Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2014

"Ebola free"!

October 19, 2014 Ebola , Katherine Harmon Courage 0 Comments
Scientific American: How Did Nigeria Quash Its Ebola Outbreak So Quickly?

By Katherine Harmon Courage, Oct. 18, 2014, Scientificamerican.com

On July 20 a man who was ill flew on commercial planes from the heart of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia to Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. That man became Nigeria's first Ebola case—the index patient. In a matter of weeks some 19 people across two states were diagnosed with the disease (with one additional person presumed to have contracted it before dying).

But rather than descending into epidemic, there has not been a new case of the virus since September 5. And since September 24 the country's Ebola isolation and treatment wards have sat empty. If by Monday, October 20 there are still no new cases, Nigeria, unlike the U.S., will be declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization (WHO).

What can we learn from this African country's success quashing an Ebola outbreak?

Authors of a paper published October 9 in Eurosurveillance attribute Nigeria's success in "avoiding a far worse scenario" to its "quick and forceful" response. The authors point to three key elements in the country's attack:

Read the full story:  www.scientificamerican.com

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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Time for more hashtags

September 16, 2014 #BringBackOurGirls , Boko Haram 1 Comments
Remember #BringBackOurGirls? This Is What Has Happened In The 5 Months Since

By Charlotte Alfred, Sept. 14, 2014

On the night of April 14, 2014, hundreds of schoolgirls at the Chibok boarding school in northeastern Nigeria awoke to the sound of gunfire. They saw men in camouflage approaching and thought soldiers were coming to save them from a militant attack, according to survivors' accounts.

Instead, more than 270 of the schoolgirls found themselves in the clutches of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Their abduction sparked global outrage and a huge campaign calling for their rescue, partly propelled by the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Sunday marks five months since the girls were kidnapped. Here's what has happened since.
Not one student has been rescued

In the first days after the abduction, 57 of the girls managed to escape from their captors. But not one has escaped or been rescued since then.

Even though they were reportedly located months ago

In May, a Nigerian military official claimed he knew where the girls were being held. A month later, U.S. surveillance planes also spotted a group that officials believed to be the girls.

Stephen Davis, an Australian cleric and mediator, said in June that a deal to free the girls had fallen apart three different times in one month. He says that powerful people with "vested interests" are working to sabotage a deal, and he has accused Nigerian politicians of funding Boko Haram. Nigeria's government has defended its approach to the crisis and warned that a rescue effort might risk the girls' lives.

Other countries have made little progress

According to the Associated Press, it took more than two weeks for Nigeria to accept offers of international assistance to find the schoolgirls.

When other countries did start to help, they didn't get very far. The U.S. sent 80 troops in late May to coordinate an aerial search from neighboring Chad. Canada, France, Israel and the U.K. also sent special forces to Nigeria. But six weeks later, the Pentagon press secretary announced that the U.S. mission would be scaled back, saying: "We don't have any better idea today than we did before about where these girls are."

The troops are still in Chad and the U.S. has surveillance and reconnaissance flightslooking for the girls each week. U.S. officials have expressed concern about sharing intelligence on Boko Haram given the Nigerian military's poor human rights record.

Read the full story:  www.huffingtonpost.com

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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Tape Of Desperate Pleas From Kidnapped Nigerian Pupils Held In Jungle --Boko Haram wants Sharia law in all Nigeria

June 03, 2014 Boko Haram , Child Sex Trafficking 0 Comments
By Barbara Jones in Abuja, Nigeria, May 31, 2014, Dailymail.co.uk

Hostage schoolgirl EXCLUSIVE: Mail on Sunday hears tape of desperate pleas from kidnapped Nigerian pupils held in jungle with one saying ‘I never expected to suffer like this so much in my life.'

A heartbreaking new video of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamic extremists shows them bravely speaking out about their ordeal for the first time.

The footage, not released publicly but seen by The Mail on Sunday, was taken in a jungle clearing a month after their abduction.

More than 250 girls were taken in a raid on their school in Chibok, in Nigeria’s north-east, on April 14 by Boko Haram terrorists, who want to impose Sharia law on the country.

