The wives of Nigerian soldiers have protested against their husbands being sent to fight militant Islamist group Boko Haram, a demonstrator has said.
The protest at the main military barracks in north-eastern Maiduguri city came as the government vowed to retake Gwoza town from the militants.
Hundreds of people were killed when Boko Haram seized Gwoza last week, the area's senator, Ali Ndume, said.
Boko Haram is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria.
The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura in the capital, Abuja, says he understands that about 100 women protested at the Giwa barracks in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
'Throat slit'
It is the latest sign of growing dissatisfaction with the military top brass, he says.
Soldiers have repeatedly complained Boko Haram has superior firepower and they are in position to confront the militants.
In May, some soldiers opened fire on their commander, Maj-Gen Ahmed Mohammed, at Maiduguri's Maimalari barracks, blaming him for the killing of their colleagues by Boko Haram fighters.
A wife of a soldier, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said they were opposed to their husbands going into battle.
When their husbands were sent to the front line on 13 March, Boko Haram launched an assault on the barracks the next day, she said.
Her home was burnt, and her neighbour's four children were killed, the woman added.
"Now [the army] want to send our husbands to Gwoza and we said 'no'," she told the BBC.
"Our husbands have been fighting Boko Haram for six years now. If they get killed or injured, they [the army] will not take care for us."
BBC
Related stories: 11 parents of some of the kidnapped schoolgirls now dead
Boko Haram attacks the same town it kidnapped the schoolgirls from
Monday, August 11, 2014
Nigeria confirms 10 cases of ebola
Nigeria now has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) with 177 persons under surveillance, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chuwku, said on Monday in Abuja.
Chukwu made the disclosure while updating newsmen on the efforts by the government to contain the disease.
It has been 22 days since EVD first landed in Nigeria. As at today, 177 primary and secondary contacts of the index case have been placed under surveillance or isolation.
The 10th case actually was one of the nurses who also had contact with our index case; when she got ill we brought her into isolation, we just tested her over the weekend and she tested positive.
That is what made it 10 cases since the last conference on Friday, Between Friday and today, we have one additional case that brings it to 10.
Nine people developed EVD, bringing the total number of cases in Nigeria to 10; of these 10, two have died -- the Liberian American and the Nigerian nurse -- while eight are alive and currently on treatment,’’ he said.
Chukwu disclosed that Nigeria was the first and only African country to have donated 3.5 million dollars for humanitarian aid and capacity building to the three Ebola affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
He recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan had declared a national emergency on Ebola and approved N1.9 billion intervention fund to combat the outbreak of the Virus.
The minister reiterated the government's commitment to continue to discharge its responsibilities in confronting and stopping the outbreak of Ebola.
On the strike by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), he said government had consistently appealed to the association to call off the strike.
We are still discussing with the NMA, we are still pleading with the association to ask its members to return to work, while we are still doing that we have not gone to bed, we are not sleeping.
There are doctors who are not part of the strike and they have been taking part in the management of these patients, we are still recruiting more volunteers because we need more people to come into the fight against Ebola.
Not only doctors because it includes health workers, nurses, environmental officers, sanitary officers, laboratory scientists, pharmacists and the likes,’’ he said.
The minister urged the public to adhere to the self-precautionary measures of hand washing and avoiding unnecessary contact to control the spread of the disease.
Guardian
Related story: Nigerian government declares ebola outbreak a 'national emergency'
Chukwu made the disclosure while updating newsmen on the efforts by the government to contain the disease.
It has been 22 days since EVD first landed in Nigeria. As at today, 177 primary and secondary contacts of the index case have been placed under surveillance or isolation.
The 10th case actually was one of the nurses who also had contact with our index case; when she got ill we brought her into isolation, we just tested her over the weekend and she tested positive.
That is what made it 10 cases since the last conference on Friday, Between Friday and today, we have one additional case that brings it to 10.
Nine people developed EVD, bringing the total number of cases in Nigeria to 10; of these 10, two have died -- the Liberian American and the Nigerian nurse -- while eight are alive and currently on treatment,’’ he said.
Chukwu disclosed that Nigeria was the first and only African country to have donated 3.5 million dollars for humanitarian aid and capacity building to the three Ebola affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
He recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan had declared a national emergency on Ebola and approved N1.9 billion intervention fund to combat the outbreak of the Virus.
The minister reiterated the government's commitment to continue to discharge its responsibilities in confronting and stopping the outbreak of Ebola.
On the strike by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), he said government had consistently appealed to the association to call off the strike.
We are still discussing with the NMA, we are still pleading with the association to ask its members to return to work, while we are still doing that we have not gone to bed, we are not sleeping.
There are doctors who are not part of the strike and they have been taking part in the management of these patients, we are still recruiting more volunteers because we need more people to come into the fight against Ebola.
Not only doctors because it includes health workers, nurses, environmental officers, sanitary officers, laboratory scientists, pharmacists and the likes,’’ he said.
The minister urged the public to adhere to the self-precautionary measures of hand washing and avoiding unnecessary contact to control the spread of the disease.
Guardian
Related story: Nigerian government declares ebola outbreak a 'national emergency'
Friday, August 8, 2014
Gay Activist confronts Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan on Homophobic Law
Nigerian gay activist Michael Ighodaro confronted the nation’s president at a formal dinner in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, challenging him regarding Nigeria’s antigay laws and climate.
President Goodluck Jonathan was guest of honor at a $200-a-plate dinner hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, timed to coincide with this week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Ighodaro exchanged words with the president about Nigeria’s Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Act, which Jonathan signed into law in January.
The act provides for up to 14 years in prison for people who enter into a same-sex marriage and also criminalizes other declarations of gay relationships, advocacy for LGBT rights, and gatherings in LGBT clubs. Ighodaro, who has lived in the U.S. since 2012, expressed concern to Jonathan about reports of increasing violence against LGBT Nigerians since the law’s enactment.
Ighodaro said that Jonathan replied, “The situation of homosexuals in Nigeria is delicate, but during this week the topic has come up a lot, and it is something we will continue to look into, especially the attacks. If you think the law is unconstitutional, you have the right to go to court and fight [to strike] it down.”
That was most likely a reference to the recent Uganda Constitutional Court ruling invalidating that nation’s Anti-Homosexuality Act. The court’s objection to the law was based on the manner in which it was adopted, not its content.
Ighodaro has firsthand experience with antigay violence. He fled Nigeria in 2012 after an attack that he believes was motivated by homophobia. The beating left him with several broken bones, and the day after it occurred, he received numerous death threats by phone and email. He is now a fellow at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York.
Jonathan made a vague reference to the situation of LGBT people in Nigeria toward the end of his speech at the dinner, saying many discussions during the summit have focused on “the issue of sexuality” in his nation. He also mentioned the activities of Boko Haram, the radical Islamic group that abducted hundreds of female students from a boarding school in April and has carried out attacks in northeastern Nigeria for several years. Dozens were killed in its raid on the town of Gwoza Wednesday.
Advocate
Related stories: US Senators want Nigeria sanctioned for anti-gay law
Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
President Goodluck Jonathan was guest of honor at a $200-a-plate dinner hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, timed to coincide with this week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Ighodaro exchanged words with the president about Nigeria’s Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Act, which Jonathan signed into law in January.
The act provides for up to 14 years in prison for people who enter into a same-sex marriage and also criminalizes other declarations of gay relationships, advocacy for LGBT rights, and gatherings in LGBT clubs. Ighodaro, who has lived in the U.S. since 2012, expressed concern to Jonathan about reports of increasing violence against LGBT Nigerians since the law’s enactment.
Ighodaro said that Jonathan replied, “The situation of homosexuals in Nigeria is delicate, but during this week the topic has come up a lot, and it is something we will continue to look into, especially the attacks. If you think the law is unconstitutional, you have the right to go to court and fight [to strike] it down.”
That was most likely a reference to the recent Uganda Constitutional Court ruling invalidating that nation’s Anti-Homosexuality Act. The court’s objection to the law was based on the manner in which it was adopted, not its content.
Ighodaro has firsthand experience with antigay violence. He fled Nigeria in 2012 after an attack that he believes was motivated by homophobia. The beating left him with several broken bones, and the day after it occurred, he received numerous death threats by phone and email. He is now a fellow at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York.
Jonathan made a vague reference to the situation of LGBT people in Nigeria toward the end of his speech at the dinner, saying many discussions during the summit have focused on “the issue of sexuality” in his nation. He also mentioned the activities of Boko Haram, the radical Islamic group that abducted hundreds of female students from a boarding school in April and has carried out attacks in northeastern Nigeria for several years. Dozens were killed in its raid on the town of Gwoza Wednesday.
Advocate
Related stories: US Senators want Nigeria sanctioned for anti-gay law
Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
U.S. to seize loot of half a billion dollars from deceased Nigeria President Sani Abacha
Officials said the forfeiture of $480 million, which was authorized by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, sets a record for so-called "kleptocracy" actions. The U.S. froze the assets in March.
“Rather than serve his county, General Abacha used his public office in Nigeria to loot millions of dollars, engaging in brazen acts of kleptocracy,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell. “With this judgment, we have forfeited $480 million in corruption proceeds that can be used for the benefit of the Nigerian people."
The forfeited assets, from banks in France, Ireland, the U.K. and the Channel Islands, represent the proceeds of corruption during and after the military regime of Gen. Abacha, who became president via military coup on Nov. 17, 1993, and held power until his death on June 8, 1998. According to a Justice Department press release, "The ultimate disposition of the funds will follow the execution of the judgment in each of these jurisdictions."
NBC
Related stories: Liechtenstein returning loot from dead Nigerian President Sani Abacha worth €167m
Switzerland returns Sani Abacha's loot
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Nigeria's electricity problem
The NEPA people came the other day. Actually, their official name has changed, but NEPA — an acronym for the utility formally known as the National Electric Power Authority — is easier to say and jibes so well with our expectations: Never Expect Power Always.
Though the organization is now called the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the new name doesn’t work as an acronym, though its initials, P.H.C.N., are popularly agreed to stand for: Problem Has Changed Name.
I had been expecting them. They come about once a month, a van containing a crew of four or five guys, going from house to house, ready to cut off your power if you lack proof that your payments are up to date — and turn it back on for an $8 reconnection fee, or any reasonable under-the-table amount. Alas, I was in arrears.
I owed several months for the electricity they had barely been providing. Even though about 85 percent of Nigeria’s urban areas and 30 percent of rural areas are on the power grid — the result of years of government monopoly and its attendant corruption — the supply is intermittent at best. I’ve been getting about three hours a day, if lucky, and even then rarely at a stretch. Sometimes you don’t get any power for three or four days. Like many people here, I rely on a private generator to bridge the gaps.
Things were supposed to get better since the government announced with great fanfare (almost a year ago now) that it had privatized the power-distribution network. But one didn’t need to be an engineer to understand that decades of neglect, in this as in other areas of national life, can hardly be fixed in a few months.
It’s difficult for nonprofessionals to work out the complicated structures involved, but generally speaking the government now generates electricity and private companies distribute it. These companies tend to be much more aggressive than the government had been because they need to repay bank loans and recoup other start-up costs. Their employees, like all workers in Nigeria, are paid very poorly. It is therefore understood that a man must augment his income any way he can.
The affable crew boss who confronted me was sincerely understanding as I explained to him how my problem had begun six months ago, when my monthly bill jumped from $30 to nearly $185. But arguing was pointless. After my power was cut, pending payment of past bills and the reconnection fee, he suggested that perhaps it would be best for me to go state my case at my local P.H.C.N. office. I should have known better.
The official I was directed to wait for was calm, considering the confusion and mass irritation swirling around him. When my turn finally came, he looked over my latest bill, frowned, and began to tap away on his keyboard. Finally, he looked up at me and explained that my previous bills had been too low; they had been adjusted upward based upon estimates of my power consumption.
In any case, he added, my meter was obsolete. I tried to explain that my meter still functioned, but he cut me short, demanding to know why I hadn’t applied for one of the new prepayment cards, which deduct money automatically as electricity is used. I explained I had been told that none were available — to put my name on a waiting list. (Payment cards may be more efficient, but they offer less opportunity for the state to collect cash payments, or impose fines.) He shrugged and called the next customer.
I decided to take my case up a notch. But the senior manager I appealed to at the head office the next day shook his head. There was nothing he could do but demand payment in full. However, he added, I was in luck. The card meter was now available. For “just” $275, and they could fix one for me — after I had settled the outstanding bill.
So now I was looking at fees of around $525. I went home and discussed the problem with my wife, but in truth there was nothing to discuss and we both knew it. We already paid $215 a month to run our generator, which is not powerful enough to draw water from the well I had dug when the state water authority, equally comatose, finally stopped supplying us many years ago.
To say that this couldn’t have happened at a worse time assumes that there is ever a good time to be hit with an outrageous bill. We had just embarked on major renovations, and a newspaper that had hired me to write a weekly column suddenly and without explanation stopped paying.
Then there was always “the Nigerian factor,” which is to say the uncertainties of life in a country where even the power of the government itself is something of a fiction. This is most obviously demonstrated by the fact that none of the more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted over three months ago by Boko Haram terrorists have been rescued (although a few of them managed to escape).
So time passed, the next monthly bill appeared, and hard on its heels came the men with their ladders to disconnect defaulters.
This time I fudged the truth, explaining that I had met with the senior manager, and that we had worked out a payment plan. No use. They cut the power line to my house.
I went to my local office and paid something on account, and got a stern warning to settle up once and for all as quickly as possible — or else.
And yet, even as I write this, I’m not as perturbed as perhaps I should be. Cutting corners has become a way of life for all Nigerians, great and small. We don’t expect anything better, which is why we are so quiescent under conditions that should ordinarily make people rise up and say, enough is enough.
