In recent six years, the world has witnessed two clear cases of genocidal atrocities. The first occurred in Syria and Iraq, perpetrated by Daesh against religious minorities such as the Yazidis and Christians. The second took place in Myanmar, perpetrated by the Burmese military against the Rohingya Muslims and other religious minorities. Yet, there are evolving stations where mass atrocities may be occurring and that appear to be neglected. One such example is in Nigeria.
On November 18, 2010, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Nigeria. The preliminary examination followed several communications received by the Office of the Prosecutor (the OTP) which suggested that mass atrocities had occurred, involving Boko Haram militants based in Nigeria.
Having identified multiple issues which require closer scrutiny, the OTP named six potential cases where Boko Haram had committed crimes against humanity and two cases where such crimes were committed by the Nigerian security forces. The six cases include Boko Haram 1) targeting non-believers which resulted in several deaths; 2) kidnappings, abductions, and imprisonment of civilians, as associated with murder, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment; 3) attacks on schools, other buildings designated for education and attacks against students and teachers; 4) recruitment and use of child soldiers; 5) attacks on women and girls; 6) intentional targeting of buildings designated for religious practices, including churches and mosques.
Thousands have been affected by the litany of mass atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram. However, among the staggering statistics, the fates of those suffering are lost. The fate of people like Leah Sharibu get lost among the suffering of thousands of people.
Leah Sharibu, a 15-year-old Nigerian girl, was one of the 110 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi, Nigeria, in February 2018. Despite the fact that most of the girls have now been released, Boko Haram refused to let Leah go. According to one of the other girls, Leah declined to renounce her Christian faith. This is the reason Boko Haram continues to enslave her. Attacking women and girls is a signature tactic of Boko Haram. Boko Haram subjects women and girls to physical and mental abuse, rape and sexual violence, forced labor and much more. However, among its atrocities, those that are of a religious nature are significant too and cannot be neglected.
Nonetheless, the atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram are not the only mass atrocities in Nigeria that require urgent attention.
Indeed, on June 15, 2020, the U.K. All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG), a cross-party group of parliamentarians representing both houses of the U.K. Parliament, released a report about the mass atrocities perpetrated in Nigeria by the Fulani militia. As the report “Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?” notes: “The exact death toll is unknown. However, thousands of civilians are thought to have been killed in attacks led by Fulani herders and periodic retaliatory violence. Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust report that over 1,000 Christians were killed between January-November 2019, “in addition to the estimated 6,000+ deaths since 2015.” Amnesty International estimate that between January 2016 and October 2018 “at least 3,641 people may have been killed, 406 injured [and] 5,000 houses burnt down. Local groups, such as the Christian Association of Nigeria, report higher figures: between January and June 2018, over 6,000 people were killed by Fulani herders.”
Fulani militia continue to perpetrate mass atrocities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Their crimes continue to go unreported. This is why earlier this year, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Baroness Cox, Fiona Bruce MP and many other British Parliamentarians wrote to the ICC sending further evidence of the atrocities for the OTP’s consideration. At this stage it is not clear whether the cases will be considered by the ICC. However, it is clear that the Nigerian Government will not address the crime adequately or at all. Indeed, according to a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the “false allegations of persecution of Christians” are “a most misleading campaign.” If the Nigerian Government is blind to the issue of religious persecution in the country, it is clear that the issue will not be addressed. However, the international community cannot be blind to the reports of atrocities and must ask important questions. How will the Nigerian Government explain the mass killings in Nigeria as recorded by several international organizations? What is the Nigerian Government doing to ensure that the acts are investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted?
There are several steps that need to be taken to address the atrocities and the APPG’s report maps these, including comprehensive investigations and prosecutions. However, the comprehensive response will not happen until we recognize, once and for all, the nature and severity of the atrocities. The crimes must be recognized for what they are and “a most misleading campaign” is not that name.
By Ewelina U. Ochab
Forbes
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Monday, June 15, 2020
Nigeria’s State-Owned Oil Corp. Publishes Audited Accounts
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. has published audited financial statements online in a bid to improve transparency around its operations.
The state-owned oil company, known as NNPC, has been criticized for years of conducting the nation’s oil business in secret by publishing only unaudited financial reports. The statements published on the company’s website yesterday were for 2018 and were signed by Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari.
NNPC also published audited accounts online of its 20 subsidiaries and business divisions for first time.
Disclosure “is good for transparency and accountability,” Waziri Adio, executive secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, said in a response to a private message on Twitter. “I urge them to make this a regular practice and in open data format.”
