Pro-government anti-terror fighters in Nigeria have managed to kill three radicalized girls before they could detonate their explosive vests in a crowded market in the country’s northeastern province of Adamawa, officials say.

The incident occurred on Wednesday when civilian fighters spotted the three girls and became suspicious that they were wearing explosive vests as the three were trying to pass a checkpoint in a village near the town of Madagali, said local council chairman Yusuf Muhammad Gulak. He said the girls ignored the fighters’ commands to stop and began running, prompting fire from the forces.

According to Gulak, the girl in the lead was shot first, and her explosives were activated as a result. The blast killed her and another one of the would-be terrorists. The third girl was also gunned down as she tried to escape the scene. Officials blamed the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group for the attempted attack.

In recent months, army troops and civilian fighters in Nigeria have managed to foil many bomb attacks involving terrorists wearing explosive vests before the assailants were able to reach heavily-populated targets and detonate their bombs of their own accord.

Last month, however, two women, with the Boko Haram, killed 57 people and injured 177, including 120 children, after they detonated their explosive vests at a bustling market at Madagali, some 20 kilometers from the Wednesday shootings scene. Boko Haram later claimed responsibility for the massacre. On December 24, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, announced that the army had “crushed” the terror group a day earlier by retaking its last key bastion, deep inside the thick Sambisa Forest in the northeastern province of Borno.

Boko Haram terrorists started their reign of terror in 2009 with the aim of toppling the Nigerian government. In their heyday in early 2015, they managed to control an area in the country’s northeast as vast as Belgium, but they lost most of that territory over the last year as the Nigerian government, along with troops from some affected neighboring countries such as Chad and Cameroon, launched a joint military campaign to eradicate the militant group. The group, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” has pledged allegiance to Daesh, a Takfiri terrorist group mainly active in Iraq and Syria. Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes.

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A two-story building belonging to Nigeria’s police has collapsed, leaving two people dead. National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Sunday that the incident took place at about 04:00 a.m. (10.00 p.m. ET) in the densely populated Ikeja district in the commercial capital of Lagos.

A spokesman for Lagos state police said that the search for potential victims under the rubble was over. “Two people lost their lives. Nobody is inside the rubble,” said Dolapo Badmus. A NEMA official also confirmed that search for other people in the building, which was located in a police training center, was over.

There was no report on whether the cadets of the Nigerian police were also affected in the incident. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has seen frequent building collapses over the past years with officials keep blaming contractors for using cheap material in construction.

More than 150 people were killed in the collapse of a church southeast of Nigeria in December. In that case, prosecutors charged the engineers and church trustees with negligence, saying structural failures and detailing errors were to blame.

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Failing to improve the lives of girls and women trapped in poverty and domestic drudgery in north-east Nigeria could drive them into the ranks of extremist groups, analysts said. Many girls and women have been abducted by the jihadist group Boko Haram and used as cooks, sex slaves and even suicide bombers, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

Yet some women in the mainly Muslim north-east, frustrated by poverty, gender discrimination and deep-rooted patriarchy, have chosen to join Boko Haram voluntarily in the hope of a better life, an International Crisis Group (ICG) report said. “For some women trapped in domestic life, Boko Haram offers an escape,” Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director for the ICG, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Dakar, Senegal. “But this reflects a huge abyss of desperation among women … and a failure of society in the north-east,” he added.

Rates of child marriage, school enrolment and literacy among girls and women in positions of power are far worse in the north of Nigeria than the rest of the country, activists said.  But women often take senior positions in Boko Haram. Female members are almost as likely as men to be deployed as fighters and may outnumber them in roles such as recruiters and intelligence operatives, researchers said in a study published in October.

Boko Haram militants have killed about 15,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria during a seven-year campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate. The army has driven Boko Haram out of much of the territory it held in 2014, but government and aid agencies must focus on caring for and reintegrating women affected by the insurgency as the country comes back under their control, the ICG said. Many women uprooted by the conflict and living in camps for the displaced have resorted to selling sex in exchange for food, while those who were married to or raped by the militants are often rejected by their communities.

