ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Rail service in Nigeria’s capital city resumed on Monday, eight months after assailants attacked a train with explosives and gunfire, killing seven people and abducting dozens of passengers.
Only a handful of passengers and armed security personnel were aboard the first trip from Abuja to neighboring Kaduna state.
“We are not scared because of the security measures they took,” said passenger Jafaar Sanusi. “There were many security forces in the train for protection.”
Authorities have blamed the brazen attack in March on the armed groups who have been kidnapping people for ransom in northwestern Nigeria.
Paschal Nnorli, general manager of the Abuja-Kaduna train service, said that officials had succeeded in getting the release of the abducted passengers and had stepped up security on the route.
“Insecurity is getting higher and higher on a daily basis in Nigeria, it is not peculiar to rail operations but we shall continue to do our best,” he said.
The train service is a key means of transport for many in Nigeria’s capital, a city of 3.6 million, because the major road to the city suffers frequent kidnappings and not many can afford air travel.
Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault.
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Uyo, Nigeria – When Blessing* boarded a bus early on a January morning in 2017 for the 60km (37 miles) journey from her home in Calabar, in Nigeria’s Cross River State, to a village in neighbouring Akwa Ibom State, she thought she was going to meet a corporate executive about a potential job offer.
The 10-hour ordeal that followed still haunts her, years later.
It all started with a job posting on Jiji, an online trade platform, in December 2016.
At the time, Blessing was 24 years old. She had just finished a diploma course and was planning to begin university the following year. But first, she needed to save money for her fees and living expenses. And that meant finding a job.
Like many other young Nigerians seeking employment in the digital age, Blessing made a social media post in search of job offers, leaving her contact information so that prospective employers could reach her.
A few weeks later, she got a call from a man who told her there was an opening for an entry-level role at ExxonMobil, an American oil and gas company with a drilling licence in Nigeria. He asked that she bring a hard copy of her ID to an address in the neighbouring state to continue the application process.
She had doubts but hoped her weeks of job hunting were finally about to pay off.
“I told [the man] that I wasn’t comfortable [travelling so far to meet him], being that I don’t know him. But he insisted that I didn’t have a choice. And I was desperately in need of a job at that time,” Blessing, who is now 30, recalls.
When she told her mother about the call, she too tried to persuade the man that Blessing could simply scan her ID and email him a copy of it, instead of travelling across states. But the man insisted, so Blessing’s mother borrowed the money for her bus fare.
‘Beware of dogs’
After four hours on the bus, Blessing arrived in the town of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State at 10am.
“When I got there, I called him. He sent me the location [an address in the village] via SMS. He told me to take a taxi to Oron road, then I should take a [motorcycle taxi] and look for a house with [a] ‘beware of dogs’ [sign],” she says.
The road to the village of Nung Ikono Obio is untarred and lined by thick vegetation on both sides. When she saw the condition of the road, Blessing contemplated turning back but reasoned that she had already spent too much on travel.
“I did not want to go home without feedback [for my mother],” she recalls.
[Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]
But when Blessing arrived at the house with the “beware of dogs” sign, she was shocked by what she saw. It was the site of ongoing construction; outside, labourers were moving sand from a heap to mix concrete which they used for the foundation.
The man she had been speaking to on the phone also surprised her – he looked too young to be a corporate executive. It later turned out that he was just 16.
Blessing says he asked her to sit on a bench and wait for his father, who would discuss the job offer with her. Meanwhile, the labourers continued working around her.
“There were people working so I did not suspect anything,” she recalls. “At about 2 o’clock, I became uncomfortable because time was running fast and I was supposed to be heading back to Calabar.”
The boy told her not to worry, that they would leave as soon as he had paid the labourers.
But at 5pm, when the labourers left, the boy locked the gate, and Blessing was left alone with him inside the compound. When she protested, he threatened to kill her and demanded that she enter a nearby room.
She describes what happened next. “He told me to obey him and not hesitate, otherwise he would hurt me and no one would come to my rescue. The room was so dark but there was a small mattress. He told me to sit on it. He told me to undress. That was when I started pleading.”
Blessing started crying. She told him that she did not want the job any more.
“He brought out a knife tied with red cloths and [said] that if I did not undress, he would stab me.”
Then he raped her.
Rape and murder
In August this year, Uduak “Ezekiel” Akpan, now 22, was found guilty of raping and murdering Iniubong Umoren, a 26-year-old job seeker, in April 2021. After Umoren’s case started trending on social media, Blessing saw posts and realised the attacker was the same man who had raped her in 2017.
Like Blessing, Umoren had made an open call on social media for a job. “#AkwaIbomTwitter please. I’m really in need of a job, something to do to keep my mind and soul together while contributing dutifully to the organization. My location is Uyo. I’m creative, really good at thinking critically, and most importantly a fast learner. CV available on request,” she tweeted on April 27, 2021.
