Conflict
Bayelsa government resolves crisis at Niger Delta University
The mediatory meeting covered Wednesday at the instance of the Bayelsa State Government between the Governing Council of the Niger Delta University, NDU, students’ representatives and other stakeholders has restored normalcy to the state-owned university. Students of the university had been protesting against the closure of the institution’s portal for payment of school fees and alleged enforcement of compulsory wearing of school uniform by the university authorities. But rising from the last round of meetings directed by Governor Douye Diri which were presided over by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, at the Government House, Yenagoa, it was agreed that the portal for the payment of school fees be reopened. A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara At...
Femi Fani-Kayode asks President Buhari to leave Sunday Igboho alone to avoid civil war
Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to leave self-acclaimed Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, alone in order to avoid a civil war. Fani-Kayode was reacting to attack on Igboho‘s house in Ibadan by the Department of State Services, DSS, on Thursday. He Igboho is the living manifestation of Oduduwa himself and that he speaks the mind of over 70 million Yoruba people throughout the world. According to him, whoever is trying to kill him is making a big mistake and is pulling the tail of a wild lion and poking the eye of a sleeping giant. “For the sake of Nigerian peace and unity and in the name of God, I call on the Federal Government and President Muhammadu Buhari himself to leave Sunday and his group alone and to tread the path of peaceful coexisten...
Ethiopia urges Tigray rebels to join ceasefire, hostilities persist
Ethiopia’s government urged Tigrayan rebels to join a unilateral ceasefire in their conflict on Thursday as aid agencies struggled to reach hundreds of thousands of people facing famine. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the former rulers of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, said on Monday it was back in control of the regional capital Mekelle after nearly eight months of fighting. The government declared a unilateral ceasefire but the TPLF dismissed it as a joke. Hostilities persisted on Thursday and pressure built internationally for all sides to pull back. “Operations are under way … and the number of prisoners of war is increasing by the minute,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters by satellite phone, with light artillery fire crackling in the background. “We are closing in on...
UK urges end to violence in Tigray
Britain urged all parties to pull back from the violence in Tigray and allow humanitarian workers access to the area on Thursday, after the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire earlier this week. “We welcome the Government of Ethiopia’s announcement of a humanitarian ceasefire in Tigray and urge all other parties to the conflict to make similar announcements,” a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said. “The violence must now stop and unfettered humanitarian access granted. Eritrean forces should also leave Tigray.” You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blog...
Ethiopia says army can re-enter seized Tigray capital Mekelle in weeks
The Ethiopian army could re-enter the seized Tigray regional capital of Mekelle within weeks if needed, a spokesman for a government task force said on Wednesday, adding that government-allied Eritrean forces had withdrawn from the region. It was the first public statement by a federal government official since Mekelle was taken by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces this week in a major turn of events after eight months of conflict in which thousands of people have been killed. read more People in Mekelle, where communications were down on Wednesday, said on Monday incoming Tigrayan fighters had been greeted with cheers. There were similar scenes in the northern town of Shire on Wednesday, where Eritrean forces had pulled out and Tigrayan forces had entered, residents said. Peo...
Canada, Germany, EU, others funding farming in northeast Nigeria
The People and Government of Canada, the European Union Trust Fund for Africa, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Sweden are funding the 2021 rainy season farming in troubled North-east of Nigeria. The funding, which is implemented through the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), is providing farming inputs to 65,800 farmers in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States adversely affected by over a decade Boko Haram insurgency. A statement on Friday by FAO recognized that the rainy season farm cultivation is critical to food production in Nigeria, as it ensures food availability and income generation, especially for smallholder and low-income households. The statement read: “...
