UK to give Nigeria £200m to help fight Boko Haram

The UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and international development secretary Priti Patel have travelled to the heart of the Boko Haram uprising in Nigeria to show solidarity with the fight to bring the jihadists under control.

In their first joint visit, the two ministers travelled to Maiduguri, the capital of the north-east state of Borno, which suffered the worst killings by the Islamist terrorist group, including attacks at the university campus.

Overall Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people, displaced 1.7 million and left 8.5 million in desperate need of urgent support, in some cases on the brink of famine. Borno itself has seen more than 27,000 killings by the terrorist group and others.

Boko Haram is trying to create an Islamic state in the Lake Chad region, which spans parts of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad. It gained notoriety by abducting more than 200 girls from the north-east Nigerian town of Chibok in April 2014. Aid groups say it has kidnapped thousands more adults and children.

The UK has so far trained 28,000 Nigerian soldiers and over 40 UK military personnel have been deployed to Nigeria on a long term basis.

On Wednesday, Patel announced an extended five-year package of help, costing an extra £200m, to prevent 1.5 million people lapsing into famine and help keep a 100,000 boys and girls in education. The development secretary’s package also includes the restoration of key infrastructure and services in the north-east of the country.

Johnson said: “Boko Haram has generated suffering, instability and poverty on a huge scale, with profound knock-on effects far from Nigeria’s borders.”

He met survivors of Boko Haram violence, including bomb and gunshot victims, and saw for himself the displacement of people created by the conflict.

Johnson, under criticism at home for his performance as foreign secretary, said he was proud of the help the UK was providing: “This is about helping a Commonwealth partner in its time of need as well as addressing the root causes of international challenges such as migration.”

Patel said: “It is catastrophic that at least 20,000 people have been murdered by Boko Haram’s terrorist regime, and over 5 million people have been left hungry and many homeless. Babies’ bodies are shutting down and mothers who have lost everything are fighting to keep their children alive.”

Boko Haram has responded to its loss of territory by resorting to guerrilla tactics on soft targets such as markets, often using children as suicide bombers. Unicef claims the number of child suicide bombers in 2017 has reached 83 this year; more than four times the figure in 2016.

Nigerian ministers have previously prematurely claimed the terrorist group had been suppressed.

At the weekend it was confirmed that the US was selling Nigeria surveillance aircraft that will make the fight against terrorism much more effective. The weapons sale, consisting of $593m worth of equipment including 12 Super Tucano A-29 surveillance and attack planes, was initially signed off under former US president Barack Obama. However, it was delayed over concerns about alleged human rights violations by Nigerian troops.

Those concerns stemmed from report by rights group Amnesty International in March 2015, which claimed that Nigeria’s military arbitrarily detained and killed civilians in the north-east.

The visit by the UK ministers coincided with the first cabinet meeting overseen by Nigerian prime minister Muhammadu Buhari since his much-criticised 104 days spent in the UK for health treatment.

The country, rich in oil reserves, remains wracked by corruption, with more than $20m recently seized by authorities from the bank account of the former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. It is alledged that she has gone into hiding after travelling to London.

The Guardian

Video - Nigerians divided on ruling on instant divorce for Muslims

In India, a court ruling banning instant divorce among Muslim couples continues to generate debate. The court maintains the practice is un-Islamic and unconstitutional. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam takes a look at how that decision is being perceived in Nigeria -- where the population of 180 million people is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims.

Iceland set to deport family from Nigeria seeking asylum

The Immigration and Asylum appeals board in Iceland has denied the appeal of Nigerian couple Sunday Iserian and Joy Lucky, and their eight year old daughter to stay in Iceland.

Mbl.Is reports that the family received the news on Monday that they were to be deported to Nigeria after living in Iceland for a year and a half.

Iserian had appealed for political asylum due to threats he received from the current government and Joy Lucky was a victim of sexual slavery while pregnant with their daughter Mary.

However, the news of the the rejection of their application met with some furore in Iceland and an online petition was set up for them to be able to stay in the country.