National Petroleum Investment Management Services is the group’s most profitable division, according to the statements. It reported revenue of 5.04 trillion naira ($13 billion) in 2018 and profit of 1.01 trillion naira. That compares with a loss of 1.65 trillion naira in 2017.
The report shows total assets managed by NAPIMS at 18.6 trillion naira, with the oil and gas components valued at 14.2 trillion naira.
Its oil production subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, reported a post-tax profit of 179 billion naira in 2018. The corporation’s three refineries reported a combined loss of 154 billion naira with the Kaduna refinery recording zero revenue for that year. NNPC didn’t publish consolidated audited accounts for the group.
“Over the years, NNPC has been rated as a cesspool, providing slush funds for politicians,” said Oluseun Onigbinde, director at Lagos-based BudgIT, a civic group that lobbies for government transparency. “They have been trying to change the perspective since 2015 with the publication of monthly reports and the 2018 audited statements is also a step forward.”
Yahoo Finance
The state-owned oil company, known as NNPC, has been criticized for years of conducting the nation’s oil business in secret by publishing only unaudited financial reports. The statements published on the company’s website yesterday were for 2018 and were signed by Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari.
NNPC also published audited accounts online of its 20 subsidiaries and business divisions for first time.
Disclosure “is good for transparency and accountability,” Waziri Adio, executive secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, said in a response to a private message on Twitter. “I urge them to make this a regular practice and in open data format.”
National Petroleum Investment Management Services is the group’s most profitable division, according to the statements. It reported revenue of 5.04 trillion naira ($13 billion) in 2018 and profit of 1.01 trillion naira. That compares with a loss of 1.65 trillion naira in 2017.
The report shows total assets managed by NAPIMS at 18.6 trillion naira, with the oil and gas components valued at 14.2 trillion naira.
Its oil production subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, reported a post-tax profit of 179 billion naira in 2018. The corporation’s three refineries reported a combined loss of 154 billion naira with the Kaduna refinery recording zero revenue for that year. NNPC didn’t publish consolidated audited accounts for the group.
“Over the years, NNPC has been rated as a cesspool, providing slush funds for politicians,” said Oluseun Onigbinde, director at Lagos-based BudgIT, a civic group that lobbies for government transparency. “They have been trying to change the perspective since 2015 with the publication of monthly reports and the 2018 audited statements is also a step forward.”
Yahoo Finance
Nigeria's Boko Haram crisis: UN ‘appalled’ by twin jihadist attacks in Borno
Dozens of soldiers and civilians are reported to have been killed in twin attacks by Islamist militants in north-eastern Nigeria's Borno state.
Fighters attacked Monguno, a garrison town where UN and other aid workers are based, and a village in Nganzai.
The UN said it was "appalled" by the raids that came days after at least 81 villagers were killed in Gubio.
A Boko Haram faction calling itself the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) says it is behind all three attacks.
The splinter group declared its loyalty to the Islamic State group four years ago.
What do we know about the attacks?
At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the two attacks.
People from Goni Usmanti village in Nganzai told the AFP news agency that militants shot dead 38 people and set a truck on fire with passengers inside.
Security sources and residents said at least 15 people, including nine soldiers, died in Monguno town, which is about 60km (37 miles) away.
Militants armed with heavy weapons including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno, a base for many international non-governmental organisations, on Saturday morning, overrunning government forces in the area.
In a statement, the UN confirmed that "non-state armed group operatives" entered Monguno in the late morning.
"Several" civilians, including a four-year old girl, were killed, it said, while at least 37 other civilians were injured.
Although vehicles were set ablaze and an unexploded missile found outside the main humanitarian facility, it was not seriously damaged.
"Protective security measures deployed at the humanitarian hub prevented any harm to the over 50 aid workers who were in the facility at the time of the attack," the UN said.
Reports say hundreds of civilians were injured in Nganzai and the local hospital was overwhelmed, forcing some of the injured to lie outside awaiting help.
The militants then distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not to work with the military or international aid groups, the BBC's Chris Ewokor reports from the capital, Abuja.
Iswap does not usually target civilians unless they are working with Western aid agencies, or suspected of providing information to the army.
What has the reaction been?
"I am relieved all staff are safe and secure, but I am shocked by the intensity of this attack," said Edward Kallon, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Nigeria.
The Nigerian military said that its forces had "successfully repelled" the attack on Monguno and killed 20 jihadists.
It did not mention any casualties among soldiers and civilians or the attack in Nganzai.
More than 100,000 of Monguno's residents are people who have been displaced from their homes by the 10-year conflict in the region.