As with Blessing, Akpan had then lured her to his home – the same one, still under construction all these years later – under the pretext of a job interview.
While there, Umoren sent a one-second WhatsApp audio message to her friend Uduak Obong. When Obong called her back, she heard her friend’s screams. So she sent a frantic tweet suggesting Umoren might be in danger. Online, Nigerians began investigating. Within a few hours, they found Akpan’s Facebook pages and dug up his digital footprint. A Twitter user got a leak of Akpan’s call log. With the call logs, he geolocated where Akpan was when he had last called Umoren’s phone.
The following day, Umoren’s body was found in a shallow grave in the same compound in Nung Ikono Obio where Blessing had been raped years earlier.
After Akpan attacked Blessing, she was too traumatised to report it. She did not even tell her mother what had happened. But she did go to the hospital to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
Blessing came forward after Umoren’s death, and prosecutors called her to give evidence against Akpan at his trial. Although she did not end up testifying – she was told her testimony was no longer needed – she sees her decision as a first attempt at seeking justice for what happened to her.
In the statement Akpan gave to the police before his trial commenced – a confession he later tried to recant, saying it was obtained under duress, although the judge ruled against him – he admitted to having attacked six other women, including Blessing. Umoren was the only one he killed.
[Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]
Multiple victims
Twenty-five-year-old Miriam Akpan (no relation to the perpetrator) was one of Akpan’s other victims. In December 2020, desperate for a job, she posted on a Facebook group called Job Vacancy in Uyo, advertising her interests and qualifications.
“Please, anything, I can do,” she wrote, mentioning that she had the equivalent of a high school certificate and would take any job. No one offered her one until Akpan said he would pay her 35,000 Nigerian naira ($80) a month as a secretary in an “integrated farm”. Miriam was excited. For someone without a university degree, a job that paid more than the minimum monthly wage of 30,000 naira ($69) felt like a great opportunity.
She agreed to meet him to discuss the details of the job offer. But instead of an interview, she was drugged and raped.
For more than a year Miriam had suppressed the memory of what happened to her. She kept it from her sister, the only immediate family she has. But as people tried to locate Umoren, she saw Akpan’s picture being shared on Twitter and all the emotion she had tried to bury came rushing back. “I did not even think about it, I just commented [on Twitter] that this person robbed me last December,” she says.
But her last name raised suspicions, and some accused her of being related to Uduak Akpan. Umoren’s relatives did not immediately trust her when she advised them to go to Akpan’s house that night to search for the missing woman.
The following day, Miriam’s directions led the police and Umoren’s relatives to the compound where they found her body.
Miriam’s court testimony also helped convict Akpan.
He was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of Umoren, and life imprisonment for her rape.
Soaring unemployment
But Akpan is not the only person to have taken advantage of Nigeria’s employment crisis.
It is common for Nigerians to announce on social media that they are seeking jobs. With a soaring unemployment rate, many explore unconventional ways of finding work. Graduates are sometimes seen holding placards at major bus stops and expressways pleading for jobs; others make online banners; and members of the National Youth Corps who finish their service also post their certificates on social media, announcing that they are ready for employment.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate stands at 33.3 percent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, which means that more than 23 million people either have no job or work for less than 20 hours a week. Among those aged between 15 and 35, the unemployment rate stood at 42.5 percent in 2020.
[Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]
The high number of unemployed people seeking jobs also makes Nigeria’s labour market a “breeding ground” for criminals who lure applicants in with job interviews, said Taibat Hussain, a youth and gender equality advocate. “Criminals … lure applicants in with fake job interviews, and then rob, rape and, in extreme cases, kill them. This category of youth, after spending years without employment opportunities, falls prey to the tactics and is left with no other choice than to give in,” she told Al Jazeera.
As part of reporting this story, Al Jazeera met a 26-year-old man arrested in Cross River State for the alleged rape of an 18-year-old woman to whom he had promised a job. We are not naming him as he is awaiting trial.
When Al Jazeera met him at Calabar Correctional Centre, he was wearing a blue shirt with its collar raised and a pair of too-small slippers. He had already been behind bars for more than a year. He told Al Jazeera he had slept with the woman but denied raping her. “I was going to help her get the job but she is angry because the job did not come as fast as she wanted,” he said.
But in a statement the woman gave to the police detailing her experience, she told a different story. She met the man while looking for work vacancies, she said. He told her there was a cleaning position open in his workplace – a manufacturing company in Calabar.
“He asked me to bring my application to his house so that he can help me correct it and submit [it]. He looked at my application and said it is not correct. He wrote another one and told me to recopy it with my handwriting. After I finished copying it, I wanted to go but he did not let me go. He started kissing me and touching my breast. He used his right hand to hold my hands together and his left hand to cover my mouth,” her statement in the police report reads.
