At UN, African leaders say enough is enough: They must be partnered with, not sidelined
At the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, African leaders are relaying a unanimous message, that their continent of more than 1.3 billion people is done being a โvictimโ of a post-world war order and must be recognized and partnered with as a global power in itself.
Sub-Saharan Africa is 'new epicenter' of extremism, says UN
A new report by the U.N.โs international development agency says that sub-Saharan Africa is the new global epicenter of violent Islamic extremism and that people are increasingly joining as a result of economic factors and less by religious ones.
Nigerian governor says 279 kidnapped schoolgirls are freed
Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle announced that 279 girls who were abducted last week from a boarding school in the northwestern Zamfara state have been released Tuesday. Bello Matawalle said that 279 girls had been freed after being abducted from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town on Friday. It gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students,โ Matawalle said in a post on Twitter early Tuesday. In December, more than 300 schoolboys from a secondary school in Kankara, in northwestern Nigeria, were taken and later released. The government has said no ransom was paid for the studentsโ release.
Pope prays for liberation of 317 kidnapped Nigerian students
VATICAN CITY โ Pope Francis on Sunday decried the kidnapping of 317 students from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria and prayed for the girls' quick release. Police on Friday in Nigeria said gunmen had abducted the students from their boarding school. โI pray for these girls, so that they may return home soon,'' the pope said. A resident of the area said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction. On Saturday, authorities in Nigeria announced that nearly 40 students, teachers and relatives abducted on Feb. 17 from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed.
Students abducted from Nigerian school 2 weeks ago freed
(AP Photo)(AP) โ Students, teachers and relatives abducted two weeks ago from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed. The students, teachers and family members were abducted Feb. 17 by gunmen from the Government Science College Kagara. Their release was announced a day after police said gunmen had abducted 317 girls from a boarding school elsewhere in northern Nigeria, in Zamfara state. โWe will not succumb to blackmail by bandits and criminals who target innocent school students in the expectation of huge ransom payments,โ he said. In December, 344 students were abducted from the Government Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina State.
Africa CDC: New virus variant appears to emerge in Nigeria
โItโs a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,โ the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases would analyze more samples. The new virus variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. โWe believe this mutation will not have an effectโ on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant. Infections across the continent have risen 10.9% over the past four weeks, the Africa CDC director said, including a 52% increase in Nigeria and 40% increase in South Africa.
The Latest: China tests millions in port over virus cluster
(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)BEIJING โ Authorities in Chinaโs northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the last 24 hours. It has a deal to secure up to 100 million doses of the potential vaccine produced by AstraZeneca. Koca said the first shipment of three million doses of CoronaVac would be shipped to Turkey on Sunday and arrive Monday. He said Turkey could get 4.5 million doses until the end of March and would have the option buy up to 30 million doses. Indonesia has reported nearly 700,000 COVID-19 cases, the largest caseload in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to Indiaโs 10.1 million confirmed cases.
Hundreds of Nigerian students missing after attack on school
People gather inside the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Nigeria, Saturday Dec. 12, 2020. Nigerian police say that hundreds of students are missing after gunmen attacked the secondary school in the countrys northwestern Katsina state. (AP Photo/Abdullatif Yusuf)(AP) โ Hundreds of Nigerian students are missing after gunmen attacked a secondary school in the countryโs northwestern Katsina state, police said, while the president said the military was in gunfights with bandits in a forest as it tried to find the students. โThe police, Nigerian Army and Nigerian Air Force are working closely with the school authorities to ascertain the actual number of the missing and/or kidnapped students,โ said Isah. โOur prayers are with the families of the students, the school authorities and the injured,โ said the president's statement.
US citizen kidnapped in Niger rescued in military operation
WASHINGTON โ An American citizen kidnapped in the West African nation of Niger this past week has been rescued in a U.S. military operation in neighboring Nigeria, U.S. officials said Saturday. The man was taken from his farm in Massalata in southern Niger early Tuesday morning by armed kidnappers who demanded a ransom from the manโs father. โThis American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation,โ the department said in a statement. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details .
