Eight other people were wounded, including four seriously, in Thursday evening’s attack, said Hamburg interior minister Andy Grote, calling it “the worst crime in our city’s recent history”.

Police identified the gunman as Philipp F., 35, a former member of the Christian group who left the community about 18 months ago “but not on good terms”.

Investigators were still seeking a motive for the killings, but there was no indication of a terrorist motive in the attack, said a senior prosecutor.

An anonymous tip-off had been sent to the weapons control authority in January this year, claiming that Philipp F. may have been suffering from an undiagnosed psychological illness and that he had a “particular anger against religious members or age Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer”.

Raids following the shooting on the gunman’s apartment uncovered 15 magazines loaded with 15 bullets each and four further packs of ammunition with about 200 rounds.

Police said the gunman had fired several shots at a car after noticing the driver manoeuvring the vehicle as he was headed for the Kingdom Hall building. The woman escaped with light injuries and contacted police.

The assailant shot at a window through which he entered the building and began firing on the congregation of around three dozen people present at the service with another 25 people participating on livestream.

The first distress calls reached emergency services at 9:04 pm local time (2004 GMT) on Thursday, and police forced their way into the Jehovah’s Witnesses building minutes later.

The police action interrupted the shooting, prompting the attacker to flee to the first floor of the building where he killed himself, said Grote.

“We can assume that (the rapid police action) saved many lives,” he added.

Police had initially said the shooting left eight people dead, but that included the gunman and a seven-month-old foetus killed in the attack. The woman pregnant with the baby has survived and was counted among the wounded.

 ‘Filmed the whole thing’ 

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany association said it was “deeply saddened by the horrific attack on its members”.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the “brutal act of violence” and said his thoughts were with the victims and their loved ones.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said investigators were “working flat-out to determine the background” to the attack.

Neighbours recalled hearing multiple shots fired late Thursday.

“Our son filmed the whole thing, he could see quite well from the house,” Bernd Miebach, a 66-year-old business owner, told AFP.

“On the video you can see that someone broke a window, you can hear shots fired and see that someone broke in.”

Police have asked witnesses to come forward and upload any pictures or videos they may have to a special website.

Another resident said police arrived on the scene within “four or five minutes”.

“We heard shots and we knew something big was happening,” said the woman, who gave only her first name Anetta.

She said she knew the building was used by members of the Jehovah’s Witness community, describing them as “very peaceful, quiet”.

The three-storey building was still cordoned off on Friday with several officers standing outside.

Hearses arrived at around midday, and at least four bodies were carried out from the building, an AFP reporter said.

Germany has about 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, including 3,800 in Hamburg. The US Christian movement, set up in the late 19th century and which preaches non-violence, is known for door-to-door evangelism.

Hit by Attacks 

Germany has been rocked by several attacks in recent years, both by jihadists and far-right extremists.

Among the deadliest committed by Islamist extremists was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

Germany has also been hit by a string of far-right assaults, sparking accusations that the government was not doing enough to stamp out neo-Nazi violence.

In February 2020, a far-right extremist shot dead 10 people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau.

In 2019, two people were killed after a neo-Nazi tried to storm a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

The post Ex-Jehovah’s Witness shoots six members dead in Germany first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Ex-Jehovah’s Witness shoots six members dead in Germany appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

“We do not know yet if an attack has been decided on,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, adding that the “threat against Ukraine is very real”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, attending the same conference, also pushed back against Washington’s dire predictions.

“We do not think that we need to panic,” Zelensky told an audience of top-level officials and security experts from around the world.

US President Joe Biden had said a day earlier that he was “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin had “made the decision” to attack Ukraine, sending fears soaring that a major conflict could break out in Europe.

Baerbock made her remarks after hosting a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting on the fringes of the Munich gathering, which has been dominated by the Ukraine crisis this year.

The group of seven most developed nations — including the United States — reaffirmed they were “united” in their support for Ukraine and determined to respond to any violation of its sovereignty, said Baerbock, whose country holds the rotating G7 presidency.

“Pull your troops back, avoid damage to Russia and Ukraine and let us talk,” Baerbock said in an appeal to Putin.

But the message of unity was slightly undermined by Baerbock’s refusal to echo US claims that Russia could invade Ukraine any moment now.

“In crisis situations, the most inappropriate thing to do is to somehow guess or assume,” Baerbock told reporters, after being repeatedly pressed on whether Germany shared Biden’s assessment.

Germany nevertheless urged its nationals to leave Ukraine on Saturday.

