Nigeria

19, August 2018

Boko Haram jihadists kill four farmers in Nigeria ⁰

Four farmers were killed by Boko Haram jihadists outside a key northeast Nigerian city, a militia leader and survivor told AFP on Saturday.

On Friday, around a dozen Boko Haram Islamists riding on motorcycles stormed crop fields near Ali Goshe village, 6km outside the city of Maiduguri, and slit the throats of four farmers.

The attack on civilians comes as the jihadists are launching a surge of assaults against troops in Nigeria, putting the military on the back foot six months before presidential polls.

“So far we have confirmed the death of four people in the attack which happened around midday,” said Ibrahim Liman, who is part of the militia taskforce fighting Boko Haram in the region.

“When the Boko Haram terrorists came the farmers fled but the gunmen managed to grab four and slaughter them.”

Shuaibu Boka, who was among the farmers who escaped, said the jihadists did not shoot in order to avoid attracting the attention of security forces.

“There were dozens of us tending our crops when they came on motorcycles and we all fled in different directions,” Boka said.

“When we returned much later after the gunmen were gone, we found four of our men slaughtered,” he said, adding that the jihadists had killed the 75-year-old head of the community.

Boko Haram’s nine-year quest to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria has killed over 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million from their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the remote Lake Chad region.

The majority of the displaced people used to be subsistence farmers, but because of the ongoing violence they can no longer tend to their fields and rely on food handouts from aid agencies to survive.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday it was providing emergency help after 33 children died of malnutrition, diarrhoea and malaria over the span of two weeks in Bama, a camp housing people displaced by the insurgency.

Agriculture in the region has been decimated by almost a decade of conflict, with locals unable to sow or cultivate crops and jihadists raiding grain stores.

But farmers have been forced to try to resume their work in areas where the military has restored relative peace to help alleviate chronic food shortages.

Boko Haram jihadists have been targeting loggers and peasant farmers, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and the local militia fighting them.

Source: News 24

15, August 2018

Nigerian soldiers protest as Boko Haram attacks surge ⁰

Disillusioned and exhausted, Nigerian troops battling a surge in Boko Haram jihadist attacks have reached breaking point, protesting less than six months before presidential polls.

The Nigerian army dismissed it as a “misunderstanding”, but on Sunday hundreds of soldiers protested in the airport of Maiduguri, the capital of restive northeast Borno state, for several hours, shooting into the air and disrupting flights.

They were furious about a planned redeployment to a battlefront in the remote Lake Chad region after fighting Boko Haram jihadists for years without relief.

“We should not have been here for more than a year but this is our fourth year and still they are asking us to move to Marte,” one of the protesting soldiers told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“We need some rest, we are war-weary and need to see our families.”

The protest comes after a wave of bloody assaults on military bases in the northeast, forcing the army to retreat and marking a Boko Haram comeback.

The resurgence of violence has put pressure on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking a second term in office and maintains that the country is now in a “post-conflict stabilisation phase.”

Experts say that Nigeria hasn’t faced such a serious threat from the jihadists since the peak of the insurgency between 2013 and 2015, when Boko Haram controlled swathes of territory in the country’s northeast.

“There has been a military evolution akin to what we’ve seen in Syria and Iraq,” said security analyst Yan St Pierre to AFP.

“Boko Haram’s quality of attack is higher, the level of preparedness is higher.”

The Nigerian military is overwhelmed by the “catastrophic security situation,” said St Pierre, “they are relying on old tactics no longer applicable in the northeast.”

Desperate to stop the onslaught, Nigeria’s military chief Yusuf Tukur Buratai said that “cowardly” soldiers would be punished by death in a July 27 memo seen by AFP.

Soldiers who “abandon their positions” have the potential to “rubbish all the laudable gains made in the operations in the past 3 years against BHT (Boko Haram terrorists).”

– Relentless attacks –

The attacks are relentless. In less than a month, dozens of soldiers have died, though in the absence of any official death toll from the military, the number is feared to be much higher.

Boko Haram has traditionally launched attacks during Nigeria’s rainy season between June and September when roads become water-logged, making it difficult for troops to do patrols.