But power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and, in their own small way, so do power shortages.
Written by Adewale Maja-Pearce
New York Times
Related stories: Video - Aljazeera covers Nigeria's steps to improve its poor electricity supply
Video - Nigerian economy growing despite epileptic power supply
Though the organization is now called the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the new name doesn’t work as an acronym, though its initials, P.H.C.N., are popularly agreed to stand for: Problem Has Changed Name.
I had been expecting them. They come about once a month, a van containing a crew of four or five guys, going from house to house, ready to cut off your power if you lack proof that your payments are up to date — and turn it back on for an $8 reconnection fee, or any reasonable under-the-table amount. Alas, I was in arrears.
I owed several months for the electricity they had barely been providing. Even though about 85 percent of Nigeria’s urban areas and 30 percent of rural areas are on the power grid — the result of years of government monopoly and its attendant corruption — the supply is intermittent at best. I’ve been getting about three hours a day, if lucky, and even then rarely at a stretch. Sometimes you don’t get any power for three or four days. Like many people here, I rely on a private generator to bridge the gaps.
Things were supposed to get better since the government announced with great fanfare (almost a year ago now) that it had privatized the power-distribution network. But one didn’t need to be an engineer to understand that decades of neglect, in this as in other areas of national life, can hardly be fixed in a few months.
It’s difficult for nonprofessionals to work out the complicated structures involved, but generally speaking the government now generates electricity and private companies distribute it. These companies tend to be much more aggressive than the government had been because they need to repay bank loans and recoup other start-up costs. Their employees, like all workers in Nigeria, are paid very poorly. It is therefore understood that a man must augment his income any way he can.
The affable crew boss who confronted me was sincerely understanding as I explained to him how my problem had begun six months ago, when my monthly bill jumped from $30 to nearly $185. But arguing was pointless. After my power was cut, pending payment of past bills and the reconnection fee, he suggested that perhaps it would be best for me to go state my case at my local P.H.C.N. office. I should have known better.
The official I was directed to wait for was calm, considering the confusion and mass irritation swirling around him. When my turn finally came, he looked over my latest bill, frowned, and began to tap away on his keyboard. Finally, he looked up at me and explained that my previous bills had been too low; they had been adjusted upward based upon estimates of my power consumption.
In any case, he added, my meter was obsolete. I tried to explain that my meter still functioned, but he cut me short, demanding to know why I hadn’t applied for one of the new prepayment cards, which deduct money automatically as electricity is used. I explained I had been told that none were available — to put my name on a waiting list. (Payment cards may be more efficient, but they offer less opportunity for the state to collect cash payments, or impose fines.) He shrugged and called the next customer.
I decided to take my case up a notch. But the senior manager I appealed to at the head office the next day shook his head. There was nothing he could do but demand payment in full. However, he added, I was in luck. The card meter was now available. For “just” $275, and they could fix one for me — after I had settled the outstanding bill.
So now I was looking at fees of around $525. I went home and discussed the problem with my wife, but in truth there was nothing to discuss and we both knew it. We already paid $215 a month to run our generator, which is not powerful enough to draw water from the well I had dug when the state water authority, equally comatose, finally stopped supplying us many years ago.
To say that this couldn’t have happened at a worse time assumes that there is ever a good time to be hit with an outrageous bill. We had just embarked on major renovations, and a newspaper that had hired me to write a weekly column suddenly and without explanation stopped paying.
Then there was always “the Nigerian factor,” which is to say the uncertainties of life in a country where even the power of the government itself is something of a fiction. This is most obviously demonstrated by the fact that none of the more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted over three months ago by Boko Haram terrorists have been rescued (although a few of them managed to escape).
So time passed, the next monthly bill appeared, and hard on its heels came the men with their ladders to disconnect defaulters.
This time I fudged the truth, explaining that I had met with the senior manager, and that we had worked out a payment plan. No use. They cut the power line to my house.
I went to my local office and paid something on account, and got a stern warning to settle up once and for all as quickly as possible — or else.
And yet, even as I write this, I’m not as perturbed as perhaps I should be. Cutting corners has become a way of life for all Nigerians, great and small. We don’t expect anything better, which is why we are so quiescent under conditions that should ordinarily make people rise up and say, enough is enough.
But power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and, in their own small way, so do power shortages.
Written by Adewale Maja-Pearce
New York Times
Related stories: Video - Aljazeera covers Nigeria's steps to improve its poor electricity supply
Video - Nigerian economy growing despite epileptic power supply
Nigerian government declares ebola outbreak a 'national emergency'
The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Wednesday described the Ebola outbreak in the country as a “national emergency’’. Mr. Chukwu made the statement at an emergency meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Health over the Ebola outbreak in Abuja.
He said that out of six Nigerians diagnosed with the Ebola virus, one died on Tuesday while the five others were receiving treatment. The minister said that everyone in the world now was at risk, adding that the experience of Nigeria had opened the “eyes” of the world to the reality of Ebola.
Mr. Chukwu faulted a report on the curative powers of bitter kola on Ebola. According to him, there was no empirical evidence to show that bitter kola will prevent or cure Ebola. Commenting on the issue, the Project Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abdulsalami Nasidi, disclosed that 70 Nigerians were currently under surveillance for the disease.
Mr. Nasidi said Patrick Sawyer arrived Nigeria about two weeks ago, had 70 primary and secondary registered contacts of which 39 were hospital contacts and 22 airport contacts. Mr. Sawyer’s contacts, it was disclosed, comprised officers of the State Security Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, airport support personnel and medical personnel that attended to him.
The Director, Port Health Services in the Health Ministry, Sani Gwarzo, said restrictions had been placed on the repatriation of corpses of Nigerians abroad into the country. He said that this was part of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. Mr. Gwarzo said that more personnel were required by the health ministry to man and screen travellers at the country’s several travel points.
Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu, said the committee reconvened to find out how many Nigerians were infected with the Ebola virus. He explained that the committee also sought to know what the ministry was doing to curb the spread of the virus. According to him, Ebola is what most Nigerians are currently worried about and measures must be taken to protect Nigerians.
Premium Times
Related stories: 2nd ebola case confirmed in Nigeria
Nigeria racing to contain ebola outbreak after virus kills Liberian in Lagos
He said that out of six Nigerians diagnosed with the Ebola virus, one died on Tuesday while the five others were receiving treatment. The minister said that everyone in the world now was at risk, adding that the experience of Nigeria had opened the “eyes” of the world to the reality of Ebola.
Mr. Chukwu faulted a report on the curative powers of bitter kola on Ebola. According to him, there was no empirical evidence to show that bitter kola will prevent or cure Ebola. Commenting on the issue, the Project Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abdulsalami Nasidi, disclosed that 70 Nigerians were currently under surveillance for the disease.
Mr. Nasidi said Patrick Sawyer arrived Nigeria about two weeks ago, had 70 primary and secondary registered contacts of which 39 were hospital contacts and 22 airport contacts. Mr. Sawyer’s contacts, it was disclosed, comprised officers of the State Security Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, airport support personnel and medical personnel that attended to him.
The Director, Port Health Services in the Health Ministry, Sani Gwarzo, said restrictions had been placed on the repatriation of corpses of Nigerians abroad into the country. He said that this was part of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. Mr. Gwarzo said that more personnel were required by the health ministry to man and screen travellers at the country’s several travel points.
Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu, said the committee reconvened to find out how many Nigerians were infected with the Ebola virus. He explained that the committee also sought to know what the ministry was doing to curb the spread of the virus. According to him, Ebola is what most Nigerians are currently worried about and measures must be taken to protect Nigerians.
Premium Times
Related stories: 2nd ebola case confirmed in Nigeria
Nigeria racing to contain ebola outbreak after virus kills Liberian in Lagos
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Footage appears to show Nigerian soldiers slitting throats of suspected Boko Haram militants
Footage obtained by human rights group Amnesty International and released on Tuesday appears to show Nigerian soldiers slitting the throats of Boko Haram suspects and dumping their bodies in a mass grave.
Nigeria's military is battling an increasingly vicious Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram, which wants to carve an Islamic state out of religiously mixed Nigeria. But its forces frequently come repeatedly under fire for human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings they usually deny.
It was not possible to independently verify the video, which also includes images of suspects being pulled off the back of trucks and beaten by soldiers and allied civilian militias.
Amnesty said the extrajudicial killings occurred shortly after Boko Haram's attack on a detention center in Giwa Barracks, in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, on March 14.
Nigerian Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade, who normally bristles at suggestions of abuses by Nigerian soldiers, said in at statement that "the military authorities view these grave allegations very seriously.
"Much as the scenes depicted in this video are alien to our operations and doctrines, it has to be investigated to ensure that such practices have not crept, surreptitiously, into the system," Olukolade said.
He emphasized that such behavior would be counter to the training Nigerian troops are given.
"That level of barbarism and impunity has no place in the Nigerian military. Respect for the sanctity of life is always boldly emphasized in our doctrinal training," he said.
In the most gruesome of the videos, suspects are kept to one side while graves are dug. Then the grave is shown half-full of bodies. A half-naked man is pulled from a truck and held down while a man in military uniform slices his neck open with a combat knife, hurling his body into the pit. The scene is repeated with another suspect on the same bloodied patch at the edge of grave.
The footage comes a week after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video of his fighters beheading a Nigerian soldier -- a standard practice for the militants. Amnesty's report also shows the aftermath of a Boko Haram attack on a village that the rights group said had killed 100 people.
Amnesty said 4,000 people had been killed in the conflict this year.
A military operation since May last year has aimed to crush the rebels. But they have proved remarkably resilient and have struck back in attacks that increasingly target the civilian population, killing hundreds.
"This shocking new evidence is further proof of the appalling crimes being committed with abandon by all sides in the conflict ... what does it say when members of the military carry out such unspeakable acts and capture the images on film?" said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general.
"Numerous testimonies we have gathered suggest that extrajudicial executions are, in fact, regularly carried out by the Nigerian military," she added.
Rights groups argue that such acts by the military are not only wrong but counter-productive, as they fuel much of the anger that has helped drive the insurgency over the past five years. It is also a primary reason cited by U.S. and British forces for not giving Nigeria more counter-insurgency support.
Boko Haram was a largely non-violent clerical movement against Western culture until the killing of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, in police custody transformed it into a full- scale armed rebellion.
Olukolade said forensic experts would study the footage "in order to ascertain the veracity of the claims with a view to identifying those behind such acts. This will ... stimulate necessary legal action against any personnel or anyone found culpable in accordance with the provisions of the law."
Reuters
Related story: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Nigeria's military is battling an increasingly vicious Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram, which wants to carve an Islamic state out of religiously mixed Nigeria. But its forces frequently come repeatedly under fire for human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings they usually deny.
It was not possible to independently verify the video, which also includes images of suspects being pulled off the back of trucks and beaten by soldiers and allied civilian militias.
Amnesty said the extrajudicial killings occurred shortly after Boko Haram's attack on a detention center in Giwa Barracks, in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, on March 14.
Nigerian Defence spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade, who normally bristles at suggestions of abuses by Nigerian soldiers, said in at statement that "the military authorities view these grave allegations very seriously.
"Much as the scenes depicted in this video are alien to our operations and doctrines, it has to be investigated to ensure that such practices have not crept, surreptitiously, into the system," Olukolade said.
He emphasized that such behavior would be counter to the training Nigerian troops are given.
"That level of barbarism and impunity has no place in the Nigerian military. Respect for the sanctity of life is always boldly emphasized in our doctrinal training," he said.
In the most gruesome of the videos, suspects are kept to one side while graves are dug. Then the grave is shown half-full of bodies. A half-naked man is pulled from a truck and held down while a man in military uniform slices his neck open with a combat knife, hurling his body into the pit. The scene is repeated with another suspect on the same bloodied patch at the edge of grave.
The footage comes a week after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video of his fighters beheading a Nigerian soldier -- a standard practice for the militants. Amnesty's report also shows the aftermath of a Boko Haram attack on a village that the rights group said had killed 100 people.
Amnesty said 4,000 people had been killed in the conflict this year.
A military operation since May last year has aimed to crush the rebels. But they have proved remarkably resilient and have struck back in attacks that increasingly target the civilian population, killing hundreds.
"This shocking new evidence is further proof of the appalling crimes being committed with abandon by all sides in the conflict ... what does it say when members of the military carry out such unspeakable acts and capture the images on film?" said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general.
"Numerous testimonies we have gathered suggest that extrajudicial executions are, in fact, regularly carried out by the Nigerian military," she added.
Rights groups argue that such acts by the military are not only wrong but counter-productive, as they fuel much of the anger that has helped drive the insurgency over the past five years. It is also a primary reason cited by U.S. and British forces for not giving Nigeria more counter-insurgency support.
Boko Haram was a largely non-violent clerical movement against Western culture until the killing of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, in police custody transformed it into a full- scale armed rebellion.
Olukolade said forensic experts would study the footage "in order to ascertain the veracity of the claims with a view to identifying those behind such acts. This will ... stimulate necessary legal action against any personnel or anyone found culpable in accordance with the provisions of the law."
Reuters
Related story: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Sammy Ameobi wants to play for the Nigeria Super Eagles
Sammy Ameobi has admitted he wants to play for Nigeria at international level.
The Newcastle United youngster is keen to follow in the footsteps of big brother Shola and represent the Super Eagles.
The Chronicle were first to report on June 18 that Ameobi was considering scrapping ties with the English FA - after playing for the Three Lions Under-21s - to play for Nigeria.
He said today in Punch: “It will be a great honour to play for Nigeria. I would love it.
