Friday, May 30, 2014

Video - President Goodluck Jonathan declares 'total war' on Boko Haram



Nigeria's president says he will crush Boko Haram, and rid the country of what he calls terrorists. In his annual "Democracy Day" address, Goodluck Jonathan insisted his government is doing all it can to rescue more than 200 girls abducted by the group.

Related stories: Four kidnapped schoolgirls escape from Boko Haram

Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Western Union launches online service in Nigeria

World’s leading money transfer company, Western Union Co. (WU) has initiated its online service – www.WesternUnion.ng – in Nigeria with the debut of its online site.

This is Western Union’s first inward-remittance website across the globe. The service was launched with support from Interswitch Limited.

The website will enable Nigerians to move funds into a bank account with Guaranty Trust Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Wema Bank.

Western Union already has a significant presence in Nigeria and provides mobile money remittance service in the region via eTranzact.

Western Union perceives Nigeria as an attractive market opportunity since the country topped the list of African countries for diaspora remittances due to the huge remittance it receives. As per data from World Bank, Nigeria received $21 billion in funds last year. Going forward, this region is expected to witness further growth in remittance.

Western Union is increasing its investments in high-growth electronic channels to build a world-class customer experience. These efforts are propelling rapid growth in digital, account-based money transfer, and mobile banking. Online, westernunion.com money transfer transactions grew more than 40% in 2013, while transactions for electronic account-based money transfer through banks surged over 50%.

Management is targeting $500 million in revenues from the digital business (westernunion.com/mobile) by 2015, which implies a 60% CAGR revenue growth through 2015.

Another money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. (MGI) also provides services in Nigeria.

Western Union currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

However, other players such as Xoom Corp. (XOOM) with a Zacks Rank # 1 (Strong Buy) and Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) with a Zacks Rank # 2 (Buy) are worth considering.

ZACKS

Related story: Bitcoin interest grows in Nigeria

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Video - Nigeria Super Eagles putting faith in young squad for 2014 World Cup


Ever since failing to earn a qualifying spot to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations final, Stephen Keshi has worked hard to turn around the Nigerian national team's fortunes. And the Nigerian coach's results seem to speak for themselves. The Super Eagles won their first AFCON title since 1994 and are one of the five African teams heading to Brazil for the World Cup.

Related stories: Nigeria draw with Scotland 2-2 in international football friendly

Nigeria vs Scotland international friendly marred by match-fixing claims

Four kidnapped schoolgirls escape from Boko Haram

Four of the more than 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by militants in April have escaped their captors, a Nigerian Ministry of Information official confirmed to NBC News.

The schoolgirls have been missing more than a month since they were abducted by Boko Haram, an Islamist terror organization, which first vowed to sell them into slavery and then said it would free them only in exchange for the release of militant prisoners.

Education commissioner Musa Inuwa told Reuters by telephone the four girls had been reunited with their parents, but he declined to provide the wire service with additional details of their escape.

The reports of the kidnapping have sparked global outrage. The United States has deployed surveillance drones, spy planes and roughly 30 civilian and military specialists to aid Nigeria's security forces in the hunt for the missing schoolgirls.

Nigeria has said it knows the whereabouts of the abducted girls. But U.S. military officials were quick to say that they could not confirm the report.

NBC

Related stories: Nigerian military claims to have found location of kidnapped schoolgirls

Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Nigeria draw with Scotland 2-2 in international football friendly

Substitute Uche Nwofor's late strike denied Scotland victory against Nigeria at Craven Cottage.

Charlie Mulgrew skilfully diverted James Morrison's strike into the net to give Scotland the lead before Michael Uchebo levelled with a deflected shot.

An own goal by Azubuike Egwuekwe turned the match back in the Scots' favour early in the second half.

World Cup-bound Nigeria pressed for a second equaliser and were rewarded when Nwofor fired home on the turn.

Gordon Strachan's men were bidding to become the first Scotland side since 1951 to win four successive away matches.

And they started brightly at the neutral venue with Ikechi Anya firing a low drive on to the post via the heel of Kunle Odunlami.

Scotland's new-look back four, which included Dundee United's Andrew Robertson making his first international start, found themselves under pressure when they conceded possession to Uchebo but Allan McGregor saved the shot.

Having narrowly escaped on that occasion, Strachan's men sought to capitalise on a set piece and duly delivered.

Shaun Maloney and Anya teed up Morrison for a low shot that was looped over goalkeeper Austin Ejide by the outside of Mulgrew's left boot.

The ball was in the Nigeria net again when Grant Hanley rose to meet another Maloney corner but English referee Lee Probert awarded a foul against the Scotland defender for his challenge on Ejide.

Nigeria gradually worked their way back into the match and Shola Ameobi, recently released by Newcastle, volleyed Ejike Uzoenyi's into the hands of McGregor.

But the Scottish keeper could do nothing when Uchebo's shot spun into the net off Hanley.

In the first of many substitutions, Derby's Chris Martin made his Scotland debut at the start of the second half as a replacement for Steven Naismith.

McGregor got down well to block an Ameobi shot and Scotland once again found themselves ahead after an important save from the Hull stopper.

Hutton's driven cross was knocked back towards goal by Egwuekwe and Odunlami could not prevent the ball from crossing the line.

At the other end, substitutes Nosa Igiebor and Peter Odemwingie played a one-two before the former drew a save from McGregor.

Maloney then converted Hutton's low cross but was correctly flagged offside.

Chances continued to come Scotland's way and George Boyd, on for Morrison, set up Martin for a strike that Ejide blocked.

Martin's club-mate Craig Forsyth joined the fray for his Scotland debut when the impressive Robertson came off, while the introduction of Celtic's Efe Ambrose for Odunlami was Nigeria's sixth change.

Nwofor, who had replaced Ameobi, twice threatened with headers before he capitalised on some slack defending to net the final goal.

Hanley's attempted clearance ricocheted off Nnamdi Oduamadi into Nwofor's path and the Heerenveen forward drilled past McGregor from close range.

BBC

Related story: Nigeria vs Scotland international friendly marred by match-fixing claims

Video - Boko Haram raid on military base leaves 24 dead


At least 24 people have reportedly been killed by Boko Haram fighters at a military base in Nigeria. The attack happened in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi, in Yobe State. It is close to where Boko Haram gunmen fired at a high school in February, killing at least 59 students. The armed group has been fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Related stories:Nigerian police received warning hours before fatal car bombing in Jos, Nigeria

Market attack leaves 20 dead in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Nigeria vs Scotland international friendly marred by match-fixing claims

The Scottish Football Association has been contacted by the National Crime Agency about a match-fixing threat to Wednesday's friendly against Nigeria.
Scotland are playing Nigeria at Fulham's Craven Cottage ground.

