Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Video - Nigerian government open to negotiations with Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigeria's government signaled willingness on Tuesday to negotiate with Islamist militants holding more than 200 schoolgirls, a month after the kidnap that has provoked global outrage.
"The window of negotiation is still open," Minister of Special Duties Tanimu Turaki told Reuters by telephone.
He was speaking a day after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau posted a video offering to release the girls in exchange for prisoners held by the government.
Senior officials say the government is exploring options and has made no commitment to negotiations for the release of the girls and Turaki declined to comment on possible talks over the kidnapping itself.
Instead, he referred to an amnesty committee that he heads set up by President Goodluck Jonathan last year to talk to the Boko Haram militants behind a five-year-old insurgency.
The committee's initial six-month mandate expired without holding direct talks with the rebels, though it has spoken to them through proxies. It has since been replaced by a standing committee empowered to conduct talks, officials said.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people since 2009 and destabilized parts of northeast Nigeria, the country with Africa's largest population and biggest economy.
The abductions have triggered a worldwide social media campaign under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the United States, Britain, France and Israel to offer help or send experts to Nigeria. U.S. surveillance aircraft were flying over remote areas of the northeast on Tuesday.
The video showed more than 110 girls sitting on the ground in a rural location, the first time they have been seen in captivity.
Though at least some of them are Christian, and Shekau described them as 'infidels', they were wearing full Islamic veils and singing and chanting Muslim prayers.
It was not clear when or where the video was filmed or whether Shekau, who sat in front of a green backdrop holding an AK-47 during part of the video, was in the same location as the girls.
Those shown were among 276 abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in the village of Chibok, Borno state, in a sparsely populated region near the borders with Cameroon, Niger and Chad. Some escaped but about 200 are still missing. The group initially threatened to sell them into slavery.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Jonathan returned to Abuja on Tuesday from the Congo Republic, where he held talks with President Denis Sassou ahead of a regional summit in Paris on Saturday.
He asked parliament on Tuesday for a six-month extension of a state of emergency in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe due to persistent attacks by Boko Haram. The emergency was declared last May and extended in November.
Yobe state Governor Ibrahim Gaidam rejected the proposal on the grounds that local people had suffered under the emergency and this harmed the government's counter-insurgency strategy.
After being accused of a sluggish response to the kidnapping, the government has sent thousands of troops to the region, while the United States and Britain also have teams on the ground to help with the search.
The U.S. State Department said Washington had sent in military, law-enforcement and development experts.
"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," a U.S. official said.
Britain's minister for Africa Mark Simmonds would travel to the Nigerian capital on Wednesday for talks on further assistance, the Foreign Office in London said.
Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima said 77 of the girls in the video had been identified by parents, fellow students and girls who escaped the abductions.
"The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it, but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops is boosting our spirit," said Dumoma Mpura, a leader at the girls' boarding school.
Reuters
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Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Mother identifies her kidnapped daughter in video released by Boko Haram
A mother of an abducted Nigerian schoolgirl has identified her daughter in a video posted by Islamist rebels that showed dozens of girls in captivity, a school leader said on Tuesday.
The mother watched the video on television on Monday evening and spotted her daughter among the girls sitting on the ground and wearing veils, said Dumoma Mpur, parent-teachers association chairman at Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria.
The leader of rebel group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, issued the video on Monday offering to release more than 200 schoolgirls, who were kidnapped from the school in a raid on April 15, in exchange for prisoners held by the government. It was not immediately apparent when the video of the girls was filmed.
"The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops is boosting our spirit, even though I have not seen the any one soldier in Chibok yet," Mpur told Reuters by telephone.
The Nigerian government said it was exploring all options in its effort to rescue the girls. The United States and Britain have sent experts to help with the search and Nigeria has sent two divisions to the northeastern border region.
Reuters
Related stories: Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
The mother watched the video on television on Monday evening and spotted her daughter among the girls sitting on the ground and wearing veils, said Dumoma Mpur, parent-teachers association chairman at Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria.
The leader of rebel group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, issued the video on Monday offering to release more than 200 schoolgirls, who were kidnapped from the school in a raid on April 15, in exchange for prisoners held by the government. It was not immediately apparent when the video of the girls was filmed.
"The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops is boosting our spirit, even though I have not seen the any one soldier in Chibok yet," Mpur told Reuters by telephone.
The Nigerian government said it was exploring all options in its effort to rescue the girls. The United States and Britain have sent experts to help with the search and Nigeria has sent two divisions to the northeastern border region.
Reuters
Related stories: Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
US commence aerial search for kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria
The United States has been flying "manned" missions over Nigeria to track down more than 200 abducted schoolgirls, the Pentagon said, as experts pored over a new video, seeking clues to where they are being held.
"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," a senior administration official told AFP news agency on Monday, asking not to be named.
It was not immediately clear what kinds of aircraft were being deployed, nor where they had come from.
A new video released by the Boko Haram group purportedly showing about 130 of the girls was being carefully studied by US experts in the hope it might yield vital clues as to where they are being held.
"Our intelligence experts are combing through every detail of the video for clues that might help ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier on Monday.
"We have no reason to question its authenticity," she added of the video.
Negotiations
In the video, the Islamic group's leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls may be released once Nigeria frees all the Boko Haram prisoners it has in custody.
But that proposal has been rejected by the Nigerian government, and Psaki recalled that the US policy is also "to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, including ransoms or concessions”.
A 30-strong US team arrived on the ground last week in Nigeria to help growing efforts to find the girls aged between 16 to 18, snatched from their boarding school in the northeast of the country on April 14.
The White House said the team included five State Department officials, two strategic communications experts, a civilian security expert and a regional medical support officer.
Also on the manifest are 10 Defense Department planners already in Nigeria, seven extra military advisors from US Africa Command and four FBI officials expert in hostage negotiations.
"We are talking about helping the Nigerian government search an area that is roughly the size of New England," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to the region in the US northeast.
"So this is no small task. But we are certainly bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist the government."
Psaki stressed the Nigerian authorities were "in the lead" during the investigation.
The girls' plight has triggered a storm of outrage across the US, and First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday for the first time delivered her husband's weekly address to the nation to say they were both "outraged and heartbroken" by the kidnapping.
"This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls," she said.
AFP
Related stories: Nigerian government refused international help earlier in the search of kidnapped schoolgirls
Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange
"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," a senior administration official told AFP news agency on Monday, asking not to be named.
It was not immediately clear what kinds of aircraft were being deployed, nor where they had come from.
A new video released by the Boko Haram group purportedly showing about 130 of the girls was being carefully studied by US experts in the hope it might yield vital clues as to where they are being held.
"Our intelligence experts are combing through every detail of the video for clues that might help ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier on Monday.
"We have no reason to question its authenticity," she added of the video.
Negotiations
In the video, the Islamic group's leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls may be released once Nigeria frees all the Boko Haram prisoners it has in custody.
But that proposal has been rejected by the Nigerian government, and Psaki recalled that the US policy is also "to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, including ransoms or concessions”.
A 30-strong US team arrived on the ground last week in Nigeria to help growing efforts to find the girls aged between 16 to 18, snatched from their boarding school in the northeast of the country on April 14.
The White House said the team included five State Department officials, two strategic communications experts, a civilian security expert and a regional medical support officer.
Also on the manifest are 10 Defense Department planners already in Nigeria, seven extra military advisors from US Africa Command and four FBI officials expert in hostage negotiations.
"We are talking about helping the Nigerian government search an area that is roughly the size of New England," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to the region in the US northeast.
"So this is no small task. But we are certainly bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist the government."
Psaki stressed the Nigerian authorities were "in the lead" during the investigation.
The girls' plight has triggered a storm of outrage across the US, and First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday for the first time delivered her husband's weekly address to the nation to say they were both "outraged and heartbroken" by the kidnapping.
"This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls," she said.
AFP
Related stories: Nigerian government refused international help earlier in the search of kidnapped schoolgirls
Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange
Monday, May 12, 2014
New Nigerian leaders needed to tackle Boko Haram - Wole Soyinka
Whilst his most famous dramatic works may be substantially metaphysical in theme, his current outlook seems more forcefully political. Or perhaps this is a product of what his admirers and questioners most want to talk about: how do we solve the ‘problem(s)’ of Nigeria?
And the problem-du-jour in Nigeria is quite clear: the case of the hundreds of school girls kidnapped by the Islamist group Boko Haram from a small town in the country’s north-eastern Borno state. The imaginative #BringBackOurGirls campaign has galvanised a previously ambivalent international community to pay attention to a conflict that was formerly viewed as a parochial ‘Nigerian problem’.
One gets the feeling that even in Nigeria the insurgency in its poor northern regions has been viewed as something that could be effectively contained and had little impact on the oil-rich southern states.
Soyinka seeks to dispel the notion that ‘Boko Haramism’, as he calls it, is a spontaneous, temporary and isolated problem. As he told an audience at a Royal African Society event last week, “it is a product of decades old political tactics”.
He says over the last 20 years, “religion has become mixed with politics to create a toxic brew”. Relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have deteriorated as politicians sought grassroots support to buttress their own power.
Soyinka links the rise of religious radicalism with another blight of modern Nigeria: impunity. This word is often associated with a failure to prosecute powerful individuals guilty of corruption. However, Soyinka argues that it extends far beyond this to include those who engage in violent sectarian action – beatings and lynchings – in the name of religion, and go unpunished by the legal system. “Boko Haramism”, says Soyinka, “began with the culture of impunity on religious grounds.”
“When the first northern governor declared his state theocratic we should have said ‘No!…but the President, seeking an unconstitutional third term, needed votes from the north,” said Soyinka. But whilst Boko Haram may have its origins within the ‘Almajiri’ foot soldiers of northern politicians, something then happened that they did not expect. The foot soldiers turned on their alleged political mentors, forming the wild and uncontrolled movement we see today.
The insurgency has now grown beyond the capacity of the Nigerian state to control. The government and army “cannot handle it” and perhaps, should not even be expected to, says Soyinka. It is “the responsibility of the global community, a crime against humanity has been committed,” he said.
Soyinka calls for a new generation of Nigerians, artists or otherwise, to step up and accept leadership. It is the task of a new generation to “respond to those who think they have a divine right to mess up our lives.”
Guardian
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Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Nigerian government refused international help earlier in the search of kidnapped schoolgirls
The Nigerian president for weeks refused international help in the search for more than 300 girls abducted from a school by Islamist extremists, one in a series of missteps that have led to growing international outrage against the government.
Britain, Nigeria’s former colonizer, first said it was ready to help in a news release the day after the mass abduction April 15 and made a formal offer of assistance April 18, according to the British Foreign Office. The United States’ embassy and agencies offered help and were in touch with Nigeria “from Day One” of the crisis, according to Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
Yet it was only on Tuesday and Wednesday, almost a month later, that President Goodluck Jonathan accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China.
