The Nation Newspaper

Tag: John Kerry

  • Islamic State: U.S to arm Libyan government

    The United States and other world powers have said they are ready to arm Libya’s United Nations-backed unity government to help it fight the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group.

    Speaking in Vienna, U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, said world powers would back Libya in seeking exemption from a UN arms embargo.

    He said IS was a “new threat” to Libya and it was “imperative” it was stopped.

    Last month, the Libyan government warned that IS could seize most of the country if it was not stopped soon.

    Mr Kerry said: “The GNA [Government of National Accord] is the only entity that can unify the country. It is the only way to ensure that vital institutions fall under representative and acknowledged authority.

    “It is the only way to generate the cohesion necessary to defeat Daesh [IS].”

    The North African country has been in chaos since NATO-backed forces overthrew long-time ruler, Col Muammar Gaddafi, in October 2011.

    Until recently it had two rival governments competing for power, and there are still hundreds of militias, some allied to IS.

    Western nations hope the unity government will take on IS, which has a foothold in Sirte – the home town of Gaddafi.

    The militant group has launched a series of suicide bombings and attacks on oil facilities in the country.

     

  • U.S urges global partnership in fighting corruption

    The United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, on Friday said it was time for the international community to jointly treat corruption with the seriousness and attention it deserves.

    Kerry said in a statement that the ongoing London Anti Corruption Summit would help promote global efforts at increasing transparency and citizens’ empowerment with oversight responsibilities of fighting corruption.

    “In nearly every corner of the world in recent years, from the Arab Spring to Latin America and many places, there are growing concerns about corruption.

    “Corruption is a poison that erodes trust, robs citizens of their money and their future and stifles economic growth in the places that need it most.

    “It is long past the time for the international community to treat corruption with the seriousness and attention it deserves.

    “That is why, this week, I will join representatives from over 50 nations, multinational organisations, and civil society for the first-of-its-kind global Anti-Corruption Summit in London,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted Kerry as saying in the statement.

    According to the statement, corruption persists in every region and country around the world, including the U.S.

    The statement said that the U.S would announce practical steps to strengthen the fight against corruption, including the inauguration of an International Anti-Corruption Coordination Center at the Summit.

    It said that the inauguration of the centre was aimed at improving data sharing between major financial hubs on investigations and providing support for journalists interested in reporting graft globally.

     

     

     

  • Syria conflict out of control – Kerry

    United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, has said the Syrian conflict is “in many ways out of control,” as he made a fresh push to salvage a fragile truce.

    After talks with United Nations and Arab diplomats in Geneva, he said progress had been made on a plan to reduce violence in the second city of Aleppo, the BBC reports.

    However, he said more work was needed and there was no guarantee of success.

    A cessation of hostilities has reduced fighting in Syria’s five-year civil war but has unraveled in recent days.

    About 250 people have reportedly been killed in Aleppo in the past nine days.

    On Monday, fresh government air strikes and artillery attacks on rebel-held districts and suburbs of Aleppo left at least three dead, according to activists.

    Mr. Kerry, speaking alongside UN special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, after a morning of talks in Geneva, said the conflict was “in many ways out of control and deeply disturbing.”

     

  • Buhari vows to scrutinize 2016 Budget before assent

    Buhari vows to scrutinize 2016 Budget before assent

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday vowed to scrutinize the 2016 Appropriation bill before assenting the bill.

    The National Assembly that passed the bill last week only forwarded the bill without its details.

    When the President insisted that he will not sign the bill into law until he receives the details, some National Assembly members pointed out that it will not be out of place to sign the bill into law without the details.

    They cited instances under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    But Buhari on Thursday in Washington DC replied them that he will thoroughly scrutinize the passed bill before assenting to it.

    He spoke during a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry.

    According to him, in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the appropriation bill to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National Assembly.

    “Some bureaucrats removed what we put in the proposal and replaced it with what they wanted. I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission,” the President said.

    Declaring that his administration will continue to vigorously prosecute its war against corruption, President Buhari sought and received an assurance from Mr. Kerry that the United States Government will facilitate the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking system.

    “It will greatly help our country if you assist us to recover all our stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial system,” the President told Mr. Kerry.

