Friday, September 13, 2019
Video - Nigerians repatriated from South Africa after attacks
Nigeria began repatriating more than 600 of its citizens from South Africa following a wave of deadly xenophobic attacks that frayed relations among neighbouring nations. Private Nigerian airline Air Peace volunteered to fly people for free back to the commercial capital Lagos on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how many people boarded the flight, but Nigeria's government said it estimated 313 people were on their way home. A second flight departs on Thursday or Friday with 640 Nigerians in total fleeing the country. The repatriation came after riots in Pretoria and Johannesburg killed at least 12 people as 1,000 foreign-owned businesses were targeted. The nationalities of those killed have not been announced but Nigerians, Ethiopians, Congolese, and Zimbabweans were attacked, according to local media.
Related stories: Video - Hundreds of Nigerians sign up for voluntary evacuation from South Africa
Nigeria to repatriate 600 Nigerians from South Africa due to xenophobic violence
Video - Thousands of Nigerian businesses attend event in Lagos
About a hundred Chinese Manufacturers and suppliers are in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos for the China Trade Week. It's everything construction under one roof. The Big 5 as it's called, is attracting thousands of Nigerian businesses from across the country.
Ex-coach Samson Siasia mother still missing in Nigeria 2 months after kidnap
Beauty Ogere Siasia,80, was abducted in her house on July 15 in Odoni in Sagbama area in oil rich Bayelsa State, southern Nigeria.
Now having spent more than seven weeks in captivity, family members are now worried about her health.
Siasia’s younger brother, Dennis Siasia, said the abduction had brought distress to the family as they are unable to raise the $230,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers.
Mrs Ogere had initially been kidnapped in November 2015 but was released 12 days after a ransom was paid.
Last month, the world's football governing body slapped Siasia with a life ban and a 50,000 Swiss Francs ($50,000, 46,000 euros) fine after finding him guilty of taking bribes to fix matches.
By Mohammed Momoh
The East African
22,000 Nigerians missing since Boko Haram crisis began
At least 22,000 people are missing in Nigeria due to the decade-long conflict with the Boko Haram group, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.
In a statement, ICRC President Peter Maurer said nearly 60 percent of those missing were children and that it was the highest number of missing persons registered with the organisation in any country.
"They were minors when they went missing, meaning thousands of parents don't know where their children are and if they are alive or dead," he said on Thursday at the end of his five-day trip to Nigeria.
"Every parent's worst nightmare is not knowing where their child is. This is the tragic reality for thousands of Nigerian parents."
Nigeria is faced with multiple conflicts, including attacks by the Boko Haram and the frequent clashes between the nomadic herders and the farmers.
Boko Haram - whose name roughly translates to "Western education is forbidden" - wants to establish an Islamic state based on a strict interpretation of the Islamic law.
The United Nations estimates that more than 27,000 people have been killed and an estimated two million others displaced in Nigeria's northeast because of the violence by the Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria's central states, clashes between farmers and nomadic herders over dwindling arable land have also killed thousands and displaced tens of thousands.
'We have no hope'
In 2015, the Nigerian military launched "Operation Lafiya Dole" to force the Boko Haram out of the country's northeast.
But it is the families of those missing, mainly in the urban centres of Borno state in Nigeria's northeast, who are forced to deal with the trauma.
"My father is traumatised. He goes out looking for my brother from time to time, hoping he will be found," 43-year-old Noami Abwaku told Al Jazeera about her brother Yerima Abwaku, a civil servant who disappeared on October 30, 2015.
She said her 53-year-old brother worked in a government school in Maiduguri, the epicentre of Boko Haram attacks.
"At this point, we have no hope because many like Yerima went missing around that time and they've not been found," Noami Abwaku said. "Three of my colleagues in office also went in the same period."
Boko Haram still occupies large expanses of the Nigerian countryside, mainly in the northeast and has a stronghold around the Lake Chad region bordering Cameroon and Niger.
Analyst Cheta Nwanze told Al Jazeera that the number of missing persons is not surprising and blamed it on a "notoriously lax" administration.
"It is a logical consequence of the fact that we consistently report not the names of the people missing, but just the numbers. To solve this, we must improve the accountability system," he said.
By Mercy Abang
Al Jazeera
In a statement, ICRC President Peter Maurer said nearly 60 percent of those missing were children and that it was the highest number of missing persons registered with the organisation in any country.
"They were minors when they went missing, meaning thousands of parents don't know where their children are and if they are alive or dead," he said on Thursday at the end of his five-day trip to Nigeria.
"Every parent's worst nightmare is not knowing where their child is. This is the tragic reality for thousands of Nigerian parents."
Nigeria is faced with multiple conflicts, including attacks by the Boko Haram and the frequent clashes between the nomadic herders and the farmers.
Boko Haram - whose name roughly translates to "Western education is forbidden" - wants to establish an Islamic state based on a strict interpretation of the Islamic law.
The United Nations estimates that more than 27,000 people have been killed and an estimated two million others displaced in Nigeria's northeast because of the violence by the Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria's central states, clashes between farmers and nomadic herders over dwindling arable land have also killed thousands and displaced tens of thousands.
'We have no hope'
In 2015, the Nigerian military launched "Operation Lafiya Dole" to force the Boko Haram out of the country's northeast.
But it is the families of those missing, mainly in the urban centres of Borno state in Nigeria's northeast, who are forced to deal with the trauma.
"My father is traumatised. He goes out looking for my brother from time to time, hoping he will be found," 43-year-old Noami Abwaku told Al Jazeera about her brother Yerima Abwaku, a civil servant who disappeared on October 30, 2015.
She said her 53-year-old brother worked in a government school in Maiduguri, the epicentre of Boko Haram attacks.
"At this point, we have no hope because many like Yerima went missing around that time and they've not been found," Noami Abwaku said. "Three of my colleagues in office also went in the same period."
Boko Haram still occupies large expanses of the Nigerian countryside, mainly in the northeast and has a stronghold around the Lake Chad region bordering Cameroon and Niger.
Analyst Cheta Nwanze told Al Jazeera that the number of missing persons is not surprising and blamed it on a "notoriously lax" administration.
"It is a logical consequence of the fact that we consistently report not the names of the people missing, but just the numbers. To solve this, we must improve the accountability system," he said.
By Mercy Abang
Al Jazeera
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Video - Hundreds of Nigerians sign up for voluntary evacuation from South Africa
Nigeria will begin repatriating its citizens from the country on Wednesday. Two planes belonging to Nigerian carrier Air Peace will take the first group of returnees to Nigeria Officials say 600 Nigerians in South Africa have registered to return home following xenophobic violence.
Tribunal in Nigeria reject bid to overturn Buhari's election
A Nigerian election tribunal rejected a bid by the main opposition candidate to overturn the result of February's presidential election, which saw Muhammadu Buhari returned to office.
Defeated contender Atiku Abubakar, a businessman and former vice president, was the candidate of the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP).
"This petition is hereby dismissed in its entirety," Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba said in announcing the ruling on Wednesday. All five judges who presided over the tribunal rejected Atiku's claims.
The defeat for Atiku was widely anticipated. Buhari, a 76-year-old former military ruler, was re-elected after first taking office as an elected leader in 2015.
The tribunal rejected all three of Atiku's claims: that the election was marred by irregularities, that he received more votes than Buhari, and the president did not have a secondary school certificate, a basic requirement to contest the election.
The PDP said it would mount an appeal against the ruling at the country's Supreme Court.
Buhari took 56 percent of the vote against 41 percent for Atiku, the electoral commission said in February, but with a turnout of just 35.6 percent compared with 44 percent in 2015.
Atiku rejected the result hours after Buhari was declared the victor and said he would mount a legal challenge.
"It is time for the country to move forward as one cohesive body, putting behind us all bickering and potential distractions over an election in which Nigerians spoke clearly and resoundingly," said Buhari in a statement on Wednesday following the tribunal's ruling.
The PDP said in a tweet it "completely rejects the judgment", which it described as a "direct assault on the integrity of our nation's justice system".
Every election result has been contested unsuccessfully since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, with the exception of the 2015 poll in which Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari.
Al Jazeera
Defeated contender Atiku Abubakar, a businessman and former vice president, was the candidate of the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP).
"This petition is hereby dismissed in its entirety," Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba said in announcing the ruling on Wednesday. All five judges who presided over the tribunal rejected Atiku's claims.
The defeat for Atiku was widely anticipated. Buhari, a 76-year-old former military ruler, was re-elected after first taking office as an elected leader in 2015.
The tribunal rejected all three of Atiku's claims: that the election was marred by irregularities, that he received more votes than Buhari, and the president did not have a secondary school certificate, a basic requirement to contest the election.
The PDP said it would mount an appeal against the ruling at the country's Supreme Court.
Buhari took 56 percent of the vote against 41 percent for Atiku, the electoral commission said in February, but with a turnout of just 35.6 percent compared with 44 percent in 2015.
Atiku rejected the result hours after Buhari was declared the victor and said he would mount a legal challenge.
