Boko Haram no longer 'holds any territory,' Nigeria tells UN, but killing continues

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TODAY:

• The Nigerian government seems eager to declare the war with Boko Haram over, despite ongoing attacks that indicate the militant group remains a lethal force
• La Presse will become a non-profit entity, Power Corp. announced today 
• Despite tougher laws, India appears to be making little progress in its battle against rapists
• Missed The National last night? Watch it here

Nigeria's 'Mission Accomplished' moment

The Nigerian Army says that it has freed 1,000 captives of Boko Haram during a week-long battle with the militant group in the country's northeast.

The rescued prisoners are said to be mostly women and children, although some young men who were also abducted and forced to fight for the group are among them.

The army is providing few details about the operation beyond saying that it also involved forces from Chad, Benin, Niger and Cameroon — all part of a multinational anti-Boko Haram task force — and that four villages were targeted.

Local media reports that the captives have been taken to hospital for treatment, debriefing and "rehabilitation."

This is not the first time that Nigeria's military has made such claims. In February, after Boko Haram kidnapped more than 100 schoolgirls in Yobe state, the army — and the country's president, Muhammadu Buhari — both announced that 76 of them had been rescued in a counter-attack, only to later back away from the story.

The girls were returned to their homes in the village of Dapchi more than a month later, following negotiations with the militant group and the rumoured payment of a large ransom.

The jihadist group's insurgency has been grinding on for nine years. It has resulted in more than 20,000 deaths and displaced 2.3 million from their homes.

The Nigerian government seems to be eager to declare the war over — again and again. For more than two years now, citizens have been told that the fighting is all but finished, or even that Boko Haram has been completely defeated.

Just yesterday, Samson Itegboje, Nigeria's ambassador to the United Nations, told the General Assembly that Boko Haram no longer "holds any territory" in the country.

The declaration came at the same time that media back home were reporting that a Nigerian Air Force jet flattened a village in Borno state with rockets and cannon bursts, "neutralizing" a "major source of fire from the Boko Haram terrorists."

A spate of recent attacks suggest that the militant group remains a lethal force. An assault on Nigerian soldiers on the outskirts of Maiduguri city, Borno's capital, in April killed 18 and wounded 84.

Just last week, a suicide bomber blew himself up during afternoon prayers at a mosque in the northeastern town of Mubi, killing at least 60.

Today, Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, announced the impending launch of "Operation Last Call" in Northern Borno and Yobe states, with a goal of helping displaced residents return to their communities.

"Very soon people will return to their homes, resettle and commence agricultural activity for this year's rainy season," the general promised.

Although the tough talk may just be that. In March, Buhari's government disclosed that it has been quietly negotiating with Boko Haram "for some time" — seeking a ceasefire in a war that has already been "won."

No Power in La Presse

Over the past few years, Montreal's La Presse has done more to reinvent itself than any other Canadian newspaper, driving its readers to a digital edition — and as of the beginning of 2018, doing away with print copies altogether.

Now the paper is set to make its biggest leap of faith. Its long-time owners, Power Corp., today announced their intention to walk away and let La Presse try its future as a non-profit entity.

The Desmarais family, who have controlled the paper for more than 50 years via their holding company, will provide $50 million in seed money for the proposed "social trust." They have signalled that they are open to striking a bargain with unions so that Power Corp. will continue to assume pension obligations.

The change comes in the wake of a commitment by Ottawa in February's federal budget to change tax rules, allowing newspapers to seek charitable status and solicit donations from their readers.

Such trusts have become a common ownership model in the United States and elsewhere as the print business struggles to adapt to the steady erosion of advertising revenue.

"There's a huge gap in terms of ad revenue between the model that we designed in 2010 and today's reality," Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, the president of La Presse, wrote in a message to readers today. "The traditional business model for print media is completely broken."

La Presse stopped printing its weekday edition at the end of 2015, laying off 158 full- and part-time workers. The last Saturday paper rolled off the press this past New Year, marking an end to 133 years of print and costing a further 49 jobs.

The privately held company does not disclose its operating results. But like most newspapers, La Presse is believed to have bled red ink in recent years, despite having 260,000 tablet readers each day and attracting 3.4 million more to its website each month.

