Omolade Adunbi | University of Michigan
The rise of ethnic and religious nationalism in Nigeria in the last decade has led to such high levels of tension that it’s prompted people to ask if it will survive as a country. Or if Nigeria is on the brink of another civil war.
What’s behind the growing tensions is unequal distribution of the country’s wealth. Inequality has caused mistrust among ethnic groups. This, in turn, has led to conflict and violence.
Nigeria has in fact been at war with itself for some time – a war that has become intensified in the last two decades.
A number of events illustrate this. For instance, militancy in the oil rich Niger Delta region started after the 2003 general elections where arms and ammunition were purchased by some politicians and handed to young people in an attempt to influence the elections. But after the elections, many young Nigerians, angered by high rates of unemployment, turned the weapons against their sponsors and the Nigerian state.
Another example is the role played by the Oodua Peoples Congress, a group that advocated for an autonomous region for the Yoruba speaking southwest Nigeria. The congress started its agitation in 1994, a year after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election won by M.K.O Abiola, a member of the Yoruba ethnic group. Their dominant message was the alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba ethnic group.
And in 2009 the Boko Haram insurgency erupted after the brutal murder of Mohammed Yusuf, an Islamic cleric based in Maiduguri who had started a movement seven years earlier to push for an end to corruption and action against inequality. He also supported Islamic practices in the northeast region of Nigeria. Yusuf was arrested by the police and died in custody in 2009. Many members of his sect immediately staged a peaceful protest. Protests later became violent when they started targeting police offices and police posts across the North.
Now there is a resurgence of opposition in Biafra. It echoes back to 1967 when the then military governor of the Eastern region of Nigeria, Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Igbo speaking East independent from Nigeria. This followed Igbos in the North being targeted after the first military coup d&#8217;etat that ended Nigeria’s first republic. The 1966 coup, mostly led by military officers from the Igbo speaking east of Nigeria, was perceived by many in the North to have specifically targeted and killed many Hausa/Fulani politicians from the Northern region.
Economic inequality cannot be separated from the root of all these developments. Nigerians are frustrated because they can see economic inequality growing at a faster pace than ever before and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Will these agitations lead to an outright war in the scale of the 1960s civil war? There is no categorical answer to that. But I doubt that there will be another civil war on the scale of 1967-1970, although there may be large scale violence.
<h2>A history of violence</h2>
Violence has always been part of the history of economic and political marginalisation in Nigeria.
Examples can be drawn from the mass violence that led to the 1967-70 civil war as well as the ethno-religious violence of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s. These included the Zango Kataf conflict, Maitatsine riotsin the North between 1980 and 1985, the Agbekoya farmers uprising in the West 1968-70, the first iteration of the resurgence of Biafra by the Ralph Uwazuruike-led Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra in 2000 and the national protests against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
Many of these mass actions started as protests against perceived injustice. But they were aggravated by the forceful response of the Nigerian government. The protests all paralysed state activities. But none threatened the survival of the Nigerian state more than the oil related conflicts in the Niger Delta.
Beginning with the state murder of Niger Delta rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa in November 1995 and crystallising in the insurgency against oil corporations and the state, protest action in the Niger Delta have affected the production and sale of oil which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
<h2>How Nigeria got here</h2>
The resurgence of ethno-religious protests in Nigeria can be traced to the fact that wealth circulates among a small group of elites. Although they come from all ethnic and religious groups, they resort to fanning ethno-religious sentiments when they feel there’s a threat to their wealth. Cries of marginalisation becomes the dominant cry when they’re out of power.
The election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, triggered new tensions. This is because he is considered a member of the Northern elite. Immediately after his election protests began supporting self-determination or secession by various groups from the South. These included the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South East as well as groups such as the Niger Delta Avengers in the South-South.
Control of Nigeria’s oil resources in the Niger Delta always comes into the mix. Recent clashes involving the Biafra group in Port Harcourt – capital city of oil rich Rivers State – must be understood in that context. It is no surprise that once again, the Niger Delta is at the heart of the current clamour for secession just as it was between 1966 and 1970 when oil extraction started taking root in Nigeria.
But there are important differences between today’s protests and those staged earlier in Nigeria’s history. The main ones include the fact that people are mobilised differently, and the way in which information is disseminated and consumed.
News travel faster than it used to and unfounded rumours spread like wildfire. Fuelling the tensions is the fact that hate speech is rife. The state is as guilty as the agitators. Voices of reason and objective analysis are lost in the noise especially now that everyone with a smart phone has become a ‘journalist’. In the confusion, the road to anarchy looms large over Nigeria.
<h2>What’s to be done</h2>
An inclusive economic and political system is the only solution. The current public discourse is focused on political restructuring along ethnic lines. The calls for a political arrangement where major ethnic groups will have control over their geographical areas as well as resources therein might help. The danger is that rather than unify Nigeria, it would further divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.
What’s missing in the conversation is the fact that the environment for violence and oppression of most Nigerians has come about because of the way in which the country’s economy is structured. The elitist economy cuts across all ethnic groups. The disenfranchisement, marginalisation and exploitation defy ethnic colouration.
For restructuring to be meaningful, Nigeria must create an inclusive economic and political system where ethnic and religious affiliation will no longer be a defining factor in economic and political participation. What Nigerians need, and are clamouring for, is a country that will accommodate them regardless of ethnic or religious creed. Political, religious and ethnic tolerance is the key to economic and political success, therefore economic and political inclusivity must account for greater tolerance for it to be effective.

