The United Nations launched an appeal on Thursday for $174 million in what it called "life-saving aid" for almost 200,000 Nigerians who have fled the country due to brutal attacks by Boko Haram jihadists.
The insurgents, who are seeking to create an Islamic state in the country's predominantly Muslim north, have killed up to 15,000 people since 2009, according to the UN.
"Displaced people in north-eastern Nigeria and across borders are in a very dramatic situation," Liz Ahua, west Africa representative for the UNHCR, the organisation's refugee agency, said.
"They continue to fear for their lives, and are at this point unable to return to their homes."
Some 192,000 people have fled over Nigeria's borders into Cameroon, Chad and Niger seeking refuge from relentless violence, according to the UNHCR.
*Displaced children scrambling for food at an IDPs camp in Maiduguri... How safe are they?
A further 1.2 million have been displaced within Nigeria as a direct result of the bloodshed, the agency said at the launch of the Nigeria Inter-Agency Regional Refugee Response Plan.
Staff and volunteers in 23 aid organisations and UN agencies say they are struggling to provide shelter, food, education and sanitation for the refugees.
Robert Piper, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel region, said more than 7,300 civilians had been killed since the start of 2014 in the three states of the northeast, including 1,000 already this year.
"Gross violations of human rights, including sexual violence and child trafficking, are frequently reported. Education and health infrastructure has been decimated.
"The majority of victims have found makeshift shelters in schools, with their neighbours and relatives... They have lost everything -- their homes, their livelihoods, their families."
The UNHCR showed a video of refugees in Minawao camp, Cameroon, featuring a boy called Ibrahim, whose village in Nigeria's Borno state was over-run by dozens of heavily-armed Boko Haram fighters.
The 10-year-old recounts watching in terror as the Islamists cut his father's throat before turning on him with a machete and burying him alive.
"When I heard the gunshots I was afraid and my father told me to run. When they saw us, they shot him and he fell down," says Ibrahim.
"They killed my father. I was crying, and they brought out their machetes and cut me on the head."
Assuming he was dead, the insurgents threw Ibrahim into a pit which they filled with sand. He remained buried for two days, petrified but able to breathe, before he was rescued by his 13-year-old sister.
Largely peaceful presidential elections on March 28 saw Goodluck Jonathan lose to challenger Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria's first ever democratic transfer of power.
But security fears remain high ahead of this weekend's regional elections.
Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon last month launched an unprecedented joint campaign against Boko Haram after the militants widened their offensive with attacks in the neighbouring countries.
Chadian President Idriss Deby vowed on Wednesday to "wipe out" the organisation and called on its commander Abubakar Shekau to give himself up, warning that he knew where the militant leader was hiding.
The UN is in talks to set up a multi-national force with African Union backing to defeat Boko Haram, which is estimated to have around 20,000 fighters.
"It is clearly going to be a mission with a strong anti-terror mandate. It will have an aggressive mandate (and) rules of engagement to combat Boko Haram," Piper told reporters.
He said his office was pressing the Security Council to take "every possible precaution to minimise the impact of its operation on civilians".
He added that he was urging the council to keep the combat force separate from other activities to protect the integrity and impartiality of the humanitarian mission.
Vanguard
Friday, April 10, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Video - Nigerian gets accepted to all 8 Ivy league Universities he applied to
Nigerian Harold Ekeh in the U.S. has shocked many after he got accepted by all Universities he applied to. The boy got acceptance letters from all thirteen universities of choice which include eight Ivy League schools.
Fortune magazine lists Okonjo-Iweala in top 50 greatest world leaders
Occupying the 33rd spot on the list, the minister was recognised alongside the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf; Catholic Pontiac, Pope Francis; Chinese President Xi Jinping; Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi; Bill and Melinda Gates as well as Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerburg and Apple Chief Executive Officer, Tom Cook.
In the latest edition of the magazine, the minister was described as “a fearless promoter of sound economic policies”, and was also singled out for working hard to usher in a decade in which Nigeria’s GDP trippled.
Fortune Magazine’s annual list celebrates men and women who are transforming lives in all spheres, including government, business and philanthropy.
