NAIJAFEED: insecurity

Showing posts with label insecurity. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Video - Kaduna state abductions raise Nigeria's insecurity crisis

Authorities in Nigeria's Kaduna State, are determined to address the increasing number of abductions. Armed groups have been wreaking havoc in the area for years. They target villagers, motorists on highways, and students from schools, demanding ransom in return.

CGTN

kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

61 people kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigeria

Video - At least 15 students kidnapped in Nigeria - Third mass kidnapping since last week

Gunmen abduct 287 students in northwestern Nigeria in latest school attack

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Monday, March 4, 2024

Video - Nigeria aims to return millions of children to school by 2027

Millions of Children across Nigeria have been forced out of school due to violence and insecurity, with some ending up homeless or being forced into child labor. The government there now wants to reverse the trend and return the children to school, a move that has been welcomed by activists.

CGTN

Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Video - Nigeria considers creation of state police departments

Nigeria is considering the creation of police departments for each state as part of measures to address security concerns in the country. The bill put forward by the ruling party is being debated in parliament.

CGTN

Traditional monarch shot dead and wife kidnapped from palace in Nigeria

Video - Over 100 kidnapped from four villages in Nigeria

Friday, February 23, 2024

Video - Nigeria vows to address rising cost of living amid protests

The government said it will deploy measures, including greater security for farmers against attacks from armed groups and providing them with better tools to increase production. Protesters are angry at the high rate of inflation, driven largely by high food prices and the government's decision to end a fuel subsidy.

CGTN

Protests in Nigeria over skyrocketing inflation as local currency hits record low value

Friday, February 16, 2024

Nigeria considering state policing to combat growing insecurity

Nigeria is considering the introduction of state police in its 36 states to bolster its national police force as it struggles to contain widespread violence and insecurity, the information minister said on Thursday.

An Islamist insurgency in the northeast, kidnappings for ransom, deadly farmer-herder clashes in the central belt and separatist and gang violence in the southeast are some of the challenges faced by Nigeria's police force.

President Bola Tinubu met the country's state governors to discuss insecurity, which is hurting farmers and contributing to high food prices and inflation.

The federal government and the state governments agreed that a state police force was necessary, marking "a significant shift" in approach, Information Minister Mohammed Idris told reporters after the meeting.

This is the first time that Nigeria's federal and state governments have agreed on the need to set up state police to reinforce the more than 300,000-strong national police force in Africa's most populous nation.

Nigerian Police Inspector General Kayode Egbetokun said last year at least 190,000 more officers were needed to secure the country adequately. He said the force was well below the United Nations' recommended ratio of one police officer to about 450 citizens.

Some states, like Lagos, have annual budgets the size of small African countries, and have long advocated for their own state police, saying this would help combat insecurity.

Ikemesit Effiong of risk consultancy SBM Intelligence said establishing state police would not solve the whole problem.

"Expanding the police force is one thing, fundamentally reframing the architecture and focus of policing from retribution and state control to investigation and crime prevention is quite another," Effiong said.

By Felix Onuah, Reuters

Video - Nigerian police arrest hundreds in kidnapping crackdown

Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Video - Nigerian police arrest hundreds in kidnapping crackdown

The police chief in the Federal Capital Territory said officers conducted their latest raid in Gidan Dambe. More than 300 people were arrested.

CGTN

Gunmen kill four soldiers, kidnap two South Koreans in ambush in southern Nigeria

Gunmen kill four, abduct at least 40 in northwest Nigeria

Armed men killed four people, including two policemen, and kidnapped at least 40 others in an attack on Kaura Namoda, in Nigeria's northwest Zamfara state, police and residents said on Tuesday.

Africa's largest economy is grappling with a multifaceted security crisis, including kidnappings for ransom in the northwest, which has reached alarming proportions.

Zamfara police spokesperson Yazid Abubakar confirmed the attack and said reinforcements have been deployed to the Kasuwar Daji district of the town where the incident took place.

