Dozens of soldiers and civilians are reported to have been killed in twin attacks by Islamist militants in north-eastern Nigeria's Borno state.
Fighters attacked Monguno, a garrison town where UN and other aid workers are based, and a village in Nganzai.
The UN said it was "appalled" by the raids that came days after at least 81 villagers were killed in Gubio.
A Boko Haram faction calling itself the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) says it is behind all three attacks.
The splinter group declared its loyalty to the Islamic State group four years ago.
What do we know about the attacks?
At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the two attacks.
People from Goni Usmanti village in Nganzai told the AFP news agency that militants shot dead 38 people and set a truck on fire with passengers inside.
Security sources and residents said at least 15 people, including nine soldiers, died in Monguno town, which is about 60km (37 miles) away.
Militants armed with heavy weapons including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno, a base for many international non-governmental organisations, on Saturday morning, overrunning government forces in the area.
In a statement, the UN confirmed that "non-state armed group operatives" entered Monguno in the late morning.
"Several" civilians, including a four-year old girl, were killed, it said, while at least 37 other civilians were injured.
Although vehicles were set ablaze and an unexploded missile found outside the main humanitarian facility, it was not seriously damaged.
"Protective security measures deployed at the humanitarian hub prevented any harm to the over 50 aid workers who were in the facility at the time of the attack," the UN said.
Reports say hundreds of civilians were injured in Nganzai and the local hospital was overwhelmed, forcing some of the injured to lie outside awaiting help.
The militants then distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not to work with the military or international aid groups, the BBC's Chris Ewokor reports from the capital, Abuja.
Iswap does not usually target civilians unless they are working with Western aid agencies, or suspected of providing information to the army.
What has the reaction been?
"I am relieved all staff are safe and secure, but I am shocked by the intensity of this attack," said Edward Kallon, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Nigeria.
The Nigerian military said that its forces had "successfully repelled" the attack on Monguno and killed 20 jihadists.
It did not mention any casualties among soldiers and civilians or the attack in Nganzai.
More than 100,000 of Monguno's residents are people who have been displaced from their homes by the 10-year conflict in the region.
BBC
Monday, June 15, 2020
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Nigerian writer wins German literature award
A Nigerian author, Chigozie Obioma,
has won the 2020 Internationaler Literaturpreis Award through the
German translation of his second novel, ‘An Orchestra of Minorities’.The award was founded in 2009 and has since been honouring outstanding contemporary works especially first-time translations “to rack up voices of relatively unknown authors in Germany”.
In the past, the winning duo for the best novel and the best translation are honoured with a major celebration in which other authors and translators of the books nominated for the final round are invited .
There is usually a cash prize of €20,000/$24,000 for the winning author and €15,000 for the translation.
But this year, in its 12th edition, Germany’s national centre for presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, Haus der Welt der Kulturen (HKW), alongside the seven-member jury, decided not to honour a single book.
There are six titles on the shortlist. Organisers say there will be 12 winners instead of 2, among whom the prize money of £36,000 will be divided.
“In the current precarious situation for many people working in the cultural field, the organisers wanted to honor the work and voices of many, rather than a single work,” a statement by the organisers said.
Mr Obioma’s book, whose German title is “Das Weinen der Vögel” was among the six books selected from a diverse list and recognised by the German literary community.
The novel follows the story of Chinonso, a hardly surviving poultry farmer who stops a woman from committing suicide, his quest for material advancement and the unsettling end to his dream as a Nigerian on a foreign land.
A jury member, Daniel Medin, considered “An Orchestra of Minorities” to be a philosophical novel “of rare ambition and breadth that questions the freedom of the human will with relentless precision."
Praising the Nigerian author for capturing African religions which are “firmly anchored in Igbo cosmology” in the novel, Mr Medin described Mr Obioma as an innovator of the African novel, also with his debut novel, “The Fishermen.”
“An Orchestra of Minorities” was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2019.
Elated
Winning the International Literature Award for Mr Obioma amidst coronavirus blues is pleasing.
“The past few months have been difficult for me, following the lockdown, coming down with the virus myself and the recent events. But I’m happy to share this bit of good news: the German translation of my second novel, DAS WEINEN DER VOGEL, has won this year’s Internationaler Literaturpreis, Germany’s prestigious prize for foreign fiction,” he said in a Facebook post.
“While I’m grateful and elated, I owe this win to my wonderful translator, Nicholai von Schweder, a remarkable man and the very best. Also, my wonderful publisher, Piper Verlag. Thank you to all who continue to support my work. It means so much to me!”
Previous winners of the award have included Teju Cole, Indian-French author, Shumona Sinhaand, and Mexican Fernanda Melchior.