The more mobile jihadists seize the opportunity to restock their arsenal of weapons from war-torn Libya and Mali through Nigeria’s porous borders.

Sanda Kime, who is part of the militia force fighting against Boko Haram in Lake Chad, said the latest attacks were because of “huge arms supplies” secured by the jihadists.

“They are now better armed which makes them more daring,” said Kime.

The garrison town of Monguno is on high alert after Boko Haram sent out a warning this week that it would attack on August 22 during the Muslim Eid festival, said residents and aid workers.

Similar threats were sent to troops in Askira and Uba towns, security sources said.

On Monday, the United Nations announced the suspension of humanitarian work by its agencies in Monguno from August 19 over security concerns, according to an internal memo seen by AFP.

– Easy hideouts –

Fighters loyal to IS-affiliated Boko Haram factional leader Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi are believed to have carried out most of the raids.

The faction is mostly based in the Lake Chad area and in areas south of Maiduguri including Benisheikh and Buni Yadi in nearby Yobe state.

In June, Nigerian fighter jets bombarded Al-Barnawi’s Tumbun Gini enclave in the Lake Chad area, forcing him to flee southwards to a forest near Benisheikh, 80 kilometres south of Maiduguri, according to sources with deep knowledge about the group.

“He moved his operational base to the Benisheikh area from where he planned the attacks on military bases,” said a source who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram’s deceased founder Mohammed Yusuf, has found sanctuary in the Lake Chad region, an area fertile in vegetation and fish that is difficult for security forces to penetrate.

“The camps are a reservoir of fighters for the group from where they plan and launch attacks”, said Usman Nalado, a fisherman from the town of Baga on the shore of the lake.

“To end their attacks troops need to smoke them out.”

Source: AFP

18, July 2018

Flooding kills 49 in Nigeria, 20 others missing ⁰

Flooding caused by torrential rains on Nigeria’s border with Niger has left 49 people dead and another 20 missing, the emergency services said on Tuesday.

Five villages in Jibia district were affected after a river burst its banks after hours of heavy rains overnight Sunday, Aminu Waziri, the head of the Katsina state emergency management agency, told AFP.

“We have recovered 49 dead bodies from the five villages and we are still searching for 20 others,” he added.

Twenty-four of the victims were washed away by to Mada Rumfa and Kantumi villages in neighboring Niger.

“Some of the victims were pulled from the rubble of their collapsed homes,” said Waziri.

More than 2,000 people displaced by the flooding were sheltering in primary schools in Jibia, while 27 injured had been taken to hospital.

“The state government has released relief materials for the affected persons and we have also asked for intervention from the national emergency management agency.”

Flooding is common in many parts of Nigeria during the rainy season which runs from May to September.

On Tuesday, local media quoted the meteorological agency as warning of flooding in many parts of the country this year because of “shift in rain pattern,” with some areas recording higher-than-usual rainfall.

In 2012, Nigeria suffered disastrous floods across 30 of its 36 states, in which hundreds of people died and about two million were left homeless.

(Source: AFP)

17, July 2018

Nigeria refutes reports of missing soldiers after Boko Haram ambush ⁰

Nigeria’s military has denied reports that over 20 of its troops are missing, following a clash with Boko Haram militants in the northeast of the country.

The confrontation between militants and troops took place on Saturday in the Bama area of Borno, the state worst hit by the jihadist group which has killed more than 30,000 people since 2009 when it launched an insurgency to create an Islamic caliphate.

Three soldiers told Reuters more than 20 were missing. “We lost some of our soldiers in the attack. It is possible those missing are dead. We haven’t seen about 23 of them now,” said an officer who did not want to be named.

Another soldier involved in the clash said the troops were ambushed while conducting a “clearance operation”, adding that “over 20 soldiers have not been seen up till now”. He said five military vehicles were taken.

The militant group carries out suicide bomb attacks in crowded places, such as markets, as well as gun raids and attacks on military bases.

Nigeria’s army denies its ‘missing soldiers’

At a news conference on Monday, the military said media reports of the soldiers being missing were untrue.