Residents, including some of the victims, told Reuters by phone about their ordeal which began with an attack on the local police station.

"Sporadic gunshots woke me up around 0100 GMT. They started with the uniformed men before they moved into our houses," Hussaini Mohammed said.

"They took more than 40 women and children, including some elderly men," added Mohammed, who managed to escape.

Hamisu Kasuwa Daji, who heads the town's transport union, told Reuters his son and two grandchildren were taken by the attackers.

"My house is adjacent to the police station. The bandits started attacking the police station, which they engaged for several minutes until they killed two policemen and two other civilians.

"Then they proceeded to my house, by which time I had already fled. After I returned home later, I realised they had taken my son and two grandsons," he said.

Gangs of heavily armed men referred to as bandits by locals have wreaked havoc across Nigeria's northwest in the past three years, kidnapping thousands of people, killing hundreds and making it unsafe to travel by road or to farm in some areas.

Widespread insecurity is exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis caused by the reforms of President Bola Tinubu who has not yet said how he plans to tackle the mounting problems.

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Traditional monarch shot dead and wife kidnapped from palace in Nigeria

Monday, February 5, 2024

Video - Gunmen kill four officers in Borno state

The Borno state police commissioner said the officers were on duty and attacked while defending the police quarters in Gajiram Town.

CGTN

Traditional monarch shot dead and wife kidnapped from palace in Nigeria

Gunmen killed a Nigerian traditional monarch and kidnapped his wife after raiding his palace, police said, as outrage grows over a spate of abductions across the country.

Attackers stormed the palace of Oba Aremu Olusegun Cole in south-western Kwara state, shot him dead and abducted his wife and another person on Thursday.

State police said they had launched an investigation and stepped up security.

Similar attacks regularly take place in Nigeria, which is struggling with a security crisis on several fronts. Two traditional rulers were shot dead by unknown gunmen in neighbouring Ekiti state on Monday.

Last year the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, came to power promising to address insecurity – including jihadists in the north-east, criminal militias in the north-west and growing intercommunal violence in the centre of the country – but critics say violence is spinning out of control.

The Nigerian risk consultancy SBM Intelligence said it had recorded that 3,964 people were abducted since Tinubu took office in May.

At the start of the year, criminals abducted five young sisters near the capital, Abuja, and killed one when a ransom deadline passed, prompting a national outcry.

The Guardian

President Tinubu says ‘massive education’ of youth will help end kidnappings threatening the capital

Video - Over 100 kidnapped from four villages in Nigeria

Friday, February 2, 2024

Explosions rock Kano, Nigeria, at least six killed

At least six people were killed in a string of bomb blasts on Friday in Nigeria's second city Kano and the authorities imposed a curfew across the city, which has been plagued by an insurgency led by the Islamist sect Boko Haram.

Smoke billowed from the police headquarters for the north in Kano after one blast blew out its windows, collapsed its roof and triggered a blaze that firefighters struggled to control.

A Reuters reporter counted three bodies at the scene and three more at the local passport office, which was surrounded by flaming debris.

Some residents ran around shouting and screaming following the attacks. There were at least four other explosions across the city in quick succession.

"I was on the roadside and I just heard a 'Boom!'. As I came back, I saw the building of the police zonal headquarters crashing down and I ran for my life," said local man Andrew Samuel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the apparently coordinated attacks, which prompted the government to announce a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Kano, like other northern cities in Nigeria, has been plagued by an insurgency led by Islamist sect Boko Haram, blamed for scores of bombings and shootings against mostly government targets that are growing in scale and sophistication.

Boko Haram became active around 2003 and is concentrated in the northern states of Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna.

Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria means "Western education is sinful", is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The group considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they be Christian or Muslim. It demands the adoption of sharia, Islamic law, in all of Nigeria.

FLAMES AND SMOKE

Witnesses said the bomber of the police headquarters, which covers most of northern Nigeria, pulled up at the building on a motorbike then got off and ran at it holding a bag.