The delay underlines what has been a major problem in the attempt to find the girls: an apparent lack of urgency on the part of the government and the military, for reasons that include a reluctance to bring in outsiders and possible infiltration by the extremists.
Jonathan bristled last week when he said President Obama, in a telephone conversation about aid, had brought up allegations of human rights abuses by Nigerian security forces. Jonathan also acknowledged that his government might be penetrated by insurgents from Boko Haram, the extremist group that kidnapped the girls.
The waiting has left parents in agony, especially because they fear some of their daughters have been forced into marriage with their abductors for a nominal bride price of $12. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau called the girls “slaves” in a video last week and vowed to sell them.
The military has denied that it ignored warnings of the impending attack.
And Reuben Abati, an adviser to Jonathan, denied that Nigeria had turned down offers of help. “That information cannot be correct,” he said. “What John Kerry said is that this is the first time Nigeria is seeking assistance on the issue of the abducted girls.”
In fact, Kerry has said that Nigeria did not welcome U.S. help earlier because it wanted to pursue its own strategy. Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) said Friday that it took “far too long” for Jonathan to accept U.S. offers of aid. A senior State Department official also said Friday that the United States offered help “back in April, more or less right away.”
“We didn’t go public about it because the consensus was that doing so would make the Nigerians less likely to accept our help,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue concerns internal discussions between governments.
Nigeria receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. aid every year to address a rising insurgency in the north and growing tensions between Christians and Muslims. The northeast, where the girls were kidnapped, is remote and sparsely populated.
The abductions at Chibok Government Girls Secondary School came hours after a blast in the capital, Abuja, killed at least 75 people. Chibok government official Bana Lawal told the AP that about 11 p.m. April 15, he received a warning via cellphone that about 200 heavily armed militants were on their way to the town.
Lawal alerted the 15 soldiers guarding Chibok, who sent an SOS to the nearest barracks, about 30 miles away. But help never came. The military says its reinforcements ran into an ambush.
The soldiers in Chibok fought valiantly but were outmanned and outgunned by the extremists, who then made their way to the school and captured dozens of girls. Police say 53 escaped on their own and 276 remain captive.
AP
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Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Britain, Nigeria’s former colonizer, first said it was ready to help in a news release the day after the mass abduction April 15 and made a formal offer of assistance April 18, according to the British Foreign Office. The United States’ embassy and agencies offered help and were in touch with Nigeria “from Day One” of the crisis, according to Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
Yet it was only on Tuesday and Wednesday, almost a month later, that President Goodluck Jonathan accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China.
The delay underlines what has been a major problem in the attempt to find the girls: an apparent lack of urgency on the part of the government and the military, for reasons that include a reluctance to bring in outsiders and possible infiltration by the extremists.
Jonathan bristled last week when he said President Obama, in a telephone conversation about aid, had brought up allegations of human rights abuses by Nigerian security forces. Jonathan also acknowledged that his government might be penetrated by insurgents from Boko Haram, the extremist group that kidnapped the girls.
The waiting has left parents in agony, especially because they fear some of their daughters have been forced into marriage with their abductors for a nominal bride price of $12. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau called the girls “slaves” in a video last week and vowed to sell them.
The military has denied that it ignored warnings of the impending attack.
And Reuben Abati, an adviser to Jonathan, denied that Nigeria had turned down offers of help. “That information cannot be correct,” he said. “What John Kerry said is that this is the first time Nigeria is seeking assistance on the issue of the abducted girls.”
In fact, Kerry has said that Nigeria did not welcome U.S. help earlier because it wanted to pursue its own strategy. Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) said Friday that it took “far too long” for Jonathan to accept U.S. offers of aid. A senior State Department official also said Friday that the United States offered help “back in April, more or less right away.”
“We didn’t go public about it because the consensus was that doing so would make the Nigerians less likely to accept our help,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue concerns internal discussions between governments.
Nigeria receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. aid every year to address a rising insurgency in the north and growing tensions between Christians and Muslims. The northeast, where the girls were kidnapped, is remote and sparsely populated.
The abductions at Chibok Government Girls Secondary School came hours after a blast in the capital, Abuja, killed at least 75 people. Chibok government official Bana Lawal told the AP that about 11 p.m. April 15, he received a warning via cellphone that about 200 heavily armed militants were on their way to the town.
Lawal alerted the 15 soldiers guarding Chibok, who sent an SOS to the nearest barracks, about 30 miles away. But help never came. The military says its reinforcements ran into an ambush.
The soldiers in Chibok fought valiantly but were outmanned and outgunned by the extremists, who then made their way to the school and captured dozens of girls. Police say 53 escaped on their own and 276 remain captive.
AP
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Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Boko Haram release video of kidnapped schoolgirls - demanding prisoner exchange
A new video released by Islamist militants Boko Haram claims to show around 100 girls kidnapped from a school in Nigeria last month. The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said they would be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed.
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Nigerian military had advance warning of Boko Haram attack that lead to kidnap of schoolgirls
Friday, May 9, 2014
Nigerian military had advance warning of Boko Haram attack that lead to kidnap of schoolgirls
Nigeria's military had advance warning of an attack on the town where some 270 girls were kidnapped but failed to act, Amnesty International says.
The human rights group says it was told by credible sources that the military had more than four hours' warning of the raid by Boko Haram militants.
Fifty-three of the girls escaped soon after being seized in Chibok on 14 April but more than 200 remain captive.
Nigeria's authorities say they "doubt the veracity" of the Amnesty report.
"If the government was aware [beforehand] there would have been an intervention [against the militants]," Nigerian Information Minister Labaran Maku told BBC World TV.
However, he said the authorities would still investigate the claims. 'Gross dereliction of duty' Amnesty says it was told by several people that the military in Maiduguri, capital of the north-eastern Borno state, was informed of the impending attack on Chibok town soon after 19:00 local time.
It says that a local official was contacted by herdsmen who said that armed men had asked them where the Government Girls' Secondary School was located in the town.
Despite the warning, reinforcements were not sent to help protect the town in the remote area, which was attacked at around midnight, Amnesty says.
One reason, the rights group says, was a "reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped armed groups".
In its report, Amnesty International said the failure of the Nigerian security forces to stop the raid - despite knowing about it in advance - will "amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime".
The organisation's Africa Director Netsanet Belay said it amounted to a "gross dereliction of Nigeria's duty to protect civilians" and called on the leadership to "use all lawful means at their disposal to secure the girls' safe release and ensure nothing like this can happen again".
A father of one of two of the missing schoolgirls told the BBC's John Simpson that he believed there was "politics" behind the kidnappings because there was prior information that the militants would be coming to Chibok.
Boko Haram has admitted capturing the girls, saying they should not have been in school and should get married instead.
In a video released earlier this week, leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to "sell" the students.
It is believed the schoolgirls are being held somewhere, perhaps in scattered groups, in the vast forested areas that stretch from near Chibok into neighbouring Cameroon.
Teams of experts from the US and UK - including military advisers, negotiators and counsellors - have arrived in Nigeria to help locate and rescue the abductees.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier that an inter-agency team will work with the Nigerian authorities to secure the girls' release and stressed: "We are also going to do everything possible to counter the menace of Boko Haram".
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, began its insurgency in Borno state in 2009.
At least 1,200 people are estimated to have died in the violence this year alone.
The Nigerian leadership has been widely criticised for its perceived slow response to the girls' kidnapping.
More protests were held in the British capital, London, and Nigeria's main city, Lagos, on Friday.
Speaking to the BBC's World Have Your Say programme, Mr Maku said it was important to remember that the army was not fighting an "easy war" against Boko Haram, which operates over a huge area in the remote north.
BBC
Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Former UN Secretary Generaly says Africa should have reacted faster to kidnapped schoolgirls
The human rights group says it was told by credible sources that the military had more than four hours' warning of the raid by Boko Haram militants.
Fifty-three of the girls escaped soon after being seized in Chibok on 14 April but more than 200 remain captive.
Nigeria's authorities say they "doubt the veracity" of the Amnesty report.
"If the government was aware [beforehand] there would have been an intervention [against the militants]," Nigerian Information Minister Labaran Maku told BBC World TV.
However, he said the authorities would still investigate the claims. 'Gross dereliction of duty' Amnesty says it was told by several people that the military in Maiduguri, capital of the north-eastern Borno state, was informed of the impending attack on Chibok town soon after 19:00 local time.
It says that a local official was contacted by herdsmen who said that armed men had asked them where the Government Girls' Secondary School was located in the town.
Despite the warning, reinforcements were not sent to help protect the town in the remote area, which was attacked at around midnight, Amnesty says.
One reason, the rights group says, was a "reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped armed groups".
In its report, Amnesty International said the failure of the Nigerian security forces to stop the raid - despite knowing about it in advance - will "amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime".
The organisation's Africa Director Netsanet Belay said it amounted to a "gross dereliction of Nigeria's duty to protect civilians" and called on the leadership to "use all lawful means at their disposal to secure the girls' safe release and ensure nothing like this can happen again".
A father of one of two of the missing schoolgirls told the BBC's John Simpson that he believed there was "politics" behind the kidnappings because there was prior information that the militants would be coming to Chibok.
Boko Haram has admitted capturing the girls, saying they should not have been in school and should get married instead.
In a video released earlier this week, leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to "sell" the students.
It is believed the schoolgirls are being held somewhere, perhaps in scattered groups, in the vast forested areas that stretch from near Chibok into neighbouring Cameroon.
Teams of experts from the US and UK - including military advisers, negotiators and counsellors - have arrived in Nigeria to help locate and rescue the abductees.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier that an inter-agency team will work with the Nigerian authorities to secure the girls' release and stressed: "We are also going to do everything possible to counter the menace of Boko Haram".
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, began its insurgency in Borno state in 2009.
At least 1,200 people are estimated to have died in the violence this year alone.
The Nigerian leadership has been widely criticised for its perceived slow response to the girls' kidnapping.
More protests were held in the British capital, London, and Nigeria's main city, Lagos, on Friday.
Speaking to the BBC's World Have Your Say programme, Mr Maku said it was important to remember that the army was not fighting an "easy war" against Boko Haram, which operates over a huge area in the remote north.
BBC
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Former UN Secretary Generaly says Africa should have reacted faster to kidnapped schoolgirls
Unimpeded corruption in Nigerian government possible cause of Boko Haram's inception
The wide-scale kleptocracy of the Nigerian government, which is accused of pilfering billions of dollars of oil revenues and having spawned a massively corrupt civil service, may have played a role in giving birth to Boko Haram, the group behind the kidnappings of nearly 300 schoolgirls, experts say.
Sarah Chayes, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, studied the links between systemic corruption in governments around the world and the emergence of extremist insurgencies. She said all those countries, including Nigeria, were run by a kleptocratic clique.