Experts say that most victims of dubious employment scams are younger women seeking low-skilled jobs, who make up a significant number of the unemployed population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Extorted by ‘jobs for sale’
While predators like Akpan take advantage of desperate job seekers, there are registered companies that also extort these desperate people in other ways.
Oladeinde Olawoyin, a Nigerian journalist who has investigated fake employment agencies, found 50 cases of applicants being extorted. These agencies get applicants to pay for a registration package – usually charging 5,000-10,000 naira ($11-23) – with the promise of finding them a job, yet most never do. Some of these companies are registered as consultancies to circumvent the law that makes it illegal for a person to pay to gain employment, Olawoyin explains.
“Many of the agencies do not have jobs to give,” he says. “They charge applicants for registration forms and don’t really get them any job. There are a few who might have [a] few jobs but they recruit more people than the [number of] job[s] they have. In a pool of about 1,000, they might throw in maybe 20 jobs or less.
“These agencies know that Nigeria is [a] free for all. So they … gamble with people’s life and extort them. Most often they change their location when their notoriety spreads. They change their name and location. So it is possible that a job seeker might get scammed two, three, or four times by the same set of people with different names and addresses.”
John Nyamani, the director of employment and wages at Nigeria’s Ministry of Labour, told Al Jazeera that “desperation”, social media and job seekers wanting a quick fix were to blame for people being preyed upon.
“We don’t want to follow the rules because we are in a hurry to get employment,” he said.
Nyamani advised job seekers to be circumspect of opportunities advertised on social media that cannot be traced to an established organisation. “They are deceived with jobs and it is because of the situation of things. The government can only try its best through the security agencies to educate people on how to be careful. Not every advert you see on social media [is one] that you respond to. If you have to respond to it, make clarifications, and ask the Ministry of Labour. The Ministry of Labour has a good, functional website,” he added, referring to the National Employment Electronic Labour Exchange (NELEX).
The website has a pool of vacancies and a list of legal organisations where Nigerians seeking employment can carry out background checks on their prospective employers, Nyamani said.
However, advocate Hussain, who has looked into the government’s youth unemployment reduction scheme, says such initiatives only provide “temporary relief”, and that there is a need for permanent and sustainable connections between the labour market and government initiatives that hope to help young people.
For many, Umoren’s death highlighted how dire the unemployment situation is in Nigeria, and the risks young people are willing to take to find a job.
Miriam has gone back to school where she is learning to become a data scientist. She said facing Akpan again was one of the toughest things she has ever done but, after the incident, she decided to relocate to Lagos to start afresh.
“I have left Uyo and everything else behind me,” she says. “I can now build a future that I want. I bought a laptop. I am going to start learning how to code.”
For Blessing, it has been harder. She will only feel that there has been justice when Akpan hangs, she says, adding: “I don’t think he will ever be killed.”
Regulators have said January 31 is the deadline for old notes to either be used or deposited at banks.
Nigeria has launched newly designed currency notes, a move that the West African nation’s central bank says will help curb inflation and money laundering.
Experts, however, are sceptical about such results in a country that has battled chronic corruption for decades, with government officials known to loot public funds causing more hardship for the many struggling with poverty.
Launched on Wednesday, the new denominations of 200 ($0.46), 500 ($1.15) and 1,000 naira ($2.30) are the first time Nigeria’s currency has been redesigned in 19 years. The banknotes will be in circulation by mid-December.
The naira is “long overdue for a new look,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said at the launch. The new paper notes designed in Nigeria and featuring enhanced security “will help the central bank to design and implement better monetary policy objectives”.
More than 80 percent of the 3.2 trillion naira ($7.2bn) in circulation in Nigeria are outside the vaults of commercial banks and in private hands, said Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
With inflation at a 17-year high of 21.09 percent that is driven by soaring food prices, he said the new notes “will bring the hoarded currencies back into the banking system” and help the central bank regain control of the money being used in the country.
Regulators last month announced a January 31 deadline for old notes to either be used or deposited at banks.
“The currency redesign will also assist in the fight against corruption as the exercise will reign in the higher denomination used for corruption and the movement of such funds from the banking system could be tracked easily,” Emefiele said.
Analysts, however, say the new notes would yield little or no results in managing inflation or in the fight against corruption in the absence of institutional reforms.
“If you want to curb money laundering, your financial system needs to be better; if you want to curb ransom payment, security needs to be better; if you want to curb inflation, the level at which the total money supply in the economy is growing has to slow down — so it is not about cash,” said Adedayo Bakare, an analyst with Lagos-based Money Africa.
The newly designed denominations would also drive financial inclusion and economic growth, the central bank chief said.
But Bakare said the move by Nigeria’s central bank is at best an “expensive process that will cost the public a lot of pain because of the short period” required to either use or deposit cash in circulation.