The girls in the video look healthy, but it is understood that fraught negotiations are under way to broker the release several pupils who have fallen ill, including one with a broken wrist.

In the video, eight girls, dressed in their home-made school uniforms of pale blue gingham, plead for release as they stand courageously in front of the camera. They are clearly scared, upset and trying to be brave.

Each of them walks in turn to a spot in front of a white sheet fixed to a crude frame between the trees.

Four of them can be heard clearly, in their Hausa language, stating that they were taken by force and that they are hungry. A tall girl, aged about 18, says tearfully: ‘My family will be so worried.’

Another, speaking softly, says: ‘I never expected to suffer like this in my life.’ A third says: ‘They have taken us away by force.’ The fourth girl complains: ‘We are not getting enough food.’

Read the full story:  www.dailymail.co.uk

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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Boko Haram Kills At Least 31 Nigerian Security Personnel --World has few options without entanglement

May 27, 2014 Boko Haram , Child Sex Trafficking 0 Comments
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks at an unknown location 
in this still image taken from an undated video released 
by Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram.
Credit:  Reuters
By Joe Hemba and Lanre Ola, May 27, 2014, Reuters.com
(Reuters) - Boko Haram gunmen attacked a Nigerian military base and adjacent police barracks in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi, killing 31 security personnel, security sources and witnesses said.

 The attack late on Monday in Yobe state occurred not far from where the Islamist insurgents shot or burned to death 59 pupils at a boarding school in February.

 The militants, whose violent struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and made them the biggest threat to security in Africa's top oil-producing state, are still holding more than 200 girls kidnapped on April 14, an act which provoked international outrage.

 Yobe police spokesman Nansak Chegwam said he was aware of the attack but could provide no further details.

 A resident of Buni Yadi, who identified himself only as Mustafa for fear of retribution, said the militants arrived in an armored personnel carrier and six Toyota pickup trucks before dismounting and firing into the air.

 They fired rocket propelled grenades at both bases.

 A senior security source in Yobe state said 17 soldiers were killed and 14 police officers also died.

 In what has become rare for a movement that has killed thousands of civilians in the past year, Boko Harm called out to people on the street not to run away as they had only come for the security forces, Mustafa and the security source said.

 The insurgents also razed the police barracks, the army base, the high court and residence of district head Abba Hassan.

 "One was shouting in English to the others: 'Let's go, let's go. Finish this and let's go'," a policeman who escaped the attack and fled to the state capital Damturu said.

 Read the full story:  www.reuters.com

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Monday, May 19, 2014

Nigeria’s Boko Haram Isn’t Just About Western Education

May 19, 2014 #BringBackOurGirls , Boko Haram 0 Comments
Credit:  South Africa City Press
By Sarah Chayes, May 16, 2014, Washingtonpost.com

Sarah Chayes, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is the author of the forthcoming book “Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens International Security.”

A few Ni­ger­ian teenagers who managed to escape are telling their stories: how some 300 of their classmates were wrenched from their sleep at a village boarding school and hauled off in a stampede of trucks and motorcycles. The attack has captured international attention like few terrorist incidents since 9/11.

But amid the pressure to respond to the anguish, the United States is right not to overdo its counterterrorism assistance to Abuja. As has become an unfortunate pattern where terrorism is concerned, officials might reinforce the root of the problem in their impulse to hack off the branch. For much of the responsibility for the rise of the Boko Haram extremist group may lie with the Nigerian government itself.

Officially designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in November, Boko Haram burst into public view in 2009 with a series of attacks on public buildings in northeastern Nigeria. A brutal counteroffensive by Nigerian security services followed, leaving hundreds dead.

The precise structure and membership of Boko Haram and its affiliates, and even the tenets of their extremist ideology, are unclear. Nigerians I spoke with on a research trip late last year unanimously condemned the group’s violent tactics, as well as its focus on imposing a locally outlandish brand of Islam.