The SFA has released a statement saying it is liaising with the relevant authorities and is preparing for the match as normal.

Leading bookmakers contacted by BBC Sport say they are unaware of any specific threat to the game.

While they are exercising extra vigilance for any suspicious betting patterns, a spokesperson for one bookmaker said: "We've seen no evidence of the reported issues and we wouldn't expect to.

"This sort of activity will be executed in the illegal betting market, and is unlikely to be seen in the UK or European regulated sector."

The BBC has learned that no Scotland players are under suspicion. It is also understood a number of other friendly matches on Wednesday have been highlighted as games potentially at risk.

A spokesperson for the NCA explained: "The NCA will from time to time provide operational detail necessary for public reassurance purposes.

"It does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of specific operations or provide ongoing commentary on operational activity."

Football's world governing body, Fifa, added in a statement: "We are aware of the claims published recently.

"Generally speaking, we are not in a position to comment or provide information on any match-manipulation investigations that are ongoing so as not to compromise investigations, nor do we provide any comments as to whether or not any investigations are under way"

"It would only be after a decision has been taken by the Fifa disciplinary committee or Fifa ethics committee and first notified to the parties concerned that Fifa would be in a position to communicate the contents of that decision publicly."

News of the threat came as a shock to Nigeria defender Efe Ambrose, who plays for Scottish champions Celtic.

"I'm surprised, just like everyone," he said. "This kind of thing is not good, but I don't think something is going on around this game."

BBC

Related stories: Nigeria Super Eagles move up to 45th in FIFA rankings

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Nigerian police received warning hours before fatal car bombing in Jos, Nigeria

Traders in the market in Nigeria's central city of Jos, where two explosions left more than 130 people dead, said police failed to act after traders warned them about an abandoned car hours before the bombings.

"Our members reported to the police that they noticed the presence of the (Peugeot) J5 bus parked early morning on that fateful date, and we don't know the owner," said Kabiru Muhammad Idris, a member of the traders welfare committee at the Terminus market in Jos, the capital of Plateau state. "When the police came, they removed the plate number of the J5 Bus."

Idris, whose testimony was backed by other traders, said police didn't check the contents of the bus that later exploded.

Plateau state police spokeswoman Felicia Anslem, denied the allegations.

"No one informed the police about the J5 bus that was allegedly parked," Anslem said, adding that traffic is high around the area so "there is no way a car could have been parked there from morning til evening." The explosion also took place in the center of the road, she said.

A second explosion followed the bomb from the bus on May 20, boosting the number of casualties as first respondents arrived.

This isn't the first time that security forces were accused of ignoring tips about imminent attacks or allegedly declining to take action to prevent them.

Amnesty International said the authorities failed to act even though they were warned hours before Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls from the remote town of Chibok in April.

Four days after the dual explosions, another attack was carried out in Jos, killing three people.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, though they carried the marks of Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group that killed thousands since it began its violent campaign in 2009 to impose Islamic law on Nigeria.

The West African country is the most populous in Africa, with more than 170 million people almost evenly divided between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.

AP

Related stories: Twin bombings in Jos, Nigeria leaves at least 118 dead

Video - Fatality count in Abuja bomb blast rises to 75  

Nigerian military claims to have found location of kidnapped schoolgirls

Nigeria's military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by Boko Haram almost seven weeks ago, the country's chief of defence said.

Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, said on Monday that any potential armed rescue operation was fraught with danger as the 223 girls still held hostage could be caught in the crossfire.

Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 girls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 14, leading to global outrage.

"The good news for the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you," Badeh told reporters in the capital Abuja, as the hostage crisis entered its seventh week.

"We can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back," he said.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from the capital Abuja, says it is still not clear how accurate the military's comments are, and there remains a lot of scepticism in the minds of the public.

Nigeria's government and military have been sharply criticised for their slow response to the mass abduction and were finally forced to accept foreign help in the rescue effort.

US drones have been surveying northeast Nigeria and neighbouring Chad from the air while British, French and Israeli teams have been on the ground providing specialist assistance.

The military has previously said that the search was centred around the Sambisa forest area of Borno, in northeast Nigeria, where makeshift fighter camps have previously been found as well as arms and ammunition caches.

On Monday, gunmen killed four Nigerian soldiers in an ambush on a military patrol in central Plateau state, about 180kms southeast of Jos, a local government official said.

It was not immediately clear if Boko Haram had carried out this attack.


Since the girls were captured, according to a Reuters count, at least 470 civilians have died violent deaths in various locations at the hands of Boko Haram, which says it is fighting to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has branded the group an "al-Qaeda of West Africa".

The United Nations Security Council last week designated Boko Haram an al-Qaeda-linked organisation, in a move designed to curb any overseas funding and support, as well as restrict its leaders' movements.

But analysts have questioned whether the sanctions would have any effect on the ground, given the group's largely localised campaign of murderous violence to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

Aljazeera

Related stories: Teachers in Nigeria go on strike in protest of kidnapped schoolgirls

 Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Monday, May 26, 2014

Market attack leaves 20 dead in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Suspected Islamist gunmen opened fire on a market in a Nigerian village on Sunday, killing 20 people in the latest violence against civilians in the northeast of Africa's top oil producer.

The assailants surrounded the village of Kamuyya, a military source based in the nearest town told Reuters. The militants shot people as they gathered to trade in its open air market.

Villages in Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram's violent campaign to carve an Islamic caliphate out of religiously mixed Nigeria, have been under almost daily attack.

On Thursday, suspected Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground.

Boko Haram made world headlines when it claimed the abduction of more than 200 school girls from the village of Chibok last month, prompting international outrage and persuading President Goodluck Jonathan to accept foreign help to try to free them, including a team of around 80 U.S. troops deployed to neighbouring Chad, and surveillance drones.

Since the girl were snatched on April 14, at least 470 civilians have been killed by the insurgents in various attacks, according to a Reuters count.

A spate of bombings across north and central Nigeria has killed hundreds, including two in the capital Abuja and one in the central city of Jos on Tuesday that killed 118 people.

A suicide bombing on Saturday that was meant to strike an open air viewing of the Champions League soccer final match in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed four people but failed to hit its target, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to South Africa over the weekend, his office said, to discuss ways of tackling Islamist militancy across the continent with African heads of state.

The meeting "defined a stronger framework for cooperation among African states to deal with this menace", presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said, giving no details.

