Death toll in Nigeria boat capsize tragedy rises to 76

The death toll from a boat accident in Nigeria's southeastern state of Anambra has risen to 76, the president said on Sunday.

The vessel capsized on Friday amid heavy flooding in the Ogbaru area of Anambra, according to officials on Saturday, when they said at least 10 people had died and 60 were missing.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said that emergency authorities had confirmed the higher death toll.

Authorities are working to rescue or recover any missing passengers, said Buhari, adding that he had directed the relevant agencies to check safety protocols to prevent future accidents.

The head of Anambra State Emergency Management Agency said that 15 people had been rescued as of Saturday night.

Anambra is among 29 of Nigeria's 36 states to have experienced heavy flooding this year. The waters have washed away homes, crops and roads and affected at least half a million people.

A local resident, Afam Ogene, told Reuters that because flooding had destroyed the major road linking eight communities to the rest of the area, some residents had to travel by boat.

Of the vessel that capsized, he said it was locally made and had the capacity to carry more than 100 people. He added that the boat's engine had failed and it was overpowered by waves shortly after it launched.

By Libby George

Reuters

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In Nigeria's food basket state, floods wash away homes, crops and hope

 

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Women, children drown fleeing attack in Nigeria’s north

Several women and children drowned while trying to escape an armed attack in Nigeria’s troubled northern region, residents and a government official said Thursday.

The victims died when their boats capsized while fleeing an hours-long assault by unidentified gunmen Wednesday night on the Birnin Waje community in Zamfara state, said Ibrahim Zauma, a resident.

“The situation is dire because most of the people have run away from their homes. The dead bodies recovered so far is 13,” Zauma said.

It was not clear how many people might have drowned, but many who fled their homes had not returned to the area, which residents said remained volatile more than 24 hours after the violence.

Ibrahim Bello, a Zamfara government spokesman, confirmed the attack, saying that “an unknown number of mostly women and children got drowned” as they sought to escape in two boats.

He did not say whether any arrests had been made.

The attack was the latest in a cycle of violence by armed groups targeting remote communities in Nigeria’s northwest and central regions.

Authorities often blame the attacks on a group of mostly young pastoralists from the Fulani tribe caught up in Nigeria’s conflict between communities and herdsmen over limited access to water and land.

The deadly clashes between local communities and the herdsmen have defied government measures seeking to quell the violence, although security forces have recently announced some arrests and seizure of arms.

Nigeria’s security forces are outnumbered and outgunned in many of the affected communities while authorities also continue to fight a decade-long insurgency launched by Islamist extremist rebels in the northeast.

By Chinedu Asadu

AP

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In Nigeria's food basket state, floods wash away homes, crops and hope

Victoria Okonkwo sits in a canoe as neighbours paddle her away from her house in Nigeria's food basket, Benue state, which is now under water – along with more than 100,000 hectares (247,100 acres) of farmland.

"It was last week that it started, so I left thinking that the water will not be this much," Okonkwo, 45, told Reuters. "Now I am displaced with my children."

Okonkwo is among at least half a million Nigerians affected by flooding in 29 of Nigeria's 36 states this year. Farmers say the rising waters will push food bills higher in a nation where millions have fallen into food poverty in the past two years.

Farming was constrained by flooding and food shortages and COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. Prices shot higher due to this year's war in Ukraine and nationwide insecurity that has pushed thousands of farmers off their land.

"This is a catastrophe indeed," said Dimieari Von Kemedi, chief executive of Alluvial Agriculture, a farm collective. "All of these wrong things are happening at the same time."

Farmer Tersoo Deei, 39, said 2 hectares (5 acres) of her rice and nearly all her soybeans in Benue were underwater. What she had harvested she has to sell now, before it has dried, because her house washed away.

"I do not have any option but to sell my rice paddy because there is nowhere to keep it," the mother of four told Reuters.

Nigeria-based commodities exchange AFEX estimates flooding and other factors will cut maize output by 12% year on year, and rice by 21%. That is a serious problem for a nation where inflation hit a 17-year high in August, led by food inflation at 23.12%.

"What we are seeing currently is the worst case... at least in the last decade," David Ibidapo, AFEX's head of market data and research, said of the flooding. "This is a very big challenge to food security."

By Abraham Achirga and Libby George

Reuters

Nigeria regulator seeks $70M penalty in lawsuit against Meta

A Nigerian advertising regulator has sued Meta, accusing the owner of Facebook and WhatsApp of publishing unauthorized ads and seeking a 30 billion naira ($70 million) fine.

The lawsuit filed in a local court by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, or ARCON, is the regulator’s latest action that analysts say could hurt businesses highly dependent on digital ads for their growth.

Nigerian advertising laws require the regulator to approve ads based on certain criteria with the involvement of an advertising practitioner in Africa’s largest economy.

“Before you put out anything, it should be vetted and approved by ARCON first before exposure,” the agency said Tuesday. “Anything that has not been vetted and approved by ARCON is a violation of our law.”

A Meta spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on ongoing legal claims.

The regulator published some details from the court filings, including a request for a declaration “that the continued publication and exposure of various advertisements directed at the Nigerian market through Facebook and Instagram platforms by Meta Platforms Incorporated without ensuring same is vetted and approved before exposure is illegal, unlawful and a violation of the extant advertising Law in Nigeria.”

The Nigerian government said Meta displaying unvetted ads has cost the country a loss of revenue, without providing details.

The agency warned against “unethical and irresponsible advertising on Nigeria’s advertising space,” raising questions over what constitutes such advertising.

The court case against Meta comes about a year after the Nigerian government began moves to get social media networks to run local offices in the country. That followed a seven-month ban on Twitter, which the government had accused of allowing “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

By Chinedu Asadu

AP