Islamist Terrorism Is The Biggest Challenge Facing Germany- Merkel

Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year message.

Referring to the deadly truck attack in Berlin by a Tunisian asylum seeker, she said it was "sickening" when acts of terror were carried out by people who had sought protection.

She said 2016 had been a year of "severe tests".

But she also said she was confident Germany could overcome them.

"As we go about our lives and our work, we are saying to the terrorists: 'You are hate-filled murderers, but you do not determine how we live and want to live. We are free, considerate and open'," Mrs Merkel said.

Twelve people were killed when Anis Amri drove a truck at crowds at a Berlin Christmas market two weeks ago.

Earlier in the year, a teenage Afghan refugee wounded five people in an axe attack on a train in Wuerzburg and a Syrian whose asylum application had been refused blew himself up outside a bar in
Ansbach, wounding 15 other people.

The attacks have led to some criticism of Mrs Merkel's policy of admitting more than a million refugees and migrants in 2015.

But in her New Year message the chancellor said images of the devastation in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where Syrian government forces have forced out rebels after months of fighting, showed how "important and right" it was for Germany to take in those fleeing the conflict.

"All this is reflected in our democracy, rule of law and values. They are the opposite of the hate-filled world of terrorism and will prove stronger than it. Together we are stronger. Our state is stronger," she said.

Mrs Merkel also denounced "distortions" that were leading people to believe that the EU and even parliamentary democracy were no longer working.

The EU was "slow and difficult", had suffered a blow with the United Kingdom's vote to leave and should focus on the things it "really can do better than the nation state", she said.

"But no - we Germans should never be deceived into thinking that a happy future could ever lie in going it alone nationally," she added.

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Soldiers Killed By Unknown Gunmen At A Refugee Camp In Niger

Niger Prime Minister, Brigi Rafini says, nothing less than 22 soldiers were killed by some unknown gunmen at a refugee camp. The attack targeted a camp in the village of Tassalit in Niger’s Tahoua region, around 525 km Northeast of Niamey. “We received information of an attack on the camp in Tassalit. “For the moment we are told there are 22 dead, but that is not a total death toll. “The death toll could increase,” he said. Rafini gave no further information concerning the suspected identities of the attackers or whether any civilians had been killed or wounded. The camp’s residents are Malians who fled to neighbouring Niger after Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda, seized Mali’s desert north in 2012. A French-led military intervention drove back the insurgents a year later but violence is on the rise across the region’s arid Sahel band. Niger’s small army is currently battling Boko Haram militants who launch raids across its Southern border from Nigeria while seeking to prevent an overflow of attacks from Mali. There are also concerns that Islamic State fighters could be pushed onto its territory by a government offensive in Libya

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Boko Haram: Fresh Attack From Boko Haram Leaving 8 Dead

At least eight people were killed outside a church in a suspected Boko Haram attack carried out by gunmen on bicycles in northeast Nigeria, local residents said on Monday. The attack happened shortly after morning service on Sunday in Kwamjilari village, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of the town of Chibok, in Borno state. “Some of the worshippers remained around the church and the gunmen opened fire and eight men died,” said Luka Damina, from nearby Kautikeri village, where locals fled. Boko Haram “Unknown to the residents, the gunmen had stationed some of their comrades on the road leading out of the village and they shot anyone who tried to flee. “Many people ran into the bush with gunshot wounds. But so far we can only confirm eight deaths.” The attackers set fire to homes and fields of maize that were almost ready for harvest, according to a local chief in Kautikeri, who also said eight people were killed.

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