"It is time for the country to move forward as one cohesive body, putting behind us all bickering and potential distractions over an election in which Nigerians spoke clearly and resoundingly," said Buhari in a statement on Wednesday following the tribunal's ruling.
The PDP said in a tweet it "completely rejects the judgment", which it described as a "direct assault on the integrity of our nation's justice system".
Every election result has been contested unsuccessfully since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, with the exception of the 2015 poll in which Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari.
Al Jazeera
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Online-only bank startup in Nigeria raises $1.6m
Nigerian fintech startup Kuda — a digital-only retail bank — has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding.
The Lagos and London-based company recently launched the beta version of its online mobile finance platform. Kuda also received its banking license from the Nigerian Central Bank, giving it a distinction compared to other fintech startups.
“Kuda is the first digital-only bank in Nigeria with a standalone license. We’re not a mobile wallet or simply a mobile app piggybacking on an existing bank,” Kuda bank founder Babs Ogundeyi told TechCrunch.
“We have built our own full-stack banking software from scratch. We can also take deposits and connect directly to the switch,” Ogundeyi added, referring to the Nigeria’s Central Switch — a SWIFT-like system that facilitates bank communication and settlements.
A representative for the Central Bank of Nigeria (speaking on background) confirmed Kuda’s banking license and status, telling TechCrunch, “As far as I’m aware there is no other digital bank [in Nigeria] that has a micro-finance license.”
Kuda offers checking accounts with no monthly-fees, a free debit card, and plans to offer consumer savings and P2P payments options on its platform in coming months.
“You can open a bank account within five minutes, do all the KYC in the app, and you get issued a new bank account number,” according to Ogundeyi.
Ogundeyi — a repeat founder who exited classifieds site Motortradertrader.ng and worked in a finance advisory role to the Nigerian government — co-founded Kuda in 2018 with former Stanbic Bank software developer Musty Mustapha.
The two convinced investor Haresh Aswani to lead the $1.6 million pre-seed funding, along with Ragnar Meitern and other angel investors. Aswani confirmed his investment to TechCrunch and that he will take a position on Kuda’s board.
Kuda plans to use its seed funds to go from beta to live launch in Nigeria by fourth-quarter 2019. The startup will also build out the tech of its banking platform, including support for its developer team located in Lagos and Cape Town, according to Ogundeyi.
Kuda also intends to expand in the near future. “It’s Nigeria for right now, but the plan is build a Pan-African digital-only bank,” he said.
As of 2014, Nigeria has held the dual distinction as Africa’s largest economy and most populous country (with 190 million people).
To scale there, and add some physical infrastructure to its online model, Kuda has correspondent relationships with three of Nigeria’s largest financial institutions: GTBank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank.
He clarified the banks are partners and not investors. Kuda customers can use these banks’ branches and ATMs to put money into bank accounts or withdraw funds without a fee.
“Even though we don’t own a single branch, we actually have the largest branch network in the country,” Ogundeyi claimed.
Kuda’s plans to generate revenues focus largely around leveraging its bank balances. “We plan to match different liability classes to the different asset classes that we create. That’s how we make money, that’s how we get efficiency in terms of income,” Ogundeyi said.
In Nigeria, Kuda enters a potentially revenue-rich market, but its one that already hosts a crowded fintech field — as the country becomes ground zero for payments startups and tech investment in Africa.
In both raw and per capita numbers, Nigeria has been slower to convert to digital payments than leading African countries, such as Kenya, according to joint McKinsey Company and Gates Foundation analysis done several years ago. The same study estimated there could be nearly $1.3 billion in revenue up for grabs if Nigeria could reach the same digital-payments penetration as Kenya.
A number of startups — established and new — are going after that prize in the West African country — several with a strategy to scale in Nigeria first before expanding outward on the continent and globally.
San Francisco-based, no-fee payment venture Chipper Cash entered Nigeria this month.
Series B-stage Nigerian payments company Paga raised $10 million in 2018 to further grow its customer base (that now tallies 13 million) and expand to Asia and Latin America.
Kuda CEO Babs Ogundeyi believes the startup can scale and compete in Nigeria on a number of factors, one being financial safety. He names the company’s official bank status and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation security that brings as something that can attract cash-comfortable bank clients to digital finance.
Ogundeyi also points to offerings and price.”We look to be the next generation bank where you can do everything— savings, payments and transfers — and also the one that’s least expensive,” he said.
By Jake Bright
Tech Crunch
The Lagos and London-based company recently launched the beta version of its online mobile finance platform. Kuda also received its banking license from the Nigerian Central Bank, giving it a distinction compared to other fintech startups.
“Kuda is the first digital-only bank in Nigeria with a standalone license. We’re not a mobile wallet or simply a mobile app piggybacking on an existing bank,” Kuda bank founder Babs Ogundeyi told TechCrunch.
“We have built our own full-stack banking software from scratch. We can also take deposits and connect directly to the switch,” Ogundeyi added, referring to the Nigeria’s Central Switch — a SWIFT-like system that facilitates bank communication and settlements.
A representative for the Central Bank of Nigeria (speaking on background) confirmed Kuda’s banking license and status, telling TechCrunch, “As far as I’m aware there is no other digital bank [in Nigeria] that has a micro-finance license.”
Kuda offers checking accounts with no monthly-fees, a free debit card, and plans to offer consumer savings and P2P payments options on its platform in coming months.
“You can open a bank account within five minutes, do all the KYC in the app, and you get issued a new bank account number,” according to Ogundeyi.
Ogundeyi — a repeat founder who exited classifieds site Motortradertrader.ng and worked in a finance advisory role to the Nigerian government — co-founded Kuda in 2018 with former Stanbic Bank software developer Musty Mustapha.
The two convinced investor Haresh Aswani to lead the $1.6 million pre-seed funding, along with Ragnar Meitern and other angel investors. Aswani confirmed his investment to TechCrunch and that he will take a position on Kuda’s board.
Kuda plans to use its seed funds to go from beta to live launch in Nigeria by fourth-quarter 2019. The startup will also build out the tech of its banking platform, including support for its developer team located in Lagos and Cape Town, according to Ogundeyi.
Kuda also intends to expand in the near future. “It’s Nigeria for right now, but the plan is build a Pan-African digital-only bank,” he said.
As of 2014, Nigeria has held the dual distinction as Africa’s largest economy and most populous country (with 190 million people).
To scale there, and add some physical infrastructure to its online model, Kuda has correspondent relationships with three of Nigeria’s largest financial institutions: GTBank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank.
He clarified the banks are partners and not investors. Kuda customers can use these banks’ branches and ATMs to put money into bank accounts or withdraw funds without a fee.
“Even though we don’t own a single branch, we actually have the largest branch network in the country,” Ogundeyi claimed.
Kuda’s plans to generate revenues focus largely around leveraging its bank balances. “We plan to match different liability classes to the different asset classes that we create. That’s how we make money, that’s how we get efficiency in terms of income,” Ogundeyi said.
In Nigeria, Kuda enters a potentially revenue-rich market, but its one that already hosts a crowded fintech field — as the country becomes ground zero for payments startups and tech investment in Africa.
In both raw and per capita numbers, Nigeria has been slower to convert to digital payments than leading African countries, such as Kenya, according to joint McKinsey Company and Gates Foundation analysis done several years ago. The same study estimated there could be nearly $1.3 billion in revenue up for grabs if Nigeria could reach the same digital-payments penetration as Kenya.
A number of startups — established and new — are going after that prize in the West African country — several with a strategy to scale in Nigeria first before expanding outward on the continent and globally.
San Francisco-based, no-fee payment venture Chipper Cash entered Nigeria this month.
Series B-stage Nigerian payments company Paga raised $10 million in 2018 to further grow its customer base (that now tallies 13 million) and expand to Asia and Latin America.
Kuda CEO Babs Ogundeyi believes the startup can scale and compete in Nigeria on a number of factors, one being financial safety. He names the company’s official bank status and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation security that brings as something that can attract cash-comfortable bank clients to digital finance.
Ogundeyi also points to offerings and price.”We look to be the next generation bank where you can do everything— savings, payments and transfers — and also the one that’s least expensive,” he said.
By Jake Bright
Tech Crunch
Banned Shia group in Nigeria allege police killed 12 marchers
A Nigerian Shia group banned by the government said police killed 12 of members and wounded 10 others during marches in the north of country to mark the religious commemoration known as Ashoura.
Spokesman Ibrahim Musa said the Shia marchers were killed in the northern states of Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Sokoto, and Katsina on Tuesday.
"The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has confirmed the killing of at least a dozen Ashoura mourners across the nation during the peaceful Ashoura mourning procession today," said Musa.
The group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), was banned in July after a series of deadly clashes with police. IMN said the police were responsible for the deaths of at least 20 people in July but the police gave no death toll.
Police in the northern city of Kaduna, where IMN said three were killed and 10 injured on Tuesday, disputed the account and said it dispersed marchers "professionally".
A national police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group was marching to mark Ashoura, the day in Islamic tradition when the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussein, died in battle in 1680.
Police had warned IMN members not to march, saying any gathering or procession by group members is "ultimately illegal and will be treated as a gathering in the advancement of terrorism".