The proposed change can't go forward until Quebec's National Assembly agrees to repeal a 1967 act governing the paper's ownership. Power Corp. says it will then sever all ties with La Presse and the paper can devote "all profit from operations, any government assistance and money collected from donors" to producing high-quality journalism.

The paper currently employs 585 people, and layoffs are not part of the new vision.

The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper and its Sunday sister publication, The Observer, have been owned by a non-charitable trust since 1936. But that structure has not proven immune to the changing print market. In 2016, operating and investment losses lopped £100 million off the value of the trust, sparking fears that the papers may not be sustainable despite their £740 million ($1.3 billion Cdn) endowment.

More recently, things have been looking up after budget and staff cuts reduced the losses, and a "membership model" brought a new revenue stream online. Some 600,000 people now donate to keep the papers going, and management predicts that they will break even this year.

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India's rape crisis

The minimum sentence for rape in India is 10 years in prison.

The maximum — under certain circumstances — is death.

How, then, does one explain the punishment handed down by a village council in the northeastern state of Jharkhand this past weekend for the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl? A fine of 50,000 rupees  ($959 Cdn) and 100 sit-ups.

And even that slap on the wrist proved too much for the assailant's relatives and neighbours. They stormed the girl's home and assaulted her again, and then set the building alight, burning her alive.

It has been been more than five years since a brutal gang rape resulted in the death of a 23-year-old Delhi woman, sparking protests across the country and drawing international condemnation.

Laws were toughened and 400 fast-track courts set up to speed up rape prosecutions. There's been a sharp increase in the number of reported assaults — 38,947 in 2016 or four rapes every hour, up 60 per cent from 2012.

But seemingly little else has changed.

Among the horrifying crimes reported so far in 2018:

• The kidnapping, drugging and assault of an eight-year-old Muslim girl at a Hindu temple in Kashmir in January. After a week in captivity she was strangled and beaten to death with a stone. Eight men have been charged and await trial.
• The rape, torture and murder of a 15-year-old girl in the city of Jind that same month. The body of her alleged assailant, a 19-year-old man, was later found in a canal.
• The March gang rape and murder of 12-year-old girl in Assam state. She, too, was set on fire.
• An alleged cover-up and murder after a 16-year-old made a rape allegation against a lawmaker from the ruling BJP party in Uttar Pradesh state. The case only came to light in April after the girl tried to commit suicide outside the chief minister's house when police failed to act on her complaint. Now her father is dead, following a clash with the politician's supporters.

Forty-three per cent of rape victims in India in 2016 were under the age of 18. And statistics from India's National Crime Records Bureau show that the number of reported sexual assaults against children under 12 have more than doubled since 2012, with 19,765 cases in 2016.

Some of that may have to do with increased reporting and public awareness. And certainly, there has been no shortage of outrage over the recent cases, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to call for government action. (Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded with an executive order making child rape punishable by death, and providing more resources for investigators and the courts.)

But rape conviction rates have been steadily falling in India, with one in four trials now ending in a guilty verdict.

Which sounds bad, until you compare the numbers with Western nations.

In the U.K., 41,150 rapes were reported in 2016. Just 5,190 went to trial, resulting in 2,991 convictions.

And just one in 10 sexual assault cases reported to Canadian police results in a conviction.

Quote of the moment

"If we can get what we want from a deal without America, then Iran will continue to remain committed to the deal ... Getting rid of America's mischievous presence will be fine for Iran."

- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggests that he's not particularly worried by the prospect of Donald Trump pulling the United States out of the nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic signed with five other parties.

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Today in history

May 8, 1984: Gunman kills 3 at Quebec legislature

Canadian Forces Cpl. Denis Lortie stormed Quebec's National Assembly armed with a submachine gun and the intention of "destroying" the separatist Parti-Québécois government. His three victims, however, were a page, a messenger, and an employee of the director of elections. Thirteen others were wounded that day. And it could have been much worse if not for the conspicuous heroism of René Jalbert, the chamber's Sergeant at Arms. Jalbert strolled in, calmed Lortie down, and even fed him lunch — a coffee and a tomato sandwich — before persuading him to surrender.

1984: Gunman kills 3 at Quebec legislature

41 years ago

Duration 2:54

Denis Lortie, a Canadian soldier, goes on a shooting spree at the Quebec National Assembly.

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