Turmoil in Nigeria

[Johnnycomelately]

The thing about these turmoil threads is, they’re all feel-bad threads. Rarely do the subject countries have a positive or even a general or neutral observational thread.

This thread follows the “turmoil” pattern, no rose scent here. But we should try to fix that, and make a template for showing the good and wonderful in various countries.

Released or escaped schoolgirl abductees of Boko Haram ten years ago, are held captive by the Nigerian government, to “play house” with surrendered abductors. Atrocious, or maybe just sad?

Nigeria has enough sad or tough stories to populate this thread, but I’d really like to know of their successes and their good life too.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa...ht-2024-04-11/


Africa

A decade on, tragedy of Nigeria’s Chibok Girls endures outside the spotlight

By Ahmed Kingimi and Angela Ukomadu

April 11, 2024,10:21 AM MDTUpdated 13 hours ago


CHIBOK, Nigeria, April 11 (Reuters) - Ten years ago, Solomon Maina's daughter, Debora, was one of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped from their dormitory in the middle of the night by Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants.

Global outrage was swift. A ubiquitous "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign, drawing support from the likes of Michelle Obama and Sylvester Stallone, shined a spotlight on the abductions. Then, in 2016 and 2017, negotiations led to the highly publicised liberation of around 100 of the captives.

Debora was not one of them.

A decade after that fateful night in April 2014, the world has largely forgotten the plight of the so-called Chibok girls. But for the victims and their families, the tragedy is ongoing.

"Especially at night, I think about my daughter," Maina, in tears, told Reuters in an interview at his home in Chibok, a Christian enclave in the West African nation's majority Muslim north. "I will never forget her."

Abductees who have returned home have struggled to resume their interrupted lives. Some are raising children fathered by their captors. Others have waited years for funds promised by the government to continue their education.

Those who spent the longest time in captivity have often had the most difficulty reintegrating with civilian life.

Dozens freed only in the past few years are living inside a military-run rehabilitation camp with surrendered Boko Haram fighters they married in the bush, according to the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, a charity that advocates for them. With them are more than 30 children.

"I'm tired of staying in the camp," one Chibok survivor told Reuters, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals by the military. "I want to go home and stay with my family. There is no place like home."

Three of the surviving women told Reuters that in at least five cases women who arrived at the camp unmarried have been married to surrendered fighters once there. Government officials have officiated over such weddings, in an apparent effort to appease the surrendered fighters, family members say.

Aid groups and relatives say there is no clarity surrounding when - or even if - the women in the camp will be allowed to return home.

"They were brainwashed and their psychological thinking and mindset were changed to favour their abductors," said Dauda Yama whose daughter is inside the camp.

The state official in charge of the rehabilitation project did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

STILL MISSING

[1/6]Yagana Yamani, 25, one of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped from their dormitory by Boko Haram Islamist militants in 2014, spreads her laundry on a clothesline in her home in Chibok, Nigeria April 7, 2024. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja Purchase Licensing Rights
Roughly 90 Chibok girls are still missing. Based on the accounts of former abductees, the Murtala Muhammed Foundation believes a third of those have died in captivity.

"Some died of childbirth, some of starvation or snakebite others in government air strikes" against Boko Haram, said Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, the foundation's head. A parents association for the Chibok girls also estimates dozens are now dead.

Nigeria's president's office and the interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment on how many of the missing Chibok girls were believed to still be alive.

Early on, as the girls began emerging from captivity in the bush and their fate was still a rallying cause around the world, the government pledged to fund their studies in "any field of their choice."

Some liberated captives are attending universities as far afield as the United States. But some say the assistance never arrived.

Yagana Yamani waited for government funds for six years after escaping her captors. She finally asked her mother, a farmer, to help. Now 25, she is studying public health.

"They didn't fulfil their promise," she said.

The federal government did not respond to requests for comment on the question of whether it failed to provide promised support.

Nigeria's military has been fighting Boko Haram since 2009 in a conflict that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 2 million.

While the group aims to topple Nigeria's government to establish a state based on its own interpretation of Islamic law, to many people around the world it is best known for the Chibok kidnapping.

Soon after the raid, then-President Goodluck Jonathan promised that the girls would be brought home. Solomon Maina feels he is alone grappling with his daughter's fate.

Through a freed abductee, he learned that Debora had been injured but survived a bombing raid on Boko Haram. He believes she's still out there, alive.

"Where is she now? Is she in a comfortable place?" he said. "I think about this all the time."


(This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, in paragraph 14)

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Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi and Angela Ukomado in Chibok, Additional reporting and writing by Giulia Paravicini in Nairobi Editing by Joe Bavier and Peter Graff

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇳🇬 Nigeria cracks down on illegal lithium mining with dozens of arrests

Nigeria's government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests since April for unlicensed miners allegedly stealing lithium, a critical mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and power systems.

