Boko Haram Altered how We Cover Africa News, Says Muslim Reporter Nima Elbagir

Fearless: CNN journalist Nima Elbagir

A London journalist who brought the plight of schoolgirls captured by terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria to a global audience today described the kidnappings as a “turning point” for news coverage of Africa.

CNN’S Nima Elbagir, 37, a Sudanese Muslim who lives in Clapham, won an award last week for specialist reporting from the Royal Television Society. 

 

Corrupt Politicians Are Worse Than Boko Haram – Catholic Priest

 

 

Catholic PriestReverend Father Gideon Obasogie, the spokesperson for the Catholic Church in the North-East, has opined that corrupt politicians who diverted the arms funds were worse than Boko Haram insurgents.

Nigerian and Cameroonian Troops Kill Boko Haram Terrorists

Nigerian and Cameroonian forces killed suspected Boko Haram terrorists and freed more than three dozen hostages during a raid to combat the insurgency in several West African nations, a military spokesman said Saturday.

“Troops killed 10 Boko Haram terrorists and also rescued 45 persons,” in an operation against the insurgents in villages including Mararraba, Angwan Fada, Dale, Wizha, Bokko Timit, Bokko Nasanu, Bokko Hide and Ngoshe Ngoshe, Nigeria’s army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman, said in an e-mailed statement.

Prez Buhari Pledges N100 Million to Fight Boko Haram

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria will fully redeem its pledge of 100 million dollars for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to enhance the operations of the Task Force against Boko Haram.

This information is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday by Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari

The statement said the president was speaking at a high-level meeting of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council.

Boko Haram: Chibok Suicide Bombers Targeted Commanding Officer – Army

The Media Coordinator, Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Mustapha Anka Thursday revealed that the two female suicide bombers who detonated improvise explosives in a market at Chibok town on Wednesday were actually targeting the Commanding officer in charge of Chibok and surrounding areas.

Addressing newsmen at the Maimalari Cantonment, the Army spokesman said, the suicide bombers disguised as women and were backing babies when they were approaching the Army officer, but detonated the explosives before they could reach the Commanding Officer.

At Least 12 Killed in Suicide Blasts in North Nigeria

At least 12 people were killed on Wednesday when two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in a market in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok where Boko Haram militants abducted more than 200 girls almost two years ago, police and residents said.

Boko Haram has been waging a six-year armed campaign in Nigeria's remote north to build an Islamic state. Thousands have been killed and more than two million people displaced by the campaign, reports Reuters.

The Midwife Who Fled Boko Haram

Despite losing some of her own children during an attack, Dada Nguru is keeping other women and their babies alive.

Dada Nguru was pregnant when she fled a Boko Haram attack on her village. She helped other fleeing women give birth on the roadside

Outside a zinc-roofed shack on the fringes of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Dada Nguru, a self-taught midwife, hangs a large sugar sack that has been ripped open out to dry. Earlier that day, she had laid a woman on it as she delivered her baby boy.

Hours later, a saline bag still hangs from the small open window, the only source of light in the cramped single room that is heady with the smell of sweat.

Nguru's children sleep in this room, the same room that the women come to give birth in. For more than a year, this ramshackle building in the suburb of Kabusa has been their home - and the midwife's delivery room.

Her one-year-old son, Muhammadu, nursing at her breast beneath the folds of her flowing red abaya, was still in her belly when she fled her home in the town of Gwoza, in the northeastern state of Borno, and arrived here.

"I came pregnant and gave birth to him here," she says, adding: "We left because of Boko Haram."

Buhari Orders Probe of Chibok Girls’ Abduction 

 

 

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday approved an investigation into the theft of the 219 girls from Government Secondary in Chibok, Borno State.

The panel to investigate the incident which happened in April 2014, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, will soon be named by the National Security Adviser (NSA) General Babagana Munguno.

The probe will seek to, among other things, unravel the remote and immediate circumstances leading the kidnap of the girls by Boko Haram terrorists and the other events, actions and inactions that followed the incident.

EFCC Yet to Invite Me – Metuh

 

 

The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Monday disclosed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is yet to invite him for questioning, adding that he was only being tried in the media.

EFCC is said to be investigating Metuh for allegedly collecting about N400m from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sabo Dasuki (retd.) which was said to be part of the funds meant for the procurement of arms for the military’s fight against Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East.

Metuh, who agreed to collecting an undisclosed sum of money from former President Goodluck Jonathan, claimed that the undisclosed sum he got from Jonathan was as a result of carrying out unspecific work as the ruling party’s spokesperson under the then government.

Nigeria Is 'Prepared To Negotiate' With Boko Haram Over Chibok Girls

The fight to bring back the more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls hasn't stopped, but Nigeria's government isn't sure what happened to them.

Nigeria's president may be ready to negotiate with militant group Boko Haram for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014.

But, at this point, President Muhammadu Buhari doesn't seem sure about what happened to the Chibok girls, who were reportedly taken from their school dorms in April by the group. (Video via Bring Back Our Girls)

"There is no form of intelligence where those girls physically are and what condition they are in,” Buhari said in a media conference.

The Chibok girls' kidnapping sparked a social media campaign and protests around the globe, as the previous president faced criticism.