Speaking on the main stage in Munich, Zelensky said it was “difficult for me to judge” the US intelligence behind the warnings, but “I trust Ukrainian intelligence, who understand what’s going on along our borders”.

Zelensky also touched on the toll the incessant threat of war was taking on his country, both on people’s mental health and on the economy.

“We need to preserve our stability. We need to keep calm and be adults,” he said.

NATO Jens Stoltenberg, speaking to German broadcaster ARD, stuck more closely to the US line when he described the risk of an attack as “very high”.

“Every indication indicates that Russia is planning a full-fledged attack against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

Nord Stream 2 spat

Baerbock reiterated in Munich that Russia would face “unprecedented” sanctions should it invade Ukraine, some of which would bring economic pain to the countries imposing them.

That includes potentially halting the not-yet-certified Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, she said, an issue that had previously driven a wedge in transatlantic relations.

The project, backed by Germany’s previous chancellor Angela Merkel, has long irked the US and Germany’s European partners, who believe it will be used as a geopolitical weapon by Putin.

Germany’s early reluctance to explicitly put Nord Stream 2 on the list of possible sanctions exasperated allies, particularly Washington, and raised doubts about Berlin’s resolve in the Ukraine crisis.

New Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Washington earlier this month to reassure President Biden that Germany could be counted on, and made clear that the pipeline would be stopped in case of a Russian attack.

The post Germany, Ukraine push back against US warnings first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Germany, Ukraine push back against US warnings appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

KAS has been working with Nigerian partners to facilitate democratic dialogue and capacity building for different arms of government at national, regional and state levels. Sensitive to the insecurity in Northwest Nigeria, KAS assembled about 100 personnel from security agencies’ (Department of state security, Army, The Police, Immigration, Customs, Federal Road Safety Commission, and Correction Service) departments of operations, conflict resolution and intelligence in Kano between 11-14 August 2021 to train and empower them on how to be sensitive to social context and collaborate to enhance security.

In her welcome address, resident representative of KAS, Dr Vladimir Kreck represented by Senior Programme Manager, Security Sector Reform (KAS), Julcit Stolpe explained that KAS reviewed statutes of the various security agencies in Nigeria and found that “interagency rivalry was mainly being caused by the overlapping or conflicting mandates of these agencies.

To solve this problem Kreck said “we have commenced strategic engagement with the relevant institutions and stakeholders to push for reform of these laws to ensure clarity of function. We have also been organising capacity building workshops for members of different committees in the National Assembly and also for State Houses of Assembly to strengthen knowledge and practice of effective legislation and oversight. We have to embed the culture of good civil-military relations, intelligence and information sharing between security agencies and civilian citizens through our seminars at national and geo-political zones of Nigeria.”

Available evidence indicates that poor inter-agency collaboration among Nigeria’s security institutions is one of the major factors militating against effective conflict resolution and security management in Nigeria. The consequences of not working effectively together culminate in increasing fear of insecurity and diminished trust in the capabilities of the security system to protect the lives and properties of civilian populations across Nigeria in general and terror zones in particular.

The 2020 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) places Nigeria as the third country worst hit by the negative outcomes of terrorists’ activities. From Bokoharam in the Northeast, banditry and criminal kidnapping in the Northwest, secessionist agitations in the southeast and southwest, the security system in Nigeria is practically overstretched. In this situation, only the working together of the units that make up Nigeria’s security system will de-escalate conflict and neutralise security threats through complementary operations and credible intelligence sharing among others.

Funded by the German government, KAS has since its founding in Nigeria in 2001 continues to work with Nigerian partners, to facilitate human capacity development of security agencies to deliver on their mandate. To check problems of overlapping mandates, there is need for necessary reforms to be in place so that extant laws which overlap mandates can be amended. It is important that security agencies deliver on their specific mandates to actualise peace and development in Nigeria.

Banditry in the Northwest has exposed how unmanned or poorly manned border zones can compromise national security. The widespread smuggling and use of illicit drugs by criminals has also been implicated as a contributor to growing security and its unfolding dynamism. The use of drugs by bandits, Bokoharam terrorists, kidnappers and armed robbers is no longer a secret. As at 2017, 14.3million Nigerians between 15 and 64 years old hard drugs such as Cannabis, Tramadol, Codeine or Morphine and this affects the nature of criminality and conflict in Nigeria.

That the use of these drugs continues to proliferate implies that the National Drug Law enforcement Agency (NDLEA) cannot do it alone without effectively collaborating with other security agencies. If other security agencies do not work with NDLEA for instance, those who get high on drugs will deploy it to do banditry and kidnapping which will then become problem for the police, army and NSCDC.

