Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said France is at risk of a “civil war” as she prepares to tackle President Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 election.

There are no signs of a coming conflict, but stoking tensions surrounding issues like economic inequality and a feeling the country is becoming less safe, serves Ms Le Pen.

She has been campaigning for office since the start of the year, trying to frame herself as the law-and-order candidate.

While Ms Le Pen has spoken repeatedly about clamping down on migration and the need to be tougher on Islamism, her latest comments are perhaps the most contentious yet.

After a group of retired generals last month hinted at the threat of a military uprising, another open letter to the president on Sunday warned of “chaos and violence.” The first letter was signed – the latest one wasn’t, though it was attributed to unidentified serving officers by the right-wing weekly that published it, Valeurs Actuelles.

Both times Ms Le Pen backed the authors, while insisting she isn’t calling for insurrection and urging those who supported them to join her movement.  

At a campaign event on Monday, Ms Le Pen said the latest letter offered “a lucid” assessment of the state of the country. “There’s always a risk of civil war,” she added.

Other French presidents have faced similar warnings from army officers in recent years but the threats never materialised. Officials from Mr Macron’s administration dismissed the letters as political manoeuvring.

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In 2018, during protests by the Yellow Vests, a grass-roots movement against a fuel tax, and after a spat between Mr Macron and the army Chief of Staff, some retired generals called for a military government.

Ms Le Pen is running close to Mr Macron in the polls, but the challenge for the 52-year-old nationalist in her third presidential campaign is to soften her profile enough to pick up more moderate voters while keeping her core electorate on her side.

With less than a year to go before the first round of presidential voting, Ms Le Pen is seeking to capitalise on concerns about security that Mr Macron has failed to quell despite a high-profile campaign to push back against Islamists responsible for a spate of violent attacks.

She tried to frame the first letter as referring mainly to the situation in the areas of social housing on the outskirts of many French cities which are typically racially diverse and economically deprived.

She also argued that the government itself has expressed concern over insecurity and pointed out that one former Macron minister had talked about the risk of a widening gap between such areas and the rest of the country.

The latest letter states that “the hatred of France and its history are becoming the norm” – an apparent reference to Mr Macron’s efforts to acknowledge the abuses of France’s colonial past – and used coded language to criticise Muslim communities that don’t integrate.

“This is a far-right political column,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said, calling the signatories to lift their anonymity.

The Republicans, France’s traditional right-wing party that has been squeezed between Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen, described it as a legitimate alarm bell. 

 Southern Governors Forum (SGF), has yesterday resolved on immediate ban of open grazing across the Southern part of Nigeria as they requested for a national dialogue on restructuring.

The meeting which was held yesterday in Asaba had in attendance 15 Governors from South- West, South-East, South- South, including two Deputy Governors from Imo and Akwa Ibom State while two others Governors of Cross Rivers and Osun State were absent.

Reading the 12 point communique on behalf of the 17 Governors after a closed door meeting in Asaba, Chairman of Southern Governors Forum, Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu urged the President to address the Nation over the Insecurity challenge in view to regain trust of the people.

“It is observed that the incursion of armed robbers, criminals and bandits into Southern part of the country has presented a severe security challenge such that citizens are not able to love their normal lives”.

They consequently resolved against open grazing or cattle in the Southern Nigeria as they called on Federal Government to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems.

“We noted that development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local population in the South. Give this scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South ( including cattle movement to the South by foot)”.

While attributing the current agitation among several quarter of the country to greater need for inclusiveness in governance, they stressed the urgent need for national dialogue.

“The progress of the nation requires that urgent and bold steps be taken to restructure the Nigeria Federation leading to evolution of state police, review of revenue allocation formula in favor of the sub -national government and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance our commitment to the true practice of federalism”.

Hence, they expressed concern on the economic implications of another lockdown on the country.

“We suggest greater coordination and cooperation between Federal and State Governments in evolving strategies for dealing with the pandemic.”

 Israel's armed forces say they have bombed "130 military targets" inside the Gaza Strip, in response to rockets launched from inside the Palestinian enclave. Palestinian sources say there have been at least 24 deaths, including nine children. Israel claims the majority of the victims were members of the ruling Hamas party, or the extremist Islamic Jihad.

An Israeli army spokesman stressed that the Tuesday morning air strikes were "an initial phase" of the response, adding "we are ready for any escalation".

We call on Israeli authorities to immediately halt forced evictions in the neighborhood of #SheikhJarrah & end the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. https://t.co/OEM35Akuok

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) May 11, 2021

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that fighting could “continue for some time”.

The air raids were in reprisal for a series of rocket attacks launched on Monday afternoon from positions in the east and north of the Gaza Strip.

Condemnation

Hamas had warned of "military action" against Israel unless there was an end to the violence which has seen soldiers of the Jewish state fight Muslims around the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem for the past five days.

Those clashes were sparked by a dispute over Israeli settlement-building in the Arab quarter of Sheikh Jarrah.

At least 700 Palestinians have been injured in the Jerusalem violence.

Hundreds of residents of Arab communities across Israel on Monday staged overnight protests against the situation in Jerusalem, one of the largest demonstrations by Palestinian citizens in Israel in recent years.

Israel’s tactics in Jerusalem have drawn angry reactions from across the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia has condemned what it said were attacks by Israeli forces against the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and the safety of its worshippers. The Saudi foreign ministry called Tuesday on the international community to hold Israeli forces responsible for any escalation.