Leader imprisoned
IMN said police attacked its marchers on Tuesday and, in Katsina, opened fire on them. It said members were killed in Bauchi, Gombe and Sokoto states, all in northern Nigeria, but marches in the capital, Abuja, and other northern states ended without incident.
Clashes with police in the last few weeks followed calls by the group for its leader to be released from police detention.
Their leader, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, has been held since 2015 when government forces killed about 350 people after storming an IMN compound and a nearby mosque.
While roughly half of the nearly 200 million Nigerians are Muslim, mostly concentrated in the north of the country, Shia are a minority.
Last week the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said she had not been presented with any evidence to suggest IMN was weaponised and posed a threat to Nigeria.
Al Jazeera
Spokesman Ibrahim Musa said the Shia marchers were killed in the northern states of Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Sokoto, and Katsina on Tuesday.
"The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has confirmed the killing of at least a dozen Ashoura mourners across the nation during the peaceful Ashoura mourning procession today," said Musa.
The group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), was banned in July after a series of deadly clashes with police. IMN said the police were responsible for the deaths of at least 20 people in July but the police gave no death toll.
Police in the northern city of Kaduna, where IMN said three were killed and 10 injured on Tuesday, disputed the account and said it dispersed marchers "professionally".
A national police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group was marching to mark Ashoura, the day in Islamic tradition when the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussein, died in battle in 1680.
Police had warned IMN members not to march, saying any gathering or procession by group members is "ultimately illegal and will be treated as a gathering in the advancement of terrorism".
Leader imprisoned
IMN said police attacked its marchers on Tuesday and, in Katsina, opened fire on them. It said members were killed in Bauchi, Gombe and Sokoto states, all in northern Nigeria, but marches in the capital, Abuja, and other northern states ended without incident.
Clashes with police in the last few weeks followed calls by the group for its leader to be released from police detention.
Their leader, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, has been held since 2015 when government forces killed about 350 people after storming an IMN compound and a nearby mosque.
While roughly half of the nearly 200 million Nigerians are Muslim, mostly concentrated in the north of the country, Shia are a minority.
Last week the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said she had not been presented with any evidence to suggest IMN was weaponised and posed a threat to Nigeria.
Al Jazeera
Nigeria commences repatriation of Nigerians from South Africa
Nigeria has started the process of repatriating more than 600 of its citizens from South Africa following a wave of deadly xenophobic attacks that has frayed relations between the two countries.
Private Nigerian airline Air Peace, has volunteered to fly people for free back to Lagos. At least 320 Nigerians are expected to be flown out on Wednesday, while a second flight will depart on Thursday. At least 640 Nigerians have signed up for the flights.
Al Jazeera's Fahmida Miller, reporting from the airport in Johannesburg, said on Wednesday that "of the more [than] 600 people who [were] expected to leave, at least half of them" were already there, while a "small group of people were turned back, due to incorrect documentation."
The repatriation came after deadly riots in Pretoria and Johannesburg killed at least 12 people, including two foreigners, and targeted 1,000 foreign-owned businesses.
The violence sparked international outcry and calls for a boycott.
Reprisal attacks in Nigeria forced South African business to shut down while the South African embassy in Lagos temporarily closed its doors over safety fears.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Pastor Ugo Ofoegbu, who was at the airport to board the flight, said that "some [people] had an expired passport."
"They will have to go to the Nigerian consulate to get the [right] documentation that will allow them to travel," the added.
Ayanda Dlodlo, South Africa's minister of state security, told reporters in Cape Town on Monday that those leaving will have to go through immigration processes.
Police on high alert
This is not the first time that foreigners have been attacked in South Africa. In 2008, at least 62 people, including South Africans, were killed, while deadly violence and looting targeting foreign-owned stores left seven dead in 2015.
"I am so worried about the safety of my family, because these [xenophobic] attacks keep happening, so if I don't save my family now, I don't know when [this will] start again," Ofoegbu said
"It happened in 2008, and then in 2015, now it is repeating, so nobody knows when will it happen again," he added.
The root causes of the latest wave of violence are still unclear but reports suggest it is related to high unemployment, criminality and poverty in the country.
Around 700 people are believed to be housed at temporary shelters in Johannesburg, while Mozambique and Zimbabwe were also considering some sort of repatriation of their nationals.
However, South African officials were hesitant to describe the wave of violence as xenophobic attacks, and instead said this was an issue of criminality that the government was trying to deal with.
"While there has been a significant decline in the number of incidents, police forces remain on high alert and are closely monitoring hotspots to ensure further violence does not erupt," Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Police have arrested at least 653 people, mostly South Africans but some foreigners as well, in connection with the attacks, Minister of Police Bheki Cele said on Tuesday.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to visit South Africa next month to discuss the attacks and seek a solution.
Al Jazeera
Related stories: Nigeria to repatriate 600 Nigerians from South Africa due to xenophobic violence
Nigeria withdraws from summit in South Africa after deadly riots
Private Nigerian airline Air Peace, has volunteered to fly people for free back to Lagos. At least 320 Nigerians are expected to be flown out on Wednesday, while a second flight will depart on Thursday. At least 640 Nigerians have signed up for the flights.
Al Jazeera's Fahmida Miller, reporting from the airport in Johannesburg, said on Wednesday that "of the more [than] 600 people who [were] expected to leave, at least half of them" were already there, while a "small group of people were turned back, due to incorrect documentation."
The repatriation came after deadly riots in Pretoria and Johannesburg killed at least 12 people, including two foreigners, and targeted 1,000 foreign-owned businesses.
The violence sparked international outcry and calls for a boycott.
Reprisal attacks in Nigeria forced South African business to shut down while the South African embassy in Lagos temporarily closed its doors over safety fears.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Pastor Ugo Ofoegbu, who was at the airport to board the flight, said that "some [people] had an expired passport."
"They will have to go to the Nigerian consulate to get the [right] documentation that will allow them to travel," the added.
Ayanda Dlodlo, South Africa's minister of state security, told reporters in Cape Town on Monday that those leaving will have to go through immigration processes.
Police on high alert
This is not the first time that foreigners have been attacked in South Africa. In 2008, at least 62 people, including South Africans, were killed, while deadly violence and looting targeting foreign-owned stores left seven dead in 2015.
"I am so worried about the safety of my family, because these [xenophobic] attacks keep happening, so if I don't save my family now, I don't know when [this will] start again," Ofoegbu said
"It happened in 2008, and then in 2015, now it is repeating, so nobody knows when will it happen again," he added.
The root causes of the latest wave of violence are still unclear but reports suggest it is related to high unemployment, criminality and poverty in the country.
Around 700 people are believed to be housed at temporary shelters in Johannesburg, while Mozambique and Zimbabwe were also considering some sort of repatriation of their nationals.
However, South African officials were hesitant to describe the wave of violence as xenophobic attacks, and instead said this was an issue of criminality that the government was trying to deal with.
"While there has been a significant decline in the number of incidents, police forces remain on high alert and are closely monitoring hotspots to ensure further violence does not erupt," Minister of Defence Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Police have arrested at least 653 people, mostly South Africans but some foreigners as well, in connection with the attacks, Minister of Police Bheki Cele said on Tuesday.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to visit South Africa next month to discuss the attacks and seek a solution.
Al Jazeera
Related stories: Nigeria to repatriate 600 Nigerians from South Africa due to xenophobic violence
Nigeria withdraws from summit in South Africa after deadly riots
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Video - Children held in 'horrific conditions over Boko Haram ties in Nigeria
Thousands of children have been held in recent years by Nigeria's military in "degrading and inhuman conditions" for alleged association with the Boko Haram armed group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said, calling for their "immediate" release. The HRW says children have been forced to stay in squalid conditions and not allowed to see family members. The military denies the accusations.
Video - Opioid crisis in Nigeria
West Africa - and particularly its most populous nation, Nigeria - is battling an opioid abuse crisis. Medicines such as tramadol, legally and legitimately prescribed by doctors for pain relief, are also being taken in life-threatening doses by millions in search of a fix or a release from poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunity. People & Power sent filmmakers Naashon Zalk and Antony Loewenstein to Nigeria to investigate how the drug is smuggled, traded and abused, as well as the widespread corruption that follows this illicit trafficking, and the appalling health consequences for those in its grip.
Related story: Growing meth market in Nigeria
Video - Nigerian entrepreneur creates jobs to drive economic empowerment
A multiple award-winning Nigerian professional Chef is turning her passion for food into an enterprise that is creating opportunities for young aspiring chefs. Fatima Haruna has trained over 80,000 people on various culinary skills and her classes are usually packed. She says her dream is to train as many young Nigerians as possible, so that they too- can become economically empowered.
Video - Nigeria leads continent in Air Pollution-related deaths
Pollution in Nigeria is getting worse. According to a 2019 State of Global Air report, the West African nation has the highest air pollution-related deaths in the continent. In addition, burning wood and coal in Nigeria's vast rural areas is increasingly intensifying the suffering of many.