Still, it has a real following in the country’s impoverished northeast. “Ninety-five percent of our youth in Borno have a connection to them,” Biye Peter Gumtha, a national assembly member from the region, recently told German radio. “Young men without prospects are open to radical offers.”

With the highest oil production in Africa, ample rainfall in half the country, good soil and resourceful people, Nigeria should be enjoying the benefits of economic growth. But its development outcomes have fallen since an oil boom began in the 1980s. Why so little return on such vast wealth? Because the government has been stealing the money.

In February, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan fired his respected central bank governor, who was investigating the disappearance of some $20 billion in oil revenue over a mere 18 months. Jonathan and his network are believed to have siphoned off most of the cash — with laundering help from local and international banks.

Read the full story:  www.washingtonpost.com

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Sunday, May 18, 2014

Guns Save Lives… ARMED Nigerian Villagers Defeat Boko Haram – Over 200 Terrorists Killed

Guns Save Lives… ARMED Nigerian Villagers Defeat Boko Haram – Over 200 Terrorists Killed

May 18, 2014 Boko Haram , Child Sex Trafficking 0 Comments
By Jim Hoft, May 17, 2014, Thegatewaypundit.com 

CNN reported:

 Residents of three villages in northeastern Nigeria took security into their own hands this week, repelling attacks by Boko Haram insurgents and killing more than 200 of them, residents and officials said.

 Hundreds of Boko Haram fighters stormed the villages of Menari, Tsangayari and Garawa in the ethnic Shuwa-dominated Kalabalge District on Tuesday. Boko Haram — the group responsible for the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls from the same region — was met with stiff resistance as locals put up a fierce fight, witnesses said.

 A month has passed since the girls were kidnapped, and the Nigerian government has been accused of not acting swiftly or efficiently enough to protect villages in the region threatened by Boko Haram.

 In the three villages attacked Tuesday, gunmen arrived in dozens of all-terrain vans, armored tanks and motorcycles, but villagers quickly mobilized and engaged the attackers in a prolonged battle.

 “They attacked Menari and killed around 60 people and burned some homes before proceeding to Tsangayari and Garawa villages,” resident Algoni Ahunna said.

 When news of the attack filtered out, people trooped out from nearby villages carrying arms.

 Locals seized an armored tank, three all-terrain vans and 90 motorcycles from the attackers, residents said.

 Read the full story:  www.thegatewaypundit.com

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Nigeria Abducted Girls: Boko Haram Leader Claims Captives Converted To Islam

Nigeria Abducted Girls: Boko Haram Leader Claims Captives Converted To Islam

May 13, 2014 Boko Haram , Child Sex Trafficking 0 Comments
By Aminu Abubakar, Faith Karimi and Michael Pearson, May 13, 2014, CNN

(CNN) -- The girls sit quietly on the ground, dressed in traditional Islamic garb, barely moving, clearly scared.

"Praise be to Allah, the lord of the world," they chant.

The video, released by French news agency Agence France-Presse, purports to show about 100 of the 276 girls kidnapped byBoko Haram fighters nearly a month ago. It's the first time they've been seen since their abduction April 14.

In separate shots included in the 27-minute video, a man says he will release the girls only after imprisoned members of Boko Haram are freed, according to AFP.

The man identifies himself as Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. Nigerian officials disputed that claim on Monday, arguing that Shekau is dead. Other experts say the notorious terror group leader is still alive.

Read the full story:  www.cnn.com

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Sunday, May 11, 2014

FLASHBACK (2010): Nigerian 'Gun Control' Enables Massacre

May 11, 2014 Boko Haram , David Cordera 0 Comments
Boko Hamarm Members
Source:  Punch Nigeria Limited
By David Cordera, Mar. 10, 2010, Examiner.com

"UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.

And this happened while the victims were supposedly under government protection:

[S]ecurity forces... faced bitter criticism over how the killers were able to go on the rampage at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

The attack wasn't exactly a surprise:

...Muslim residents of the villages in Plateau state had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape...

Apparently, the politically incorrect killers used "profiling":

Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.

Thankfully, the UN leader is "concerned," and is joined by Hillary Clinton in calling for "restraint." After all:

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

That'll restrain 'em.