An army spokesman said suspected Boko Haram militants had tried to seize military vehicles in an attempted attack on troops in Bama but they had been repelled by troops backed by the air force.

“About 22 members of Boko Haram terrorists were neutralised while several others escaped with gunshot wounds. Efforts are being intensified by the troops to get the fleeing members of the Boko Haram terrorists,” said a military spokesman.

Boko Haram is ‘technically defeated’

Boko Haram held territory around the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria for several months until being pushed off much of that land in early 2015 by Nigeria’s army and troops from neighbouring countries.

Bama, about 60 km (40 miles) southeast of Borno’s state capital Maiduguri, was held by Boko Haram from September 2014 until March 2015.

Nigeria’s government has said since December 2015 that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”. Yet attacks continue in the northeast while another group, an Islamic State ally that split from Boko Haram in 2016, holds territory.

REUTERS

16, July 2018

Boko Haram overruns Nigerian military base ⁰

Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists have overrun a military base following a ferocious gun fight with Nigerian troops in the country’s troubled northeast.

The militants invaded the base holding hundreds of soldiers in Yobe state in an hours-long onslaught Saturday night.

“Boko Haram terrorists attacked troops of the 81st Division Forward Brigade at Jilli village in Geidam district. The terrorists came in huge numbers around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT) and overran the base after a fierce battle that lasted till 9:10 pm,” AFP quoted a military source as saying.

“The base had 734 troops. Currently the commander of the base and 63 soldiers have made it to Geidam (60 kilometers away) while the remaining 670 are being expected,” he said.

“We don’t know if there were any casualties among the troops. That will be known later.”

A leader of a local anti-militant militia attributed the attack to the Abu-Mus’ab Al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram, which is known for targeting Nigerian forces.

“We learned that they drove from Lake Chad through Gubio (in nearby Borno state) and attacked the base.”

Geidam resident Fannami Gana said that Boko Haram militants “overwhelmed” the troops. “We don’t know the details of what happened but we learnt they were overwhelmed by hundreds of Boko Haram gunmen.”

The latest attack was carried out after Boko Haram terrorists ambushed a military convoy in neighboring Borno state. On Friday, nearly two dozen Nigerian soldiers went missing after militants ambushed a convoy outside Bama, leading to the loss of several military vehicles. According to a military officer, “around 100 terrorists” attacked the convoy.

Yan St-Pierre, the counter-terrorism advisor and head of the Berlin-based Modern Security Consulting Group, said that the militant raids showed the persistent threat of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.

Officials of Borno State Emergency Management Agency carry the body of a victim of multiple attacks to an ambulance in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, May 4, 2018. (AFP photo)

“The supply of Boko Haram fighters is always there, either through kidnapping or economic reasons, they tap into a wide pool of personnel, they find a way to replenish their strength,” St-Pierre said.

The security expert also suggested that the attacks could have been carried out due to the fact that Boko Haram was vying for the control of the faction led by Abubakar Shekau, the long-time militant leader who is reportedly ill. “When a near-mythical leader is on his way out there’s always a battle to establish who could be next,” said St-Pierre.

Since 2009, Boko Haram militancy has left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former general, came to power in 2015 on a platform of stamping out Boko Haram, but despite retaking swathes of territory from the group, it continues to stage attacks targeting both civilians and military targets.

Source: Presstv

28, June 2018

11-year-old artist becomes a sensation in Nigeria ⁰

An 11-year-old artist named Waris Kareem is creating waves with his unique creations in Lagos, Nigeria.

From a makeshift studio in a poor neighborhood in Lagos, Waris Kareem produces incredibly life-like works of art.

Waris began drawing at the age six and turned professional at the age of eight, becoming the youngest professional artist in Nigeria. He describes his art genre as “hyper-realism.” His drawings pay great attention and emphasis even the minutest of details.

(Source: AP)

23, June 2018

Five killed in Boko Haram bomb attack in Nigerian village ⁰

At least five people have been killed and six others injured after Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists launched an attack on a village in Nigeria’s northeast.