“Many Nigerians suggest the emergence of Boko Haram was in part a reaction to this systematized corruption,” Chayes wrote in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times.
“Corruption, in other words, has security implications."
And corruption permeates throughout the Nigerian bureaucracy. The U.S. State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices found that in Nigeria, "massive widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security forces."
Money from oil revenue, supposed to go to programs like health and education, instead ends up in the pockets of senior government officials and civil servants.
'Massive procurement fraud'
“One of the biggest means of siphoning money into government pockets is the civil service. And so what happens is just massive massive procurement fraud," Chayes said in an interview with CBC News.
As recently as February, questions were raised about Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's firing of the central bank governor who was investigating the disappearance of $20 billion in oil revenue over an 18-month period.
"I don’t see any public policy focusing on that issue," Chayes said. "I see all the repression aimed at Boko Haram and none of it aimed at Goodluck Jonathan and what happened to the $20 billion."
Chayes made it clear that none of this excuses Boko Haram for its violent actions and that she's only observing that its emergence is in opposition to a system, something that has repeatedly occurred throughout history.
"If we don’t like Boko Haram or al-Qaeda or their methods then we better look at the the cause."
Founded in 2002 , the name itself translates to “Western education is a sin.” But this was not necessarily meant as a Taliban-like medieval rejection of critical thinking that the West automatically assumes, Chayes said.
Instead, Nigerians say it was meant more as a rejection of a corrupt and elitist school system that is thought to be linked to the corrupt civil service.
In order to get a job in the Nigerian civil service, one must go to school. But Nigerians say the educational system is a leftover institution from British colonialism.
When Nigerian students went through this system, they were able to get jobs in the civil service because of their school connections. This deeply corrupted educational system has persisted, with students having to buy their way in, and buy their way through exams.
“That is the context in which people said, at least initially, the notion of 'Western education is sinful' is understood. The whole education system was seen as part of the crystallization of the government into an abusive corrupt system.”
But while this may have been the genesis of Boko Haram, it has certainly morphed over the years into a violent extremist organization. Darren Kew — a professor of conflict resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and executive director of its Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development — said, in the beginning, there was an ongoing debate over whether the movement should become more violent.
But as the movement grew, the Nigerian police began to crack down on members. Many were beaten or killed by security officers.
"During the growth of the movement, an essential part of their adoption of violence as the solution was the fact that they were themselves victims of government violence in the early stages," Kew said.
"There was a spiral violence that took place that certainly pushed Boko Haram on the road to violence."
CBC
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Video - Nigerian Finance Minister discusses situation on kidnapped schoolgirls
Sarah Chayes, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, studied the links between systemic corruption in governments around the world and the emergence of extremist insurgencies. She said all those countries, including Nigeria, were run by a kleptocratic clique.
“Many Nigerians suggest the emergence of Boko Haram was in part a reaction to this systematized corruption,” Chayes wrote in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times.
“Corruption, in other words, has security implications."
And corruption permeates throughout the Nigerian bureaucracy. The U.S. State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices found that in Nigeria, "massive widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security forces."
Money from oil revenue, supposed to go to programs like health and education, instead ends up in the pockets of senior government officials and civil servants.
'Massive procurement fraud'
“One of the biggest means of siphoning money into government pockets is the civil service. And so what happens is just massive massive procurement fraud," Chayes said in an interview with CBC News.
As recently as February, questions were raised about Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's firing of the central bank governor who was investigating the disappearance of $20 billion in oil revenue over an 18-month period.
"I don’t see any public policy focusing on that issue," Chayes said. "I see all the repression aimed at Boko Haram and none of it aimed at Goodluck Jonathan and what happened to the $20 billion."
Chayes made it clear that none of this excuses Boko Haram for its violent actions and that she's only observing that its emergence is in opposition to a system, something that has repeatedly occurred throughout history.
"If we don’t like Boko Haram or al-Qaeda or their methods then we better look at the the cause."
Founded in 2002 , the name itself translates to “Western education is a sin.” But this was not necessarily meant as a Taliban-like medieval rejection of critical thinking that the West automatically assumes, Chayes said.
Instead, Nigerians say it was meant more as a rejection of a corrupt and elitist school system that is thought to be linked to the corrupt civil service.
In order to get a job in the Nigerian civil service, one must go to school. But Nigerians say the educational system is a leftover institution from British colonialism.
When Nigerian students went through this system, they were able to get jobs in the civil service because of their school connections. This deeply corrupted educational system has persisted, with students having to buy their way in, and buy their way through exams.
“That is the context in which people said, at least initially, the notion of 'Western education is sinful' is understood. The whole education system was seen as part of the crystallization of the government into an abusive corrupt system.”
But while this may have been the genesis of Boko Haram, it has certainly morphed over the years into a violent extremist organization. Darren Kew — a professor of conflict resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and executive director of its Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development — said, in the beginning, there was an ongoing debate over whether the movement should become more violent.
But as the movement grew, the Nigerian police began to crack down on members. Many were beaten or killed by security officers.
"During the growth of the movement, an essential part of their adoption of violence as the solution was the fact that they were themselves victims of government violence in the early stages," Kew said.
"There was a spiral violence that took place that certainly pushed Boko Haram on the road to violence."
CBC
Related stories: Video - Wole Soyinka on CNN discussing state of Nigeria, Boko Haram and the kidnapped school girls
Former UN Secretary Generaly says Africa should have reacted faster to kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - Nigerian Finance Minister discusses situation on kidnapped schoolgirls
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Video - Chinese funded railway system in Nigeria almost complete
A Chinese funded standard gauge railway construction project that connects the Nigerian federal capital Abuja with the country's central commercial hub Kaduna, is nearing completion and is expected to reduce road congestion and the time it takes to travel between the two points. The Abuja Kaduna line, scheduled to be completed by December 2014, is co-funded by the China Exim bank and the government of Nigeria. And as CCTV's Peter Wakaba reports this project is just one of many that are transforming lives in Nigeria.
Related stories: Nigerian government signs $1.49 billion construction deal with China
Video - Parents of kidnapped schoolgirls traumatized
The parents of the 276 schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram three weeks ago have accused President Goodluck Jonathan of abandoning them. And they are equally outraged at suggestions by the President's wife that the abduction never happened.
Al Jazeera is the first international media outlet to visit the village where the girls were kidnapped.
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Video - Boko Haram threatens to sell kidnapped school girls
Nigerian police offer cash reward for information on kidnapped schoolgirls
Former UN Secretary Generaly says Africa should have reacted faster to kidnapped schoolgirls
As the UK and the US give practical assistance to Nigeria over the abduction of 200 girls, what of Africa's response?
Related stories: Video - Wole Soyinka on CNN discussing state of Nigeria, Boko Haram and the kidnapped school girls
Video - Nigerian Finance Minister discusses situation on kidnapped schoolgirls
World Economic forum underway in Abuja, Nigeria
The World Economic Forum on Africa opened in Abuja, Nigeria, on Wednesday, with a focus on bilateral-relations and Intra-Africa-Trade. Various Presenters, made a case, for continued-political and economic-integration, within the continent, to realize the benefits, of a larger market.
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Boko Haram attack market - 150 dead
Nigeria's government has confirmed that suspected Islamist insurgents attacked a town in the north-east, massacring civilians during a busy market day.
Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe told the BBC the official death toll was between 100 and 150.
Residents and the area's MP have said more than 300 residents died in Gamboru Ngala during the five-hour attack.
Mr Okupe said the country welcomed international support to defeat Boko Haram, but defended its record.
"We are even fighting a war that we have to limit and manage collateral damages - but the insurgents do not care," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.
"They can kill soldiers, they can kill villagers, but we cannot do that. And people must understand that, we have to fight this war within the rules of engagement that is accepted internationally."
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, began its insurgency in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno state in 2009.
At least 1,200 people are estimated to have died in the violence and security crackdown this year alone.
International attention to the crisis has been galvanised by the kidnapping more than three weeks ago of more than 200 teenage girls from their school in Borno's Chibok town.
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a shooting by Taliban insurgents, has said the world must not stay silent over the abduction.
She told the BBC that "if we remain silent then this will spread, this will happen more and more and more".
Former UN chief Kofi Annan also appealed for action. He criticised both the Nigerian government and other African nations for not reacting faster to the kidnapping, and called on them to use whatever was at their disposal to help free the girls.
The abduction of the girls has overshadowed the World Economic Forum which opened in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Wednesday evening.
The US, UK and France have despatched teams of experts to Nigeria to help recover the girls.
'Diversion'
The town of Gamboru Ngala, near the border with Cameroon, was crowded with traders for the market day on Monday when the suspect Islamists militants attacked.
Senator Ahmed Zanna told the BBC's Hausa service that they arrived in a convoy of vehicles, shooting, stealing food and motorbikes and burning hundreds of cars and buildings during their rampage.
Another resident said they were shouting "Allahu Akbar [God is great]".
The militants had used a diversionary tactic to get the security forces out of Gamboru Ngala by spreading rumours that the abducted schoolgirls had been spotted somewhere else, Mr Zanna and several residents said.
A resident of Gamboru Ngala told the BBC that 310 people had been buried on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"At the big cemetery of Gamboru Ngala, I recorded 165 buried. At the small graveyard, I recorded 145 graves. But we are still picking corpses from the main market," he said.
"Many people locked themselves up in the market when the attacks started so they got burnt in their shops."
Correspondents say it often takes time for news of such attacks to spread as mobile phone networks can be affected by the security crackdown in the region.
BBC
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Video - 19 people killed by car bomb attack in Abuja, Nigeria
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Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe told the BBC the official death toll was between 100 and 150.
Residents and the area's MP have said more than 300 residents died in Gamboru Ngala during the five-hour attack.
Mr Okupe said the country welcomed international support to defeat Boko Haram, but defended its record.
"We are even fighting a war that we have to limit and manage collateral damages - but the insurgents do not care," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.
"They can kill soldiers, they can kill villagers, but we cannot do that. And people must understand that, we have to fight this war within the rules of engagement that is accepted internationally."
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, began its insurgency in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno state in 2009.
At least 1,200 people are estimated to have died in the violence and security crackdown this year alone.
International attention to the crisis has been galvanised by the kidnapping more than three weeks ago of more than 200 teenage girls from their school in Borno's Chibok town.
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a shooting by Taliban insurgents, has said the world must not stay silent over the abduction.
She told the BBC that "if we remain silent then this will spread, this will happen more and more and more".
Former UN chief Kofi Annan also appealed for action. He criticised both the Nigerian government and other African nations for not reacting faster to the kidnapping, and called on them to use whatever was at their disposal to help free the girls.
The abduction of the girls has overshadowed the World Economic Forum which opened in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Wednesday evening.