“I have seen how it has been with my brother and the World Cup was a great experience, which I would love to experience and help make sure Nigeria participates in again.”
Ameobi though knows Newcastle is his priority in the coming weeks.
He added: “I am in the last year of my contract with Newcastle and I have to start it with a bang. I am no longer a kid.
“I have had a lot of injuries which I am hoping I have gotten over now, so I need to play very well to either get a new contract with Newcastle or be able to make a good move elsewhere.”
Ameobi also said Shola was on hand to offer him advice.
He said: “He has always been there for me.
“Whenever I needed advice, he would volunteer it; and also when I tried to make moves that might have derailed my career, he was quick to pull me back on track.
“It is great to have a proper professional as an older brother.”
Chronicle
The Newcastle United youngster is keen to follow in the footsteps of big brother Shola and represent the Super Eagles.
The Chronicle were first to report on June 18 that Ameobi was considering scrapping ties with the English FA - after playing for the Three Lions Under-21s - to play for Nigeria.
He said today in Punch: “It will be a great honour to play for Nigeria. I would love it.
“I have seen how it has been with my brother and the World Cup was a great experience, which I would love to experience and help make sure Nigeria participates in again.”
Ameobi though knows Newcastle is his priority in the coming weeks.
He added: “I am in the last year of my contract with Newcastle and I have to start it with a bang. I am no longer a kid.
“I have had a lot of injuries which I am hoping I have gotten over now, so I need to play very well to either get a new contract with Newcastle or be able to make a good move elsewhere.”
Ameobi also said Shola was on hand to offer him advice.
He said: “He has always been there for me.
“Whenever I needed advice, he would volunteer it; and also when I tried to make moves that might have derailed my career, he was quick to pull me back on track.
“It is great to have a proper professional as an older brother.”
Chronicle
Monday, August 4, 2014
Video - Nigeria institutes measures to counter Boko Haram
Nigeria is launching a new string of programmes aimed at ending the Boko Haram threat, through ideology. They include anti-radicalist school initiatives and reform programmes for convicted Boko Haram members.
Related story: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Nigerian consumption of U.S. refined petroleum rising
Nigeria is now importing almost as much crude, from the United States (US) as it exports to the world’s largest economy.
The US ships refined-petroleum cargoes like gasoline and kerosene to Nigeria, with May figures from US Energy Department data showing shipments hit the highest volumes ever.
Meanwhile in the past five years the Americans have reduced the amount of crude it buys from Africa’s largest economy, currently getting less than 2 percent of its oil from Nigeria, compared with 7 percent in 2011.
First the U.S. shale-oil boom took away the country’s biggest crude-export market. Now Nigeria is dependent on American fuel to power its automobiles and aircrafts.
Business Day
The US ships refined-petroleum cargoes like gasoline and kerosene to Nigeria, with May figures from US Energy Department data showing shipments hit the highest volumes ever.
Meanwhile in the past five years the Americans have reduced the amount of crude it buys from Africa’s largest economy, currently getting less than 2 percent of its oil from Nigeria, compared with 7 percent in 2011.
First the U.S. shale-oil boom took away the country’s biggest crude-export market. Now Nigeria is dependent on American fuel to power its automobiles and aircrafts.
Business Day
2nd ebola case confirmed in Nigeria
Nigerian authorities say they have confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming development after a man who flew by plane to the country died of Ebola.
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Monday that the second person with Ebola is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died of Ebola in late July.
Sawyer, who was traveling to Nigeria on business, became ill while aboard a flight and Nigerian authorities immediately took him into isolation. They did not quarantine his fellow passengers, and have insisted that the risk of additional cases was minimal.
Nigeria is the fourth country to report Ebola cases and more than 700 people have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Cremation ordered for Liberian victims
Meanwhile, the Liberian government is ordering that all corpses of Ebola victims must be cremated as fears rise that the disease could be spread by bodies being buried in residential areas.
Information Minister Lewis Brown announced Monday on state radio that authorities now will cremate the remains of Ebola victims.
The order comes after a tense standoff erupted over the weekend when health workers tried to bury more than 20 Ebola victims on the outskirts of Monrovia.
Authorities said military police officers were called in to help restore order so that the burials could take place.
West Africa is experiencing the largest recorded Ebola outbreak in history, with at least 729 deaths blamed on the disease. Many contracted the disease by touching the bodies of victims as is tradition at funerals.
CBC
Related story: Nigeria possibly has first ebola case
Nigeria racing to contain ebola outbreak after virus kills Liberian in Lagos
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Monday that the second person with Ebola is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died of Ebola in late July.
Sawyer, who was traveling to Nigeria on business, became ill while aboard a flight and Nigerian authorities immediately took him into isolation. They did not quarantine his fellow passengers, and have insisted that the risk of additional cases was minimal.
Nigeria is the fourth country to report Ebola cases and more than 700 people have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Cremation ordered for Liberian victims
Meanwhile, the Liberian government is ordering that all corpses of Ebola victims must be cremated as fears rise that the disease could be spread by bodies being buried in residential areas.
Information Minister Lewis Brown announced Monday on state radio that authorities now will cremate the remains of Ebola victims.
The order comes after a tense standoff erupted over the weekend when health workers tried to bury more than 20 Ebola victims on the outskirts of Monrovia.
Authorities said military police officers were called in to help restore order so that the burials could take place.
West Africa is experiencing the largest recorded Ebola outbreak in history, with at least 729 deaths blamed on the disease. Many contracted the disease by touching the bodies of victims as is tradition at funerals.
CBC
Related story: Nigeria possibly has first ebola case
Nigeria racing to contain ebola outbreak after virus kills Liberian in Lagos
Friday, August 1, 2014
President Goodluck Jonathan appoints new Police Chief
President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of AIG Suleiman Abba as the new Inspector‑General of Police.
A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said AIG Abba, currently the Assistant Inspector‑General of Police in charge of Zone 7, comprising Abuja, Kaduna and Niger states, replaces the incumbent Inspector‑General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar, who proceeds on statutory retirement today (yesterday) having completed 35 years in service.
Suleiman Abba:
"The incoming Inspector‑General, a lawyer, hails from Jigawa State and is an alumnus of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS. Positions previously held by him in the Police include Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, FCT Command, Deputy Force Secretary and Commissioner of Police, Rivers State. His appointment is with effect from today, August 1, 2014″
The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Mbama Okiro in a congratulatory message to the new IGP said it was a deserved appointment.
In a statement by Mr. Ferdinand Ekpe, Assistant Director, Information of the commission, Okiro advised him to rise up to the challenges of his new appointment, noting that as a tested officer who had held various Command positions in the Nigeria Police Force, he had no doubt he (Abba) would bring new perspectives in the search for solutions to the security threats confronting the nation.
Until his appointment, Abba was the Assistant Inspector‑General of Police in Charge of Zone 7, Abuja.
He formerly served as the Deputy Force Secretary at Force headquarters and Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Kebbi State Police Command. He was also the Aide de Camp to Mrs. Mariam Abacha. He was also at one time, the officer in charge MOPOL 44 Abuja.
It will be recalled that Vanguard had exclusively reported, yesterday, that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Police council made up of the 36 state governors and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Mbama Okiro (IGP, rtd) settled for the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7, Mr. Suleiman Abba as the next Inspector General of Police when incumbent, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar retires after attaining the mandatory 35 years in service by 31st of this month.
The out-going Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar and his successor had earlier met with President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa.
The duo met with the president for less than 20 minutes before driving out of the Presidential Villa. They declined to speak with the press as they drove out together.
Vanguard
A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said AIG Abba, currently the Assistant Inspector‑General of Police in charge of Zone 7, comprising Abuja, Kaduna and Niger states, replaces the incumbent Inspector‑General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar, who proceeds on statutory retirement today (yesterday) having completed 35 years in service.
Suleiman Abba:
"The incoming Inspector‑General, a lawyer, hails from Jigawa State and is an alumnus of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS. Positions previously held by him in the Police include Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, FCT Command, Deputy Force Secretary and Commissioner of Police, Rivers State. His appointment is with effect from today, August 1, 2014″
The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Mbama Okiro in a congratulatory message to the new IGP said it was a deserved appointment.
In a statement by Mr. Ferdinand Ekpe, Assistant Director, Information of the commission, Okiro advised him to rise up to the challenges of his new appointment, noting that as a tested officer who had held various Command positions in the Nigeria Police Force, he had no doubt he (Abba) would bring new perspectives in the search for solutions to the security threats confronting the nation.
Until his appointment, Abba was the Assistant Inspector‑General of Police in Charge of Zone 7, Abuja.
He formerly served as the Deputy Force Secretary at Force headquarters and Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Kebbi State Police Command. He was also the Aide de Camp to Mrs. Mariam Abacha. He was also at one time, the officer in charge MOPOL 44 Abuja.
It will be recalled that Vanguard had exclusively reported, yesterday, that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Police council made up of the 36 state governors and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Mbama Okiro (IGP, rtd) settled for the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7, Mr. Suleiman Abba as the next Inspector General of Police when incumbent, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar retires after attaining the mandatory 35 years in service by 31st of this month.
The out-going Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar and his successor had earlier met with President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa.
The duo met with the president for less than 20 minutes before driving out of the Presidential Villa. They declined to speak with the press as they drove out together.
Vanguard
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Nigerian forces find 10-year old girl strapped with bombs
Nigerian forces have arrested two Boko Haram suspects who were travelling with a 10-year-old girl with explosives strapped to her, the government said on Wednesday.
Government spokesman Mike Omeri said the suspects had been intercepted in a Honda CRV car travelling along a road in the north's Katsina state.
"Ten-year old Hadiza was discovered to have been strapped with an explosive belt and, immediately, Iliya and Zainab made attempt to escape with the car, but were later blocked by other concerned Nigerians and subsequently arrested," he said.
Reuters
Related stories: Female suicide bombers kill 3 in Kano, Nigeria
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Government spokesman Mike Omeri said the suspects had been intercepted in a Honda CRV car travelling along a road in the north's Katsina state.
"Ten-year old Hadiza was discovered to have been strapped with an explosive belt and, immediately, Iliya and Zainab made attempt to escape with the car, but were later blocked by other concerned Nigerians and subsequently arrested," he said.
Reuters
Related stories: Female suicide bombers kill 3 in Kano, Nigeria
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Video - Getting people reading in Nigeria
It's no news that the reading culture is dying in Nigeria. People no longer read as they used in the past and the cinema is much now preferred to the library. But one small start-up is embarking on the audacious mission to revive the reading culture in Nigeria by taking the library to people’s homes.
US Senators want Nigeria sanctioned for anti-gay law
Ten senators of the United States (US) are seeking sanctions against Nigeria, over what they described as “a growing trend of laws and proposed legislation targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in Africa.”
In a letter to President Barack Obama, published by The Cable, the senators were seeking a review of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allowed for duty-free treatment of certain imports from Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries since 2000.
“We, therefore, ask that your administration review Nigeria and Uganda’s eligibility for AGOA’s trade preference and, if it is determined that those countries are not ‘making continual progress’ in meeting the statute’s requirements, that you take steps to revoke AGOA eligibility to Nigeria and Uganda, in accordance with 19 USC 2466a(a)(3),” the senators stated.
The senators believed that the enacted Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act by Nigeria in January and the enforcement of these laws would be a human rights abuse, in violation of the standards set forth in the AGOA.
“These laws, combined with the growing public vitriol by government officials and the media, threaten to usher in an era of widespread oppression of the LGBT community in many African countries.
“We believe that the discriminatory anti-LGBT laws in those countries represent a clear violation of human rights and hope that the interagency process charged with AGOA’s annual review will make this recommendation. We further ask that you not restore eligibility until these beneficiary countries have taken steps to eliminate harsh penalties for LGBT persons,” the senators said.
The senators, according to the letter published in The Cable, are Christopher S. Murphy, Tammy Baldwin, Martin Heinrich, Richard Blumenthal, Barbara Boxer, Al Franken, Kirsten Gillibrand, Edward Markey, Sherrod Brown and Mark E. Udall.
Tribune
Related stories: Law against homosexuality passes into law today in Nigeria
Wole Soyinka advises anti-gay bill legislators to go back to school
Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
In a letter to President Barack Obama, published by The Cable, the senators were seeking a review of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allowed for duty-free treatment of certain imports from Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries since 2000.
“We, therefore, ask that your administration review Nigeria and Uganda’s eligibility for AGOA’s trade preference and, if it is determined that those countries are not ‘making continual progress’ in meeting the statute’s requirements, that you take steps to revoke AGOA eligibility to Nigeria and Uganda, in accordance with 19 USC 2466a(a)(3),” the senators stated.
The senators believed that the enacted Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act by Nigeria in January and the enforcement of these laws would be a human rights abuse, in violation of the standards set forth in the AGOA.
“These laws, combined with the growing public vitriol by government officials and the media, threaten to usher in an era of widespread oppression of the LGBT community in many African countries.
“We believe that the discriminatory anti-LGBT laws in those countries represent a clear violation of human rights and hope that the interagency process charged with AGOA’s annual review will make this recommendation. We further ask that you not restore eligibility until these beneficiary countries have taken steps to eliminate harsh penalties for LGBT persons,” the senators said.
The senators, according to the letter published in The Cable, are Christopher S. Murphy, Tammy Baldwin, Martin Heinrich, Richard Blumenthal, Barbara Boxer, Al Franken, Kirsten Gillibrand, Edward Markey, Sherrod Brown and Mark E. Udall.
