NAIJAFEED

Monday, November 2, 2020

American rescued in daring SEAL Team 6 raid in Nigeria

“They were all dead before they knew what happened.”
— US counter-terrorism source

Chalk up one successful American rescue mission and six dead captors in northern Nigeria.

US news outlets reported this weekend that the elite SEAL Team Six special forces unit had rescued American hostage Philip Walton, without suffering any casualties.

Officials had feared the gang would sell him to terrorists operating in the region, and decided to act fast.

“US forces conducted a hostage rescue operation during the early hours of 31 October in Northern Nigeria to recover an American citizen held hostage by a group of armed men,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

“This American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the US Department of State. No US military personnel were injured during the operation.

“We appreciate the support of our international partners in conducting this operation.”

Walton had been taken captive in Niger on Oct. 26.

All but one of the seven captors were killed in the pre-dawn commando raid in neighboring Nigeria, ABC News reported.

The operation involved the governments of the US, Niger and Nigeria working together to rescue Walton quickly.

The CIA provided intelligence leading to Walton’s whereabouts and Marine Special Operations elements in Africa helped locate him, ABC News reported.

The operation was carried out under the veil of darkness, as members of Seal Team 6 jumped out of a USAF transport a few kilometres from where Walton was being held.

Members of the rescue team quickly hiked to the captors’ small encampment in a copse of scrubland bushes and trees, The New York Times reported.

In the brief but intense firefight that ensued and with surveillance drones buzzing overhead, all but one of the half-dozen or so kidnappers were killed, the NYT reported.

One captor escaped into the night. Walton was not harmed in the gun battle, and he walked out to a makeshift landing zone, where a US helicopter whisked him to safety.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our military, the support of our intelligence professionals, and our diplomatic efforts, the hostage will be reunited with his family. We will never abandon any American taken hostage.”

ABC News consultant Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and retired CIA officer, said preparations for Walton’s rescue likely started when he was abducted.

“These types of operations are some of the most difficult to execute,” he said.

“Any mistake could easily lead to the death of the hostage. The men and women of JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command], and the CIA should be proud of what they did here. And all Americans should be proud of them. “

Eric Oehlerich, an ABC News consultant and retired Navy SEAL, said Walton was “lucky” that such a mission was possible such as short time after he was abducted, when others have been held for years.

“Men in these top-tier special forces units train their entire adult lives to be ready when called upon, hostage rescue operations are inherently dangerous,” he said. “Those men put someone else’s life above their own, they do so selflessly… it’s an illustration of utter commitment.”

A former US counterterrorism official emphasized generally how long the odds are for rescue in the “highly dangerous” missions — less than 30%. But the official said that it’s crucial to act as quickly as possible so that hostages don’t wind up in the hands of al Qaeda or ISIS.

“The longer a hostage is held the harder it is to find an exact location to be able and conduct a rescue operation,” the official said.

Walton, the son of missionaries, lives with his wife and young daughter on a farm near Massalata, a small village close to the border with Nigeria.

Nigerian and American officials told ABC News that they believed the captors were from an armed group from Nigeria and that it was not considered terror-related. But hostages are often sold to terrorist groups.

This region of northwest Africa is home to multiple factions aligned with both ISIS and Al Qaeda, The War Zone reported.

One of these groups, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), was responsible for the infamous ambush of US and Nigerien forces outside the southwestern village of Tongo Tongo in 2017, which led to the death of four Americans and four Nigerians.

War Zone sources said the raid included the extremely long-distance movement of forces via multiple C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft flights and the employment of a quartet of both CV-22B Osprey tilt-rotors and MC-130 special operations transports, the latter of which pushed through Rota, Spain, before continuing to their target.

AC-130 gunships and a large contingent of aerial refueling tankers also supported this operation.