"We tried to stop him but he ran in forcefully with his bag. All of a sudden there was a blast. You can see for yourself the building is damaged," said a policeman at the scene.

Police said a second blast had hit Kano's passport office and another hit Zaria Road police station in the city.

"The ground was shaking with the explosion. We saw flames and smoke at the police station," said witness Umaru Ibrahim.

A source at the State Security Service said another bomber had tried to attack there but was gunned down before he could detonate his bomb.

Police and military roadblocks were erected in the city within minutes.

"We are trying to reach the scenes of these heavy blasts. Many of the roads are blocked now by security agents," said Abubaker Jibril, head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for Kano, told Reuters.

A bomb attack on a Catholic church just outside the capital Abuja on Christmas Day, claimed by Boko Haram, killed 37 people and wounded 57.

The main suspect in that attack escaped from police custody within 24 hours of his arrest, and police have offered a 50 million naira reward for information leading to his recapture.

Police arrested Kabiru Sokoto on Tuesday and while they were taking him from police headquarters to his house in Abaji, just outside Abuja, to conduct a search there, their vehicle came under fire.

Last August a suicide bomber blew up the U.N. Nigeria headquarters in Abuja, killing at least 24 people.

By Mike Oboh, Reuters

Friday, January 26, 2024

Video - Farmers in Nigeria plead with government over insecurity

In Nigeria, farmers are calling on the government to make their communities safer so they can help relieve a food-security crisis in the country. The plea comes as village leaders complain they are not able to spend time tending to their crops because they fear being attacked.

CGTN

Video - More security personnel deployed to Plateau state in Nigeria after December attacks

Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Video - At least 30 people killed in the latest violence in Nigeria

Authorities say assailants stormed a village in the Mangu Local Government area and two additional nearby communities on Tuesday. In addition to the deaths, several buildings, including a market and worship centers were destroyed.

CGTN

Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

America determined to remain strong security partner for Nigeria

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said the United States is determined to remain a strong security partner for Nigeria, whose military is backed by the U.S., Britain and other allies in a long war against Islamist insurgents.

Blinken also discussed challenges to democracy and security in the region during his meeting on Tuesday with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu in a visit that comes after last year's coup in neighboring Niger, one of a series of coups or attempted power grabs over the past few years in West and Central Africa.

"The United States is determined to be and remain a strong security partner for Nigeria," Blinken told reporters.

Blinken added that he discussed how it is vitally important there be a focus on ensuring civilians are protected and humanitarian considerations.

Observers have noted a pattern of deadly aerial assaults by the Nigerian military that have killed civilians, which was the subject of a Reuters special report last year.

The U.S. faced a setback in its fight against militants in the Sahel when military officers toppled Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum, a key ally, in July last year.

The coup in Niger was one of a series of military takeovers or attempted power grabs that occurred in West and Central Africa over the past three years.

The instability has raised concern, particularly as juntas have cut ties with traditional Western allies such as the European Union and France, which withdrew thousands of troops from the Sahel last year.

Blinken, speaking in Abuja as part of a four-nation tour of Africa taking him to Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola from Jan. 21-26, also said repatriation of capital and corruption were among challenges that need to be tackled for companies to invest in Nigeria.

Africa's biggest economy has about $7 billion in forex forwards that have matured, a major concern for investors as foreign currency shortages continue to weigh down the naira currency, despite assurances by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to clear the backlog.

So far, about $2 billion of the backlog across sectors such as manufacturing, aviation, and petroleum have been paid, CBN spokesperson Hakama Sidi Ali said in a statement.

By Chijioke Ohuocha and Felix Onuah, Reuters

Video - Nigeria recruits nearly 30,000 police officers to tackle insecurity

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

UNICEF Urges Immediate Action to Bolster School Safety in Nigeria

Abuja, 24 January 2024 - On this International Day of Education 2024, UNICEF acknowledges the significant progress made in providing access to education for 7.2 million children in humanitarian settings across Nigeria, thanks to collaborative efforts with the government, donors and partners. However, alongside this recognition, the children’s agency highlights the need for concerted efforts to enhance school safety in Nigeria.