Houstonโs Nigerian community hosts protest in support of the End SARS movement
HOUSTON โ Momentum is growing on an outcry for justice in Nigeria, where more than 50 civilians have been killed during peaceful protests. In Houston, Congressman Al Green joined the Coalition Against Human Rights Abuse and the Houston Nigerian community to protest the killings on Saturday. โIt is time for us to let Nigeria know we will not allow human rights to be ignored.โโPeople who look like me are dying everyday,โ said a Houston resident. The End SARS movement calls for an end to violence and police brutality being done by the special anti-robbery squad in the west African country. The movement has been viral on social media for days.
Nigeriaโs police order massive mobilization after unrest
Nigeria's president says 51 civilians have been killed in unrest following days of peaceful protests over police abuses, and he blames "hooliganism" for the violence while asserting that security forces have used "extreme restraint. The police order could further heighten tensions in Africaโs most populous country after its worst turmoil in years. Adamu, ordered colleagues to โdominate the public spaceโ while announcing that enough is enough, a statement said. By not taking action against security forces, some Nigerians have warned, the president could inspire further abuses. We are part of the system, we are part of this governance.โ___Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria contributed.
#EndSARS movement spreading in Houston; first-generation Nigerian Americans speak out about the violence
The violence erupted during peaceful protests that were meant to bring to light rampant abuses at the hands of police. Mayor Sylvester Turner, several community leaders and people gathered Friday night at Houstonโs city hall to remember the young lives lost during the peaceful protest in Nigeria. Peter Uwalaka and Elizabeth Opara are members of the UIU chapter in Houston and are first-generation Nigerian Americans. People tired of the violence against peaceful protest and police brutality. On Saturday, the Houston UIU Chapter will have a protest march to bring awareness to the atrocities in Nigeria.
Nigerian president leaves protest shootings out of speech
โFor you to do otherwise will amount to undermining national security and law and order," he said. โPresident Buhari during his speech refused to acknowledge those dead as a result of military attacked on Lekki protesters #EndSARS,โ tweeted Usman Okai Austin. As looting gangs stormed through parts of Nigeria's largest city, spreading violence for a second day in Lagos. But on Tuesday night security forces fired without warning into crowds of thousands of protesters singing Nigeria's national anthem, killing 12, Amnesty said. "We welcome an immediate investigation into any use of excessive force by members of the security forces.
#EndSARS protesters shot dead in Nigeria, reports say
People hold banners as they demonstrate on the street to protest against police brutality, in Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2020. The Lagos state commissioner for information, Gbenga Omotoso, said in a statement Tuesday night only that โthere have been reports of shooting at the Lekki Toll Plaza following the 24-hour curfew imposed on Lagos." The development came just hours after Lagos state Gov. The governor of Lagos state said the new curfew would cover the entire city of some 14 million people and surrounding areas. The announcement came after a police station was burned down in the city and two people were shot dead by police.
Up to 150 million could join extreme poor, World Bank says
Middle income-countries are expected to have 82% of the new extreme poor, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia. Most of the new extreme poor, more than 110 million even by the World Bank's baseline estimate, will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly a third of the newly extreme poor are expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa, between 26 million and 40 million. The World Bank estimates between 88 million and 115 million people could slip into extreme poverty this year, with another 23 million to 35 million in 2021. The report "offers no simple answers to these major challenges currently confronting the world, because there are not any,โ the World Bank authors write.
Africa now free of wild poliovirus, but polio threat remains
The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication comes after no cases have been reported for four years. But sometimes patchy surveillance across the vast continent of 1.3 billion people raises the possibility that scattered cases of the wild poliovirus still remain, undetected. The final push to combat the wild poliovirus focused largely on northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group has carried out a deadly insurgency for more than a decade. Africa's last reported case of the wild poliovirus was in Nigeria in 2016. Cases remain of the so-called vaccine-derived polio virus, which is a rare mutated form of the weakened but live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine.