Rise In al Qaeda Attacks Revives Spectre Of West African Caliphate

Iyad Ag Ghali (R), the leader of Ansar Dine, an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in northern Mali, meets with Burkina Faso foreign minister Djibril Bassole in Kidal, northern Mali, August 7, 2012. Ag Ghaly has positioned himself as the leader of a new Islamist coalition in West Africa, JNIM, formed in 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

BY ANAIT MIRIDZHANIAN AND MOUSSA AKSAR

DAKAR, SENEGAL (REUTERS) - At dawn on June 1, gunfire shattered the stillness of Mali's military base in Boulkessi. Waves of jihadist insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked group stormed the camp, catching newly deployed soldiers off guard.

Some troops, unfamiliar with the base, which lies near Mali's southern border with Burkina Faso, scrambled to find cover while others fled into the arid brush, according to one soldier, who spoke to survivors of the attack.

The soldier, who had completed a tour at the camp a week before, requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to journalists.

Hours after the attack, videos circulated online showing jubilant fighters from Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), stepping over the bodies of fallen soldiers.

JNIM claimed it had killed more than 100 troops and showed around 20 soldiers who said they were captured at the base. Reuters was unable to verify the claims independently.

The Boulkessi assault was one of more than a dozen deadly attacks by JNIM on military outposts and towns across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in May and June. The insurgents claimed to have killed more than 400 soldiers in those attacks. Mali's military government has not commented on the toll.
Reuters spoke to five analysts, a security expert and a community leader in the region who said the surge in violence reflects a strategic shift by JNIM - a group founded by a veteran Islamist who rose to prominence by briefly seizing northern MJNIM is moving from rural guerrilla tactics to a campaign aimed at controlling territory around urban centres and asserting political dominance in the Sahel, they said.

"The recent attacks point a concrete effort to encircle Sahelian capitals, aiming for a parallel state stretching from western Mali to southern Niger and northern Benin," said Mucahid Durmaz, senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence group Verisk Maplecroft.

Attacks by JNIM left more 850 people dead across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in May, a rise from the average rate of killings of around 600 in previous months, according to data from U.S. crisis-monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).

The surge in attacks in May and June marks one of the deadliest periods in the Sahel's recent history and underscores the threat posed by jihadist groups at a time when regional governments are estranged from former Western military allies, analysts say.

More than a decade of insurgencies in the Sahel has caused mass displacement and economic collapse. The violence has steadily spread towards coastal West Africa, straining regional stability and fuelling migration toward Europe.

On July 1, JNIM carried out simultaneous attacks on army camps and positions in seven towns in central and western Mali, according to an army statement and claims by the insurgents.

The army said 80 militants were killed. Reuters was unable to reach JNIM for comment. The group releases its statements and videos on social media, and has no media spokesperson.

Mali's army did not respond to Reuters requests for comments about the wave of JNIM attacks. It said in a statement after the Boulkessi assault that troops responded "vigorously" before retreating.
"Many soldiers fought, some to their last breath," the statement said.

STRATEGIC PIVOT

JNIM's leader, Iyad Ag Ghaly, has been instrumental in its transformation.
A former rebel leader in Mali's Tuareg uprisings in the 1990s, Ag Ghaly led the fundamentalist group Ansar Dine that was part of a coalition of groups that briefly occupied northern Mali in 2012.
The militants imposed a harsh version of sharia law - banning music, imposing mutilations as punishment for crimes, and holding public executions and floggings.

Thousands fled, and cultural sites were destroyed, leaving lasting trauma in the region before the rebels were driven out by a French military intervention the following year. Ag Ghaly is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The military leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who seized power between 2020 and 2023 on the back of the prolonged insurgencies, promise to restore security before returning their countries to democratic rule.

They've cut ties with Western nations and expelled their forces, blaming them for failing to end the insurgencies and turning instead to Russia for military support.

After deploying mercenaries, the Russians have also suffered setbacks and been unable to contain the uprisings.

In Burkina Faso — a country about half the size of France — militants exert influence or control over an estimated 60% of the territory, according to ACLED.

Ag Ghaly, who has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, has positioned himself as the leader of a jihadist coalition that includes al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Al-Mourabitoun, and Katiba Macina after they merged into JNIM in 2017.

A Western security source, who requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak publicly, told Reuters that JNIM has emerged as the region's strongest militant group, with an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 fighters.

Ag Ghaly's goal, the analysts said, is to impose Islamic rule across the Sahel and extend its influence to coastal West Africa, a region twice the size of Western Europe, with a population of around 430 million people, many of them Christian.

In a rare video released in December 2023, he denounced the military governments in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso and called on Muslims to mobilize against them and their Russian allies.
Ag Ghaly could not be reached for comment. The governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger did not respond to requests for comment.