At least 133 million people, or 63 percent of Nigeria’s citizens, are multidimensionally poor, according to government statistics.
“It could potentially slow down the economy if people do not have cash and people cannot exchange their cash for new notes at a fast pace,” he said. “You can’t phase out cash without fixing financial inclusion or electronic payment and even at that.”
More than 100 people, including women and children, were abducted when gunmen raided four villages in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state on Sunday, the information commissioner and residents said on Monday.
Kidnapping has become endemic in northwest Nigeria as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from villages, highways and farms, and demand ransom money from their relatives.
More than 40 people were abducted from Kanwa village in Zurmi local government area of Zamfara, Zamfara information commissioner Ibrahim Dosara and one local resident said.
Another 37, mostly women and children were taken in Kwabre community in the same local government area, the resident added, declining to be named for security reasons.
“Right now Kanwa village is deserted, the bandits divided themselves into two groups and attacked the community. They kidnapped children aged between 14 to 16 years and women,” the Kanwa village resident said.
In Yankaba and Gidan Goga communities of Maradun Local government area, at least 38 people were kidnapped while working on their farms, residents said.
Information commissioner Dosara accused the gunmen of using abductees as human shields against air raids from the military.
Nigerian forces have launched a series of airstrikes in Zamfara and other troubled northern states, neutralizing many insurgents and dislodging them from their hideouts in the region’s vast forest reserves.
The country’s military has also come under criticism after some of its air raids were found to have caused civilian deaths.
Last month, Nigeria’s Air Force said it was reviewing “all allegations of accidental air strikes on civilians as well as review the circumstances leading to such strikes.”
It’s less than two weeks since Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter and already there are concerns that the company is choosing to ignore key risks inits biggest international growth markets.
Twitter laid off thousands of employees across the company on Friday, including staff in India and Africa. The California-based company already had a turbulent relationship with governments in these regions, and tech experts fear that a diminished workforce will leave the platform more vulnerable than ever to misinformation and political pressure.
Musk’s Twitter laid off nearly all the employees in its only African office just four days after it opened in the Ghanaian capital Accra, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
Twitter announced that it would open its first African office in Ghana in April 2021, but its employees had been working remotely untillast week. The sources told CNN that only one employee appears to have been retained in the Ghana office after the global job cuts.
“It’s very insulting,” one former employee said on condition of anonymity. “They didn’t even have the courtesy to address me by name. The email just said ‘see attached’ and yet they used my name when they gave me an offer.”
The company has reportedly also made sweeping reductions in India, one of its biggest markets. It laid off more than 90% of its staff in Asia’s third-largest economy over the weekend, according to a Bloomberg report this week, which cited unnamed sources. Twitter did not respond tomultiple requests for comment by CNN.
The Bloomberg report cametwo days after the Economic Times newspaper reported that Twitter had let go of 180 of about230 employees in the country, citing unnamed sources.
Free speech advocates say that slashing the workforce is bad news for both employees and users in Twitter’s international markets.
Raman Jit Singh Chima, senior international counsel and Asia Pacific policy director at digital rights group Access Now, said that Twitter had just begun “protecting vulnerable communities” on its platform in India, and now it has senta “clear signal” that it won’t be investing in public policy and online safety teams anymore.
Even beforethe layoffs, Twitter was going through a tough time in both India and Africa.
India’s ruling party has intensified a crackdown on social media and messaging apps since last year. American tech firms have repeatedly expressed fears that the country’s rules may erode privacy and usher in mass surveillance in the world’s fastest growing digital market. India says it is trying to maintain national security.
As a result, Twitter had spent months locked in a high-stakes standoff with the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over orders to take down content. This year, it even launched a legal challenge over orders to block content.
Chima fears that Twitter’s depleted workforce may not have the ability to “challenge” the government and its problematic orders anymore. Musk’s other business interests — including a plan to sell Tesla vehicles in India — may further complicate the picture.
“Musk’s simplistic understanding of free speech coupled with his desire to bring his other businesses to India and secure licensing for those,” make it hard for Twitter to push back, he explained.
India’s tech ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The company also went through a challenging period in Nigeria last year.
Last June, the Nigerian government suspended Twitter’s operations in the country, accusing the social media firm of allowing its platform to be used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
The ban was announced just two days after Twitter deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari that was widely perceived as offensive. In the tweet, Buhari threatened citizens in the southeast region following attacks on public property.
Nigeria decided to lift the ban only in January this year.
Tech experts now fear that the company will find it even harder to navigate new laws in emerging markets.
“Given India’s adversarial stance against big tech, companies like Twitter have always needed an army of public policy experts in the country to deal with whatever is thrown at them,” said Nikhil Pahwa, Delhi-based founder of tech website MediaNama, adding that he fears Twitter will “struggle to keep pace” with policy changes in India.