By Aishat Babatunda
Premium Times
Nigerian women are taking to the streets in protests against rape and sexual violence
Protesters have taken to the streets in cities across Nigeria to demand urgent action to combat rape and sexual violence against women.
In Lagos on Monday a coalition of rights groups marched to the state parliament calling for it to declare a state of emergency on rape and sexual violence. The march followed the gruesome death of 22-year-old student Uwaila Vera Omozuwa -- and the rape and killing less than a week later of another student, Barakat Bello.
University student Omozuwa died after she was attacked in a church in Benin City where she had gone to study on May 27, while Bello was raped and killed during a robbery in her home in the southwestern city of Ibadan on June 1, according to Amnesty International.
The students' killings, which happened as citizens were still reckoning with a spate of violence against teenage girls in May, have sparked calls for government action on gender-based violence in the country.
"These unfortunate events are not a standalone, rather they are a culmination of unhealthy cultural practices," the Women Against Rape in Nigeria group said in a petition submitted to lawmakers on Monday.
WARN is pushing for all states in Nigeria to have a sex offenders list -- and for it to be made public -- as well as other measures to name and shame perpetrators of sexual violence.
Sexual survivors silenced
Ebele Molua, an activist and one of the conveners of the protest, said Nigerian women have long been violated and harassed because authorities still perceive rape as a "women issue" leaving women vulnerable to their abusers.
"In Nigeria, you see men catcalling, and groping women in the market and they become violent once they don't respond to their advances. You find men dismissing the accounts of sexual violence. This has to stop," Molua told CNN.
Nigerian celebrities have also denounced the latest sexual violence cases on social media and citizens continue to gather in several cities, demanding law enforcement bring the women's killers to justice.
Nollywood actress Hilda Dokubo joined a women's group demonstration to the police headquarters in Lagos on Friday in the wake of the killings and a group of students protested in Benin City on June 1.
Efforts to combat violence
One in four girls in Nigeria has experienced some form of sexual violence, according to UNICEF.
Meanwhile Amnesty International, which has launched petition demanding justice over the killings, said femicide and rape cases go under-reported in the country, allowing perpetrators to go unpunished.
However the latest cases have forced authorities to reckon with the scale of the problem.
Nigeria's Human Rights Commission has launched a social media campaign to educate men about consent and the country's police force, whose officers have been accused of gender violence in the past, has announced plans to allocate more officers to tackle cases across the country.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
In Lagos on Monday a coalition of rights groups marched to the state parliament calling for it to declare a state of emergency on rape and sexual violence. The march followed the gruesome death of 22-year-old student Uwaila Vera Omozuwa -- and the rape and killing less than a week later of another student, Barakat Bello.
University student Omozuwa died after she was attacked in a church in Benin City where she had gone to study on May 27, while Bello was raped and killed during a robbery in her home in the southwestern city of Ibadan on June 1, according to Amnesty International.
The students' killings, which happened as citizens were still reckoning with a spate of violence against teenage girls in May, have sparked calls for government action on gender-based violence in the country.
"These unfortunate events are not a standalone, rather they are a culmination of unhealthy cultural practices," the Women Against Rape in Nigeria group said in a petition submitted to lawmakers on Monday.
WARN is pushing for all states in Nigeria to have a sex offenders list -- and for it to be made public -- as well as other measures to name and shame perpetrators of sexual violence.
Sexual survivors silenced
Ebele Molua, an activist and one of the conveners of the protest, said Nigerian women have long been violated and harassed because authorities still perceive rape as a "women issue" leaving women vulnerable to their abusers.
"In Nigeria, you see men catcalling, and groping women in the market and they become violent once they don't respond to their advances. You find men dismissing the accounts of sexual violence. This has to stop," Molua told CNN.
Nigerian celebrities have also denounced the latest sexual violence cases on social media and citizens continue to gather in several cities, demanding law enforcement bring the women's killers to justice.
Nollywood actress Hilda Dokubo joined a women's group demonstration to the police headquarters in Lagos on Friday in the wake of the killings and a group of students protested in Benin City on June 1.
Efforts to combat violence
One in four girls in Nigeria has experienced some form of sexual violence, according to UNICEF.
Meanwhile Amnesty International, which has launched petition demanding justice over the killings, said femicide and rape cases go under-reported in the country, allowing perpetrators to go unpunished.
However the latest cases have forced authorities to reckon with the scale of the problem.
Nigeria's Human Rights Commission has launched a social media campaign to educate men about consent and the country's police force, whose officers have been accused of gender violence in the past, has announced plans to allocate more officers to tackle cases across the country.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
Over half of April's unexplained deaths in Nigeria's Kano state due to coronavirus, health minister says
More than 50% of the unexplained deaths in the northern Nigerian state of Kano in April were due to coronavirus, according to Health Minister Osagie Ehanire.
