Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Video - Nigeria dismisses UN warning about looming famine
The Nigerian government has dismissed the warning from the United Nations that famine is looming. The country's agriculture minister says the UN is exaggerating, and that no one is facing starvation.
Nigeria warns citizens not to travel to USA
The United States are looking less and less welcoming to would-be visitors.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is advising its citizens against traveling to the US, except on urgent trips. The move is in response to reported difficulties that Nigerians have faced gaining entry into the US, despite holding valid visas.
During a business trip on March 2, Nigerian software engineer Celestine Omin was detained despite holding a valid visa. Before granting him entry, officials at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport forced Omin to answer generic engineering questions to prove his profession.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, a presidential aide on foreign affairs and diaspora, appears to blame such incidents on confusion over US president Donald Trump’s recent failed executive order, which banned visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries. On March 6, Dabiri-Erewa advised prospective visitors to the US to “consider rescheduling their trip until there is clarity on the new immigration policy.”
“In the last few weeks, the office has received a few cases of Nigerians with valid multiple-entry US visas being denied entry and sent back to the Nigeria.”
“In such cases reported to the office, such affected persons were sent back immediately on the next available flight and their visas were cancelled.”
Trump’s travel ban was revised and re-issued today, March 6. Neither version mentioned Nigeria.
Nigerians are a major source of visitors to the US. They accounted for 32% of the nearly half million nonimmigrant US visas issued to African nationals in 2015.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is advising its citizens against traveling to the US, except on urgent trips. The move is in response to reported difficulties that Nigerians have faced gaining entry into the US, despite holding valid visas.
During a business trip on March 2, Nigerian software engineer Celestine Omin was detained despite holding a valid visa. Before granting him entry, officials at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport forced Omin to answer generic engineering questions to prove his profession.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, a presidential aide on foreign affairs and diaspora, appears to blame such incidents on confusion over US president Donald Trump’s recent failed executive order, which banned visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries. On March 6, Dabiri-Erewa advised prospective visitors to the US to “consider rescheduling their trip until there is clarity on the new immigration policy.”
“In the last few weeks, the office has received a few cases of Nigerians with valid multiple-entry US visas being denied entry and sent back to the Nigeria.”
“In such cases reported to the office, such affected persons were sent back immediately on the next available flight and their visas were cancelled.”
Trump’s travel ban was revised and re-issued today, March 6. Neither version mentioned Nigeria.
Nigerians are a major source of visitors to the US. They accounted for 32% of the nearly half million nonimmigrant US visas issued to African nationals in 2015.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Video - Abuja Airport to be closed temporarily for runway rehabilitation
It's now a matter of days before a six-week shutdown of the Abuja international airport, to allow for an overhaul of its runway. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam takes a closer look at final preparations to make Kaduna Airport a viable alternative for passengers traveling to Nigeria's capital, Abuja.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Video - Incubating tech and innovation in Kaduna, Nigeria
CoLab is the first tech hub in the northern part of Nigeria where developers and start-ups can work and grow. Located in Kaduna, CoLab's founder wants to explore the opportunities for tech in a state traditionally known for processing, farming, and cattle.
Triple suicide bombing in Nigeria
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, but failed to cause any casualties besides themselves, according to emergency officials.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) tweeted that the three had detonated their devices on Damboa Road—one of the main roads into the city—early Friday morning.
Three petrol bankers were burnt as a result of the bombings, which took place outside a gas station and opposite the regional headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
NEMA spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim said that one bomber had exploded next to a stationary tanker filled with fuel, setting two more tankers on fire and killing the other attackers, according to the AP.
Officials blamed the militant group Boko Haram for the attack, without specifying which faction. Boko Haram has been waging an armed insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009, aimed at establishing a hardline Islamic caliphate in the region. In 2016, the group split into two factions—one loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, and the other led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, whom the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) appointed as Boko Haram’s leader in a decision rejected by Shekau.
There have been multiple suicide bombings in the region in recent months, but the incidents have failed to cause the large-scale casualties once common in Boko Haram attacks.
Seven suicide bombers blew themselves up on the outskirts of Maiduguri on February 17, apparently targeting a refugee settlement. Nigerian officials did not report any casualties besides the bombers. Shekau also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a staff mosque and campus gate at the University of Maiduguri in January, which killed a professor and a child as well as the two bombers.
“We are lucky. Today could have been another sad day for us in Maiduguri,” said Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu Friday, according to the AP. Chukwu said he assumed the intended target of the attack was a fuel depot down the road from the site of the explosions.
Offensives by the Nigerian military and a regional joint task force have pressed both factions of Boko Haram back. Shekau’s faction is reportedly confined to the remote Sambisa forest in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, while Barnawi’s is reportedly operating out of the Lake Chad Basin area.
A recent report to the U.N. Security Council claimed that both factions are running out of money and are unable to pay fighters’ salaries, and that many attacks perpetrated by the militants were aimed at stealing provisions. Depleted resources have resulted in defections from Boko Haram factions, according to the report.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) tweeted that the three had detonated their devices on Damboa Road—one of the main roads into the city—early Friday morning.
Three petrol bankers were burnt as a result of the bombings, which took place outside a gas station and opposite the regional headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
NEMA spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim said that one bomber had exploded next to a stationary tanker filled with fuel, setting two more tankers on fire and killing the other attackers, according to the AP.
Officials blamed the militant group Boko Haram for the attack, without specifying which faction. Boko Haram has been waging an armed insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009, aimed at establishing a hardline Islamic caliphate in the region. In 2016, the group split into two factions—one loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, and the other led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, whom the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) appointed as Boko Haram’s leader in a decision rejected by Shekau.
There have been multiple suicide bombings in the region in recent months, but the incidents have failed to cause the large-scale casualties once common in Boko Haram attacks.
Seven suicide bombers blew themselves up on the outskirts of Maiduguri on February 17, apparently targeting a refugee settlement. Nigerian officials did not report any casualties besides the bombers. Shekau also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a staff mosque and campus gate at the University of Maiduguri in January, which killed a professor and a child as well as the two bombers.
“We are lucky. Today could have been another sad day for us in Maiduguri,” said Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu Friday, according to the AP. Chukwu said he assumed the intended target of the attack was a fuel depot down the road from the site of the explosions.
Offensives by the Nigerian military and a regional joint task force have pressed both factions of Boko Haram back. Shekau’s faction is reportedly confined to the remote Sambisa forest in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, while Barnawi’s is reportedly operating out of the Lake Chad Basin area.
A recent report to the U.N. Security Council claimed that both factions are running out of money and are unable to pay fighters’ salaries, and that many attacks perpetrated by the militants were aimed at stealing provisions. Depleted resources have resulted in defections from Boko Haram factions, according to the report.
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