A presidential team tasked with locating the girls returned from Borno state to the capital Abuja on Sunday, they said in a statement. It did not say if any progress had been made.

Reuters

Related stories: Video - State of emergency extended in north east Nigeria

Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Vigilantes in Northern Nigeria take matters into their own hands




Vigilantes in Nigeria have taken up the task of defending their communities from Boko Haram attacks.

Video - Women with little choices in Northern Nigeria



Boko Haram's attacks on schools in Nigeria have taken a toll on education. But even before the recent violence and last month's kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls, women in the largely impoverished north did not have many choices.

Related stories: Teachers in Nigeria go on strike in protest of kidnapped schoolgirls

Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Friday, May 23, 2014

Video - State of emergency extended in north east Nigeria


The killings and kidnappings in northeastern Nigeria have prompted members of parliament to extend the year-long state of emergency there. But the capital of Adamawa State, the continuing security crackdown is bad for business.

Related story: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

UN imposes sanctions on Boko Haram

The United States says the U.N. Security Council has approved sanctions against the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group Boko Haram which has carried out a wave of deadly attacks and the recent abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power welcomed the council's action on Thursday, calling it "an important step in support of the government of Nigeria's efforts to defeat Boko Haram and hold its murderous leadership accountable for atrocities."

Nigeria asked the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida to add Boko Haram to the list of al-Qaida-linked organizations subject to an arms embargo and asset freeze.

The 14 other council member had until 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Thursday to object and none did, so the committee will now add Boko Haram to the al-Qaida sanctions list.

AP

Related stories: Video - Discussion about African leaders declaring total war on Boko Haram

Former UN Secretary Generaly says Africa should have reacted faster to kidnapped schoolgirls


Thursday, May 22, 2014

Teachers in Nigeria go on strike in protest of kidnapped schoolgirls

Nigerian teachers went on strike and staged rallies nationwide on Thursday in protest against the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by the Islamist Boko Haram sect and the killing of nearly as many teachers during its insurgency.

Boko Haram gunmen stormed a school outside the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 14, carting some 270 girls away in trucks. More than 50 have since escaped but at least 200 remain in captivity, as do scores of other girls kidnapped previously.

National Union of Teachers (NUT) President Micheal Alogba Olukoya told reporters Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful," had killed 173 teachers over five years.

In Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno where the insurgency is most intense, around 40 teachers marched down a street past rows of cicada trees to the office of Governor Kashim Shettima chanting "bring back our girls" and holding placards saying "vulnerable schools should be fenced".Shettima came to the gates of the compound to meet the teachers, who were clothed in black union vests over their long, flowing traditional robes and were escorted by the military.

President Goodluck Jonathan and the military have come under intense criticism for their slow reaction to the mass abduction, although last week Nigeria accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China to help find the girls.

The United States has deployed about 80 military personnel to Chad in its effort to help find the girls, President Barack Obama told Congress on Wednesday.

Boko Haram has threatened to sell the girls into slavery but has also offered to swap them for jailed militants.

"All schools nationwide shall be closed as the day will be our day of protest against the abduction of the Chibok female students and the heartless murder of the 173 teachers," NUT President Micheal Alogba Olukoya told reporters.

Boko Haram wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in a religiously-mixed, Muslim and Christian country of 170 million people, Africa's most populous. Its militants have attacked hundreds of school, killing hundreds of teachers and students.

No teachers were killed in the Chibok attack.

"We remain resolute in our resolve to continue the campaign even as we mourn the death of our colleagues until our girls are brought back safe and alive and the perpetrators of the heinous crime are brought to book," Olukoya said.

In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial metropolis and port of 21 million people in the south, around 350 teachers gathered in the green Gani Fawehinmi park. One carried a placard reading: "You can't intimidate us."

"Children's lives are being threatened, kidnapping all over the place, stealing, maiming of life, that's what we are saying should stop," teacher Ojo Veronica told Reuters Television.

The Boko Haram insurgency has killed an estimated 5,000 people since an initial uprising in 2009.

Reuters

Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Video - Muslims in Nigeria condemn Boko Haram's kidnapping of schoolgirls

US military deploy 80 troop to neighbouring Chad to find kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls

The United States has deployed about 80 military personnel to Chad in its effort to help find and return more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, President Obama said in a letter to Congress on Wednesday.

"These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area," Obama said in the letter.

"The force will remain in Chad until its support in resolving the kidnapping situation is no longer required," he said.

The girls were taken in April from a boarding school close to Nigeria's border with Cameroon, Niger and Chad in a sparsely populated region. Their whereabouts are unknown.

US surveillance aircraft have been flying over remote areas of northeast Nigeria for two weeks, and the Pentagon struck an agreement last weekend to allow it to share intelligence directly with the Nigerian government.

The US government has also sent officials from the State Department and the FBI to Nigeria to help in the search.

The Guardian

Related stories: UK Spy Plan sent to help find kidnapped schoolgirls breaks down

US commence aerial search for kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria

Video - Discussion about African leaders declaring total war on Boko Haram

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Boko Haram attack village - 17 dead

The Islamist group Boko Haram has been accused of killing at least 17 people in an attack on a village in north-east Nigeria, close to where hundreds of schoolgirls were seized.

It comes a day after 118 people died in a double bombing in the central city of Jos, also blamed on Boko Haram.

In the latest attack, Boko Haram fighters reportedly spent hours killing and looting in the village of Alagarno.

Alagarno is near Chibok, from where the schoolgirls were abducted last month.

The abductions of more than 200 girls caused international outrage and prompted foreign powers to send military advisers to assist Nigeria's army.

People in north-east Nigeria are extremely vulnerable to attacks because many areas are no-go zones for the military and the insurgents operate freely, correspondents say.

BBC

Related stories: Twin bombings in Jos, Nigeria leaves at least 118 dead

Video - Fatality count in Abuja bomb blast rises to 75 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Twin bombings in Jos, Nigeria leaves at least 118 dead

Dozens of people have been killed by two bomb explosions in the volatile central Nigerian city of Jos.

Police in Plateau state say that 118 have been confirmed dead so far and many more have been injured.

Journalist Hassan Ibrahim told the BBC that tension was rising in the area, with youths blocking some roads.

Jos has seen several deadly clashes between Christian and Muslim groups in recent years. Islamist group Boko Haram has also previously targeted the area.

A suicide attack in the northern city of Kano on Monday killed four people. Abducted girls

A spokesperson for the regional governor confirmed to AFP news agency that scores had been killed in Jos, most of them women.