Residents said Saturday that a bomber, suspected to be a member of the Takfiri terrorist outfit, detonated his explosives among a group of residents sleeping in the open in Tungushe village, which lies six kilometers (nearly four miles) north of the provincial capital of Maiduguri, at about 12:15 a.m. (2315 GMT) on Friday.

Mustapha Muhammad, a civilian militia leader in the area, said the blast was followed by gunfire from Boko Haram militants lurking in the dark.

Tungushe resident Umara Kyari also said the attackers torched eight thatched houses and three vehicles.

The Nigerian government has insisted on several occasions that Boko Haram has technically been rooted out from its bastions in northern Nigeria. However, attacks have continued unabated in crowded places, mostly by female recruits. The attacks have targeted mosques, markets and camps housing displaced people.

On Wednesday, 15 people, including military personnel, were injured when two bombers targeted a market on the edge of a military base in Maiduguri.

On June 16, six young girls killed 43 people in bomb attacks in the town of Damboa.

Since 2009, acts of terror by Boko Haram have left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless. The group pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in 2015.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden,” has used kidnapping as a weapon of war, seizing thousands of women and young girls as well as men and young boys.

The United Nations warned late last year that areas affected by Boko Haram face humanitarian crisis. Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in northeast Nigeria are the three states most affected.

13, June 2018

Nigeria: Man buries deceased father in brand-new BMW ⁰

A wealthy man in Nigeria has reportedly buried his deceased father in a brand-new luxurious BMW to fulfill a promise he once made to buy him a car.

Pictures have gone viral on social media showing a group of men burying the deceased person inside of an 88,000-dollar BMW X5 in a deep grave in the remote poor village of Ihiala.

The man, who was identified only as Azubuike, had reportedly promised his father to buy him a car but lost his father before he could do so. He then decided to use the car as his coffin, according to locals.

The move, however, has struck locals as well as social media users with shock and anger, with some people describing it as a waste of money in the severely impoverished country.

“This is the sort of thing that keeps us poor as black people,” said a village resident, while another local described the move as an act of “insanity and selfishness.”

Social media news website Elite Readers even speculated that the images may have been staged. It argued that the “lack of information” around the ceremony suggested that it might have been a hoax.

A similar burial made headlines back in 2015, when a billionaire buried his mother in a brand new Hummer in the Nigerian state of Enugu.

Nigeria, the seventh-most populated country in the world — with a population of approximately 200 million — was declared the world’s poverty capital last year.

Culled from Presstv

7, June 2018

Nigerian Senate leader questioned over deadly gang robberies ⁰

The use of political gangs has returned to the spotlight in Nigeria after suspects in a violent armed robbery claimed they had been recruited by the leader of the country’s Senate.

Twenty-two young men were arrested after heists on six banks killed 33 in the town of Offa, in the central state of Kwara, on April 5.

On Sunday, the police summoned Bukola Saraki, a former Kwara state governor and now head of the upper chamber of parliament, for questioning.

Five of those held “admitted and confessed” they were “political thugs… sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles” by Saraki and his successor as governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, according to a police statement.

The gang allegedly operated for Saraki as political enforcers under the name Youth Liberation Movement or “Good Boys” but used the weapons and vehicles to carry out the heists, it said.

Saraki has rejected the allegation as “baseless” and claimed he was being set up.

Political enforcers – free-wheeling gangs providing security for their boss at public meetings or to intimidate opponents or more – have a long and sinister history in Nigeria.

But the latest incident has fuelled warnings the phenomenon could increase in the run-up to elections in February next year.

“Even in the 1960s during the First Republic, we had ‘Operation Wetie’ in western Nigeria, where politicians used thugs to burn houses and kill their opponents,” said Don Okereke, a security expert.

Since then, ethnic militia emerged such as the Oodua People’s Congress in the southwest, the Bakassi Boys in the southeast and the Niger Delta Vigilante Service in the south.

Northern equivalents sponsored to do the bidding of political godfathers include Sara-Suka, Yan Daba and Kauraye operating in Gombe, Kano and Katsina states.

Power struggle

Okereke blamed the practice on a loss of values in society and widespread economic hardship as well as desperation on the part of politicians to acquire and cling to power.

