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Terrorism and organised crime by violent extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State are a pervasive threat in Africa's volatile Sahel region and are spilling over to West Africa's coastal countries, the top UN envoy for the area warned on Friday. Leonardo Simao, the UN special representative for the Sahel and West Africa, said the focus on combating terrorism has had limited effect in stopping rampant illegal trafficking in the Sahel and the effort needs more police. It's drugs, it's weapons, it's human beings, it's mineral resources, and even food, Simao said after briefing the UN Security Council. According to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' new report on the Sahel and West Africa, hundreds of people have been killed in the first half of 2024 alone in terrorist attacks, many of them civilians.. The vast majority of deaths occurred in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, whose ruling military juntas in March announced a joint security force to fight terrorism, though t
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the BJP is wrong if it thought that it can intimidate the Congress Party with "tax terrorism". Reacting to the Income Tax Department's fresh notice to the party asking to pay Rs 1,823 crore, Siddaramaiah alleged that the BJP is afraid of losing the Lok Sabha elections and hence "terrorising" the party by misusing central agencies. "The Bharatiya Janata Party, fearful of impending defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, has been misusing autonomous institutions like the IT Department, ED, and CBI to undermine the Congress Party. "As part of this tactic, they have unleashed tax terrorism' on our party. The BJP is under the illusion that by weakening our party, it can win the election," Siddaramaiah said in a statement. Quoting Congress leaders, the chief minister said that between 2017 and 2018, the BJP obtained contributions from 92 undisclosed donors and from 1,297 donors lacking address details. "Should the same criteria
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hit out at the Modi government, alleging that the Income Tax Department is "running amok"in a bid to meet India's revenue shortfall. "The FM (Nirmala Sitharaman) said in her budget speech that an elephant should take just 2 pounds of rice & not trample the entire paddy field," Gandhi said in a tweet. "Meanwhile, the IT dept elephant is running amok in a bid to meet India's revenue shortfall," he said. Gandhi also shared media reports alleging that "tax terrorism" was hurting India's growth.