The US, UK and France have despatched teams of experts to Nigeria to help recover the girls.
'Diversion'
The town of Gamboru Ngala, near the border with Cameroon, was crowded with traders for the market day on Monday when the suspect Islamists militants attacked.
Senator Ahmed Zanna told the BBC's Hausa service that they arrived in a convoy of vehicles, shooting, stealing food and motorbikes and burning hundreds of cars and buildings during their rampage.
Another resident said they were shouting "Allahu Akbar [God is great]".
The militants had used a diversionary tactic to get the security forces out of Gamboru Ngala by spreading rumours that the abducted schoolgirls had been spotted somewhere else, Mr Zanna and several residents said.
A resident of Gamboru Ngala told the BBC that 310 people had been buried on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"At the big cemetery of Gamboru Ngala, I recorded 165 buried. At the small graveyard, I recorded 145 graves. But we are still picking corpses from the main market," he said.
"Many people locked themselves up in the market when the attacks started so they got burnt in their shops."
Correspondents say it often takes time for news of such attacks to spread as mobile phone networks can be affected by the security crackdown in the region.
BBC
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Canada offers assistance in finding the kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria
Canada will provide Nigeria with surveillance equipment to help locate more than 270 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamic insurgents who have been terrorized the African country for more than five years.
Jason MacDonald, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said in an email that Canada will also provide “the technical expertise” to operate the equipment.
The government responded Wednesday to a report that Nigeria was asking Canada’s help in the hunt for the missing girls.
During question period, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said any equipment that goes to Nigeria would be accompanied by Canadian military personnel to operate it.
"We've offered support to the Nigerian government. If Canada has surveillance equipment that is not in the region that could provide assistance to find these young girls, we'd obviously be pleased to provide it," he said Wednesday.
"What we do have a concern is we will not hand over military equipment unless we can send the Canadians who can properly operate it."
Outside the House of Commons, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters: “Whatever Canada can do in the way of personnel and equipment, we should do.”
Nigerian Vice-President Namadi Sambo said the government “was anxious to put an end to the menace” of a five-year Islamic insurgency led by terror group Boko Haram that has killed more than 1,500 people so far this year alone. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and its leader has threatened to sell the girls into slavery.
According to a Nigerian media report, Sambo said that "'as we approach elections, we should not play politics with serious matters of state such as security,' and pleaded for support and assistance from Canada in areas of surveillance equipment and other vital security hardware" to help Nigeria address the insurgency.
Sambo made his comments when Canadian International Development Minister Christian Paradis was in his office in the capital of Abuja, according to the report.
In addition to issues regarding security, the two discussed maternal and child health, resource development, and the upcoming general election in Nigeria in 2015, the report said.
NDP MP Paul Dewar requested an emergency debate on the issue on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. government announced that it will send military personnel and law enforcement officials to assist with the investigation into the kidnapped 276 schoolgirls, who have been missing for three weeks.
Mike Baker, a former covert operations officer with the CIA, said the fact that the Nigerian government is finally willing to accept outside help in dealing with the insurgency is a step in the right direction.
But a team of U.S. investigators and hostage negotiators is not going to “solve the problem,” Baker told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
“There has to be a stepped-up effort to actually resolve this and try to minimize the impact of this organization,” Baker said from Boise, Idaho. “Right now they are just running amok, particularly in the northeast areas.”
Last December, Canada listed Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. Under the Criminal Code, it is illegal to be a member of, or transfer money to, the group.
CTV
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Jason MacDonald, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said in an email that Canada will also provide “the technical expertise” to operate the equipment.
The government responded Wednesday to a report that Nigeria was asking Canada’s help in the hunt for the missing girls.
During question period, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said any equipment that goes to Nigeria would be accompanied by Canadian military personnel to operate it.
"We've offered support to the Nigerian government. If Canada has surveillance equipment that is not in the region that could provide assistance to find these young girls, we'd obviously be pleased to provide it," he said Wednesday.
"What we do have a concern is we will not hand over military equipment unless we can send the Canadians who can properly operate it."
Outside the House of Commons, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters: “Whatever Canada can do in the way of personnel and equipment, we should do.”
Nigerian Vice-President Namadi Sambo said the government “was anxious to put an end to the menace” of a five-year Islamic insurgency led by terror group Boko Haram that has killed more than 1,500 people so far this year alone. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and its leader has threatened to sell the girls into slavery.
According to a Nigerian media report, Sambo said that "'as we approach elections, we should not play politics with serious matters of state such as security,' and pleaded for support and assistance from Canada in areas of surveillance equipment and other vital security hardware" to help Nigeria address the insurgency.
Sambo made his comments when Canadian International Development Minister Christian Paradis was in his office in the capital of Abuja, according to the report.
In addition to issues regarding security, the two discussed maternal and child health, resource development, and the upcoming general election in Nigeria in 2015, the report said.
NDP MP Paul Dewar requested an emergency debate on the issue on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. government announced that it will send military personnel and law enforcement officials to assist with the investigation into the kidnapped 276 schoolgirls, who have been missing for three weeks.
Mike Baker, a former covert operations officer with the CIA, said the fact that the Nigerian government is finally willing to accept outside help in dealing with the insurgency is a step in the right direction.
But a team of U.S. investigators and hostage negotiators is not going to “solve the problem,” Baker told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
“There has to be a stepped-up effort to actually resolve this and try to minimize the impact of this organization,” Baker said from Boise, Idaho. “Right now they are just running amok, particularly in the northeast areas.”
Last December, Canada listed Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. Under the Criminal Code, it is illegal to be a member of, or transfer money to, the group.
CTV
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US to help Nigerian government rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - President Goodluck Jonathan makes public address on kidnapped schoolgirls
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Video - World Economic Forum focuses on Africa
This year's theme, for the World Economic Forum on Africa, is "Forging Inclusive Growth and Creating Jobs" Two issues that are critically affecting Nigeria, the host country for the Forum. The Nigerian government says, it is working, on ways, to resolve the unemployment problem, but some analysts say, the approach being used, is defective.
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Video - Nigeria is now Africa's biggest economy
France to join US in help to find more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria
France on Wednesday offered to send security service agents to Nigeria to help recover more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.
With more than 4,000 troops operating between Mali to the west and Central African Republic to the east, Paris has a major interest in preventing Nigeria's security situation from deteriorating, having previously voiced concerns Boko Haram could spread further north into the Sahel.
"The President has instructed ... to put the (intelligence) services at the disposal of Nigeria and neighboring countries," Fabius told lawmakers.
"This morning he asked us to contact the Nigerian president to tell him that a specialized unit with all the means we have in the region was at the disposal of Nigeria to help find and recover these young girls."
Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month and has threatened to sell them into slavery. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight more girls from a village near one of the Islamists' strongholds in northeastern Nigeria overnight, police and residents said on Tuesday
"In the face of such ignominy France must react. This crime cannot be left unpunished," Fabius said.
Reuters
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With more than 4,000 troops operating between Mali to the west and Central African Republic to the east, Paris has a major interest in preventing Nigeria's security situation from deteriorating, having previously voiced concerns Boko Haram could spread further north into the Sahel.
"The President has instructed ... to put the (intelligence) services at the disposal of Nigeria and neighboring countries," Fabius told lawmakers.
"This morning he asked us to contact the Nigerian president to tell him that a specialized unit with all the means we have in the region was at the disposal of Nigeria to help find and recover these young girls."
Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month and has threatened to sell them into slavery. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight more girls from a village near one of the Islamists' strongholds in northeastern Nigeria overnight, police and residents said on Tuesday
"In the face of such ignominy France must react. This crime cannot be left unpunished," Fabius said.
Reuters
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Nigerian police offer cash reward for information on kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigeria's police have offered a $300,000 (£177,000) reward to anyone who can help locate and rescue more than 200 abducted schoolgirls.
They were kidnapped more than three weeks ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants from their boarding school in the north-eastern state of Borno.
Eleven other girls were taken on Sunday night after two villages were attacked.
Another militant raid on a town near Cameroon killed some 300 people on Monday, a senator has told the BBC.
Ahmed Zanna said the gunmen arrived in a convoy of vans in Gamboru Ngala during the town's busy market day.
They stole food and motorbikes, burned hundreds of cars and buildings during their rampage, the politician told the BBC's Hausa service.
It is the latest attack to be blamed on Boko Haram, whose leader admitted earlier this week that his fighters had abducted the girls in the middle of the night from their school in the town of Chibok on 14 April.
Abubakar Shekau threatened to "sell" the students, saying they should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married.
The group, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, began its insurgency in 2009.
More than 1,500 have been killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone.'Heart-breaking'
A statement from the police said the 50m naira reward would be given to anyone who "volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students".
Six telephone numbers are provided, calling on the general public to be "part of the solution to the present security challenge".
"The police high command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality," the statement said.
The abductions have prompted widespread criticism of the Nigerian government and demonstrations countrywide.
The BBC's Mansur Liman in the capital, Abuja, says many are questioning why it has taken so long for such a reward to be offered.
The girls are mostly aged between 16 and 18 and were taking their final year exams.
The governments of Chad and Cameroon have denied suggestions that the abducted girls may have already been smuggled over Nigeria's porous borders into their territory.
A team of US experts has been sent to Nigeria to help in the hunt.
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama described the abductions as "heart-breaking" and "outrageous" and said he hoped the kidnapping might galvanise the international community to take action against Boko Haram.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will be speaking by phone to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday afternoon regarding the abductions.
Security has been tightened in Abuja as several African leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are attending the World Economic Forum for Africa in the city, following two recent attacks there blamed on the insurgents.
BBC
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Video - Nigerian government set up plan to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
They were kidnapped more than three weeks ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants from their boarding school in the north-eastern state of Borno.
Eleven other girls were taken on Sunday night after two villages were attacked.
Another militant raid on a town near Cameroon killed some 300 people on Monday, a senator has told the BBC.
Ahmed Zanna said the gunmen arrived in a convoy of vans in Gamboru Ngala during the town's busy market day.
They stole food and motorbikes, burned hundreds of cars and buildings during their rampage, the politician told the BBC's Hausa service.
It is the latest attack to be blamed on Boko Haram, whose leader admitted earlier this week that his fighters had abducted the girls in the middle of the night from their school in the town of Chibok on 14 April.
Abubakar Shekau threatened to "sell" the students, saying they should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married.
The group, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, began its insurgency in 2009.
More than 1,500 have been killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone.'Heart-breaking'
A statement from the police said the 50m naira reward would be given to anyone who "volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students".
Six telephone numbers are provided, calling on the general public to be "part of the solution to the present security challenge".
"The police high command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality," the statement said.
The abductions have prompted widespread criticism of the Nigerian government and demonstrations countrywide.
