The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.
This column will cover the preceding week of news.
North America
Starting off in the United States, a wave of bomb threats against both shopping centers and various schools kept emergency responders busy across the country this week. While some calls were made by persons calling various locations, there is an uptick in threats of this type being made via social media platforms such as TikTok, from ‘dummy’ accounts; this is interesting, as it may signal an evolution of the waves of mass robo-call bomb threats against K-12 schools that plagued the United States and several European nations several years ago. The Freedomist will continue to monitor the situation, to see if this suspicion develops into a trend.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7]
Turning to Mexico, an “operator” of the Sinaloa Cartel, one Manuel Andrés, alias “El Griego”, was assassinated in a restaurant in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, just over the border from Arizona, yet another casualty in that country’s long-running drug- and gang-related violence.
[Source]
South America
Turning to South America, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW), issued a report on the 28th of March accusing the army of Venezuela, long-suffering under the rule of dictator Nicolás Maduro, of actively aiding Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) against the forces of a rival guerilla group, the so-called “Joint Eastern Command” – a little-known breakaway faction of the mostly-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). According to HRW’s report, the rival guerilla groups began skirmishing in January of 2022, fighting over control of territory and illegal activities in Colombia’s Arauca state and Venezuela’s Apure state, with reports of mass kidnappings, assassinations of local leaders and waves of internally-displaced refugees numbering in the thousands attempting to flee the violence.
In Columbia proper, meanwhile, national leaders blamed the bombing of a police station which killed two children and injured 39 others in the Colombian capital city of Bogota last week on other, unspecified dissidents of the FARC.
This comes as a report of some 11 FARC dissidents belonging to the splinter faction “Segunda Marquetalia” were killed in skirmishing with Colombian forces near the nation’s southern jungle town of Puerto Leguizamo. Many of the various splinter groups to have rejected the 2016 ceasefire and official disbanding of the FARC have gone to work as muscle for various cocaine cartels, guarding the coca fields and the resultant shipments.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
Africa
In Africa, the Nigerian state of Abuja saw a sudden spate of violence, as unidentified gunmen abducted traditional ruler His Royal Highness (HRH) Alhaji Hassan Shamidozhi. This comes as bandits attacked a train from Abuja, bound for Kaduna. Army units promptly responded to the attack on the train, reportedly carrying nearly one-thousand passengers, but reports indicated that some number of people were kidnapped by the attackers, and carried off. Elsewhere along the same rail line, police bomb squad units defused an IED planted on the rails near the town of Rigasa.
In the Central African nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), rebels of the “M23” group reportedly shot down a United Nations (UN) helicopter (reportedly an Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma), killing eight peacekeepers and UN observers, six military personnel from Pakistan, and a pair of observers from the Russian Federation and from Serbia in the country’s North Kivu province. The group, attached to the UN’s MONUSCO mission in the country, were assessing the situation in the province, following a wave of attacks in the region by the M23 group that has sent thousands fleeing for safety. The M23 group has denied the attack, claiming that the helicopter was shot down by DRC armed forces.
On the continent’s Indian Ocean coast, Mozambique’s government made a statement that its army, the Mozambique Defense Armed Forces (FADM), had conducted a “successful operation” in the Macomia District of the nation’s Cabo Delgado province, reportedly destroying a “hideout”. This comes shortly after another operation, on Matemo Island, part of the Quirimbas Islands group, that reportedly killed some twenty Islamist terrorists from ISCAP. However, the conflict – simmering since 2017, with occasional bouts of significant combat – is difficult to report on, as Mozambique’s government actively restricts reporting on the conflict.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8]
The Middle East
The region remained largely quiet this week, “quiet” in comparison to the normal regional news cycle. In a surprise announcement on March 30th, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi government in Yemen said that it was suspending military operations in the Arabian Peninsular nation, as a goodwill gesture to allow peace talks to take place between the various Yemeni factions, in an attempt to end the long-running civil war in the country. This comes, as the Saudi government “blacklisted” some ten individuals and 15 entities for facilitating the financing of the Houthi movement.
In Pakistan, six Pakistani soldiers were killed, along with three terrorists, in an assault on an army post in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the 30th. Meanwhile, other insurgents blew up a rail line near the Kotri area of Sindh province; no groups had claimed responsibility for the attack as of press time. Elsewhere in Sindh, a special antiterrorism court sentenced Zahidullah Suleman and Bismillah Haji Lala to death for plotting an attack on the Sindh Assembly building in an attempt to rally support for a war against the state. The court also laid down life sentences on three other defendants – Muhammad Qasim, Inamullah Bilal and Gul Muhammad – on a range of charges including possession of explosives, police encounter and attempted murder.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
Southern Asia
Finally, turning to India, police in Rajasthan arrested several suspects believed to be connected to Islamist terror groups, seizing approximately 12kg/26lbs of completed explosive devices and bomb-making components. Elsewhere, India remained mostly quiet, although a scattering of IED’s, most suspected to have been placed by Maoist Communist insurgents, injured several people throughout the “Red Corridor“.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
About Author
Michael Cessna
Michael Cessna is a former Active Duty United States Marine, a long-time personal protection specialist, security and defense analyst, military subjects instructor, general information researcher and amateur historian. He has been contributing security and defense writing since 2015.