In compiling the 2015 list, the magazine explained that it gathered advice from more than 24 of the world’s best minds. The leaders were judged by their actions within their professional domain, industries or governance.
“To make this roster, it was not enough to be brilliant, admirable or even supremely powerful. We set out to find singular leaders with vision who moved others to act as well, and who brought their followers with them on a shared quest.
“We looked for effectiveness and commitment and for the courage to pioneer,” the magazine said.
Okonjo-Iweala graduated from Harvard in 1976 and holds a Ph.D in Development Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – 1981.
As two-time Finance Minister of Nigeria, she has helped to lay a solid foundation for the Nigerian economy, which is currently the biggest in Africa at $510 billion.
This Day
Related story: Okonjo-Iweala is Africa's finance minister of the year
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
People's Democratic Party promises to cooperate with the president elect Muhammadu Buhari
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) said it would cooperate with the in-coming All Progressives Congress (APC) government for improved development of the country.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that PDP would be an opposition that would offer alternative programmes and ideas to the new government and would not be involved in abuses.
"We promise that in the course of this, we will work with the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to move the country forward as a nation.
"We will cooperate with him in terms of promoting the values of our country and progress all indices for national growth and foster national unity and the development of the country and its democracy.
"We will not engage in any activity that will destabilise the nation or the polity or distract the President-elect from offering Nigerians good leadership," Metuh assured.
He said that the party was adopting the position because the interest of Nigeria was more important than that of a political party or any individual.
The PDP spokesman, however, said that being in opposition was not being out of power, adding that the party would return to power in 2019.
He stressed that while in the opposition, PDP would conduct its affairs with all decency, maturity, civility and the forthrightness it could muster.
He said that the PDP would be the ideal opposition it had always wanted the APC to be, stressing that with cooperation, the two parties would salvage the country`s democracy.
He stated that the legacy of the PDP in its 16 years in government was the sustenance of democracy, which, he said the party would do everything to sustain.
According to Metuh, in spite of some irregularities in the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections, the PDP will do everything to ensure that the President-elect succeeds in office.
This, he explained, was because of the party’s belief in the sustenance of the country's democracy.
He, however, hinted that the party would not condone any form of intimidation of its key officials and appointees by the APC or any plan to destabilise it.
He disclosed that the party was in the process of rebuilding its fold "on justice, fairness and equity to enable it return to government".
On the impeachment notice served on Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, Metuh said that though the PDP was worried by the development, it would not interfere in the matter.
"We will not interfere with the duties of the legislature under the Constitution, but we believe that our governor will respond accordingly once the legislators follow due process," he said.
News24Nigeria
The party’s National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that PDP would be an opposition that would offer alternative programmes and ideas to the new government and would not be involved in abuses.
"We promise that in the course of this, we will work with the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to move the country forward as a nation.
"We will cooperate with him in terms of promoting the values of our country and progress all indices for national growth and foster national unity and the development of the country and its democracy.
"We will not engage in any activity that will destabilise the nation or the polity or distract the President-elect from offering Nigerians good leadership," Metuh assured.
He said that the party was adopting the position because the interest of Nigeria was more important than that of a political party or any individual.
The PDP spokesman, however, said that being in opposition was not being out of power, adding that the party would return to power in 2019.
He stressed that while in the opposition, PDP would conduct its affairs with all decency, maturity, civility and the forthrightness it could muster.
He said that the PDP would be the ideal opposition it had always wanted the APC to be, stressing that with cooperation, the two parties would salvage the country`s democracy.
He stated that the legacy of the PDP in its 16 years in government was the sustenance of democracy, which, he said the party would do everything to sustain.
According to Metuh, in spite of some irregularities in the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections, the PDP will do everything to ensure that the President-elect succeeds in office.
This, he explained, was because of the party’s belief in the sustenance of the country's democracy.
He, however, hinted that the party would not condone any form of intimidation of its key officials and appointees by the APC or any plan to destabilise it.
He disclosed that the party was in the process of rebuilding its fold "on justice, fairness and equity to enable it return to government".
On the impeachment notice served on Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state, Metuh said that though the PDP was worried by the development, it would not interfere in the matter.
"We will not interfere with the duties of the legislature under the Constitution, but we believe that our governor will respond accordingly once the legislators follow due process," he said.
