Thursday, January 14, 2016
Video - Mobile classrooms set-up in Nigeria to help displaced children
Its estimated that over a million children have been displaced during the past six years of conflict in Nigeria.
Now the government is setting up mobile classrooms, taking education to children who had their schools blown up by Boko Haram fighters.
Video - Lassa Fever death recorded in Abuja, Nigeria
Ebola also claimed victims in Nigeria...and the government there won plaudits for quickly containing the outbreak. Now though another virus is spreading - Lassa fever At least 43 people are dead so far. and it's reached the capital, Abuja. CCTV's Kelechi Emekalam with this update.
Pregnant woman flees Nigeria to Canada to save unborn children from female genital mutilation
A Nigerian woman has fled the country to Winnipeg, Canada, to help her daughters escape Female Genital Mutilation.
According to CBC.ca, the woman’s father-in-law had insisted that the woman’s first daughter must undergo FGM when she was just a few months old. That procedure almost led to the death of the baby.
To avoid the same from happening to her other children, the woman who is currently pregnant with triplets sought refuge outside the shores of the country.
CBC quoted a lawyer, Bashir Khan, who assisted the woman in obtaining a refugee status in Canada as saying, the woman was forced into vehicle and driven to a rural area where she couldn’t bear to stay and watch while her first daughter was forcibly mutilated.
FGM, also known as female circumcision, involves removing all or part of the clitoris as well as, often, the labia to make young girls appear “more virginal.”
In the case of the woman’s first daughter, “they cut off too much of her clitoris, and she nearly died from the infection,” said Khan.
When she became pregnant with triplets – all female – the woman was told she could have the procedure done on the babies when they were born or abort them, Khan added.
Instead, she fled Nigeria, and arrived in Canada in November 2015, when she was 29 weeks pregnant.
“It was pretty hard for her to get refugee status,” said Khan.
She was assigned Khan as a lawyer by legal aid, who assembled the documents for her refugee status claim.
But in January, Khan uncovered a letter alleging the woman was involved in FGM and thereby aggravated assault on her first daughter.
“The minister’s consul – that is the minister of citizenship and immigration here in Winnipeg — wrote a scathing four-page letter calling my client a bad mother and saying my client should not be able to make a refugee claim,” said Khan. “Statistics tell us that ministerial interventions in the last few years have skyrocketed in the past few years.”
Khan said there was no evidence that that had taken place.
“That was something that sat uncomfortably with me, my client and the board member who heard the case,” he said.
Khan called the statements disturbing and traumatising for his client.
“This is a horrible cultural practice. The purpose of FGM is to discourage sexual promiscuity and to promote chastity,” said Khan. “Parents subject their daughters to FGM based on the social belief that a young woman who refuses to undergo this will have difficulty in labour or will be unfaithful to her husband.”
He said she was in a state of shock when he explained to her what was happening.
“She was just horrified,” he said. “It was a disturbing and uncomfortable moment. The room got really cold.”
Since then, the woman was granted refugee status.
According to Khan, the woman is currently doing well in Canada and hopes to raise her three daughters there.
PUNCH
According to CBC.ca, the woman’s father-in-law had insisted that the woman’s first daughter must undergo FGM when she was just a few months old. That procedure almost led to the death of the baby.
To avoid the same from happening to her other children, the woman who is currently pregnant with triplets sought refuge outside the shores of the country.
CBC quoted a lawyer, Bashir Khan, who assisted the woman in obtaining a refugee status in Canada as saying, the woman was forced into vehicle and driven to a rural area where she couldn’t bear to stay and watch while her first daughter was forcibly mutilated.
FGM, also known as female circumcision, involves removing all or part of the clitoris as well as, often, the labia to make young girls appear “more virginal.”
In the case of the woman’s first daughter, “they cut off too much of her clitoris, and she nearly died from the infection,” said Khan.
When she became pregnant with triplets – all female – the woman was told she could have the procedure done on the babies when they were born or abort them, Khan added.
Instead, she fled Nigeria, and arrived in Canada in November 2015, when she was 29 weeks pregnant.
“It was pretty hard for her to get refugee status,” said Khan.
She was assigned Khan as a lawyer by legal aid, who assembled the documents for her refugee status claim.
But in January, Khan uncovered a letter alleging the woman was involved in FGM and thereby aggravated assault on her first daughter.
“The minister’s consul – that is the minister of citizenship and immigration here in Winnipeg — wrote a scathing four-page letter calling my client a bad mother and saying my client should not be able to make a refugee claim,” said Khan. “Statistics tell us that ministerial interventions in the last few years have skyrocketed in the past few years.”