BBC
Fighters attacked Monguno, a garrison town where UN and other aid workers are based, and a village in Nganzai.
The UN said it was "appalled" by the raids that came days after at least 81 villagers were killed in Gubio.
A Boko Haram faction calling itself the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) says it is behind all three attacks.
The splinter group declared its loyalty to the Islamic State group four years ago.
What do we know about the attacks?
At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the two attacks.
People from Goni Usmanti village in Nganzai told the AFP news agency that militants shot dead 38 people and set a truck on fire with passengers inside.
Security sources and residents said at least 15 people, including nine soldiers, died in Monguno town, which is about 60km (37 miles) away.
Militants armed with heavy weapons including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno, a base for many international non-governmental organisations, on Saturday morning, overrunning government forces in the area.
In a statement, the UN confirmed that "non-state armed group operatives" entered Monguno in the late morning.
"Several" civilians, including a four-year old girl, were killed, it said, while at least 37 other civilians were injured.
Although vehicles were set ablaze and an unexploded missile found outside the main humanitarian facility, it was not seriously damaged.
"Protective security measures deployed at the humanitarian hub prevented any harm to the over 50 aid workers who were in the facility at the time of the attack," the UN said.
Reports say hundreds of civilians were injured in Nganzai and the local hospital was overwhelmed, forcing some of the injured to lie outside awaiting help.
The militants then distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not to work with the military or international aid groups, the BBC's Chris Ewokor reports from the capital, Abuja.
Iswap does not usually target civilians unless they are working with Western aid agencies, or suspected of providing information to the army.
What has the reaction been?
"I am relieved all staff are safe and secure, but I am shocked by the intensity of this attack," said Edward Kallon, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Nigeria.
The Nigerian military said that its forces had "successfully repelled" the attack on Monguno and killed 20 jihadists.
It did not mention any casualties among soldiers and civilians or the attack in Nganzai.
More than 100,000 of Monguno's residents are people who have been displaced from their homes by the 10-year conflict in the region.
BBC
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Nigerian writer wins German literature award
A Nigerian author, Chigozie Obioma,
has won the 2020 Internationaler Literaturpreis Award through the
German translation of his second novel, ‘An Orchestra of Minorities’.The award was founded in 2009 and has since been honouring outstanding contemporary works especially first-time translations “to rack up voices of relatively unknown authors in Germany”.
In the past, the winning duo for the best novel and the best translation are honoured with a major celebration in which other authors and translators of the books nominated for the final round are invited .
There is usually a cash prize of €20,000/$24,000 for the winning author and €15,000 for the translation.
But this year, in its 12th edition, Germany’s national centre for presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, Haus der Welt der Kulturen (HKW), alongside the seven-member jury, decided not to honour a single book.
There are six titles on the shortlist. Organisers say there will be 12 winners instead of 2, among whom the prize money of £36,000 will be divided.
“In the current precarious situation for many people working in the cultural field, the organisers wanted to honor the work and voices of many, rather than a single work,” a statement by the organisers said.
Mr Obioma’s book, whose German title is “Das Weinen der Vögel” was among the six books selected from a diverse list and recognised by the German literary community.
The novel follows the story of Chinonso, a hardly surviving poultry farmer who stops a woman from committing suicide, his quest for material advancement and the unsettling end to his dream as a Nigerian on a foreign land.
A jury member, Daniel Medin, considered “An Orchestra of Minorities” to be a philosophical novel “of rare ambition and breadth that questions the freedom of the human will with relentless precision."
Praising the Nigerian author for capturing African religions which are “firmly anchored in Igbo cosmology” in the novel, Mr Medin described Mr Obioma as an innovator of the African novel, also with his debut novel, “The Fishermen.”
“An Orchestra of Minorities” was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2019.
Elated
Winning the International Literature Award for Mr Obioma amidst coronavirus blues is pleasing.
“The past few months have been difficult for me, following the lockdown, coming down with the virus myself and the recent events. But I’m happy to share this bit of good news: the German translation of my second novel, DAS WEINEN DER VOGEL, has won this year’s Internationaler Literaturpreis, Germany’s prestigious prize for foreign fiction,” he said in a Facebook post.
“While I’m grateful and elated, I owe this win to my wonderful translator, Nicholai von Schweder, a remarkable man and the very best. Also, my wonderful publisher, Piper Verlag. Thank you to all who continue to support my work. It means so much to me!”
Previous winners of the award have included Teju Cole, Indian-French author, Shumona Sinhaand, and Mexican Fernanda Melchior.