A recent evaluation indicates that, on average, only 43% of the Minimum Standards for Safe Schools are being met in about 6,000 assessed schools. This finding particularly highlights challenges in ensuring the safety of school infrastructure and in mitigating risks such as violence, conflict, and natural hazards.

Ms. Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative, notes, “While Nigeria has shown a commitment to creating safe school environments through endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration and developing the Minimum Standards for Safe Schools, there is room for further progress. On this important day, we are reminded of the collective responsibility we share in safeguarding the educational environment for every child.”

The theme of the 2024 International Day of Education, 'learning for lasting peace,' reminds us of all of the crucial role that education plays in promoting peace and stability. It serves as a reminder to all stakeholders – including federal and state governments, development partners, civil society, communities, and educators – of the importance of providing safe, secure learning environments.

“Education is a key driver of gender equality, economic growth, and social development, sadly it remains inaccessible to many Nigerian children. Their educational journey is often disrupted by attacks on communities and schools, including the abduction of students. These challenges are particularly acute for adolescent girls, potentially stalling the progress made in girls’ education in Nigeria.” Munduate added.

Recent attacks on schools, particularly in the North-East and North-West regions in 2021, have led to learning disruptions for over 1.3 million children, necessitating precautionary school closures. This highlights the urgency of addressing school safety comprehensively.

UNICEF calls for a multi-sectoral approach to improve school safety, informed by the performance of states on the Minimum Standards for Safe Schools. This approach should include comprehensive planning, coordination, and adequate resource allocation, especially in states with higher risks.

To complement these efforts, UNICEF emphasizes the importance of alternative learning platforms, such as the Nigerian Learning Passport. This digital platform, with over 750,000 users, offers curriculum-aligned materials and is crucial for ensuring continuity of education, especially during school closures.

UNICEF remains committed to working with the Nigerian government, donors and all partners to ensure that every child has access to a safe, inclusive, and quality education.

UNICEF

President Tinubu says ‘massive education’ of youth will help end kidnappings threatening the capital

Escalating attacks targeting children endanger right to education in Nigeria

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Nigeria police did not free them, we paid ransom for the sisters, family says

Nabeeha, pictured second from left, was killed by the kidnappers

Nigerian police had no role in rescuing four sisters and their cousin from kidnappers, an uncle of the girls has told the BBC.

They were taken from their home in Abuja earlier this month, along with another sister who was later killed.

The uncle said a ransom was paid and the kidnappers dropped the girls in a forest for them to be collected.

On Sunday, police said they had "successfully rescued the victims", reuniting them with relatives.

Sheriff Al-Kadriyar, the girls' uncle, said the family went to collect them after a ransom was paid.

"There's nothing like rescue on this matter, we paid ransom - even though I can't disclose how much for security reasons," he told BBC Yoruba.

The Nigerian police spokesperson has not responded to a BBC request for comment.

The case has shocked the country, with people donating to a crowdfunding initiative to help raise the money.

In total five sisters were taken hostage in the Abuja suburb of Bwari on 2 January, along with their father Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, who was later released to raise the ransom.

Sheriff Kadriyar clarified that contrary to earlier reports that six Al-Kadriyar sisters had been abducted, one of the girls was in fact their cousin who had been staying with them over the school holidays.

Twenty-one-year-old Nabeeha, a final-year university student, was killed a few days after her father's release as a warning that the ransom of $68,000 (£53,000) must be paid.

Nigeria's defence minister had urged the family not to pay the ransom, but the Al-Kadriyars said they had no choice.

A controversial law that criminalises ransom payments was passed in 2022 aimed at tackling the country's spiralling and lucrative kidnapping industry.It carries a jail sentence of at least 15 years for anyone who pays a ransom, however no-one has been arrested, and a former minister is among those who said he had helped organise the payment to the kidnappers of the Al-Kadriyar sisters.

