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African press review 19 December 2014

Boko Haram kidnaps more women and children, as Nigeria's security services struggle to contain the Islamist insurgency. And - Live on TV! - Kenyan MPs brawl over security measures and freedom of expression.

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In Nigeria the papers have been relaying the outrage and shock sweeping through the country after reports that Boko Haram has abducted large numbers of children and women near the Borno state town of Chibok, where they kidnapped 200 schoolgirls eight months ago.

The Guardian reports that details of the attack in the remote enclave of Gumsuri on Sunday during which 32 people were killed took four days to emerge.

The Nation learned from one survivor who escaped to Gombe State that the insurgents came to the village in hundreds and ordered the villagers to assemble in an open place where they separated the women from the men and the young girls and from the boys, opening fire on those who refused to join them on their mission.

Punch says that Gumsuri lies 70 kilometres south of the state capital Maiduguri and the mobile phone network in the region has completely collapsed, adding to inaccessibility due to the area’s horrible road network.

No surprise then that the Nigerian newspapers are unable to give the exact number of people abducted. Punch claims that 185 girls and women were taken hostage while Vanguard puts the figure at 191, quoting its sources as saying that the Islamists did not just cart away women and girls but also dozens of young boys.

The Sun is reporting that Cameroon’s army killed 116 Boko Haram members on Wednesday when they attacked a Cameroonian base in Amchidé 65km from the Far North regional capital Maroua.

As Nigerians head for another bleak Christmas, South Africa’s Mail and Guardian describes Boko Haram’s five-year campaign for an Islamist state as the greatest threat to the security of Africa’s biggest economy and top oil producer.

The paper also raises serious questions about the ability of security forces to protect civilians in Africa’s most populated nation. It points to the sentencing to death of 54 soldiers who refused to deploy for an operation against Boko Haram in the north-east as an example of the problems plaguing the military.

Security concerns have also left Kenya on the brink of democratic chaos as a house debate on new controversial security left deputies fighting, hurling abuse at each other and, in one case, splashing water on Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso.

According to the Daily Nation, it was a day of drama never witnessed in the country’s history. Kenyans watched live on national television in disbelief as their representatives exchanged blows, tore the order paper (the official record of the day’s transactions) and fought for control of the Mace.

Opposition MPs were infuriated that the bill, which they claim takes away some civil liberties guaranteed in the constitution, had to be rammed through parliament without adequate debate to meet a deadline for the close of the extraordinary session. Daily Nation reports that one senator sitting in the public gallery had his trousers and shirt torn in a scuffle.

The bill hands the National Police Service the right to approve the publication or broadcast of information relating to investigations on terrorism. Police will also have to approve publication of photographs of victims of terrorist attacks under the provisions of the bill passed on Thursday. The penalty is a maximum 45,000 euros or a jail term of not more than three years or both.

It was Kenya’s day of shame, comments the Standard Digital. For the newspaper, the agents of chaos must have been smiling from wherever they were as parliament, the country’s symbol of unity, came under siege with heavily armed police officers patrolling outside to keep demonstrators away.

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