Economic inequality lies behind growing calls for secession in Nigeria

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Six people have been confirmed dead in a suicide attack in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria on Wednesday despite the President&#8217;s order to his service chiefs to end insecurity nationwide.

Suicide bombers kill 6 in northeast Nigeria’s Maiduguri

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Chidi Nwaonu, Security Consultant joins CNBC Africa from London to discuss what the Nigerian government needs to do to end the threat of Boko Haram.

Buhari orders service chiefs to end insecurity nationwide

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At one point this year, it appeared that Boko Haram was all but defeated. News reports about attacks were few and far between. However in recent weeks there has been resurgence.

The resurgence of Boko Haram

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The International monetary fund has projected a 0.8 per cent growth for Nigeria in 2017 and 1.9 per cent growth in 2018 in its updated World Economic Outlook.

Nigeria’s economy to grow by 0.8 per cent in 2017 – IMF

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According to the U.S. government, Nigeria&#8217;s counter-terrorism strategy, which is a combination of synergy, intelligence and information-sharing will help curb the insurgency that has plagued the country.

Nigeria’s battle with insecurity

LAGOS
At least half of Nigerian government food aid sent northeast for hungry people driven from their homes by Boko Haram has been &#8220;diverted&#8221; and never reached them, a government official said.
Some 1.5 million people are on the brink of famine in the northeast, where the jihadist group has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2.7 million to flee during its eight-year uprising to create an Islamic caliphate.
A programme was launched on June 8 by Yemi Osinbajo, acting president while President Muhammadu Buhari is in Britain on medical leave, to distribute grain to 1.8 million people still displaced by the insurgency, many of whom live in camps.
&#8220;Over 1,000 trucks of assorted grains are now on course, delivering the grains intact to beneficiaries since the commencement of the present programme as against the reported diversion of over 50 trucks in every 100 trucks sent to the northeast,&#8221; said Osinbajo&#8217;s spokesman Laolu Akande in an emailed statement late on Saturday.
&#8220;The issue of diversion of relief materials, including food and related matters, which has dogged food delivery to the IDPs [internally displaced people] would be significantly curbed under the new distribution matrix.&#8221;
Akande said 1,376 military personnel and 656 armed police would guard the food as it was moved from warehouses and distributed to displaced people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe &#8211; the three states worst hit by the insurgency.
Boko Haram controlled an area of the northeast around the size of Belgium in early 2015 but has since been pushed out of most of the territory by Nigeria&#8217;s army and troops from neighbouring countries.
But the Islamists continue to carry out attacks in the northeast and neighbouring Cameroon and Niger.
Boko Haram killed 14 people in bombings and shootings in the northeastern city of Maiduguri on June 7, in a large-scale attack quelled by the army after several hours.
A U.N. official said this month the World Food Programme had scaled back its emergency plans in the northeast because of lack of funds, now aiming to supply food to 1.4 million people instead of the 1.8 million previously intended.
The U.N. says it needs $1.05 billion this year to deal with the crisis in northeast Nigeria &#8211; which, along with Somalia and South Sudan, is one of three humanitarian emergencies unfolding in Africa &#8211; but has only received about a quarter of that sum.
(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram; editing by Andrew Roche)