    Acknowledging that the United States has been of great help to his administration in the retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces that has resulted in the significant success already achieved against Boko Haram, President Buhari said that the Federal Government was now working very hard to restore full normalcy in the North Eastern states.

    “Boko Haram no longer holds any local government area. We are reconstructing damaged facilities and preparing the police to take over and reassert civilian control over areas affected by the insurgency,” the President told Mr. Kerry.

    Responding, the Secretary of State said that he has been told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”.

    “It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them,” Mr Kerry assured President Buhari.

    He said that relevant United States Government Officials will meet with the Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to discuss further cooperation in that regard.

    Mr. Kerry applauded the Buhari Administration’s success in rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency, saying that the United States will continue to give Nigeria all possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect is finally eliminated as a threat to national and regional security.

    The Secretary of State also praised President Buhari’s clear order that Nigeria’s Armed Forces must show greater regard for the human rights of persons in the theatre of operations against Boko Haram.

  • America’s John Kerry sells Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign in Davos

    America’s John Kerry sells Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign in Davos

    United State Secretary of State, John Kerry, yesterday gave President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign drive a larger reach at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and decried how corruption compromises global security.

     “It has been reported that over 50 people, including government officials, stole over $9 billion in Nigeria,” he said in reference to the $2.1 billion arms money allegedly shared by top officials of the last government and its cronies.

    “Corruption costs global economy more than a trillion dollars a year and complicates every security, diplomatic, social priority,” he said.

    “In far too many countries, plain rank corruption has generated such powerful headwinds that local economies just tread water.

    “Today, corruption has grown at an alarming pace and threatens global growth, global stability, indeed the global future.”

    He noted that graft and ineffective governance had either caused or contributed greatly to crises in Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine, Libya and Yemen and thus had become an international, rather than purely domestic, problem.

    “The fact is there is nothing, absolutely nothing, more demoralizing and disempowering to any citizen of any nation than the belief the system is rigged against them and that people in positions of power are – to use a diplomatic term of art – crooks who are stealing the future of their own people; and by the way, depositing their ill-gotten gains in ostensibly legitimate financial institutions around the world,” Kerry said.

    “There is absolutely nothing more demoralizing, disempowering to any citizen than the belief the system is rigged against them. Corruption is a radicalizer because it destroys faith in legitimate authority.”

    The Obama administration, according to him, will seek a major boost in funding for refugee support this year and press for at least 10 new countries to offer resettlement programs.

    “We have to acknowledge in all quarters of leadership that the plagues of violent extremism, greed, lust for power, and sectarian exploitation often find their nourishment where governments are fragile and leaders are incompetent or dishonest,” Kerry said in a keynote address to the forum.

  • U.S. report indicts civilian JTF for recruiting children 

    U.S. report indicts civilian JTF for recruiting children 

    Nigeria has not achieved much in its efforts to combat human trafficking across its borders, according to the 2015 Global Trafficking in Persons report.

    In the report presented on Monday by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) against insurgency in northern Nigeria was indicted of recruiting and using child-soldiers by force.

    The Nigerian government was also said not to have fully complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, though, significant efforts are being made.

     

    Excerpts from the report follows:

    Natalie and Dara, eager to earn money and go to school, left Nigeria with the help of men who arranged their travel and convinced them good jobs awaited them in Cote d’Ivoire. Once there, Natalie and Dara were instead forced to have sex with men every night to pay back a $2,600 “travel debt.” After two years of being subjected to sex trafficking, Natalie and Dara contacted a UN Police officer (who was in the area to investigate other suspected cases of human trafficking) and escaped. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime helped the girls return to Nigeria, where they participated in social service programs supported by regional NGOs. Their traffickers were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and a $2,000 fine.

    Aisha was at a friend’s wedding when she was abducted by Boko Haram, along with her sister, the bride, and the bride’s sister. They were taken to a camp where her friends were forcibly married to Boko Haram fighters. Aisha, at 19 years old, had to learn how to fight; she was trained how to shoot and kill, detonate bombs, and execute attacks on villages. She was forced to participate in armed operations, including against her own village; those that refused were buried in a mass grave. Aisha saw more than 50 people killed, including her sister, before she managed to escape.

    Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Nigerian trafficking victims are recruited from rural and, to a lesser extent, urban areas: women and girls for domestic servitude and sex trafficking and boys for forced labor in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture, textiles manufacturing, and begging. Young boys in Koranic schools, commonly known as Almajiri children, are subjected to forced begging. Nigerian women and children are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, as well as to South Africa, where they are exploited for the same purposes. Nigerian women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution throughout Europe. Nigerian women and children are also recruited and transported to destinations in North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where they are held captive in the sex trade or in forced labor. Nigerian gangs subject large numbers of Nigerian women to forced prostitution in the Czech Republic and Italy; EUROPOL has identified Nigerian organized crime related to trafficking in persons as one of the greatest law enforcement challenges to European governments. Nigerian women are transported to Malaysia, where they are forced into prostitution and to work as drug mules for their traffickers. West African women transit Nigeria to destinations in Europe and the Middle East, where they are subsequently subjected to forced prostitution. Children from West African countries are subjected to forced labor in Nigeria, including in Nigeria’s granite mines. Nigeria is a transit point for West African children subjected to forced labor in Cameroon and Gabon. During the reporting period, an NGO alleged Nigerian officials subjected children in internally displaced person (IDP) camps in northeast Nigeria to labor and sex trafficking. A Nigerian soldier also allegedly engaged in the forced labor of a child.

    During the reporting period, media and international observers reported the terrorist organization Boko Haram forcefully recruited and used child soldiers as young as 12-years-old and abducted women and girls in the northern region of Nigeria, some of whom it later subjected to domestic servitude, forced labor, and sex slavery through forced marriages to its militants. An NGO also reported a civilian vigilante group, identified as the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), recruited and used child soldiers, sometimes by force. The government prohibited the recruitment and use of child soldiers and issued official statements condemning such use; however, the CJTF continued to recruit and use child soldiers during the reporting period. The Borno State government continued to provide financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which was also, at times, aligned with the Nigerian military in operations against Boko Haram.

    The government of Nigeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting period, the government sustained strong anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts by enacting amendments to the 2003 anti-trafficking law, which restrict the ability of judges to penalise offenders with fines in lieu of prison time; by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting numerous traffickers; and by providing extensive specialized anti-trafficking training to officials from various government ministries and agencies. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) identified and provided services to an increased number of victims and continued extensive awareness campaigns throughout the country. The government also created an inter-ministerial presidential taskforce to coordinate anti-trafficking activities across the government. Despite these efforts, during the reporting period, the Borno State government provided financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which recruited and used child soldiers.

  • Individual contribution to Iran peace talk

    Individual contribution to Iran peace talk

  • John Kerry congratulates President Buhari

    John Kerry congratulates President Buhari

  • ‘Global spotlight is firmly fixed on Nigerian elections’

    ‘Global spotlight is firmly fixed on Nigerian elections’

    The US Secretary of State, John Kerry  and the British Scretary of State for Foreign  and Commonwealth Affairs, Phillip Hammond, in this article,  urge all eligible Nigerians to vote,  resist those who attempt to incite violence, and to come together as one country to defend the country against terrorist threats. A free, fair and peaceful presidential election, according to them, does not guarantee a successful democracy, but is nevertheless an essential ingredient – especially now in Nigeria.

     Nigeria’s more than 70 million voters will soon go to the polls to choose their country’s leader for the next four years. Whether the victor is incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan or opposition challenger Muhammadu Buhari is entirely for Nigerians to decide. Around the globe, Nigeria’s friends will be united in hoping that the vote will be peaceful, transparent, and fair and that – win or lose – all sides will respect the outcome.

    There are good reasons why the international spotlight is firmly fixed on Nigeria during this critical period and why we have come together to support an open and credible electoral process. Nigeria is Africa’s largest democracy and what happens there will have an impact well beyond its borders. A successful election, free from violence and with wide participation, accurate vote counting, and responsible leadership from the candidates would inspire the region and spur future progress and prosperity. It would also be a historic show of support by Nigerians for democratic values and an equally firm rejection of the brutal terrorist group, Boko Haram, and others who advocate or perpetrate violence.

