75,000 at risk of starving to death in Nigeria

Some 75,000 children in north-eastern Nigeria risk dying of hunger in "the few months ahead", the UN says.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator Peter Lundberg said that overall 14 million people needed humanitarian assistance in a region that was the former stronghold of Boko Haram militants.

He warned that the UN did not have enough funds to avert the crisis.

Boko Haram jihadists laid waste to the region before being pushed back by Nigerian forces in recent months.

"Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance" by 2017, Mr Lundberg said in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Tuesday.

He added that this figure included some 400,000 children, and that 75,000 of them "are going to die in the few months ahead of us... if we don't do something rapidly and seriously".

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million displaced since Boko Haram began its military operations in 2009 in the Borno state and other areas.

In July, the UN warned that almost a quarter of a million children in parts of Borno were suffering from severe malnutrition.

BBC

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Nigerian preacher TB Joshua explains wrong U.S. election prophecy

Nigerian preacher T.B. Joshua has sought to explain his unfulfilled prophecy on the U.S. presidential election.

The popular pastor predicted on November 6 that the election would be won by “a woman,” presumably Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Joshua’s message, posted on his Facebook page, indicated that the new president would face many challenges, including “passing bills” and a possible no confidence vote.

Following Republican candidate Donald Trump’s surprise victory, the post was temporarily deleted from Joshua’s Facebook page before later being restored.

The mega-preacher, whose services often attract tens of thousands of worshippers from Africa, posted an explanatory message Sunday.

“We have seen the outcome of the election in America. Having read, you will notice that it is all about the popular vote, the vote of the majority of Americans,” Joshua said.

The statement seems to be a nod to Clinton’s lead in the so-called popular vote—i.e. the individual votes collected by a candidate, rather than the number of states won under the U.S. electoral college system. The former U.S. Secretary of State is likely to end up with around 2 million more votes than the business mogul, according to The New York Times, once all provisional and absentee ballots are counted.

Joshua also appeared to suggest that his pre-election prophecy had been misinterpreted.

“In this case, we need the spirit of a prophet to recognize or to know a prophet. Our levels are different. We are not on the same level,” he said. “I see many people trying to interpret prophets on the basis of their own minds and ideas. The prophecy seems to cause uproar, to many who gave it different meaning and interpretation.”

After the election result was announced, many Nigerians took to social media to question Joshua’s credentials after his prophecy appeared to be proven false.

Joshua is one of Africa’s most popular preachers, but also one of its most controversial. In September 2014, a guesthouse belonging to his Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in the Nigerian city of Lagos collapsed, killing more than 100 people, mostly South Africans who had traveled to Nigeria to hear Joshua preach. Joshua, along with several engineers and SCOAN trustees, is facing charges of criminal negligence for the incident, but his trial has suffered multiple delays. Joshua has rejected accusations that he was criminally responsible.

The preacher claims to predict various world events on a regular basis. He has previously said that he predicted the November 2015 militant attacks in Paris and the death of music legend Michael Jackson.

The Nigerian pastor is also estimated to be one of Africa’s richest preachers. In 2011, Forbes estimated his fortune at between $10-15 million. Joshua supports various charitable initiatives, including the rehabilitation of former militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Newsweek