Sheriff Kadriyar, who said he was involved in negotiating with the kidnappers, explained that the money had been handed over to them on Wednesday.

His account backs up two others given by relatives to Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper.

They all say that the girls were released on Saturday. One of them then called the family in the early evening, giving their location.

"The kidnappers chose the day and the location we were to pick up the girls about four or five days after ransom payment," the uncle said.

A group of male relatives then headed to the Kajuru Forest in neighbouring Kaduna state to find them. Along the way they chanced upon an army unit and requested help.

These army officers escorted them to find the girls - afterwards taking them all home by around 23:30 local time (22:30 GMT).

"We are happy and we thank God that the girls were found alive," the uncle said.

His brother and nieces were now being treated at a medical facility, he said.

Kidnapping has become rife in Nigeria, with hundreds of people abducted in recent years, largely by criminal gangs who see it as an easy way to make money. It has been particularly bad in the north-west of the country.

There has been an outcry that the insecurity has reached the capital, prompting Abuja's police force to launch a special squad to tackle the kidnapping gangs last week.

The family did not want to discredit the police but wanted to make it clear how they had managed to free the girls, Sheriff Kadriyar said.

By Mansur Abubakar, BBC

Related stories: Kidnapped sisters rescued in Nigeria

President Tinubu says ‘massive education’ of youth will help end kidnappings threatening the capital

First lady of Nigeria 'devastated' by death of kidnapped student

Monday, January 22, 2024

Kidnapped sisters rescued in Nigeria

Nigerian police on Sunday said that five kidnapped sisters have been rescued after their abduction, and the death of another sister triggered a public outcry. The sisters were seized at the start of the year by armed men who burst into their home just 15 miles from Abuja city center, according to the family.

One of the victims, 21-year-old Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, lost her life when the ransom deadline passed.

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police and the army successfully rescued the remaining sisters on Saturday night in the Kajuru forest in Kaduna State, a neighboring area.

“The FCT Police has rescued the victims and reunited them with their families,” a police statement said.

The incident highlights the issue of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria, where criminal groups target various locations, including highways, residences, and even schools, causing widespread concern.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu condemned the “recent spate of kidnappings and bandit attacks.” Since assuming office in May of the previous year, Tinubu has made addressing insecurity a major commitment.

(Story compiled with assistance from AFP)

By Halligan Agade, CGTN

First lady of Nigeria 'devastated' by death of kidnapped student

Friday, January 19, 2024

US emphasizes 'accountability and transparency' in Nigeria security operations

Senior U.S. diplomat Victoria Nuland met Nigerian National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and discussed "promoting accountability and transparency" in the aftermath of security operations in Nigeria, the State Department said on Thursday.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

Observers have noted a pattern of deadly aerial assaults by the Nigerian military that have killed civilians, which was the subject of a special Reuters report last year.

Nigeria's military is backed by the United States, Britain and other allies in a long war against Islamist insurgents in the northeast.

KEY QUOTE

"They further agreed on the importance of protecting civilians, safeguarding human rights, and promoting accountability and transparency in the aftermath of security operations," the State Department said in a statement on Thursday.

CONTEXT

Civilians were killed n Nigeria's northern Kaduna state following a military drone attack targeting insurgents and bandits in December. The death toll in the attack was at least 85, including women and children.

The Boko Haram and splinter Islamic West Africa Province have waged an insurgency in Nigeria's northeast for more than one decade and continue to carry out sporadic attacks against civilians and the military.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Nigeria in the coming week as part of a West Africa trip.

By Kanishka Singh, Reuters

Monday, January 15, 2024

First lady of Nigeria 'devastated' by death of kidnapped student

Nigeria's first lady has joined the chorus of voices condemning the killing of a student abducted along with her five sisters, calling it a "devastating loss".

Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, 21, was "super-bright, smart and kind", her cousin Asiya Adamu told the BBC on Monday.

Nabeeha also loved to write poetry and read books by the American author Jodi Picoult - and she was days away from graduating with a science degree from Ahmadu Bello University.

