flyovers of military aircraft make it appear that more than 80 percent of homes have been completely destroyed throughout the island nation.
“We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation,” Bishop said. “Not only buildings flattened — palm plantations, trees. It’s quite a devastating sight.”
Officials in the nation’s capital of Port Vila say that 90 percent of the town has been destroyed and that the airport is so badly damaged planes cannot currently land. The city’s hospital survived but only one doctor survived the storm.
Avalanches have hampered rescue efforts after a massive storm that rocked Nepal.
Over 600 people have been rescued so far from a hiking trail on Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest mountain peak. A massive snowstorm hit the mountain because of a cyclone that struck nearby India.
Rescue workers say today will be their last day to try and save anyone trapped because of avalanches and the storm.
“After this we can only hope that those who are missing will establish contact with us or their families,” said Kesa Paned of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal. “We don’t think that any tourist is missing now. I am getting reports that some local porters and tour guides who were on the trek have not been traced so far.”
The confirmed death toll is at 40. Officials said the dead tourist was an Israeli.
The death toll includes tourists from around the world including Canada, India, Israel, Japan and Poland.
The death toll in the Mount Ontake eruption is the worst for Japan in 88 years.
Military rescue units reported finding more bodies buried in ash, bringing the death toll to 47. The searchers were called down from the mountain after the discovery after a discovery of poisonous gasses and fears the mountain was about to explode again.
The mountain had been covered with climbers and hikers who were looking at the fall colors of the leaves when the unexpected eruption blanketed the area with ash. Hundreds were injured in some way by the blast and also breathing issues from the ash.
Witnesses said that there was no warning at all before the mountain erupted.
The death toll is the worst since 144 people died in a 1926 eruption on the island of Hokkaido.
Houston police received a desperate phone call pleading with them to come and save a family who was being held by smugglers.
The police raided a south Harris County home where they thought the woman and children were being held and instead discovered 110 people who were trapped inside a rancid “stash house” where human traffickers were holding them for ransom.
Authorities say at least three traffickers have been arrested in connection to the house.
The victims were kept without clothing and shoes in an attempt to keep them from attempting to flee the house. The windows were boarded up from the inside and there were bars on the doors and windows.
The victims were between 5 and 47 years old and the majority were men. They were taken to hospitals for treatment for dehydration and malnutrition.
“Oh, God, by your name, save me. … The Lord sustains my life.”
Harrison Odjegba Okene repeated those words as he spent three days trapped under a capsized boat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A video of the man’s dramatic rescue went viral this week showing his amazing rescue.
A dive team working out of Lagos, Nigeria had been working to salvage a tugboat that capsized and sank. They had already pulled four bodies from the vessel when a diver noticed another hand on his video monitor. When he went to grab it, the hand grabbed him back.
“He was incredibly lucky. He was in an air pocket, but he would have had a limited time (before) … he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore,” Tony Walker of Dutch company DCN Diving told the Washington Post.
Okene says his life was saved only by divine intervention. He told reporters that he kept repeating a psalm that his wife had sent him via text message earlier in the day.
“I started calling on the name of God,” Okene said. “I started reminiscing on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalms 54 to 92. My wife had sent me the verses to read that night when she called me before I went to bed.”