Tribune
Related stories: Law against homosexuality passes into law today in Nigeria
Wole Soyinka advises anti-gay bill legislators to go back to school
Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
Female suicide bombers kill 3 in Kano, Nigeria
Two blasts by female suicide bombers have killed three people and injured 13 in Nigeria's Kano city, bringing the number of attacks this week in the area to five and overshadowing festivities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
A woman detonated low-calibre explosives packed to her torso at a petrol station in the Hotoro area on the outskirts of the city, targeting women who had lined up to buy kerosene, Kano police spokesman Musa Magaji Majia told AFP news agency.
Majia said 10 victims were rushed to the hospital after the blast that went off at roughly 09:30 GMT on Monday and that three had died.
Roughly three hours after the petrol station blast another female bomber approached the Trade Fair Complex in a key commercial district, Kano state police chief Aderele Shinaba said.
She was stopped at the gate and blew herself up, he added. "It was the same modus operandi," Shinaba said. "Six people were injured, including two (police) officers."
Celebrations banned
The violence marred what was supposed to be a festive day in Kano, a city of more than six million people and the largest in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.
The city of Kano has banned all public worship and celebrations over the holiday marking the end of Ramadan that is currently underway. Other northern Nigerian cities have banned personal vehicles, fearing intensified violence over the holidays.
Kano is outside the region of northern Nigeria that has been under emergency rule for more than a year, but it is a frequent target of Boko Haram attacks.
On Sunday, a 15-year-old girl detonated a bomb near a temporary university site, killing only herself, said Kano State Shinaba said.
Five others were killed in a church bombing the same day, he said, and a third bomb was discovered at a mosque before it exploded, harming no one, Reuters news agency reported.
Three suspected Boko Haram members were arrested immediately after the church bombing, Shinaba said.
Aljazeera
Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Bomb blast in a Church in Kano, Nigeria kills 5
A woman detonated low-calibre explosives packed to her torso at a petrol station in the Hotoro area on the outskirts of the city, targeting women who had lined up to buy kerosene, Kano police spokesman Musa Magaji Majia told AFP news agency.
Majia said 10 victims were rushed to the hospital after the blast that went off at roughly 09:30 GMT on Monday and that three had died.
Roughly three hours after the petrol station blast another female bomber approached the Trade Fair Complex in a key commercial district, Kano state police chief Aderele Shinaba said.
She was stopped at the gate and blew herself up, he added. "It was the same modus operandi," Shinaba said. "Six people were injured, including two (police) officers."
Celebrations banned
The violence marred what was supposed to be a festive day in Kano, a city of more than six million people and the largest in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.
The city of Kano has banned all public worship and celebrations over the holiday marking the end of Ramadan that is currently underway. Other northern Nigerian cities have banned personal vehicles, fearing intensified violence over the holidays.
Kano is outside the region of northern Nigeria that has been under emergency rule for more than a year, but it is a frequent target of Boko Haram attacks.
On Sunday, a 15-year-old girl detonated a bomb near a temporary university site, killing only herself, said Kano State Shinaba said.
Five others were killed in a church bombing the same day, he said, and a third bomb was discovered at a mosque before it exploded, harming no one, Reuters news agency reported.
Three suspected Boko Haram members were arrested immediately after the church bombing, Shinaba said.
Aljazeera
Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Bomb blast in a Church in Kano, Nigeria kills 5
Monday, July 28, 2014
Boko Haram kidnaps Cameroon's PM's wife
Nigerian Boko Haram militants kidnapped the wife of Cameroon's vice prime minister and killed at least three people on Sunday in a cross-border attack involving more than 200 assailants in the northern town of Kolofata, Cameroon officials said.
A local religious leader, or lamido, named Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town's mayor, and five members of his family were also kidnapped in a separate attack on his home.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Boko Haram, an Islamist group which made international headlines with the abduction of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April, has stepped up cross-border attacks into Cameroon in recent weeks. Cameroon has deployed troops to its northern region, joining international efforts to combat the militants.
"I can confirm that the home of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali in Kolofata came under a savage attack from Boko Haram militants," government spokesman Issa Tchiroma, who is also communications minister, told Reuters by telephone.
"They unfortunately took away his wife. They also attacked the Lamido's residence and he was also kidnapped," he said, adding that at least three people were killed in the attack.
"UNQUALIFIED VIOLENCE"
Tchiroma told a press conference later on Sunday that the Cameroonian army had taken the town of Kolofata back under control after repulsing the militants, who he said had used "brutal and unqualified violence".
"We do not have all the facts in order to give full information on the exact circumstances and the victim toll of this attack," Tchiroma said on state television.
A Cameroon military commander in the region told Reuters security officials had taken the vice prime minister away to a neighboring town. He had been at home to celebrate the Muslim feast of Ramadan with his family when the attack happened.
The Sunday attack is the third Boko Haram attack in Cameroon since Friday. At least four soldiers were killed in the two previous attacks.
On Friday, some 22 suspected Boko Haram militants who had been held in Cameroon's northern hub of Maroua since March were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were related to the sentencing of the militants.
Boko Haram have killed hundreds of people this year, mostly in northeastern Nigeria, although they have bombed places across the country.
The group rejects Western-style education and is trying to carve out a de facto Islamic state in northern Nigeria. On Sunday, a bomb attack on a Catholic church in northern Nigeria's main city of Kano killed five people and wounded eight, a senior police officer said. Christian churches have been a favorite target for the militants.
The attacker threw the bomb at worshippers on their way out of the church, police commissioner Adenrele Shinaba told Reuters. Police cordoned off the scene.
In a separate incident, a female suicide bomber tried to attack police officers on the streets. She killed herself but only wounded two of the officers, Shinaba said.
Reuters
Related stories: Boko Haram kill over a hundred people in Northern Nigeria
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
A local religious leader, or lamido, named Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town's mayor, and five members of his family were also kidnapped in a separate attack on his home.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Boko Haram, an Islamist group which made international headlines with the abduction of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in April, has stepped up cross-border attacks into Cameroon in recent weeks. Cameroon has deployed troops to its northern region, joining international efforts to combat the militants.
"I can confirm that the home of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali in Kolofata came under a savage attack from Boko Haram militants," government spokesman Issa Tchiroma, who is also communications minister, told Reuters by telephone.
"They unfortunately took away his wife. They also attacked the Lamido's residence and he was also kidnapped," he said, adding that at least three people were killed in the attack.
"UNQUALIFIED VIOLENCE"
Tchiroma told a press conference later on Sunday that the Cameroonian army had taken the town of Kolofata back under control after repulsing the militants, who he said had used "brutal and unqualified violence".
"We do not have all the facts in order to give full information on the exact circumstances and the victim toll of this attack," Tchiroma said on state television.
A Cameroon military commander in the region told Reuters security officials had taken the vice prime minister away to a neighboring town. He had been at home to celebrate the Muslim feast of Ramadan with his family when the attack happened.
The Sunday attack is the third Boko Haram attack in Cameroon since Friday. At least four soldiers were killed in the two previous attacks.
On Friday, some 22 suspected Boko Haram militants who had been held in Cameroon's northern hub of Maroua since March were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were related to the sentencing of the militants.
Boko Haram have killed hundreds of people this year, mostly in northeastern Nigeria, although they have bombed places across the country.
The group rejects Western-style education and is trying to carve out a de facto Islamic state in northern Nigeria. On Sunday, a bomb attack on a Catholic church in northern Nigeria's main city of Kano killed five people and wounded eight, a senior police officer said. Christian churches have been a favorite target for the militants.
The attacker threw the bomb at worshippers on their way out of the church, police commissioner Adenrele Shinaba told Reuters. Police cordoned off the scene.
In a separate incident, a female suicide bomber tried to attack police officers on the streets. She killed herself but only wounded two of the officers, Shinaba said.
Reuters
Related stories: Boko Haram kill over a hundred people in Northern Nigeria
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Bomb blast in a Church in Kano, Nigeria kills 5
A bomb attack on a Catholic church in northern Nigeria's main city of Kano killed five people and wounded eight on Sunday, a senior police officer said.
The bomber threw the bomb at worshippers on their way out of the church, police commissioner Adenrele Shinaba told Reuters.
Police cordoned off the scene.
In a separate attack, a female suicide bomber tried to attack police officers on the streets. She killed herself but only wounded to of them, Shinaba said.
Reuters
Related stories: Kaduna hit by two deadly explosions
Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
The bomber threw the bomb at worshippers on their way out of the church, police commissioner Adenrele Shinaba told Reuters.
Police cordoned off the scene.
In a separate attack, a female suicide bomber tried to attack police officers on the streets. She killed herself but only wounded to of them, Shinaba said.
Reuters
Related stories: Kaduna hit by two deadly explosions
Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Nigeria racing to contain ebola outbreak after virus kills Liberian in Lagos
Nigeria says it has put all entries into the country on red alert after confirming the death of a Liberian man who was carrying the Ebola virus.
The man died after arriving at Lagos airport on Tuesday, in the first Ebola case in Africa's most populous country.
Surveillance has been stepped up at all "airports, seaports and land borders", says Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.
Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa - the world's deadliest outbreak to date.
It began in southern Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
'Contact avoided'
The Liberian man collapsed on arrival in Lagos last Sunday. He was taken from the airport to hospital, where he was put in quarantine.
Officials have identified the 40-year-old man as an employee of the Liberian government.
r Chukwu confirmed that the other passengers on board the flight had been traced and were being monitored.
The patient had "avoided contact with the general public" between the airport and the hospital, he said.
Health specialists have been deployed at all entry points into the country, he added.
The virus, which kills up to 90% of those infected, spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive treatment early.
Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
Fatality rate can reach 90%
Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no vaccine or cure
Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
Fruit bats are considered to be the natural host of the virus
The red alert in Nigeria comes as Sierra Leone launches a hunt for a woman infected with Ebola, who was forcibly removed from hospital by her relatives.
The 32-year-old, who is the first registered Ebola case in the capital Freetown, was described by national radio as a "risk to all".
The Ebola cases in Sierra Leone are centred in the country's eastern districts of Kenema and Kailahun, just over the border from the Guekedou region of Guinea where the outbreak started.
Police said thousands of people joined a street protest in Kenema on Friday over the government's handling of the outbreak.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the doctor leading Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola was being treated for the virus.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that 219 people had died of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
BBC
Related story: Nigeria possibly has first ebola case
The man died after arriving at Lagos airport on Tuesday, in the first Ebola case in Africa's most populous country.
Surveillance has been stepped up at all "airports, seaports and land borders", says Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.
Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa - the world's deadliest outbreak to date.
It began in southern Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
'Contact avoided'
The Liberian man collapsed on arrival in Lagos last Sunday. He was taken from the airport to hospital, where he was put in quarantine.
Officials have identified the 40-year-old man as an employee of the Liberian government.
r Chukwu confirmed that the other passengers on board the flight had been traced and were being monitored.
The patient had "avoided contact with the general public" between the airport and the hospital, he said.
Health specialists have been deployed at all entry points into the country, he added.
The virus, which kills up to 90% of those infected, spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive treatment early.
Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
Fatality rate can reach 90%
Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no vaccine or cure
Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
Fruit bats are considered to be the natural host of the virus
The red alert in Nigeria comes as Sierra Leone launches a hunt for a woman infected with Ebola, who was forcibly removed from hospital by her relatives.
The 32-year-old, who is the first registered Ebola case in the capital Freetown, was described by national radio as a "risk to all".
The Ebola cases in Sierra Leone are centred in the country's eastern districts of Kenema and Kailahun, just over the border from the Guekedou region of Guinea where the outbreak started.
Police said thousands of people joined a street protest in Kenema on Friday over the government's handling of the outbreak.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the doctor leading Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola was being treated for the virus.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that 219 people had died of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
BBC
Related story: Nigeria possibly has first ebola case
Friday, July 25, 2014
Female weightlifter wins Nigeria's first gold at the Commonwealth Games
India’s Sanjita Chanu won the gold with 173 points.
Team Nigeria on Thursday in Glasgow recorded its first medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games when Nkechi Opara won bronze in the women’s weightlifting 48 kg event.
Opara scored 70 in snatch; and 92 in clean and jerk for total 162 points.
India’s Sanjita Chanu won the gold with 173 points, while her compatriot, Saikhom Mirabai, won silver with 170 points.
The result placed Nigeria joint sixth with South Africa and New Zealand who also have one bronze medal each.
England was, however, leading on the medals table as at 6 p.m. on Thursday with seven medals, comprising three gold, two silver and two bronze.
They had earlier in the day pushed Australia into second place, with India in third place, and Canada and Scotland joint fourth.
The women’s 48 kg event was one of two in the weightlifting competition, which was one of many on the first day of competition at the games.
In the other weightlifting event, Nigeria’s Rasaq Tanimowo was in line for a gold medal as he was leading the pack in the competition before the final round of lifts.
The 2014 games, which got underway on Wednesday, will end on August 3.
Premium Times
Team Nigeria on Thursday in Glasgow recorded its first medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games when Nkechi Opara won bronze in the women’s weightlifting 48 kg event.
Opara scored 70 in snatch; and 92 in clean and jerk for total 162 points.
India’s Sanjita Chanu won the gold with 173 points, while her compatriot, Saikhom Mirabai, won silver with 170 points.
The result placed Nigeria joint sixth with South Africa and New Zealand who also have one bronze medal each.
England was, however, leading on the medals table as at 6 p.m. on Thursday with seven medals, comprising three gold, two silver and two bronze.
They had earlier in the day pushed Australia into second place, with India in third place, and Canada and Scotland joint fourth.
The women’s 48 kg event was one of two in the weightlifting competition, which was one of many on the first day of competition at the games.
In the other weightlifting event, Nigeria’s Rasaq Tanimowo was in line for a gold medal as he was leading the pack in the competition before the final round of lifts.
The 2014 games, which got underway on Wednesday, will end on August 3.
