CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR)
MUSLIMS BLOCKED FROM FLEEING TO CAMEROON; 540 FLEE TO CHAD
UN reports that armed militias are blocking the main roads used by Muslim civilians fleeing CAR for Cameroon, and attacking evacuees; an estimated 14,000 Muslims remain trapped in Boda, surrounded by anti-Balaka armed groups threatening the minority population; 540 Muslims previously trapped in Bossangoa were relocated to Chad through an inter-agency organized escorted convoy.
GUINEA BISSAU
PRESIDENTIAL AND PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, OUTCOMES
Guinea-Bissau's former finance minister, Jose Mario Vaz will face Nuno Gomes Nabiam in a presidential run-off on 18 May. The President’s incumbent party won a majority in the 100-seat parliament with 55 seats; the opposition party came in second with 41 seats. Voter turnout was high at over 80 per cent.
MALI
AID HOSTAGES FREED
French forces freed five Malian aid workers kidnapped in February by insurgents in the north of Mali.
NIGERIABOKO HARAM BOMBS ABUJA, KILLS 75 AND INJURES
130 Nigerian militant group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for a bombing in the capital, Abuja, on April 14 that killed at least 75 people and injured 133. The next day, the group reportedly kidnapped 230 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Borno state in northeast Nigeria- a stronghold of the insurgents; the girls remain missing. The state of emergency in the northeast imposed since May 2013 expires in May 2014. President Goodluck Jonathan has not yet requested an extension, however, this is likely given on-going insecurity in the region. Reports continue to indicate that Boko Haram moves freely across the northeast’s borders into Cameroon and Niger.
