Category Archives: Nigeria

Weather tracker: Nigeria flooding and US blows hot and cold

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Authorities partly blamed after months of deadly flooding in African nation; jet stream causes temperature divide in US

Nigeria has found itself at the centre of devastating floods over the past week, with poor preparation from authorities partly blamed for the damage caused. At least 600 people have died across the west African nation, with two-thirds of states affected by the disaster.

An estimated 1.3 million people have been displaced, with up to a quarter of a million homes reportedly destroyed. The floods are a culmination of months of above average rainfall, with the first floods having occurred in summer.

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‘Nature is striking back’: flooding around the world, from Australia to Venezuela

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Heavy rain and rising waters continue to take a deadly toll in countries including Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam

It has been a drenched 2022 for many parts of the world, at times catastrophically so. A year of disastrous flooding perhaps reached its nadir in Pakistan, where a third of the country was inundated by heavy rainfall from June, killing more than 1,000 people in what António Guterres, the UN secretary general, called an unprecedented natural disaster.

While floods are indeed natural phenomena, a longstanding result of storms, the human-induced climate crisis is amplifying their damage. Rising sea levels, driven by melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of water, are increasingly inundating coastal areas, while warmer temperatures are causing more moisture to accumulate in the atmosphere, which is then released as rain or snow.

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‘It’s about ethics’: Nigeria urges British Museum to follow US and repatriate bronzes

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Culture minister says UK institution ‘should learn from what has happened’ as Smithsonian returns 29 Benin artefacts

The culture minister of Nigeria has urged the British Museum to follow the example of the Smithsonian Institution, which on Tuesday returned ownership of 29 Benin bronzes to Nigeria at a celebratory event in Washington.

Lai Mohammed praised the move by the US National Museum of African Art, which follows a recent restitution agreement with Germany that included the handover of two Benin bronzes. Last year, Mohammed’s ministry formally requested the return of Benin artefacts from the British Museum in London.

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Nigerian boat accident death toll rises to 76, president says

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Vessel capsized in Ogbaru area of Anambra state, one of 29 to have experienced heavy flooding this year

The death toll from a boat accident in Nigeria’s south-eastern state of Anambra has risen to 76, the president has said.

The vessel capsized on Friday amid heavy flooding in the Ogbaru area of Anambra, according to officials on Saturday, when they said at least 10 people had died and 60 were missing.

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UK government faces court challenge in Nigerian rendition case

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Family of Nnamdi Kanu granted judicial review over failure of Britain to intervene after arrest last year

The family of a British citizen who was allegedly taken to Nigeria in an act of extraordinary rendition has been granted a court hearing to challenge the UK government for not intervening in his case.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, was arrested in Kenya in June last year before being transported against his will to Nigeria, where he has been held ever since.

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Nigeria battling worst floods in a decade with more than 300 people killed in 2022

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Floods have affected half a million people, including 100,000 displaced, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency says

Nigeria is battling its worst floods in a decade with more than 300 people killed in 2022 including at least 20 this week, as authorities said the situation is “beyond our control.”

The floods in 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states and capital city have affected half a million people, including 100,000 displaced and more than 500 injured, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said.

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More than 20 people die after bus crashes and catches fire in Nigeria

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Police blamed the accident, in which passengers burned to death, on speeding and reckless driving

At least 20 passengers burned to death when a bus collided with another vehicle and caught fire in south-west Nigeria, police and an official have said.

The accident at Lanlate in the Ibarapa area of Oyo state on Friday, is the latest road crash in the vast west African nation of 210 million people.

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Yinka Ilori’s patterns and designs to be celebrated at London Design Museum

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Free exhibition will include some of creative’s architectural projects and draw from his west African roots

The bold colours and striking patterns of Yinka Ilori’s furniture, homeware, textiles and billboard graphics are to be celebrated for the first time in a free museum exhibition.

Ilori, who grew up in a Nigerian household in north London, has drawn inspiration from west African textiles in his artwork and designs.

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Police in Nigeria find 20 mummified bodies in ‘suspected ritual shrine’

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Three men arrested after bodies including those of children discovered during raid of building in Benin City

Police in Nigeria have discovered 20 mummified bodies including those of children in a building in Benin City, in a case that has shocked the country.

Three suspects were arrested during the raid in southern Nigeria, Jennifer Iwegbu, a police spokesperson said in a statement late Wednesday. Armed police officers raided the building in Benin City, the capital of Edo state, acting on intelligence that it was a “suspected ritual shrine”, she said.

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London museum to return 72 Benin treasures to Nigeria

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Horniman museum is first government-funded institution to hand back artefacts looted by British forces in 1897

A London museum is to return 72 treasured artefacts, including its collection of Benin bronzes, to Nigeria in what experts described as an “immensely significant” moment.

The Horniman museum said it would transfer the ownership of the historic objects to the Nigerian government after an unanimous vote by its board of trustees.