The Ombudsman for Children in Iceland had made a statement to say that they are concerned about the welfare of children seeking in asylum in Iceland.

In an earlier report, Joy described how she was approached by a vicar at her local church back in Nigeria who promised to get her a job as a nanny in Europe. Once she accepted the offer, which she had good faith in, she was taken to a building where her hair, and her pubic hair, was cut off and her body washed according to black magic rituals to scare her into compliance.

She was transported to Libya where she met Sunday and fell in love. Once they fled across the Mediterranean to Italy the couple lost track of each other and Joy discovered that she was pregnant. She only found Sunday again three years later.

Sunday, on the other hand said he fled the country for political reasons and that he was afraid for his life.

Punch

5 pilgrims from Nigeria die in Saudi Arabia

Five Nigerian pilgrims to this year’s hajj in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, have died.

The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Abdullahi Mohammed, announced the passage of four of the pilgrims on Tuesday in Makkah, Islam’s holiest city.

Mr. Mohammed, who spoke at the 2017 pre-Arafat meeting with Hajj stakeholders, however, declined to disclose the identities of the late pilgrims as well as the circumstances that led to their death.

He said such information could only be disclosed after their families had been appropriately informed.

The NAHCON chair pleaded with the media to withhold the details so as not to further devastate the families of the affected pilgrims.

Shortly after the chairman spoke, an official on the medical team of NAHCON announced the passage of another pilgrim from Kwara.

A total 81,200 Nigerian pilgrims are performing this year’s hajj, all of whom have converged on Makkah after some of them visited and prayed at the Prophet Mohammed’s mosque in Madinah.

A few other pilgrims came directly to Makkah after flying into Saudi Arabia through the nearby city of Jeddah.

All the pilgrims have performed the rites of Umrah, the lesser hajj, at al-Masjid al-Haram in which is situated the Kabah.

On Wednesday, the pilgrims, like their counterparts from other parts of the world, will move to the city of Mina to spend the eve of the 9th of Dhul-Hijah.

The pilgrims will then proceed to Arafat on Thursday praising Allah and reciting the Qur’an.

Premium Times

US sells half a billion dollars worth of military equipment to Nigeria

In its fight against Boko Haram, Nigeria’s military has consistently appeared less equipped than its adversaries. But that may soon change.

The Pentagon notified US Congress yesterday (Aug. 28) of the sale of $593 million worth of military equipment to Nigeria. The equipment consists of 12 Super Tucano A-29 surveillance and attack planes, among other weapons.

The sale comes as Nigeria looks to step up its fight against the terrorist group. Despite losing former strongholds, Boko Haram has remained active, killing 200 civilians in several attacks throughout the first half of 2017. The most prominent recent attack was the bombing of the largest university in Nigeria’s northeast region, the University of Maiduguri, which was once regarded as a safe haven. The attacks have undermined the military’s claims that the sect has been defeated.

Super Tucano A-29 planes are a boon for counterinsurgency operations, allowing pilots to carry out reconnaissance and surveillance missions, as well as providing close air support to ground troops. But despite their advantages, the sophisticated aircrafts are unlikely to give Nigeria’s army an immediate edge in fighting the insurgency. Boko Haram has become more slippery, adopting guerrilla tactics after losing much of the territory it once held in northeast Nigeria.

The militant sect has increasingly resorted to suicide bombings on soft targets, such as markets, car parks and schools, rather than the coordinated large-scale attacks on towns and villages it used previously. Many of the suicide bombings are carried out by children. According to UNICEF, the number of children suicide bombers deployed by Boko Haram this year is already four times higher than it was in all of 2016.

The weapons sale, while initially agreed to under former US president Barack Obama, was delayed over concerns about human rights violations by Nigerian troops. Those concerns stemmed from a March 2015 report by rights group Amnesty International, which claimed that Nigeria’s military arbitrarily detained and killed civilians in the northeast.

More recently, Nigeria’s air force accidentally bombed a refugee camp, killing more than 200 people. A spokesman for Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari called the bombing a “regrettable operational mistake.”

Quartz