Monday, August 15, 2016
Video - New video shows schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram
The mother of one of the Chibok girls kidnapped more than two years ago by Nigeria's Islamic extremists on Sunday saw the first proof her daughter is alive - a video of her begging Nigeria's government to exchange detained militants for the girls' freedom.
Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus to The Associated Press the video was being watched at the weekly rally of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign at Unity Fountain in Abuja, the capital.
Some of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls have been killed by Nigerian military airstrikes, according to a new video from Boko Haram, which shows one kidnap victim pleading for authorities to bow to the extremists' demands that they release detained militants in return for the girls.
It's not clear how many schoolgirls have died among the 218 who remain missing.
The video posted Sunday on Twitter shows a young woman, covered in a hijab with just her face showing, who was one of the students abducted from a remote school in northeastern Nigeria in April 2014. She claims that some of her kidnapped classmates died in aerial bombardments by the Nigerian Air Force. She also said that 40 have been "married" to fighters.
The video shows a militant warning in the Hausa language that if President Muhammadu Buhari's government battles Boko Haram with firepower, the girls won't be seen again.
"Presently, some of the girls are crippled, some are terribly sick and some of them, as I had said, died during bombardment by the Nigerian military," the fighter says, appearing before a group of more than 40 young women in hijabs, some holding babies.
"If our members in detention are not freed, let the government and parents of the Chibok girls know that they will never find these girls again," he said.
The video, cited by the SITE Intelligence Group, was posted by Ahmad Salkida, a Nigerian journalist known to have good contacts in Boko Haram. Salkida says he was given the video by associates of Abubakar Shekau, who is in a leadership battle with a lieutenant named by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as the new leader of what it calls its West Africa Province.
The mass abduction brought Boko Haram to the world's attention and even got the participation of U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign, promising her husband would do all in his power to help liberate them.
The government came under increased pressure from parents and Bring Back Our Girls campaigners after the May escape of one young woman, a proof of life that they said should encourage the military and government to redouble rescue efforts. The escapee said some of the girls had died but scores remained in captivity under heavy guard.
Sunday's video is another proof of life.
"The girl in the video spoke in the Chibok language and identified her mother by name. Her mother has now seen the video and identified her daughter," Chibok leader Pogu Bitrus told the AP.
The young woman in the video, probably speaking under duress, begs for help.
"Oh you, my people and our parents, you just have to please come to our rescue: We are suffering here, the aircraft have come to bombard us and killed many of us. Some are wounded. Every day we are in pains and suffering, so are our babies ... No one cares for us.
"Please go and beg the government of Nigeria to release the members of our abductors so that they too can free us to let us come home."
The video goes on to show bodies from an alleged air raid, including that of a girl whose eyes flicker open briefly.
Nigeria's Air Force has reported near-daily bombardments of Boko Haram camps and the military of increased ground assaults in which they have freed thousands of captives, though none of the Chibok girls.
Boko Haram has been forced out of most towns and has turned to assaulting remote villages and using suicide bombers to attack soft targets such as mosques and marketplaces.
More than 20,000 people have been killed in the 7-year-old Islamic uprising that has spread from Nigeria to neighboring countries and driven 2.2 million people from their homes.
Aid workers say there is a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in newly freed but still dangerous areas where half a million people are starving and babies dying daily. There has also been a resurgence of polio in areas that had been under Boko Haram's control.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Video - Controversy looms as Nigerian army mulls recruiting civilians
A plan to integrate members of a Civilian Joint Task Force into the Nigerian army has drawn sharp criticism from rights groups. Around 250 young people, primarily from the country's north-eastern Borno state, are being considered for recruitment in the battle against Boko Haram. However, critics say the move violates the Constitution.
Video - Militants reportedly blow up another oil pipeline in Nigeria
More woes for Nigeria's oil industry. Militants have reportedly blown up another crude pipeline in the Niger Delta. And protesters are still blocking the entrance to a Chevron oil depot in the southern region. The Niger Delta Avengers have claimed responsibility for the bulk of the attacks on pipelines. But on Wednesday a new group emerged -- the Delta Greenland Justice Mandate. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has come under increased pressure from militants in recent months. They're calling for the country's oil wealth to be shared more equally, to benefit communities in the Niger Delta.
South Africa overthrows Nigeria as Africa's biggest economy
South Africa has regained the title of Africa's largest economy, two years after Nigeria rebased its GDP to claim the spot, according to IMF data.
A recalculation using current exchange rates put South Africa on top because the rand has strengthened against the dollar.
Nigeria's currency has fallen sharply since a peg to the dollar was dropped.
But BBC Africa Business Report editor Matthew Davies says both economies could be on the brink of recession.
Nigeria rebased its economy in 2014 to include previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production.
Most countries do rebasing, updating the measure of the size of the economy, at least every three years or so, but Nigeria had not updated the components in its GDP base year since 1990.
On the basis of these numbers, there's not a lot between the two. South Africa's economy is worth around $301bn (Ј232bn) and Nigeria comes in at $296bn.
The exercise in calculating the numbers using last year's IMF figures and this year's currency exchange numbers, technically puts South Africa back on top.
But look behind the league table and the light-hearted jostling about who has the largest economy in Africa and things, economically speaking, are a little bleaker.
