24, June 2024
Seven, including children, killed as over 100 abducted in gunmen attack in Nigeria 0
Gunmen have attacked a village in northwestern Nigeria, killing at least seven people and abducting more than 100 others, residents and police say.
The attack took place in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state on Saturday night, residents and police said.
According to residents, gunmen on motorbikes arrived in Maidabino village in the Danmusa local government area of Katsina, and began firing sporadically, forcing residents to flee.
Hassan Aliyu, one of the residents, told Reuters by phone that the attack took residents by surprise and dozens of women and children were confirmed missing.
“They killed seven people, including burning two children,” he said, adding, “They spent more than six hours destroying our properties.”
Auwalu Ismail, another resident, said the gunmen first blocked all roads leading to the village before the attack.
“They burned down our shops, vehicles, and took away our livestock. They also kidnapped my wife and more than 100 women and children,” he said.
State police spokesperson Abubakar Aliyu Sadiq confirmed the attack and the seven deaths. But he refrained from commenting on the news of missing people, saying investigations are underway.
“The remaining men who did not flee are living in fear … and waiting to hear news about their abducted loved ones,” Muhammad Sani, whose sister was kidnapped, said.
Nigeria’s northwest and central regions have seen the largest mass abductions for ransoms in recent years.
In March, Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped more than 250 school children, including at least 100 children aged 12 or under, after raiding a school in a town in the northwestern state of Kaduna.
Last year, gunmen took over 80 students in a raid on a school in the northwestern state of Kebbi.
Source: Presstv
28, June 2024
Cameroon, Nigeria agree to end border dispute 0
Nigeria and Cameroon said Thursday they would no longer seek a court ruling to settle their disputed border.
Rather, the two nations said, joint delegations will validate a demarcation plan on site and put an end to long-standing territorial disputes.
The nations share about 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of border, from Lake Chad in the north of the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean coast.
Leonardo Santos Simao, chairperson of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission set up by the United Nations to solve the countries’ territorial disputes, said he is delighted the two countries decided to resolve their disputes without long and expensive processes at the International Court of Justice.
The agreement to peacefully resolve border disputes before the end of 2025 was made at a meeting of the Mixed Commission on Wednesday and Thursday in Yaounde. Simao called it a milestone.
The two countries agreed to visit disputed territories in Rumsiki and Tourou in northern Cameroon and Koche in eastern Nigeria before the end of 2024.
Nigerian Justice Minister Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, who is the leader of the West African state’s delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, confirmed that the countries have agreed to complete the project within 12 months.
“It’s a consensus between Cameroon and Nigeria. By the end of 2025, this project should be concluded,” he said. “We have so admirably and maturely handled the situation in such a way that there is hardly any dissent. We are satisfied with the outcome of the two-day meeting, and we are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Cameroon and Nigeria say the border demarcation was slowed by Boko Haram terrorism in both countries. They say that the Boko Haram group’s firepower is drastically reduced now and that the demarcation can continue.
The two states say they will move past existing differences over the precise location of the border in about 30 villages.
The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission was established in 2002 at the request of President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the then-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo to facilitate the implementation of an October 10, 2002, International Court of Justice ruling that ceded Bakassi, an oil-rich border peninsula, to Cameroon.
Nigeria initially rejected the verdict, with its senate arguing that the ruling, based on a colonial era agreement, was unfair and should be appealed. But Nigerian officials said the verdict should be respected.
Source: VOA