Twitter does not share user numbers, but according to India, the platform has 17.5 million users in the country. Last year, India released new technology rules, which were aimed at regulating online content and require companies to hire people who can respond swiftly to legal requests to delete posts, among other things.
Pahwa said that while certain “statutory positions” Twitter was forced to fill in order to comply with these rules will stay, he is unsure about the fate of other departments, including public policy, business and content moderation — all of which are key to thriving in growth markets.
Analysts are also concerned globally about the impact these layoffs will have on misinformation.
In the United States, there are worries that the growing tumult inside Twitter could weaken its safeguards for the midterm elections.
Yoel Roth, the company’s head of safety and integrity, said on Friday about 15% of workers in the trust and safety team were let go.
There are similar concerns in India, where social media activity is expected to ramp up as the country prepares for major state elections in the coming months.
Content moderation is particularly tricky in India, where over 22 languages and hundreds more dialects are spoken. Digital rights groups had been demanding an increase in investment in the activity for years.
“Content moderation has to be specific to geography,” said Vivan Sharan, partner at Delhi-based tech policy consulting firm Koan Advisory Group.
“Are they interested in treating all users equally?” he wondered.
ABUJA, Nigeria — At least 12 people were killed when a gasoline tanker crashed on a major road and then exploded in Nigeria’s northcentral Kogi State, police said Friday.
The tanker had a brake failure along a major road in the Ofu council area on Thursday night when it collided with a vehicle obstructing the highway, causing a fireball, a police spokesman told The Associated Press.
The vehicle “crushed cars on the way” and “12 people were killed” — all burnt to death, said William Ovye Aya with the Kogi police command.
Bisi Kazeem with Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps said 18 people were involved in the crash. Seven sustained “various degrees of injuries while the remaining 11 were burnt beyond recognition” at the scene, Kazeem said in a statement.
The road has been cordoned off and road safety workers are working to identify the victims, Kazeem said.
Such crashes are common along most major roads in Nigeria, with new measures introduced by the country’s road safety corps failing to curb their occurrence. Kogi is a known hot spot with more than 10 people killed in a similar crash in September.
Authorities in Kogi are investigating the latest crash, Kingsley Fanwo, the state commissioner for information, told the AP.
“As a state government, we have always been harping on this issue of road safety. It is becoming one occurrence too many,” Fanwo said.
Maiduguri, Nigeria – One afternoon this August, Kaka Modu was wheeled into the emergency ward of the Umaru Shehu Stabilisation Centre in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeast Nigerian state of Borno.
The three-year-old had been brought in earlier that day from Konduga, a town 25km (15.5 miles) outside Maiduguri. She had shrunk in size and whimpered whenever her mother, Yagana Modu, adjusted her sitting position.
“She started by stooling for some days,” said Modu. “I was hoping it would stop. Then I noticed the belly and body were swollen.”
Kaka, who suffers from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), is one of more than 1.3 million children below five who are likely acutely malnourished in northeast Nigeria, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) acute malnutrition analysis.
Food shortages and bouts of famine have affected the region for years as Boko Haram, which has been wreaking havoc since 2009, remains on a rampage. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict.
Across the region, some 8.4 million people, primarily women and children, need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Many are on the edge of death, experts say.
In 2019, Boko Haram attacked the Modu family’s village of Takari in Konduga, destroying Modu’s family home and livelihood. Her family of eight was held captive for months until Nigerian soldiers recaptured the town and transferred them to Konduga to join thousands of others displaced by the conflict.
Yagana Modu consoles her daughter, Kaka, as she whimpers at the emergency ward in a stabilisation centre in Maiduguri, Borno, Nigeria [Festus Iyorah/Al Jazeera]
‘Health facilities … overwhelmed’
Health authorities and non-profits say the situation is squeezing available resources.
Every week, one of the three ambulances operated by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) travels to outpatient centres in Konduga and nearby communities in Borno to transport patients like Kaka. Since May, admission of SAM cases, mostly children, has skyrocketed.
“This year, we are experiencing what we have not experienced in a long time,” Martha Budidi, IRC’s nutrition manager, told Al Jazeera. “Cases of children with severe acute malnutrition are beyond normal that even all the health facilities around Maiduguri are overwhelmed.”
Daily, 30-40 of those cases are admitted into IRC’s three stabilisation centres in the state – and about 200 people weekly, its officials said.
Elsewhere, the situation is bleaker.
The NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), which has been treating malnutrition cases in Maiduguri since 2017, says there has been a record number of admissions since May, when health officials say malnutrition cases peak annually.
“Since week 30 [the last week of July], we are admitting 330 patients per week on average. In the same period, last year’s average number of weekly admissions was 69 patients.” Htet Aung Kyi, the MSF medical coordinator in Nigeria, told Al Jazeera.
