The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Northeast Nigeria

  • Killings: I’m the unhappiest leader in the world

    President Muhammadu Buhari has described himself as the unhappiest leader in the world on the account of killings across the nation, especially the northeast.

    He reassured Nigerians that ending banditry remains a key priority of his administration,

    According to him, he would do whatever it takes to ensure the country’s security system confronts these public enemies with merciless determination.

    Reacting to the recent spike in reported incidents of banditry and kidnappings in some parts of the country, Buhari condoled all those affected by the unfortunate events

    In a statement by the Senior Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said “How can I be happy and indifferent to the senseless killings of my fellow citizens by bandits?

    “I am human and I understand the pains of the victims and their families who have been traumatized and impoverished by constant ransom demands by bandits,” the President said empathetically.

    Read also: Ending banditry remains key priority of my administration – Buhari

    “The politicisation of tragedy reveals the darkest sides of our primitive politics. Almost every week, I summon my security chiefs to get an update on the strategies being devised to defeat these mass murderers.

    “There is no issue that dominates my mind every 24 hours like security because, as an elected President, protecting the citizens of my country is one of the primary functions of my administration.

    “I constantly listen to our security personnel in order to understand their problems and needs, and I have never hesitated to attend to those needs in terms of motivating and equipping them to respond effectively to our security challenges.

    “It is therefore ridiculous to suggest that I am indifferent to these killings.

    “I have ordered rapid and robust deployment of troops to all the areas currently under attack from bandits and we are determined to tackle this challenge ferociously until these remorseless killers are crushed and utterly defeated,” the President said.

    President Buhari called on communities where banditry is active to support and cooperate with the security agencies, particularly the recently launched Operation Puff Adder to battle bandits and kidnappers.

    The President said it was regrettable that bandits have informants within some communities and utterly reprehensible that certain communities have signed protection deals with bandits at the expense of other communities, thereby creating complications and frustrating government’s intervention

    He appealed to communities to report suspicious movements of the bandits into their areas within the shortest available opportunity, especially considering the fact that intelligence is critical to detecting, frustrating, neutralising and defeating the criminals.

  • UN worries over ambush of own food supply in Borno

    UN worries over ambush of own food supply in Borno

    The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Kallon, has strongly condemned what he described as “the deadly ambush on a convoy carrying humanitarian food supplies for conflict-affected persons on Saturday 16 December, 2017” in Borno State Northeast Nigeria.

    Mr. Kallon in a Press Statement issued on Monday 18 December 2017 said there are grave concerns that such attacks will affect the supply and delivery of life-saving supplies to in need in the region, adding that, “The armed ambush by a non-state armed group took place on the road between Dikwa and Gamboru, in Borno State, and resulted in the reported loss of at least four civilian lives as well as the destruction of basic aid items initially destined to alleviate the suffering of thousands of women, children and men.

    “Violence against convoys carrying humanitarian aid is unacceptable and can result in concerning limitations in our ability to provide life-saving relief to those who need it the most,” said Mr. Edward Kallon. “We must ensure the safety of aid workers and aid convoys across the north-east of Nigeria, so people in need of assistance can access it in a timely manner and in sufficient quantity. Many lives are at risk,” Mr. Kallon said.

    The statement also explained that, “United Nations and its partners operate in the north-east of Nigeria in order to provide life-saving assistance to 6.9 million people affected by the brutal conflict. Humanitarian operations are carried out following the four basic humanitarian principles of operational independence, humanity, impartiality and neutrality and should be respected as such.

    “Since January 2017, despite major challenges, humanitarian operations in north-east Nigeria have managed to assist over 5 million conflict-affected people in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, including 3 million with food security interventions, 936,000 with nutritional support, 5 million with health care assistance, and over 1.3 million with safe drinking water,” the statement said.

    The Nation recalls that a convoy of food trucks belonging to World Food Program of the United Nation was allegedly ambushed by some Boko Haram insurgents, where loads of food were carted away and some people were killed including UN staff.

    But the Theatre Commander Operation Lafiya Dole Major. General Roger Nicholas through a statement signed by  Col Nwachukwu  Deputy Director Public Relations Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole said,  “Contrary to the information currently making the rounds in a section of the media that four United Nations staff had been killed and four trucks conveying food for internally displaced persons were carted away, the Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole wishes to state that the report grossly misrepresents the true situation of the incident as none of the casualties in the encounter has been identified as a staff of the UN.