    As friends and democratic partners of Nigeria, we urge that the voting for president and parliament go forward as scheduled on March 28; there should be no further delay of this crucial vote. We are heartened by the fact that Nigerians from across the political spectrum appear to recognize the necessity of inaugurating a new president by the constitutionally mandated deadline of May 29.

    Obviously, we share Nigerians’ concerns about violence, both related to elections and more generally. In 2011, more than 800 people died in post-election clashes, and a recent survey shows that half of Nigerians are concerned about political intimidation this time around. The good news is that President Jonathan and General Buhari have repeatedly and publicly stressed their commitment to nonviolence before, during, and after Election Day. Both candidates have affirmed their intent to act solely through legal channels in pursuing any concerns that might arise regarding the fairness of the vote. It is imperative that they – and their backers – live up to this pledge. Elections should be decided at the ballot box and, if necessary, in the courts; not through efforts to coerce others. Respect for the constitutional process and the independence of Nigeria’s Independent National Election Commission, INEC, is the right approach, and the only one that offers a sustainable way to address Nigeria’s many challenges.

    The countries we represent, the United States and the United Kingdom, strongly support the pledges articulated by the Nigerian candidates. The elections must be decided in accordance with the rule of law. It follows that any person who incites violence at any stage in the electoral process, or who seeks power through unconstitutional means, should be held accountable and should understand that the consequences will be severe, both domestically and internationally.

    After an election, it is natural to focus attention on the winner, but in any democracy, the unsuccessful candidates also have critical roles to play. No one expects any political leader to retreat from firmly-held policy positions or beliefs, but a losing candidate owes it to his or her country to acknowledge defeat as soon as the popular verdict is clear, to urge supporters to accept the outcome, and to advocate unity in the face of national threats. That is the kind of leadership Nigeria needs.

    A free, fair and peaceful presidential election does not guarantee a successful democracy, but it is nevertheless an essential ingredient – especially now in Nigeria. This is a country rich in resources and blessed by a creative and dynamic population. Its leaders can be extremely effective as evidenced by their swift action to prevent Ebola from establishing a foothold in their nation – thus saving thousands of lives. Overall economic growth rates are healthy and parts of the country are doing well. And yet, Nigeria has been held back by local tensions, a wide disparity between rich and poor, the lack of an adequate safety net for the disadvantaged, shortages of electricity, a rigid bureaucracy, and widespread corruption. These challenges have made the country vulnerable to internal conflict including the kidnappings, murders, and other atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram. Nigeria’s next government will need the support of all its citizens to address these challenges, and its unity will make it easier, on the security side, for regional neighbors and the larger international community to provide necessary help.

    We urge all eligible Nigerians to vote, to resist those who attempt to incite violence, and to come together as one country to defend against terrorist threats and to build the shared prosperity and enduring freedom their citizens deserve.

  • Anti-IS coalition meets in London

    Foreign ministers from 22 countries are meeting in London to discuss ways to co-ordinate their efforts to combat the jihadist group, Islamic State.

    IS controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq and the United States-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes since August.

    But United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, insisted much more needed to be done.

    He told the BBC that the countries wanted to find ways to halt the flow of recruits to IS, cut off its funding and “tackle the underlying narrative.”

    They will also look at providing more military assistance to those fighting IS on the ground, and more humanitarian aid to its victims.

    The BBC says the recent attacks by Islamist militants in France have put even greater political pressure on governments to show decisive results.

    Before leaving Washington to co-host Thursday’s talks with Mr. Hammond, U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, said violent extremists hoped such attacks would drive the coalition apart.

    “But in fact, their actions have had the opposite effect,” he stressed. “They’re bringing us together with greater determination, with greater resolve to be able to get the job done.”

    A senior U.S state department official said foreign fighters would be the “real focus” of the London conference, and that an expert working group would be formed to discuss sharing information to stop them travelling.

    The European police agency, Europol, estimates that up to 5,000 European Union citizens have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight. Thousands of others have travelled from Arab and Muslim states.