This August, more patients were admitted in one week than in the entire month in the same period last year, Aung Kyi added.
Deepening food crisis
Two years ago, before armed groups struck Takari, life was good for Modu, a maize and millet farmer like her husband. Every year, they would rake in enough profits to feed the entire family.
But her fortunes changed after the attack. “I had no access to food and healthcare in captivity, so my children died,” she told Al Jazeera.
At the garrison town in Konduga, where internally displaced people (IDP) live, food is rationed so the family get one daily meal off her husband’s meagre income as a construction labourer.
Across the region, deteriorating food consumption patterns over the last year are deepening malnutrition.
The FAO’s analysis showed that 42.1 percent of households across the BAY states – Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe – had insufficient food intake, compared with 37.8 percent in the same period in 2021.
According to the organisation, the regional armed uprising has denied 65,800 farmers access to farms and agricultural inputs leading to a surge in food prices and a food crisis.
Within the Maiduguri metropolis, IDPs formerly dependent on food donations from NGOs such as Action Against Hunger and Save the Children at the camps are stuck in host communities, hungry.
Recovery and relapse
Since 2021, the Borno state government has resettled about 200,000 displaced people from relief camps across Maiduguri. While their resettlement gives them relative peace and stability, thousands are reeling from hunger.
According to a November 2022 report by Human Rights Watch, the government’s camp shutdowns exacerbated hunger and malnutrition in the city. IDPs interviewed in the report said the Borno State Emergency Management Authority (SEMA) and humanitarian organisations like Action Against Hunger stopped providing monthly food rations and cash donations that helped them buy food in Maiduguri camps.
“Once people don’t have access to food rations, it’s [malnutrition] is expected,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “For children, that’s more concerning because it has a lifetime impact on them and how they grow.”
In Maiduguri for instance, Hauwa Ali has struggled to feed her two children since being relocated from the Dalori I camp back in July. The 25-year-old is jobless, and her husband’s new life as a car mechanic’s apprentice has not taken off quite yet.
In June – and again in August – she rushed her nine-month-old daughter Hadisa to the stabilisation centre in Maiduguri and got a diagnosis of SAM with complications, including oral thrush and diarrhoea.
“The first time she was stooling and was treated,” she told Al Jazeera. “This second time I couldn’t breastfeed her, she started decreasing in weight. I noticed the symptoms one night when I checked her mouth and realized it was swollen.”
Hadisa’s is a case of relapse, which according to Ibrahim Mohammed, an IRC doctor in Bama, happens when a child returns to SAM after a recovery period. “It [relapse] can be caused by poor health or hygiene, but most times it is often the case of severe hunger,” he told Al Jazeera.
At the stabilisation centre in Bama, relapse cases are frequent due to food rationing and limited dietary choices.
Thousands of families eat only one meal a day across the region and “about 5,000 children could die of hunger if there are no resources shared to save them in the next two months”, John Mukisa, a nutrition sector coordinator for UNICEF, told Al Jazeera.
In the past, the Ali family relied on the food donated by the World Food Programme (WPF) and other donor agencies. But since relocating to a host community on the outskirts of Maiduguri in July, the household of four now eats only one meal per day.
Meanwhile, Hadisa who is on F.100, a calorie and protein formula used for quick weight gain for toddlers suffering from acute malnutrition, is recuperating.
But Ali fears another relapse is coming. “There’s nothing (food) to go back home to,” she told Al Jazeera. “I can’t feed her properly and I’m afraid she might be admitted again.”
ABUJA, Nigeria — The 3-year-old son of Nigerian music star Davido has died at his home in an apparent drowning, police said Tuesday.
The singer, whose real name is David Adeleke, was not at the home at the time of Ifeanyi’s death Monday night. The child’s mother, Chioma Rowland, was also away, according to Lagos police spokesman Ben Hundeyin.
Authorities are interviewing eight of the pop star’s employees who were at the Lagos residence, he added.
Neither parent has spoken publicly about their son’s death, just two weeks after Ifeanyi’s third birthday.
The global award-winning musician got engaged to Rowland, a popular chef, in 2019. The couple had said recently that they plan to wed next year.
Lagos Gov, Babajide Sanwo-Olu mourned Ifeanyi’s death, tweeting that “death leaves a heartache no words can heal.”
Peter Obi, one of the leading contenders in Nigeria’s presidential election next year said he cannot “begin to imagine the pains” both parents are going through.
“No parents deserve what they are going through right now,” Nigerian pop star Peter Okoye said of Davido and Rowland in an Instagram post.
The death toll from the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in a decade has passed 600 people, the country’s humanitarian affairs ministry tweeted on Sunday.
According to the ministry, more than 2 million people have been affected by flooding that has spread across parts of the country’s south after a particularly wet rainy season.