The BBC's Mansur Liman in the capital, Abuja, says many are questioning why it has taken so long for such a reward to be offered.
The girls are mostly aged between 16 and 18 and were taking their final year exams.
The governments of Chad and Cameroon have denied suggestions that the abducted girls may have already been smuggled over Nigeria's porous borders into their territory.
A team of US experts has been sent to Nigeria to help in the hunt.
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama described the abductions as "heart-breaking" and "outrageous" and said he hoped the kidnapping might galvanise the international community to take action against Boko Haram.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron will be speaking by phone to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday afternoon regarding the abductions.
Security has been tightened in Abuja as several African leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are attending the World Economic Forum for Africa in the city, following two recent attacks there blamed on the insurgents.
BBC
Related stories: Video - Boko Haram threatens to sell kidnapped school girls
Video - Nigerian government set up plan to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Video - Boko Haram threatens to sell kidnapped school girls
The leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is threatening to sell the nearly 300 teenage schoolgirls abducted from a school in the remote northeast three weeks ago, in a new videotape received Monday.
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Boko Haram kidnap eight more schoolgirls in Nigeria
Members of Boko Haram have allegedly kidnapped eight more girls aged 12 to 15 years from the northeastern Nigerian village of Warabe, hours after the armed group claimed responsibility for abducting nearly 300 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok, police and residents have said.
A police source, who could not be named, said on Tuesday that the eight girls were taken away overnight on trucks, along with looted livestock and food.
"They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army colour. They started shooting in our village," said Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe.
In a video released on Monday, the armed group threatened to sell the 276 girls abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in Chibok "in the marketplace".
Boko Haram's leader Abubaker Shekau criticised the female students for being taught "western education", which the group is avidly against.
He also warned that his group planned to attack more schools and abduct more girls.
UN warning
He said the girls, some as young as nine-years-old, would be sold for marriage, stating that "God has commanded me to sell".
The statement prompted a warning from the United Nations against "slavery" or "sexual slavery".
"We warn the perpetrators that there is an absolute prohibition against slavery and sexual slavery in international law. These can under certain circumstances constitute crimes against humanity," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
"That means anyone responsible can be arrested, charged, prosecuted, and jailed at any time in the future. So just
because they think they are safe now, they won't necessarily be in two years, five years or 10 years time," he said.
He also urged Nigeria's federal and local authorities to work together to rescue the girls.
On Sunday night, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his administration was doing everything possible to ensure the schoolgirls were released.
Aljazeera
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A police source, who could not be named, said on Tuesday that the eight girls were taken away overnight on trucks, along with looted livestock and food.
"They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army colour. They started shooting in our village," said Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe.
In a video released on Monday, the armed group threatened to sell the 276 girls abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in Chibok "in the marketplace".
Boko Haram's leader Abubaker Shekau criticised the female students for being taught "western education", which the group is avidly against.
He also warned that his group planned to attack more schools and abduct more girls.
UN warning
He said the girls, some as young as nine-years-old, would be sold for marriage, stating that "God has commanded me to sell".
The statement prompted a warning from the United Nations against "slavery" or "sexual slavery".
"We warn the perpetrators that there is an absolute prohibition against slavery and sexual slavery in international law. These can under certain circumstances constitute crimes against humanity," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
"That means anyone responsible can be arrested, charged, prosecuted, and jailed at any time in the future. So just
because they think they are safe now, they won't necessarily be in two years, five years or 10 years time," he said.
He also urged Nigeria's federal and local authorities to work together to rescue the girls.
On Sunday night, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his administration was doing everything possible to ensure the schoolgirls were released.
Aljazeera
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Monday, May 5, 2014
Video - President Goodluck Jonathan makes public address on kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, makes his first comments about the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists three weeks ago. There has been growing public anger at the way the government has reacted to the mass kidnapping. Speaking during a televised debate, Jonathan promised the parents of the missing children that the government would rescue them. 'We promise that wherever these girls are, we will surely get them out,' he said.
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US to help Nigerian government rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
US Secretary of State John Kerry has vowed that Washington will do "everything possible" to help Nigeria deal with the armed group Boko Haram, following the kidnapping of scores of schoolgirls.
"Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime," Kerry said in a policy speech in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday.
"We will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice. That is our responsibility and the world's responsibility," Kerry said.
The US, he said, was "working to strengthen Nigeria's institutions and its military to combat Boko Haram's campaign of terror and violence".
The schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen from the Chibok Government Girls' Secondary School school in Nigeria's Borno state on Tuesday last week.
Nigerian police on Friday said Boko Haram was holding 223 girls of the 276 seized from the school, revising upwards the number of youngsters abducted.
The girls' abduction has triggered global outrage and prompted protests in a number of Nigerian cities, as desperate parents call on the government to secure their release.
More than 200 people also held a rally on Saturday in front of Washington's Lincoln Memorial to bring attention to the girls' plight.
'No effort' to rescue girls
Nigerian mothers on Saturday vowed to hold more protests to push for a greater rescue effort from the authorities.
"We need to sustain the message and the pressure on political and military authorities to do everything in their power to ensure these girls are freed," Nigerian protest organiser Hadiza Bala Usman told AFP.
She said that women and mothers would on Tuesday march to the offices of the defence minister and chief of defence staff "to ask them what they are doing to rescue our daughters".
"We believe there is little or no effort for now on the part of the military and government to rescue these abducted girls, who are languishing in some dingy forest," she said.
Nigeria's information minister, Labaran Maku, said on Friday that Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, had chaired a top-level meeting with military and security chiefs about a possible rescue mission.
The mass kidnapping is one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram's five-year offensive, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country, including 1,500 people this year alone.
Boko Haram, an armed group whose name means "Western education is sinful", is fighting what it calls Western influence and wants to form an Islamic state in Africa's largest oil producer country.
AFP
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Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown requests UK military assist in finding kidnapped girls
"Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime," Kerry said in a policy speech in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday.
"We will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice. That is our responsibility and the world's responsibility," Kerry said.
The US, he said, was "working to strengthen Nigeria's institutions and its military to combat Boko Haram's campaign of terror and violence".
The schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen from the Chibok Government Girls' Secondary School school in Nigeria's Borno state on Tuesday last week.
Nigerian police on Friday said Boko Haram was holding 223 girls of the 276 seized from the school, revising upwards the number of youngsters abducted.
The girls' abduction has triggered global outrage and prompted protests in a number of Nigerian cities, as desperate parents call on the government to secure their release.
More than 200 people also held a rally on Saturday in front of Washington's Lincoln Memorial to bring attention to the girls' plight.
'No effort' to rescue girls
Nigerian mothers on Saturday vowed to hold more protests to push for a greater rescue effort from the authorities.
"We need to sustain the message and the pressure on political and military authorities to do everything in their power to ensure these girls are freed," Nigerian protest organiser Hadiza Bala Usman told AFP.
She said that women and mothers would on Tuesday march to the offices of the defence minister and chief of defence staff "to ask them what they are doing to rescue our daughters".
"We believe there is little or no effort for now on the part of the military and government to rescue these abducted girls, who are languishing in some dingy forest," she said.
Nigeria's information minister, Labaran Maku, said on Friday that Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, had chaired a top-level meeting with military and security chiefs about a possible rescue mission.
The mass kidnapping is one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram's five-year offensive, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country, including 1,500 people this year alone.
Boko Haram, an armed group whose name means "Western education is sinful", is fighting what it calls Western influence and wants to form an Islamic state in Africa's largest oil producer country.
AFP
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Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown requests UK military assist in finding kidnapped girls
Leader of protest of government inaction to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls detained
A woman leading protests over the abduction of more than 200 girls in Nigeria has been detained on the orders of the president's wife, activists say.
Naomi Mutah took part in a meeting called by First Lady Patience Jonathan and was then taken to a police station, they say.Mrs Jonathan reportedly felt slighted that the mothers of the abducted girls had sent Ms Mutah to the meeting.
Analysts say Mrs Jonathan is a politically powerful figure.
Ms Mutah, a representative of the Chibok community where the girls were seized from their school more than two weeks ago, last week organised a protest outside parliament in the capital, Abuja.
The protesters, and many Nigerians, feel the government has not done enough to find the missing girls, who are thought to have been kidnapped by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
Boko Haram has not commented on the accusation.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday night spoke for the first time about the abductions.
In a live TV broadcast, he said he did not know where the girls were but said everything was being done to find them.
Pogo Bitrus, another Chibok community leader, told the BBC he had been to the Asokoro police station where Ms Mutah is reported to have been taken but could find no written record of her being there.
He described the detention as "unfortunate" and "insensitive".
He said he hoped Mrs Jonathan would soon "realise her mistake".
Mr Bitrus noted that Mrs Jonathan has no constitutional power to order arrests.
The AP news agency quotes another community leader, Saratu Angus Ndirpaya, as saying that Mrs Jonathan accused the activists of fabricating the abductions to give the government a bad name.
She also said the First Lady accused them of supporting Boko Haram.
BBC
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Police open fire at peaceful protest of government inability to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
kidnapped school girls believed to have been taken out of Nigeria
Naomi Mutah took part in a meeting called by First Lady Patience Jonathan and was then taken to a police station, they say.Mrs Jonathan reportedly felt slighted that the mothers of the abducted girls had sent Ms Mutah to the meeting.
Analysts say Mrs Jonathan is a politically powerful figure.
Ms Mutah, a representative of the Chibok community where the girls were seized from their school more than two weeks ago, last week organised a protest outside parliament in the capital, Abuja.
The protesters, and many Nigerians, feel the government has not done enough to find the missing girls, who are thought to have been kidnapped by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
Boko Haram has not commented on the accusation.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday night spoke for the first time about the abductions.
In a live TV broadcast, he said he did not know where the girls were but said everything was being done to find them.
Pogo Bitrus, another Chibok community leader, told the BBC he had been to the Asokoro police station where Ms Mutah is reported to have been taken but could find no written record of her being there.
He described the detention as "unfortunate" and "insensitive".
He said he hoped Mrs Jonathan would soon "realise her mistake".
Mr Bitrus noted that Mrs Jonathan has no constitutional power to order arrests.
The AP news agency quotes another community leader, Saratu Angus Ndirpaya, as saying that Mrs Jonathan accused the activists of fabricating the abductions to give the government a bad name.
She also said the First Lady accused them of supporting Boko Haram.
BBC
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Police open fire at peaceful protest of government inability to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
kidnapped school girls believed to have been taken out of Nigeria
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Video - Nigerian government set up plan to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
Three weeks after 300 school girls were abducted in Nigeria, the country's President has set up a committee to help secure their release. He has ordered security chiefs to do everything possible to get the girls back - but people are becoming increasingly angry.