Growing meth market in Nigeria
Nigeria has emerged over the past decade as a significant producer of methamphetamine (meth), a highly addictive and illegal synthetic psychostimulant drug. Since the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) first discovery in Lagos in 2011 of a clandestine meth laboratory, 17 more have been dismantled elsewhere in the country. The quantity of meth seized has skyrocketed, rising from 177kg in 2012 to 1.3 tons in 2017.
In late 2018, following the dismantling of a lab in Obinugwu village in south-east Nigeria, NDLEA Special Enforcement Team commander Sunday Zirangey reportedly said that meth was a serious threat and that Nigeria risked turning into a narco state.
Despite the acute health risks associated with its consumption – such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular-related illness – a growing number of young people in Nigeria reportedly take the drug. A 2018 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report estimated that 89 000 Nigerians were using meth. Abimbola Adebakin, a leading Lagos-based pharmacist, told Enact that “the youth may be using drugs increasingly to cope with a depressed economic reality for them”.
“Furthermore, due to our weak pharmaceutical drug distribution system, the youth have a porous drug supply situation that lends itself to support such abuse and misuse, she said.
In 2016, the illicit market for meth took a new turn in Nigeria. Drug syndicates brought Latin American drug experts to Nigeria to help them set up large-scale meth labs, with similar characteristics to those found in Mexico. One industrial super lab was said to have the capacity to produce 4,000 kg of meth per week.
When the NDLEA raided the site in March 2016, they arrested four Mexicans and five Nigerians. The Mexicans were reportedly from Sinaloa State. Their arrest provided further evidence of a formal and successful alliance between Nigerian and Latin American cartels.
The growth of the illicit meth market in Nigeria has also been fuelled by the accessibility of precursor chemicals such as ephedrine, which is theoretically a controlled substance but is widely available in Nigeria.
In March 2019, the NDLEA seized 309 kg of ephedrine from members of a criminal network in Trans Ekulu Estate in Enugu and Festac Town in Lagos. According to a 2017 report by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Nigerian criminal networks bring ephedrine in from countries in West Africa that import more than they need.
According to the UNODC’s Cheikh Touré, the “use and diversion of pre-precursors and other non-controlled chemicals signifies complex challenges in addressing clandestine meth manufacturing in Nigeria and West Africa”. Touré is the UNODC programme co-ordinator for the Economic Community of West African States Regional Action Plan to address the growing problem of illicit drug trafficking, organised crime and drug abuse in West Africa.
While a portion of the meth produced in Nigeria is consumed locally, most is reportedly exported to South Africa where 1kg of meth sells for up to €10 000 (R163,000). It is also trafficked to South-East Asia, in particular Japan, where 1kg can reportedly fetch €130,000.
As in Mexico where syndicates use violence to control the drug market, confrontations between drug gangs in Nigeria have increased. In August 2017, gunmen attacked a church in Ozubulu in Anambra State while looking for a rival drug gang leader, killing 13 people. An investigation revealed that the fighting was between two gangs operating from South Africa.
According to Touré: “Nigeria has built up expertise in relation to the detection and dismantling of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories.” He said stricter control by the national authorities on precursor chemicals and other psychotropic substances was being implemented.
However, despite the great efforts the Nigerian authorities are making to contain illicit meth production, the illicit market of the drug is yet to be eradicated. The government should focus on effective regulation of the import of controlled precursors.
By Mouhamadou Kane
Daily Maverick
In late 2018, following the dismantling of a lab in Obinugwu village in south-east Nigeria, NDLEA Special Enforcement Team commander Sunday Zirangey reportedly said that meth was a serious threat and that Nigeria risked turning into a narco state.
Despite the acute health risks associated with its consumption – such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular-related illness – a growing number of young people in Nigeria reportedly take the drug. A 2018 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report estimated that 89 000 Nigerians were using meth. Abimbola Adebakin, a leading Lagos-based pharmacist, told Enact that “the youth may be using drugs increasingly to cope with a depressed economic reality for them”.
“Furthermore, due to our weak pharmaceutical drug distribution system, the youth have a porous drug supply situation that lends itself to support such abuse and misuse, she said.
In 2016, the illicit market for meth took a new turn in Nigeria. Drug syndicates brought Latin American drug experts to Nigeria to help them set up large-scale meth labs, with similar characteristics to those found in Mexico. One industrial super lab was said to have the capacity to produce 4,000 kg of meth per week.
When the NDLEA raided the site in March 2016, they arrested four Mexicans and five Nigerians. The Mexicans were reportedly from Sinaloa State. Their arrest provided further evidence of a formal and successful alliance between Nigerian and Latin American cartels.
The growth of the illicit meth market in Nigeria has also been fuelled by the accessibility of precursor chemicals such as ephedrine, which is theoretically a controlled substance but is widely available in Nigeria.
In March 2019, the NDLEA seized 309 kg of ephedrine from members of a criminal network in Trans Ekulu Estate in Enugu and Festac Town in Lagos. According to a 2017 report by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Nigerian criminal networks bring ephedrine in from countries in West Africa that import more than they need.
According to the UNODC’s Cheikh Touré, the “use and diversion of pre-precursors and other non-controlled chemicals signifies complex challenges in addressing clandestine meth manufacturing in Nigeria and West Africa”. Touré is the UNODC programme co-ordinator for the Economic Community of West African States Regional Action Plan to address the growing problem of illicit drug trafficking, organised crime and drug abuse in West Africa.
While a portion of the meth produced in Nigeria is consumed locally, most is reportedly exported to South Africa where 1kg of meth sells for up to €10 000 (R163,000). It is also trafficked to South-East Asia, in particular Japan, where 1kg can reportedly fetch €130,000.
As in Mexico where syndicates use violence to control the drug market, confrontations between drug gangs in Nigeria have increased. In August 2017, gunmen attacked a church in Ozubulu in Anambra State while looking for a rival drug gang leader, killing 13 people. An investigation revealed that the fighting was between two gangs operating from South Africa.
According to Touré: “Nigeria has built up expertise in relation to the detection and dismantling of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories.” He said stricter control by the national authorities on precursor chemicals and other psychotropic substances was being implemented.
However, despite the great efforts the Nigerian authorities are making to contain illicit meth production, the illicit market of the drug is yet to be eradicated. The government should focus on effective regulation of the import of controlled precursors.
By Mouhamadou Kane
Daily Maverick
Film industry in Nigeria draws global entertainment brands
“Oya!” shouts the director in Nigerian Pidgin English. Actors take their marks. Lighting blinks on. The film crew snaps into action after the order to hurry up.
It’s another day in Nollywood, the affectionate nickname for Nigeria’s film industry - the world’s second most prolific after India’s Bollywood, producing hundreds of films and TV episodes each month.
For decades it was a factory churning out visual pulp fiction destined for the market stalls of DVD pirates. But Nollywood is increasingly grabbing the attention - and financing - of global entertainment brands.
Some, like French group Vivendi’s Canal+, seek to harness Nigerian hustle and know-how to extend the lifespan of the traditional pay-TV model, which is bleeding customers in developed markets but still has a future in Africa.
Others, including South Africa’s MultiChoice, are using Nigeria as a testing ground for introducing streaming platforms in African markets with poor communications infrastructure and low income levels.
In both cases, it’s local production that’s benefiting.
“Ten years ago Nollywood was very different,” Mary Njoku, whose ROK studios was acquired by Canal+ in July, told Reuters as the film crew worked in an abandoned hotel in Nigeria’s megacity Lagos. “Today we shoot with better cameras... We do things differently.”
A room on the hotel’s top floor was standing in for a college dorm on “What Are Friends For?”, an ROK comedy series that will be among new shows aired by Canal+ in coming months.
The company first dipped its toe into Africa’s most populous country six years ago, buying up local films, dubbing them and airing them on a dedicated channel, Nollywood TV, to viewers in French-speaking Africa.
That success led to the creation of a second channel.
The deal with ROK secures a steady supply of new films and series as the firm eyes a further expansion of African content, said Fabrice Faux, Canal+ International’s chief content officer.
Since it was founded six years ago, ROK has produced more than 540 films and 25 series. Under the Canal+ deal, Njoku says it aims to increase production from next year to around 300 films and 20 series annually.
Canal+’s pivot to Africa - a golden opportunity for ROK - is a business necessity for the French company.
“It is one of the very rare pay-TV markets that is growing and is growing very fast,” Faux told Reuters. “When I joined Canal+ International back in 2014, we had half a million (African subscribers) and now we have 4 million.”
Compare that to mainland France where, as of last year, it had lost some 1.3 million individual subscribers since 2013.
Much of that decline arose from losing broadcasting rights to popular sporting events. But it also reflected stiff competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. However, Faux believes such rivals pose no threat in Africa due to a widespread lack of 4G coverage or fixed broadband internet on the continent.
To properly develop African markets, however, Canal+ must cater to their diverse audiences, Faux said.
Francophone Africa has no Nollywood equivalent. Producing shows there has been slow and expensive, as Canal+ has been forced to bring in film crews from Europe to shoot on location, Faux said. He now hopes Canal+ can use ROK to clone the Nollywood model.