Premium Times
Nigeria looking to keep Stephen Keshi as Super Eagles coach
The development is a U-turn from the governing body after it allowed Keshi's contract to expire after the World Cup.
However, Nigeria's sports ministry is understood to feel Keshi has made" outrageous" demands over a new deal.
The 52-year-old led Nigeria to their third African title in 2013 and the last 16 at the World Cup in Brazil.
But his reign as coach was littered with problems over money, as he experienced a number of delays in receiving his salary, and issues around his control of team selection.
He has reportedly sought a new deal that would double his $30,000-a-month salary, ensure monies are paid upfront to avoid delays and also allow him to pick his staff.
Following a meeting of the NFF executive committee, the board "mandated the technical sub-committee to open channels of communication with Stephen Keshi with a view to extending his contract, as the NFF is still interested in working with him".
It added: "The technical sub-committee is to report back to the executive committee within one week."
Meanwhile, Nigeria's sports minister Tammy Danagogo says football officials in the country must put aside their differences for Nigeria to go beyond the round of 16 at the World Cup.
"The only way we can go beyond round of 16 is to ensure that the right things are done," he said.
"If [the round of 16] is a jinx we must break it. And it is by ensuring that the right things happen; by ensuring that NFF does not complain that the minister is disturbing them.
"It is by ensuring that club owners are not complaining against the NFF, it is by ensuring players and coaches are not complaining that NFF or club owners are short-changing them."
BBC
Related stories: Nigeria Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi steps down after 2-0 defeat to France in the 2014 FIFA World Cup
Nigeria Super Eagles refuse to train due to unpaid FIFA World Cup 2014 appearance fees
Nigeria possibly has first ebola case
A Liberian man has been taken to hospital in Nigeria after he developed sysmptoms of the deadly disease Ebola, which has killed hundreds in West Africa in the biggest recorded outbreak.
Nigerian officials said on Thursday that the man was being tested in Lagos, and it was not clear if he was infected with the disease, which has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began in February.
If confirmed, the case would be the first on record in Nigeria, Africa's most populous state with a population of 170 million.
The 40-year-old Monrovia man arrived in Lagos on Sunday and was taken to hospital on Tuesday suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea, said Yewande Adesina, the special adviser on health for the Lagos state government.
"Results are still pending. Presently the patient's condition is stable and he is in recovery… The diarrhoea and vomiting have stopped. He is still under isolation."
A third laboratory outside Nigeria must also test the samples before a final determination on Ebola can be reached, Adesina said.
The patient travelled from the Liberian of Monrovia to Lagos via Togo's capital Lome.
The WHO has recorded more than 900 cases of Ebola in the epidemic that has raged across West Africa in recent months. Liberia has recorded 172 cases of the disease, including 105 deaths.
Aljazeera
Nigerian officials said on Thursday that the man was being tested in Lagos, and it was not clear if he was infected with the disease, which has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began in February.
If confirmed, the case would be the first on record in Nigeria, Africa's most populous state with a population of 170 million.
The 40-year-old Monrovia man arrived in Lagos on Sunday and was taken to hospital on Tuesday suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea, said Yewande Adesina, the special adviser on health for the Lagos state government.
"Results are still pending. Presently the patient's condition is stable and he is in recovery… The diarrhoea and vomiting have stopped. He is still under isolation."
A third laboratory outside Nigeria must also test the samples before a final determination on Ebola can be reached, Adesina said.
The patient travelled from the Liberian of Monrovia to Lagos via Togo's capital Lome.
The WHO has recorded more than 900 cases of Ebola in the epidemic that has raged across West Africa in recent months. Liberia has recorded 172 cases of the disease, including 105 deaths.
Aljazeera
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Kaduna hit by two deadly explosions
Two explosions have ripped through the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, killing at least 40 people, police say.
The first explosion targeted moderate Islamic cleric Dahiru Bauchi while the second one targeted senior opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari, a BBC reporter in the city says.
Both escaped unhurt.
Militant Islamist group Boko Haram has carried out a wave of bombings and assassinations in Nigeria since it launched a brutal insurgency in 2009.
It often targets Muslim leaders opposed to its militant ideology. Curfew imposed
Body parts and damaged vehicles lay on the busy Alkali Road in the city centre where the bomb targeting Mr Bauchi exploded, reports the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar from the scene.
Kaduna police chief Shehu Umar said at least 25 people were killed and 14 wounded in that blast, apparently caused by a suicide bomber.
Another 15 were killed in the second blast, he said, while an emergency worker put the number at 19.
Mr Bauchi had completed a preaching session in the nearby Murtala Muhammed square, and was driving through the area in an open-roofed vehicle, greeting thousands of well-wishers when he was targeted.
Followers of the renowned cleric reacted angrily, throwing stones at the security forces and accusing them of failing to protect Nigerians, our reporter says.
The security forces retaliated by firing tear gas.
About 90 minutes after the first attack, a second explosion ripped through the crowded Kawo area, targeting the motorcade of Gen Buhari, a former military ruler of Nigeria and a senior member of the All Progressive Congress opposition party.
Gunmen rammed a vehicle into his convoy, firing shots at it, our reporter says, adding that two of Gen Buhari's bodyguards were slightly wounded in the attack.
The state government has now imposed a 24-hour curfew in the city and surrounding areas.
"The measure is aimed at forestalling a breakdown of law and order," said government spokesman Ahmed Maiyaki.
In May, the emir of the northern area of Gwoza, Shehu Mustapha Idris Timta, was shot dead in an attack blamed on Boko Haram.
In January 2013, the then-emir of Kano, Al Haji Ado Bayero, survived an assassination attempt.
BBC
Related stories: Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
The first explosion targeted moderate Islamic cleric Dahiru Bauchi while the second one targeted senior opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari, a BBC reporter in the city says.
Both escaped unhurt.
Militant Islamist group Boko Haram has carried out a wave of bombings and assassinations in Nigeria since it launched a brutal insurgency in 2009.
It often targets Muslim leaders opposed to its militant ideology. Curfew imposed
Body parts and damaged vehicles lay on the busy Alkali Road in the city centre where the bomb targeting Mr Bauchi exploded, reports the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar from the scene.
Kaduna police chief Shehu Umar said at least 25 people were killed and 14 wounded in that blast, apparently caused by a suicide bomber.
Another 15 were killed in the second blast, he said, while an emergency worker put the number at 19.
Mr Bauchi had completed a preaching session in the nearby Murtala Muhammed square, and was driving through the area in an open-roofed vehicle, greeting thousands of well-wishers when he was targeted.
Followers of the renowned cleric reacted angrily, throwing stones at the security forces and accusing them of failing to protect Nigerians, our reporter says.
The security forces retaliated by firing tear gas.
About 90 minutes after the first attack, a second explosion ripped through the crowded Kawo area, targeting the motorcade of Gen Buhari, a former military ruler of Nigeria and a senior member of the All Progressive Congress opposition party.
Gunmen rammed a vehicle into his convoy, firing shots at it, our reporter says, adding that two of Gen Buhari's bodyguards were slightly wounded in the attack.
The state government has now imposed a 24-hour curfew in the city and surrounding areas.
"The measure is aimed at forestalling a breakdown of law and order," said government spokesman Ahmed Maiyaki.
In May, the emir of the northern area of Gwoza, Shehu Mustapha Idris Timta, was shot dead in an attack blamed on Boko Haram.
In January 2013, the then-emir of Kano, Al Haji Ado Bayero, survived an assassination attempt.
BBC
Related stories: Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
PayPal signs "tens of thousands" in first week of launch in Nigeria
E-commerce remains in its infancy in most of Africa but is growing exponentially with the advent of online retailers such as Jumia, partly owned by South African phone operator MTN, and a growing middle class with money to spend.
Citizens of Africa's most populous nation could not buy goods directly from foreign merchants before the launch by PayPal, the payments unit of online auctioneer eBay Inc.
"We have seen great uptake by Nigerians ... in terms of coverage," Malvina Goldfeld, PayPal's head of business development for sub-Saharan Africa, said in Lagos on Tuesday.
PayPal entered Nigeria and 10 other nations last month, providing online payment alternatives for consumers via mobile phones or PCs in markets often blighted by financial fraud. The new markets bring the number of countries PayPal serves to 203.
Goldfeld said that Paypal secured a few deals with electronics suppliers in China and Dubai ahead of its launch and that it had partnered with Nigerian lender First Bank, which has more than 10.5 million customers.
ELECTRONICS AND FASHION
PayPal launched its platform in South Africa four years ago, Kenya last year and now Nigeria, Goldfeld said, giving the company access to shoppers across 40 sub-saharan African countries.
Goldfeld said the biggest interest has been in products from the United States, Britain and China, adding: "People are buying everything ... (but) there's definitely a concentration in electronics and fashion."
Online retailer Jumia told Reuters in April it had 100,000 Nigerian customer accounts and sales were increasing by 15 percent a month
However, worries over internet security and online fraud have held back e-commerce growth in Nigeria, where 63 million people have active internet data subscriptions but only 1 percent of them make online transactions, First Bank said, noting that online purchases are expected to reach $1 billion this year.
Though challenges remain - including abysmal infrastructure, port delays, other supply chain woes and the task of persuading shoppers to trust websites with their bank details - Goldfeld says PayPal's reach will help to speed improvements.
"A lot of the merchants that we work with ... already ship to Nigeria. I think that the growth of e-commerce will push the logistics customers to up their game," she said.
Reuters
Related stories: PayPal coming to Nigeria
Western Union launches online service in Nigeria
Bitcoin interest grows in Nigeria
11 parents of some of the kidnapped schoolgirls now dead
In the three months since Islamic extremists kidnapped more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls, 11 of their parents have died, town residents say.
The town where the girls were kidnapped, Chibok, is cut off by militants, who have been attacking villages in the region.
Seven fathers of kidnapped girls were among 51 bodies brought to the Chibok hospital after an attack on the nearby village of Kautakari this month, said a health worker who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals by the extremists.
At least four more parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses that the community blames on trauma due to the mass abduction 100 days ago, said community leader Pogu Bitrus, who provided their names.
"One father of two of the girls kidnapped just went into a kind of coma and kept repeating the names of his daughters, until life left him," said Bitrus.
President Goodluck Jonathan met Tuesday with parents of the 219 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls and some classmates who managed to escape from Islamic extremists. Jonathan pledged to continue working to see the girls "are brought out alive," said his spokesman of the meeting which press were not permitted to attend. The parents showed no emotion after the meeting, but some shook hands with the president.
Chibok, the town where the girls were kidnapped, is cut off because of frequent attacks on the roads that are studded with burned out vehicles. Commercial flights no longer go into the troubled area and the government has halted charter flights.
Through numerous phone calls to Chibok and the surrounding area, The Associated Press has gathered information about the situation in the town where the students were kidnapped from their school.
More danger is on the horizon.
Boko Haram is closing in on Chibok, attacking villages ever closer to the town. Villagers who survive the assaults are swarming into the town, swelling its population and straining resources. A food crisis looms, along with shortages of money and fuel, said community leader Bitrus.
On the bright side, some of the young women who escaped are recovering, said a health worker, who insisted on anonymity because he feared reprisals from Boko Haram. Girls who had first refused to discuss their experience, now are talking about it and taking part in therapeutic singing and drawing -- a few drew homes, some painted flowers and one young woman drew a picture of a soldier with a gun last week.
Girls who said they would never go back to school now are thinking about how to continue their education, he said. Counselling is being offered to families of those abducted and to some of the 57 students who managed to escape in the first few days, said the health worker. He is among 36 newly trained in grief and rape counselling, under a program funded by USAID.
All the escapees remain deeply concerned about their schoolmates who did not get away.
A presidential committee investigating the kidnappings said 219 girls still are missing. But the community says there are more because some parents refused to give the committee their daughters' names, fearing the stigma involved.
Boko Haram filmed a video in which they threatened to sell the students into slavery and as child brides. It also showed a couple of the girls describing their "conversion" from Christianity to Islam.
At least two have died of snake bites, a mediator who was liaising with Boko Haram told AP two months ago. At that time he said at least 20 of the girls were ill -- not surprising given that they are probably being held in an area infested with malarial mosquitoes, poisonous snakes and spiders, and relying on unclean water from rivers.
Most of the schoolgirls are still believed to be held in the Sambisa Forest -- a wildlife reserve that includes almost impenetrably thick jungle as well as more open savannah. The forest borders on sand dunes marking the edge of the Sahara Desert. Sightings of the girls and their captors have been reported in neighbouring Cameroon and Chad.
In Chibok, the town's population is under stress.
"There are families that are putting up four and five other families," local leader Bitrus said, adding that food stocks are depleted. Livestock has been looted by Boko Haram so villagers are arriving empty handed. Worst of all, no one is planting though it is the rainy season, he said.
"There is a famine looming," he warned. Chibok and nearby villages are targets because they are enclaves of staunch Christians in predominantly Muslim north Nigeria.
The number of soldiers guarding Chibok has increased from 15 to about 200 since the kidnapping but they have done little to increase security in Chibok, said Bitrus. The soldiers often refuse to deploy to villages under attack though there is advance warning 90 per cent of the time, he said.
Last month the extremists took control and raised their black flags over two villages within 30 kilometres of Chibok. Last week they ordered residents of another village just 16 kilometres away to clear out, Bitrus said. Every village in the neighbouring Damboa area has been attacked and sacked, and all the villages bordering Cameroon have been burned and are deserted, Bitrus said, quoting residents who fled.
The attacks continue despite the fact the military placed the area under a state of emergency in May 2013. Residents feel so abandoned that they appealed this month for the United Nations to send troops to protect them. The UN has repeatedly urged Nigeria's government to live up to its international responsibility to protect citizens.
