Suspected militant Islamists have killed at least 30 people and abducted women and children in a raid in north-eastern Nigeria, officials say.
Most of the victims were travellers who were burnt to death while sleeping in their vehicles during an overnight stop, officials added
The attack took place in Auno town on a major highway in Borno State.
Militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoots have waged a brutal insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.
About 35,000 people have been killed, more than two million have been left homeless and hundreds have been abducted in the conflict.
Nigeria's government has repeatedly said that the militants have been defeated, but attacks continue.
Borno State governor Babagana Zulum looked visibly shaken when he saw the charred bodies during a visit to Auno following Sunday night's attack, Nigeria's privately owned This Day news site reports.
The militants came in trucks mounted with heavy weapons, before killing, burning, and looting, state government spokesman Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
The assailants "killed not less than 30 people who are mostly motorists and destroyed 18 vehicles," the governor's office said in a statement.
It also confirmed the abduction of women and children, but did not give a number.
Residents said most of the victims were travelling to the state capital, Maiduguri, but were forced to sleep in Auno, about 25km (16 miles) away, because the military had shut the road leading into the city.
The military has not yet commented.
Maiduguri was once the headquarters of Boko Haram, but government forces eventually drove the group out of the city.
It is unclear whether the assault was carried out by Boko Haram or a breakaway faction linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.
Calls for military shake-up
By Ishaq Khalid, BBC News, Abuja
The attack in Auno is a reminder of the threat posed by militants, and the vulnerability of communities.
When President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015, he pledged to defeat the insurgents.
Although his troops have made significant progress in weakening the militants, the recent spate of attacks on both military and civilian targets threatens the initial gains.
Many Nigerians have therefore been calling for an overhaul of the security forces and the replacement of military chiefs.
They hope that new generals at the helm of the security forces will reinvigorate the fight against the militants and make sure that the decade-long insurgency does not get any worse.
BBC
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
Video - Ighalo shock Manchester United signing excites Nigeria
The biggest football news in Nigeria this past week is the signing of former Super Eagles international striker, Odion Ighalo by Manchester United. It came as a big shock to many in the country especially in Ajegunle, a poor community in Lagos, where Ighalo grew up and started playing football. CGTN's Deji Badmus brings us the story.
Friday, February 7, 2020
Trump is turning Canada into a haven for Nigerians
Nigerians have become central figures in the most heavily reported Canadian migration story in recent years, as the largest cohort streaming through Canada’s most controversial entry-point: the ditch at Roxham Road, in small-town Quebec, that became a magnet for asylum seekers.
More quietly, though, Nigerians are playing a significant role in this country’s overall immigration story: the numbers of people arriving through conventional channels—mainly as skilled workers—have spiked, nearly tripling since 2016. Canada now brings in more permanent residents from the west African country than it does from major traditional sources like Pakistan and the United States; in 2019, the flight of upper-middle class professionals like doctors and tech workers, along with their families, helped put Nigeria behind only India, China and the Philippines and as source countries for Canadian immigration, federal data show.
Now, this trend seems sure to accelerate thanks to that key disrupter of global migration patterns and norms, Donald Trump.
Last week, the Trump administration expanded the U.S. travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries to block or restrict immigration visas from four African states—Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania and Sudan—as well as Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar. As usual, the Department of Homeland Security dresses these bans up in bureaucratic language about vetting and national security. But it’s not lost on anybody that, amid his many hostile public rants about foreigners, the president has grumbled to aides that tens of thousands Nigerian visitors would never “go back to their huts” in Africa.
These new restrictions will still allow Nigerians and others to come to United States on tourism or student visas—unlike the full clampdown on people from Iran, Syria and other countries Trump targeted in 2017—but prohibit the foreign nationals from obtaining permanent U.S. status through green cards. It’s most serious ripple effect is occurring in Nigeria, heavily populated yet oil-rich, with a burgeoning professional class. “New U.S. travel ban shuts door on African’s biggest economy,” a New York Times headline notes.
Johnson Babalola, the Nigerian-born managing partner of a Toronto immigration law firm, says he’s received a sharp uptick in inquiries from Nigerians this week. But they’re not all from Africa. A number are coming from Nigerians who live south of the border, including students and even professionals who already have U.S. green cards.
Why are Nigerians who’ve already securely immigrated to the U.S. suddenly wary? Because this new ban shuts the door to family reunification. “If I’m a green card holder and I can’t even bring in my spouse or my children or other relatives, then that’s tough,” says Babalola. “So you ask yourself is there somewhere I can go to that’s more open?