“The best knowledge and expertise is there in Nigeria. So it is our intention to try to bring some producers, technicians, directors to French-speaking Africa, for us to try to develop new production methods,” Faux said.
TEMPORARY GLITCHES?
If Canal+ sees little threat from streaming services in Africa, MultiChoice - the first major entertainment group to realize Nollywood’s potential - is out to prove it wrong.
In its infancy in the 1990s, Nollywood churned out cheap films ranging from bawdy comedies to morality tales about witchcraft and infidelity.
Low on production quality but high on entertainment value, these movies quickly garnered a fanatical following across Africa and its diaspora. And in 2003, MultiChoice launched Africa Magic - a Nollywood channel that would grow into a subscription package on its DStv satellite network.
In July, Showmax, MultiChoice’s fledgling video-streaming service, launched in Nigeria.
“The Nollywood phenomenon makes it quite interesting from a content development point of view. You have a huge base of very loyal fans,” said Niclas Ekdahl, CEO of MultiChoice’s connected video division.
Showmax - also available in South Africa and Kenya - is not alone in Nigeria’s video-on-demand market.
U.S. streaming giant Netflix released “Lionheart”, its first original film produced in Nigeria, in January. It is also negotiating licence deals for Nigerian films such as “Chief Daddy”, a comedy that debuted on the platform in March.
But bringing streaming to African audiences won’t be easy. Expensive mobile data and low incomes make regular streaming unaffordable for many on the continent.
One gigabyte of data, enough to watch about three films, costs the equivalent of around $2.80 in Nigeria, while most people live on less than $2 a day.
The experience of Malaysian streaming platform iflix is a cautionary tale.
It launched in Nigeria in 2017, then expanded to Kenya, Ghana and Zimbabwe following a tie-up with Kwese TV, a subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s Econet Media Limited.
However, data discounts and a pay-as-you-go option were not enough to sustain the business. In December, iflix sold its Africa business to the Econet group, which shut down the streaming service last month.
Showmax’s Ekdahl remains undaunted, passing the challenges off as “temporary glitches”. The potential payoff - a largely untapped audience of 1 billion - is worth the effort of tailoring a business to African markets, he believes.
Showmax partnered with mobile phone operators Vodacom, MTN and Telkom in South Africa and Safaricom in Kenya to offer reduced data and subscription fees. It aims to do the same in Nigeria.
It is also experimenting with installing wireless internet in public transport, so viewers can download content during their daily commutes without incurring data costs.
The boom in interest in Nigeria’s film industry can only be a good thing, says Joshua Richard, a barrel-chested actor who plays a fanatically religious student on “What Are Friends For?”
Foreign investment will, he hopes, help Nollywood shake off a reputation for shoddy camerawork and muffled sound, while also leading to greater artistic recognition overseas.
“It exposes African actors to a bigger audience,” he said. “We have lots of good content in Nollywood, but it doesn’t get the credit it deserves.”
By Alexis Akwagyiram
Reuters
Related stories: Nollywood: most prolific movie machine
It’s another day in Nollywood, the affectionate nickname for Nigeria’s film industry - the world’s second most prolific after India’s Bollywood, producing hundreds of films and TV episodes each month.
For decades it was a factory churning out visual pulp fiction destined for the market stalls of DVD pirates. But Nollywood is increasingly grabbing the attention - and financing - of global entertainment brands.
Some, like French group Vivendi’s Canal+, seek to harness Nigerian hustle and know-how to extend the lifespan of the traditional pay-TV model, which is bleeding customers in developed markets but still has a future in Africa.
Others, including South Africa’s MultiChoice, are using Nigeria as a testing ground for introducing streaming platforms in African markets with poor communications infrastructure and low income levels.
In both cases, it’s local production that’s benefiting.
“Ten years ago Nollywood was very different,” Mary Njoku, whose ROK studios was acquired by Canal+ in July, told Reuters as the film crew worked in an abandoned hotel in Nigeria’s megacity Lagos. “Today we shoot with better cameras... We do things differently.”
A room on the hotel’s top floor was standing in for a college dorm on “What Are Friends For?”, an ROK comedy series that will be among new shows aired by Canal+ in coming months.
The company first dipped its toe into Africa’s most populous country six years ago, buying up local films, dubbing them and airing them on a dedicated channel, Nollywood TV, to viewers in French-speaking Africa.
That success led to the creation of a second channel.
The deal with ROK secures a steady supply of new films and series as the firm eyes a further expansion of African content, said Fabrice Faux, Canal+ International’s chief content officer.
Since it was founded six years ago, ROK has produced more than 540 films and 25 series. Under the Canal+ deal, Njoku says it aims to increase production from next year to around 300 films and 20 series annually.
Canal+’s pivot to Africa - a golden opportunity for ROK - is a business necessity for the French company.
“It is one of the very rare pay-TV markets that is growing and is growing very fast,” Faux told Reuters. “When I joined Canal+ International back in 2014, we had half a million (African subscribers) and now we have 4 million.”
Compare that to mainland France where, as of last year, it had lost some 1.3 million individual subscribers since 2013.
Much of that decline arose from losing broadcasting rights to popular sporting events. But it also reflected stiff competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon. However, Faux believes such rivals pose no threat in Africa due to a widespread lack of 4G coverage or fixed broadband internet on the continent.
To properly develop African markets, however, Canal+ must cater to their diverse audiences, Faux said.
Francophone Africa has no Nollywood equivalent. Producing shows there has been slow and expensive, as Canal+ has been forced to bring in film crews from Europe to shoot on location, Faux said. He now hopes Canal+ can use ROK to clone the Nollywood model.
“The best knowledge and expertise is there in Nigeria. So it is our intention to try to bring some producers, technicians, directors to French-speaking Africa, for us to try to develop new production methods,” Faux said.
TEMPORARY GLITCHES?
If Canal+ sees little threat from streaming services in Africa, MultiChoice - the first major entertainment group to realize Nollywood’s potential - is out to prove it wrong.
In its infancy in the 1990s, Nollywood churned out cheap films ranging from bawdy comedies to morality tales about witchcraft and infidelity.
Low on production quality but high on entertainment value, these movies quickly garnered a fanatical following across Africa and its diaspora. And in 2003, MultiChoice launched Africa Magic - a Nollywood channel that would grow into a subscription package on its DStv satellite network.
In July, Showmax, MultiChoice’s fledgling video-streaming service, launched in Nigeria.
“The Nollywood phenomenon makes it quite interesting from a content development point of view. You have a huge base of very loyal fans,” said Niclas Ekdahl, CEO of MultiChoice’s connected video division.
Showmax - also available in South Africa and Kenya - is not alone in Nigeria’s video-on-demand market.
U.S. streaming giant Netflix released “Lionheart”, its first original film produced in Nigeria, in January. It is also negotiating licence deals for Nigerian films such as “Chief Daddy”, a comedy that debuted on the platform in March.
But bringing streaming to African audiences won’t be easy. Expensive mobile data and low incomes make regular streaming unaffordable for many on the continent.
One gigabyte of data, enough to watch about three films, costs the equivalent of around $2.80 in Nigeria, while most people live on less than $2 a day.
The experience of Malaysian streaming platform iflix is a cautionary tale.
It launched in Nigeria in 2017, then expanded to Kenya, Ghana and Zimbabwe following a tie-up with Kwese TV, a subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s Econet Media Limited.
However, data discounts and a pay-as-you-go option were not enough to sustain the business. In December, iflix sold its Africa business to the Econet group, which shut down the streaming service last month.
Showmax’s Ekdahl remains undaunted, passing the challenges off as “temporary glitches”. The potential payoff - a largely untapped audience of 1 billion - is worth the effort of tailoring a business to African markets, he believes.
Showmax partnered with mobile phone operators Vodacom, MTN and Telkom in South Africa and Safaricom in Kenya to offer reduced data and subscription fees. It aims to do the same in Nigeria.
It is also experimenting with installing wireless internet in public transport, so viewers can download content during their daily commutes without incurring data costs.
The boom in interest in Nigeria’s film industry can only be a good thing, says Joshua Richard, a barrel-chested actor who plays a fanatically religious student on “What Are Friends For?”
Foreign investment will, he hopes, help Nollywood shake off a reputation for shoddy camerawork and muffled sound, while also leading to greater artistic recognition overseas.
“It exposes African actors to a bigger audience,” he said. “We have lots of good content in Nollywood, but it doesn’t get the credit it deserves.”
By Alexis Akwagyiram
Reuters
Related stories: Nollywood: most prolific movie machine
Monday, September 9, 2019
Video - Nigeria works to end violence in 'Wild West'
After years of military action in north-west Nigeria, the government is choosing dialogue to end killings and kidnapping mainly by nomadic cattle herders. Government officials say they want to tackle the injustices that fueled the crisis in the first place.
Nigeria to repatriate 600 Nigerians from South Africa due to xenophobic violence
Nigeria will repatriate about 600 citizens from South Africa this week following a wave of xenophobic violence that caused tensions between the countries, a Nigerian diplomat said Monday.
South Africa's financial capital Johannesburg and surrounding areas were rocked by a surge of deadly attacks against foreigners this week, many directed against Nigerian-owned businesses and properties.
