Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Video - The war between farmers and cattle herders in Nigeria
Farmers have greeted the new season in Nigeria with hope, but the mood has since turned to fear and suspicion. Violent clashes between indigenous farmers and cattle herders have killed thousands over the decades. This year, the killings and reprisals have already started.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari sacks army, navy and air force chiefs
Mr Buhari is expected to announce their replacements soon.
This move does not come as a surprise, as the president has repeatedly criticised the military's inability to defeat Islamist militants Boko Haram.
After losing most of their territory earlier this year, they have recently launched a series of deadly guerrilla attacks, killing more than 250 people.
Africa Live: Latest news updates
The new military chiefs will be expected to work closely with neighbours Chad, Cameroon and Niger as the countries join forces to tackle Boko Haram.
The group has also stepped up attacks on these countries.
At least 12 civilians were killed in Cameroon in a suspected Boko Haram suicide attack on Sunday evening, a military source told the BBC.
Two soldiers also died along with two bombers who blew themselves up in Fotokol, near the border with Nigeria.
Chad will be the headquarters of an expanded Nigeria-led regional force of around 7,500 troops.
Its formation has gained momentum since President Buhari took office in May.
On Saturday morning, 15 people died in the main market in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, when a man dressed in a burka blew himself up.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack.
The BBC's Nigeria correspondent, Will Ross, says just hours before his sacking, army chief Lt Gen Kenneth Minima said the upsurge in violence was the result of military success against the jihadists.
Lt Gen Minima suggested Boko Haram no longer had the capacity to fight the army and so had resorted to attacking soft targets with bomb blasts.
BBC
Related story: President Muhammadu Buhari dissolves state oil company board
Video - Nigeria teenage brothers that developed the crocodile browser
Nigerian brothers Osine and Anesi have developed an Android web browser. Inspired by Google Chrome, they named their browser Crocodile Browser Lite. It has been described as a functional, fast browser for feature and low end phones. Focus on Africa went to meet them at their home in Lagos.
5 killed in shooting at Rivers state Nigeria
At least five people were shot and killed on Saturday evening in a small community a few kilometres (miles) from Nigeria's largest refinery in the oil hub Port Harcourt in Rivers state, a spokesman police and local leaders said on Sunday.
Gunmen on motorbikes rode around Agbonchia for about an hour shooting at people, youth leader Osaro Nwoke and Simeon Awaji, a local council official said.
Police spokesman, Ahmad Mohammad, said that five people had been killed and that 11 people connected to the attack had been arrested, one on Saturday and the others on Sunday.
"We arrested 10 people today ... items recovered included a Lexus jeep, two motorcylces and ... ammunition," Mohammad said.
The delta region periodically sees kidnappings and shoot-outs between local gangs.
Reuters
Gunmen on motorbikes rode around Agbonchia for about an hour shooting at people, youth leader Osaro Nwoke and Simeon Awaji, a local council official said.
Police spokesman, Ahmad Mohammad, said that five people had been killed and that 11 people connected to the attack had been arrested, one on Saturday and the others on Sunday.
"We arrested 10 people today ... items recovered included a Lexus jeep, two motorcylces and ... ammunition," Mohammad said.
The delta region periodically sees kidnappings and shoot-outs between local gangs.
Reuters
Friday, July 10, 2015
Oil-Pipeline blast kills 12 in Nigeria
Twelve people died and three were injured in an explosion during repair work at an Eni SpA crude oil pipeline in Nigeria.
The victims worked on a maintenance team for a local service company, Rome-based Eni said in a statement Friday. The Tebidaba-Clough Creek pipeline in the Niger delta was previously “damaged by acts of sabotage.” The company said it is still investigating the cause of Thursday’s blast.
Accidents are common in Nigeria, where pipelines are often breached in attempts to pilfer crude. The incidents interrupt oil and gas flows, affecting Nigeria’s energy exports and revenue for companies including Eni, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. Thursday’s incident was the worst since January 2012, when an explosion at Chevron’s Funiwa gas field killed two workers, according to a spokesman for a local environmental group.
“The dead were unidentifiable,” said Alagoa Morris of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian affiliate of Friends of the Earth. “Two people that were seriously wounded were rushed to Port Harcourt last night for medical attention. They were badly burnt but they were still alive.”
Eni had 13 incidents related to pipelines and oil wells in Nigeria in May including theft, pipelines being cut using a hacksaw and equipment failure, according to the company’s website. Seventeen were reported in April and 14 in March.
Hundreds have been killed in Nigerian pipeline accidents in the past decade. An explosion at a vandalized oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, started a fire that killed at least 200 people and burned many more in December 2006. In May that year, about 200 people were killed when another oil pipeline exploded near Lagos.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, loses an estimated 300,000 barrels a day to criminal gangs that tap crude from pipelines that criss-cross the southern, oil-rich delta for local refining or sale to tankers waiting offshore, according to state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
Bloomberg
The victims worked on a maintenance team for a local service company, Rome-based Eni said in a statement Friday. The Tebidaba-Clough Creek pipeline in the Niger delta was previously “damaged by acts of sabotage.” The company said it is still investigating the cause of Thursday’s blast.
Accidents are common in Nigeria, where pipelines are often breached in attempts to pilfer crude. The incidents interrupt oil and gas flows, affecting Nigeria’s energy exports and revenue for companies including Eni, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. Thursday’s incident was the worst since January 2012, when an explosion at Chevron’s Funiwa gas field killed two workers, according to a spokesman for a local environmental group.
“The dead were unidentifiable,” said Alagoa Morris of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian affiliate of Friends of the Earth. “Two people that were seriously wounded were rushed to Port Harcourt last night for medical attention. They were badly burnt but they were still alive.”
Eni had 13 incidents related to pipelines and oil wells in Nigeria in May including theft, pipelines being cut using a hacksaw and equipment failure, according to the company’s website. Seventeen were reported in April and 14 in March.
Hundreds have been killed in Nigerian pipeline accidents in the past decade. An explosion at a vandalized oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, started a fire that killed at least 200 people and burned many more in December 2006. In May that year, about 200 people were killed when another oil pipeline exploded near Lagos.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, loses an estimated 300,000 barrels a day to criminal gangs that tap crude from pipelines that criss-cross the southern, oil-rich delta for local refining or sale to tankers waiting offshore, according to state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.
Bloomberg
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