Nigeria says half of govt food aid never reached victims of Boko Haram

Felix Onuah | ABUJA
Another Nigerian schoolgirl from the kidnapped group known as the &#8220;Chibok girls&#8221; has escaped from her captivity by Islamist insurgency Boko Haram, a presidential spokesman said on Wednesday.
The escape makes her the latest to return of the roughly 270 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April 2014 from the northeastern town of Chibok. Earlier this month, the militants swapped 82 of the girls in exchange for prisoners.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at a cabinet meeting in the capital Abuja on Wednesday &#8220;announced that another Chibok schoolgirl had been found after she escaped from her captors,&#8221; said the spokesman.
&#8220;I learnt she is already being brought to Abuja,&#8221; he said, giving no further details.
Of the 270 girls originally kidnapped, around 60 have escaped and more than 100 have been released. About 100 more are still believed to be in captivity.
Boko Haram&#8217;s insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced more than two million since 2009 in an attempt to create an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria.
Three years ago, the abduction of the girls from their secondary school by Boko Haram sparked global outrage and a celebrity-backed campaign #bringbackourgirls.
For more than two years there was no sign of the girls. But the discovery of one of them with a baby last May raised hopes for their safety, with a further two girls found in later months and a group of 21 released by the Islamist militants in October.
Although the Chibok girls are the most high-profile case, Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of adults and children, many of whose cases are neglected, say aid organisations.
The group often uses those captives, especially young girls and women, as suicide bombers.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Chibok girl escapes Boko Haram, says Nigeria’s presidency

Felix Onuah and Alexis Akwagyiram | ABUJA
The 82 girls freed by Boko Haram on Saturday after being held captive for three years are still waiting to be reunited with their families, while all the girls found last year will be heading back to school in September, Nigerian officials said.
Twenty four girls, who were among around 270 kidnapped by the Islamist militant group from the town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria in April 2014, are to return to school in September, the president&#8217;s spokesman said on Thursday.
Those going back to school include the 21 girls freed last October in a deal brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and three others who escaped or were rescued.
<blockquote>&#8220;Government is preparing the girls to go back to school in September this year because they have lost so much academically,&#8221; said presidency spokesman Garba Shehu. &#8220;It is not all the 103 so far released, but 24 of them,&#8221; he added.</blockquote>
None of the girls released on Saturday were among those returning to school in September as they were still undergoing medical and psychological treatment in the capital, Abuja, that should last two to three weeks, the government&#8217;s Twitter feed stated.
On Saturday, 82 girls were released in exchange for members of the jihadist group that has killed 15,000 people since 2009 in an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in the northeast.
Aisha Jummai Alhassan, the minister of women affairs, told reporters on Thursday that photographs of the girls had been sent to families in Chibok for identification.
The minister said the government was careful about who was granted access to the 24 girls who left captivity last year. They are in Abuja taking part in a rehabilitation programme.
&#8220;The parents of the #Chibokgirls are free to visit them at any time. We will never prevent them from seeing their daughters,&#8221; a government tweet quoted Alhassan as saying.
Three years ago, the abduction of the girls from their secondary school by Boko Haram sparked global outrage and a celebrity-backed campaign #bringbackourgirls.
For more than two years there was no sign of the girls. But the discovery of one of them with a baby last May raised hopes for their safety, with a further two girls found in later months and a group of 21 released by the Islamist militants in October.
Mediator and lawyer Zannah Mustapha said some of the abducted girls refused to be freed with the 82 girls last weekend, fuelling fears that they have been radicalised by the jihadists, and may feel afraid, ashamed or even too powerful to return to their old lives.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
&nbsp;