The crackdown comes as Nigeria seeks to regulate its mining operations, curb illegal activity, and better benefit from its mineral resources. The global demand for lithium has surged due to the clean energy transition. However, corruption and minimal government presence in remote areas have led to rampant illegal mining, which has fueled militia groups in the north.

In mid-May, a joint team of soldiers and police raided a market in Kishi, Oyo State, arresting 32 individuals, including two Chinese nationals. The market, once known for farm produce, had become a hub for illicit lithium trade. Community leader Jimoh Bioku reported clandestine searches for lithium by Chinese nationals, who then engaged locals to mine for them, turning the market into a transit point.

President Bola Tinubu has blamed illegal mining for worsening conflicts in the north and called for international help to stop it. The Chinese embassy in Abuja has not commented on the arrests, but previously urged Chinese nationals to abide by Nigerian laws.

Nigeria is emerging as a significant lithium source in Africa, but illegal mining denies the government substantial revenues. Emeka Okoro from SBM Intelligence highlighted the exploitation of vulnerable workers from conflict-affected regions. The government estimates that resource theft causes annual losses of $9 billion.

To combat this, Nigeria has established a 2,200-strong "corps of mining marshals." The corps has made several arrests and seizures, including two trucks loaded with lithium near Abuja in April and four Chinese nationals in Nasarawa State.

africaintel


https://x.com/dana916/status/1795464550021574809

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1812298468850905366

[Ravenlocke]

Translated Text:
Nigeria: Army chief calls on UN to investigate Boko Haram sponsors

🗣 It is crucial to trace and monitor international terrorist funding flows, General Christopher Musa stressed in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

☝️ According to him, more than 120,000 members of #BokoHaram surrendered, many of them with hard currency, raising questions about the source of their funding.

This is the responsibility of the international community, because the #Nigeria does not have control over this data, the senior officer said.

He questioned how Boko Haram had managed to survive for 15 years, suggesting there might be an "international conspiracy" without naming its members.

https://x.com/sputnik_afrique/status...75939757731918

[Ravenlocke]

Translated text:
🇳🇬 Nigeria receives first rice shipment in 10 years to fight food inflation

🔹 A shipment of 32,000 tonnes of brown rice has arrived in Lagos from Thailand, according to Bloomberg.

🔹 The delivery was managed by the logistics company Ducat.

🔹 In July 2024, the country had waived customs duties for 150 days on imports of various food crops, including rice, wheat.

🔹 In addition, the country plans to import 250,000 tonnes of wheat and corn to replenish its strategic reserves.

👉 Food inflation has seen a sharp rise in Nigeria, reaching 39.93% in November 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

https://x.com/sputnik_afrique/status...53925302759700

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/sputnik_africa/status/1890455378476830820

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/telesurenglish/status/1917647643330650492

https://www.telesurenglish.net/at-le...oamp=available

At Least 26 Killed by Roadside Bomb in Northeastern Nigeria

At least 26 people were killed on Monday in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State after the vehicle they were traveling in struck an improvised explosive device (IED), authorities said. The bomb was allegedly planted by Boko Haram militants.

The explosion occurred around noon along the road connecting Kala-Balge and Gamboru-Ngala, near the village of Furunduma, police spokesperson Nahum Daso told local media late Monday.

“A van heading from Kala-Balge to Gamboru-Ngala hit an IED at Furunduma. The tragic incident resulted in the deaths of 26 people, including 16 men, four women, and six children,” Daso said. Several injured individuals were taken to a hospital for treatment.

The attack comes just two weeks after a similar bombing in the same state killed eight people, also blamed on Boko Haram.

Borno has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s insurgency since 2009. The violence intensified in 2016 with the rise of a splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Both groups aim to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country split between a Muslim-majority north and Christian-majority south.

The ongoing insurgency has claimed more than 35,000 lives and displaced around 2.7 million people across Nigeria and neighboring countries including Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, according to UN and government figures.

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇷🇺 🇳🇬 Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov meets with Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Nigeria

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov held talks with Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria General Christopher Gwabin Musa.

'We view Nigera as a promising partner in the African continent, ' said Andrei Belousov.

Head of the Russian defense department stressed, that Russia supports the aspiration of the leadership of Nigeria to strengthen the national armed forces to protect the sovereignty of the state and security in the region.

'We welcome our commitment to fruitful cooperation with our country in the military and military-technical sphere,' the Russian Defense Minister added.

In turn, General Christopher Gwabin Musa said, the Nigeria cherishes friendship with Russia, values all of the support, which is often vital to most countries.

'We look forward to start the discussion. Not only you promise something, you promise and fulfill your vows. Everyone knows that Russia acts in the name of peace and stability. During the talks we strive to discuss issues of cooperation,' he added.

During the talks, the side discussed the most relevant issues of partnership between the defence departments of both countries.

Russian Defense Ministry

https://x.com/dana916/status/1921303505861530038