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.
Related stories: US commence aerial search for kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria
Villagers take matters into their own hands and kill suspected Boko Haram militants
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
Related stories: Video - Nigerian government open to negotiations with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
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
Related stories: Villagers take matters into their own hands and kill suspected Boko Haram militants
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
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
Related stories: Villagers take matters into their own hands and kill suspected Boko Haram militants
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
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.
Related story: Video - Nigeria is now Africa's biggest economy
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
Related stories: Video - Nigerian government open to negotiations with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
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
Related stories: Video - Nigerian government open to negotiations with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)