News24Nigeria
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Report says that the 200 kidnapped schoolgirs taken by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria may possibly be dead
An official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr. Raad Zeid al Hussein, believes that the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram a year ago may have had a sad ending.
He premised his verdict on the fact that the girls may have been part of the women who were murdered by the insurgents before they fled from Bama and other towns in Borno State just before the Nigerian military and allied forces from Chad and Niger recovered the territories.
Scores of abducted women who had been forcibly married by Boko Haram fighters were slaughtered last month as the military advanced towards Bama and other towns to recapture the territories.
Eyewitnesses said that the women were killed by the insurgents to prevent them from getting remarried to what they termed “infidels” after their release.
Aligning with the report on the murder of scores of women, Al Hussein said last week that Boko Haram murdered people who were captives, including women and girls who were taken as “wives” in their flight against the advancing forces.
According to the senior official with the UNHCR, various reports which arrived at his department in Geneva showed that the recent recovery of territories in northeastern Nigeria “has brought to light macabre scenes of mass graves and more obvious signs of killings by Boko Haram”.
These reports include the “...murder of the wives of combatants, women and girls actually held in slavery,” he said without elaborating.
The use of children by Boko Haram as “expendable cannon meat” and human bombs could, if confirmed, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, the official added.
Al Hussein also said there are “persistent and credible reports” of serious violations by the Nigerian security forces and other countries in their fight against Boko Haram, and called for “complete and fully transparent investigations” by the authorities.
The report by UNHRC may explain the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the Chibok girls despite the recapture of Gwoza, the de facto headquarters of the terrorists’ caliphate, as well as the disappearance of the sect’s leader Abubakar Shekau.
Military sources, who spoke to THISDAY at the weekend in Maiduguri, said neither the girls nor Shekau had been sighted since the liberation of Gwoza, which was the epicentre of the sect’s operations.
The Nigerian military on the eve of the presidential and National Assembly elections had announced the recapture of the strategic town but was silent on the abducted Chibok girls and seemingly elusive Shekau.
The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, had in a joint press conference with the spokespersons of the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force, confirmed the recapture of the former terrorist stronghold.
Many were however disappointed to find out that contrary to expectations before the liberation of Gwoza, there was no mention of the girls or Shekau who is believed to be on the run.
Military sources, who spoke to THISDAY, said the mystery surrounding the Chibok girls was yet to be unraveled.
However, the strongest lead now is that the girls might have been amongst the unfortunate women who were slaughtered and dumped inside wells in Bama.
“As for Shekau, you are aware that the man suspected to have been killed or fatally wounded two years ago and his double was confirmed killed a year later, and this current impostor is yet to be fully unmasked.
“Unfortunately, on the Chibok girls, there is a strong lead that they might be among the women who were slaughtered by the fleeing terrorists and dumped into those wells in Bama.
“Remember the girls were said to have been forcibly converted to Islam and married off as trophies to those terrorists. We have a strong suspicion that they are part of those women butchered in Bama and other parts of the territories, which were under their captivity.
“Also, some of these terrorists are currently retreating to the border towns and some have successfully mingled into various towns and villages,” the source said.
Another senior military officer also informed THISDAY that while the troops had freed some women from Gwoza and other surrounding towns, they could not however ascertain if any of the Chibok girls were among them.
He said interrogations were ongoing, as there were other women who were released from the towns recaptured from the Boko Haram terrorists other than the Chibok girls.
He also explained that it is proving difficult to ascertain if the women massacred and dumped in the wells were actually the Chibok girls because the bodies were in various states of decomposition by the time they were discovered.
“Even other communities whose women and girls were kidnapped are not comfortable with the attention being given to the Chibok girls, while leaving their cases in the dark,” he said.
Last week, the Nigerian military confirmed the rescue of a large number of vulnerable women and elderly locked up by the retreating Boko Haram terrorists in the liberated town of Gwoza.
Similarly, THISDAY learnt that sustained aerial surveillance of Gwoza and other liberated areas, as well as intensive mop-up operations to clear out the remnants of Boko Haram insurgents was ongoing.
On Sunday, there were several aerial operations in support of the ground troops to consolidate the liberated towns and villages.