    “In setting the record straight, it is necessary to state here that a patrol escorting a convoy of civilian vehicles to Logomani encountered an ambush staged by elements of Boko Haram insurgents at Maula village along Dikwa-Ngala trans sahara highway which resulted in a firefight between troops and the insurgents. The troops however fought through the ambush, overpowered the insurgents and killed six of them. The troops also captured 3 AK 47 rifles, 3 locally fabricated fire arms, 4 magazines and a belt of 7.62 mm ammunition. Sadly four persons died in the encounter. Although none of the persons killed in the ambush has so far been identified as a staff of the UN, this Headquarters considers the lives of all citizens and indeed all humans sacrosanct, which must be protected by troops even at a supreme price.

    “The situation has been brought under control and further exploitation of the general area is currently being carried out by Mobile strike Team of Operation Lafiya Dole,” the statement said.

  • Starvation: Nigeria, Somalia, two others get Trump’s $639m aid

    Starvation: Nigeria, Somalia, two others get Trump’s $639m aid

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday promised 639 million dollars in aid to feed people facing starvation because of drought and conflict in Northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

    Of the funding, 121 million dollars would go to Nigeria, according to Rob Jenkins, Acting Head, Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

    Similarly, more than 191 million dollars would go to Yemen, 199 million dollars to South Sudan and nearly 126 million dollars for Somalia.

    “With this new assistance, the United States is providing additional emergency food and nutrition assistance, life-saving medical care, improved sanitation, emergency shelter and protection for those who have been affected by conflict,” USAID said in a statement

    Jenkins said conflicts in all the four countries had made it difficult to reach some communities in need of food.

    “We’re in a dire situation right now. The situation in southern Ethiopia fortunately does not rise to the dire situation of the other four, but the situation is deteriorating and might very well be catastrophic without additional interventions,” he said.

    Jenkins said that USAID was also concerned about the situation in southern Ethiopia, adding that Washington had already provided some 252 million dollars this year to Ethiopia, “but the needs continue to grow.”

    Trump’s pledge came during a working session of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, Germany, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Executive Director, David Beasley, said on the sidelines of the meeting, according to Reuters.

    “We’re facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two,” Beasley said, describing the pledge as providing a “godsend” to the suffering millions and the global food agency fighting hunger worldwide.

    The new funding brings to over 1.8 billion dollars aid promised by the U.S. for fiscal year 2017 for the crises in the four countries, where the UN had estimated more than 30 million people needed urgent food assistance.

    Beasley said the U.S. funding was about a third of what the WFP estimated was required this year to deal with urgent food needs in the four countries in crisis as well as in other areas.

    The WFP estimates that 109 million people around the world will need food assistance this year, up from 80 million last year, with 10 of the 13 worst-affected zones stemming from wars and “man-made” crises, Beasley said.

    ” We estimated that if we didn’t receive the funding we needed immediately that 400,000 to 600,000 children would be dying in the next four months,” he said.

    Trump’s announcement came after his administration proposed sharp cuts in funding for the U.S. State Department and other humanitarian missions as part of his “America First” policy.

    Beasley said the agency had worked hard with the White House and the U.S. government to secure the funding, but Trump would insist that other countries contributed more as well.

  • Children in Nigeria’s northeast may die of malnutrition – UN

    Tens of thousands of children in northeast Nigeria will die of malnutrition this year unless they receive treatment soon, the United Nations said on Friday after reaching areas of the country previously cut off from aid by Boko Haram violence.

    Over the last year Nigeria’s army, aided by troops from neighbouring countries, recaptured most of the territory that was lost to the militant group, which has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in the northeast.

    “Improving security has enabled humanitarians to access areas that were previously cut off,” Reuters quoted Munir Safieldin, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, as saying in a statement.

    “The conditions we are seeing there are devastating.”

    The conflict, which has killed more than 15,000 people and uprooted 2.4 million in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has also pushed food insecurity and malnutrition to emergency levels in northeast Nigeria, according to the Nigerian government.

    More than a half a million people need urgent food aid, as the violence has hit farming, disrupted markets and driven up food prices, several UN agencies said in a joint statement.

    Almost 250,000 children under the age of five in Borno State will suffer from malnutrition this year, said Jean Gough, Nigeria representative for the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

    “Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die,” she said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”