NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Nigerian military airstrike kills 100 civilians at a market, rights group claims

Nigeria ‘s military Tuesday denied a rights group’s claim that an airstrike killed 100 civilians in a market over the weekend, as attention turned again to a long-running fight against armed groups in the country’s volatile north.

Amnesty International in a statement Monday said a military airstrike on Sunday hit a market in Tumfa in Zamfara state. A Red Cross official in the state, Ibrahim Bello Garba, confirmed the strike to The Associated Press and said “multiple civilians” were killed.

“In one village alone, 80 people were buried and there is no evidence that any of those people killed is a bandit. They are all civilians. The majority of them are young girls and small boys,” Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi told the AP.

Nigeria’s military confirmed an airstrike to the AP but said “no verifiable evidence of civilian casualties as being suggested in the media has been established.”

“Civilians are not the target, and everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties,” said a spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Michael Onoja, who said military operations continued in the area.

The Amnesty allegation is the latest related to an accidental military airstrike hitting civilians in the West African nation that faces threats from militant groups including Boko Haram.

Last month, an accidental strike by Nigeria’s air force killed 100 people.

Analysts blame a lack of coordination between the air force and personnel on the ground for such strikes, which have killed hundreds of civilians. Nigerian officials have maintained that targets are members of armed groups.

Armed groups often mix with locals in areas where they operate, complicating efforts to target them.

By Dyepkazah Shibayan and Tunde Omolehin, AP

Gunmen abduct 39 students, 7 teachers in attacks on Nigeria schools

Armed men abducted 39 students and seven ⁠teachers in an attack targeting several schools in Nigeria’s southwestern Oyo State last week, officials and a Christian association have said.

The attack took place on Friday in ⁠Ahoro Esinele community in Oriire district, targeting a secondary school and two primary schools, officials said on Monday.

Elisha Olukayode Ogundiya, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Oyo State, said 46 people, mostly children aged between two and 16 years, were taken away following the attacks.

In what police called a “coordinated attack”, armed men simultaneously raided Baptist Nursery and Primary in Yawota, and two other schools in Esiele, seizing pupils and teachers.

President Bola Tinubu condemned the attack as “barbaric”, while promising that the federal government was working with the Oyo State to “rescue all the victims”.

“We expect a breakthrough soon,” he said in a statement released by his office.

Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde said one abducted teacher was killed on Sunday, ‌citing a video. Six suspects have been arrested, including alleged informants and logistics suppliers to the kidnappers, he added.

A joint rescue operation by soldiers, police and local vigilantes was disrupted after they encountered improvised explosive devices planted by the attackers, ⁠leaving several wounded, Makinde added. Those injured ⁠are receiving treatment, he said.

Mass ⁠kidnappings by armed groups have become a serious security challenge in Nigeria in recent years, with criminal gangs exploiting weak security to target travellers, students, and rural communities for cash payments. Schools are often targeted, although such ‌attacks ‌are rare in the southwest of the country.

Al Jazeera

Monday, May 18, 2026

Nigeria debates reintegration of former Boko Haram fighters

Nigeria’s de-radicalization program for former Boko Haram fighters has sparked divided opinion. Authorities say it offers structured rehabilitation, combining disarmament, counselling and monitoring, to encourage defections and reduce violence. Supporters insist it is not amnesty but a controlled reintegration process aimed at weakening extremist networks and preventing renewed recruitment, but critics argue that it risks undermining justice for victims of the insurgency in the northeast.

CGTN Africa

US., Nigerian forces kill top Islamic State leader

U.S. and Nigerian forces killed Islamic State’s alleged No. 2, a man linked to terrorist attacks against religious minorities and the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren, officials said.

Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Mainuki guided Islamic State “on matters relating to media operations, economic warfare and the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones,” Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, spokesman for Nigeria’s armed forces, said in a release Saturday.

Al-Mainuki, born in Nigeria in 1982, had also led Islamic State fundraising operations, according to a United Nations report issued last year.

The operation that killed him, which took place in the Lake Chad Basin in northeastern Nigeria, was “a major breakthrough in ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism” regionally and globally, Uba said.

The U.S. and its allies have for years been killing top leaders of Islamic State and al Qaeda. Officials recognize that new militants step up to take their places, but argue that repeated decapitation blows weaken insurgents’ ability to plan, finance and carry out attacks.

Officials were vague about the role played by each country’s troops in this week’s Nigeria operation, which, according to a U.S. official, included both a ground assault and airstrikes. The U.S. has far greater air-attack capabilities than does Nigeria, and the Pentagon released a video of what appeared to be a devastating strike on an Islamic State position.

President Trump said in a social-media post that “brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission.” Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the operation also killed several al-Mainuki lieutenants.

Since establishing a short-lived caliphate in Syria and Iraq in the 2010s, Islamic State has increasingly focused operations in Africa, from the arid expanses of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Defense officials believe a Somali, Abdul Qadir Mumin, is now the group’s global leader.