In this regard, Sambisa forest which straddles four liberated local government areas of Bama, Mongonu, Konduga and Gwoza, was being bombarded from the air to knock out any terrorist camp and installations.
“What I can tell you is that there is very little presence of the terrorists in those areas but we have intensified the bombardments,” a military source revealed.
Despite the bombardment of Sambisa forest, at least four people were killed Saturday when suspected Boko Haram fighters raided a local market in a village near Maiduguri, security sources said.
Scores of Boko Haram gunmen stormed Kayamla village, 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) from Maiduguri, capital of restive Borno State, and opened fire on a weekly market, killing four traders, a senior security official in Maiduguri told AFP.
“It was obvious they were looking for food to replenish their supplies because they didn't target residents as they normally would,” the official said.
The attack on the village was the sixth in as many months, according to vigilantes in the area.
Troops and vigilantes mobilised from the nearby town of Konduga to the village but the attackers left before the troops arrived, said Abubakar Sani, who was among the vigilantes that accompanied troops to the village.
“When we reached Kayamla the gunmen had left,” Sani said.
“We found four dead traders in the deserted market and we were told by residents that the attackers took away food supplies and livestock,” he said.
This was the first Boko Haram raid in a few days, although an explosion outside a bus station in Gombe State on Thursday that killed 10 people was blamed on the Islamists.
Sweeping offensives against the Islamists by a regional coalition involving troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroun appear to have substantially weakened Boko Haram’s capabilities.
Meanwhile, leaders of Central and West African states will hold a summit on April 8 to try to draw up a joint strategy against the threat posed by Boko Haram, a statement from the organisers said on Sunday.
It will be the first meeting of its kind since Nigeria’s election a week ago which was won by Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader who has vowed to rid his country of the “terror” of Boko Haram.
The meeting in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea, is being jointly organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
“In the face of the mounting and increasingly bloody attacks by the fundamentalists against Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun and Chad and the serious consequences for these countries, and the real risk of destabilising Western and Central Africa, the two organisations have decided to take action,” the ECOWAS statement said.
It was not immediately clear if Buhari would be attending, as he will not be sworn in as president to succeed incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan until May 29.
This Day
He premised his verdict on the fact that the girls may have been part of the women who were murdered by the insurgents before they fled from Bama and other towns in Borno State just before the Nigerian military and allied forces from Chad and Niger recovered the territories.
Scores of abducted women who had been forcibly married by Boko Haram fighters were slaughtered last month as the military advanced towards Bama and other towns to recapture the territories.
Eyewitnesses said that the women were killed by the insurgents to prevent them from getting remarried to what they termed “infidels” after their release.
Aligning with the report on the murder of scores of women, Al Hussein said last week that Boko Haram murdered people who were captives, including women and girls who were taken as “wives” in their flight against the advancing forces.
According to the senior official with the UNHCR, various reports which arrived at his department in Geneva showed that the recent recovery of territories in northeastern Nigeria “has brought to light macabre scenes of mass graves and more obvious signs of killings by Boko Haram”.
These reports include the “...murder of the wives of combatants, women and girls actually held in slavery,” he said without elaborating.
The use of children by Boko Haram as “expendable cannon meat” and human bombs could, if confirmed, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, the official added.
Al Hussein also said there are “persistent and credible reports” of serious violations by the Nigerian security forces and other countries in their fight against Boko Haram, and called for “complete and fully transparent investigations” by the authorities.
The report by UNHRC may explain the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the Chibok girls despite the recapture of Gwoza, the de facto headquarters of the terrorists’ caliphate, as well as the disappearance of the sect’s leader Abubakar Shekau.
Military sources, who spoke to THISDAY at the weekend in Maiduguri, said neither the girls nor Shekau had been sighted since the liberation of Gwoza, which was the epicentre of the sect’s operations.
The Nigerian military on the eve of the presidential and National Assembly elections had announced the recapture of the strategic town but was silent on the abducted Chibok girls and seemingly elusive Shekau.
The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, had in a joint press conference with the spokespersons of the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air Force, confirmed the recapture of the former terrorist stronghold.