By Aishat Babatunda
Premium Times
Nigerian women are taking to the streets in protests against rape and sexual violence
Protesters have taken to the streets in cities across Nigeria to demand urgent action to combat rape and sexual violence against women.
In Lagos on Monday a coalition of rights groups marched to the state parliament calling for it to declare a state of emergency on rape and sexual violence. The march followed the gruesome death of 22-year-old student Uwaila Vera Omozuwa -- and the rape and killing less than a week later of another student, Barakat Bello.
University student Omozuwa died after she was attacked in a church in Benin City where she had gone to study on May 27, while Bello was raped and killed during a robbery in her home in the southwestern city of Ibadan on June 1, according to Amnesty International.
The students' killings, which happened as citizens were still reckoning with a spate of violence against teenage girls in May, have sparked calls for government action on gender-based violence in the country.
"These unfortunate events are not a standalone, rather they are a culmination of unhealthy cultural practices," the Women Against Rape in Nigeria group said in a petition submitted to lawmakers on Monday.
WARN is pushing for all states in Nigeria to have a sex offenders list -- and for it to be made public -- as well as other measures to name and shame perpetrators of sexual violence.
Sexual survivors silenced
Ebele Molua, an activist and one of the conveners of the protest, said Nigerian women have long been violated and harassed because authorities still perceive rape as a "women issue" leaving women vulnerable to their abusers.
"In Nigeria, you see men catcalling, and groping women in the market and they become violent once they don't respond to their advances. You find men dismissing the accounts of sexual violence. This has to stop," Molua told CNN.
Nigerian celebrities have also denounced the latest sexual violence cases on social media and citizens continue to gather in several cities, demanding law enforcement bring the women's killers to justice.
Nollywood actress Hilda Dokubo joined a women's group demonstration to the police headquarters in Lagos on Friday in the wake of the killings and a group of students protested in Benin City on June 1.
Efforts to combat violence
One in four girls in Nigeria has experienced some form of sexual violence, according to UNICEF.
Meanwhile Amnesty International, which has launched petition demanding justice over the killings, said femicide and rape cases go under-reported in the country, allowing perpetrators to go unpunished.
However the latest cases have forced authorities to reckon with the scale of the problem.
Nigeria's Human Rights Commission has launched a social media campaign to educate men about consent and the country's police force, whose officers have been accused of gender violence in the past, has announced plans to allocate more officers to tackle cases across the country.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
In Lagos on Monday a coalition of rights groups marched to the state parliament calling for it to declare a state of emergency on rape and sexual violence. The march followed the gruesome death of 22-year-old student Uwaila Vera Omozuwa -- and the rape and killing less than a week later of another student, Barakat Bello.
University student Omozuwa died after she was attacked in a church in Benin City where she had gone to study on May 27, while Bello was raped and killed during a robbery in her home in the southwestern city of Ibadan on June 1, according to Amnesty International.
The students' killings, which happened as citizens were still reckoning with a spate of violence against teenage girls in May, have sparked calls for government action on gender-based violence in the country.
"These unfortunate events are not a standalone, rather they are a culmination of unhealthy cultural practices," the Women Against Rape in Nigeria group said in a petition submitted to lawmakers on Monday.
WARN is pushing for all states in Nigeria to have a sex offenders list -- and for it to be made public -- as well as other measures to name and shame perpetrators of sexual violence.
Sexual survivors silenced
Ebele Molua, an activist and one of the conveners of the protest, said Nigerian women have long been violated and harassed because authorities still perceive rape as a "women issue" leaving women vulnerable to their abusers.
"In Nigeria, you see men catcalling, and groping women in the market and they become violent once they don't respond to their advances. You find men dismissing the accounts of sexual violence. This has to stop," Molua told CNN.
Nigerian celebrities have also denounced the latest sexual violence cases on social media and citizens continue to gather in several cities, demanding law enforcement bring the women's killers to justice.
Nollywood actress Hilda Dokubo joined a women's group demonstration to the police headquarters in Lagos on Friday in the wake of the killings and a group of students protested in Benin City on June 1.
Efforts to combat violence
One in four girls in Nigeria has experienced some form of sexual violence, according to UNICEF.
Meanwhile Amnesty International, which has launched petition demanding justice over the killings, said femicide and rape cases go under-reported in the country, allowing perpetrators to go unpunished.
However the latest cases have forced authorities to reckon with the scale of the problem.
Nigeria's Human Rights Commission has launched a social media campaign to educate men about consent and the country's police force, whose officers have been accused of gender violence in the past, has announced plans to allocate more officers to tackle cases across the country.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
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