<p>Ed Cropley | <span class="articleLocation">MAIDUGURI</span></p>
<p>The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has had to scale back plans for emergency feeding of 400,000 people in Boko Haram-hit northeast Nigeria due to funding shortfalls, a top U.N. official said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The decision to cut aid for some believed to be on the brink of famine comes as the onset of the annual rains threaten to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis. Farmers have been unable to plant or harvest crops for years due to the Islamist insurgency.</p>
<p>&#8220;The plan was from the beginning to reach 1.8 million (people) this year but due to the funding constraints WFP has been forced to come up with a contingency plan,&#8221; said Peter Lundberg, the U.N.&#8217;s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria.</p>
<p>The WFP is now focusing on supplying 1.4 million people deemed to be most at risk, with assistance for the remainder cut by around a third, Lundberg told Reuters in Maiduguri, capital of the hardest-hit state of Borno.</p>
<p>The U.N. says it needs $1.05 billion this year to deal with the crisis &#8211; one of three humanitarian emergencies unfolding in Africa &#8211; but has only received just over a quarter of that.</p>
<p>The reductions in Nigeria come a month after the WFP halved the monthly rations of more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda because of a lack of funds.</p>
<p><strong>MAROONED</strong></p>
<p>More than 20,000 people are thought to have died and 2.7 million have been displaced in Boko Haram&#8217;s bloody eight-year battle to establish a medieval Islamic caliphate.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>Two years ago, the group controlled an area the size of Belgium but a military push by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger has ejected the militants from cities and major towns.</p>
<p>However, according to the latest U.N. assessments, huge swathes of land remain no-go zones, even with military escorts. As many as 700,000 people might still be trapped in these areas, Lundberg said.</p>
<p>The rainy season also makes it harder to bring in emergency supplies of food and medicine as dirt roads turn to rivers of mud for up to three months.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some of these places will be completely locked in because of the rain,&#8221; Lundberg said. &#8220;When the rain comes, we know there will be very big challenges.&#8221;</p>
<p>Furthermore, aid agencies have been prevented from building up large supply centres outside cities such as Maiduguri for fear they will be attacked.</p>
<p>In the town of Rann near the Cameroon border, nearly 50,000 people are about to become marooned with only two weeks&#8217; supply of food to hand, said Dana Krause, an emergency coordinator for the Swiss arm of the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).</p>
<p>&#8220;The populations along the border are pretty much entirely dependent on external aid,&#8221; Krause said. &#8220;And by the end of July, Rann will literally be an island.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a last resort, a WFP spokeswoman said it was considering air drops for the most inaccessible areas.</p>
<p>Nigeria&#8217;s military did not respond to a request for comment.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>(Editing by Susan Fenton)</p>


Funds shortage forces UN to cut emergency food aid for 400,000 in Nigeria

<p><span class="articleLocation">Felix Onuah | ABUJA</span></p>
<p>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.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#8220;I learnt she is already being brought to Abuja,&#8221; he said, giving no further details.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Three years ago, the abduction of the girls from their secondary school by Boko Haram sparked global outrage and a celebrity-backed campaign #bringbackourgirls.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The group often uses those captives, especially young girls and women, as suicide bombers.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Tom Heneghan)</p>


Chibok girl escapes Boko Haram, says Nigeria’s presidency

<p><span class="articleLocation">Felix Onuah and Alexis Akwagyiram | ABUJA</span></p>
<p>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.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#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.</p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#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.</p>
<p>Three years ago, the abduction of the girls from their secondary school by Boko Haram sparked global outrage and a celebrity-backed campaign #bringbackourgirls.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Felix Onuah and Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos, editing by Pritha Sarkar)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