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Oxford University may return items looted from Nigeria by Britain in 1897

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University council supports claim for 97 artefacts, including bronzes, currently held in city’s museums

Oxford University could return almost 100 artefacts that were looted by British colonial forces in 1897, after Nigeria requested the repatriation of the cultural items this year.

The 97 objects, including bronzes, were taken from Benin City by British troops and are currently held in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

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‘I could have been a Mo Farah’: trafficked boxer denied his shot at Olympic glory by Home Office

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Kelvin Bilal Fawaz reveals how Farah’s TV interview was a reminder of how his own boxing career was lost to life in immigration limbo

A prodigious talent with the drive and ambition to make it all the way to the top, when Kelvin Bilal Fawaz got the chance to represent Team GB as a boxer at the 2012 Olympics in London it was a dream come true.

Trafficked as a child from Nigeria to the UK and forced into domestic servitude, Fawaz had the opportunity for Olympic glory in the place he now called home.

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Suspected Islamist attack frees hundreds of prisoners in Nigeria

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Inmates on the run after gunmen armed with explosives attack prison near capital, Abuja

Hundreds of prisoners, including scores of terrorists, were on the run in Nigeria after suspected Islamist militants attacked a prison near the capital, Abuja.

Gunmen armed with explosives blasted into Kuje medium-security prison, on the outskirts of Abuja, at about 10pm on Tuesday, freeing nearly 900 of the prison’s 994 inmates, government officials said.

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The Nigerian gas deal, the Irish impresario and the £8bn ruling amid claims of bribery

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Officials allege contract was corruptly procured by business duo behind P&ID as saga of energy project and secretive tribunal heads for high court

It has been described as one of the most extraordinary cases ever to come before the high court, involving an Irish impresario, an alleged $50,000 bribe stuffed into a bag and potentially one of the biggest payouts in legal history.

The saga of two Irish businessmen, Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill, who promised to revolutionise Nigeria’s energy sector, will be at the centre of a high court trial early next year.

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Germany hands over two Benin bronzes to Nigeria

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Two countries sign restitution agreement covering more than 1,000 items in German hands

Germany has physically handed over two Benin bronzes and put more than 1,000 other items from its museums’ collections into Nigeria’s ownership, more than a century after they were looted by British soldiers from the once powerful kingdom in west Africa.

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, and the culture minister, Claudia Roth, signed a restitution agreement with their respective Nigerian counterparts, Zubairu Dada and Lai Mohammed, in Berlin on Friday afternoon.

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Liz Truss accused of ignoring evidence of rendition of UK citizen to Nigeria

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Family of Nnamdi Kanu, a separatist leader, say he was seized and tortured in Kenya and then flown to Nigeria

The family of a British citizen have accused the foreign secretary of ignoring “overwhelming evidence” he was taken to Nigeria in an act of extraordinary rendition and failing to end his “unlawful” imprisonment there.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, has been held there since June last year.

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Islamic State affiliate suspected of Catholic church massacre, Nigeria says

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Interior ministry believes Iswap was behind attack in Ondo state on Sunday that killed 40 people

Nigerian security officials suspect extremists from Islamic State’s affiliate in west Africa were behind an attack on a Catholic church last weekend that killed dozens.

Forty people are now thought to have died after gunmen stormed St Francis Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, on Sunday, and 61 survivors are still being treated in hospital, according to local authorities. The total is double an earlier estimate.

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Nigeria: town mourns more than 50 people shot dead in church during mass

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Witnesses describe how attackers detonated explosives and shot at those who tried to flee

Workers cleared the pools of blood and pieces of broken pews at the Saint Francis Catholic church in south-west Nigeria on Monday, as the local community mourned more than 50 parishioners shot dead in the final moments of mass a day earlier.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killings, and Nigeria’s authorities and the police have not named any suspects.

But new details of the brazen attack emerged on Monday, as authorities and witnesses described how the unidentified assailants detonated explosives and opened fire through the windows as the ceremony ended, before entering the church and shooting at those who tried to flee from two of three exits. The attack lasted for about 20 minutes and left scores wounded.

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Dozens dead in Nigeria as gunmen carry out ‘satanic’ attack on Catholic church

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More than 50 killed with explosives reportedly detonated in attack during mass at church in Ondo state

Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Ondo state, Nigeria, during mass on Sunday, leaving dozens dead, in a “satanic attack” local officials said.

The attackers targeted the St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the town of Owo just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, state legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said.

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Pro-Biafra militants accused of killing pregnant woman and children in Nigeria

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Woman and four children among 14 victims of latest wave of killings in south-east Anambra State

A spate of killings in south-east Nigeria blamed on a prominent Biafran secessionist group has sparked outrage and added another layer of insecurity in the country, where kidnappings for ransom are common in the north-west and an Islamist insurgency has been going on for more than a decade in the north-east.

In one incident last week a pregnant mother and her four children were killed as they were travelling home from a visit to family members on a motorcycle taxi. At least seven other people were killed in Anambra state last Sunday, a day after the mutilated bodies of an abducted state lawmaker and his aide were discovered.

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