SOPHISTICATED TACTICS, LOCAL OUTREACH

JNIM's battlefield tactics have grown increasingly sophisticated, including the use of anti-aircraft weapons and drones for surveillance and precision strikes, Durmaz said.

It has amassed substantial resources, meanwhile, through raids, cattle rustling, hijacking of goods, kidnappings and taxes on local communities, the five analysts said.

While it has not appointed local administrators in areas under its control, JNIM has imposed a tax known as 'Zakat' for protection, according to two residents and a former militia fighter.

They have quelled some inter-communal conflicts and imposed a form of Sharia law, requiring women to wear veils and men to grow beards. But they have refrained from severe punishments, such as amputating the hands of thieves.

Heni Nsaibia, Senior West Africa analyst at ACLED, described its recent activity as a "step change".
He said JNIM seizing Burkina Faso's northern provincial capital Djibo, a town of over 60,000 people, on May 11 and Diapaga, an eastern provincial capital of around 15,000, two days later was unprecedented.

"In Djibo they stayed for 11 hours or plus. In Diapaga they remained for two-three days even. And that is very much something that we haven't seen before," Nsaibia said.
According to Nsaibia, the group has captured an estimated $3 million worth of munitions in Djibo alone.

The repeated attacks have left the capitals of Mali and Burkina Faso unsettled, and idea of JNIM taking over Bamako or Ouagadougou, once considered far-fetched, is a plausible threat, according to Nsaibia.
JNIM's outreach to marginalized communities, particularly the Fulani, a widely dispersed pastoralist group, has been central to recruitment, the analysts said.

"JNIM is advancing its narrative as a defender of marginalised communities," Durmaz said. "They are not just fighting for territory — they're fighting for legitimacy."

Fulani have increasingly found themselves targeted by authorities across Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso under the banner of counter-terrorism, a Fulani community leader told Reuters, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

While not all Fulani are involved in armed groups, their presence is significant among insurgents in rural areas, driven more by frustration and lack of opportunity than ideology, the leader said.

JNIM's ambitions now stretch beyond the Sahel. The group has expanded its operations into northern Benin and Togo, and are threatening Gulf of Guinea states which they use as a rear base, according to analysts.

Both countries have deployed more security forces in the northern regions as insurgents ramp up attacks.
"Togo and Benin are the most vulnerable due to their limited counterterrorism capabilities, existing local grievances in their northern regions, and porous borders with Burkina Faso," Durmaz said.
($1 = 554.9000 CFA francs)

Additional reporting Robbie Corey-Boulet and Bate Felix Writing by Bate Felix

Trump Or BRICS? The Quandary For Africa’s Miners And Governments

BY CLYDE RUSSELL, REUTERS COLUMNIST

Beyond the short-term volatility and uncertainty created by US President Donald Trump’s tariff machinations, it’s likely that the longer-term trend of the world splitting into two trading blocs is accelerating.


Stripping away Trump’s bluster and often contradictory actions, the message seems to be fairly clear. Trump’s view of the world is that you are either with the United States or against it.

That presents a dilemma for Africa’s mineral rich countries as they want to develop their resources to provide them with the maximum benefit, but they also want to stay largely neutral.

But it’s increasingly likely that at some level African countries will have to decide whether they are more in the Trump camp, or whether they prefer to do business with the China-led BRICS group.

There are risks and rewards under both scenarios, and the circumstances of each African country may cause to lean one way or another.

Much of the debate at this weeks Investing in African Mining Conference in Cape Town has effectively been about the best path forward for Africa’s miners and governments.

The continent is already a major producer of minerals, but it’s untapped reserves are the major prize in coming decades, especially if the energy transition accelerates.

Africa is richly endowed, with an estimated 20% of global copper reserves, about the same for aluminum raw materials, 50% of manganese and cobalt, 90% of platinum group metals, 36% of chromium, as well as reserves of lithium, uranium, gold and rare earths.

But developing its mineral resources has been often too challenging, given political instability and corruption, poor infrastructure, lack of capital and legal frameworks that make long-term investments hard to justify.

However, the increasing appetite of the world for minerals, especially to enable the energy transition, is likely to set off a new scramble for Africa, this time Africans will have more say in how it unfolds.

Finding the right partners is the challenge for African countries.

On the one hand the Western world still offers deep capital reserves, sophisticated equity markets and investors and skills and experience in mining and engineering.

But Trump is undermining these advantages with his tariffs and threats to withhold aid and other funding, as well as his habit of turning on traditional allies and flip-flopping policies.

The main issue with Trump is his apparent transactional view of the world, in which there must always be a winner and a loser, and he always wants to be the winner.

This means getting a mutually beneficial deal from the United States is going to be more difficult while Trump is in office.