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

<p>ABUJA/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) &#8211; Boko Haram militants have released 82 schoolgirls out of a group of more than 200 whom they kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok three years ago in exchange for prisoners, the presidency said on Saturday.</p>
<p>Around 270 girls were kidnapped in April 2014 by the Islamist militant group, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria.</p>
<p>Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 remained missing for more than two years.</p>
<p>Nigeria thanked Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross for helping secure the release of the 82 girls after &#8220;lengthy negotiations&#8221;, the presidency said in a statement.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari will receive the girls on Sunday afternoon in the capital Abuja, it said, without saying how many Boko Haram suspects had been exchanged or disclosing other details.</p>
<p>A military source said the girls were brought on Sunday morning from Banki near the Cameroon border to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state where the insurgency started.</p>
<p>The release of the girls may give a boost to Buhari who has hardly appeared in public since returning from Britain in March for treatment of an unspecified illness.</p>
<p>He made crushing the insurgency a pillar of his election campaign in 2015.</p>
<p>The army has retaken most of the territory initially lost to the militants but attacks and suicide bombings by the group have made it nearly impossible for displaced persons to return to their recaptured hometowns.</p>
<p>&#8220;The President directed the security agencies to continue in earnest until all the Chibok girls have been released and reunited with their families,&#8221; the presidency said.</p>
<p>INSECURITY</p>
<p>More than 20 girls were released last October in a deal brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Others have escaped or been rescued, but 195 were believed to be still in captivity.</p>
<p>Buhari said last month that the government was in talks to secure the release of the remaining captives.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/11/09/freed-chibok-girls-spared-from-abuse-and-rape-by-nigerias-boko-haram/</p>
<p>Although the Chibok girls are the most high-profile case, Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of adults and children, many of whose cases have been neglected.</p>
<p>Although the army has retaken much of the territory initially lost to Boko Haram, large parts of the northeast, particularly in Borno state, remain under threat from the militants. Suicide bombings and gun attacks have increased in the region since the end of the rainy season late last year.</p>
<p>Some 4.7 million people in northeast Nigeria depend on food aid, some of which is blocked by militant attacks, some held up by a lack of funding and some, diplomats say, stolen before it can reach those in need.</p>
<p>Millions of Nigerians may soon be in peril if the situation deteriorates, as authorities expect, when the five-month rainy season begins in May and makes farming impossible in areas that are now accessible.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/12/23/nigeria-chibok-girls-boko-haram/</p>
<p>This part of Nigeria is the western edge of an arc of hunger stretching across the breadth of Africa through South Sudan, Somalia and into Yemen on the Arabian peninsula. The United Nations believes as many as 20 million people are in danger in what could become the world&#8217;s worst famine for decades.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing; editing by Angus MacSwan and Jason Neely)</p>
<p>© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved</p>


Nigeria exchanges 82 Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram for prisoners

<p>By Kieran Guilbert<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#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;.</p>
<p>&#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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2016/08/10/failure-to-help-farmers-in-northeast-nigeria/</p>
<p>TACKLING ROOT CAUSE</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#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;</p>
<p>The humanitarian response has also been fraught at times due to tensions between the state and international aid agencies.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#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.</p>
<p>&#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;</p>
<p>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. <span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>&#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;</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/western-africa/2017/04/11/nigeria-frees-people/</p>
<p>(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>)</p>


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

<p>By Lanre Ola<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote><p>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.</p></blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The military said they were handed over to the state government in Borno &#8211; the birthplace of the insurgency.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>(Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Toby Chopra)</p>


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

<p>By Ahmed Kingimi<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>&#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.</p>
<p>Boko Haram aims to create a state that adheres to strict Islamic laws in the northeast of Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A Nigerian army spokesman gave no answer when asked by Reuters if the executed men were military intelligence officers as Boko Haram claimed.</p>
<p>&#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.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>&#8220;Let them mention that part of Nigerian territory they are holding,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Khalid al-Barnawi, who was arrested last April, and the other defendants pleaded not guilty. The case was adjourned until April 11.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Most of the attacks have either been foiled or the suicide bombers have managed only to blow themselves up.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Catherine Evans)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


