22, November 2018
Niger: Armed men attack French firm’s drilling camp 0
Armed men killed eight people on Thursday in a late night attack on French drilling company Foraco’s water well site in southeastern Niger, Foraco said.
“Last night at 2 a.m. local time, a group of terrorists attacked the small building where a Foraco team was sleeping and killed seven of them, plus one civil servant,” the company said in a statement.
Five other employees were wounded, with two in serious condition, it said. The workers were drilling two deep water wells for the water ministry in southeastern Niger’s Diffa region.
A security source told Reuters that the assailants were believed to belong to Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram, which is active near the border with Nigeria.
Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an extremist state in northeast Nigeria and has launched repeated attacks into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Thousands of civilians have died in the violence.
Marseille-based Foraco is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and says it is the third largest global mineral driller with mining and water projects across 22 countries.
(Source: Reuters)
23, November 2018
UN Praises Nigerian Governor For Taking Care Of Southern Cameroons Refugees 0
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has been lauded by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees for hosting and taking care of the Cameroonian refugees in the state. The state government over some months now has been taking care of over 10,000 refugees who escaped from Cameroon as a result of the ongoing crisis in the country and are taking refuge in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State.
The Representative of UNHCR in West Africa Region, Louis Ahua, gave the commendation, on Thursday, when she paid the Governor a courtesy visit at the State Government House, in Makurdi.
Mrs. Ahua, who was accompanied on the visit by the agency’s representative in Nigeria, Mr. Antonio Kanhandula, said the governor’s support had in no small way complemented the agency’s humanitarian work of providing the welfare of refugees, many of whom were being camped in Kwande Local Government Area of the state.
She commiserated with Governor Ortom over the attacks in the state which have resulted in the killing of many lives and displacement of thousands of people even as she assured of the agency’s support for his administration to do more.
Governor Ortom, while reacting to their commendation, thanked the UNHCR for donating vehicles to his government to better cater for the refugees, noted that the little challenge of the refugees with the immediate community was being addressed by the Tor Tiv.
He added that if after the intervention of the Tor Tiv, the matter was still not resolved, he would personally step in so that the refugees would have a peaceful stay in Benue State.
Source: Naijanews