“Our youths have lost their moral values for good behaviour. It’s also a question of poverty and unemployment,” he told AFP.

“The youths have become willing tools in the hands of desperate politicians who capitalise on their poor condition to achieve their political ambition.”

Public affairs commentator Chris Ngwodo agreed: “Political thuggery is deeply entrenched in our politics because of the high stakes involved in the struggle for power.

“These thugs foment trouble, create tension and unleash violence on behalf of their patrons who are usually the big men, the senior government officials and politicians in society.”

Over time they can move from threats, intimidation and ballot stuffing into organised crime – or worse.

“That explains why there is a direct link between political thuggery, violence and organised crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism (gang membership) and assassinations,” said Ngwodo.

Former members of the ECOMOG gang recruited by the ex-Borno state governor Ali Modu Sheriff then dumped when he left office have allegedly gone on to join Boko Haram.

The hardline Islamists, who funded their activities in their early days through bank robberies and extortion, have killed at least 20,000 people in northeast Nigeria since 2009.

Boko Haram has been repeatedly accused of having political sponsors, although no link has ever been established.

‘Unwholesome practice’

Lagos police recently warned parents about their children being recruited as political touts, given the risks of them falling into other criminal activities, including kidnapping.

Buhari is hoping to secure a second, four-year term of office at elections in February next year against a backdrop of worsening security from ethnic and religious tensions.

Eradicating the practice may not be easy given Nigeria’s system of patronage politics and the lure of ready cash and status to legions of disaffected and jobless young men.

“The trend will continue as long as there are willing boys to do the bidding of politicians who have the resources to adequately reward them,” said Ngwodo.

“As we move towards the 2019 election, we are going to see more manifestation of this unwholesome practice.”

One way out is to make public office less attractive to reduce access to slush funds that could be deployed to hire thugs to serve selfish political interests, he argued.

(AFP)

1, June 2018

Nigeria: Conviction of former governor boosts anti-corruption hopes ⁰

The conviction of former governor Jolly Nyame has boosted hopes of change in Nigeria which has battled against corruption for a long time.

Nigerian lawyers and activists on Thursday welcomed the jailing of a former state governor for corruption, hoping it will set a precedent for a string of other high-profile suspects.

Jolly Nyame was sentenced to 14 years’ jail on Wednesday for looting millions of dollars as governor of northeastern Taraba state between 1999 and 2007.

The judge at the court in Abuja condemned his crimes, which included inflated contracts for office equipment and stationery, “outright theft”. Nyame, a church pastor, was one of more than a dozen governors who left office in 2007.

They were questioned at the end of their tenures by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Theirs and dozens of other high-profile graft cases, some dating back to the early 2000s, are still before the courts, having been delayed by repeated adjournments.

‘Conviction will boost anti-corruption efforts’

But EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren said Nyame’s conviction would boost anti-corruption efforts and potentially help to speed up pending cases.

“There are a number of former governors still being prosecuted by the EFCC for corruption,” he told AFP. “Some of the cases have progressed substantially.’‘

“With the diligence of the EFCC in prosecuting these cases, hopefully the nation will witness more conviction of former political office holders.”

The Buhari factor?

President Muhammadu Buhari, a no-nonsense former military ruler, has vowed to recover what he said were “mind-boggling” sums of public money looted by officials over decades.

The Nigerian statesman is the African Union’s anti-corruption champion, with the continental body having chosen to dedicate this year 2018 to the fight against the vice.

The EFCC, the country’s main anti-corruption agency, has been at the forefront of efforts to stamp out the practice, and has brought dozens of high-profile individuals to court.

But with many of them members of the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party, Buhari has been accused of conducting a political witchhunt.

The conviction of Nyame whose prosecution began before Buhari took office, and the renewed spotlight on the other outstanding cases from more than a decade ago indicate that corruption is not just a recent phenomenon.

Two years ago, Buhari’s government claimed just 55 people stole more than $6 billion between 2006 and 2013.

Nigeria’s highest-ranking judge, Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, has instructed courts to devote more time to hearing corruption cases across the country.

AFP