The U.N. reported last year that there were some 8,000 to 12,000 fighters in Islamic State ranks in West Africa, an area also contested by powerful local al Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin.

From its African bases, Islamic State aspires to conduct terrorist attacks against U.S. and European interests at home and overseas, according to American officials.

Al-Mainuki “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump wrote.

The coordinated operation reflects the significant warming of U.S.-Nigeria relations since last year, when Trump blamed the Nigerian government’s inaction for what he described as “genocide” of Christians committed by Muslim militants.

At the time, Trump threatened to cut aid to Nigeria and send American troops in “guns-a-blazing” to kill Islamist extremists.

In the rapprochement that followed, the U.S. dispatched hundreds of American troops to train Nigerian forces, including in the complicated tactics of coordinated air-and-infantry operations. The U.S. said at the time that the American troops would provide intelligence on militant targets, but wouldn’t be involved in ground combat.

“Africa is the most important area of operations for Islamic State,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, the former coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s panel on Islamic State and al Qaeda. But Nigeria is a particular focus because it involves violence against Christians that resonates with Trump’s political base, Schindler said.

Attuned to Trump’s concerns, the Nigerians made a point Saturday of highlighting al-Mainuki’s role in overseeing attacks against ethnic and religious minorities. Trump made a point of thanking the Nigerian government for its role in the operation.

Al-Mainuki’s extremist roots could be traced back to Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group infamous for kidnapping children, and he was linked to a 2018 abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls in Nigeria’s Yobe State.

By Benoit Faucon and Michael M. Phillips, WSJ

Dangote refinery sues to halt Nigeria petrol imports amid market battle

Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the $20bn refining complex owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, has intensified its battle with fuel importers and downstream marketers after filing a fresh lawsuit seeking to halt petrol imports into Nigeria, reopening a fierce debate over competition and supply security in Africa’s largest fuel market.

Court documents reviewed by Reuters showed the Lekki-based refinery asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to void import licences issued by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to several marketers, arguing the approvals violated the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and an earlier court order to maintain the status quo.

The suit targets import permits granted to NIPCO Plc (NGX:NIPCO), AA Rano, Matrix Energy, Shafa, Pinnacle Oil and Bono Energy, which were collectively authorised to import about 720,000 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), as petrol is locally known, equivalent to roughly 960mn litres of petrol.

Under the allocations, NIPCO is expected to import 120,000 metric tonnes, AA Rano 150,000 metric tonnes, Matrix Energy 150,000 metric tonnes, Shafa 120,000 metric tonnes, Pinnacle Oil 120,000 metric tonnes and Bono Energy 60,000 metric tonnes.

An NMDPRA official quoted anonymously said the licences were approved to complement local supply and prevent shortages, maintaining the regulator’s long-standing position that imports remain necessary until domestic refining can consistently meet national demand.

The 650,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Dangote refinery, however, argued that continued imports undermine its operations and contradict provisions of the PIA, which it says only permit imports in cases of demonstrated supply shortfall.

The case marks a renewed escalation in tensions between the refinery and downstream marketers after Dangote previously withdrew a similar lawsuit against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the only entity licensed to operate in the country's petroleum industry.

President Bola Tinubu last week publicly defended the government’s support for the refinery during the Africa CEO Forum in Rwanda, confirming he approved the naira-for-crude arrangement designed to improve domestic crude supply and reduce pressure on Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.

Aliko Dangote recently disclosed that the refinery had processed crude at 661,000 bpd, exceeding its projected installed capacity, while outlining plans to expand capacity to 1.4mn bpd within the next 30 months. It currently sources about 56% of its crude feedstock from Nigeria, with the remainder imported from countries including Angola, Libya and the United States.

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) strongly opposed the lawsuit, warning that attempts to invalidate import licences could destabilise the downstream market and threaten billions of naira invested in storage depots, logistics and fuel distribution infrastructure.

“The import licences at the centre of this lawsuit are not administrative courtesies. They are the legal instruments through which Nigeria’s fuel supply chain functions,” DAPPMAN said in a statement, cited by local outlet The Punch.

The association argued that the PIA gives the regulator discretion to issue import licences where necessary to ensure supply security and warned against allowing “a private refinery’s commercial interests” to override the regulator’s statutory mandate.

Industry participants have increasingly warned that a complete halt to imports could create market concentration risks, while supporters of the refinery argue that continued imports discourage domestic refining investment and undermine efforts to achieve energy self-sufficiency.

Nigeria has historically relied heavily on imported petrol despite being Africa’s largest crude producer, with weak state-owned refining capacity forcing the country to spend billions of dollars annually on fuel imports before Dangote refinery began large-scale operations.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals plans to launch an initial public offering in mid-2026 targeting a valuation of $40bn-$50bn, with between 5% and 10% of the refinery business expected to be offered to investors.

The listing is expected to span multiple African exchanges, including the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), and would rank among the largest capital market transactions in Africa if completed.

Intelli News