Related stories: Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown requests UK military assist in finding kidnapped girls
Some of the 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls sold into marriage
Friday, May 2, 2014
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown requests UK military assist in finding kidnapped girls
The former prime minister said he had approached the British government to discuss the possibility of military assistance. Asked if he anticipated a positive response, he said: "I think people will want to help, yes."
Stressing the urgency of locating the kidnapped girls, Brown told the Guardian: "The international community must do something to protect these girls. We could provide military help to the Nigerians to track down the whereabouts of the girls before they're dispersed throughout Africa – like air support, for example, if that was thought necessary."
Brown will meet the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja next week to discuss the abduction. He declined to say whether he planned to travel to the remote and dangerous Borno province in the north of the country, from which the girls were kidnapped on 14 April.
Amid widespread criticism in Nigeria of the government's failure to locate the girls, Brown said his intention was to support Jonathan. "I'm not prepared to criticise the Nigerian government. We're dealing with a group of terrorists who have kidnapped children … The sensible way of dealing with this is to help the Nigerian government to deal with a problem in their own country that is very substantial."
The girls, aged between 16 and 18, were snatched in the middle of the night from dormitories at a school in Chibok. Parents and local activists put the number at 230, of whom more than 40 managed to escape from trucks transporting them into the forest. The rest are still missing.
The provincial government in Borno initially said 129 girls were abducted, of whom 52 escaped. The violent jihadi organisation Boko Haram is believed to be responsible.
Since the abduction, there have been conflicting reports of the girls' fate, including claims that they have been trafficked across the border into Cameroon.
"Two hundred girls have been abducted, kidnapped, taken into a forest area, and their parents don't know whether they are about to be murdered, or used as sex slaves, or about to be trafficked into other countries," said Brown.
Relatives told the Guardian this week that the girls had been forced into marriage. "We have heard from members of the forest community where they took the girls. They said there had been mass marriages and the girls are being shared out as wives among the Boko Haram militants," said Samson Dawah, a retired teacher whose niece Saratu was among those kidnapped.
Nigerian armed forces have been searching the 60,000-sq-km Sambisa forest, but say their efforts are being hampered by tip-offs to the militants.
The incident was not isolated, said Brown: "For years now girls in northern Nigeria have been prevented from going to school by terrorists and by the failure to protect them in safety. We've seen hundreds of girls and boys who've been murdered over recent years."
In his capacity as United Nations special envoy on education, he said, he would be urging the Nigerian government to take measures, with international support, to make schools more accessible and safer.
More than 10 million children in Nigeria did not attend school, Brown said. As well as widespread barriers to children's attendance – including child labour, child marriage, child trafficking and discrimination against girls – he added that in northern Nigeria there was "a persistent campaign to deprive children of the opportunity to go to school as part of the wider aims of Boko Haram".
The jihadi group was responsible for "probably 5,000 deaths" in northern Nigeria in the past five years, "including a very large number of pupils, because a target of Boko Haram is to go into schools to bomb and to burn them". Boko Haram means "western education is a sin".
Children, said Brown, should "not be afraid of having to go to school in the face of terrorism". He added that schools should be protected places, like hospitals, under the auspices of the UN or Red Cross.
Amnesty International believes about 1,500 people have been killed by the group in the past year. On the same day as the Chibok kidnappings, 70 died in a bombing in Abuja.
Several hundred people marched through Abuja on Wednesday, many accusing the government of laxity in finding the girls.
Pogo Bitrus, the leader of the Chibok elders forum, told AFP it was "unbelievable" that the military had not tracked down the girls.
Brown attacked the international media for being slow to report the mass abduction. "I'm absolutely shocked at the failure of the international media to take up this issue – including, for several days, the Guardian." The Guardian first reported the story on 15 April.
Guardian
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Video - 19 people killed by car bomb attack in Abuja, Nigeria
A blast on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital Abuja has killed at least a dozen people. The car bomb hit the suburb of Nyanya on Thursday, close to the site of a morning rush hour bomb attack at a bus station on April 14 that killed at least 75 people.
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Video - Fatality count in Abuja bomb blast rises to 75
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Police open fire at peaceful protest of government inability to rescue kidnapped schoolgirls
Dozens of armed police officers have attempted to disperse a crowd protesting the abduction of secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno state.
Gunshots were fired by the officers in an attempt to break the protest but the protesters stood their ground.
Some of those who heard the shots first thought it was just teargas, but our reporter and other witnesses who arrived the scene shortly after the shots were fired did not notice any fume to indicate it was teargas.
Some witnesses however say teargas canisters were fired too.There is no report of injury to any of the protesters yet.The crowd are also protesting the hike in the school fees of the Lagos State University, Ojo.Several fully armed police officers have now joined the protesters as they march from CMS bus stop in Lagos Island towards Victoria Island.
Scores of Nigerian women, and a few men, had also protested Wednesday in Abuja to demand the release of over 200 girls kidnapped on April 14 by insurgents believed to be members of the extremist Boko Haram sect.
The girls were kidnapped from the their hostel at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State.
The protest began at about 3:15 p.m. at the Unity Fountain in the Abuja city centre, with many of the women wearing red to demonstrate anger and outrage at the abduction of the girls.
The women, including some mothers from the troubled Chibok community, carried banners and placards demanding that the Nigerian government do more to free the girls.
Premium Times
Related story: Some of the 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls sold into marriage
Gunshots were fired by the officers in an attempt to break the protest but the protesters stood their ground.
Some of those who heard the shots first thought it was just teargas, but our reporter and other witnesses who arrived the scene shortly after the shots were fired did not notice any fume to indicate it was teargas.
Some witnesses however say teargas canisters were fired too.There is no report of injury to any of the protesters yet.The crowd are also protesting the hike in the school fees of the Lagos State University, Ojo.Several fully armed police officers have now joined the protesters as they march from CMS bus stop in Lagos Island towards Victoria Island.
Scores of Nigerian women, and a few men, had also protested Wednesday in Abuja to demand the release of over 200 girls kidnapped on April 14 by insurgents believed to be members of the extremist Boko Haram sect.
The girls were kidnapped from the their hostel at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State.
The protest began at about 3:15 p.m. at the Unity Fountain in the Abuja city centre, with many of the women wearing red to demonstrate anger and outrage at the abduction of the girls.
The women, including some mothers from the troubled Chibok community, carried banners and placards demanding that the Nigerian government do more to free the girls.
Premium Times
Related story: Some of the 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls sold into marriage
Denmark bans adopting babies from Nigeria
Denmark has suspended adoptions from Nigeria less than a month after Lagos police arrested eight people at a suspected baby factory.
"I have decided to suspend all adoption from Nigeria with immediate effect," Denmark's minister for children tweeted. "We must do everything we can to protect the children and to give the families peace of mind," he said in a separate statement.
The minister, Manu Sareen, said he had taken the decision after the Danish regulator, the National Social Appeals Board, said it was "no longer justifiable to adopt children from the country".
The board said it was difficult to ensure a lawful and ethical adoption process from Nigeria, but added that couples who had been matched with a child would not be affected by the ban. Further information was required from the organisation that helps Danish couples adopt from Nigeria, AC International Child Support, before making a permanent decision, it added.
In March, Nigerian police arrested several people, including eight pregnant women, during a raid on a house in Lagos. The women planned to sell their newborns for $2,000 (£1,200) each, reports suggest.
There have been several raids on supposed Nigerian baby factories since 2011, with more than 100 women discovered during such operations. Investigations by Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency that year revealed that babies were being sold for up to $6,400 each.
Buyers tend to be couples who are unable to conceive, and boys typically fetch a much higher price than girls.
According to the EU, Nigeria is one of the biggest sources of people trafficked into Europe, where victims are often forced into prostitution.
Human trafficking is widespread in west Africa, where children are sometimes bought to work on plantations and in mines and factories, or as domestic help. Others are sold into sexual slavery or, less commonly, sacrificed in magic rituals.
The Guardian
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Another baby factory busted in Nigeria
16 pregnant women freed from baby factory in Nigeria
"I have decided to suspend all adoption from Nigeria with immediate effect," Denmark's minister for children tweeted. "We must do everything we can to protect the children and to give the families peace of mind," he said in a separate statement.
The minister, Manu Sareen, said he had taken the decision after the Danish regulator, the National Social Appeals Board, said it was "no longer justifiable to adopt children from the country".
The board said it was difficult to ensure a lawful and ethical adoption process from Nigeria, but added that couples who had been matched with a child would not be affected by the ban. Further information was required from the organisation that helps Danish couples adopt from Nigeria, AC International Child Support, before making a permanent decision, it added.
In March, Nigerian police arrested several people, including eight pregnant women, during a raid on a house in Lagos. The women planned to sell their newborns for $2,000 (£1,200) each, reports suggest.
There have been several raids on supposed Nigerian baby factories since 2011, with more than 100 women discovered during such operations. Investigations by Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency that year revealed that babies were being sold for up to $6,400 each.
Buyers tend to be couples who are unable to conceive, and boys typically fetch a much higher price than girls.
According to the EU, Nigeria is one of the biggest sources of people trafficked into Europe, where victims are often forced into prostitution.
Human trafficking is widespread in west Africa, where children are sometimes bought to work on plantations and in mines and factories, or as domestic help. Others are sold into sexual slavery or, less commonly, sacrificed in magic rituals.
The Guardian
Related stories: Video - Baby trafficking syndicate arrested in Imo state
Another baby factory busted in Nigeria
16 pregnant women freed from baby factory in Nigeria
Some of the 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls sold into marriage
Scores of young girls and women kidnapped from a school in Nigeria are being forced to marry their Boko Haram abductors, a local human rights group has reported.
Halite Aliyu, of the Borno-Yobe People’s Forum, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that more than 200 girls who were kidnapped two weeks ago had been sold to the fighters for $12.
Aliyu said the information given about the mass weddings was coming from villagers in the Sambisa Forest, on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon where Boko Haram was known to have a number of hideouts.
"The latest reports are that they have been taken across the borders, some to Cameroon and Chad,'' Aliyu said.
It was not possible to verify the reports.
Community elder Pogu Bitrus of Chibok town, from where the girls were abducted, told the BBC's Hausa service that some of the kidnapped girls "have been married off to insurgents".
"A medieval kind of slavery. You go and capture women and then sell them off,'' Bitrus said.
At the same time, the Boko Haram network was reportedly negotiating over the students' fate and demanding an unspecified ransom for their release, a Borno state civic leader told The Associated Press. The abductors have also claimed that two of the girls have died from snake bites.
Information regarding the girls’ exact whereabouts still remains unclear.
About 50 of the kidnapped girls managed to escape from the captors in the first days after their abduction, but some 220 remained missing, according to the principal of the Chibok Girls Secondary School, Asabe Kwambura. They are between 16 and 18 years old and had been recalled to the school to write a physics exam.