Purported Boko Haram video shows execution of alleged Nigerian spies

<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said 52 were killed and 120 were wounded.﻿</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<p>&#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;</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for ICRC said six Nigerian Red Cross members were killed and 13 were wounded.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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;.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


At least 70 civilians killed in Nigeria refugee camp air strike

<p>Five Nigerian soldiers and more than 15 Boko Haram fighters were killed when the jihadists attacked an army base in the remote northeast where the group has been fighting for an Islamic state, a military source said on Sunday.</p>
<p>Boko Haram attacked an army brigade in Buni Yadi in Yobe state late on Saturday, an army spokesman said by text message, without giving a casualty figure.</p>
<p>&#8220;Five soldiers lost their life in the attack though more than 15 Boko Haram were killed by troops,&#8221; the military source said.</p>
<p>Several explosions could be heard on Sunday in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state where Boko Haram started its seven-year insurgency that has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.</p>
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<p>Officials or medics were not immediately available to give a casualty figure.</p>
<p>In early 2015, Boko Haram controlled an area about the size of Belgium. It has been pushed out of most of that territory over the past year by Nigeria&#8217;s army and troops from neighboring countries, moving to a base in the Sambisa forest.</p>
<p>Last month, the army said it had taken Boko Haram&#8217;s key camp in the forest, although the group has staged suicide bombings since then.</p>
<p>Security analysts say the group&#8217;s ability to carry out attacks in neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad suggests it has multiple bases.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Boko Haram attacks Nigerian army base

<div>
<p>MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian soldiers have found a schoolgirl who was one of more than 200 pupils kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, an army spokesman said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The troops had found Rakiya Abubkar wandering around near Algarno, a former Boko Haram stronghold, the spokesman said. She had a six-month-old baby with her.</p>
<p><a href="/news/western-africa/2016/10/14/boko-haram-frees-21-kidnapped-chibok-girls-nigerian-government/"><strong>READ:</strong>﻿ Boko Haram frees 21 kidnapped Chibok girls &#8211; CNBC Africa﻿</a></p>
<p>A total of 276 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok in 2014 in one of the most infamous actions of their insurgency. More than 20 were released in October in a deal brokered by the International Red Cross. Others have escaped or been rescued but about 200 are believed to be still in captivity.</p>
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<div class="teads-player"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/western-africa/2016/12/29/boko-haram-may-have-used-chibok-girls/">Boko Haram may have used Chibok girls as shields during attack﻿</a></p>
<p>Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year-old insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.</p>
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<p>The group controlled an area about the size of Belgium in early 2015 but has been pushed out of most of that territory over the last year by Nigeria&#8217;s army and troops from neighbouring countries.</p>
<p>Last month, the army said it had seized a key Boko Haram camp in its last enclave in Nigeria in the vast Sambisa forest. The jihadists still stage suicide bombings in northeastern areas and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lanre Ola, Alexis Akwagyiram and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nigerian soldiers find Chibok girl kidnapped in 2014

<p>A man purporting to be the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, denied the jihadist group has been pushed out of its stronghold in the Sambisa forest.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday said Boko Haram&#8217;s last enclave in the forest, a former game reserve in northeast Nigeria, had been captured in the &#8220;final crushing&#8221; of the group.</p>
<p>Reuters has been unable to independently verify that the area was captured.</p>
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<p>&#8220;We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere,&#8221;</p>
<p>the man identifying himself as Shekau said in a video seen by Reuters on Thursday.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you indeed crushed us, how can you see me like this? How many times have you killed us in your bogus death?&#8221; he added in the 25-minute video during which he spoke in the Hausa language and Arabic.</p>
<p>Nigeria&#8217;s military has in recent years said it has killed or wounded Shekau on multiple occasions.</p>
<p>Such statements have often swiftly been followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau, but poor footage makes it hard to confirm if the person is the same man as in previous videos.</p>
<p>A military spokesman, in a text message, said a comment would be issued in due course. The presidency declined to comment.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a state adhering to strict Islamic laws in the northeast of Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Man claiming to be Boko Haram leader denies Sambisa defeat