"They are about 600 now" due to be flown back, Godwin Adamu, Nigerian Consul General in Johannesburg, told AFP.
Nigerian airline "Air Peace is beginning the airlift by Wednesday, the first flight with 320 Nigerians," he said. "We will have another one immediately after that."
At least 12 people were killed in the violence and hundreds of shops destroyed.
Foreign workers are often victims of anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa -- the continent's second biggest economy after Nigeria -- where they compete against locals for jobs, particularly in low-skilled industries.
AFP
South Africa's financial capital Johannesburg and surrounding areas were rocked by a surge of deadly attacks against foreigners this week, many directed against Nigerian-owned businesses and properties.
"They are about 600 now" due to be flown back, Godwin Adamu, Nigerian Consul General in Johannesburg, told AFP.
Nigerian airline "Air Peace is beginning the airlift by Wednesday, the first flight with 320 Nigerians," he said. "We will have another one immediately after that."
At least 12 people were killed in the violence and hundreds of shops destroyed.
Foreign workers are often victims of anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa -- the continent's second biggest economy after Nigeria -- where they compete against locals for jobs, particularly in low-skilled industries.
AFP
Friday, September 6, 2019
Video - Joe Rogan and Zuby talk about scammers from Nigeria
Joe Rogan and Zuby talk about scammers from Nigeria.
Related stories: Global reputation of Nigeria dented by FBI fraud bust
Video - Hacker attempts to help victim of Nigerian 419 scam recover $400,000
FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
Medical doctor turned hacker says hacking into Nigerian banks is very easy
Nigerians beating bitcoin scams
Video - Nigeria struggling to diversify beyond dependence on crude oil
The continent's largest economy, Nigeria is still struggling to diversify beyond a dependence on crude oil earnings. In the textile industry for instance, the country relies heavily on imported fabrics, since the local supply is insufficient.
Video - Nigeria Police battle angry rioters in Abuja demonstrating against violence
Police in Nigeria's capital - Abuja are battling angry youths - protesting against Xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The youths tried to gain access into South African owned mall - Shoprite during the fracas. This comes as South African Ambassador to Nigeria - Bobby Monroe initiated peace talks with the nations' student and youth Groups.
Video - South Africa closes embassy in Nigeria due to recent xenophobic violence
South Africa has temporarily closed its diplomatic missions in Nigeria following reprisal attacks by Nigerians triggered by xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Between Sunday and Wednesday, mobs looted and destroyed shops, many of them foreign-owned, in South Africa's commercial hub, Johannesburg.
Nigeria's government has been outspoken in its condemnation of the violence.
Police say the unrest has subsided and more than 420 arrests have been made.
South Africa's Foreign Minister, Naledi Pandor, called the violence an embarrassment for her country.
"Our government regrets all violence against foreign-owned stores or Africans from other countries who are resident in South Africa," she was quoted as saying by national broadcaster SABC.
She ordered the closure of the country's high commission in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and its mission in Lagos, following threats made to the diplomatic staff.
Have any Nigerians been killed?
Videos and images that have been shared on social media purporting to show Nigerians being attacked and killed have inflamed tensions.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, South African-owned businesses were targeted by protesters in several Nigerian cities, and the looters said the attacks were reprisals for the killing of Nigerians in South Africa. South African telecoms giant MTN closed its shops as a precaution.
In response to the violence in Johannesburg, two of Nigeria's top musicians, Burna Boy And Tiwa Savage, announced they were boycotting South Africa.
At least 10 people have been killed in the trouble in South Africa, including two foreign nationals, the South African government says, but none of the victims have been identified as Nigerian.
On Wednesday, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told journalists: "There are a lot of stories going around of Nigerians being killed, jumping off buildings and being burnt. This is not the case."
While the government believes Nigerian businesses have been targeted in South Africa, he added, it has no evidence that Nigerians have died.
Mr Onyeama also urged people to stop attacking South African businesses in Nigeria, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari was "particularly distraught at the acts of vandalism".
Why has the Nigerian government been so outspoken?
Despite disputing the accounts of Nigerians dying in South Africa, the Nigerian government has been forceful in its condemnation of events there.
On Wednesday, it announced it was boycotting the World Economic Forum on Africa that is currently taking place in Cape Town in protest at the violence.
"The government believes that we have to take the moral high ground on this matter," Mr Onyeama said.
The president has also sent an envoy to South Africa to "express Nigeria's displeasure over the treatment of her citizens".
Nigerians often criticise the authorities for being slow to respond to domestic crises and the government is keen to be seen to be taking action over attacks in South Africa, said the BBC's Nigeria correspondent, Mayeni Jones.
What about reaction elsewhere in Africa?
On Thursday, demonstrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo's second city, Lubumbashi, broke the windows of South Africa's consulate, AFP news agency reports.
There was also a small demonstration outside the South African embassy in the capital, Kinshasa.
Air Tanzania, the country's national carrier, has suspended flights to Johannesburg because of the violence, Transport Minister Isack Kamwelwe said.
Madagascar's football federation has announced that it will not be sending a team to play South Africa in a friendly on Saturday because of security concerns.
The fixture against Madagascar was announced after Zambia pulled out of the match earlier this week over the xenophobic violence.
On Wednesday, students in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, forced the closure of several South African-owned shopping malls.
A group also marched on the South African high commission in the city and defaced the sign outside the compound.
"We are tired of being beaten every day. We're all Africa. Why must we be afraid to go to South Africa?... We want the ambassador to address us," one protester told Reuters news agency.
On Tuesday, the African Union (AU) issued a statement condemning the "despicable acts" of violence in South Africa "in the strongest terms".
What sparked the looting in South Africa?
The attacks on foreign-owned shops began after South African lorry drivers started a nationwide strike to protest against the employment of foreign drivers. They blocked roads and torched foreign-driven vehicles mainly in the coastal KwaZulu-Natal province.
It comes at a time of high unemployment and some South Africans blame foreigners for taking their jobs.
The unemployment rate in South Africa is nearly 28%, the highest since the labour force survey was introduced 11 years ago.
The government minister responsible for small business development told BBC Newsday the rioters "feel there are other Africans coming into the country and they feel these Africans are taking our jobs".
Lindiwe Zulu said the problems were caused by the movement of people across Africa.
"We are facing a challenge that is beyond South Africa as a country. This is an African problem," she said.
Some foreigners are also accused of being involved in pushing illegal drugs.
A taxi driver was allegedly shot dead in Pretoria last week when he confronted foreign nationals thought to be selling drugs to young people, reports South Africa's News 24.
BBC
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Video - Real Estate event in Lagos focuses on bridging investment gaps in the market
An estimated 2000 delegates from across Africa gathered in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos for the 2nd edition of The African Real Estate Conference. The forum aims to bridge investment gaps and uphold standards in Africa's Real Estate market.
Video - Obasanjo commends China's achievements
With the upcoming 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, CGTN interviewed Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria. During his time in office, Obasanjo actively promoted cooperation between China and Nigeria. He visited China for the first time in the late 1980s. He said that what he saw left a deep impression.
Women from Nigeria exploited in Ghana by Smugglers
Jennifer* has spent the last few weeks on the pavements of Vienna City, a hub in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, which has a bustling nightlife.
She arrived in Ghana in May, having left a crowded hostel room in Lagos, Nigeria, hoping to secure work in sales or as a waitress and send her income to her mother in central Nigeria's Ondo State.
But after a one-day bus trip from Lagos to Accra, her dreams crumbled as she reached the green hills of Kumasi.
"Please, get me out of here, this life is devastating," she said.
"They put me immediately on the street, forcing me to prostitute from 8pm till morning, every day,'' she said in a bar on Harper Road, where Rihanna's songs crackled through an old sound system as other Nigerian women outside dressed in revealing clothes waited for clients.
"Each night, I receive up to eight clients, and end up having $20 to $25 in my hands,'' she said.
Most of her money goes back into the "system" - to a "madam", a Nigerian woman, and middlemen such as hotel managers.
Women and girls like Jennifer, with some as young as 14, are victims of a trafficking network that benefits several people from Nigeria to Ghana.
The old district of Dichemso, the heart of the business, lies on the opposite side of Kumasi's city centre.
"Dichemso is where Kumasi's sex industry is flourishing, thanks to different guesthouses and hotels, such as the Plaza," said Bright Owusu, an independent researcher who has spent the last three years meeting Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the city.
Twenty Nigerian women live at one of these guesthouses, which is controlled by a few men at the entrance.
Locked in her room, 26-year-old Blessing* shared her experience.
"I am the oldest of five sisters and brothers: when our parents died, I knew I had to take care of them,'' she said.
Local middlemen convinced her to leave Lokoja, in central Nigeria, to Ghana.
In Kumasi, "they introduced me to a woman, who brought me to a fetish priest and told me I owed her 8,000 cedis [about $1,500] for my transportation: I had to prostitute to pay that sum back".
In some African countries, a "fetish priest" serves as a mediator between the spirit and the living.
Blessing refused, and ran away.
Soon after, she received death threats in messages to her phone. "The madam said the priest would throw a curse against me, but I didn't want any debt,'' she said.