Ehanire said a government team sent to investigate a spike in deaths in the state during April showed that 979 people died in eight municipalities at the rate of 43 deaths per day.
The deaths peaked in the second week of April and mortality figures later fell to 11 per day in early May -- the state's typical daily death rate -- according to the minister.
Most of the deaths happened at home and in patients older than 65 and with pre-existing illnesses, he said.
"With circumstantial evidence as all to go by, investigation suggests that between 50-60% of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to Covid-19, in the face of pre-existing ailments," Ehanire told a Monday briefing.
Spike in deaths
President Muhammadu Buhari locked down Kano state for two weeks in April following reports of "mysterious deaths," and panic spread that the virus may have circulated undetected in the area.
While gravediggers told CNN they were burying more bodies, state authorities said preliminary investigations showed the deaths were unconnected to coronavirus, initially blaming them on meningitis, diabetes, hypertension and other ailments.
The state governor said a team of health officials from the World Health Organization had been sent to affected communities to probe the deaths.
During a daily presidential briefing on the country's response to Covid-19, Ehanire said the team had been able to provide support and strengthen the state's response to the pandemic.
Nigeria has record 12,801 coronavirus cases, with more than 1,000 cases in Kano state, according to the latest figures from the country's Center for Disease Control.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
Ehanire said a government team sent to investigate a spike in deaths in the state during April showed that 979 people died in eight municipalities at the rate of 43 deaths per day.
The deaths peaked in the second week of April and mortality figures later fell to 11 per day in early May -- the state's typical daily death rate -- according to the minister.
Most of the deaths happened at home and in patients older than 65 and with pre-existing illnesses, he said.
"With circumstantial evidence as all to go by, investigation suggests that between 50-60% of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to Covid-19, in the face of pre-existing ailments," Ehanire told a Monday briefing.
Spike in deaths
President Muhammadu Buhari locked down Kano state for two weeks in April following reports of "mysterious deaths," and panic spread that the virus may have circulated undetected in the area.
While gravediggers told CNN they were burying more bodies, state authorities said preliminary investigations showed the deaths were unconnected to coronavirus, initially blaming them on meningitis, diabetes, hypertension and other ailments.
The state governor said a team of health officials from the World Health Organization had been sent to affected communities to probe the deaths.
During a daily presidential briefing on the country's response to Covid-19, Ehanire said the team had been able to provide support and strengthen the state's response to the pandemic.
Nigeria has record 12,801 coronavirus cases, with more than 1,000 cases in Kano state, according to the latest figures from the country's Center for Disease Control.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
Dozens killed in attack in northern Nigeria
At least 59 people have been killed in a suspected jihadist attack in north-eastern Nigeria.
Gunmen entered a remote village in the Gubio district of Borno state on Tuesday afternoon, killing dozens.
The village was also razed, in what is believed to have been a reprisal attack, according to local reports.
No group has yet claimed the attack. The AFP news agency said that 59 bodies had been recovered, while Reuters reported that 69 people were killed.
Reuters reported that the militants suspected villagers of sharing information about their movements to security forces, while AFP said jihadist fighters had been killed by locals trying to protect livestock.
While it is unclear who carried out the attack, both the jihadist group Boko Haram and an offshoot which fights under the banner of the Islamic State group have carried out deadly attacks in the north-east of Nigeria.
Boko Haram, which sparked global outrage in 2014 when they abducted more than 270 schoolgirls in Chibok in Borno state, is also active in neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
In March, its militants ambushed and killed at least 47 Nigerian soldiers in the country's north east, before killing almost 100 soldiers in Chad the following day.
The group's decade-long insurgency has left thousands dead and displaced many more.
BBC
Gunmen entered a remote village in the Gubio district of Borno state on Tuesday afternoon, killing dozens.
The village was also razed, in what is believed to have been a reprisal attack, according to local reports.
No group has yet claimed the attack. The AFP news agency said that 59 bodies had been recovered, while Reuters reported that 69 people were killed.
Reuters reported that the militants suspected villagers of sharing information about their movements to security forces, while AFP said jihadist fighters had been killed by locals trying to protect livestock.
While it is unclear who carried out the attack, both the jihadist group Boko Haram and an offshoot which fights under the banner of the Islamic State group have carried out deadly attacks in the north-east of Nigeria.
Boko Haram, which sparked global outrage in 2014 when they abducted more than 270 schoolgirls in Chibok in Borno state, is also active in neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
In March, its militants ambushed and killed at least 47 Nigerian soldiers in the country's north east, before killing almost 100 soldiers in Chad the following day.
The group's decade-long insurgency has left thousands dead and displaced many more.
BBC
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