<p>Boko Haram fighters fleeing an attack on their base last week may have used some of the girls kidnapped in 2014 from northeast Nigeria&#8217;s Chibok as human shields to prevent being fired upon by fighter jets, a military commander said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Major General Lucky Irabor, theatre commander of Nigeria&#8217;s military campaign against the group, showed a news conference aerial footage he said was filmed during the operation in the Sambisa forest that showed Boko Haram fighters moving with women and children.</p>
<p>&#8220;The haggard fighters were just using them as a shield,&#8221; Irabor told reporters in the northeastern city of Maiduguri. &#8220;That is why we did not engage them from the air.&#8221;</p>
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<p>&#8220;We had always believed and hoped that going into the Sambisa would afford us the opportunity to get the remaining Chibok girls. What we can&#8217;t tell is whether those women we can see were the Chibok girls,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 200 girls from their school dormitories in the town of Chibok in April 2014. The first of the girls to be found said most of them were being held in the Sambisa forest, where she was discovered in May.</p>
<p>The group has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children during its seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, some of whom may also be held in the forest.</p>
<p>The abduction of the Chibok girls, 21 of whom were released in October, brought worldwide notoriety.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday the Islamist militants&#8217; last enclave in the forest, the vast former game reserve in northeast Nigeria that was their stronghold, had been captured.</p>
<p>Reuters has been unable to independently verify that the area has been captured, but the comments from the general were the first reference by a military official to the suspected whereabouts of the girls since Buhari&#8217;s announcement.</p>
<p>The president said the capture of Camp Zero in the forest marked the &#8220;final crushing of Boko Haram&#8221; but security analysts say the group&#8217;s ability to carry out attacks in neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad suggests it has multiple bases.</p>
<p>They also say the group 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.</p>
<p>Irabor said the military was pursuing those who fled, adding that 1,240 people suspected of being militants, their relatives or sympathisers had been arrested between Dec. 21 and 28.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million during its insurgency. It controlled an area the size of Belgium in early 2015 but has been pushed back by troops from Nigeria and neighbouring countries since then.</p>
<p>Separately, dozens of Boko Haram fighters have given themselves up to authorities in southern Niger, the interior minister there said.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Boko Haram may have used Chibok girls as shields during attack

<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday that the army had taken back Boko Haram&#8217;s main camp in the Sambisa forest.</p>
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<p>On Sunday, the government said it was reopening two roads between Borno&#8217;s capital, Maiduguri, and the northern towns of Damasak and Baga.</p>
<p>Army spokesman Sani Usman said more than 3,000 people used one of the roads to return to Damasak on Monday.</p>
<p>Reuters was unable to independently verify his statement.</p>
<p>&#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.</p>
<p>Usman said the returnees went through military security checks when they arrived and were met by local government officials and community leaders.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

<p>LAGOS &#8211; Nigerian authorities are involved in negotiations aimed at securing the release of some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, the president&#8217;s spokesman said on Thursday.</p>
<p>His comments, posted on Twitter, came in response to reports in Nigeria&#8217;s media that some of the girls had been released by the Islamist militant group, which he said were untrue.</p>
<p>&#8220;The negotiations are ongoing and the Department of State Service, DSS is full of optimism that they will be successful,&#8221; Garba Shehu, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, said in a tweet.</p>
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<p>&#8220;To my friends spreading the news of a further release of Chibok Girls, we are not there yet,&#8221; he tweeted.</p>
<p>Around 270 girls were taken in April 2014 from their school in Chibok, Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing more than 15,000 people and displacing over two million.</p>
<p>Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 girls remained missing until October when 21 of the girls were freed following mediation by Switzerland and the International Red Cross.</p>
<p>The jihadist group has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children but the kidnapping of the Chibok girls brought worldwide attention to the group.</p>
<p>The Nigerian military has in recent weeks been carrying out a large-scale offensive in the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram&#8217;s vast northeastern woodland stronghold.</p>
<div class="related-content group-one">A military spokesman, in a statement issued late on Wednesday, said the army had rescued 1,880 people during operations in the forest over the past week. Reuters was unable to independently verify the claim.</div>
<p>(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram, editing by G Crosse)﻿</p>