Images posted on social media showed a huge pall of smoke over the scene.

The BBC's Will Ross in Abuja says the bombs were in a lorry and a minibus and exploded several minutes apart - one in a shopping area and one not far from a hospital.

Nobody has admitted carrying out the bombings.

Although Boko Haram has previously targeted Jos, the capital of Plateau state, the city has been relatively calm for almost two years, our correspondent says.

Plateau state lies on the fault-line which divides Nigeria's largely Muslim north from its mainly Christian south.

The state has witnessed violence blamed on land disputes between semi-nomadic Muslim Fulani herdsmen and mainly Christian Berom farmers.

The Nigerian government is also currently trying to trace more than 200 girls captured by Boko Haram in April from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok.

The case has shocked the world and prompted foreign powers to send military advisers to assist Nigeria's army tackle the insurgency.

On Tuesday, parliament approved a six-month extension of a state of emergency in three north-eastern states - Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks this year but the government says it has pushed the militants back into their strongholds in Borno.

Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.

However, Nigeria's violence is not confined to the north.

Earlier this month a car bomb in the capital Abuja killed at least 19 people and injured 60 more.

The explosion happened close to a bus station where at least 70 people died in a bomb blast on 14 April.


BBC

Related stories: Suicide bomber kills 4 in Kano, Nigeria

Video - Fatality count in Abuja bomb blast rises to 75 

Video - The Origins of Boko Haram


The Nigerian armed group Boko Haram has gained international notoriety after the kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria. But the group has been a big problem for the Nigerian government for more than 12 years. Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh travelled to Maiduguri where the group originated.

Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Video - Discussion about African leaders declaring total war on Boko Haram

UK Spy Plan sent to help find kidnapped schoolgirls breaks down

A UK spy plane sent to help search for more than 200 girls abducted by militant Islamists in Nigeria has developed a technical fault.

It has been forced to land in Senegal for repairs, the Ministry of Defence said.

The plane left the UK on Sunday, joining an international effort to secure the release of the girls.

The Boko Haram group captured the girls from their boarding school in Chibok town in north-east Nigeria on 14 April.

The US military is flying manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft over Nigeria to look for the girls, Reuters news agency reports.

Suicide blast
Israel says it has sent intelligence experts and specialists in hostage negotiations to help with the rescue effort.

The BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says the plane's breakdown is a set-back for the UK government which promised to do all it can to help with the search operation.

Boko Haram says it is prepared to free some of the girls in exchange for the release of its fighters and relatives being held by Nigeria's security forces.

Nigeria's government says it is prepared to hold talks with Boko Haram, but has reportedly ruled out a prisoner swap.

On Sunday, a suicide blast in a street full of bars and restaurants in the northern Nigerian city of Kano killed four people.

Officials blamed Boko Haram for the explosion.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks this year but the government has said it has pushed the militants back into their strongholds in the north-eastern Borno state.

This is where they seized the school girls, causing international outrage.

African leaders meeting in Paris at the weekend agreed to wage "war" on Boko Haram, pledging to share intelligence and co-ordinate action against the group.

The group is fighting to overthrow the Nigeria government and create an Islamic state.

But it has often attacked Muslims, including preachers who disagree with its interpretation of Islam.

BBC

Related stories: US commence aerial search for kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria

Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Monday, May 19, 2014

Video - Discussion about African leaders declaring total war on Boko Haram


African leaders agree to join forces and declare war on the armed group in Nigeria. Kamahl Santamaria speaks to Phil Rees, a filmmaker with the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit and author of 'Dining with Terrorists', Max Gbanite, a Strategic Security consultant and defence analyst and Aliyu Musa, an independent researcher on War and Conflict Study.

Related stories: Video - Nigerian Senator disgusted with Government's failure to find kidnapped schoolgirls

Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

Suicide bomber kills 4 in Kano, Nigeria

A suicide blast in a street full of bars and restaurants in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has killed four people, police say.

One of those killed was a girl aged 12, they say.

Witnesses say the explosion was caused by a bomb in a car in the mainly Christian area of Sabon Gari.

The area has previously been targeted by Boko Haram Islamist militants but it is the first attack on Nigeria's second biggest city for several months.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks this year but the government has said it has pushed the militants back into their strongholds in the north-eastern Borno state.

This is where they seized more than 200 girls last month, in a case which shocked the world and prompted foreign powers to send military advisors to assist Nigeria's army tackle the insurgency.

The street in Sabon Gari was full of revellers and street hawkers when a car exploded.

The BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says that Sunday's blast was so powerful that all that remains of the car is its engine. The blast could be heard from several miles away.

"At about 22:00 [21:00 GMT], we heard an explosion and immediately mobilised to the scene where we discovered a suicide bomber... Five people, including the bomber, were killed," Kano Police Commissioner Adelere Shinaba said.

He said that the victims were "three men and a girl of about 12".

Kano is the largest city in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria.

The bars and alcohol-sellers in its Sabon Gari area have been targeted on numerous other occasions.

In January 2012, about 150 people died there in a series of co-ordinated attacks by Boko Haram.

The group is fighting to overthrow the Nigeria government and create an Islamic state.

But it has often attacked Muslims, including preachers who disagree with its interpretation of Islam.

The Nigerian authorities are continuing the search for the kidnapped schoolgirls kidnapped.

The abducted schoolgirls, who include Christians and Muslims, were seized on 14 April.

Boko Haram released a video last week showing more than 100 of the girls and offering an exchange for prisoners.

African leaders meeting in Paris at the weekend agreed to wage "war" on Boko Haram, pledging to share intelligence and co-ordinate action against the group.

French President Francois Hollande called Boko Haram a "major threat to West and Central Africa", and said it had links with al-Qaeda's North-African arm and "other terrorist organisations".

The unrest in Nigeria has not just been confined to the north.

Earlier this month a car bomb in the capital Abuja killed at least 19 people and injured 60 more.

The explosion happened close to a bus station where at least 70 people died in a bomb blast on 14 April.

BBC

Related stories:  Video - Fatality count in Abuja bomb blast rises to 75

Boko Haram attack market - 150 dead

Video - Muslims in Nigeria condemn Boko Haram's kidnapping of schoolgirls

Video - Nigerian Senator disgusted with Government's failure to find kidnapped schoolgirls



The Senator for Nigeria's Borno state said he is disappointed with how the government is dealing with the threat from Boko Haram. The armed group is behind the kidnapping of more then 200 school girls. There has been growing frustration with the slow pace of efforts to rescue them.

Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram  

President Goodluck Jonathan cancels trip to Chibok, where schoolgirls were kidnapped

Friday, May 16, 2014

Video - Muslims in Nigeria condemn Boko Haram's kidnapping of schoolgirls


Muslims around the world have condemned the kidnappings of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school in Chibok village on April 15.Muslim leaders said groups like Boko Haram, who have claimed responsibility for the abductions, are a disgrace to their religion.The Nigerian government has come under fire for its response to the girls' abduction, but one of the overlooked aspects has been its minimal regulation of preaching and places of worship.Clerics complain that there is no proper mechanism for certifying imams at mosques, allowing some preachers to spread their ideas unchecked.

Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram 

 Video - Nigerian government starts cooperating with international community to find kidnapped schoolgirls

President Goodluck Jonathan cancels trip to Chibok, where schoolgirls were kidnapped

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has called off a visit the town where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted, officials say.

Sources had told the BBC he would stop in Chibok, in the north-east, on his way to a conference in France on the threat from Boko Haram militants.

But the visit was called off for security reasons, the officials said.

The president - under pressure over his government's failure to rescue the girls - will fly direct to Paris.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Nigeria says the cancellation of this visit underlines just how fragile the security situation is in the north-east.

On Thursday, relatives of the girls called for their unconditional release by Boko Haram.

Mr Jonathan is said to have ruled out negotiations over a possible release of prisoners.

Nothing was seen of the girls for almost a month after they were taken from Chibok.

But on Monday the group released a video showing more than 100 of them and offering an exchange for prisoners.

UK Africa Minister Mark Simmonds said Mr Jonathan had "made it very clear that there will be no negotiation" at a meeting on Wednesday.

President Jonathan has been criticised for not visiting the town - more than a month after the girls were seized.

The president will travel to Paris to take part in a summit convened by French President Francois Hollande to discuss Boko Haram.

The leaders of Nigeria's neighbours - Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad - are scheduled to attend the summit on Saturday, which will also include representatives from the UK, US and EU.

A statement said delegates at the meeting will "discuss fresh strategies for dealing with the security threat posed by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in west and Central Africa".

'Troubling atrocities'
Meanwhile, US officials on Thursday criticised the speed of Nigeria's response to the threat from Boko Haram.

Alice Friend, director for African affairs at the US defence department, said its security forces had been "slow to adapt with new strategies and new tactics".

She also said the US was unable to offer aid to Nigeria's military because of "troubling" atrocities perpetrated by some units during operations against Boko Haram.

"We cannot ignore that Nigeria can be an extremely challenging partner to work with," Ms Friend said.

State of emergency
US drones and surveillance aircraft have been deployed to assist in the search for the schoolgirls, while the UK has sent a military team to the capital, Abuja, to work alongside US, French and Israeli experts.

The lower house of Nigeria's parliament, the House of Representatives, approved an extension of the state of emergency in the north-east states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa on Thursday.

President Jonathan had requested a six-month extension, calling the security situation in the region "daunting" and saying he was concerned by the mounting loss of life among civilians.

The state of emergency, which still needs to be approved by the Senate, gives the military widespread powers such as detaining suspects, imposing curfews and setting up roadblocks.

On Thursday, there were reports of fresh attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Borno state.

A witness told the BBC's Hausa Service that there had been explosions in Gamboru Ngala, were some 300 people were killed last week in a massacre blamed on Boko Haram.

BBC

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Thursday, May 15, 2014

Video - Nigerian government starts cooperating with international community to find kidnapped schoolgirls


Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has rejected the idea of a swap of Boko Haram prisoners for schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the Islamist group a month ago. This announcement was made by Britain's minister for Africa after talks with Jonathan in Abuja on Wednesday. Meanwhile, an international manhunt is underway to find and rescue the girls.

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Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange

President Goodluck Jonathan states no negotiations with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls

 After days of playing coy, the Nigerian government has now said it will not swap Boko Haram prisoners for the over 200 schoolgirls the militant Islamist group abducted a month ago.

The decision by President Goodluck Jonathan was not unexpected by most foreign observers, and was relayed to the media separately Wednesday by Nigeria's Interior Minister Abba Moro and then later by Britain's top government official in Africa, Mark Simmonds, who had just come out of a meeting with Jonathan.

Though not everyone is convinced that there is nothing going on behind the scenes.

Many countries deny paying any money or even engaging in talks with hostage-takers. But Fred Burton, a vice-president at the global intelligence group Stratfor, says he has learned the hard way that these claims can be false.

While employed by the U.S. State Department as a counter-terrorism agent, he worked on the Lebanon hostage crisis in the 1980s, when dozens of foreign nationals, including many Americans, were kidnapped.

"We were looking for hostages being held, and lo and behold, our own government was negotiating with the terrorists behind everybody's backs," said Burton.

The lesson, he says, is that governments sometimes "talk out of both sides of their mouth," despite knowing that ransom payments and prisoner exchanges can lead to more kidnappings in the future.

Clever ploy

The offer of a prisoner exchange by Boko Haram was "an extremely clever ploy" to put additional pressure on the Nigerian government, said John Campbell, who served as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria in the late 1980s and late 2000s.

But even before the government made its position clear on negotiating, Campbell said he doubted it would happen.

To concede anything to the Islamist sect would probably just escalate its years-long fight against the Jonathan government, increase the prospect of future kidnappings and cause the government to suffer an "enormous loss of prestige," says Campbell.

"So I don't really think that in any meaningful way that negotiations are in the cards."

Boko Haram and, to a lesser extent, the Nigerian government have been under intense international condemnation this past month since upwards of 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by the militants from a boarding school in Chibok in the troubled northeastern portion of the country.

After weeks of international pressure, including a #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign involving celebrities and politicians from all, the Nigerian government gave in and allowed Western militaries to help search for the missing girls.

Earlier this week, though, saw the release of a second Boko Haram video that showed leader Abubakar Shekhau with some of the girls and demanding a prisoner exchange for at least the Christian schoolgirls in the militants' possession.

In response, a Nigerian government official said "all options" are on the table, and that "the window of negotiation is still open."

Negotiated in the past

How serious that option was is open for debate. Boko Haram analyst Jacob Zenn has said that the Jonathan government has taken part in trade-offs with the militants in the past.

Boko Haram, which loosely translated means "Western education is forbidden," began its violent insurgency about five years ago. Years earlier, it had emerged as a religious sect in the predominantly Muslim north, where many feel marginalized by the government in the south.