— Sources: The War Zone, ABC News, New York Times

Asia Times

Kidnapping in Nigeria on the rise

Two police officers arrested for the kidnapping of Okonjo-Iweala's Mother

Boko Haram kidnapped 300 children in addition to the 200 schoolgirls still missing

Friday, October 30, 2020

Nigeria to push back on U.S. rejection of WTO candidate

Nigeria will lobby for its candidate to head the World Trade Organization, the country’s foreign ministry said in reaction to her last-minute rejection by Washington that threw the regulator’s leadership selection process into confusion.

The United States on Wednesday spurned Nigerian former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hours after a high-powered WTO panel recommended her to lead the global trade watchdog, teeing her up to become its first African and first woman head.

“Nigeria will continue to engage relevant stakeholders to ensure that the lofty aspiration of her candidate to lead the World Trade Organization is realised,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday evening.

The ministry said the WTO’s 164 member states were expected to adopt Okonjo-Iweala as the watchdog’s director-general by consensus, but the United States was the sole country to oppose her, flouting the organisation’s rules.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office later released a statement officially backing the only other remaining candidate, South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee, praising her as a successful trade negotiator with the skills needed to lead the trade body at a “very difficult time”.

Next steps are uncertain, but a WTO spokesman said there was likely to be “frenzied activity” before a Nov. 9 meeting, less than a week after the U.S. presidential election, to secure the required consensus from all 164 member states for Okonjo-Iweala.

Reuters

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Netflix shines light on Nigerian sex trafficking

Set in the shady underworld of Lagos brothels, Nigerian thriller Òlòtūré gives viewers an inside look at the sex trafficking schemes that ensnare thousands of Nigerian women each year.

The film is fictional but aims for a realistic and gritty picture to raise awareness of what is a persistent and little-discussed problem, said 36-year-old director Kenneth Gyang.

For decades, scores of Nigerian women and girls have been lured to Europe with promises of work, then trapped in debt bondage and forced to sell sex.

The United Nations migration agency estimates that 80% of Nigerian women arriving in Italy - more than 11,000 in 2016 - are potential victims of sex trafficking.

“I know people are not always receptive to documentaries, so sometimes you have to put these things in fiction so that people will see it,” said Gyang, who won international acclaim for his first film, Confusion Na Wa, in 2013.

His thriller debuted on Netflix this month and quickly became the streaming service’s most-watched film in Nigeria, reaching the top-10 list in another 13 countries.

“For me it’s about people watching the film and then trying to push for policies that will protect these young women from getting trafficked,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In the movie, a journalist goes undercover as a sex worker to expose human trafficking and quickly gets in over her head.

It is worlds away from the films that are usually popular in Nollywood, Nigeria’s massive film industry, which favours comedies and light-hearted tales about rich people, said Gyang.

“The producers were not sure how it was going to be received,” he said.

“When the film came out, it was #1 on Netflix in Nigeria and on social media, everybody was talking about it. People were angry. People were talking about the fact that they didn’t know this is what happens when people get trafficked.”

In one scene, sex workers undergo a religious ritual that binds them to their traffickers with black magic - a common practice that renders women too fearful to mount an escape.

Gyang said he sought support from NAPTIP, Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency, to make sure he got the details right.

Part of his motivation, he said, was seeing Nigerian women on street corners when he travelled in Europe.

Foreign donors have poured money into anti-trafficking programmes in the traditional industry hotspot, Edo State, but experts say sex traffickers are now moving to other parts of Nigeria to avoid detection.

"I hope what will happen is that the right people in the right places will see the film, and then the relevant bodies will push for policies to try to help these young women," said Gyang. (Reporting by Nellie Peyton, editing by Lyndsay Griffiths; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org)

By Nellie Peyton

Reuters

Gang charged with sex trafficking girls from Nigeria arrested in Italy

Netflix involvement in Nollywood

Video - Nigerian women trafficked to Europe for prostitution at 'crisis level'

Video - Nigerian short film Chuks premieres at Toronto International short Film Festival

Nigerian woman creates country's first mental health helpline

In February of 2016, Hauwa Ojeifo considered taking her own life. She had spent a significant part of her teenage and early adult life years battling symptoms such as mood swings, bouts of exhaustion, fainting spells and difficulty recollecting daily events.

