NAIJAFEED

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Nigeria police arrest 57 in Shia procession, deny casualties

Nigerian police said they arrested dozens of Shia Muslim followers of an outlawed group at a religious procession in the nation’s capital with a spokesperson of the group claiming eight members were shot dead during the gathering.

Abuja police denied any casualties occurred when the group, marking the religious ritual of Arbaeen, was dispersed on Tuesday

Police said they intervened to stop members of the banned Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) as they had been causing “unnecessary hardship to motorists” along the Abuja-Kubwa expressway, adding that 57 people were arrested after IMN members attacked the police with petrol bombs and stones.

“The miscreants who were found in their numbers were promptly intercepted by the security operatives and dispersed to prevent them from causing further disruption of public order,” the police statement said.

However, Abdullahi Muhamed, an IMN member, told the Reuters news agency that participants were walking peacefully along the expressway when a team of police and soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition at them.

IMN spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, said security forces shot and wounded protesters.

“We were almost rounding up the procession when the police and army came and started shooting,” he said.

The IMN, a pro-Iranian group that was outlawed in 2019 for protests against the arrest of their leader Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, has clashed with Nigerian security forces for years and often marches in Abuja.

The army killed 350 IMN Shia Muslims during a religious procession in northern Nigeria in December 2015. According to rights groups, many were gunned down and burned alive.

IMN leader el-Zakzaky and his wife, who have been in custody since 2015, were freed last month after a court acquitted them of murder charges involving the death of a soldier.

But the religious leader still faces terrorism and treasonable offences charges, according to prosecutors.

Muslims make up about half of Nigeria’s population of 200 million. The overwhelming majority of them are Sunni. The Shia Muslim minority have long complained of discrimination and repression.

Al Jazeera

Nigeria jihadist infighting kills scores in Lake Chad

Infighting between Nigeria's two major jihadist factions has left scores dead, raising the possibility of a prolonged internecine conflict between the two forces, civilian and security sources told AFP Tuesday.

Islamic State West Africa Province or ISWAP has emerged as the dominant faction in Nigeria's conflict, especially after the death of rival Boko Haram commander Abubakar Shekau in May during infighting between the groups.

His death marked a major shift in the grinding 12-year insurgency that has left 40,000 people dead, but security sources say Shekau loyalists have held out against ISWAP's bid to consolidate.

Boko Haram jihadists on Monday launched an attack on rival ISWAP militants on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad, ISWAP's bastion, seizing a strategic island, fishermen and a security source said.

Large numbers of heavily armed Boko Haram insurgents in speed boats invaded Kirta Wulgo island after dislodging ISWAP security checkpoints in an hours-long fight, those sources said.

- 'Mutually destructive fight' -

The seizure of Kirta Wulgo would be a huge setback to ISWAP as the island served as a port for importing weapons and supplies into its territory, according to security sources and local fishermen.

"It was a mutually destructive fight that lasted for more than nine hours, from 4 pm yesterday to early hours of this morning," said one fisherman in the area.

He could not give a figure for casualties, but his account was backed by two other fishermen in the region.

A local security source confirmed the clashes to AFP.

According to the security source, Boko Haram mobilised its fighters from camps in Gegime and Kwatar Mota on the Niger side of the lake and Kaiga-Kindjiria on the Chadian side.

"They gathered at Tumbun Ali island in the Nigerian side of the lake and dislodged six ISWAP checkpoints before taking over Kirta Wulgo," the security source said.

"It was a deadly fight. We are talking of more than 100 dead," the source said.

ISWAP split from Boko Haram in 2016 and rose to become the dominant jihadist group, focusing on attacking military bases and ambushing troops.

The two factions turned staunch enemies since the split and regularly fight for dominance.

Since Shekau's death in May following infighting with ISWAP militants in his Sambisa forest enclave, ISWAP has been fighting Boko Haram remnants who have refused to pay allegiance to it to consolidate its grip in the northeast.

More than two million people have been displaced by Nigeria's conflict since it began in 2009, and the violence has spread over the borders to Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

- Battles to come -

After Shekau's death, Boko Haram rebels led by Bakoura Buduma, a former Shekau lieutenant, fled Sambisa to the territory under his control in Niger's Gegime-Bosso axis of Lake Chad, according to security sources.

Last month Boko Haram suffered heavy casualties in a failed bid to invade Kirta Wulgo where they were beaten back by ISWAP, two sources in the area told AFP.

"This is just the beginning of an internecine battle between the two factions. It'll be a battle to the finish," said the local security source.

Boko Haram may want to assert their presence on the Nigerian side of the lake to get its share of fishing revenues accruing to ISWAP from levies on Nigerian fishermen.

With this sudden setback, ISWAP may look to push out the invading Boko Haram militants.

Boko Haram is now within striking distance from ISWAP's major strongholds of Sabon Tumbu, Jibillaram and Kwalleram, according to a source familiar with the area.

"ISWAP leader Abu Musab Al-Barnawi is known to reside in Sabon Tumbu where high-profile captured Boko Haram commanders are being held," the source said.

Al-Barnawi's deputy lives in Jibillaram along with other high-profile lieutenants while Sigir and Kusuma islands close to Kirta Wulgo house many of the group's senior commanders.

"All these islands are now under Boko Haram threat," the source said.

"ISWAP would use every means to ensure their safety from Boko Haram fighters who would go to any length to see they fall under their control."

AFP

Nigeria to become first country in Africa to launch CBDC

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s eNaira website has gone live ahead of schedule.

And, in the 24 hours following the launch, it received more than a million hits.