“Canada, quite frankly, is the obvious choice.”
Canada’s Express Entry program for skilled workers, which the Harper government launched in 2015, has a clear and predictable points system that already helped make it easier for well-educated and experienced newcomers to immigrate here. The number of Nigerians who immigrated to Canada rose from about 4,000 in 2014 to 12,000 last year, numbers from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada show. Meanwhile, the number granted permanent residency in the United States during Trump’s tenure has been declining even before the current ban takes effect, according to data compiled by Robert Falconer, an immigration policy researcher at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy. During the last two years, Canada accepted more Nigerian immigrants than the U.S. did.
Falconer has also tracked newcomers to Canada from countries covered by Trump’s initial travel ban: Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. In most cases, Canada’s intake of permanent residents from those countries rose, suggesting that this country will again pick up newcomers when its neighbour slams other doors.
Though reports suggest the Nigerian government is striving to maintain good relations with the United States, and to remedy the issues the administration claims are forcing it to put the ban in place, skilled workers may still prefer Canada, Falconer predicts. “If I’m a Nigerian professional considering a move to North America, I’d value certainty in the process over the whims of some mercurial presidency,” he says. Chad, which is Nigeria’s central African neighbour, was on Trump’s initial travel ban but came off a year later. Canada saw a spike in immigration from Chad during the ban and a decline afterwards, Falconer notes (though intake from Chad remained higher than pre-ban levels). The duration of Nigeria’s ban will determine whether Canada gets a smaller or larger bump, he adds.
Professionals from the rest of the developing world may also steer clear of U.S., lest their applications be suddenly ripped up because of a new Trump policy. Just as frustratingly, they could get into the country only to abruptly lose the chance to bring in children and spouses. “Other people from other nations will now be asking themselves: will we be next?” Babalola says.
A rise in conventional immigration, though, will not be the only effect of the new ban. To some, it appears tailor-made to induce Nigerians who land in the U.S. to enter Canada using the Roxham Road method—walking in and seeking asylum. They won’t be able to immigrate to Trump’s country, but they can get tourist visas to fly to New York and head straight to the Quebec-New York border, as thousands of Nigerians already have. The new policy will foreclose their option of seeking asylum in the United States.
But asylum claims by Nigerians dipped last year after efforts by Canadian and American officials to curb the pattern, and many of those who still choose the route are bound for disappointment. Only one-third of Nigerian refugee claims are being accepted by Canadian adjudicators, far lower than the typical success rate for asylum seekers, according to the most recent Immigration and Refugee Board data analysed by York University law professor Sean Rehaag. More than 10,000 more claimants from Nigeria await their hearings in a badly backlogged system.
Qualified professionals would have far more certainty coming in through the Express Entry, Babalola says. They and their relatives outnumber the number of Nigerians trying to move here as refugees. And thanks to the latest bit of migration upheaval the U.S. president has wrought, we can expect more of Africa’s best and brightest to boost the Canadian economy and plug our skills shortages.
By Jason Markusoff
Macleans
More quietly, though, Nigerians are playing a significant role in this country’s overall immigration story: the numbers of people arriving through conventional channels—mainly as skilled workers—have spiked, nearly tripling since 2016. Canada now brings in more permanent residents from the west African country than it does from major traditional sources like Pakistan and the United States; in 2019, the flight of upper-middle class professionals like doctors and tech workers, along with their families, helped put Nigeria behind only India, China and the Philippines and as source countries for Canadian immigration, federal data show.
Now, this trend seems sure to accelerate thanks to that key disrupter of global migration patterns and norms, Donald Trump.
Last week, the Trump administration expanded the U.S. travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries to block or restrict immigration visas from four African states—Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania and Sudan—as well as Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar. As usual, the Department of Homeland Security dresses these bans up in bureaucratic language about vetting and national security. But it’s not lost on anybody that, amid his many hostile public rants about foreigners, the president has grumbled to aides that tens of thousands Nigerian visitors would never “go back to their huts” in Africa.
These new restrictions will still allow Nigerians and others to come to United States on tourism or student visas—unlike the full clampdown on people from Iran, Syria and other countries Trump targeted in 2017—but prohibit the foreign nationals from obtaining permanent U.S. status through green cards. It’s most serious ripple effect is occurring in Nigeria, heavily populated yet oil-rich, with a burgeoning professional class. “New U.S. travel ban shuts door on African’s biggest economy,” a New York Times headline notes.
Johnson Babalola, the Nigerian-born managing partner of a Toronto immigration law firm, says he’s received a sharp uptick in inquiries from Nigerians this week. But they’re not all from Africa. A number are coming from Nigerians who live south of the border, including students and even professionals who already have U.S. green cards.