Russians nationals detained in Chad desert say they are tourists
A group of Russians detained by the police in a part of northern Chad where the army has been battling a rebel invasion from Libya said on Wednesday that they were tourists who had come to sightsee in the Sahara Desert. The roughly 10 Russians were picked up last week by the police near the town of Faya Largeau because they were in a military operational zone, according to national police spokesperson Amane Issac Azina. Azina said they had not broken any laws and had not been arrested, but rather evacuated to the capital N’Djamena for their own safety. “We decided this time to visit the Republic of Chad because it is very interesting,” one of the Russians, Alexey Kamerzanov, told Reuters at an N’Djamena hotel. “Usually world travellers do not visit the Republic of Chad because it’s not the...
Laurent Gbagbo files for divorce, to end 30-year marriage
Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo filed for divorce on Monday from his wife of three decades, his lawyer said, days after his highly anticipated return to the country. Gbagbo’s lawyer Claude Mentenon said in a statement that after years of “rejected requests for Simone Ehivet to consent to an amicable separation”, the ex-president had asked an Abidjan court for a divorce. The announcement comes four days after Gbagbo returned to Ivory Coast following a decade’s absence, during which he was tried for crimes against humanity during the post-election conflict of 2010-11. Simone Gbagbo wielded significant political influence as first lady, and was arrested alongside her husband in April 2011 after he refused to concede defeat, sparking a conflict that left some 3,000 people dead. G...
CDHR calls for release of abducted Ebonyi children
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has urged the police and sister agencies to secure the unconditional release of the seven Ebonyi children abducted by suspected hoodlums at Enyigba community. The children were abducted from their respective homes at Enyigba community in Abakaliki Local Government Area (LGA) of Ebonyi by unknown persons, following alleged renewed conflict over a land dispute with Enyibichiri community in Ikwo LGA. A statement signed by the state secretary of CDHR, Jeremiah Oyibe, on Tuesday in Abakaliki, urged the police to ensure the safe and unconditional release of the seven abductees. The CDHR added that the police and the state government should ensure the arrest and trial of those involved in the criminal abduction of innocent children. The group expre...
UN: Close to 10,000 Mozambicans fleeing violence forcibly removed from Tanzania
Almost 10,000 Mozambicans have been forcibly removed from Tanzania so far this year after fleeing a deadly Islamist insurgency in their homeland, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado has been the focus of an insurgency linked to Islamic State since October 2017, but the conflict began gathering pace last year with militants regularly seizing and holding key towns. That culminated in an attack on the town of Palma in March, which killed dozens, displaced 70,000 according to the UNHCR and forced oil giant Total to halt its nearby $20 billion gas project. Many people headed north to the Tanzanian border, but were rejected, or were admitted then returned via a different border post hours inland. UNHCR spokesperson Babar ...
Morocco says Madrid seeks to ‘Europeanise’ its crisis with Rabat
Morocco’s foreign minister on Wednesday accused Spain of trying to turn a political crisis between the two countries into an EU problem by focusing on migration and ignoring the root causes. The row blew up in April after Spain admitted the leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, Brahim Ghali, for medical treatment without informing Rabat, which regards the disputed territory as its own. Morocco then appeared to relax border controls with Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on May 17, leading to an influx of at least 8,000 migrants. Since then Spain and Morocco have traded accusations of violating good neighbourliness, with Spain saying Morocco used the migrants while Rabat says Spain acted in connivance with “adversaries” of its territorial integrity. “Spain tries to Europe...
Rivals say Boko Haram chief dead as jihadists battle for control
When Nigeria’s military claimed Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been badly wounded in an air strike 2016, the jihadist chief soon appeared in a video to deny another of the many reports of his impending death. Over the weekend, it was an audio from a rival jihadist group finally claiming Shekau had died, detonating explosives to kill himself rather than surrender after a raid on his forest stronghold by his Islamic State-allied enemies. The Boko Haram warlord’s death marks a major shift in Nigeria’s conflict, potentially allowing ISIS jihadists to consolidate and further challenge an already stretched army in their long war. In the audio obtained by AFP, a voice apparently of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander Abu Musab Al-Barnawi confirmed Shekau killed himself whi...