Twenty-four Chibok girls to return to school: Nigerian officials

By Kieran Guilbert
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; The devastation wrought by Boko Haram, which has left millions of people in northeast Nigeria on the brink of famine, could exacerbate Europe&#8217;s migration crisis if the world fails to act urgently, the country&#8217;s chief humanitarian coordinator said.
Nearly five million people in the region are desperately hungry and risk starving to death this year if they do not receive food aid, according to figures from the United Nations.
This could drive even more Nigerians to flee the country and attempt the perilous journey to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, unless the international community ramps up support and funds, said Ayoade Alakija, Nigeria&#8217;s humanitarian coordinator.
&#8220;With so many people facing famine, this is the wrong time to criticise us and simply say &#8216;You are the giant of Africa&#8217;.
&#8220;The world could see a mass exodus from a country of 180 million people if support is not given, and fast &#8230; if people facing famine fall into famine,&#8221; she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
While the European Union has been strained by the influx of 1.6 million refugees and migrants between 2014 and 2016, a greater number of people in northeast Nigeria, some 1.8 million, are displaced and unable or unwilling to go home, Alakija added.
&#8220;For Nigeria, this is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis of large magnitude. We, and the wider world, were largely unprepared for it,&#8221; she said, adding that Nigeria was struggling to respond as it deals with its first recession in 25 years.
Jihadist group Boko Haram&#8217;s eight-year insurgency to carve out an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has killed at least 20,000 people and forced some two million to flee their homes.
http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/08/10/failure-to-help-farmers-in-northeast-nigeria/
TACKLING ROOT CAUSE
The state&#8217;s handling of the situation in northeast Nigeria has been hit by allegations of officials stealing and selling aid, and having sex with women in exchange for food.
Alakija said the Borno state government had taken measures to improve protection efforts &#8211; such as having more female officials in camps for the displaced &#8211; and tackle corruption.
&#8220;But you need to put such incidents in the wider context of widespread suffering and desperation,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We need to tackle the root cause of the crisis, not just these symptoms.&#8221;
The humanitarian response has also been fraught at times due to tensions between the state and international aid agencies.
The president&#8217;s spokesman in December said aid agencies, including the United Nations, were exaggerating levels of hunger to get more funding from donors, while Borno&#8217;s state governor in January said many of the groups were profiting from the crisis.
&#8220;This arose from a lack of understanding and the fact that Nigeria has never faced this kind of situation before &#8230; there is no denial of the scale of the crisis within the country, but rather incredulity around what has been going on,&#8221; Alakija said.
&#8220;For the first six years of the insurgency, the previous government did not adequately acknowledge or respond to it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was not until (President Muhammadu) Buhari came to power (in 2015) that Nigeria, and the world, woke up and smelt the coffee.&#8221;
With Boko Haram&#8217;s insurgency in its eighth year and showing little sign of ending, many aid agencies are thinking beyond just emergency aid, and considering how best to foster and improve long-term development and resilience-building efforts. 
&#8220;The government is tackling the crisis on several fronts, not just handing out food parcels,&#8221; said Alakija. &#8220;We are focusing on rebuilding entire communities, so that people can go back to their homes, jobs, and resume their lives as normal.&#8221;
http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2017/04/11/nigeria-frees-people/
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a>)

World must aid famine-threatened Nigeria to avoid ‘mass exodus’

By Lanre Ola
Nigeria&#8217;s military on Monday released 593 people after clearing them of having ties with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, a spokesman said.
The military has arrested thousands in its fight against the insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in the northeast, now in its eighth year, which has killed over 20,000 people and forced more than two million to flee their homes.
<blockquote>The chief of army staff directed that those arrested be &#8220;released unconditionally if found not to have anything to do with insurgency or Boko Haram&#8221;, said Brigadier General Abdulraman Kuliya.</blockquote>
He added that the 593 who were freed had been arrested in multiple locations, held for varying lengths of time up to three months and were comprised of elderly people, men, women and children.
The military said they were handed over to the state government in Borno &#8211; the birthplace of the insurgency.
Attacks or attempted attacks bearing the hallmarks of Boko Haram in crowded areas have escalated since the end of the rainy season late last year. However, most have either been foiled or the suicide bombers managed only to blow themselves up.
In the most recent attack, two female suicide bombers detonated explosives on the edge of the university in Borno state capital Maiduguri on Monday, blowing themselves up but causing no other casualties.
(Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Nigeria’s military frees 593 people cleared of Boko Haram ties