Many were however disappointed to find out that contrary to expectations before the liberation of Gwoza, there was no mention of the girls or Shekau who is believed to be on the run.
Military sources, who spoke to THISDAY, said the mystery surrounding the Chibok girls was yet to be unraveled.
However, the strongest lead now is that the girls might have been amongst the unfortunate women who were slaughtered and dumped inside wells in Bama.
“As for Shekau, you are aware that the man suspected to have been killed or fatally wounded two years ago and his double was confirmed killed a year later, and this current impostor is yet to be fully unmasked.
“Unfortunately, on the Chibok girls, there is a strong lead that they might be among the women who were slaughtered by the fleeing terrorists and dumped into those wells in Bama.
“Remember the girls were said to have been forcibly converted to Islam and married off as trophies to those terrorists. We have a strong suspicion that they are part of those women butchered in Bama and other parts of the territories, which were under their captivity.
“Also, some of these terrorists are currently retreating to the border towns and some have successfully mingled into various towns and villages,” the source said.
Another senior military officer also informed THISDAY that while the troops had freed some women from Gwoza and other surrounding towns, they could not however ascertain if any of the Chibok girls were among them.
He said interrogations were ongoing, as there were other women who were released from the towns recaptured from the Boko Haram terrorists other than the Chibok girls.
He also explained that it is proving difficult to ascertain if the women massacred and dumped in the wells were actually the Chibok girls because the bodies were in various states of decomposition by the time they were discovered.
“Even other communities whose women and girls were kidnapped are not comfortable with the attention being given to the Chibok girls, while leaving their cases in the dark,” he said.
Last week, the Nigerian military confirmed the rescue of a large number of vulnerable women and elderly locked up by the retreating Boko Haram terrorists in the liberated town of Gwoza.
Similarly, THISDAY learnt that sustained aerial surveillance of Gwoza and other liberated areas, as well as intensive mop-up operations to clear out the remnants of Boko Haram insurgents was ongoing.
On Sunday, there were several aerial operations in support of the ground troops to consolidate the liberated towns and villages.
In this regard, Sambisa forest which straddles four liberated local government areas of Bama, Mongonu, Konduga and Gwoza, was being bombarded from the air to knock out any terrorist camp and installations.
“What I can tell you is that there is very little presence of the terrorists in those areas but we have intensified the bombardments,” a military source revealed.
Despite the bombardment of Sambisa forest, at least four people were killed Saturday when suspected Boko Haram fighters raided a local market in a village near Maiduguri, security sources said.
Scores of Boko Haram gunmen stormed Kayamla village, 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) from Maiduguri, capital of restive Borno State, and opened fire on a weekly market, killing four traders, a senior security official in Maiduguri told AFP.
“It was obvious they were looking for food to replenish their supplies because they didn't target residents as they normally would,” the official said.
The attack on the village was the sixth in as many months, according to vigilantes in the area.
Troops and vigilantes mobilised from the nearby town of Konduga to the village but the attackers left before the troops arrived, said Abubakar Sani, who was among the vigilantes that accompanied troops to the village.
“When we reached Kayamla the gunmen had left,” Sani said.
“We found four dead traders in the deserted market and we were told by residents that the attackers took away food supplies and livestock,” he said.
This was the first Boko Haram raid in a few days, although an explosion outside a bus station in Gombe State on Thursday that killed 10 people was blamed on the Islamists.
Sweeping offensives against the Islamists by a regional coalition involving troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroun appear to have substantially weakened Boko Haram’s capabilities.
Meanwhile, leaders of Central and West African states will hold a summit on April 8 to try to draw up a joint strategy against the threat posed by Boko Haram, a statement from the organisers said on Sunday.
It will be the first meeting of its kind since Nigeria’s election a week ago which was won by Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader who has vowed to rid his country of the “terror” of Boko Haram.
The meeting in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea, is being jointly organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
“In the face of the mounting and increasingly bloody attacks by the fundamentalists against Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun and Chad and the serious consequences for these countries, and the real risk of destabilising Western and Central Africa, the two organisations have decided to take action,” the ECOWAS statement said.
It was not immediately clear if Buhari would be attending, as he will not be sworn in as president to succeed incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan until May 29.
This Day
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