Why are Nigerians who’ve already securely immigrated to the U.S. suddenly wary? Because this new ban shuts the door to family reunification. “If I’m a green card holder and I can’t even bring in my spouse or my children or other relatives, then that’s tough,” says Babalola. “So you ask yourself is there somewhere I can go to that’s more open?
“Canada, quite frankly, is the obvious choice.”
Canada’s Express Entry program for skilled workers, which the Harper government launched in 2015, has a clear and predictable points system that already helped make it easier for well-educated and experienced newcomers to immigrate here. The number of Nigerians who immigrated to Canada rose from about 4,000 in 2014 to 12,000 last year, numbers from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada show. Meanwhile, the number granted permanent residency in the United States during Trump’s tenure has been declining even before the current ban takes effect, according to data compiled by Robert Falconer, an immigration policy researcher at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy. During the last two years, Canada accepted more Nigerian immigrants than the U.S. did.
Falconer has also tracked newcomers to Canada from countries covered by Trump’s initial travel ban: Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. In most cases, Canada’s intake of permanent residents from those countries rose, suggesting that this country will again pick up newcomers when its neighbour slams other doors.
Though reports suggest the Nigerian government is striving to maintain good relations with the United States, and to remedy the issues the administration claims are forcing it to put the ban in place, skilled workers may still prefer Canada, Falconer predicts. “If I’m a Nigerian professional considering a move to North America, I’d value certainty in the process over the whims of some mercurial presidency,” he says. Chad, which is Nigeria’s central African neighbour, was on Trump’s initial travel ban but came off a year later. Canada saw a spike in immigration from Chad during the ban and a decline afterwards, Falconer notes (though intake from Chad remained higher than pre-ban levels). The duration of Nigeria’s ban will determine whether Canada gets a smaller or larger bump, he adds.
Professionals from the rest of the developing world may also steer clear of U.S., lest their applications be suddenly ripped up because of a new Trump policy. Just as frustratingly, they could get into the country only to abruptly lose the chance to bring in children and spouses. “Other people from other nations will now be asking themselves: will we be next?” Babalola says.
A rise in conventional immigration, though, will not be the only effect of the new ban. To some, it appears tailor-made to induce Nigerians who land in the U.S. to enter Canada using the Roxham Road method—walking in and seeking asylum. They won’t be able to immigrate to Trump’s country, but they can get tourist visas to fly to New York and head straight to the Quebec-New York border, as thousands of Nigerians already have. The new policy will foreclose their option of seeking asylum in the United States.
But asylum claims by Nigerians dipped last year after efforts by Canadian and American officials to curb the pattern, and many of those who still choose the route are bound for disappointment. Only one-third of Nigerian refugee claims are being accepted by Canadian adjudicators, far lower than the typical success rate for asylum seekers, according to the most recent Immigration and Refugee Board data analysed by York University law professor Sean Rehaag. More than 10,000 more claimants from Nigeria await their hearings in a badly backlogged system.
Qualified professionals would have far more certainty coming in through the Express Entry, Babalola says. They and their relatives outnumber the number of Nigerians trying to move here as refugees. And thanks to the latest bit of migration upheaval the U.S. president has wrought, we can expect more of Africa’s best and brightest to boost the Canadian economy and plug our skills shortages.
By Jason Markusoff
Macleans
Nigerians in limbo after Trump adds Nigeria to US travel ban list
Ikenna is in a bind. On the one hand, the US green card holder has been advised not to travel outside the United States for a year to avoid the risk of failing to meet the eligibility criteria for citizenship. On the other hand, his newly wedded wife in Nigeria cannot visit him. She had applied for a tourist visa days before the US suspended a "drop box" procedure in May 2019 that allowed frequent visitors to reapply without being subjected to the interview process - but her application was denied.
The healthcare professional said his wife was told that since she was married to a permanent resident, he should file an immigrant visa application on her behalf instead. As such, Ikenna quit his job in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, and relocated to the US in late July to begin the process. In the meantime, his spouse applied for a business visa in October to no avail.
And now things have become even more complicated.
Last week, the White House said immigrants from Nigeria and five other countries will no longer be eligible for visas allowing them to live in the US permanently, expanding its controversial travel ban policy. A presidential proclamation on January 31 cited Nigeria's failure to comply with security and information sharing requirements, and its high "terror" risk to the US as reasons for imposing the restriction.