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila pledged on Wednesday to restore order to the country&#8217;s restive Kasai region, where a worsening insurgency poses the most serious threat to his 16-year rule.
Kabila&#8217;s failure to step down when his two-term mandate expired in December has further destabilised the loosely governed central African giant. Millions died in regional wars from 1996-2003 and dozens of armed groups still operate.
The Kamuina Nsapu insurrection erupted Kasai-Central province last August as a dispute over a customary chieftancy but has since spread to four other provinces, killing hundreds while taking on an increasingly political tone.
In a rare address to parliament, Kabila said he had designated Kasai an &#8220;operational sector&#8221; and called on militia members to lay down their arms.
<blockquote>&#8220;Confronted with these unacceptable atrocities committed against innocent victims &#8230; we can no longer defer our responsibility to re-establish state authority in this part of the country by all possible legal means,&#8221; Kabila said.</blockquote>
The United Nations has accused both government forces and militia fighters of rights abuses and said it has credible reports that the army has carried out summary executions against suspected militants.
The government denies that its forces employ excessive force but has charged seven soldiers with crimes including for murder and mutilation in connection with a video that appears to show troops massacring suspected militia members.
The U.N. mission in Congo warned in a statement on Wednesday that an intensified military response &#8220;will only exacerbate the violence and further place the civilian population in danger&#8221;.
The mission also said this week that it has confirmed the presence of 23 mass grave sites in the region.
Under a deal struck with the opposition in December, Kabila can stay in office until after an election required to be held by the end of this year.
However, negotiations to implement the accord collapsed last week amid a disagreement over the procedure for nominating a new prime minister from the main opposition bloc.
Kabila said in his speech that if the impasse persisted, he would go ahead and name a prime minister in the next 48 hours, a move fiercely opposed by opposition leadership.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Joe Bavier and Alison Williams)

Congo’s President Kabila promises to restore security to restive centre

By Ahmed Kingimi
Islamist militant sect Boko Haram on Tuesday released a video purporting to show the execution of three men the group accused of being Nigerian military spies.
The seven-minute clip, the first online video posted in two years of an execution said to be by Boko Haram, showed three men wearing orange jumpsuits. One is decapitated by masked men while the other two are shot.
The masked men criticise President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria&#8217;s military campaign against Boko Haram&#8217;s eight-year long insurgency in the northeast of the country. The militant group has killed more than 15,000 people and forced more than 2 million to flee their homes.
&#8220;These are your boys you sent,&#8221; says one militant in a message aimed directly at Buhari, as the three men kneel on the ground.
Boko Haram aims to create a state that adheres to strict Islamic laws in the northeast of Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.
In December, Buhari said the group had been pushed out of its last enclave in the Sambisa forest. Days later, a militant who identified himself as Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau denied the government&#8217;s assertion.
Shekau did not appear in the latest video, narrated in a mixture of Arabic and the Hausa language spoken widely in northern Nigeria and sent to a number of media.
A Nigerian army spokesman gave no answer when asked by Reuters if the executed men were military intelligence officers as Boko Haram claimed.
&#8220;We are focusing on stabilization and consolidating our counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations,&#8221; army spokesman Sani Usman said in a text message.
&#8220;Let them mention that part of Nigerian territory they are holding,&#8221; he said.
In a separate development, the leader of Ansaru &#8212; a splinter faction of Boko Haram &#8212; and six others appeared in court on Tuesday to face charges of terrorism, murder, kidnapping and the illegal possession of firearms.
Khalid al-Barnawi, who was arrested last April, and the other defendants pleaded not guilty. The case was adjourned until April 11.
Nigeria has witnessed an increase in attacks or attempted attacks bearing the hallmarks of Boko Haram in crowded areas, such as markets and refugee camps, since the end of the rainy season in late 2016.
Most of the attacks have either been foiled or the suicide bombers have managed only to blow themselves up.
(Additional reporting Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Catherine Evans)
&nbsp;