The CBN stated that eNaira – a central bank-issued digital currency that provides a unique form of money denominated in Naira – would serve as both a medium of exchange and a store of value, offering better payment prospects in retail transactions when compared to cash payments.

eNaira presents itself as the digital form of cash and is a direct liability on the Central Bank of Nigeria while the customer deposits are direct liabilities on the financial institutions.

However, it seems that a lot of its future users in Nigeria are still arguing whether or not it is actually a cryptocurrency.

Olumide Adesina, a CEO of Nigerian analyst firm TM Analytics believes the eNaira can’t replace the crypto market or fight and win Bitcoin. However, he stressed it could complement the crypto market and provide leverage for a growing number of people from Nigeria.

Some praise eNaira’s benefits for financial inclusion, while others are concerned it would give central banks more control over citizens’ financial rights through the removal of intermediaries.

eNaira makes remittance transfers easier

Still, the official website says the eNaira will “cultivate economic growth, provide cheaper remittances, limit fraudulent behaviour, and is secure, among other benefits for its use”.

Rakiya Mohammed, the bank’s director of information technology, recently explained eNaira could make remittance transfers easier for Nigerians working abroad.

South Africa also recently announced a trial of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for cross-border payments. The central bank said it could motivate other financial institutions around the world to work towards using the technology.

Founder and CEO of cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange platform Botmecash, Oluwasegun Kosemani, said there was a rising interest in the use cases and value Bitcoin offers in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Kaduna, Abeokuta, and among the Igbo tribe traders who import and export from China and Turkey.

“This will blow up soon when the eNaira launches in Nigeria,” he said, adding that eNaira “is the beginning and pathway to the end of cash in the country”.

By Teuta Franjkovic

Coin Rivet

Monday, September 27, 2021

Video - Nigeria children face mental health crises

Eleven years of conflict in northern Nigeria have left hundreds of thousands of children traumatised. Doctors and many other caregivers are concerned about the long-term effects on young children - and the impact on their communities as they grow up. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Maiduguri, Nigeria.

After captivity, Nigerian students seek overseas education

Emmanuel Benson was planning to get his diploma in horticulture and landscaping from Nigeria’s Federal College of Forestry Mechanization next year. Now, he’s not willing to risk the return to school, after he was kidnapped by bandits with dozens of others earlier this year.

“Our lives are at risk — Nigerian students, especially in Kaduna state where we are,” the 24-year-old said. As much as he wanted to complete his studies “the kidnapping and everything that is going on haven’t stopped yet ... staying here anymore doesn’t benefit anybody.”

Benson is among a growing group of Nigerian students seeking alternative solutions to their education that won’t further endanger them, as bandits in Nigeria’s northern states grow more ambitious, staging increased kidnappings of students for ransom.

At least 25 Nigerian students who spent nearly two months in the custody of gunmen in the country’s troubled northwest region are now putting resources together in the hopes of leaving the West African nation to study in another country, like the U.S., according to teachers and parents at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in the state of Kaduna.

Some of the students, as well as parents and teachers at the Kaduna college, told The Associated Press that after spending about seven weeks in captivity before regaining freedom in May, life hasn’t remained the same. They fear pursuing an education in Nigeria, and they are now relying on the help of a school committee overseeing their application process for overseas education.

There are no clear plans yet on how that enrollment would work out, except that they are hoping for scholarship opportunities in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Nigeria is no longer an option for them because “the country is not safe,” according to Paul Yahaya, one of the 25 students.

Many families in Kaduna state say they now stay mostly indoors over fears of attacks. Ransoms are hefty, and in Nigeria, with a national poverty rate of 40%, parents are struggling.

“Even the parents don’t have money, because they have been struggling to pay their (abducted children’s) ransom and they paid (so) much amount to the negotiators (who helped to secure the release of the children),” said Abdullahi Usman, the chairman of the committee of parents and teachers who is overseeing the application process for interested students.

If the students left, that would mean starting tertiary education afresh and losing at least three years spent so far for some.

The 25 students hoping to leave are among 1,436 students who have been abducted in the last year in Africa’s most populous country, according to Peter Hawkins, the U.N. Children’s Agency Nigeria representative. The education of up to 1.3 million Nigerian children has been affected because of the school abductions, he said.

The Kaduna school and many other schools in at least four states remain closed because of insecurity.

Kauna Daniel wants to leave, despite not having the money to do so or a passport, but is still frightened.

“I don’t want to go anywhere again,” her voice rang out angrily over the phone. She said she hasn’t been able to sleep since she was released from captivity in May because of trauma and an eye problem.

“The trauma we are passing through is getting out of hand and it is even now that everything is getting worse,” the 19-year-old said, adding almost as if she is pleading that “it is better for me to stay at home.”

The United Nations estimates that the country of more than 200 million people already has 10 million children not attending school, one of the highest rates globally, with 1 million more afraid to return to classes as schools reopen in the coming weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated those numbers, according to Save The Children Nigeria, which said 46 million Nigerian students have been affected by school closures as a result of the pandemic.

With the school abductions by groups of gunmen who often camp in abandoned forest reserves across the northwest and central parts of the country, some parents are caught in a dilemma. Should they brave the odds and send their children to schools, which are often located in remote areas, or keep them home, away from the prying eyes of the gunmen?

The Kaduna school committee chairman Usman said parents of affected students in Kaduna are “eager” for their admission to schools abroad because their children “are still vulnerable … and can be kidnapped anytime.”

Friday Sani is one such parent. He said his two daughters spent weeks in captivity along with other students of the Kaduna college, and they now await responses from places outside of Nigeria, mentally unable to return to school in the West African nation.

“The government of Nigeria needs to have a plan to better prepare education systems to respond to crises,” said Badar Musa of Save the Children International, Nigeria. “There is need for increased investment in education systems from both government and international donors.”

By Chinedu Asadu