Khan said there was no evidence that that had taken place.
“That was something that sat uncomfortably with me, my client and the board member who heard the case,” he said.
Khan called the statements disturbing and traumatising for his client.
“This is a horrible cultural practice. The purpose of FGM is to discourage sexual promiscuity and to promote chastity,” said Khan. “Parents subject their daughters to FGM based on the social belief that a young woman who refuses to undergo this will have difficulty in labour or will be unfaithful to her husband.”
He said she was in a state of shock when he explained to her what was happening.
“She was just horrified,” he said. “It was a disturbing and uncomfortable moment. The room got really cold.”
Since then, the woman was granted refugee status.
According to Khan, the woman is currently doing well in Canada and hopes to raise her three daughters there.
PUNCH
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Video - Nigeria oil refineries become operational
Nigeria's federal government spends nearly 10 million dollars per day in subsidizing imported fuel for domestic consumption- It is a huge cost President Muhammadu Buhari's government is now seeking to cut down by revitalizing domestic refineries. The government has been rehabilitating some of them recently to curb fuel shortage.
Britain deploys troops to Nigeria to help fight Boko Haram
More than 35 British troops are preparing for deployment to Nigeria where they will take part in training exercises to help the Nigerian army tackle Islamist group Boko Haram, which operates in the country’s northern territories.
The deployment comes a month after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced a bolstered British effort to combat the extremist group. Boko Haram, usually translated as “Western education is forbidden,” is responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Nigeria and Cameroon.
On Wednesday the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Cameroon which killed 10.
In March 2015 the group pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and began using its black and white flag as its symbol. It is also thought to have had links with Al-Qaeda.
In a statement on the deployment, Fallon said Britain is “united” with Nigeria in the common goal of defeating terrorism.
“We stand united with Nigeria in its efforts to defeat the murderous Boko Haram extremists.
“Stepping up our training efforts will help support the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) for crucial counter-insurgency operations,” he added.
During 2015, around 130 UK military personnel were sent to Nigeria. The latest pledge could see that number double to as many as 300.
Last year the troops were involved in a range of operations, including training in “infantry skills, civil-military affairs, media operations, command and leadership, IED-awareness, and support to Nigerian military training schools and establishments,” the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
In December, the MoD also said 1,000 Nigerian troops had received training for counter-insurgency operations in the north east of the country.
“The training uplift announced by Mr Fallon supports work already carried out by the UK’s resident British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT). BMATT has also grown in size since the government announced last year that the UK would increase its training and capacity building in Nigeria,” it said in a statement.
It is estimated that the conflict caused by Boko Haram in Nigeria has displaced 2.3 million people, of whom 250,000 are estimated to have left the country. In 2014, the extremist group killed more than 6,600 people.
According to local press reports, the Nigerian army killed three high-profile Boko Haram members in the north eastern Nigerian state of Borno during December as part of its counter-offensive.
RT
The deployment comes a month after Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced a bolstered British effort to combat the extremist group. Boko Haram, usually translated as “Western education is forbidden,” is responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Nigeria and Cameroon.
On Wednesday the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Cameroon which killed 10.
In March 2015 the group pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and began using its black and white flag as its symbol. It is also thought to have had links with Al-Qaeda.
In a statement on the deployment, Fallon said Britain is “united” with Nigeria in the common goal of defeating terrorism.
“We stand united with Nigeria in its efforts to defeat the murderous Boko Haram extremists.
“Stepping up our training efforts will help support the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) for crucial counter-insurgency operations,” he added.
During 2015, around 130 UK military personnel were sent to Nigeria. The latest pledge could see that number double to as many as 300.
Last year the troops were involved in a range of operations, including training in “infantry skills, civil-military affairs, media operations, command and leadership, IED-awareness, and support to Nigerian military training schools and establishments,” the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
In December, the MoD also said 1,000 Nigerian troops had received training for counter-insurgency operations in the north east of the country.
“The training uplift announced by Mr Fallon supports work already carried out by the UK’s resident British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT). BMATT has also grown in size since the government announced last year that the UK would increase its training and capacity building in Nigeria,” it said in a statement.
It is estimated that the conflict caused by Boko Haram in Nigeria has displaced 2.3 million people, of whom 250,000 are estimated to have left the country. In 2014, the extremist group killed more than 6,600 people.
According to local press reports, the Nigerian army killed three high-profile Boko Haram members in the north eastern Nigerian state of Borno during December as part of its counter-offensive.
RT
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