Purported Boko Haram video shows execution of alleged Nigerian spies

More than seven million people risk starvation in Nigeria&#8217;s insurgency-hit northeastern region and around Lake Chad, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday ahead of a new funding appeal.
Famine has been ongoing since last year in parts of Nigeria where the government is fighting a seven-year long Boko Haram insurgency.
An international donor conference in Oslo on Friday will aim to raise a chunk of the $1.5 billion the United Nations says it needs to address deepening food insecurity in the region this year.
&#8220;They are living on the edge, barely getting by on one meal a day,&#8221; Toby Lanzer, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, told Reuters. &#8220;My biggest concern today is starvation.&#8221;
Earlier this week the United Nations said 1.4 million children were at risk of &#8220;imminent death&#8221; in famines in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
Lanzer said he was worried the Boko Haram insurgency would deter farmers from planting their crops after missing the last three planting seasons, and that the number of lives at risk could increase. He also expressed concerns the coming rainy season could harm vulnerable people.
&#8220;Hungry people without shelter when it rains die,&#8221; he said.
Lanzer said the humanitarian response needed to go beyond food aid and include seeds, tools and fishing nets.
Lanzer said he hoped a total $500 million will have been pledged by the end of February, including this week&#8217;s funding round.
Lanzer, who has also worked in South Sudan, Darfur and Chechnya, said it was difficult to estimate how many people would die from hunger in the next few months.
&#8220;If we were to lose another planting season, I dread to think how severe the crisis could get,&#8221; he said.
Some 10.7 million people in northeastern Nigeria and around Lake Chad &#8212; roughly two in every three people &#8212; need humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.
Boko Haram militants have killed about 15,000 people and forced more than 2 million from their homes, and still launch deadly attacks despite having been pushed out of the vast swathes of territory they controlled in 2014.
Lanzer cautioned that failure to address the deteriorating situation could encourage more Africans to try and flee to Europe.
 
(Editing by Richard Lough)﻿

Millions risk starvation in Nigeria & Lake Chad region

At least 70 civilians were killed in Tuesday&#8217;s Nigerian Air Force strike on a refugee camp and more than a hundred were wounded, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said on Wednesday.
The air force has said an unknown number of civilians were killed and wounded in the mistaken strike in Rann, northeast Nigeria. It said the attack was intended to target Islamist militant Boko Haram fighters.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said 52 were killed and 120 were wounded.﻿
MSF said the strike occurred in Rann in Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadist group&#8217;s seven-year-old bid to create an Islamic caliphate. Regional military commander General Lucky Irabor located it at Kala Balge, a district including Rann.
Irabor, who said it was too early to determine the cause of the mistake, told journalists an unknown number of civilians had been killed, adding that humanitarian workers from MSF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were injured.
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&#8220;MSF teams have seen 120 wounded and 50 dead following the bombing,&#8221; said Charlotte Morris, a spokeswoman for the medical charity. &#8220;Our medical and surgical teams in Cameroon and Chad are ready to treat wounded patients. We are in close contact with our teams, who are in shock following the event.&#8221;
A spokeswoman for ICRC said six Nigerian Red Cross members were killed and 13 were wounded.
The insurgency has killed more than 15,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes, many of whom have moved to camps because it has been too dangerous to return home.
The air strike came amid an offensive against Boko Haram by Nigeria&#8217;s military over the last few weeks. President Muhammadu Buhari said last month a key camp in the jihadist group&#8217;s Sambisa forest base in Borno state had fallen.
A statement issued by the presidency said the air strike was a &#8220;regrettable operational mistake&#8221; that happened during the &#8220;final phase of mopping up insurgents in the northeast&#8221;.
Boko Haram has stepped up attacks in the last few weeks as the end of the rainy season has enabled its fighters to move more easily in the bush.
A video featuring an audio recording purporting to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, which was posted on social media late on Monday, said the group was behind twin suicide bombings at a university earlier that day which killed two people and injured 17 others.﻿

