Gunmen have attacked a college in northwest Nigeria, killing one student and kidnapping five other people, a teachers’ union and an official said on Friday. The attack late Thursday on the Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic in Zaria, Kaduna State, is the latest in a string of abductions at schools and colleges in Africa’s most populous nation. […]
Nigeria
Families appeal for aid freeing kidnapped Nigerian schoolkids
Relatives of scores of schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen from an Islamic seminary over the weekend have appealed to the government to help free them, after the latest mass abduction to target a Nigerian school. Some 200 children were at the school in Tegina, central Niger state, when it was raided on Sunday, the local government […]
Southeast Nigeria streets empty for Biafra remembrance
Streets in southeast Nigeria were deserted on Monday as the former separatist region commemorated the more than one million people who died in the Biafra war and famine half a century ago. Markets and roads were empty in the major cities of Aba, Owerri and Akwa, at the heart of former “Republic of Biafra”, in […]
Nigeria: Mass kidnappings shock the world
Gunmen have kidnapped scores of children from an Islamic seminary in central Nigeria in the latest in a wave of mass abductions that have forced some northern states to close public schools. The kidnappings come three years after 111 schoolgirls were snatched by jihadists from Dapchi and seven after Boko Haram extremists shocked the world […]
Scores of children abducted from Islamic seminary in Nigeria
Gunmen kidnapped scores of children from an Islamic seminary in central Nigeria, officials said, the latest mass abduction to hit Africa’s most populous nation. Some 200 children were at the school in Niger state on Sunday during the attack, the local government tweeted, adding “an unconfirmed number” were taken. The abduction came a day after […]
30 dead after boat capsizes in Nigeria
Thirty people drowned when an overloaded boat capsized in central Nigeria’s Niger state, an emergency official told AFP Monday. The boat ferrying 100 local traders split into two after hitting a stump during a windstorm as they were returning from a market on Saturday, said Ibrahim Audu Hussein, the spokesman for Niger state emergency agency. […]
Waves of change: Nigeria’s Lagos battles Atlantic erosion
Can Lagos hold back the waves? Sprawled around a lagoon, Nigeria’s frenetic economic capital faces a threat from the Atlantic on its doorstep. The ocean has pounded the soft, sandy shoreline on a timescale far surpassing human history — but now its waves spell a major threat to the city and its booming population. The […]
‘Fake news’ fuelling ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria: experts
Misinformation risks worsening ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria, media commentators and researchers say, at a time of heightened concern about internal security and fragile community relations. The months and weeks running up to recent elections saw a slew of false claims about politicians and their parties, as part of deliberate attempts to shape the […]
Nigeria’s twin town ponders cause of multiple births
In a dusty school playground in southwest Nigeria, the rows of children lined up to return to their classrooms are dotted with the faces of identical twins. Sights like this can be seen everywhere in Igbo Ora, where a banner welcomes visitors to the “twins capital of the world”. Twins are common in the Yoruba […]
Nigerian government urged to end ‘secret’ security funds in bid for transparency
Campaigners on Monday urged Nigeria to stop handing out millions of dollars to tackle unspecified security issues with no questions asked, arguing the practice fuels corruption and conflict. Nigeria is facing widespread unrest, from Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency in the northeast to a resurgence of violence in a long-running dispute over land and resources in […]