"I filed for her (immigrant visa application) in November and now the ban has been announced," says a frustrated Ikenna. "I've been a beneficiary of the long, tedious, nebulous process to obtain my legal permanent residence, and now I'm experiencing the same process to get the visa for my wife."
He remains unconvinced about the ban, arguing non-immigrant visa applicants were less scrutinised and therefore more of a threat to US security than those applying for immigrant visas.
"The [US government] is not just punishing Nigerians," he said about the travel restrictions, scheduled to come into effect on February 21. "They're punishing American citizens," he added, referring to the thousands of other Nigerians processing immigrant visas for their immediate family members in Nigeria.
That sentiment also rings true for Chienye, a product marketing manager who is currently petitioning for an immigrant visa for his mother in Nigeria. He feels the ban is unfair and infringes on his rights as a US citizen.
"Melania Trump herself used the same immigration method to bring her parents to the United States," he said of the wide of US President Donald Trump. "That's one of the luxuries of being a citizen. You can extend that and bring close family members to come be with you here."
A citizen since 2018, 37-year-old Chienye says he was excited about bringing his mother over as she has never visited in the 15 years he has lived in the US, first in Minnesota and then Washington states. It was something he had hoped to change now that he was financially solvent to pay for her trip.
"My mum is getting old and I want to bring her here to relax and enjoy herself even if it's for a few months."
While non-immigrant visa applicants remain unaffected, Nigerian student Onyinye is worried about the ban's knock-on effect. The mother of two is completing her nursing prerequisites in Maryland.
"I don't want a situation where I have to renew my papers and can't because of the ban," she said, speculating on the possibility the US government might unofficially limit the numbers of student visa issued to Nigerians. "I just don't want to be undocumented here."
In 2018, Nigerians were issued a total of 7,922 immigrant visas, the second highest among African nations. Over half of that number went to immediate relatives of US citizens. Incidentally, following visa fee hikes and suspension of the interview waiver Drop Box application last year, applications for non-immigrant visas dropped by 21 percent.
Approximately 30,000 Nigerians overstayed their non-immigrant visa in 2018, making them the third-largest defaulters behind Venezuelans and Brazilians, according to data from the US Department of Homeland Security. Some insist this may have informed the recent restrictions. Others maintain the ban is a ploy to further curtail the number Nigerians coming to the US.
"I think the Trump administration is trying to limit immigration from black and brown countries," argued Chienye, adding most Nigerians in the US are educated and dismissing the security reasons cited for the move.
"The only reason Trump is banning Nigerians is that he doesn't want black immigrants in the United States, and Nigerians make up a huge portion," he said.
For Onyinye, the right to live and work legally in the US supersedes the possibility of acquiring citizenship in the long run. And though she counts herself fortunate that her husband and children live with her, she wishes she could bring her mother over.
"If that's not possible, I'll have to work more so I can visit Nigeria to see her more often," she said before acknowledging the ban might prevent her from re-entering the US. "Until that's cleared up, I guess no trips for me."
According to immigration lawyer Leila Mansouri, who has handled cases for Iranians and Iranian Americans affected by the 2017 Muslim ban that restricted travellers from Iran and several other Muslim-majority countries, the text of the recent travel ban is not clear on whether Nigerians with non-immigrant visas are barred from applying for permanent residency.
"Based on how the [US government] handled it for Iranians, I think that [Nigerians] already in the US will be able to naturalise or get married and adjust their status," she said, adding that those who leave the US might find it difficult to re-enter.
Last week, the Nigerian government announced it had established a committee to address the updated requirements. On Tuesday, Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama appeared in a joint news conference in Washington with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, stating Nigeria had been "blindsided with the announcement of the visa restrictions." He maintained, however, the country was in the process of fulfilling the demands and had already "ticked most of the boxes".
"Essentially, there were security measures that were taken with regards to electronic [and] lost and stolen passports," noted Onyeama, adding Nigeria was working to make data for the aforementioned and information on suspected terrorists available to the US and member countries of Interpol "very soon".
Like many in Nigeria and the US, Onyinye is hopeful both countries will reach a resolution.
"I reckon the ban will only be for a short time," she said.
By Shayera Dark
Al Jazeera
The healthcare professional said his wife was told that since she was married to a permanent resident, he should file an immigrant visa application on her behalf instead. As such, Ikenna quit his job in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, and relocated to the US in late July to begin the process. In the meantime, his spouse applied for a business visa in October to no avail.
And now things have become even more complicated.
Last week, the White House said immigrants from Nigeria and five other countries will no longer be eligible for visas allowing them to live in the US permanently, expanding its controversial travel ban policy. A presidential proclamation on January 31 cited Nigeria's failure to comply with security and information sharing requirements, and its high "terror" risk to the US as reasons for imposing the restriction.