For those women who chose to join Boko Haram, the power and freedom afforded to them means they are far more difficult than men to de-radicalise and reintegrate into their communities, according to Nigerian psychologist Fatima Akilu.  “Exclusion and abuse of women may undermine military gains and mean they have same kind of grievances that pushed many to join Boko Haram in the first place,” Depagne said. “The state and civil society must improve the situation for women affected by Boko Haram, both victims and perpetrators, and ensure they play a role in rebuilding the north-east,” he added.

Defenceweb

Six people have been killed in three bomb attacks in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. The bombings were carried out in Maiduguri, Borno’s capital, on Friday. One of the explosions rocked Jiddari area near a mobile police post, Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu told reporters in Maiduguri.

The official added that two other bombings were carried out “along Maiduguri-Gamboru road.” The Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists have claimed responsibility for the bombings. Police said four assailants and two civilian defense fighters were killed in the bombings. One of the attackers was arrested.

Maiduguri has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency. Borno has taken the brunt of Boko Haram’s acts of terror, which started in 2009. The group has recently regained momentum after it was nearly obliterated months ago by a joint military force made up of Nigerian government forces and troops from neighboring countries.

Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq. The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis. Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group started its campaign with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria.

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The United Nations has warned that thousands of children will be at risk of dying in “a few months” across the militancy-riddled areas of northeastern Nigeria. Peter Lundberg, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Tuesday that thousands of children could die from famine in the troubled region, adding that 400,000 children were in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die “in (the) few months ahead of us.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the UN official said, “Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance.” Lundberg added that crisis was unfolding at “high speed” in Nigeria’s troubled northeast. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned in July that some 49,000 children would die of malnutrition in northeastern Nigeria if they did not get treatment.

Most of the children are in areas that had been inaccessible before a multinational force liberated them from the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group earlier this year. Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym as the MSF, had earlier warned of a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency” in the city of Bama, where, it said, 200 people died in June.

Despite the government’s fight against Boko Haram, the security situation remains volatile in Borno and specifically Maiduguri, because Boko Haram terrorists still carry out attacks. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria. It has so far taken the lives of more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

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Nigerian forces have opened fire at a group of Shia Muslims holding a demonstration in preparation for the upcoming Arba’een mourning rituals, which mark 40 days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the third Shia Imam.

Soldiers blocked the road and fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse hundreds of people, including women and children, marching in the northern city of Kano on Sunday. The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) said that one person was killed and several others were injured during the incident. According to the IMN, the peaceful demonstration is still underway despite the government’s attempts to stop it.

Followers of the IMN have been under a heavy-handed crackdown since last year when the army attacked a religious ceremony in their stronghold of Zaria in the north. Hundreds of people were killed and more, including the movement’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, were thrown behind bars.

Last week, the movement said it had received information that the Nigerian army was planning to attack Arba’een processions scheduled for November 20. Meanwhile, the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission has called on Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the safety of mourners taking part in the processions.

Last month, at least 20 people were killed and several others injured when Nigerian forces opened fire at Shia mourners commemorating Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (Peace be upon him).  In December 2015, Nigerian forces raided the house of the IMN’s leader Sheikh Zakzaky and arrested him after killing those attempting to protect him, including one of the movement’s senior leaders and its spokesman.

The Sheikh himself was shot seven times during the attacks and blinded in one eye and still remains in custody of the army. The raid occurred a day after Nigerian soldiers attacked Shia Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in the city of Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army’s chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him.  On August 1, the Islamic Human Rights Commission released a report, saying the Nigerian army killed 348 Shia Muslims during the attack on the religious ceremony.