Zenn, an analyst with the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, told CNN that a year ago, Boko Haram raided Bama, a town near the Cameroon border, killing people and taking wives and children.

It then used these hostages to demand the Nigerian security forces release Shekhau's wife and the wives and children of some of the group's commanders.

Two weeks later, nearly 100 Boko Haram members and relatives were set free and those held by Boko Haram were "rescued," according to an official account, says Zenn.

He also says that security sources told him there was a financial payoff as well.

On Feb. 19, 2013, Boko Haram also abducted a French family of seven visiting a park in Cameroon.

After they were released two months later, Reuters reported it had obtained a Nigerian government document that indicated a ransom of $3 million had been paid. French and Cameroonian authorities denied the report.

Campbell cautioned that it's hard to know how the Nigerian government has dealt with Boko Haram in the past and whether it has paid ransom. "It never ever admits to having done so," he notes.

Still, kidnappings are a big business in Nigeria.

The country ranks third among those with the highest number of kidnappings, according to a 2013 report by Control Risks, a global consulting firm that specializes in such risks.

CBC

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Nigerian soldiers attack own army commander

Soldiers in Nigeria have opened fire on their commander in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, witnesses say.

Maj-Gen Ahmed Mohammed escaped unhurt after soldiers shot at his car at the Maimalari barracks, the sources said.

The soldiers blamed him for the killing of their colleagues in an ambush by suspected Boko Haram militants.

Meanwhile, Nigeria's president has ruled out freeing Boko Haram prisoners in exchange for the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls.

A government minister had earlier said authorities were ready to negotiate with Boko Haram, but President Goodluck Jonathan insisted on Wednesday that this was out of the question.

"He made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners," said British Africa Minister Mark Simmonds after meeting Mr Jonathan in the capital, Abuja, to discuss an international recue mission for the girls.

Their kidnapping in Borno state on 14 April has caused international outrage, and foreign teams of experts are in the country to assist the security forces in tracking them down.

'Internal matter'
Army spokesman Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade described the incident in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, as an internal matter and said there was no need for public concern.

But the shooting shows that morale within the army is low as it battles Boko Haram, says BBC Nigeria analyst Naziru Mikailu.

BBC

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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Video - Nigeria's hidden trillion dollar economy


Nigeria could actually be a trillion-dollar economy. That's the message, many economic-experts and stake-holders are sending, after the recent-rebasing, of the calculation, of what is now Africa's largest-economy. Research indicates, that Nigeria has one of the largest, informal-economies in the world... and that, this..is yet to be captured, in gross domestic product calculations. As CCTV'S Peter Wakaba found-out, global financial-service-providers, are positioning themselves, to take advantage, of this opportunity, which is far beyond, the recently announced, GDP calculation, of some 510 million dollars.

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Villagers take matters into their own hands and kill suspected Boko Haram militants

Villagers in an area of Nigeria where Boko Haram operates have killed and detained scores of the extremist Islamic militants who were suspected of planning a fresh attack, the residents and a security official said.

Residents in Nigeria's northern states have been forming vigilante groups in various areas to resist the militants who have held more than 270 schoolgirls captive since last month.
In Kalabalge, a village about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, residents said they were taking matters into their own hands because the Nigerian military is not doing enough to stem Boko Haram attacks.

On Tuesday morning, after learning about an impending attack by militants, locals ambushed two trucks with gunmen, a security official told The Associated Press. At least 10 militants were detained, and scores were killed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give interviews to journalists. It was not immediately clear where the detainees were being held.

Kalabalge trader Ajid Musa said that after residents organized the vigilante group, "it is impossible" for militants to successfully stage attacks there.

"That is why most attacks by the Boko Haram on our village continued (to) fail because they cannot come in here and start shooting and killing people," he said. Earlier this year in other parts of Borno, some extremists launched more attacks in retaliation over the vigilante groups.

Borno is where more than 300 girls were abducted last month and one of three Nigerian states where President Goodluck Jonathan has imposed a state of emergency, giving the military special powers to fight the Islamic extremist group, whose stronghold is in northeast Nigeria.

Britain and the U.S. are now actively involved in the effort to rescue the missing girls. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said FBI agents and a hostage negotiating team are in Nigeria now, providing technology and other materials and working with "our Nigerian counterparts to be as helpful as we possibly can." U.S. reconnaissance aircraft are flying over Nigeria in search of the missing girls.

The group kidnapped the girls on April 15 from a school in Chibok. At least 276 of them are still held captive, with the group's leader threatening to sell them into slavery. In a video released on Monday, he offered to release the girls in exchange for the freedom of jailed Boko Haram members.

A Nigerian government official has said "all options" are now open -- including negotiations or a possible military operation with foreign help.
Jonathan this week sought to extend the state of emergency for six more months in the states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.

That move is being opposed by some leaders in northern Nigeria who say the emergency measure has brought no success. Yobe Governor Ibrahim Gaidam said in a statement received Wednesday that his government "takes very strong exception" to attempts to extend the state of emergency -- a period that he described as "marked more by failure than by success."

The measure was imposed May 14, 2013, and extended in December.

During this period Nigerian government forces have been accused of committing rights abuses, charges denied by the military, and the threat from Boko Haram has appeared to intensify.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the top State Department official for Africa, said in a web chat Wednesday that "part of our work with the (Nigerian) government is to help train members of their security how not to commit human rights violations."

Boko Haram has killed more than 1,500 people this year. Although the security forces have forced the militants out of urban centres, they have struggled for months to dislodge them from hideouts in mountain caves and the Sambisa forest.

Last week, as world attention focused on the abducted schoolgirls, Islamic militants attacked the town of Gamboru, in Borno state, and killed at least 50 people, according to residents. A senator from the area has said up to 300 were killed in that attack.

CTV

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Video - Nigerian government open to negotiations with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls


Nigeria's government signaled willingness on Tuesday to negotiate with Islamist militants holding more than 200 schoolgirls, a month after the kidnap that has provoked global outrage.

"The window of negotiation is still open," Minister of Special Duties Tanimu Turaki told Reuters by telephone.

He was speaking a day after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau posted a video offering to release the girls in exchange for prisoners held by the government.

Senior officials say the government is exploring options and has made no commitment to negotiations for the release of the girls and Turaki declined to comment on possible talks over the kidnapping itself.

Instead, he referred to an amnesty committee that he heads set up by President Goodluck Jonathan last year to talk to the Boko Haram militants behind a five-year-old insurgency.

The committee's initial six-month mandate expired without holding direct talks with the rebels, though it has spoken to them through proxies. It has since been replaced by a standing committee empowered to conduct talks, officials said.