President Goodluck Jonathan insists his government and military are doing everything possible to ensure the girls' release. The Defence Ministry says it knows where they are but fears any military campaign could lead to their deaths.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a new video released this week repeated his demands that Jonathan release detained extremists in exchange for the girls -- an offer Jonathan has so far refused.
After three months, few Chibok residents believe all the schoolgirls will ever return home.
CTV
Related stories: Boko Haram attacks the same town it kidnapped the schoolgirls from
Video - Aljazeera speaks with Nigerian military about kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
The town where the girls were kidnapped, Chibok, is cut off by militants, who have been attacking villages in the region.
Seven fathers of kidnapped girls were among 51 bodies brought to the Chibok hospital after an attack on the nearby village of Kautakari this month, said a health worker who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals by the extremists.
At least four more parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses that the community blames on trauma due to the mass abduction 100 days ago, said community leader Pogu Bitrus, who provided their names.
"One father of two of the girls kidnapped just went into a kind of coma and kept repeating the names of his daughters, until life left him," said Bitrus.
President Goodluck Jonathan met Tuesday with parents of the 219 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls and some classmates who managed to escape from Islamic extremists. Jonathan pledged to continue working to see the girls "are brought out alive," said his spokesman of the meeting which press were not permitted to attend. The parents showed no emotion after the meeting, but some shook hands with the president.
Chibok, the town where the girls were kidnapped, is cut off because of frequent attacks on the roads that are studded with burned out vehicles. Commercial flights no longer go into the troubled area and the government has halted charter flights.
Through numerous phone calls to Chibok and the surrounding area, The Associated Press has gathered information about the situation in the town where the students were kidnapped from their school.
More danger is on the horizon.
Boko Haram is closing in on Chibok, attacking villages ever closer to the town. Villagers who survive the assaults are swarming into the town, swelling its population and straining resources. A food crisis looms, along with shortages of money and fuel, said community leader Bitrus.
On the bright side, some of the young women who escaped are recovering, said a health worker, who insisted on anonymity because he feared reprisals from Boko Haram. Girls who had first refused to discuss their experience, now are talking about it and taking part in therapeutic singing and drawing -- a few drew homes, some painted flowers and one young woman drew a picture of a soldier with a gun last week.
Girls who said they would never go back to school now are thinking about how to continue their education, he said. Counselling is being offered to families of those abducted and to some of the 57 students who managed to escape in the first few days, said the health worker. He is among 36 newly trained in grief and rape counselling, under a program funded by USAID.
All the escapees remain deeply concerned about their schoolmates who did not get away.
A presidential committee investigating the kidnappings said 219 girls still are missing. But the community says there are more because some parents refused to give the committee their daughters' names, fearing the stigma involved.
Boko Haram filmed a video in which they threatened to sell the students into slavery and as child brides. It also showed a couple of the girls describing their "conversion" from Christianity to Islam.
At least two have died of snake bites, a mediator who was liaising with Boko Haram told AP two months ago. At that time he said at least 20 of the girls were ill -- not surprising given that they are probably being held in an area infested with malarial mosquitoes, poisonous snakes and spiders, and relying on unclean water from rivers.
Most of the schoolgirls are still believed to be held in the Sambisa Forest -- a wildlife reserve that includes almost impenetrably thick jungle as well as more open savannah. The forest borders on sand dunes marking the edge of the Sahara Desert. Sightings of the girls and their captors have been reported in neighbouring Cameroon and Chad.
In Chibok, the town's population is under stress.
"There are families that are putting up four and five other families," local leader Bitrus said, adding that food stocks are depleted. Livestock has been looted by Boko Haram so villagers are arriving empty handed. Worst of all, no one is planting though it is the rainy season, he said.
"There is a famine looming," he warned. Chibok and nearby villages are targets because they are enclaves of staunch Christians in predominantly Muslim north Nigeria.
The number of soldiers guarding Chibok has increased from 15 to about 200 since the kidnapping but they have done little to increase security in Chibok, said Bitrus. The soldiers often refuse to deploy to villages under attack though there is advance warning 90 per cent of the time, he said.
Last month the extremists took control and raised their black flags over two villages within 30 kilometres of Chibok. Last week they ordered residents of another village just 16 kilometres away to clear out, Bitrus said. Every village in the neighbouring Damboa area has been attacked and sacked, and all the villages bordering Cameroon have been burned and are deserted, Bitrus said, quoting residents who fled.
The attacks continue despite the fact the military placed the area under a state of emergency in May 2013. Residents feel so abandoned that they appealed this month for the United Nations to send troops to protect them. The UN has repeatedly urged Nigeria's government to live up to its international responsibility to protect citizens.
President Goodluck Jonathan insists his government and military are doing everything possible to ensure the girls' release. The Defence Ministry says it knows where they are but fears any military campaign could lead to their deaths.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a new video released this week repeated his demands that Jonathan release detained extremists in exchange for the girls -- an offer Jonathan has so far refused.
After three months, few Chibok residents believe all the schoolgirls will ever return home.
CTV
Related stories: Boko Haram attacks the same town it kidnapped the schoolgirls from
Video - Aljazeera speaks with Nigerian military about kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Boko Haram attacks the same town it kidnapped the schoolgirls from
At least eleven of the parents of the more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped 100 days ago have died, as their hometown of Chibok is under siege, residents have reported.
Seven fathers of kidnapped girls were among 51 bodies brought to Chibok hospital after an attack on the nearby village of Kautakari this month, a health worker told AP news agency on Tuesday.
The worker asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals by Boko Haram, an Islamic armed group that claimed responsibility for the mass abduction of the girls.
At least four more parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses that the community blames on trauma due to the abductions, said community leader Pogu Bitrus.
"One father of two of the girls kidnapped just went into a kind of coma and kept repeating the names of his daughters, until life left him," Bitrus told AP.
Chibok is cut off because of frequent attacks on the roads that are studded with burned out vehicles.
Commercial flights no longer go into the troubled area and the government has halted charter flights.
Boko Haram is closing in on Chibok, attacking villages closer to the town, and villagers who survive the attacks are seeking refuge in the town, heightening food and water shortages.
Some of the young women who escaped are recovering, with girls who at first refused to discuss their experience, now talking about it and others thinking of returning to school.
Counselling is being offered to families of those abducted and to some of the 57 students who managed to get away from the kidnappers in the first few days, said a health worker.
A presidential committee investigating the kidnappings said 219 girls still were missing. But the community says there are more because some parents refused to give the committee their daughters' names, fearing the stigma involved.
'Conversion'
Following the mass abduction in April, Boko Haram released a video in which they threatened to sell the students into slavery and as child brides.
It also showed a couple of the girls describing their "conversion" from Christianity to Islam.
Residents and parents have criticised the Nigerian government's efforts to recover the girls, but President Goodluck Jonathan insists his government and military are doing everything possible to ensure their release.
The Defence Ministry says it knows where they are but fears any military campaign could lead to their deaths.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a new video released this week repeated his demands that Jonathan release detained members in exchange for the girls, an offer Jonathan has so far refused.
AP
Related stories: Video - Aljazeera speaks with Nigerian military about kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Seven fathers of kidnapped girls were among 51 bodies brought to Chibok hospital after an attack on the nearby village of Kautakari this month, a health worker told AP news agency on Tuesday.
The worker asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals by Boko Haram, an Islamic armed group that claimed responsibility for the mass abduction of the girls.
At least four more parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses that the community blames on trauma due to the abductions, said community leader Pogu Bitrus.
"One father of two of the girls kidnapped just went into a kind of coma and kept repeating the names of his daughters, until life left him," Bitrus told AP.
Chibok is cut off because of frequent attacks on the roads that are studded with burned out vehicles.
Commercial flights no longer go into the troubled area and the government has halted charter flights.
Boko Haram is closing in on Chibok, attacking villages closer to the town, and villagers who survive the attacks are seeking refuge in the town, heightening food and water shortages.
Some of the young women who escaped are recovering, with girls who at first refused to discuss their experience, now talking about it and others thinking of returning to school.
Counselling is being offered to families of those abducted and to some of the 57 students who managed to get away from the kidnappers in the first few days, said a health worker.
A presidential committee investigating the kidnappings said 219 girls still were missing. But the community says there are more because some parents refused to give the committee their daughters' names, fearing the stigma involved.
'Conversion'
Following the mass abduction in April, Boko Haram released a video in which they threatened to sell the students into slavery and as child brides.
It also showed a couple of the girls describing their "conversion" from Christianity to Islam.
Residents and parents have criticised the Nigerian government's efforts to recover the girls, but President Goodluck Jonathan insists his government and military are doing everything possible to ensure their release.
The Defence Ministry says it knows where they are but fears any military campaign could lead to their deaths.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a new video released this week repeated his demands that Jonathan release detained members in exchange for the girls, an offer Jonathan has so far refused.
AP
Related stories: Video - Aljazeera speaks with Nigerian military about kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Video - Aljazeera speaks with Nigerian military about kidnapped schoolgirls
Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh sits down with the spokesman of the Nigerian military to ask about the search and rescue effort for more than 200 abducted school girls who went missing 100 days ago.
Related stories: Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan finally meets with parents of kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan finally meets with parents of kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan is meeting for the first time parents of the girls abducted by militant Islamists 100 days ago.
He has been under intense pressure to meet the parents after being accused of handing the crisis badly.
Parents pulled out of a meeting with him last week amid accusations they were being used for political reasons.
The parents of 11 of the girls have reportedly died since their abduction by the Boko Haram group.
The abduction of the more than 200 schoolgirls sparked global outrage.
Boko Haram has offered to free the girls in exchange for the release of its fighters and relatives held by the security forces.
The government has rejected this.
The US, UK, France, China and Israel have been helping in operations to secure the release of the girls, who are believed to be held in the Sambisa forest, near Nigeria's border with Cameroon.
The girls were abducted from their boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok on 14 April.
Last week, Mr Jonathan agreed to meet 12 parents and five girls who escaped shortly after being seized by the militants, following a request by Pakistani rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai.
The Chibok community called off the meeting at the last minute, saying it had been organised in a hurry, so there was not time to consult with all the parents.
Mr Jonathan accused the #BringBackOurGirls campaign group of playing politics and derailing the meeting.
#BringBackOurGirls was a global campaign launched on social media to secure the release of the girls.
Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former government minister and staunch critic of Mr Jonathan, is a leading member of the group.
Seven parents were killed during a raid by Boko Haram on Kautakari, a village close to Chibok, earlier this month, the Associated Press (AP) quotes a health worker as saying.
Another four parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses blamed on the trauma caused by the abductions, Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus told AP.
BBC
Related stories: Parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls refuse to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
He has been under intense pressure to meet the parents after being accused of handing the crisis badly.
Parents pulled out of a meeting with him last week amid accusations they were being used for political reasons.
The parents of 11 of the girls have reportedly died since their abduction by the Boko Haram group.
The abduction of the more than 200 schoolgirls sparked global outrage.
Boko Haram has offered to free the girls in exchange for the release of its fighters and relatives held by the security forces.
The government has rejected this.
The US, UK, France, China and Israel have been helping in operations to secure the release of the girls, who are believed to be held in the Sambisa forest, near Nigeria's border with Cameroon.
The girls were abducted from their boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok on 14 April.
Last week, Mr Jonathan agreed to meet 12 parents and five girls who escaped shortly after being seized by the militants, following a request by Pakistani rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai.
The Chibok community called off the meeting at the last minute, saying it had been organised in a hurry, so there was not time to consult with all the parents.
Mr Jonathan accused the #BringBackOurGirls campaign group of playing politics and derailing the meeting.
#BringBackOurGirls was a global campaign launched on social media to secure the release of the girls.
Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former government minister and staunch critic of Mr Jonathan, is a leading member of the group.
Seven parents were killed during a raid by Boko Haram on Kautakari, a village close to Chibok, earlier this month, the Associated Press (AP) quotes a health worker as saying.
Another four parents have died of heart failure, high blood pressure and other illnesses blamed on the trauma caused by the abductions, Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus told AP.
BBC
Related stories: Parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls refuse to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Monday, July 21, 2014
Video - Aljazeera covers Nigeria's steps to improve its poor electricity supply
While most of Africa still plunges into dark at nightfall, we find out how Nigeria plans to switch on.
Related stories: 30 million Nigerians don't have access to electricity
Video - Nigerian economy growing despite epileptic power supply
Africa's richest man Nigerian Aliko Dangote to donate 30 billion naira in 2 years
According to the statement, the business mogul would be upping his philanthropic works across Africa, starting from his home country Nigeria.
The group which has made whopping donations across Africa said, “Africa must begin to take responsibilities by shaping the condition of its people.”
The statement quoted Alhaji Dangote as saying, “About this philanthropy, I think from this year, I personally want to take it very seriously. I want to be much more aggressive than what we have had in the past.
“We already have a foundation which will do all these things, but I am trying to see what we can do to encourage not only Nigerians but other Africans.”
He added: “I am not going to give all my money to charity, but I am going to try my best and give part of that money to charity. I am working hard on it.”
The statement said in Benue State alone, the group has been running an annual scholarship scheme worth 10million to indigenes of Gboko communities.
It said that, in Benue State, 15 villages were electrified at the cost of N115million, adding that 14 blocks of classrooms have been constructed for the community around the company at the cost of N84billion.
It added that 19 boreholes were constructed for the communities and that an earth dam valued at N50million was also constructed.
The statement said that apart from the monthly payment of allowances to traditional rulers, a vigilante contract to ensure N2million regular income to the community was also instituted.
“We have also donated N15million to the community’s development foundation, and we are helping through the community empowerment scheme, while our 100-bed hospital has been approved for construction within the community,” it added.