Security agencies in Nigeria must close ranks and eliminate rivalry. Security is arrived at when every part of the security system (police, army, NSCDC, NDLEA, Immigration, Customs and others) discharges their roles efficiently and balance their weaknesses with the strength of other security agencies. Inferiority complex and superiority battles between and among security agency only aggravate the insecurity of everyone and deepens national insecurity. The successes recorded in a joint operation must be collectively owned and its failure must be shared as well.

The insecurity of welfare of security personnel can also hamper their commitment to protect lives and properties. They need better welfare both in service and when out of service. Nigeria governments need to ensure that the causes of insecurity which are external to the security system are tackled. These are nose-diving fortunes of the economy, widespread poverty, comatose electricity and unemployment.

If these triggers of insecurity are addressed, security agencies will have little works to do. While the workshop by the Konrad Adenuer Stiftung takes the conversation about the necessity of interagency collaboration to another level by bringing actors to sit in the same venue and share ideas, it is important that heads of security agencies in Nigeria buy into this initiative and work to harmonise interagency differences that hamper security operations.

Dr Tade, a criminologist and security expert writes via dotad2003@yahoo.com

The post Solving Nigeria’s insecurity through interagency collaboration first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Solving Nigeria’s insecurity through interagency collaboration appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

European football’s governing body did not specify in its statement what incidents were being investigated during the Euro 2020 match in Munich, which finished with the Germans qualifying for the last 16 and Hungary going out of the competition.

However, a UEFA spokesperson told AFP that the probe regards “incidents and behaviour in the stands”.

German daily Bild reported that Hungary supporters — who are already being investigated for monkey chants during their team’s 1-1 draw with France in Budapest — directed anti-gay chants at Germany fans before kick-off on Wednesday.

An AFP journalist saw fans of both teams, including German wearing rainbow colours, locked in angry exchanges which led to police intervening.

The match build-up had been dominated by UEFA’s refusal to allow the city of Munich to light the Allianz Arena in rainbow colours in solidarity with Hungary’s LGBTQ community.

UEFA and the government of Hungary came under a hail of criticism after Budapest’s new anti-LGBTQ law and the football body’s refusal to light the Munich stadium.

Fans came to the game in rainbow colours, and one German supporter invaded the pitch with a rainbow flag during the Hungarian national anthem.

The post UEFA Launch Probe Into ‘Discriminatory Incidents’ During Germany-Hungary Match first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post UEFA Launch Probe Into ‘Discriminatory Incidents’ During Germany-Hungary Match appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Germany has agreed to return all Nigeria stolen artefacts by 2021.

This was disclosed on Tuesday at a press briefing in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The meeting was attended by Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and a German Government delegation.

The artefacts are to be returned to Benin, Edo State capital.

Details later..

The post Germany agrees to return all Nigerian artefacts by 2022 first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Germany agrees to return all Nigerian artefacts by 2022 appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Mueller is set to miss out on Thursday’s Club World Cup final in Doha due to this development.

Sky Sports Germany and Bild newspaper disclosed that the World Cup winner, Mueller tested positive after Bayern’s training session on Wednesday.

A positive test would rule the veteran striker out of Thursday’s clash with Mexican CONCACAF champions Tigres in the Qatari capital, in which European champions Bayern are aiming for a historic sixth title in 12 months.

Neither Bayern nor tournament organisers FIFA have yet confirmed the positive test.

Mueller would be the third Bayern player to contract the coronavirus in recent weeks, after positive tests for Javi Martinez and Leon Goretzka meant they were unable to travel with the rest of the squad to Qatar.

His absence would be the latest blow to Bayern’s Club World Cup campaign, after Jerome Boateng returned home to Germany on Wednesday for personal reasons amid reports that his former girlfriend had died.

-AFP

The post Bayern Munich’s striker, Mueller tests positive for COVID-19 first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Bayern Munich’s striker, Mueller tests positive for COVID-19 appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Germany recorded 465 deaths over the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said, raising the toll since the start of the pandemic to 40,343.

More than 1.9 million people have been infected so far, with almost 17,000 new cases added since Saturday.

In her weekly video message on Saturday, Merkel said the full impact of socialising over the Christmas and New Year’s period was yet to show up in the statistics.

She warned Germans that “these next winter weeks will be the hardest phase of the pandemic” so far, with many doctors and medical staff working at their limits.

Germany fared better than many other European countries during the first Covid-19 wave in the spring but it has been hit hard by the second wave.