She told CNN that growing up, there were days she could not get out of bed to carry out mundane activities like brushing her teeth.

At the time, she did not realize she was experiencing symptoms of bipolar disorder, a mental health condition where a person's mood swings from high and overactive to low and dull.

"There were a lot of things leading to that moment where I thought about dying. I had an abusive relationship -- well, I can't call it a relationship now because I was like 14 or 15 at the time. But he used to punch me, beat me and gaslight me," Ojeifo explained.

She added that she was sexually abused in 2014 and did not know how to express being raped by a trusted partner to the people around her.

Her experiences, she said, piled up till she eventually snapped and started nursing suicidal notions.

"Trying to explain what was going on in my head was difficult. I looked fine physically, but it started to affect me mentally. I could go a day without being able to construct sentences, and I was a research analyst at the time which meant I had to write daily reports but I couldn't," she said.

After expressing her suicidal thoughts to a friend, she was encouraged to see a psychiatrist at a psychiatric hospital in Lagos, one of Nigeria's largest cities.

She was diagnosed with Bipolar and post traumatic stress disorder with mild psychosis. "I poured out my heart, got some tests done and eventually got a diagnosis."

Creating awareness

Two months after Ojeifo's diagnosis, she said she decided to turn her difficult experiences around. She started to create awareness on the far-reaching impacts of mental health in Nigeria.

In April 2016, she created She Writes Woman, a non-profit organization focused on providing mental health support for those who may need it in the west African nation.

There is minimal mental health awareness and there are not enough mental health professionals in Nigeria.

In a country of more than 200 million people, there are only 250 practicing psychiatrists, according to the Association of Psychiatrists of Nigeria.

Ojeifo told CNN that She Writes Woman started as a blog but she realized she could do more with it, "At first, I was just using it as an outlet to share my experiences and that of other women," she explained.

Eventually, it morphed into a support community for people with mental health conditions.

The 28-year-old got trained as a mental health coach so that she could start a helpline to talk to people experiencing overwhelming mental health symptoms.

"From sharing stories on the blog and social media, She Writes Woman blew up into a helpline which was run by me for a while, and then to a support group for people in vulnerable conditions," she said.

24-hour mental health helpline

She Writes Woman provides a 24-hour mental health helpline for anyone within Nigeria.

The helpline serves as a first point of contact for people in distress or those who just want to talk about their mental health and symptoms.

"People call the helpline to get what we call a first-aid treatment. On the call you don't get immediate professional counseling, what happens is you get a first response communication where someone listens to you and what you have to say," Ojeifo explained.

She added that after the first responders, callers can be referred to mental health professionals for therapy or a diagnosis if needed, "depending on what the issue is we que people in to either a therapist or a psychiatrist."

Data on mental health in Nigeria is hard to find, but according to a 2016 report in the Annals of Nigerian Medicine journal, an estimated 20-30% of the country's population is suffering from mental disorders.

And in 2017, a World Health Organization report found that Nigerians have the highest incidences of depression in Africa, with more than 7 million people in the country suffering from depression.

Despite the numbers, there is an absence of effective mental health legislation setting standards for psychiatric treatment or encouraging mental health awareness in the country.

In February, following deliberations by legislators to pass a proposed mental health bill, Ojeifo became the first person to testify before the Nigerian parliament on the rights of persons with mental health conditions in the country.

The bill has yet to be implemented.

To close the mental health gap in Nigeria, Ojeifo's organization also offers a support group for women and girls called Safe Place in six Nigerian states.

"Safe Space provides a community of shared experiences for women and girls. It provides a space for women to connect and share their experiences on whatever topic, to be there for one another and understand that they are not alone in their journeys," she explained, estimating that there have been over 50 meetings of the support group since the inception of the organization.

In the beginning, Ojeifo, a former investment banker, self-funded the organization.

But now, with donations and grants from organizations such as One Young World, Airtel Nigeria and Disability Rights Advocacy Fund, it is able to expand and carry out more activities in Nigeria's mental health space.