It in addition to N78million compensation paid during the takeover of the company, an additional N60million inconvenience allowance has been paid to families.
This is including the Dangote Academy that is worth about N1billion, through which manpower is developed across various disciplines.
The statement said that, last month, the Dangote Cement, Ibese, through the Dangote Foundation, announced a scholarship for 50 students of various secondary and tertiary institutions in Yewa community. It further disclosed that the foundation donated $500,000 to victims of explosion in the Republic of Congo and contributed a staggering $2million to flood victims in Pakistan and another N120million to cushion the effect of famine in Niger Republic.
It said that, two years ago, the foundation made a staggering donation of N2.5billion to cushion the effect of flooding in Nigeria, the single highest donation by a private body in the history of Nigeria. The Foundation also donated N430million to flood victims, unemployed youths and women in Kogi State in the same year.
It further emphasised that, three years ago, the Foundation gave out about a billion naira for the economic empowerment of women in Kano State, just as it recently donated N540million to vulnerable women as a result of insurgency in the north-east of Nigeria.
The statement maintained that the Foundation has also pumped over N1billion into the rehabilitation of some Nigerian universities, as part of its contribution to the education sector.
“Two months ago, the Dangote Foundation donated 12 trailer-loads of relief items worth N40million to support the government in bringing succour to victims of communal clashes that displaced people,” the statement noted, adding that the group had also donated N100million to victims of Lagos flooding, another N100million to those in Sokoto and N60million to victims of flooding in Oyo State, two years ago.
Daily Times
Related stories: Africa's richest man Nigerian Aliko Dangote to build Health Centres in Nigeria
Nigerian Aliko Dangote is 23rd richest man in the world
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Boko Haram kill over a hundred people in Northern Nigeria
It was another black weekend in Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria, as the terrorist group, Boko Haram, continued their reign of attacks on Saturday, this time killing more than 100 people.
They have also taken the audacious step of hoisting their black and white flag over a town that is 85 kilometers from Maiduguri, the state's capital, which was reportedly left unguarded by the military, a civil defence spokesman and a human rights advocate said Saturday.
The attack caused a cascade, as hundreds of villagers in Askira Uba are currently on the run for safety, after receiving letters from the Islamic extremists threatening attacks.
A confirmation of the attack came from Abbas Gava, spokesman of the Civilian Vigilante group.
The latest attack on Borno comes on the heels of an assurance by the Nigeria Police that insurgency in Nigeria is nearing an end. This is, however, with a prize, as the Force Headquarters have also said there are bound to be more terror attacks.
Nigeria Police Spokesman, Frank Mba, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Sunday Independent in Abuja, at the weekend said the likely upsurge in attacks from terror groups like Boko Haram is a sign of desperation, which he said is rising from the fact that terrorists are being choked out of their comfort zone by the combined efforts of the military, police and international assistance.
The weekend Borno attack has reportedly sacked nine major villages, as survivors recounted how insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs into homes, gunning down people as they tried to escape the fires in the attack on Damboa town launched before dawn Friday.
Also at the weekend, leaders of Damboa town, led a delegation to the Shehu of Borno, with a request for him to intervene to save them from further attacks from the deadly sect that has killed tens of thousands in the area.
The vigilante's spokesman reportedly said that the only defence to the insurgents came from his colleagues, who were armed with clubs and homemade rifles.
Damboa has been under siege for two weeks.
Mba said: "We have stepped up the war against terrorism from all fronts. There is equally a very strong synergy among the security agencies now.
"There is also a global alliance, a global coalition and conscious efforts to mobilise countries around Nigeria and even beyond to join the battle. And so it is obvious that Boko Haram does not have a hiding place now.
"But we expect to see some desperation on their part. It is also our job and that of all Nigerians to put down all forms of desperate actions or activities they may embark on.
"So, we will continue to do what we doing. We will continue to consolidate on our achievements and continue to explore new ways of getting a stronger and upper hand over them and continue to work together with the government, citizens and international community to bring a permanent end to their activities."
Daily Independent
Related stories: Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
They have also taken the audacious step of hoisting their black and white flag over a town that is 85 kilometers from Maiduguri, the state's capital, which was reportedly left unguarded by the military, a civil defence spokesman and a human rights advocate said Saturday.
The attack caused a cascade, as hundreds of villagers in Askira Uba are currently on the run for safety, after receiving letters from the Islamic extremists threatening attacks.
A confirmation of the attack came from Abbas Gava, spokesman of the Civilian Vigilante group.
The latest attack on Borno comes on the heels of an assurance by the Nigeria Police that insurgency in Nigeria is nearing an end. This is, however, with a prize, as the Force Headquarters have also said there are bound to be more terror attacks.
Nigeria Police Spokesman, Frank Mba, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Sunday Independent in Abuja, at the weekend said the likely upsurge in attacks from terror groups like Boko Haram is a sign of desperation, which he said is rising from the fact that terrorists are being choked out of their comfort zone by the combined efforts of the military, police and international assistance.
The weekend Borno attack has reportedly sacked nine major villages, as survivors recounted how insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs into homes, gunning down people as they tried to escape the fires in the attack on Damboa town launched before dawn Friday.
Also at the weekend, leaders of Damboa town, led a delegation to the Shehu of Borno, with a request for him to intervene to save them from further attacks from the deadly sect that has killed tens of thousands in the area.
The vigilante's spokesman reportedly said that the only defence to the insurgents came from his colleagues, who were armed with clubs and homemade rifles.
Damboa has been under siege for two weeks.
Mba said: "We have stepped up the war against terrorism from all fronts. There is equally a very strong synergy among the security agencies now.
"There is also a global alliance, a global coalition and conscious efforts to mobilise countries around Nigeria and even beyond to join the battle. And so it is obvious that Boko Haram does not have a hiding place now.
"But we expect to see some desperation on their part. It is also our job and that of all Nigerians to put down all forms of desperate actions or activities they may embark on.
"So, we will continue to do what we doing. We will continue to consolidate on our achievements and continue to explore new ways of getting a stronger and upper hand over them and continue to work together with the government, citizens and international community to bring a permanent end to their activities."
Daily Independent
Related stories: Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Friday, July 18, 2014
FIFA to lift ban on Nigeria participating in international football
FIFA are reportedly set to lift the ban placed on Nigeria after the country's government reinstated the ousted members of the Nigerian Football Federation.
Turmoil has reigned in Nigerian football ever since the Super Eagles returned from their failed 2014 World Cup campaign, with NFF members, including president Aminu Maigari, being removed from their positions by government.
That sparked FIFA into action, where an indefinite ban was placed on all footballing activities in the country, ranging from the men's and women's national teams all the way down to the domestic leagues.
However, Nigerian government have since withdrawn their order to suspend the NFF, resulting in FIFA lifting their own ban on the country.
Paul Bassey, spokesman of the NFF's technical committee, briefly stated that "commonsense has now prevailed".
The BBC, meanwhile, quote a top official as saying: "Aggrieved parties have agreed to put the country before personal interest and this is a bold step in our quest to have the ban lifted.
"This should have been sorted earlier but a judiciary workers' strike led to it being delayed. We are extremely confident now that FIFA will be happy that we got everything resolved before the new deadline."
Yahoo
Related stories: FIFA gives Nigeria new deadline to reinstate NFF board
FIFA suspends Nigeria from all international football
Turmoil has reigned in Nigerian football ever since the Super Eagles returned from their failed 2014 World Cup campaign, with NFF members, including president Aminu Maigari, being removed from their positions by government.
That sparked FIFA into action, where an indefinite ban was placed on all footballing activities in the country, ranging from the men's and women's national teams all the way down to the domestic leagues.
However, Nigerian government have since withdrawn their order to suspend the NFF, resulting in FIFA lifting their own ban on the country.
Paul Bassey, spokesman of the NFF's technical committee, briefly stated that "commonsense has now prevailed".
The BBC, meanwhile, quote a top official as saying: "Aggrieved parties have agreed to put the country before personal interest and this is a bold step in our quest to have the ban lifted.
"This should have been sorted earlier but a judiciary workers' strike led to it being delayed. We are extremely confident now that FIFA will be happy that we got everything resolved before the new deadline."
Yahoo
Related stories: FIFA gives Nigeria new deadline to reinstate NFF board
FIFA suspends Nigeria from all international football
Thursday, July 17, 2014
President Goodluck Jonathan seeking $1 billion loan to fight Boko Haram
Embattled Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday sought parliamentary approval to borrow up to $1 billion (730 million euros) in foreign loan to fight an insurgency by Boko Haram militants which has claimed thousands of lives in the past five years.
In separate letters to both houses of the national assembly, Jonathan said there is an "urgent need" to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of the armed forces and security services help them "confront this serious threat".
Citing the "ongoing and serious security challenges which the nation is facing, as typified by the Boko Haram terrorist threat," Jonathan said he is seeking to borrow up to $1 billion.
No date has been set yet for a debate on the president's request and there is no indication of where Nigeria could borrow from.
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima said last February that Boko Haram was "better armed and better motivated" than government forces, a statement rejected by the military.
Borno in the northeast has been under a state of emergency, along with neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa states since May last year.
The Islamist rebels seized 276 girls from a secondary school in the Borno town of Chibok more than three months ago, triggering global outrage. Fifty-seven of them escaped while 219 others are still missing.
AFP
Related stories: Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
In separate letters to both houses of the national assembly, Jonathan said there is an "urgent need" to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of the armed forces and security services help them "confront this serious threat".
Citing the "ongoing and serious security challenges which the nation is facing, as typified by the Boko Haram terrorist threat," Jonathan said he is seeking to borrow up to $1 billion.
No date has been set yet for a debate on the president's request and there is no indication of where Nigeria could borrow from.
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima said last February that Boko Haram was "better armed and better motivated" than government forces, a statement rejected by the military.
Borno in the northeast has been under a state of emergency, along with neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa states since May last year.
The Islamist rebels seized 276 girls from a secondary school in the Borno town of Chibok more than three months ago, triggering global outrage. Fifty-seven of them escaped while 219 others are still missing.
AFP
Related stories: Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Nigeria FIFA rankings improve to 34th after 2014 World Cup
The Super Eagles have risen up ten places in the latest global rankings released on Thursday following their second round finish in Brazil
Nigeria rose up ten spots to 34th place in the Fifa rankings released on Thursday, courtesy of the Super Eagles' second round finish at the World Cup in Brazil.
The Eagles are now the third-ranked African side behind Algeria and Cote d'Ivoire who finished in the 24th and 25th positions.
World champions Germany (1) climbed to the top of the pile after defeating Argentina (2) in the showpiece final on July 13. The South Americans are now in second place.
The Netherlands who won bronze at the World Cup rose twelve places to finish 3rd on the rankings as Colombia were also rewarded with a 4th position.
Belgium (5) and Uruguay (6) follow but hosts Brazil dropped four places to finish 7th after a disastrous end to their campaign saw them concede 10 times in two matches.
Former world champions Spain fell from first place to 8th spot as they crashed out in the group stage. Switzerland dropped three places to finish 9th while France climbed up seven places to the 10th spot.
England dropped ten places to finish in 20th place after their first round elimination.
In Africa, Ghana dropped one place to finish in 38th place and fifth in Africa with Egypt holding onto the 36th spot and fourth in the region.
Cameroon moved up three places to 53rd depsite losing all three matches at the World Cup. They are now the eighth highest-ranked African side behind Tunisia (42) and Guinea (51) while Burkina Faso (58) and Mali (60) round up the top ten.
Goal
Related stories: Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger gives opinion on why Nigeria under achieved in the 2014 FIFA World Cup
FIFA suspends Nigeria from all international football
Nigeria rose up ten spots to 34th place in the Fifa rankings released on Thursday, courtesy of the Super Eagles' second round finish at the World Cup in Brazil.
The Eagles are now the third-ranked African side behind Algeria and Cote d'Ivoire who finished in the 24th and 25th positions.
World champions Germany (1) climbed to the top of the pile after defeating Argentina (2) in the showpiece final on July 13. The South Americans are now in second place.
The Netherlands who won bronze at the World Cup rose twelve places to finish 3rd on the rankings as Colombia were also rewarded with a 4th position.
Belgium (5) and Uruguay (6) follow but hosts Brazil dropped four places to finish 7th after a disastrous end to their campaign saw them concede 10 times in two matches.
Former world champions Spain fell from first place to 8th spot as they crashed out in the group stage. Switzerland dropped three places to finish 9th while France climbed up seven places to the 10th spot.
England dropped ten places to finish in 20th place after their first round elimination.
In Africa, Ghana dropped one place to finish in 38th place and fifth in Africa with Egypt holding onto the 36th spot and fourth in the region.
Cameroon moved up three places to 53rd depsite losing all three matches at the World Cup. They are now the eighth highest-ranked African side behind Tunisia (42) and Guinea (51) while Burkina Faso (58) and Mali (60) round up the top ten.
Goal
Related stories: Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger gives opinion on why Nigeria under achieved in the 2014 FIFA World Cup
FIFA suspends Nigeria from all international football
German kidnapped in Nigeria
Gunmen kidnapped a German national on Wednesday in the northeast Nigerian town of Gombi, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
Gombi is close to an area that has been plagued by Islamist Boko Haram insurgents for the past year.
The German foreign ministry said it knew about the case but
gave no details. Nigerian police had no comment and
officials at the German embassy in Nigeria could not immediately be reached.
Deutsche Welle, quoting a witness, said the attackers forced the man out of his a car at around 7 a.m., then took him away on one of their motorbikes. He had been teaching at a technical college, the broadcaster reported, without naming him.