Officials Could Negotiate With Terrorists to Free Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls

Nigeria’s mission to find kidnapped girls ‘pathetic’

ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria's government still is open to negotiating with Boko Haram extremists for the release of 209 schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari said Wednesday.

He said they are ready to negotiate without preconditions but only if they can identify a credible leadership. Other attempts under the previous administration failed because officials apparently were talking to the wrong people in the fragmented group.

Hundreds of captives have been freed in recent months as Nigeria's military has driven the Islamic extremists into a northeastern forest enclave. But none of the girls abducted from a school in Chibok town were among them.

There is "no firm intelligence on where those girls are physically located and what condition they are in," Buhari said in a nationally televised press conference but "I assure you that the cause of the Chibok girls is on our minds."

Boko Haram Violence Forces More Than 1 Million Kids to Leave School

Violence in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries targeted by Boko Haram has forced more than one million children out of school, leaving them prey to abuse, abduction and recruitment by armed groups, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 schools in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger remain closed due to the conflict and hundreds have been looted, damaged or destroyed, said the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

While hundreds of schools in northeast Nigeria have reopened in recent months, insecurity and fear of violence are preventing many teachers from resuming classes and discouraging parents from sending their children back to school, according to UNICEF.

Boko Haram Child Suicide Bomber Kills Six in Borno

A child suicide bomber detonated his explosives, killing himself, two other bombers and six people in Nigeria’s northeast, in the latest bloodshed blamed on Boko Haram Islamist group, the army said on Monday.

The attack in Beninsheikh in Borno state happened around 8.30 pm on Sunday when three suspected suicide bombers aged between 10 and 15 years, were stopped for security screening by civilian vigilantes in the area, Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement.

He said one of the bombers, who was strapped with explosives, detonated the bomb, causing the “death of nine people while 24 others sustained various degrees of injuries.”

14-Month-Old Explosion Victim, Aishat, Operated On

A victim of bomb explosion in Borno State, Aishat Lawani, was successfully operated on at the National Hospital, Abuja, Saturday.

A US-based surgeon Prof. Ferdinand Ofodile, who led the four-hour surgery, said though Aishat's recovery would take a while, the operation was successful.

Addressing journalists Saturday at the National Hospital after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo paid an unscheduled visit, Ofodile, an emeritus professor of Medicine from Columbia University, said: "We reconstructed her eyelids by adding flesh from the thigh, and we also did a skin graft to the left arm, freeing it, from its attachment at the armpit caused by the explosion."

PHOTOS| Baby Disfigured By Boko Haram, Goes For Surgery (Viewer Discretion)

A baby named Aisha who survived severe burns after Boko Haram terrorists attacked her village in Maiduguri, Borno state

She was in her room while her mother was in the toilet when Boko Haram set their house on fire. She lost all fingers on her left hand and also lost an ear in the attack. Her face was burnt, with severe burns on her legs. Baby Aisha remained critically ill for a long time at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

These new photos show baby Aisha all set this morning for her 1st phase of reconstructive surgery

Source: The Breaking Times News

Nigerian Troops, Boko Haram Clash in Army Chief's Village

Boko Haram gunmen launched a dawn raid today on the hometown of Nigeria's army chief, triggering a fierce gunbattle with troops, residents of a nearby village to which people fled the clashes said.

There was no immediate report of casualties in the fighting in Buratai in Borno state, the home village of Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Nigeria's top army officer.

Abubakar Umar, a resident of the nearby hamlet of Miringa, told AFP that the fighting began at 5:00 am after Boko Haram insurgents attacked the village.

"At one point we could hear explosions coming from the direction of Buratai," he said.

FG Issues Security Alert Over Kidnapping For Ransom By Boko Haram

The Federal Government warned on Friday that Boko Haram terrorists are plotting another sensational abduction of students or foreigners to hold them ransom for money, food, medical supplies, and armaments.

Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed

Federal Government warned on Friday that Boko Haram terrorists are plotting another sensational abduction of students or foreigners to hold them ransom for money, food, medical supplies, and armaments.
In a statement issued in Abuja, the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed, said the planned abduction is in line with the terrorists' new modus operandi of focusing on soft targets. It will be recalled that President Buhari made defeating Boko Haram one of his administration’s top priorities, even issuing a three month deadline for their total defeat.

Despite the Federal Government’s proposals and the relocation of the military

Acts of Terror in Nigeria: Is The Military Serving Boko Haram’s Agenda?

While the media eye remains set on the Middle East, focused as it were on the long litany of horrors which have streamed out of the region, Africa too has witnessed more than its fair share of violence, bloodshed and acts of senseless terror.

The forgotten victim of Wahhabi-inspired radicalism, Nigeria stands besieged by powers which have disguised themselves as legitimate, the avant-garde of an ideological plague which seeks a complete re-engineering of Africa’s religious map.

But if the African continent has failed so far to generate a media frenzy on account, and Western powers have offered little by way of political interest, we ought to pay close attention to Nigeria’s ongoing crisis as it appears the vassals of the Black Flag army have now infiltrated the military to better weave themselves within the region’s power dynamics.