In 2018, the activist received a Queen's Young Leaders Award in in recognition of her work with the 24-hour mental health helpline and Safe Space support group.

Changemaker Award Winner

On Tuesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation named Ojeifo as its Changemaker Award winner for 2020 for her work with She Writes Woman.

The Changemaker Award is one of the Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards pushed yearly by the foundation. It celebrates individuals who have inspired change from a position of leadership or using their personal experience.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it recognized the activist for her work in promoting Gender Equality, the fifth global goal for sustainable development prescribed by the United Nations.

Ojeifo said that she was in "disbelief" when she first received the email alerting her that she was a recipient of the award.

"It was so unexpected and it came as a surprise because I was not expecting it. It's like an added validation to the work She Writes Woman does," she said.

"During one of the meetings with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation I asked them how I was selected because I was just so blown away. I was told that it was because I had used my personal experience to build hope for people and to drive change," she added.

Through the 2020 Changemaker Award, Ojeifo is hoping to gather a network that will help amplify the work She Writes Woman does even more.

"The Changemaker award means I am part of this network that is dedicated to amplifying my cause and giving me visibility," she said.

By Aisha Salaudeen

CNN

The new mental illness approach in Nigeria

Nigeria urged to ban chaining the mentally ill

Nigeria's army admits its soldiers were at Lagos shootings

Nigeria's army has admitted its soldiers were deployed at the Lekki Toll Plaza in Lagos where live rounds were fired last week, killing several peaceful protesters prompting global outrage.

At least 10 protesters were killed in the Lekki plaza shooting on Oct. 20, according to Amnesty International, which charged Wednesday that army troops opened fire on protesters without provocation.

The army had previously maintained that its troops were not at the site of the shooting, but Tuesday night a military spokesman, Maj. Osoba Olaniyi, reversed that position, saying soldiers had been deployed there to enforce a curfew. However, he denied that the troops shot at the protesters.

"At no time did soldiers of the Nigerian army open fire on any civilian," Olaniyi said in a statement.

The military's admission of its presence at the plaza came after Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said security camera footage showed Nigerian soldiers firing at the peaceful protesters at Lekki plaza.

Olaniyi said soldiers were deployed on orders from the Lagos state government, but the governor has said the state has no authority over the national army. Many Nigerians question why the soldiers were deployed at the peaceful protest, in which thousands had gathered at the Lekki plaza.

Amnesty International issued a report Wednesday, citing security camera footage that it said shows army vehicles leaving the Bonny Camp barracks and arriving at Lekki plaza shortly before shots were fired.

"What happened at Lekki Toll Gate has all the traits of the Nigerian authorities' pattern of a coverup whenever their defence and security forces commit unlawful killings," said Osai Ojigho, Amnesty's Nigeria country director.

"Nigerian authorities still have many questions to answer: Who ordered the use of lethal force on peaceful protesters? Why were CCTV cameras on the scene dismantled in advance? And who ordered electricity to be turned off minutes before the military opened fire on protesters?" Ojibho asked.

"Many people are still missing since the day of the incident, and credible evidence shows that the military prevented ambulances from reaching the severely injured in the aftermath," he said.

A judicial panel has begun investigating the shooting. The panel is also investigating allegations of abuse against the police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known as SARS.

A widespread .EndSARS campaign erupted in Nigeria in early October after a video circulated showing a man being beaten, apparently by SARS officers. The peaceful, organized protests disrupted traffic in Lagos and many other Nigerian cities. President Muhammadu Buhari's government agreed to disband the SARS unit, but the protests continued with participants demanding sweeping reforms of police and action against corruption.

Although the protests were largely peaceful, at least 56 people have died across the country since the protests began, according to Amnesty, which accused security forces of using unnecessary force. On Oct. 20 the government imposed a curfew, ordering everyone to stay at home and that evening the shootings occurred at Lekki plaza. For two days after that Lagos saw widespread rioting. In order to restore order in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city with more than 14 million people, officials have imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.