After working for four months at a local market, for barely $30 a month, Blessing ultimately turned to prostitution as the only way to pay college fees for her younger sisters.
"I don't like it here, but I have to resist,'' she said.
In one year in Dichemso, she said she has met dozens of women with similar experiences.
"Every day, Nigerian girls enter Ghana, undergo voodoo rituals and are put into prostitution, and nobody seems to care," she said.
"Through rituals, madams make sure that you'll pay back a debt," said Blessing.
Debts vary between $1,000 and $2,000, while prices "are as low as 5 cedis [$1] for a short [sexual encounter] - less than 10 minutes with the client - and up to 30 cedis for half an hour or more", she added.
Owusu, the researcher, explained: "Some of these women know they'll be coming for prostitution, but they don't know that once here, they'll lose control over their life."
Voodoo rituals play a central role.
"They are the most powerful bond, one that has a strong psychological impact," he said.
Victoria Klimova, a project coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, said that national authorities do not have complete information on sex trafficking.
However, according to Al Jazeera's interviews and research, it is estimated that there are at least hundreds of Nigerian women working as prostitutes in Ghana.
Late last year, IOM launched a programme aimed at creating comprehensive data on sex trafficking and labour exploitation in Ghana, and to support the government's 2017 strategy to combat the problem.
According to the US Department of State, a trafficking investigation which opened last year has seen just three people convicted.
Out of 49 women identified as potential victims of sex trafficking, 46 were Nigerian, and 22 were underage.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), a state agency, in part supported this investigation.
Alberta Ampofo leads its anti-smuggling operation, which is propped up with European Union funds.
She said some "rescued women" are living at Ghana's first shelter for trafficking victims, which opened in February.
"They should cooperate in investigations, before being returned to their families," she said.
"Victims of sex trafficking are in all corners of Ghana and much has yet to be done, but there's more awareness among the population and authorities, and that's a good start."
But Ampofo said that GIS is not prosecuting fetish priests.
"How can a priest know that a Nigerian lady is a victim of trafficking, if the madam simply presents her as an employee?"
However, this is not the case of Nana Badu, a renowned prophetess in Kumasi.
In a small room in her house, there are wooden statues of oracles, bowls and bottles.
Her oracles, she said, "can give strength, bring children, make business flourish or protect from enemies".
She added that madams "come for protection so that the police won't stop their girls at the border, since I have a medicine that prevents police from seeing you".
To "help" trafficked women pay back their debts, she claimed that she is able to foster "bonds" between sex workers and employers.
"If a woman tries to escape, the oracle will put the police on her back, to arrest her,'' said Badu.
Finally, when the debt is repaid, the madam returns with the sex worker and Badu reverses a ritual to release the victim.
None of the five women Al Jazeera interviewed in Kumasi, who hailed from different Nigerian states, was aware of a 2018 edict that dissolved all these oaths, led by the influential Oba, or traditional chief, of Benin City - one of the main origins of Nigerian women trafficked to Europe.
"Traditional priests feel they are somehow untouchable here, even by authorities,'' said Owusu.
Still, their services appear to play a key role in a system that exposes Nigerian women in Ghana to daily risks, as tragically confirmed in May with the murder of a 25-year-old woman known as Nina.
"I remember her receiving a call from a client and smiling," said Blessing, who knew Nina well.
Days later, the woman's body was found outside of Kumasi. Two men were arrested for the murder.
"We collected money for the burial and called her parents back in Nigeria," said Blessing. "They had no idea of what their daughter was going through here."
By Giacomo Zandonini
Al Jazeera
Related story: Video - Nigeria locking up survivors of human trafficking
She arrived in Ghana in May, having left a crowded hostel room in Lagos, Nigeria, hoping to secure work in sales or as a waitress and send her income to her mother in central Nigeria's Ondo State.
But after a one-day bus trip from Lagos to Accra, her dreams crumbled as she reached the green hills of Kumasi.
"Please, get me out of here, this life is devastating," she said.
"They put me immediately on the street, forcing me to prostitute from 8pm till morning, every day,'' she said in a bar on Harper Road, where Rihanna's songs crackled through an old sound system as other Nigerian women outside dressed in revealing clothes waited for clients.
"Each night, I receive up to eight clients, and end up having $20 to $25 in my hands,'' she said.
Most of her money goes back into the "system" - to a "madam", a Nigerian woman, and middlemen such as hotel managers.
Women and girls like Jennifer, with some as young as 14, are victims of a trafficking network that benefits several people from Nigeria to Ghana.
The old district of Dichemso, the heart of the business, lies on the opposite side of Kumasi's city centre.
"Dichemso is where Kumasi's sex industry is flourishing, thanks to different guesthouses and hotels, such as the Plaza," said Bright Owusu, an independent researcher who has spent the last three years meeting Nigerian women forced into prostitution in the city.
Twenty Nigerian women live at one of these guesthouses, which is controlled by a few men at the entrance.
Locked in her room, 26-year-old Blessing* shared her experience.
"I am the oldest of five sisters and brothers: when our parents died, I knew I had to take care of them,'' she said.
Local middlemen convinced her to leave Lokoja, in central Nigeria, to Ghana.
In Kumasi, "they introduced me to a woman, who brought me to a fetish priest and told me I owed her 8,000 cedis [about $1,500] for my transportation: I had to prostitute to pay that sum back".
In some African countries, a "fetish priest" serves as a mediator between the spirit and the living.
Blessing refused, and ran away.
Soon after, she received death threats in messages to her phone. "The madam said the priest would throw a curse against me, but I didn't want any debt,'' she said.
After working for four months at a local market, for barely $30 a month, Blessing ultimately turned to prostitution as the only way to pay college fees for her younger sisters.
"I don't like it here, but I have to resist,'' she said.
In one year in Dichemso, she said she has met dozens of women with similar experiences.
"Every day, Nigerian girls enter Ghana, undergo voodoo rituals and are put into prostitution, and nobody seems to care," she said.
"Through rituals, madams make sure that you'll pay back a debt," said Blessing.
Debts vary between $1,000 and $2,000, while prices "are as low as 5 cedis [$1] for a short [sexual encounter] - less than 10 minutes with the client - and up to 30 cedis for half an hour or more", she added.
Owusu, the researcher, explained: "Some of these women know they'll be coming for prostitution, but they don't know that once here, they'll lose control over their life."
Voodoo rituals play a central role.
"They are the most powerful bond, one that has a strong psychological impact," he said.
Victoria Klimova, a project coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, said that national authorities do not have complete information on sex trafficking.
However, according to Al Jazeera's interviews and research, it is estimated that there are at least hundreds of Nigerian women working as prostitutes in Ghana.
Late last year, IOM launched a programme aimed at creating comprehensive data on sex trafficking and labour exploitation in Ghana, and to support the government's 2017 strategy to combat the problem.
According to the US Department of State, a trafficking investigation which opened last year has seen just three people convicted.
Out of 49 women identified as potential victims of sex trafficking, 46 were Nigerian, and 22 were underage.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), a state agency, in part supported this investigation.
Alberta Ampofo leads its anti-smuggling operation, which is propped up with European Union funds.
She said some "rescued women" are living at Ghana's first shelter for trafficking victims, which opened in February.
"They should cooperate in investigations, before being returned to their families," she said.
"Victims of sex trafficking are in all corners of Ghana and much has yet to be done, but there's more awareness among the population and authorities, and that's a good start."
But Ampofo said that GIS is not prosecuting fetish priests.
"How can a priest know that a Nigerian lady is a victim of trafficking, if the madam simply presents her as an employee?"
However, this is not the case of Nana Badu, a renowned prophetess in Kumasi.
In a small room in her house, there are wooden statues of oracles, bowls and bottles.
Her oracles, she said, "can give strength, bring children, make business flourish or protect from enemies".
She added that madams "come for protection so that the police won't stop their girls at the border, since I have a medicine that prevents police from seeing you".
To "help" trafficked women pay back their debts, she claimed that she is able to foster "bonds" between sex workers and employers.
"If a woman tries to escape, the oracle will put the police on her back, to arrest her,'' said Badu.
Finally, when the debt is repaid, the madam returns with the sex worker and Badu reverses a ritual to release the victim.
None of the five women Al Jazeera interviewed in Kumasi, who hailed from different Nigerian states, was aware of a 2018 edict that dissolved all these oaths, led by the influential Oba, or traditional chief, of Benin City - one of the main origins of Nigerian women trafficked to Europe.
"Traditional priests feel they are somehow untouchable here, even by authorities,'' said Owusu.
Still, their services appear to play a key role in a system that exposes Nigerian women in Ghana to daily risks, as tragically confirmed in May with the murder of a 25-year-old woman known as Nina.
"I remember her receiving a call from a client and smiling," said Blessing, who knew Nina well.
Days later, the woman's body was found outside of Kumasi. Two men were arrested for the murder.
"We collected money for the burial and called her parents back in Nigeria," said Blessing. "They had no idea of what their daughter was going through here."
