Video - Why nothing will stop Yemi Alade

Nigerian pop superstar Yemi Alade is a force to be reckoned with. In her own words, a "Woman of Steel". Alade's accomplishments in music are many. Her song "Johnny" was one of the biggest hits on the African continent in 2014. In 2015 and 2016 she won Best Female performer at the MTV Africa Music Awards and was nominated for Best International Act at the BET Awards. In less than a decade, she has released five studio albums and has collaborated with artists such as Rick Ross, Duncan Mighty, Angelique Kidjo and Funke Akindele. But perhaps her biggest collaboration to date has been with Beyonce, contributing to the Black is King Album with The Gift and Don’t Jealous Me. Alade boasts more than 450 million YouTube streams, has close to 15 million Instagram followers, and is about to begin a second season as a judge on Nigeria’s The Voice. As if all of that wasn't enough, Alade has now become a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, working to highlight COVID-19 vaccine inequality. The daughter of a police officer, she was also part of Nigeria's huge End Sars campaign against police brutality and is passionate about women's rights. In this episode of The Stream, Yemi Alade us in-studio for a conversation about her music, women’s empowerment, her activism on COVID and for an exclusive live performance.

Video - Plans to rehabilitate former Boko Haram faces opposition

 

The surrender of hundreds of Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria’s northeast is causing anxiety in Borno state. The government says it will rehabilitate and reintegrate the former fighters into society. But the plan has divided people who have suffered unimaginable atrocities during the 12-year conflict. In the last two months, about 6,000 fighters and their families surrendered due to renewed ground and aerial offensive by Nigerian troops. Hundreds of thousands have already been returned to their towns and villages to homes being rebuilt by the government. For now, officials seem determined to speed up the process of rebuilding trust - hoping it could break Boko Haram’s fighting spirit and bring lasting peace. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reports from Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Doctors in Nigeria struggle to cope as acute malnutrition soars

 

Clinics and hospitals in northern Nigeria are struggling to cope with high numbers of severely malnourished children. Food shortages have worsened as violence by armed groups intensifies. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Dozens killed and abducted in Nigeria’s north

At least 32 people have been killed in Nigeria’s north after armed groups attacked remote communities in 2 states, authorities said, the latest incident in a spiraling cycle of violence in Africa’s most populous country.

Local officials and residents told The Associated Press that the killings and the abduction of 24 persons in Niger and Sokoto states were carried out by the marauding gunmen operating across the northwest and central parts of Nigeria who are notorious for abducting hundreds of school children and travelers for ransom.

The attacks happened barely 48 hours after about 40 persons were killed in the northern region in what residents said could be a part of a prolonged religious conflict between Muslim and Christian communities in Kaduna state.

In the north central Niger state, assailants attacked Muya local government area on Tuesday morning, killing 14 people and abducting seven women, according to Garba Mohammed, the chairman of Munya LGA. The police spokesperson confirmed the incident to the AP but said he had no further details.

“These bandits invaded one of the communities around 2 a.m. yesterday, set the houses ablaze, burnt the people in their rooms while some of them (the attackers) were standing outside; those trying to escape were caught and slaughtered,” said Mohammed.

After the raid in Kachiwe, the assailants went to two more communities nearby, killing 2 persons they saw on their way before killing 16 more residents, the official added.

Mohammed said the gunmen took advantage of the blockade of telecommunications access. Authorities imposed the block to stem the exchange of information between gunmen and local residents who were acting as informants.

During a similar attack in the northwest Sokoto state, 17 persons were abducted from their homes in Sabon Birni local government area, according to Amina Al-Mustapha, the state lawmaker from the affected area.

The bandits attacked the Gatawa community in the neighboring country Niger on Tuesday, less than a week after earlier attacking the area and killing 22 persons mostly security operatives,

“We are under bandits now; We are suffering now,” the lawmaker said, adding that “at least 60%” of about 500,000 residents in Sabon Birni have fled the community, some taking refuge in Niger Republic which is just about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away.

Violent attacks by the assailants known locally as bandits are common across the northwest and central parts of Nigeria, especially in remote communities where there is no adequate security presence.

Authorities have said that special military operations targeted at restoring peace in the troubled states have been yielding results with dozens of the assailants often killed when their hideouts in abandoned forest reserves are bombarded.

But Nigeria’s security operatives, especially those operating in violence hotspots, are still outnumbered by the gunmen who often raid communities in their hundreds. The assailants are made up of various groups and security analysts have said they are mostly young men from the Fulani ethnic group who had traditionally worked as nomadic cattle herders and are caught up in a decades-long conflict with Hausa farming communities over access to water and grazing land.

In Sokoto state, lawmaker Al-Mustapha told AP that the Sabon Birni area had five military bases as of last year, but “now, we have only one in the entire with security operatives present,” with the others abandoned after suffering attacks.

By Chinedu Asadu

AP

Video - Can Boko Haram fighters rejoin society?

 

Nigeria’s military is increasingly confident in its fight against Boko Haram, as growing numbers of members surrender. But victims of the armed movement in the country’s northeast are nervous about reintegration programmes that aim to return former adherents to mainstream society. At least 10,000 people linked to Boko Haram and its rival, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), have given themselves up in recent weeks, the Nigerian army says. 

Those surrendering range from combatants to abductees coerced into working for the groups. The pace of defections from Boko Haram, which is fighting to impose its own interpretation of Islamic law on the northeast and is behind a wave of mass kidnappings, has increased since the reported death in May of the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau and the subsequent rise of ISWAP. Hundreds of former low-level members of Boko Haram are now undertaking government "deradicalisation" programmes to reintegrate them to civilian life, with authorities also providing support to family members of surrendered fighters. 

Supporters of state-run rehabilitation initiatives such as Operation Safe Corridor say they tempt fighters to give themselves up, and could help end a 12-year war between Nigerian government forces and insurgent groups that the UN estimates has killed about 350,000 people. But many people who have borne the brunt of Boko Haram attacks and exploitation are questioning the government’s decision to host surrendered fighters in a compound in Maiduguri - where Boko Haram originated. They have doubts about the sincerity of those who have given themselves up and say the rehabilitation schemes allow Boko Haram followers to get away with their crimes. Hundreds of thousands of people who remain displaced and dispossessed due to Boko Haram attacks are urging the government to ensure that victims are also supported. In this episode of The Stream we’ll look at the challenges in rehabilitating former Boko Haram fighters as victims maintain their call for justice.