"I filed for her (immigrant visa application) in November and now the ban has been announced," says a frustrated Ikenna. "I've been a beneficiary of the long, tedious, nebulous process to obtain my legal permanent residence, and now I'm experiencing the same process to get the visa for my wife."
He remains unconvinced about the ban, arguing non-immigrant visa applicants were less scrutinised and therefore more of a threat to US security than those applying for immigrant visas.
"The [US government] is not just punishing Nigerians," he said about the travel restrictions, scheduled to come into effect on February 21. "They're punishing American citizens," he added, referring to the thousands of other Nigerians processing immigrant visas for their immediate family members in Nigeria.
That sentiment also rings true for Chienye, a product marketing manager who is currently petitioning for an immigrant visa for his mother in Nigeria. He feels the ban is unfair and infringes on his rights as a US citizen.
"Melania Trump herself used the same immigration method to bring her parents to the United States," he said of the wide of US President Donald Trump. "That's one of the luxuries of being a citizen. You can extend that and bring close family members to come be with you here."
A citizen since 2018, 37-year-old Chienye says he was excited about bringing his mother over as she has never visited in the 15 years he has lived in the US, first in Minnesota and then Washington states. It was something he had hoped to change now that he was financially solvent to pay for her trip.
"My mum is getting old and I want to bring her here to relax and enjoy herself even if it's for a few months."
While non-immigrant visa applicants remain unaffected, Nigerian student Onyinye is worried about the ban's knock-on effect. The mother of two is completing her nursing prerequisites in Maryland.
"I don't want a situation where I have to renew my papers and can't because of the ban," she said, speculating on the possibility the US government might unofficially limit the numbers of student visa issued to Nigerians. "I just don't want to be undocumented here."
In 2018, Nigerians were issued a total of 7,922 immigrant visas, the second highest among African nations. Over half of that number went to immediate relatives of US citizens. Incidentally, following visa fee hikes and suspension of the interview waiver Drop Box application last year, applications for non-immigrant visas dropped by 21 percent.
Approximately 30,000 Nigerians overstayed their non-immigrant visa in 2018, making them the third-largest defaulters behind Venezuelans and Brazilians, according to data from the US Department of Homeland Security. Some insist this may have informed the recent restrictions. Others maintain the ban is a ploy to further curtail the number Nigerians coming to the US.
"I think the Trump administration is trying to limit immigration from black and brown countries," argued Chienye, adding most Nigerians in the US are educated and dismissing the security reasons cited for the move.
"The only reason Trump is banning Nigerians is that he doesn't want black immigrants in the United States, and Nigerians make up a huge portion," he said.
For Onyinye, the right to live and work legally in the US supersedes the possibility of acquiring citizenship in the long run. And though she counts herself fortunate that her husband and children live with her, she wishes she could bring her mother over.
"If that's not possible, I'll have to work more so I can visit Nigeria to see her more often," she said before acknowledging the ban might prevent her from re-entering the US. "Until that's cleared up, I guess no trips for me."
According to immigration lawyer Leila Mansouri, who has handled cases for Iranians and Iranian Americans affected by the 2017 Muslim ban that restricted travellers from Iran and several other Muslim-majority countries, the text of the recent travel ban is not clear on whether Nigerians with non-immigrant visas are barred from applying for permanent residency.
"Based on how the [US government] handled it for Iranians, I think that [Nigerians] already in the US will be able to naturalise or get married and adjust their status," she said, adding that those who leave the US might find it difficult to re-enter.
Last week, the Nigerian government announced it had established a committee to address the updated requirements. On Tuesday, Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama appeared in a joint news conference in Washington with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, stating Nigeria had been "blindsided with the announcement of the visa restrictions." He maintained, however, the country was in the process of fulfilling the demands and had already "ticked most of the boxes".
"Essentially, there were security measures that were taken with regards to electronic [and] lost and stolen passports," noted Onyeama, adding Nigeria was working to make data for the aforementioned and information on suspected terrorists available to the US and member countries of Interpol "very soon".
Like many in Nigeria and the US, Onyinye is hopeful both countries will reach a resolution.
"I reckon the ban will only be for a short time," she said.
By Shayera Dark
Al Jazeera
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Video - Some Nigerian businesses affected by coronavirus outbreak
With China being one of Nigeria's biggest trading partners, there are concerns that the Nigerian economy could take a big hit as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak. Some businesses are already being affected, as CGTN's Deji Badmus reports.
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