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people since 2009 and destabilized parts of northeast Nigeria, the country with Africa's largest population and biggest economy.

The abductions have triggered a worldwide social media campaign under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the United States, Britain, France and Israel to offer help or send experts to Nigeria. U.S. surveillance aircraft were flying over remote areas of the northeast on Tuesday.

The video showed more than 110 girls sitting on the ground in a rural location, the first time they have been seen in captivity.

Though at least some of them are Christian, and Shekau described them as 'infidels', they were wearing full Islamic veils and singing and chanting Muslim prayers.

It was not clear when or where the video was filmed or whether Shekau, who sat in front of a green backdrop holding an AK-47 during part of the video, was in the same location as the girls.

Those shown were among 276 abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in the village of Chibok, Borno state, in a sparsely populated region near the borders with Cameroon, Niger and Chad. Some escaped but about 200 are still missing. The group initially threatened to sell them into slavery.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

Jonathan returned to Abuja on Tuesday from the Congo Republic, where he held talks with President Denis Sassou ahead of a regional summit in Paris on Saturday.

He asked parliament on Tuesday for a six-month extension of a state of emergency in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe due to persistent attacks by Boko Haram. The emergency was declared last May and extended in November.

Yobe state Governor Ibrahim Gaidam rejected the proposal on the grounds that local people had suffered under the emergency and this harmed the government's counter-insurgency strategy.

After being accused of a sluggish response to the kidnapping, the government has sent thousands of troops to the region, while the United States and Britain also have teams on the ground to help with the search.

The U.S. State Department said Washington had sent in military, law-enforcement and development experts.

"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," a U.S. official said.

Britain's minister for Africa Mark Simmonds would travel to the Nigerian capital on Wednesday for talks on further assistance, the Foreign Office in London said.

Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima said 77 of the girls in the video had been identified by parents, fellow students and girls who escaped the abductions.

"The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it, but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops is boosting our spirit," said Dumoma Mpura, a leader at the girls' boarding school.

Reuters

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Mother identifies her kidnapped daughter in video released by Boko Haram

A mother of an abducted Nigerian schoolgirl has identified her daughter in a video posted by Islamist rebels that showed dozens of girls in captivity, a school leader said on Tuesday.

The mother watched the video on television on Monday evening and spotted her daughter among the girls sitting on the ground and wearing veils, said Dumoma Mpur, parent-teachers association chairman at Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria.

The leader of rebel group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, issued the video on Monday offering to release more than 200 schoolgirls, who were kidnapped from the school in a raid on April 15, in exchange for prisoners held by the government. It was not immediately apparent when the video of the girls was filmed.

"The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops is boosting our spirit, even though I have not seen the any one soldier in Chibok yet," Mpur told Reuters by telephone.

The Nigerian government said it was exploring all options in its effort to rescue the girls. The United States and Britain have sent experts to help with the search and Nigeria has sent two divisions to the northeastern border region.

Reuters

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US commence aerial search for kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria

The United States has been flying "manned" missions over Nigeria to track down more than 200 abducted schoolgirls, the Pentagon said, as experts pored over a new video, seeking clues to where they are being held.

"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," a senior administration official told AFP news agency on Monday, asking not to be named.

It was not immediately clear what kinds of aircraft were being deployed, nor where they had come from.

A new video released by the Boko Haram group purportedly showing about 130 of the girls was being carefully studied by US experts in the hope it might yield vital clues as to where they are being held.

"Our intelligence experts are combing through every detail of the video for clues that might help ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier on Monday.

"We have no reason to question its authenticity," she added of the video.

Negotiations

In the video, the Islamic group's leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls may be released once Nigeria frees all the Boko Haram prisoners it has in custody.

But that proposal has been rejected by the Nigerian government, and Psaki recalled that the US policy is also "to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, including ransoms or concessions”.

A 30-strong US team arrived on the ground last week in Nigeria to help growing efforts to find the girls aged between 16 to 18, snatched from their boarding school in the northeast of the country on April 14.

The White House said the team included five State Department officials, two strategic communications experts, a civilian security expert and a regional medical support officer.

Also on the manifest are 10 Defense Department planners already in Nigeria, seven extra military advisors from US Africa Command and four FBI officials expert in hostage negotiations.

"We are talking about helping the Nigerian government search an area that is roughly the size of New England," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to the region in the US northeast.

"So this is no small task. But we are certainly bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist the government."

Psaki stressed the Nigerian authorities were "in the lead" during the investigation.

The girls' plight has triggered a storm of outrage across the US, and First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday for the first time delivered her husband's weekly address to the nation to say they were both "outraged and heartbroken" by the kidnapping.

"This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls," she said.

AFP

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Monday, May 12, 2014

New Nigerian leaders needed to tackle Boko Haram - Wole Soyinka

Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, who turns 80 this year, has long inhabited that illustrious pantheon of African literary greats; in 1986 he was awarded the Nobel Prize as an author "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence".

Whilst his most famous dramatic works may be substantially metaphysical in theme, his current outlook seems more forcefully political. Or perhaps this is a product of what his admirers and questioners most want to talk about: how do we solve the ‘problem(s)’ of Nigeria?

And the problem-du-jour in Nigeria is quite clear: the case of the hundreds of school girls kidnapped by the Islamist group Boko Haram from a small town in the country’s north-eastern Borno state. The imaginative #BringBackOurGirls campaign has galvanised a previously ambivalent international community to pay attention to a conflict that was formerly viewed as a parochial ‘Nigerian problem’.

One gets the feeling that even in Nigeria the insurgency in its poor northern regions has been viewed as something that could be effectively contained and had little impact on the oil-rich southern states.

Soyinka seeks to dispel the notion that ‘Boko Haramism’, as he calls it, is a spontaneous, temporary and isolated problem. As he told an audience at a Royal African Society event last week, “it is a product of decades old political tactics”.

He says over the last 20 years, “religion has become mixed with politics to create a toxic brew”. Relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have deteriorated as politicians sought grassroots support to buttress their own power.

Soyinka links the rise of religious radicalism with another blight of modern Nigeria: impunity. This word is often associated with a failure to prosecute powerful individuals guilty of corruption. However, Soyinka argues that it extends far beyond this to include those who engage in violent sectarian action – beatings and lynchings – in the name of religion, and go unpunished by the legal system. “Boko Haramism”, says Soyinka, “began with the culture of impunity on religious grounds.”