At least 70 civilians killed in Nigeria refugee camp air strike

More than 3,000 people in northeast Nigeria who were forced to flee the seven-year insurgency waged by Islamist militants have returned to their hometown following the reopening of major roads in the area, the army said on Tuesday.
Damasak &#8211; in the northwest of Borno, the state worst hit by the militants &#8211; was taken over by Boko Haram in late 2014, when it controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria. The insurgents were pushed out of the town by the army in July.
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday that the army had taken back Boko Haram&#8217;s main camp in the Sambisa forest.
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On Sunday, the government said it was reopening two roads between Borno&#8217;s capital, Maiduguri, and the northern towns of Damasak and Baga.
Army spokesman Sani Usman said more than 3,000 people used one of the roads to return to Damasak on Monday.
Reuters was unable to independently verify his statement.
&#8220;They were residents of Damasak displaced by the insurgency staying as refugees in the neighbouring Niger Republic and internally displaced people in Maiduguri,&#8221; he said.
Usman said the returnees went through military security checks when they arrived and were met by local government officials and community leaders.
More than two million people have been displaced during the insurgency as Boko Haram tries to establish an Islamic state, run using a strict interpretation of sharia, in the northeast. About 15,000 people have been killed.
After the announcement that the Sambisa camp had been taken, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, said the former game reserve would be used as a military training base to prevent the insurgents returning.
Security analysts say Boko Haram split this year with one faction led by Abubakar Shekau operating from the Sambisa forest and the other, allied to Islamic State and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, based in the Lake Chad region.
Despite having been pushed back by a military offensive in the last few months, Boko Haram still stages suicide bombings in northeast Nigeria and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.﻿

3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

Nigeria launched a $10 billion infrastructure programme on Thursday in its restive Delta region as part of a plan to end an insurgency that has hobbled oil production.
President Muhammadu Buhari will meet representatives of militant groups and community leaders from the Niger Delta in Abuja next week in a bid to end the attacks, Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said.
Speaking to a forum in Abuja aimed at outlining strategy for the petroleum industry, Kachikwu described bringing the insurgency to an end as the first goal of a seven-point plan.
&#8220;Our target is to ensure zero militancy in the area,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This planned meeting shows the level of interest the president has to ensure peace in the area.&#8221;
The $10 billion investment is &#8220;not necessarily&#8221; going to come from the federal government, but rather from &#8220;oil companies, investors, individuals&#8221;, he said.
Militants fighting for a greater share of the OPEC member&#8217;s wealth complain of poverty and a lack of development across the Niger Delta region, where most of Nigeria&#8217;s oil is pumped.
 
NATIONAL IMPERATIVE
The seven-part strategy also envisages passing a long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill by December. The bill, which covers everything from an overhaul of state oil company NNPC to taxes on upstream projects, was delayed by violence in the Delta, which at one point cut production to 30-year lows.
The first part of the bill is already pending in the senate, and Kachikwu said the second part, which deals with fiscal aspects of the petroleum industry, is &#8220;almost completed&#8221; and will be presented to the oil industry in the next week or two.
While the government has emphasized diversifying the economy, Buhari said on Thursday it would be impossible to move forward without the oil industry.
&#8220;Oil and gas resources still remain the most immediate and practical keys out of our present economic crisis,&#8221; Buhari said, and the plan for the industry is &#8220;a national imperative and a core thrust of our economic policy&#8221;.
To drum up financing and oil investments, Nigeria will hold a roadshow in the Gulf in January and in the United States by mid-2017, Kachikwu told reporters.
One area of investment would be in improving outdated refineries to stop costly fuel imports, he said.
&#8220;We are going to be licensing private refineries, to look at investing in private refineries.&#8221;
Kachikwu said Nigeria&#8217;s oil output stood at 1.8 million barrels a day, compared with the 1.9 million bpd the Petroleum Ministry announced earlier this week. Still, he added that the government hoped to get back to 2.2 million bpd next year &#8211; the level seen at the start of 2016.
&#8220;We have a capacity to produce 3 million,&#8221; he said.
 
(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Ulf Laessing, writing by Libby George; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood)﻿

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insurgency

Economic inequality lies behind growing calls for secession in Nigeria

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The resurgence of Boko Haram

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Nigeria’s battle with insecurity

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World must aid famine-threatened Nigeria to avoid ‘mass exodus’

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Congo’s President Kabila promises to restore security to restive centre

Purported Boko Haram video shows execution of alleged Nigerian spies

Millions risk starvation in Nigeria & Lake Chad region

At least 70 civilians killed in Nigeria refugee camp air strike

3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

Nigeria's $10bn infrastructure programme to tackle insurgency in oil delta

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