Separately, the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is holding an emergency meeting of its permanent representatives in the Saudi port city of Jeddah to discuss the tensions in Jerusalem.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has revealed that Northern Nigeria will never support secession calls because there's nothing wrong with the extant structure in the country.

Across the country, calls for secession have continued to gain momentum.

There are the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South-East while there are agitators for the independence of the Oduduwa nation in the South-West.

But in an interview with SaharaReporters on Monday, ACF's spokesman, Emmanuel Yawe, said the North can never support secessionists because Nigeria is relatively okay the way it is.  

Yawe further stated that secession attempts would only worsen the problems ravaging the country and could even lead to a civil war.

He said, “There is no way any part of Nigeria will secede without a civil war. We are so integrated that it is impossible for us to sit at a conference table and allow each part to go their ways, it's not possible, it's not a tea party, there will be war. If any part of Nigeria wants to secede, there will be war, maybe even more serious war than what we had before between 1967 and 1970. So, if anyone is calling for secession, he's calling for war.

“And we in the North fought the war to keep this country together, so it will be a contradiction for those of us who tried to stop this country from breaking up to now be engaging in activities that will break this country; we don't want this country to break up. Nigeria is a great country as it is. We have problems but those problems are not enough for us to break up.

“We believe these problems can be remedied and these problems will only be multiplied if we go into war. We love the country. We don't like what some people are doing with the country but for us to have come from the biggest black nation on earth, it is an honour and we should try to preserve this honour. We should try to see how we can use the resources we have to build a great world power. The rest of Africa is looking up to us and they feel sad when we behave as if we want to break up the country they all look up to. We don't want the country to break up. It is better the way it is, even with all the problems.”

The national leader of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, had also earlier explained why the North would never want the country to break up.

Adebanjo, who had always consistently called for restructuring, recently condemned the unyielding attitude of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to calls for constitutional reforms and resource control.

Adebanjo had over time explained that the current constitution favourably places Northern Nigeria over the South.

He was quoted as saying, “...The constitution we have now is an imposed constitution by the military and the problem we are having in the country now is because of this constitution.

“People should get that clear. It appears both Garba Shehu and his boss, Muhammadu Buhari, don’t want to address the question. I have said that this constitution is a fraudulent constitution; it is not the constitution we agreed on at independence. It is not the constitution Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the founding fathers of this country agreed on at independence. Whether you are talking about resource control, state police, all these agitations have been settled and that is what is causing the crisis in the country today.

“So, when the military said they are going back to the barracks in 1999, Afenifere and the National Democracy Coalition (NADECO) said ‘send us back to the constitution you met us with because this is not the constitution of our founding fathers.’ So, the question of restructuring is to restructure the country back to federalism which our founding fathers agreed on.

“This unitary form of government with all its impositions which have enslaved the South to the North was imposed on us by the military.

“It is the military that created more states in the North; it is the military that created more local governments in the North. It is the military that said that revenues would be shared on the basis of local governments and you people are not addressing it. These are questions you need to answer; why is that so? You don’t stay in a club that is not favourable to you.”

 Nigeria has been advised to tackle its security challenges internally, as they were ‘mere family affairs.’

The Ambassador of South Korea to Nigeria, Kim Young-Chae, who gave the advice in Abuja, held that the insecurity facing the most populous nation was akin to a family disagreement that does not require the intervention of the international community, but regional cooperation.

His words: “Security is a very sensitive issue. I know everyone is concerned about the insecurity in Nigeria but it is Nigeria’s internal issue. It should be discussed among Nigerians. If another country engages Nigeria, that is another issue entirely and that would be considered an international issue. To solve the problem, Nigeria needs international cooperation mainly with its neighbouring countries to enhance its internal security. Nigeria must cooperate with Chad, Niger and other neighbouring countries to ensure cooperation.

The envoy, who stressed the need for the military to be professionalised, described the Army as the centre that holds the society together.

He went on: “In South Korea, we have a very strong defence which is rated number six in the world. The military is very dedicated and there is little or no corruption in the system. The military is the centre that holds the country together. If the military is corrupt, there is a high possibility that the whole country will be corrupt. Discipline and dedication are key in building a stable and efficient military.”

The diplomat said both nations were on the verge of sealing a defence an intelligence-sharing pact.

He explained that the Asian country had established the office of a defence attaché in its embassy to strengthen cooperation between the two nations.

Young-Chae further revealed: “To have defence information sharing, both Nigeria and South Korea need to sign some documents. Defence authorities of both countries need to sign the documents which our Defence Attaché is presently working on. We are going to invite Nigeria’s Minister of Defence to South Korea to concretise this cooperation.

“South Korea embassy in Nigeria now has a defence attaché, who has been building relationships in the country. This is the first time South Korea is establishing a defence attaché in a long time in Nigeria. We are making contacts with the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force to extend our defence cooperation not only in terms of training and education but intelligence and information sharing, among other defence pacts.”

The ambassador lauded Nigeria’s efforts at curtailing the spread of COVID-19, stating that the African nation was doing all the right things to keep infections low.

Young-Chae, who decried the trade volume between both countries as ‘very low’ at $1.2 billion last year, blamed the development on the free-fall in oil price at the international market and the ‘unfriendly’ nature of Apapa port.