More Chibok girls could be released

<p>Around 14 million people will need humanitarian help in the former northeast Nigerian stronghold region of Boko Haram militants and tens of thousands of children will be at risk of dying from famine, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The Islamist militant group has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million from their homes during a seven-year insurgency in Africa&#8217;s most populous nation and biggest energy producer.</p>
<p>Nigerian military forces backed by those from neighbouring states have pushed Boko Haram back to the northeast&#8217;s vast Sambisa forest in the last few months, enabling aid workers to access areas previously controlled by the jihadists. That has revealed thousands of people living in famine-like conditions.</p>
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<p>&#8220;Next year 26 million people will be affected by the ongoing crisis and 14 million of these will need international and national humanitarian assistance,&#8221; Peter Lundberg, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, told a news conference.</p>
<p>He added that there were 75,000 children who, &#8220;if we don&#8217;t do something rapidly and seriously&#8230; are going to die in the few months ahead of us&#8221;.</p>
<p>UNICEF, the U.N. children&#8217;s agency, said in September that 75,000 children could die in northeast Nigeria over the next year if they did not receive aid. A total of 400,000 children aged under five could suffer severe malnutrition in the three states worst hit by the insurgency, it said.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Humanitarian help needed for about 14 milliion Nigerians

<p>Thomson Reuters Foundation</p>
<p>The 21 Chibok schoolgirls freed by Boko Haram militants last month say they were not abused or raped during two-and-a-half years&#8217; captivity in northeast Nigeria, a source close to the presidency said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Many girls kidnapped by the Islamist militant group have been used as sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.</p>
<p>But the 21 freed girls said the militants treated them well while they were held captive, according to a confidential report based on their two-week debriefing prepared for President Muhammadu Buhari and seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>
<p>The girls, released last month after Switzerland and the Red Cross brokered a deal, are now being held in a secret location in the capital Abuja for assessment by the Nigerian government.</p>
<p>State health workers confirmed that the girls were not sexually abused while in captivity, adding that they all tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases, the report said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The girls said the Boko Haram men always assured them that they would eventually go back home to their families, and were careful about what they said around the girls and how they treated them,&#8221; said the source, who declined to be named.</p>
<p>&#8220;They had been fed well and regularly, until the military cut off Boko Haram supplies,&#8221; the government source added.</p>
<p>More than 200 girls were seized from their school in April 2014 in Chibok in Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children but the abduction of the Chibok girls &#8211; some 200 of whom are still missing &#8211; prompted outrage worldwide and their plight was publicised using a Twitter hashtag, #bringbackourgirls. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>NO FORCED MARRIAGE, CONVERSION</p>
<p>The daily routine for the girls, who were moved in captivity between the northeastern town of Gwoza and the Sambisa forest, a Boko Haram stronghold, involved personal time in the morning followed by Koranic teaching and cooking meals, the report said.</p>
<p>Most of the girls said they were held in makeshift dwellings made of zinc sheets in Sambisa, while those who were married lived with their militant husbands in camps across the forest.</p>
<p>The 21 recently released girls said that while the Boko Haram militants advised them to marry and convert to Islam, they were not forced into doing so, according to the report.</p>
<p>&#8220;The girls said that those of them who did not agree to marry were used as house girls (servants),&#8221; the source said.</p>
<p>The girls recognised almost all the faces of Boko Haram members on a government most-wanted list, but did not know the militants&#8217; names and never saw the Islamist group&#8217;s established figurehead Abubakar Shekau, according to the source.</p>
<p>When shown pictures of 142 of their still missing classmates, the girls said 61 had married Boko Haram militants, eight had died during Nigerian air force strikes, three during childbirth, and one of an unknown cause, the report found.</p>
<p>Another Chibok girl and her 10-month-old son were discovered by troops days ago while they were screening escapees from Boko Haram&#8217;s base in the Sambisa forest.</p>
<p>The first of the Chibok girls to be released by Boko Haram, Amina Ali, was freed in May. Ali has since been held in a house in Abuja for what the state has called a &#8220;restoration process&#8221;. She said in August that she &#8220;just wanted to go home&#8221;.</p>
<p>Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria&#8217;s army has recaptured most of the territory. The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Freed Chibok girls spared from abuse by Nigeria's Boko Haram