Both economies contracted in the first quarter. Another contraction and they'll both be in recession.
Nigeria is almost entirely dependent on its oil exports. And as the price of oil slumps so does the flow of petrodollars coming into the country's coffers. South Africa's economy is more diverse.
Indeed, after Nigeria knocked it off the top spot two years ago, we started describing it as "Africa's most industrialised economy", rather than Africa second-largest economy.
But economic growth is unlikely to make it above 1% in South Africa this year and many, including the country's Reserve Bank, are forecasting it at zero.
Unemployment remains stubbornly high and a credit rating review is looming at the end of the year.
If the whole "largest economy in Africa" competition was a horse race, the two leading contenders would be virtually neck and neck.
But they wouldn't be galloping, they'd be trotting at best. And looking increasingly tired and in need of sustenance.
A recalculation using current exchange rates put South Africa on top because the rand has strengthened against the dollar.
Nigeria's currency has fallen sharply since a peg to the dollar was dropped.
But BBC Africa Business Report editor Matthew Davies says both economies could be on the brink of recession.
Nigeria rebased its economy in 2014 to include previously uncounted industries like telecoms, information technology, music, online sales, airlines, and film production.
Most countries do rebasing, updating the measure of the size of the economy, at least every three years or so, but Nigeria had not updated the components in its GDP base year since 1990.
On the basis of these numbers, there's not a lot between the two. South Africa's economy is worth around $301bn (Ј232bn) and Nigeria comes in at $296bn.
The exercise in calculating the numbers using last year's IMF figures and this year's currency exchange numbers, technically puts South Africa back on top.
But look behind the league table and the light-hearted jostling about who has the largest economy in Africa and things, economically speaking, are a little bleaker.
Both economies contracted in the first quarter. Another contraction and they'll both be in recession.
Nigeria is almost entirely dependent on its oil exports. And as the price of oil slumps so does the flow of petrodollars coming into the country's coffers. South Africa's economy is more diverse.
Indeed, after Nigeria knocked it off the top spot two years ago, we started describing it as "Africa's most industrialised economy", rather than Africa second-largest economy.
But economic growth is unlikely to make it above 1% in South Africa this year and many, including the country's Reserve Bank, are forecasting it at zero.
Unemployment remains stubbornly high and a credit rating review is looming at the end of the year.
If the whole "largest economy in Africa" competition was a horse race, the two leading contenders would be virtually neck and neck.
But they wouldn't be galloping, they'd be trotting at best. And looking increasingly tired and in need of sustenance.
2 cases of polio reported in Nigeria
Nigeria has reported the first two cases of polio after more than two years, in an area newly liberated from Islamic extremists who attacked polio vaccinators in the past, the government and the World Health Organization said Thursday.
Nigeria's removal from WHO's list of polio-endemic countries in October had meant the entire African continent was free of the crippling disease.
Two children have been paralyzed by polio in northeastern Borno state in two different local government areas that had been cut off by Boko Haram's Islamic extremist uprising, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said in a statement Thursday night.
"Our overriding priority right now is to rapidly boost immunity in the affected areas to ensure that no more children are affected by this terrible disease," he said.
He ordered the deployment of a national emergency response team. WHO said it was working with the government to urgently prevent more children from being paralyzed, with large-scale immunizations and other measures.
It was unclear how accessible the two areas are. The United Nations last month suspended aid to newly liberated but still dangerous areas of Borno after Boko Haram ambushed a humanitarian convoy, wounding three civilians including a UNICEF worker. That came even as aid groups declared half a million people are starving in those areas and children are dying daily of starvation.
Because of the Islamic uprising in the northeast, health workers have been testing sewage and stool samples of refugees from areas too dangerous to access.
Nigeria's fight against polio has been dramatic. Two decades ago, it was recording 1,000 polio cases a year, the highest in the world.
The Islamic extremists opposed the anti-polio campaign. Boko Haram gunmen killed nine women vaccinators in northern Kano state in February 2013, but the vaccinations continued.
Nigeria's removal from WHO's list of polio-endemic countries in October had meant the entire African continent was free of the crippling disease.
Two children have been paralyzed by polio in northeastern Borno state in two different local government areas that had been cut off by Boko Haram's Islamic extremist uprising, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said in a statement Thursday night.
"Our overriding priority right now is to rapidly boost immunity in the affected areas to ensure that no more children are affected by this terrible disease," he said.
He ordered the deployment of a national emergency response team. WHO said it was working with the government to urgently prevent more children from being paralyzed, with large-scale immunizations and other measures.
It was unclear how accessible the two areas are. The United Nations last month suspended aid to newly liberated but still dangerous areas of Borno after Boko Haram ambushed a humanitarian convoy, wounding three civilians including a UNICEF worker. That came even as aid groups declared half a million people are starving in those areas and children are dying daily of starvation.
Because of the Islamic uprising in the northeast, health workers have been testing sewage and stool samples of refugees from areas too dangerous to access.
Nigeria's fight against polio has been dramatic. Two decades ago, it was recording 1,000 polio cases a year, the highest in the world.
The Islamic extremists opposed the anti-polio campaign. Boko Haram gunmen killed nine women vaccinators in northern Kano state in February 2013, but the vaccinations continued.
Related stories: Canada invests $20m in eradication of polio in Nigeria
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