More than 200,000 homes have been completely or partially damaged, the ministry added.
Earlier this month, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency warned of catastrophic flooding for states located along the courses of the Niger and Benue rivers, noting that three of Nigeria’s overfilled reservoirs were expected to overflow. NEMA said the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon had contributed to the flooding.
While many parts of Nigeria are prone to yearly floods, flooding in certain areas has been more severe than thelast major floods in 2012, a Red Cross official in Kogi told CNN last week.
NASA images show decimating reach of worst flood this region has seen in a decade
Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar Farouq warned Sunday that more flooding was likely and urged regional governments to prepare accordingly.
“We are calling on the respective State Governments, Local Government Councils and Communities to prepare for more flooding by evacuating people living on flood plains to high grounds, provide tents and relief materials, fresh water as well as medical supplies for a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases,” the ministry of humanitarian affairs said on Twitter Sunday.
The country will soon implement its National Flood Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, aimed at improving coordination of the flood response efforts.
According to the ministry, “relief has gone to every state of the federation,” and “many state governments did not prepare for the floods.”
A delegation organized by the ministry will be visiting state governors across the country to suggest strengthening states’ flood response mechanisms.
IGBO-ORA, Nigeria (AP) — Twins appear to be unusually abundant in Nigeria’s southwestern city of Igbo-Ora.
Nearly every family here has twins or other multiple births, says local chief Jimoh Titiloye.
For the past 12 years, the community has organized an annual festival to celebrate twins. This year’s event, held earlier this month, included more than 1,000 pairs of twins and drew participants from as far away as France, organizers said.
There is no proven scientific explanation for the high rate of twins in Igbo-Ora, a city of at least 200,000 people 135 kilometers (83 miles) south of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos. But many in Igbo-Ora believe it can be traced to women’s diets. Alake Olawunmi, a mother of twins, attributes it to a local delicacy called amala which is made from yam flour.
John Ofem, a gynecologist based in the capital, Abuja, says it very well could be “that there are things they eat there that have a high level of certain hormones that now result in what we call multiple ovulation.”
While that could explain the higher-than-normal rate of fraternal twins in Igbo-Ora, the city also has a significant number of identical twins. Those result instead from a single fertilized egg that divides into two — not because of hyperovulation.
Taiwo Ojeniyi, a Nigerian student, said he attended the festival with his twin brother “to celebrate the uniqueness” of multiple births.
“We cherish twins while in some parts of the world, they condemn twins,” he said. “It is a blessing from God.”
LONDON (AP) — Jason Godrick plans to “dominate” as an NFL offensive lineman. The first hurdle seems like a big one, though.
“I’ve never played an organized game of football before,” the 6-foot-5, 293-pound Nigerian said. “I’ve been blessed to be a quick learner, a very good student.”
The 21-year-old Lagos native, who goes by “Chu,” was one of the more than 40 prospects — representing 13 countries — who competed in the NFL’s international combine Tuesday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
They’re hoping to join the league’s International Player Pathway program.
Godrick switched from basketball to football in January — coaches were impressed by his hoops “mixtape” — and a few months later he saw countryman Roy Mbaeteka sign with the New York Giants despite having not played in high school or college.
“Roy is a big inspiration for us back home,” Godrick said of the 6-9, 320-pound offensive tackle. “It was very big in Nigeria when he got signed.”
Mbaeteka, who was released from the Giants practice squad last week, had participated in last year’s combine in London and earned an invitation to the Pathway program, whose most notable alum is Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jordan Mailata of Australia.
The two-time Super Bowl winner was on hand at Tottenham’s stadium, where his former team plays the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
“They have the athletic ability, they have the size, a lot of them have the speed. All they need is just the technique refinement,” said the British-born Umenyiora, who spent part of his childhood in Nigeria.
A handful of the prospects at the combine have some U.S. college exposure, but many have played only in European leagues or universities — or not at all. Some are in their mid-20s. Many work regular jobs.
Emmanuel Falola, an inside linebacker with the Bristol Aztecs, is an accountant. The East London native took the day off for the combine.
“I haven’t been taking time off to prepare though — I’ve been working and preparing,” said the 24-year-old Falola, who also tried out last year.
Those selected for the Pathway program will begin training in the U.S. in January and could join rookies in minicamps in May.
“We don’t have that much time, especially the guys that come from other sports,” said Will Bryce, head of football development for NFL International. “Their bodies have to change. They’re used to playing rugby or soccer — you’re running a lot more, whereas in football it’s repeated sprints, different positions.”
Like last year, there were no quarterbacks, punters or kickers at the combine. The NFL listed eight Nigerian participants — the largest contingent among the countries, which included Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Panama, Mexico and several in Europe.