"Find Our Daughters"
The government and military's failure to rescue the girls prompted Nigerian protesters to march on the country's parliament on Wednesday.
The march, dubbed "A Million-Woman March" was promoted on Twitter and attracted several hundred women and men, mostly dressed in red, carrying placards that read "Find Our Daughters".
Parents have voiced fury at the military's rescue operation, accusing the security services of ignoring their daughters' plight.
Former World Bank vice president and ex-Nigerian cabinet member Obiageli Ezekwesili, addressed protesters at Unity Fountain in Abuja as the march kicked off.
She accused the military of having "no coherent search-and-rescue" plan.
"If this happened anywhere else in the world, more than 200 girls kidnapped and no information for more than two weeks, the country would be brought to a standstill," she told AFP.
The protest underscored how large parts of northeastern Nigeria remained beyond the control of the government.
Until the kidnappings, the air force had been mounting near-daily bombing raids since mid-January on the Sambisa Forest and mountain caves bordering Chad.
Aliyu said that in northeastern Nigeria "life has become nasty, short and brutish.
"We are living in a state of anarchy.''
Aljazeera
Related stories: kidnapped school girls believed to have been taken out of Nigeria
Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Wole Soyinka calls for the release of the kidnapped school girls
Halite Aliyu, of the Borno-Yobe People’s Forum, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that more than 200 girls who were kidnapped two weeks ago had been sold to the fighters for $12.
Aliyu said the information given about the mass weddings was coming from villagers in the Sambisa Forest, on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon where Boko Haram was known to have a number of hideouts.
"The latest reports are that they have been taken across the borders, some to Cameroon and Chad,'' Aliyu said.
It was not possible to verify the reports.
Community elder Pogu Bitrus of Chibok town, from where the girls were abducted, told the BBC's Hausa service that some of the kidnapped girls "have been married off to insurgents".
"A medieval kind of slavery. You go and capture women and then sell them off,'' Bitrus said.
At the same time, the Boko Haram network was reportedly negotiating over the students' fate and demanding an unspecified ransom for their release, a Borno state civic leader told The Associated Press. The abductors have also claimed that two of the girls have died from snake bites.
Information regarding the girls’ exact whereabouts still remains unclear.
About 50 of the kidnapped girls managed to escape from the captors in the first days after their abduction, but some 220 remained missing, according to the principal of the Chibok Girls Secondary School, Asabe Kwambura. They are between 16 and 18 years old and had been recalled to the school to write a physics exam.
"Find Our Daughters"
The government and military's failure to rescue the girls prompted Nigerian protesters to march on the country's parliament on Wednesday.
The march, dubbed "A Million-Woman March" was promoted on Twitter and attracted several hundred women and men, mostly dressed in red, carrying placards that read "Find Our Daughters".
Parents have voiced fury at the military's rescue operation, accusing the security services of ignoring their daughters' plight.
Former World Bank vice president and ex-Nigerian cabinet member Obiageli Ezekwesili, addressed protesters at Unity Fountain in Abuja as the march kicked off.
She accused the military of having "no coherent search-and-rescue" plan.
"If this happened anywhere else in the world, more than 200 girls kidnapped and no information for more than two weeks, the country would be brought to a standstill," she told AFP.
The protest underscored how large parts of northeastern Nigeria remained beyond the control of the government.
Until the kidnappings, the air force had been mounting near-daily bombing raids since mid-January on the Sambisa Forest and mountain caves bordering Chad.
Aliyu said that in northeastern Nigeria "life has become nasty, short and brutish.
"We are living in a state of anarchy.''
Aljazeera
Related stories: kidnapped school girls believed to have been taken out of Nigeria
Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Wole Soyinka calls for the release of the kidnapped school girls
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Video - Herbal medicine still in demand despite access to modern medicine
Traditional medicine in Nigeria appears set to continue attracting the interest of the general population. This, despite the advent of advanced medical treatment and technology. Herbal medicine provides a cheaper option for many, who say they cannot afford conventional treatment.
kidnapped school girls believed to have been taken out of Nigeria
Some of the schoolgirls abducted by suspected militant Islamists in northern Nigeria are believed to have been taken to neighbouring states, a local leader has told the BBC.
Pogo Bitrus said there had been "sightings" of gunmen crossing with the girls into Cameroon and Chad.
Some of the girls had been forced to marry the militants, he added.
Mr Bitrus said 230 girls were missing since militants attacked the school in Chibok, Borno state, two weeks ago.
The Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for the night-time raid on the school hostel in Chibok town. It has not yet commented.
Mr Bitrus, a Chibok community leader, said 43 of the girls had "regained their freedom" after escaping, while 230 were still in captivity. This is a higher number than previous estimates, however he was adamant it was the correct figure.
"Some of them have been taken across Lake Chad and some have been ferried across the border into parts of Cameroon," he told the BBC.
"And then we got this information that the captors went and auctioned these girls into marriage for a bride price," he added.
The students were about to sit their final year exam and so are mostly aged 16-18.
Boko Haram has staged a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria in recent years, with an estimated 1,500 killed this year alone.
BBC
Related stories: Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Wole Soyinka calls for the release of the kidnapped school girls
Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
Pogo Bitrus said there had been "sightings" of gunmen crossing with the girls into Cameroon and Chad.
Some of the girls had been forced to marry the militants, he added.
Mr Bitrus said 230 girls were missing since militants attacked the school in Chibok, Borno state, two weeks ago.
The Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for the night-time raid on the school hostel in Chibok town. It has not yet commented.
Mr Bitrus, a Chibok community leader, said 43 of the girls had "regained their freedom" after escaping, while 230 were still in captivity. This is a higher number than previous estimates, however he was adamant it was the correct figure.
"Some of them have been taken across Lake Chad and some have been ferried across the border into parts of Cameroon," he told the BBC.
"And then we got this information that the captors went and auctioned these girls into marriage for a bride price," he added.
The students were about to sit their final year exam and so are mostly aged 16-18.
Boko Haram has staged a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria in recent years, with an estimated 1,500 killed this year alone.
BBC
Related stories: Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
Wole Soyinka calls for the release of the kidnapped school girls
Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
Monday, April 28, 2014
Video - Fake anti-malaria drugs flood Nigerian market
Nigeria is flooded with countless brands of malaria medicine and most of them are counterfeit. The World Health Organisation estimates that two-thirds of malaria drugs in the country are bogus or sub-standard.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Video - Search continues for the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
In Nigeria, parents have joined the army to search for almost 200 schoolgirls kidnapped last week.They were taken from their school in Chibok in the northeastern Borno state.
Related stories: Wole Soyinka calls for the release of the kidnapped school girls
Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
I was born in Britain and not Nigeria because of Biafra civil war - Chiwetel Ejiofor
His own grandfather had lived through the nightmare played out in “Half of a Yellow Sun”, which premiers in Nigeria on Friday, and spent long hours years later recounting the painful memories to Ejiofor.
While the actor won his Academy Award nomination for “12 Years a Slave”, 2014′s Best Picture winner, he said he felt particular “connective tissue” with the lead character in the Nigerian war film.
The movie — now showing in Britain and Australia and opening soon in the US and other countries — is based on the best-selling novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the 1967-1970 Biafra War, which began after the eastern region tried to secede from newly independent Nigeria.
“The Biafra War was a seminal part of my upbringing and my family history,” said Ejiofor, 36, the first black actor from Britain nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.
“In fact, I would say that the Biafra War was the reason I was born in London and not in Nigeria,” he told journalists in Lagos earlier this month.
His parents, natives of eastern Nigeria, left the country after the horrific conflict that killed more than one million people, including many from starvation.
The war was a regular family discussion topic throughout his upbringing in London, but Ejiofor said he acquired a fuller understanding of the conflict during a visit to Nigeria six years ago.
- Grandfather’s memories -
At independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria was divided into three geopolitical zones: the north, dominated the mainly Muslim Hausa tribe, and two predominantly Christian regions, the west where the Yoruba were the majority and the east, led by the Igbo people.
In 1967, Igbo leaders declared independence after claiming that their tribesman living in the north were being massacred by Hausas. They charged the federal government with failing to provide protection.
Ejiofor’s maternal grandfather was among the Igbos based in the north during those violent, chaotic years.
The actor said he recorded 10 hours of conversation in Nigeria with his grandfather — who died three years ago — and played the material for “Half of a Yellow Sun” director Biyi Bandele and other cast members.
“It was an extremely powerful and moving account of an ordinary Igbo man in the north,” Ejiofor said.
“An ordinary Nigerian experiencing this extraordinarily turbulent time, from the hope of independence to the seismic cost of the war.”
The attempt to create an Igbo-led republic was crushed by the British-backed Nigerian federal forces, who had military superiority and used scorched earth tactics, including the blockage of all food imports to the breakaway Biafra region.
In “Half of a Yellow Sun”, Ejiofor plays Odenigbo, an idealistic math professor at the University of Nigeria in the eastern town of Nsukka.
Odenigbo hosts colleagues and friends for long-nights of drinking and discussion about Nigeria’s immense promise following the dismantling of colonialism.
His dreams are destroyed by the massacres and ultimately by the civil war.
“I had Chiwetel (Ejiofor) in mind for the part of Odenigbo,” Bandele told AFP.
“I did not have to audition him. I knew that he was going to be perfect. And he was.”
- ‘Helpful’ typhoid -
“Half of a Yellow Sun”, produced by Andrea Calderwood who also made “The last king of Scotland” about the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, was filmed entirely in the southeastern Nigeria city of Calabar and a nearby village called Creek Town.
The latter half of the film, which unfolds after the Biafra War has broken out, was shot first and the cast’s war-ravaged look was a product of more than just make-up and strong acting, Bandele said.
“Some of us had typhoid,” and likely contracted it on the first day of filming in Creek Town, he said.
“People started falling like flies three days into the shoot.”
Female lead Thandie Newton was among those who got sick and looked like “something the cat dragged into the house.”
“And it’s because she had typhoid! And her character is supposed to be going through a tough time here, so it actually worked really well!” Bandele said.
“I mean I wouldn’t recommend that as a way of making movies, but it worked, it really worked for us.”
Vanguard
Related stories: Chiwetel Ejiofor on shooting Half of a Yellow Sun in rural Nigeria
Nigerian censors delaying Half of a Yellow Sun premiere
The movie director says censors are delaying the Nigerian premiere of the movie "Half of a Yellow Sun."
The screen adaptation of Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel is the story of two sisters caught up in Nigeria's 1960s civil war, when the southeast tried to form an independent nation called Biafra. About 1 million people died, most of famine.
Nigerian-born British director Biyi Bandele posted a tweet Friday saying "It's all true" that they were having difficulty with the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board. No one answered the telephone at the board Friday. Some say the film may be banned because it could whip up tribal sentiment.
It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton and made it to the top 10 in London cinemas over Easter.
