BBC
Seventeen pregnant teenage girls and 11 babies have been rescued from a house in Nigeria’s south-eastern Imo state, police have said.
They say they are looking for a woman suspected of planning to sell the babies.
“The girls claimed they were fed once a day and were not allowed to leave the home,” said spokeswoman Joy Elomoko. Continue reading
Independent catholic News
By: John Newton
Cardinal John Onaiyekan
Nigeria’s leading bishop has told the European Parliament and other politicians that his country is being jeopardised by “the twin monsters of corruption and insecurity”.
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need invited Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto to meet with officers of the European Union to reveal the scale of the problems facing one of the EU’s three priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Cardinal Onaiyekan told the delegates: “Growing corruption and religious violence jeopardise the west African country of Nigeria”. Continue reading
BBC
At least 23 police officers in Nigeria have been killed in an ambush by a local militia in the central Nasarawa state, officials have said.
They were on their way to arrest the leader of the outlawed Ombatse “cult” when gunmen opened fire, a state spokesman told the BBC. Continue reading
Much of Baga was destroyed in fires
Intense fighting between the military and Islamist militants in north Nigeria is reported to have killed at least 185 civilians and destroyed 2,000 homes.
Rocket-propelled grenades and heavy gunfire bombarded the remote town of Baga near the border with Chad for hours on Friday evening, government and military officials say.
Nigeria faces a long-running insurgency in its predominantly Muslim north.
The Boko Haram insurgency has left thousands of people dead since 2009.
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Shell Nigeria, the largest oil and gas company in that country, has been condemned for environmental damage and human rights abuses resulting from its activities. The District Court of The Hague has recently held that Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria was liable for damages and ordered compensation. This sentence can be interpreted as a success towards opening up future avenues to penalize multinationals when they are responsible for environmental damage and other abuses.
Transnationals and extractives companies have been operating in Africa without almost no fear of punishment for their irregular practices. Africa’s economic growth has been deprived of income from their natural resources and, in many cases, foreign companies have avoided their responsibilities for social and environmental damage. Shell Nigeria, having been exempt from liability on so many occasions, has finally been told to pay compensation to a farmer whose land was affected by an oil spill.
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A series of blasts targeting buses full of passengers in Kano, Nigeria has killed at least 20 people and sources say the toll is expected to rise.
Initial reports indicated that two suicide bombers drove a car packed with explosives into a bus at the New Road station in Sabon Gari, a predominantly Christian neighbourhood in the majority Muslim city.
Several explosions were heard following the initial blast, sparking panic as bloodied bystanders including some with serious injuries fled the scene as soldiers arrived to cordon off the area.
Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s north, was repeatedly targeted by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, blamed for killing hundreds in the region since 2009.
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Famed Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has died following a short illness. He was 82.
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe wrote short stories, essays, poetry and children’s books in addition to five novels and edited collections of modern African literature. Nelson Mandela hailed him as the author “who brought Africa to the world.” (Photo: AP)
As the Associated Press reports:
Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with “Things Fall Apart,” has died. He was 82.
Achebe died following a brief illness, said his agent, Andrew Wylie.
“He was also a beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, whose wisdom and courage are an inspiration to all who knew him,” Wylie said.
For decades, Achebe penned novels, stories and essays to rewrite and reclaim the history of his native country.
His eminence worldwide was rivaled only by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and a handful of others. Achebe was a moral and literary model for countless Africans and a profound influence on such American writers as Morrison, Ha Jin and Junot Diaz. Continue reading
Waibite Amazi, a fisherman in Nigeria’s troubled oil-rich delta region, spreads out his net outside his homestead, Nigeria. Farming and fishing is the main source of livelihood for the impoverished, rural population here. Courtesy: Dulue Mbachu/IRIN
By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Nigeria, Jan 31 2013 (IPS) – The decision by The Hague over Shell’s liability for polluting in the Niger Delta shows that justice is possible – but it is extremely hard to achieve if you are taking on a massive multinational, says Amnesty International’s Africa programme director Audrey Gaughran.
While The Hague dismissed most of the landmark case brought by the four Nigerian farmers and environmental pressure group, Friends of the Earth, against a subsidiary of international oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, the judges ordered Shell Nigeria to compensate one farmer for breach of duty of care.
Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company, is the largest oil and gas company in Nigeria, Africa’s top energy producer, which produces more than one million barrels of oil per day. Continue reading
KANO, 21 January 2013 (IRIN) – Two Nigerian soldiers were killed and five others seriously injured in a 19 January attack on a military detachment heading for deployment in Mali, as part of Nigeria’s contribution to a UN-sanctioned African intervention force to reclaim northern Mali from Islamists, military officials told IRIN.
The soldiers, from a military unit based in the southern Nigerian city of Ibadan, were on their way to the town of Kachia in northern Kaduna State to prepare for deployment to Mali, when they were attacked near the city of Okene in central Kogi State, Nigerian army spokesman Maj-Gen Bola Koleoso told IRIN. Continue reading
By: John Pontifex
Nigeria’s new cardinal has spoken of his dismay following a deadly attack on a church inside a major militaryestablishment, saying that after the incident nowhere is safe. Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, described as “particularly worrisome” the explosion yesterday (Sunday, 25 November) at St Andrew’s Protestant Church, inside the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji, Kaduna state. At least 11 people are reported dead.
Nigerian military said two suspect vehicles entered the establishment, one a bus which was driven into the wall of the church causing an explosion but no casualties. When people gathered to see what had happened, a second more serious explosion took place, killing 11 and injuring a further 30 people. This is the third successive Sunday that a church in Kaduna has been attacked. This time, Islamist group Boko Haram denied responsibility. Continue reading