The nation of 83 million people, the bloc’s most populous, has imposed another round of restrictions to limit social contacts and help hospitals cope with a surge in patients.

More than 5,000 Covid-19 patients are currently in intensive care nationwide, with over 80 percent of intensive care beds occupied.

Germany has closed schools and non-essential shops, culture and leisure facilities until at least January 31 in hope of slowing the outbreak.

Like other EU nations, it started vaccinating citizens against Covid-19 in late December using the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.

More than half a million people have received the jab so far.

A second vaccine, developed by US firm Moderna, will join the rollout in the coming days.

– ‘Absolutely necessary’ –

Merkel acknowledged the vaccine campaign had got off to a slow start, “but the tempo will pick up”, she said.

“What’s important is that we can say: we will have enough of the vaccine available for everyone in Germany,” she added.

“Month after month we will inoculate more people and eventually we will be able to offer the vaccine to anyone who wants it.”

Merkel said the vaccines allowed for “justified hope” that the world could conquer the pandemic.

But she urged Germans to stay patient and said she was “firmly convinced” the current tough curbs on public life are “absolutely necessary”.

A survey by the Kantar research group for Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that 56 percent of Germans agreed with the latest measures to stem the virus spread.

Another 25 percent of respondents said the restrictions did not go far enough.

Just 16 percent said the rules were too strict.

The post Germany prepares for ‘hardest weeks’ as COVID-19 deaths top 40,000 first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Germany prepares for ‘hardest weeks’ as COVID-19 deaths top 40,000 appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

All have not being heard over the sex for passport saga in the Nigerian Embassy in Berlin as a group of Nigerians domiciled in Germany under the aegis of  “For the Sake of Nigeria’s image “, ( FSNI) has written and dispatched a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari alleging the Nigerian  Ambassador in Berlin, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar of gross complicity, aiding and abetting touts and deliberately frustrating diligence at the Embassy.

This is coming from the background of massive corruption allegations levied against the same embassy some years ago.

In the petition, which was signed by Victor Christian Chukuwuma, Segun Adebisi Arijaje and Mohammed Sani Bagudu, the group alleged that  Ambassador  Yusuf Maitama Tuggar of  not able to put a stop to the activities of known visa and passport touts, which is denting the image of Nigeria in Germany.

“We as citizens of Nigeria domiciled in Germany wish to intimate the President and good people of Nigeria of the can of worms at the Embassy of Nigeria under H.E. Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, which led to the sex for passport saga which has cast a blur in the image of Nigeria in the comity of nation.

“From our findings, the passport syndicate at the embassy was organized by the Station Head of Immigration, Mr. Imoh Ebong Asuquo upon arriving in Berlin in 2017. Some members of his syndicate include Chuks Biaduo (aka Don), Okechukwu Nwukeforo (aka Bob Okey), Obiwanne, Chidinmma Ohakwe Nwandikom (ex-staff, whose contract was not renewed due to various corruption charges), Obinna Simeon Nzodinma (identified as the commentator in the video), Lucky (aka Blessed Passport). These people seize on the scarcity of appointments for applicants caused by the Covid 19 shutdown, to charge desperate Nigerians exorbitantly to fast-track the applications.

”We understood that Mr. Martins is a locally recruited staff, heading the security section. These were charged with ensuring that a new appointment system introduced in March 2020 would give no preferences to influences. A lady applicant, whom Mr. Martins met on her visit to the Embassy for passport renewal and a change to her data, Ms. Faith Uche, had a valid appointment and this qualified her access to the Embassy. We understood from sources close to the Embassy that both agreed to meet after she finished her business, which they did.

”The said Ms. Uche came to Berlin, signed for and collected her passport and waited several hours to meet with  Mr. Martins inside the hotel that the video was made. We spoke with Ms. Uche on phone, but she refused to comment on the critical but necessary questions that could cement the claim of “sex for passport” by Mr. Martins. Moreover, we learned from the same sources that both accusers, Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma and Ms. Uche did not honor the invitation by the panel setup by the Ambassador to investigate the accusations levied against Mr. Martins in the video.

“Your Excellency, while we applaud Ambassador Tuggar’s setting up of a panel to investigate the serious allegation of “sex for passport” by the accusers in the video, we call on the panel to find answers to the following questions:

”1. Did the security officer offer “passport for sex” or not?

2. If not, did the affair between both parties have anything to do with Mr. Martins work at the Embassy in anyway?

3. Did Mr. Martins rape Ms. Uche?

4. Was the Ambassador aware of several previous complaints against the syndicate led by Mr. Imoh Ebong Asuquo, the Diplomat heading the Immigration Department?

5. Was it a coincidence that the video was made by exactly the same syndicate members working for Mr. Imoh?

6. Why was Mr. Imoh’s name mentioned on many occasions in the video by Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma?

7. Is it true that the said Mr. Martins sent away his later accuser, Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma away from the Embassy earlier on the same day that the video was made?

“Furthermore, Ambassador Tuggar’s efforts to clarify the following questions, relevant to our national security and collective reputation as a nation, may help to determine the chances of his campaign to becoming the next Governor of Bauchi State in 2023:

“1. Did he know that Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma (Agbaego Nkiti Nke Iziz) and Mr. Okechukwu Nwokeforo (aka Bob Okey) are both IPOB activists, who claim Biafra?

2. Did he know that Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma was quizzed for money laundering and fraud by the German Police in 2016 and that he is being tolerated in Germany because of missing identity documents?

3. On credibility as a leader, is the Ambassador preempting the report of the panel that he setup himself by publicly promising Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma that he would sack Mr. Martins? (Mr. Obinna Simeon Uzodinma made this claim on a popular social media that the Ambassador had assured him to sack Mr. Martins).

4. Why Is the Ambassador deliberately protecting corrupt diplomats and practices under his watch?

5. Could the Ambassador have overseen the fact that the accusers were the same members of the passport syndicate operating at his Embassy in the last 3 years?”, the group questioned.

The petition read further, “Dear President, we need to take steps to redeem the negative trend this video has brought to our dear country abroad. Only through transparency  could we correct this image”.

The group, therefore called  on President Buhari, through the Agencies at his Executive disposal, to set up a powerful investigation panel to look into the organized corruption by diplomats at Nigerian Embassy in Berlin and take necessary steps to ease the process of passport issuance to the millions of Nigerians living in diaspora.

The post Group petitions President Buhari, fingers Nigerian Ambassador in Berlin over sex for passport saga first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Group petitions President Buhari, fingers Nigerian Ambassador in Berlin over sex for passport saga appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Presidential spokeswoman, Lauretta Onochie confirmed the news in a congratulatory tweet on Thursday.

The AfDB is currently holding its 55th Annual Meetings in Côte d’Ivoire virtually, due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Adesina’s re-election was earlier mired in controversy after he was charged with alleged ethical violations.

But, after repeated investigations, the former Nigerian Agriculture Minister was cleared of all charges levelled against him, paving the way for his re-election.

Adesina is the first Nigerian to hold the post of the bank’s President.

The AfDB, founded in 1964, is geared towards spurring “sustainable economic development and social progress” among member African countries.

Nigeria is the AfDB’s largest shareholder with 16.8 percent of rights, while Germany and the United States own 7.4 percent and 5.5 percent respectively.

The post Adesina re-elected as AfDB President first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Adesina re-elected as AfDB President appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

“It is without a doubt the most difficult decision I have had to make in my career, my heart says yes, my body says no,” Robben told the Telegraaf.

His contract at Bayern had expired on June 30.

Robben played 96 international matches for the Netherlands, scoring 37 goals, and starred in the team which reached the 2010 World Cup final and finished third four years later.

He won two Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea in 2005 and 2006, before claiming a La Liga winner’s medal with Real Madrid.

But Robben, a Groningen youth product, will be best remembered for his time at Bayern. He helped the Bavarians to eight Bundesliga crowns, five German Cups and the 2013 Champions League title, scoring 144 goals in 309 appearances for the club.

There had been speculation Robben would continue playing, with a possible return to England mooted, but instead, he has decided to hang up his boots after a career which was often blighted by injuries.

“At the moment I’m fit and healthy and as a fan of many other sports, I want to keep it that way in the future,” Robben added.

At Bayern, he combined with fellow winger Franck Ribery to great effect as the pair earned the nickname ‘Robbery’.

“Thank you, Danke, merci, dankjewel @arjenrobben,” wrote the 36-year-old Ribery, whose Bayern contract also expired last month, on Twitter.

“Best @FCBayern counterpart I could imagine, #Robbery will never be forgotten! What a career my friend, now enjoy your time off the pitch.”

Robben had already retired from international football after the Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

He missed the majority of Bayern’s tight title contest against Borussia Dortmund in the second half of the last term but returned late in the season.

Robben and Ribery both scored in their farewell appearance as Bayern secured a seventh straight German league title on the final day of the season with a 5-1 thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt.

AFP

The post Dutch Winger, Arjen Robben Retires From Football first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Dutch Winger, Arjen Robben Retires From Football appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.