NFL coaches, scouts and general managers flock to Indianapolis each winter for the league’s annual scouting combine. There, pro prospects test their skills in various elements such as the bench press, 40-yard dash and vertical jump.
In London on Tuesday, it was the NFL conducting the evaluations as prospects were put through tests such as the broad jump, various sprints and the shuttle drill, which records lateral quickness.
“Let’s go Chu!” fellow prospects yelled as Godrick ran around small cones placed near the 20-yard line.
Godrick has been applying some tips he picked up from Cameroon-born Roman Oben, a former offensive tackle who is now NFL vice president of football development.
“I’ve been watching film and with his guidance, I can say my growth has been good,” said Godrick, who plans to continue training back home in Nigeria, where he recently earned a college degree in human anatomy.
“Ultimate goal? Get to the NFL, dominate, show the world that it doesn’t matter how late you start, it doesn’t matter where you are coming from, as long as you believe, you work hard, anything is possible.”
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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Religious Freedom Advocates say Nigeria is Heading Towards Collapse. Thousands sign a petition that calls on the US and UK governments to respond to the ongoing crisis in Nigeria.
Press Release –
updated: Apr 26, 2022
WASHINGTON, April 25, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Citizens of the wealthiest nation in Africa endure assaults, kidnappings, and the threat of murder daily, yet their authorities stand down. In today’s Nigeria, citizens no longer believe in their government or its security forces. Instead, they are calling for help from the international community. A joint petition from the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable’s “Generation NEXT” mobilized concerned citizens, calling on the US and UK governments to meet with them and listen to their concerns.
“Foreign governments, like the US and UK, have refused to hold the Nigerian government accountable to protect human rights and religious freedom,” stated Ishaya Inuwa, host of the youth wing of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable in Nigeria. He added, “We are using this petition to demand that these foreign governments listen to us and respond to the facts on the ground.” Generation NEXT, the youth of the IRF Roundtable, were instrumental in spreading the petition and garnering nearly 10,000 signatures both online and in-person.
“We have to act now before Nigeria no longer exists,” declared Dr. Gloria Puldu-Samdi, IRF participant and Leah Foundation President. “If we fail to make our voices heard,” she added, “thousands more Nigerians will die at the hands of radicalized terrorists who are slaughtering unarmed citizens.”
This petition will be delivered by their leaders on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, to the US Embassy in Abuja and then move to the UK High Commission at 10:30 am WAT. The event will also be streamed live on the ICON-PSJ Media YouTube Channel (https://youtu.be/EMAMLFb5kj0).
Nigeria’s crisis of insurgency coupled with lawlessness due to Fulani militant attacks (also Fulani bandits), and Boko Haram / ISWAP/ Ansaru terrorists who are murdering thousands of defenseless Christians each year. Compounding the problems of insecurity and perpetual corruption, Nigeria is facing an election in 2023. Instability in West Africa requires a stable Nigeria, but experts warn of Nigeria becoming a failed state.
ICON advocates to help the oppressed and minority groups in Nigeria and argues that a destabilized and crisis-ridden Nigeria has a negative impact on development, international security, and the stability of the entire region.
Contact:
Kyle D. Abts, ICON Director Kyle.Abts@iconhelp.org 405 N. Washington St, Ste 300, Falls Church, VA 22046
The United States does “not yet know the motive for the attack” on a US convoy in Nigeria Tuesday, but has “no indications at this time that it was targeted against our Mission,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
According to the top US diplomat, “the convoy was carrying nine Nigerian nationals: five employees of the US Mission to Nigeria and four members of the Nigeria Police Force.”
“They were traveling in advance of a planned visit by US Mission personnel to a US-funded flood response project in Anambra,” he said in a statement.
At least four people were killed in the attack by “unknown assailants” on the two vehicle convoy, Blinken said, and the other five remain unaccounted for.
Local police told CNN on Tuesday that two of the people killed were US Mission workers and two were police officers.
Blinken extended his condolences “to the families of those killed in the attack,” as well as vowed “to do everything possible to safely recover those who remain missing.”
“US Mission personnel are working urgently with Nigerian counterparts to ascertain the location and condition of the members of the convoy who are unaccounted for,” he said, adding: “We condemn in the strongest terms this attack. We will work closely with our Nigerian law enforcement colleagues in seeking to bring those responsible to justice.”
Hours before the attack on the US convoy Tuesday, Blinken spoke with Nigerian President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu about the US’ “continued commitment to further strengthening the US-Nigeria relationship with the incoming administration,” according to a State Department readout.
“The Secretary noted that the US-Nigeria partnership is built on shared interests and strong people-to-people ties and that those links should continue to strengthen under President-elect Tinubu’s tenure,” the readout said.
The leaders, according to the readout, “discussed the importance of inclusive leadership that represents all Nigerians, continued comprehensive security cooperation, and reforms to support economic growth.”