The screen adaptation of Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel is the story of two sisters caught up in Nigeria's 1960s civil war, when the southeast tried to form an independent nation called Biafra. About 1 million people died, most of famine.
Nigerian-born British director Biyi Bandele posted a tweet Friday saying "It's all true" that they were having difficulty with the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board. No one answered the telephone at the board Friday. Some say the film may be banned because it could whip up tribal sentiment.
It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton and made it to the top 10 in London cinemas over Easter.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Video - Traditional textile business in Nigeria
Kano is famous for its pits, where fabrics have been dyed for over 500 years. But the ancient industry that once thrived in the days of the trans-Saharan trade, is no longer as popular as it once was. And as CCTV's Carol Oyola reports, many unemployed traders now want the state to invest in the pits, in order to revive and grow the local textile market.
Wole Soyinka calls for the release of the kidnapped school girls
Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday, called on the Federal Government to ensure the release of 230 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted by members of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram. Professor Soyinka made the call on a day a coalition of women’s rights in Borno expressed their readiness to mobilise thousands of women to embark on a voluntary search and rescue mission into the notorious Sambisa forest, to ensure the release of the abducted students.
Senate President, David Mark, on his part described the abduction of the girls as sacrilegious.
Meanwhile, members of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, have threatened to kill the abducted students, should the search to recover them continue.
Soyinka tasks FG
Professor Soyinka, who gave the keynote address in Port Harcourt at the opening ceremony of declaration of Port Harcourt as UNESCO World Book Capital 2014, said the focus of the event was for the Federal Government to ensure the safe release of the students.
He said he had expected President Goodluck Jonathan to convene an emergency security meeting over the ugly development in the school after the abduction of the students.
He noted that the ongoing book fair in Port Harcourt was a national rejection of Boko Haram, adding that the Islamic sect does not reflect the teachings and values of Islam.
Minutes after his address, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and the Project Director, Rainbow Book Club, Mrs Koko Kalango led the gathering to make a collective demand for the girls’ release.
Storming Sambisa forest
The Borno women, under the auspices of BAOBAB Women’s Right, have said they were ready to storm the major hide out of the insurgents in Sambisa forest, where the abducted girls were believed to be held.
Spokesperson for the group, Professor Hauwa Biu, told newsmen that they resolved to embark on the rescue mission when it was evident that no reasonable progress was being achieved in the rescue efforts.
Biu said: “We are ready to go into the forest and search for the girls. In fact, we are prepared to risk our lives and get up to Boko Haram camp and appeal to them to release the children to us so that they can re unite with their parents.
“There is nothing extraordinary in our quest to enter the dangerous forest. We learnt that some men in Chibok had earlier embarked on such mission, which later turned out to be fruitless.
“We felt that as mothers, we are in a better position to have the sympathy and concern over the fate of the missing girls.
“Our target is not to fight the abductors, but we want to beg them to release the girls in the name of the God that we all worship.”
The group urged security forces to expedite action in their search and rescue mission of the students so that their parents can have rest of mind.
Biu appealed to security agents to make use of sophisticated weapons in detecting the location of the abductors for easy rescue operation.
She described the abduction of the school girls as inhuman, abuse of human rights, capable of scuttling efforts for enhanced girl child education in the state and the country at large.
She said: “The abduction of the innocent girls violates their human rights, and it is a crime against humanity and prohibited under international humanitarian law.
“Women in Borno strongly condemn this act in its totality as it deprives children their right to learn in a safe environment, thereby jeopardising their future.”
Appeal
Biu also appealed to the insurgents to lay down their arms and hold dialogue with the government.
She said: “We wish to appeal to the insurgents to lay down their arms and embrace dialogue. We assure them of our motherly support toward rehabilitating them when the need arises
“We condemn all other attacks in form of bomb blasts and serial killings all over the country and commiserate with the families of those who lost their relations during the unfortunate incidents.
“We commend the efforts of Borno and Federal governments as well as youths and vigilantes in addressing the current insurgency in the country.
“However, bearing in mind the continuous attacks on schools, we appeal for the provision of adequate security to all schools so as to have a safe learning environment for our children.”
It’s sacrilegious—Mark
Meanwhile, Senate President, Senator David Mark has described as sacrilegious the abduction of the female students and called for their release.
The Senate President, in a statement by his Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, in Abuja, yesterday, said the abduction was embarrassing and that no nation that had the desire to develop would indulge in such dastardly act.
He pleaded with the captors to listen to the voices of reason and release the teenagers.
According to the statement, “Senator Mark imagined the harrowing experience the students had been subjected to by their captors and the mental and psychological torture parents and guardians of the students had faced.”
He said no nation could justify the abduction of the children whose only offence was that they chose to go to school to better their lots and contribute to the socio economic and political development of their fatherland.
Mark said: “It is a sad commentary and a terrible assault on our psyche as a people. In the good old days of Nigeria this was a taboo and unarguably unheard of.”
The Senate President canvassed for synergy between and among security agencies, especially in the area of information gathering and sharing to facilitate their rescue, stressing that the deteriorating situation was making a mockery of the nation.
Vanguard
Related stories: Video - Number of kidnapped girls revised to at least 230
Boko Haram abduct 100 schoolgirls from boarding school in North Eastern Nigeria
Heineken experience growth due to double-digit sales in Nigeria
Heineken sold more beer in the first three months of 2014, with a pick-up in Africa, especially Nigeria where beer volumes grew by a double-digit percentage in the first three months of 2014, the Americas and some of Europe.
The world’s third largest brewer recorded a flat Asia and weakness in Russia.
The brewer of Europe’s best-selling Heineken lager, Sol, Tiger and Strongbow cider said on Thursday it was encouraged by a positive start to the year in Africa and the Americas and its sharper European business.
“This is offsetting continued challenging beer market conditions in Russia and softer consumer spending in Vietnam,” Chief Executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said in a statement, adding that economic conditions as a whole were mixed.
Heineken shares were trading up 1.0 percent at 51.68 euros at 0715 GMT, making them among the stronger performers in the a largely flat STOXX European food and beverage index.
“Volumes were a bit weaker than expected, revenue broadly in line. Regionally, Africa was very strong, Americas pretty solid and western Europe having an easy comparison,” said Trevor Stirling, beverage analyst at Bernstein. “The bears will look at Asia-Pacific, the bulls at Africa.”
The Dutch brewer said consolidated beer volumes rose 1.5 percent on a like-for-like basis to 38.2 million hectolitres. Consolidated revenue was up 3.4 percent to 4.04 billion euros ($5.59 billion).
Heineken, the largest seller of beer in Europe, repeated its forecast that revenue should grow in 2014 on a like-for-like basis and excluding currency effects. It grew by just 0.1 percent in 2013.
Heineken suffered a year ago from an exceptionally long winter in northern Europe making people less inclined to drink, a 160 percent increase in beer duty in France and a slowdown in Nigeria, one of its major growth markets where high inflation hit disposable income.
In the first three months of 2014, Heineken said beer volumes grew by a double-digit percentage in Nigeria and by 8.7 percent as a whole in Africa.
Beer volumes also grew, by a more modest 2.1 percent in western Europe, with increases in the France, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Belgium, but declines in Britain, Italy and Switzerland.
Heineken also benefited from price increases in Brazil and Mexico.
However, in Asia, a reliable source of growth in recent years, volumes were stable, with declines in India, Malaysia, Taiwan and large market Vietnam, where currency weakness and economic slowdown hit.
Russia, with sales down by a mid-teen percentage after yet another excise increase, also dragged down earnings in eastern Europe.
Heineken, like brewing rivals, has sought to increase its emerging market presence to tap higher growth, while hiking prices in developed markets. It bought the brewing operations of Mexico’s Femsa in 2010 and took full control of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) in 2012.
About 60 percent of operating profit now comes from emerging markets, on a par with rival Anheuser-Busch InBev ABI.BR, from 40 percent in 2007, although emerging markets are less reliable growth engines, with a number suffering growing pains in recent months.
SABMiller, the world’s second largest beer maker, reported a modest 2 percent increase in volumes in the year to the end of March, with political and economic issues and a tax hike causing problems in some African nations.
Business Day
The world’s third largest brewer recorded a flat Asia and weakness in Russia.
The brewer of Europe’s best-selling Heineken lager, Sol, Tiger and Strongbow cider said on Thursday it was encouraged by a positive start to the year in Africa and the Americas and its sharper European business.
“This is offsetting continued challenging beer market conditions in Russia and softer consumer spending in Vietnam,” Chief Executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said in a statement, adding that economic conditions as a whole were mixed.
Heineken shares were trading up 1.0 percent at 51.68 euros at 0715 GMT, making them among the stronger performers in the a largely flat STOXX European food and beverage index.
“Volumes were a bit weaker than expected, revenue broadly in line. Regionally, Africa was very strong, Americas pretty solid and western Europe having an easy comparison,” said Trevor Stirling, beverage analyst at Bernstein. “The bears will look at Asia-Pacific, the bulls at Africa.”
The Dutch brewer said consolidated beer volumes rose 1.5 percent on a like-for-like basis to 38.2 million hectolitres. Consolidated revenue was up 3.4 percent to 4.04 billion euros ($5.59 billion).
Heineken, the largest seller of beer in Europe, repeated its forecast that revenue should grow in 2014 on a like-for-like basis and excluding currency effects. It grew by just 0.1 percent in 2013.
Heineken suffered a year ago from an exceptionally long winter in northern Europe making people less inclined to drink, a 160 percent increase in beer duty in France and a slowdown in Nigeria, one of its major growth markets where high inflation hit disposable income.
In the first three months of 2014, Heineken said beer volumes grew by a double-digit percentage in Nigeria and by 8.7 percent as a whole in Africa.
Beer volumes also grew, by a more modest 2.1 percent in western Europe, with increases in the France, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Belgium, but declines in Britain, Italy and Switzerland.
Heineken also benefited from price increases in Brazil and Mexico.
However, in Asia, a reliable source of growth in recent years, volumes were stable, with declines in India, Malaysia, Taiwan and large market Vietnam, where currency weakness and economic slowdown hit.
Russia, with sales down by a mid-teen percentage after yet another excise increase, also dragged down earnings in eastern Europe.
Heineken, like brewing rivals, has sought to increase its emerging market presence to tap higher growth, while hiking prices in developed markets. It bought the brewing operations of Mexico’s Femsa in 2010 and took full control of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) in 2012.
About 60 percent of operating profit now comes from emerging markets, on a par with rival Anheuser-Busch InBev ABI.BR, from 40 percent in 2007, although emerging markets are less reliable growth engines, with a number suffering growing pains in recent months.
SABMiller, the world’s second largest beer maker, reported a modest 2 percent increase in volumes in the year to the end of March, with political and economic issues and a tax hike causing problems in some African nations.
Business Day
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