The town in the northern part of Adamawa state lies in an area which suffers periodic attacks by the militants, who are based in the Sambisa forest 200 km (125 miles) to the north. Adamawa, along the Cameroon border, has been under a state of emergency since May last year.
Though it was not clear who was behind the abduction, Boko Haram or criminal groups linked to them primarily fund their operations from kidnapping, security officials say, targeting local business people, politicians and sometimes Europeans.
They claimed the kidnapping of a French family in January 2013, and a French priest in November that year. Two Italian Priest and Canadian nun were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram gunmen in April this year.
Nobody admitted paying any ransoms, although security sources suspect all fetched multi-million dollar prices.
West African nations are increasingly concerned that Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in a fight to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria, poses a threat to the entire region.
Boko Haram, whose name means 'Western education is sinful' in the Hausa language, stirred an international outcry by kidnapping more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in northern Nigeria on April 14. The girls remain in captivity.
Reuters
Related story: Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Gombi is close to an area that has been plagued by Islamist Boko Haram insurgents for the past year.
The German foreign ministry said it knew about the case but
gave no details. Nigerian police had no comment and
officials at the German embassy in Nigeria could not immediately be reached.
Deutsche Welle, quoting a witness, said the attackers forced the man out of his a car at around 7 a.m., then took him away on one of their motorbikes. He had been teaching at a technical college, the broadcaster reported, without naming him.
The town in the northern part of Adamawa state lies in an area which suffers periodic attacks by the militants, who are based in the Sambisa forest 200 km (125 miles) to the north. Adamawa, along the Cameroon border, has been under a state of emergency since May last year.
Though it was not clear who was behind the abduction, Boko Haram or criminal groups linked to them primarily fund their operations from kidnapping, security officials say, targeting local business people, politicians and sometimes Europeans.
They claimed the kidnapping of a French family in January 2013, and a French priest in November that year. Two Italian Priest and Canadian nun were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram gunmen in April this year.
Nobody admitted paying any ransoms, although security sources suspect all fetched multi-million dollar prices.
West African nations are increasingly concerned that Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in a fight to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria, poses a threat to the entire region.
Boko Haram, whose name means 'Western education is sinful' in the Hausa language, stirred an international outcry by kidnapping more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in northern Nigeria on April 14. The girls remain in captivity.
Reuters
Related story: Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
FIFA gives Nigeria new deadline to reinstate NFF board
Nigeria have been given a 17 July deadline to reinstate the sacked board of the Nigeria Football Federation after Fifa extended it by two days.
Fifa last week suspended Nigeria from all international football because of alleged government interference.
But the government insists the removal of the NFF board from office was a ruling from a state high court.
It says a new court hearing is required but a judiciary workers' strike this week has led to it being delayed.
As things stand, Nigeria face exclusion from the Under-20 Women's World Cup that starts in August in Canada and there is also a threat to the men's under-17 side's participation in an African Championship qualifier this weekend.
On Monday, BBC Sport learned the inability of a regional court to hear the case against the NFF was stalling efforts to have it withdrawn or quashed.
"It's a frustrating scenario because of the ongoing strike," said a Nigerian official who preferred not to be named.
"There was no court sitting on the original date of hearing [11 July] which has stalled efforts."
The Nigeria sports minister is also waiting for a brief from a delegation headed by ex-Fifa executive committee member Amos Adamu that travelled to Brazil to explain the situation of things in the country's football to Fifa.
"The minister is waiting for feedback from the delegation to Brazil. He needs that before approaching the president who is also waiting for a brief and update," the official added.
The NFF was dissolved last week and replaced by a sole administrator - a move the government said was essential while legal proceedings against the country's football authority were ongoing.
But Fifa, which prohibits government intervention in football, suspended the country and originally set a 15 July deadline for elected officials to be reinstated and for the court case to be quashed.
African champions Nigeria reached the second round of the World Cup in Brazil for only the third time in their history, after they also did so in 1994 and 1998.
The West Africans are expected to defend their African Cup of Nations title when qualifying matches start in September. The tournament kicks off next January in Morocco.
BBC
Related story: FIFA suspends Nigeria from all international football
Fifa last week suspended Nigeria from all international football because of alleged government interference.
But the government insists the removal of the NFF board from office was a ruling from a state high court.
It says a new court hearing is required but a judiciary workers' strike this week has led to it being delayed.
As things stand, Nigeria face exclusion from the Under-20 Women's World Cup that starts in August in Canada and there is also a threat to the men's under-17 side's participation in an African Championship qualifier this weekend.
On Monday, BBC Sport learned the inability of a regional court to hear the case against the NFF was stalling efforts to have it withdrawn or quashed.
"It's a frustrating scenario because of the ongoing strike," said a Nigerian official who preferred not to be named.
"There was no court sitting on the original date of hearing [11 July] which has stalled efforts."
The Nigeria sports minister is also waiting for a brief from a delegation headed by ex-Fifa executive committee member Amos Adamu that travelled to Brazil to explain the situation of things in the country's football to Fifa.
"The minister is waiting for feedback from the delegation to Brazil. He needs that before approaching the president who is also waiting for a brief and update," the official added.
The NFF was dissolved last week and replaced by a sole administrator - a move the government said was essential while legal proceedings against the country's football authority were ongoing.
But Fifa, which prohibits government intervention in football, suspended the country and originally set a 15 July deadline for elected officials to be reinstated and for the court case to be quashed.
African champions Nigeria reached the second round of the World Cup in Brazil for only the third time in their history, after they also did so in 1994 and 1998.
The West Africans are expected to defend their African Cup of Nations title when qualifying matches start in September. The tournament kicks off next January in Morocco.
BBC
Related story: FIFA suspends Nigeria from all international football
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Death toll of civilians killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria this year reach 2,053
The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram killed at least 2,053 civilians in the first six months of this year in an increasing number of attacks that may constitute crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said.
Boko Haram carried out 95 attacks that included bombings on more than 70 towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria, New York-based Human Rights Watch said today in a statement. The figures were based on analysis of media reports and field investigations, it said.
“Boko Haram is effectively waging war on the people of northeastern Nigeria at a staggering human cost,” Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in the statement. “Atrocities committed as part of a widespread attack on civilians are crimes against humanity, for which those responsible need to be held to account.”
Boko Haram has been fighting since 2009 to impose Islamic law on Africa’s biggest oil producer. In April, it kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in the northeastern state of Borno. Boko Haram detonated at least three bombs this year in the capital, Abuja, killing more than 100 people, and claimed responsibility for a June explosion in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub.
“There has been a dramatic increase during 2014 in the numbers of casualties from bomb blasts, including several apparent suicide bombings,” Human Rights Watch said.
Intensifying Attacks
President Goodluck Jonathan imposed emergency rule last year in the three northeastern states where the group is most active.
“The pace of attacks has dramatically intensified in remote villages since May 2013, when the federal government imposed a state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe,” Human Rights Watch said. The death toll in Borno state alone reached 1,446 people, it said.
Human Rights Watch did not give a comparative death toll for 2013. In May, Bath, U.K.-based risk analysis company Maplecroft said the number of people who died in “terrorist attacks” in Nigeria almost doubled to 3,058 in the 12 months to May 19 this year, from the previous 12-month period.
Jonathan canceled what was to be his first-ever meeting with parents of girls kidnapped from Chibok and five young women who escaped from the militants, his spokesman, Doyin Okupe, said in an e-mailed statement.
Yesterday he held talks with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban gun attack two years ago to become a global advocate for girls’ education.
Police arrested a man suspected to be a senior member of Boko Haram in Bauchi state on July 12, spokesman Frank Mba said today.
Bloomberg
Related stories: Boko Haram claim bomb blast in Lagos, Nigeria
Video - Bomb blast in the capital Abuja, Nigeria - At least 21 confirmed dead
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Boko Haram carried out 95 attacks that included bombings on more than 70 towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria, New York-based Human Rights Watch said today in a statement. The figures were based on analysis of media reports and field investigations, it said.
“Boko Haram is effectively waging war on the people of northeastern Nigeria at a staggering human cost,” Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in the statement. “Atrocities committed as part of a widespread attack on civilians are crimes against humanity, for which those responsible need to be held to account.”
Boko Haram has been fighting since 2009 to impose Islamic law on Africa’s biggest oil producer. In April, it kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in the northeastern state of Borno. Boko Haram detonated at least three bombs this year in the capital, Abuja, killing more than 100 people, and claimed responsibility for a June explosion in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub.
“There has been a dramatic increase during 2014 in the numbers of casualties from bomb blasts, including several apparent suicide bombings,” Human Rights Watch said.
Intensifying Attacks
President Goodluck Jonathan imposed emergency rule last year in the three northeastern states where the group is most active.
“The pace of attacks has dramatically intensified in remote villages since May 2013, when the federal government imposed a state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe,” Human Rights Watch said. The death toll in Borno state alone reached 1,446 people, it said.
Human Rights Watch did not give a comparative death toll for 2013. In May, Bath, U.K.-based risk analysis company Maplecroft said the number of people who died in “terrorist attacks” in Nigeria almost doubled to 3,058 in the 12 months to May 19 this year, from the previous 12-month period.
Jonathan canceled what was to be his first-ever meeting with parents of girls kidnapped from Chibok and five young women who escaped from the militants, his spokesman, Doyin Okupe, said in an e-mailed statement.
Yesterday he held talks with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban gun attack two years ago to become a global advocate for girls’ education.
Police arrested a man suspected to be a senior member of Boko Haram in Bauchi state on July 12, spokesman Frank Mba said today.
Bloomberg
Related stories: Boko Haram claim bomb blast in Lagos, Nigeria
Video - Bomb blast in the capital Abuja, Nigeria - At least 21 confirmed dead
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls refuse to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan
Parents and schoolmates of the 219 schoolgirls held captive by Boko Haram extremists refused at the last minute Tuesday to meet with Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, who accused activists of "playing politics."
"It now appears that our fight to get the girls of Chibok back is not only a fight against a terrorist insurgency, but also against a political opposition," Jonathan said in a statement.
The mass abduction April 15, exactly three months ago, has been plagued by politics from the start. First lady Patience Jonathan charged the kidnappings never occurred and were being fabricated by her husband's enemies to damage his image.
She also had two leading activists briefly arrested, and relations between the government, security forces and the #BringBackOurGirls movement have been tense ever since.
At one point in May when the activists tried to stage a peaceful march to present their demands to Jonathan, they were blocked by soldiers and police.
On Tuesday, security agents locked the doors to the National Assembly, preventing the campaigners from attending a scheduled meeting with the Senate president, said Rotimi Olawale, a spokeswoman for the campaign.
It seems the campaigners then persuaded the parents and girls not to meet with the president, who has faced international condemnation for his slow response to mount a campaign to rescue the girls.
"My priority is not politics. My priority is the return of these girls," Jonathan's statement said. He accused the Nigerian chapter of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign of "psychological terrorism ... playing politics with the situation and the grief of the parents and the girls. They should be ashamed of their actions."
Jonathan has never met with the parents or the escaped girls, though they have been asking to meet with him for weeks. In May, he cancelled without explanation a trip to Chibok, the remote northeast town where the girls were kidnapped.
Politics probably played a part in that cancellation since Chibok is in the northeastern state of Borno, which is governed by an opposition politician very critical of Jonathan.
On Monday, Nigeria's leader promised Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai that he would meet the parents. Malala said that was the parents' wish, that they wanted the support of their president.
"I want to be clear, this government stands with complete solidarity with the girls and their parents.
We are doing everything in our power to bring back our girls," he said Tuesday after the meeting was cancelled. "As a father of girls, I stand ready to meet with the parents of our abducted children and the truly brave girls that have escaped this nightmare through the grace of God."
CTV
Related stories: Malala Yousafzai travels to Nigeria to plea for the release of kidnapped schoolgirls
Leader of protest of government inaction to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls detained
"It now appears that our fight to get the girls of Chibok back is not only a fight against a terrorist insurgency, but also against a political opposition," Jonathan said in a statement.
The mass abduction April 15, exactly three months ago, has been plagued by politics from the start. First lady Patience Jonathan charged the kidnappings never occurred and were being fabricated by her husband's enemies to damage his image.
She also had two leading activists briefly arrested, and relations between the government, security forces and the #BringBackOurGirls movement have been tense ever since.
At one point in May when the activists tried to stage a peaceful march to present their demands to Jonathan, they were blocked by soldiers and police.
On Tuesday, security agents locked the doors to the National Assembly, preventing the campaigners from attending a scheduled meeting with the Senate president, said Rotimi Olawale, a spokeswoman for the campaign.
It seems the campaigners then persuaded the parents and girls not to meet with the president, who has faced international condemnation for his slow response to mount a campaign to rescue the girls.
"My priority is not politics. My priority is the return of these girls," Jonathan's statement said. He accused the Nigerian chapter of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign of "psychological terrorism ... playing politics with the situation and the grief of the parents and the girls. They should be ashamed of their actions."
Jonathan has never met with the parents or the escaped girls, though they have been asking to meet with him for weeks. In May, he cancelled without explanation a trip to Chibok, the remote northeast town where the girls were kidnapped.
Politics probably played a part in that cancellation since Chibok is in the northeastern state of Borno, which is governed by an opposition politician very critical of Jonathan.
On Monday, Nigeria's leader promised Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai that he would meet the parents. Malala said that was the parents' wish, that they wanted the support of their president.
"I want to be clear, this government stands with complete solidarity with the girls and their parents.
We are doing everything in our power to bring back our girls," he said Tuesday after the meeting was cancelled. "As a father of girls, I stand ready to meet with the parents of our abducted children and the truly brave girls that have escaped this nightmare through the grace of God."
CTV
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