<p>GENEVA &#8211; The United Nations has negotiated the release of nearly 900 children detained by Nigeria&#8217;s army and security forces after they have retaken land from Boko Haram militants, a senior official said.</p>
<p>The 876 children had been held in the barracks in Maiduguri, UNICEF&#8217;s Manuel Fontaine said after visiting the northeastern city.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear how long they had been held, but the army routinely detains civilians who have been living in areas that had been ruled by the insurgents on suspicion that they too might be linked to militant activities.</p>
<p>However, rights groups say there is no proper legal process for such civilians, including the children, since they do not get formally charged and some end up in so-called rehabilitation centres, which the groups say are like prisons.</p>
<p>The United Nations says children should not be detained.</p>
<p>&#8220;We fear that there are still kids who are being at least temporarily detained because they are being released from Boko Haram areas by the army but then kept for a while,&#8221; Fontaine, UNICEF&#8217;S regional director for Western and Central Africa, told reporters by telephone.</p>
<p>He give no details of the ages of the children or how long they had been at the barracks &#8211; but after President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May 2015, security forces began an offensive, backed by neighbouring countries, to retake territory from Boko Haram, meaning at least some of the children could have been held for a year or more.</p>
<p>There was no immediate comment from the army. Army officials say they need to question civilians to establish whether they have any ties with the militant group, which has been trying for seven years to set up an Islamic state.</p>
<p>The security situation remains volatile in northeastern Borno state and its capital Maiduguri because Boko Haram still stages suicide bombings, often using women or teenagers.</p>
<p>Fontaine also said the conflict, which has killed thousands and displaced more than 2 million, had separated around 20,000 children from their parents, of which 5,000 had since been reunited with their families.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once we get children out, there is a major issue of stigmatisation in the communities,&#8221; Fontaine said. &#8220;There is a sense that children who have been associated with Boko Haram for a while, could be, and in some cases we have some evidence, are rejected by community and people around them.&#8221;</p>
<p>This was also a problem for the girls freed from the town of Chibok, he said. Nigeria this month negotiated, with the help of Switzerland, the release of 21 of more than 200 girls Boko Haram kidnapped in April 2014.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Reporting by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alison Williams)﻿</p>
<p> </p>


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Boko Haram.

Funds shortage forces UN to cut emergency food aid for 400,000 in Nigeria

Chibok girl escapes Boko Haram, says Nigeria’s presidency

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

Nigeria exchanges 82 Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram for prisoners

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

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

Purported Boko Haram video shows execution of alleged Nigerian spies

At least 70 civilians killed in Nigeria refugee camp air strike

Boko Haram attacks Nigerian army base

Nigerian soldiers find Chibok girl kidnapped in 2014

Man claiming to be Boko Haram leader denies Sambisa defeat

Boko Haram may have used Chibok girls as shields during attack

3,000 people who fled Boko Haram return home

More Chibok girls could be released

Humanitarian help needed for about 14 milliion Nigerians

Freed Chibok girls spared from abuse by Nigeria's Boko Haram

UNICEF frees 876 children held by Nigeria for possible Boko Haram ties

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