“When the first northern governor declared his state theocratic we should have said ‘No!…but the President, seeking an unconstitutional third term, needed votes from the north,” said Soyinka. But whilst Boko Haram may have its origins within the ‘Almajiri’ foot soldiers of northern politicians, something then happened that they did not expect. The foot soldiers turned on their alleged political mentors, forming the wild and uncontrolled movement we see today.

The insurgency has now grown beyond the capacity of the Nigerian state to control. The government and army “cannot handle it” and perhaps, should not even be expected to, says Soyinka. It is “the responsibility of the global community, a crime against humanity has been committed,” he said.

Soyinka calls for a new generation of Nigerians, artists or otherwise, to step up and accept leadership. It is the task of a new generation to “respond to those who think they have a divine right to mess up our lives.”

Guardian

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Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram

Nigerian government refused international help earlier in the search of kidnapped schoolgirls

The Ni­ger­ian president for weeks refused international help in the search for more than 300 girls abducted from a school by Islamist extremists, one in a series of missteps that have led to growing international outrage against the government.

Britain, Nigeria’s former colonizer, first said it was ready to help in a news release the day after the mass abduction April 15 and made a formal offer of assistance April 18, according to the British Foreign Office. The United States’ embassy and agencies offered help and were in touch with Nigeria “from Day One” of the crisis, according to Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

Yet it was only on Tuesday and Wednesday, almost a month later, that President Goodluck Jonathan accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China.

The delay underlines what has been a major problem in the attempt to find the girls: an apparent lack of urgency on the part of the government and the military, for reasons that include a reluctance to bring in outsiders and possible infiltration by the extremists.

Jonathan bristled last week when he said President Obama, in a telephone conversation about aid, had brought up allegations of human rights abuses by Nigerian security forces. Jonathan also acknowledged that his government might be penetrated by insurgents from Boko Haram, the extremist group that kidnapped the girls.

The waiting has left parents in agony, especially because they fear some of their daughters have been forced into marriage with their abductors for a nominal bride price of $12. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau called the girls “slaves” in a video last week and vowed to sell them.

The military has denied that it ignored warnings of the impending attack.

And Reuben Abati, an adviser to Jonathan, denied that Nigeria had turned down offers of help. “That information cannot be correct,” he said. “What John Kerry said is that this is the first time Nigeria is seeking assistance on the issue of the abducted girls.”

In fact, Kerry has said that Nigeria did not welcome U.S. help earlier because it wanted to pursue its own strategy. Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) said Friday that it took “far too long” for Jonathan to accept U.S. offers of aid. A senior State Department official also said Friday that the United States offered help “back in April, more or less right away.”

“We didn’t go public about it because the consensus was that doing so would make the Nigerians less likely to accept our help,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue concerns internal discussions between governments.

Nigeria receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. aid every year to address a rising insurgency in the north and growing tensions between Christians and Muslims. The northeast, where the girls were kidnapped, is remote and sparsely populated.

The abductions at Chibok Government Girls Secondary School came hours after a blast in the capital, Abuja, killed at least 75 people. Chibok government official Bana Lawal told the AP that about 11 p.m. April 15, he received a warning via cellphone that about 200 heavily armed militants were on their way to the town.

Lawal alerted the 15 soldiers guarding Chibok, who sent an SOS to the nearest barracks, about 30 miles away. But help never came. The military says its reinforcements ran into an ambush.

The soldiers in Chibok fought valiantly but were outmanned and outgunned by the extremists, who then made their way to the school and captured dozens of girls. Police say 53 escaped on their own and 276 remain captive.

AP

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Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange


A new video released by Islamist militants Boko Haram claims to show around 100 girls kidnapped from a school in Nigeria last month. The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said they would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed.

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Nigerian military had advance warning of Boko Haram attack that lead to kidnap of schoolgirls

Friday, May 9, 2014

Nigerian military had advance warning of Boko Haram attack that lead to kidnap of schoolgirls

Nigeria's military had advance warning of an attack on the town where some 270 girls were kidnapped but failed to act, Amnesty International says.

The human rights group says it was told by credible sources that the military had more than four hours' warning of the raid by Boko Haram militants.

Fifty-three of the girls escaped soon after being seized in Chibok on 14 April but more than 200 remain captive.

Nigeria's authorities say they "doubt the veracity" of the Amnesty report.

"If the government was aware [beforehand] there would have been an intervention [against the militants]," Nigerian Information Minister Labaran Maku told BBC World TV.

However, he said the authorities would still investigate the claims. 'Gross dereliction of duty' Amnesty says it was told by several people that the military in Maiduguri, capital of the north-eastern Borno state, was informed of the impending attack on Chibok town soon after 19:00 local time.

It says that a local official was contacted by herdsmen who said that armed men had asked them where the Government Girls' Secondary School was located in the town.

Despite the warning, reinforcements were not sent to help protect the town in the remote area, which was attacked at around midnight, Amnesty says.

One reason, the rights group says, was a "reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped armed groups".

In its report, Amnesty International said the failure of the Nigerian security forces to stop the raid - despite knowing about it in advance - will "amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime".

The organisation's Africa Director Netsanet Belay said it amounted to a "gross dereliction of Nigeria's duty to protect civilians" and called on the leadership to "use all lawful means at their disposal to secure the girls' safe release and ensure nothing like this can happen again".

A father of one of two of the missing schoolgirls told the BBC's John Simpson that he believed there was "politics" behind the kidnappings because there was prior information that the militants would be coming to Chibok.

Boko Haram has admitted capturing the girls, saying they should not have been in school and should get married instead.

In a video released earlier this week, leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to "sell" the students.

It is believed the schoolgirls are being held somewhere, perhaps in scattered groups, in the vast forested areas that stretch from near Chibok into neighbouring Cameroon.

Teams of experts from the US and UK - including military advisers, negotiators and counsellors - have arrived in Nigeria to help locate and rescue the abductees.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier that an inter-agency team will work with the Nigerian authorities to secure the girls' release and stressed: "We are also going to do everything possible to counter the menace of Boko Haram".

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, began its insurgency in Borno state in 2009.

At least 1,200 people are estimated to have died in the violence this year alone.

The Nigerian leadership has been widely criticised for its perceived slow response to the girls' kidnapping.

More protests were held in the British capital, London, and Nigeria's main city, Lagos, on Friday.

Speaking to the BBC's World Have Your Say programme, Mr Maku said it was important to remember that the army was not fighting an "easy war" against Boko Haram, which operates over a huge area in the remote north.

BBC

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Former UN Secretary Generaly says Africa should have reacted faster to kidnapped schoolgirls