By Giacomo Zandonini
Al Jazeera
Related story: Video - Nigeria locking up survivors of human trafficking
Global reputation of Nigeria dented by FBI fraud bust
The FBI's dramatic arrest and indictment of 80 mostly Nigerian cybercriminals in California last week made headlines globally. Closer to home, it has prompted concerns among Nigerians who are worried about the impact the busts will have on how the world views them and their country.
Previously, Nigerian criminality existed in the popular imagination somewhere between mildly serious and an internet joke.
Now, with the FBI's takedown of an intercontinental Nigerian criminal network responsible for millions of dollars in annual losses, some think that the country and its citizens risk facing an unprecedented international backlash.
A new era of travel restrictions?
Unsurprisingly, ease of travel is at the top of the list of concerns raised.
Nigeria is one of the world's most prolific exporters of skilled migrant labor with one of the world's least powerful passports, giving holders ready access to just 52 countries. Fresh visa restrictions are the last thing educated Nigerians need.
At 35%, Nigeria already has the world's highest UK visa refusal rate. It also ranks highly in US visa refusals with a 57% refusal rate.
After indefinitely suspending interview waivers for visa renewals earlier this year, the US Embassy in Nigeria no longer gives visa interview appointments according to local reports. The embassy's Public Affairs section has denied blocking interview appointments but has provided no further comment on the issue.
Many believe that the headlines and pictures showing the arrest of several hitherto shadowy Nigerian cybercriminals will significantly worsen the situation.
They fear that the indictment and prosecution of an organized Nigerian-American crime syndicate will give President Donald Trump scarcely-needed motivation to impose a Yemen-style US travel restriction on Nigerian citizens.
It will be recalled that shortly after taking office, Trump imposed total visa bans on seven countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia. Some Nigerians who are American residents even fear becoming collateral damage within a new narrative of "Nigerian crime gangs."
This fear is driven in part by the experience of some innocent Hispanic teenagers who found themselves embroiled in deportation proceedings after being wrongly accused of being members of the fearsome international gang MS-13.
A sophisticated operation
Some also believe that the indictments present a risk that existing negative Nigerian stereotypes may now transcend education and income barriers.
The FBI has opened a wider window on Nigeria's internet crime problem to the world, depicting a sophisticated operation involving people with professional web development experience and organizational process knowledge.
These are not the crude "Nigerian Princes" of the popular imagination, sitting inside crowded Lagos cybercafes sending out poorly written emails. They are highly educated and well-traveled individuals, one of whom has appeared on a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.
When the implication of this sinks in, the rest of the world may well stop segmenting Nigerians and simply lose trust in them collectively.
Outside of Nigeria, the "Nigerian" identity risks becoming subsumed by the "criminal country" single narrative that once prevented Italian immigrants in the US from moving up the social ladder.
Unlike the early 20th century Italians, Nigerians have very little with which to counterbalance negative global narratives.
Italy was a global hub for art, tourism, history, religion, and food. Nigeria is a barely functional African state that struggles to fund its budget and police its borders. Adding a mafia-lite dimension to Nigeria's already poor global image risks turning Nigerians into international pariahs, which is bad news for a country that is highly dependent on remittances.
In 2018, Nigeria received over $25 billion in remittances, a figure which exceeded the country's federal budget of $23.7 billion for that year. In the context of Nigeria's dwindling oil receipts and 70% debt service-to-revenue ratio, the picture becomes even bleaker.
A full fledged-pariah state?
As the world tackles the threat of a terrifying new Nigerian bogeyman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will come under pressure to demonstrate enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Predictably, the remittance sector will come under even stricter international scrutiny than at present, even though Nigeria's internet fraudsters mostly moved on years ago.
The indicted cybercriminals typically moved the stolen funds through the Nigerian banking system, instead of parallel systems like bitcoin and gift cards (which are themselves popular with other Nigerian internet scammers). This will likely attract the attention of the US Department of Justice.
At risk of removal from the SWIFT network, which connects banks across borders and effectively underpins international trade, Nigerian authorities will almost certainly do whatever they can to restore some semblance of global confidence in their KYC and AML enforcement.
On the whole, individual Nigerian citizens and organizations may well suffer localized backlash due to last week's indictments, but the Nigerian state itself is unlikely to suffer much. This is because unlike the North Korean regime, Nigeria's government neither plays an active role in cybercrime nor is it openly hostile to the international community.
The EFCC has already started collaborating with the FBI to arrest indicted suspects in Abuja with extradition to the US in view.
Going forward, the Nigerian government is best served playing a compliant and competent role in the prosecution of this case. Ultimately, that could be the difference between becoming a full-fledged pariah state and merely remaining a poorly-regarded one.
The state will always be fine, but the citizens? Not so much.
By David Hundeyin
CNN
Related story: FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
Previously, Nigerian criminality existed in the popular imagination somewhere between mildly serious and an internet joke.
Now, with the FBI's takedown of an intercontinental Nigerian criminal network responsible for millions of dollars in annual losses, some think that the country and its citizens risk facing an unprecedented international backlash.
A new era of travel restrictions?
Unsurprisingly, ease of travel is at the top of the list of concerns raised.
Nigeria is one of the world's most prolific exporters of skilled migrant labor with one of the world's least powerful passports, giving holders ready access to just 52 countries. Fresh visa restrictions are the last thing educated Nigerians need.
At 35%, Nigeria already has the world's highest UK visa refusal rate. It also ranks highly in US visa refusals with a 57% refusal rate.
After indefinitely suspending interview waivers for visa renewals earlier this year, the US Embassy in Nigeria no longer gives visa interview appointments according to local reports. The embassy's Public Affairs section has denied blocking interview appointments but has provided no further comment on the issue.
Many believe that the headlines and pictures showing the arrest of several hitherto shadowy Nigerian cybercriminals will significantly worsen the situation.
They fear that the indictment and prosecution of an organized Nigerian-American crime syndicate will give President Donald Trump scarcely-needed motivation to impose a Yemen-style US travel restriction on Nigerian citizens.
It will be recalled that shortly after taking office, Trump imposed total visa bans on seven countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Somalia. Some Nigerians who are American residents even fear becoming collateral damage within a new narrative of "Nigerian crime gangs."
This fear is driven in part by the experience of some innocent Hispanic teenagers who found themselves embroiled in deportation proceedings after being wrongly accused of being members of the fearsome international gang MS-13.
A sophisticated operation
Some also believe that the indictments present a risk that existing negative Nigerian stereotypes may now transcend education and income barriers.
The FBI has opened a wider window on Nigeria's internet crime problem to the world, depicting a sophisticated operation involving people with professional web development experience and organizational process knowledge.
These are not the crude "Nigerian Princes" of the popular imagination, sitting inside crowded Lagos cybercafes sending out poorly written emails. They are highly educated and well-traveled individuals, one of whom has appeared on a Forbes 30-Under-30 list.
When the implication of this sinks in, the rest of the world may well stop segmenting Nigerians and simply lose trust in them collectively.
Outside of Nigeria, the "Nigerian" identity risks becoming subsumed by the "criminal country" single narrative that once prevented Italian immigrants in the US from moving up the social ladder.
Unlike the early 20th century Italians, Nigerians have very little with which to counterbalance negative global narratives.
Italy was a global hub for art, tourism, history, religion, and food. Nigeria is a barely functional African state that struggles to fund its budget and police its borders. Adding a mafia-lite dimension to Nigeria's already poor global image risks turning Nigerians into international pariahs, which is bad news for a country that is highly dependent on remittances.
In 2018, Nigeria received over $25 billion in remittances, a figure which exceeded the country's federal budget of $23.7 billion for that year. In the context of Nigeria's dwindling oil receipts and 70% debt service-to-revenue ratio, the picture becomes even bleaker.
A full fledged-pariah state?
As the world tackles the threat of a terrifying new Nigerian bogeyman, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will come under pressure to demonstrate enforcement of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
Predictably, the remittance sector will come under even stricter international scrutiny than at present, even though Nigeria's internet fraudsters mostly moved on years ago.
The indicted cybercriminals typically moved the stolen funds through the Nigerian banking system, instead of parallel systems like bitcoin and gift cards (which are themselves popular with other Nigerian internet scammers). This will likely attract the attention of the US Department of Justice.
At risk of removal from the SWIFT network, which connects banks across borders and effectively underpins international trade, Nigerian authorities will almost certainly do whatever they can to restore some semblance of global confidence in their KYC and AML enforcement.
On the whole, individual Nigerian citizens and organizations may well suffer localized backlash due to last week's indictments, but the Nigerian state itself is unlikely to suffer much. This is because unlike the North Korean regime, Nigeria's government neither plays an active role in cybercrime nor is it openly hostile to the international community.
The EFCC has already started collaborating with the FBI to arrest indicted suspects in Abuja with extradition to the US in view.
Going forward, the Nigerian government is best served playing a compliant and competent role in the prosecution of this case. Ultimately, that could be the difference between becoming a full-fledged pariah state and merely remaining a poorly-regarded one.
The state will always be fine, but the citizens? Not so much.
By David Hundeyin
CNN
Related story: FBI charges 80 people connected to Nigerian romance scams
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