Territory
Families of kidnapped Katsina schoolboys fear time running out
Families of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be brainwashed or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the Islamist group – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – was responsible for last week’s raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. “They will radicalise our children if the government does not act fast to help us rescue them,” said trader Shuaibu Kankara, crying as he spoke from home. His 13-year-old son Annas was among those abducted from the Government Science school on...
FCTA spent N29 billion on coronavirus during lockdown – minister
The Senate has been told that the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA spent a total sum of N28.5billion on some activities within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT during the outbreak of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the lockdown. Speaking yesterday in Abuja when he presented the revised 2020 budget before the Senator Abubakar Kyari, All Progressives Congress, APC, Borno North led Senate Committee on FCT, Minister of the FCT, Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello explained to the Committee that the fund was spent on provision of security services, provision of palliatives for indigent residents, as well as assisting neighbouring States who were distressed. According to him, the FCT health facility supported residents from States where the level of government assista...
President Buhari condemns ‘insane’ killing of farmers by Boko Haram in Borno
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed grief over the killing of farmers on rice fields at Zabarmari in Jere Local Government of Borno, describing the terrorist killings as insane. The president made the condemnation in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Sunday. Buhari said the government had given all the needed support to the armed forces “to take all necessary steps to protect the country’s population and its territory.” Buhari said: “I condemn the killing of our hardworking farmers by terrorists in Borno State. ”The entire country is hurt by these senseless killings. My thoughts are with their families in this time of grief. ”May their souls Rest In Peace.” Newsmen report that about 43 farmers were murdered while unspeci...
At least 20 massacred during Mozambique initiation ceremony
Suspected militants beheaded over a dozen men and teenagers participating in a male initiation ceremony in northern Mozambique, local sources said on Wednesday, in the latest violent incident in the country’s insurgency-hit northeast. The dismembered bodies of at least five adults and 15 boys were found on Monday, scattered across a forest clearing in Muidumbe district. Islamist militants operating in the area had attacked several nearby villages over the weekend, looting and burning down homes before retreating into surrounding thicket. “Police learnt of the massacre committed by the insurgents through reports of people who found corpses in the woods,” said an officer in the neighbouring Mueda district who asked not to be named. “It was possible to count 20 bodies spread over an area of a...
Enugu governor commiserates with fatal accident school children’s families
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has expressed the deepest commiserations of the state government to the families of the school children from Awgu Local Government Area, who died and sustained injuries in a fatal road accident that occurred in the council area. In a statement by the Commissioner for Information, Nnanyelugo Chidi Aroh, Gov. Ugwuanyi who received with sadness the news of the unfortunate accident, also commiserated with the Catholic Bishop of Awgu Diocese, His Lordship, Most Reverend John Okoye, the Chairman and good people of Awgu LGA, over the tragic incident. Aroh disclosed that the governor assured the good people of the Awgu LGA of the solidarity and support of the state government and directed the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ikechukwu E. Obi and the counc...
Taiwan tells China to ‘back off’ as airspace ‘incursions’ rise
Taiwan on Tuesday demanded that China “back off” and accused it of threatening peace, after recent incursions and a Beijing official openly rejecting a largely respected marine boundary. Foreign Minister Joseph Wu urged Beijing to “return to the civilised international standards” after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said there was no so-called median line in the Taiwan Strait “as Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory”. The tension between China and the island Beijing claims as its own is at its highest in years, with Taiwanese fighter jets scrambling to intercept the Chinese aircraft last week. “The median line has been a symbol of preventing military conflicts and maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait for many years,” Wu told reporters. “The Chinese forei...
French anti-jihadist force kills civilian in Mali
French anti-jihadist troops in Mali killed a civilian Tuesday and injured two others after a bus refused to slow down in a volatile area despite their orders, the French army command said. The incident occurred about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the city of Gao in Mali’s troubled north. The French soldiers fired warning shots in the ground but two bullets bounced off and hit the windscreen, wounding three people, including one fatally, the French army command said. “The seriously wounded person was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital of the (French) Barkhane force in Gao, but died of his injuries,” it said. “All steps have been taken to ascertain the exact sequence of events,” it said, expressing its “sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.” Mali is now under the control of...