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Two Nigerians were arrested on Friday at Istanbul airport in possession of nearly 3 kg of drugs carefully concealed in their stomachs. The two Nigerian nationals were intercepted at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport. The Nigerian traffickers, aged 22 and 47, went so far as to swallow about 3 kilos of cocaine and heroin concealed in condoms.

According to the Dogan news agency, police officers from the drug trafficking brigade did not find anything during the initial search and decided to accompany the two men to a hospital for submission to an X-ray and that was where the Turkish police made their big catch.

One of them had swallowed 1,290 kg of liquid cocaine and the second, 700 grams of heroin, according to Dogan. All buried meticulously in condoms inserted in their digestive tract.

By Chi Prudence Asong

A court in Abuja has charged a Nigerian judge for money laundering and fraud in connection with an investigation against several judges for corruption. Sylvester Ngwuta reportedly a Supreme Court judge will be named and shamed in a historic corruption trial to begin soon.

Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that nearly 35.4 million naira (111,995 dollars) was found during a raid by the secret service (DSS) at his home. According to the indictment, the judge had also made false statements to obtain four diplomatic passports from Nigerian immigration service.

Last month, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta and six other judges were arrested for corruption and released on bail after millions of naira and other currencies were discovered in their homes. Since coming to power, President Buhari decided to fight against corruption that has made the Federal Republic of Nigeria an international embarrassment.

By Sonne Peter

Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists have killed at least two Nigerian soldiers and razed a village in the troubled northeastern part of the African country. Local residents said on Sunday that a group of Boko Haram gunmen arrived in Akwada village late Saturday and torched homes after looting food supplies. “Boko Haram gunmen attacked the village around 7:30 p.m. They fired indiscriminately and hurled explosives,” AFP quoted resident Bitrus John as saying.

“They killed two soldiers and injured another one in gunfight,” John said. Bulus Samson, another witness, said, “The village has been entirely burnt, there is nothing left apart from burnt rubble of our mud houses.” Akwada adjoins the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, where the terrorist group kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls two years ago.

Nigerian soldiers had deployed in the area following incessant attacks there in recent months. The latest attack underscores the continued threat of Boko Haram in Nigeria’s volatile northeast. It came two weeks after similar raids on two nearby villages, where the militants looted and burnt homes.

In a separate development, the Nigerian army said on Sunday it had retaken some villages from the militant group in the Lake Chad region in operations on Friday and Saturday and “rescued” 85 people. Army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement that 37 Boko Haram terrorists were killed in another operation in four villages in the south of Borno state.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and some 2.6 million people have been displaced since Boko Haram began its terror activities in 2009. Many blame corrupt officials in the Nigerian government and army for the continued militancy. Recent reports say the terrorist group is receiving some of its arms and ammunition from corrupt Nigerian officials. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

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Nine people have been killed in a car bomb blast at a military checkpoint in northern Nigeria. Officials and witnesses said on Tuesday that the bomb exploded at the checkpoint on a road leading to the northeastern city of Maiduguri. The victims were all aboard the explosives-laden vehicle. There was not clear if any soldiers were injured in the incident.

Preliminary reports said the vehicle was a minivan transporting ordinary passengers. The driver was also among the victims. There was no immediate claim of responsibility although local officials blamed the attack on Boko Haram, a Takfiri terrorist group operating in northern Nigeria and certain neighboring countries.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and some 2.6 million people have been displaced from their homes since Boko Haram began its terror activities in 2009. Many blame corrupt officials in the Nigerian government and army for the continued militancy. Recent reports say the terrorist group is receiving some of its arms and ammunition from corrupt Nigerian officials.

Attacks by Boko Haram had subsided in the recent past as leadership struggle in the group intensified. However, the months-long lull seems to have ended as the militant group has stepped up attacks on civilians and security forces in recent weeks.

Last week, nine people were killed and two dozen were injured when Boko Haram operatives carried out two explosions in Maiduguri. The attacks were aimed at residents of a camp of refugees who had run away from Boko Haram.

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