"On the day the kidnapping happened, I asked Nabeeha if we were going to the [graduation ceremony] together, and she said yes," recalls Ms Adamu. It was the last time she saw her alive.

That evening, on 2 January, Nabeeha was abducted along with her father and sisters from their home in the outskirts of the capital, Abuja.

Nigerian police have not confirmed what happened next. Witnesses say Nabeeha's uncle ran to find help but was ambushed and killed, as were three police officers. It is not known why the family was targeted.

The kidnappers demanded to be paid a huge sum of cash by 12 January, and when they did not get it they killed Nabeeha as a warning, according to a member of the family who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Nabeeha's kidnappers handed over her body and, in accordance with Islamic rites, she was swiftly buried by her family on Saturday.
A national reckoning

News of Nabeeha's plight began to circulate over the weekend, prompting widespread grief and indignation that Nigeria's kidnapping crisis rages on despite government promises to bring it to an end.

This moment of reckoning has moved the president's wife to speak out and confirm Nabeeha's death, even though police had not yet officially done so.

Security agencies must "intensify their efforts" to end Nigeria's kidnapping and security crisis, said First Lady Remi Tinubu on Monday, demanding a "swift return of the Al-Kadriyar sisters".

Their father Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, who was freed days ago in order to fetch the ransom money, now faces an agonising wait for their return. His daughters' captors are demanding a higher sum of 65m naira ($68,000; £53,000), to be paid by Wednesday.

Hundreds of Nigerians have been kidnapped for ransom in recent years, largely by criminal gangs who see it as an easy way to make money. Close to 20 people were abducted in in the first week of 2024 alone.

No matter how desperate the circumstances, Nigerian law prohibits the payment of ransom money. However, many victims pay up because they do not trust authorities or their track record.

Even a former minister appears to share this scepticism of the Nigerian state's ability to bring the abducted back.

"I am personally not in support of paying ransom to criminals. However... I spoke with a friend who offered to pay the remaining 50 million naira," says ex-Digital Economy Minister Isa Ali Pantami, who is now a professor in cybersecurity, and a Muslim cleric.

He was one of the architects of the policy of registering all mobile phone Sim cards, in order to make life harder for kidnappers and extortionists, but says he is "frustrated" that it has not been better implemented despite allegedly enduring "threats to my life".

Nabeeha's cousin, Asiya Adamu, has also crowdfunded money from well-wishers online to help pay the ransom. She did not respond to the BBC's request to disclose the total raised, saying security officers had advised her not to so.

While she prays for the safe return of the rest of her cousins, Ms Adamu is haunted by the thought that she narrowly avoided the same fate. She tells the BBC she was due to spend time at their house that day but later changed her mind.

"My favourite memories of Nabeeha was mostly when we were in the kitchen together," Ms Adamu recalls.

"Losing her has left a void one cannot explain with words. She was a source of comfort and understanding and I've lost that," she adds.

"She had plans of going to Morocco for her Masters because she liked the place.

"I guess we make plans and Allah has the last word."

By Chris Ewokor & Natasha Booty, BBC

Video - Over 100 kidnapped from four villages in Nigeria

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Video - Why has Nigeria failed to deal with violence in Plateau State?

The Nigerian government says at least 160 people were killed in attacks by armed groups on remote farming communities at the weekend. It's the worst violence in the central Plateau state in more than five years. No group has claimed responsibility but nomadic herders are believed to be responsible. Herders and farmers have been locked in a decades-long conflict over access to land and water. Why has the Nigerian government failed to prevent these attacks? And what does it mean for the country's wider security problem - as it faces challenges on multiple fronts?

Al Jazeera

Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

Video - Nigeria mourns the brutal murders of at least 160 people

Communities in Plateau state, Nigeria are in mourning after at least 160 people were killed in a series of attacks by armed groups over the Christmas weekend. The gunmen targeted about 20 villages across the Bokkos and Barkin Ladi areas.

CGTN