Add to that the "Plateau State Christian Elders Consulatative Forum (PSCEF)" characterizing the attack as "another jihad and provocation," and the fact that "the authorities," that is, the ones with "control" of guns "did nothing to prevent the bloodshed."

And what's with the attackers "firing in the air"? Someone evidently had guns. In spite of Nigeria's "Firearms Act."I'll save you from reading the whole thing—here are the important parts:

No person shall have in his possession or under his control any firearm of one of the categories specified in Part I of the Schedule hereto (hereinafter referred to as a prohibited firearm) except in accordance with a licence granted by the President acting in his discretion.

Read the full story:  www.examiner.com
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Boko Haram--'Allah Says We Should Finish [Christians] When We Get Them'

May 11, 2014 #BringBackOurGirls , Boko Haram 0 Comments
Malala Yousefzey
By Michael, Rubin, May 8, 2014, Aei.org

When Islamist terrorists seized more than 1,000 school children in Beslan, North Ossetia, abusing and ultimately murdering hundreds, the international response was pure and utter revulsion. Chechen and Daghestani separatists—and even many Islamists—could stomach no excuse for the action and rejected the religious justification espoused by the mostly Ingush and Chechen terrorists. Indeed, rather than enhance the Chechen or Daghestani causes, the Beslan massacre marked the end of most remaining international and Islamist sympathy for their struggles against a brutal and abusive Russian regime.

If there is any silver lining to the horror occurring in northeastern Nigeria, it is that Boko Haram’s kidnapping of several hundred Nigerian school girls—and the leader’s threats to sell them off like chattel—may be a bridge to far for even those sympathetic to more militant strains of Islamism. And make no mistake, what Boko Haram is doing is rooted in Islam, albeit an archaic and twisted interpretation of it far from the mainstream. Indeed, anyone who denies the religious component has simply ignored the statement of Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader and the man apparently responsible for the kidnapping, in his claim of responsibility:

My brethren in Islam, I am greeting you in the name of Allah like he instructed we should among Muslims. Allah is great and has given us privilege and temerity above all people. If we meet infidels, if we meet those that become infidels according to Allah, there is no any talk except hitting of the neck; I hope you chosen people of Allah are hearing. This is an instruction from Allah. It is not a distorted interpretation it is from Allah himself. This is from Allah on the need for us to break down infidels, practitioners of democracy, and constitutionalism, voodoo and those that are doing western education, in which they are practicing paganism…

Read the full story:  www.aei.org

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Thursday, May 8, 2014

310 People Killed In Latest Boko Haram Attack; Hundreds Of Girls Remain Missing --Been going on for some time

310 People Killed In Latest Boko Haram Attack; Hundreds Of Girls Remain Missing --Been going on for some time

May 08, 2014 Abubakar Shekau , Abuja 0 Comments



By Vladimir Duthiers, Holly Yan and Chelsea J. Carter, May 8, 2014, CNN

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, whose country's effort to subdue Boko Haram has been largely ineffective, declared in a speech Thursday that the terror group's abductions of schoolgirls would be its undoing.

"I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria," he said at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Abuja.

But the task of recovering the girls appeared to grow more complicated Thursday.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the 276 girls abducted last month have been separated, according to a senior U.S. official who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The source declined to say how U.S. officials came to the conclusion.

Seven members of the U.S. military are scheduled to arrive Friday in Nigeria to join a team of advisers supporting the Nigerian efforts to rescue the girls, the official said. About 11 U.S. Africa Command advisers are already in country working with the Nigerian government, the official said.

Britain, France and China are also providing assistance.

The girls have not been seen since Boko Haram militants abducted them from a school in northern Nigeria April 14. Recently, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said he plans to sell them.

Now, the militants may be going after those trying to find the girls. On Thursday, Nigerian police said one officer was wounded in the neck during a gunfight with suspected Boko Haram militants on the road between Maiduguri and Chibok, where the schoolgirls were abducted April 14.

Read the full story:   www.cnn.com
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