Not beggars

It was perhaps this frustration that boiled over in the remarks at the Investing in African Mining event, on Monday when South Africa’s Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said Africa should withhold minerals from the United States if Trump cuts aid.

“If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals. We are not just beggars,” Mantashe told the conference, which is also known as Mining Indaba.

“We cannot continue to debate these minerals based on the dictates of some developed nations as if we have no aspirations to accelerate Africa’s industrialization and close the development deficit,” Mantashe said.

These comments may be unwise in that they may serve to antagonize Trump, but they may also sharpen some thinking in the West on how best to get access to Africa’s minerals.

Should Africa be looking more toward China and the rest of the BRICS nations, as the best option to unlock its mineral wealth?

The experience here has been somewhat mixed. While China has been willing to develop mines in Africa, it tends to want to do it mainly using its own people and processes, and it wants to export raw ores and beneficiate them in China.

This has limited the benefits to African countries, but there may be an option to use legislation to copy what Indonesia has done in forcing companies to commit to domestic downstream operations as part of access to raw materials.

(The views expressed here are those of the author, Clyde Russell, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

At 10-Year Mark, US And Allies Weigh Future Of Islamic State Mission

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin listens to remarks by US President Joe Biden during a Cabinet meeting inside the West Wing at the White House in Washington, US, on 20th September, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Tom Brenner/File photo

BY PHIL STEWARD

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (REUTERS) - Ten years to the day after the formal launch of the US-led operation against the Islamic State, the United States and its NATO allies gathered in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the future of a mission facing increasing headwinds.

Niger kicked out the US military from its counter-terrorism base in West Africa this summer. Afghanistan has been largely off-limits since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover. And Iraq wants the Pentagon to start reducing its personnel and end coalition operations there.

At the same time, American officials warn the global threat from Islamic State is growing in Africa and elsewhere, even as public attention has shifted to Russia’s war in Ukraine and expanding conflicts in the Middle East.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who helped launch the US-led coalition against Islamic State a decade ago as a four-star general, cautioned allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Islamic State was still a threat that required international attention.

“We’re tackling a range of key challenges, including bullying from the People’s Republic of China and Russia’s reckless invasion of Ukraine,” Austin said.

“But as we do so, we must not lose sight of the threat that ISIS still poses.”

Attacks in Russia, Iran

At the height of its powers, Islamic State claimed control over swathes of the combined territories of Iraq and Syria. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared his cross-border caliphate from the pulpit of Iraq’s historic al-Nuri mosque in 2014 and vowed to rule it.

Although territorially defeated in Syria five years ago, and seven years ago in Iraq, Islamic State has managed some high-profile attacks while trying to rebuild.

Most recently, those include an assault on a Russian concert hall in March that killed at least 143 people and two explosions in the Iranian city of Kerman in January that killed nearly 100 people

A 19-year-old Austrian suspected of masterminding a planned suicide attack on a Taylor Swift concert in August had vowed allegiance to the Islamic State militant group’s leader.

“It is a threat that is evolving,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the talks.

“There is an increase in lone-wolf attacks. Terrorists are increasingly using new technologies and the epicenter is moving southwards into the Sahel, a region which is now accounting for almost half of all deaths from terrorism.”

In Africa, jihadist groups with links to al-Qaeda or Islamic State have killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Experts say these conflicts in the Sahel are contributing to a sharp rise in migration towards Europe at a time when anti-immigrant far-right parties are on the rise and some EU states are tightening their borders.

“There’s been deliberate efforts [by Islamic State] to try to diversify not only their leadership but some of their combat power to Africa, to Central Asia,” a senior US defence official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US strategy was to ensure the Sahel-based threat doesn’t spread south to Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and other countries in coastal West Africa.

It will not be easy. The United States is searching for a Plan B in West Africa after Niger’s ruling junta in April ordered the US to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel.

In Iraq, an agreement between Washington and Baghdad will see the US-led coalition’s military mission end by September 2025, as Iraq turns to more traditional bilateral security partnerships.

The US defence official said the details were being worked out but “all expectations are the footprint will shrink” over the next year. But it is unclear what kind of US presence will remain in Iraq to support operations in Syria, which will continue.

Why West Africa Is Now The World's Terrorism Hotspot

Map shows violent attacks by jihadi groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in 2024. Burkina Faso appears as a hotspot, with the most attacks so far this year.

BY DAVID LEWIS, JESSICA DONATI AND KAYLEE KANG

DAKAR, SENEGAL (REUTERS) - Having slipped undetected into Mali's capital weeks ago, the jihadis struck just before dawn prayers. They killed dozens of students at an elite police training academy, stormed Bamako's airport and set the presidential jet on fire.
The Sept. 17 attack was the most brazen since 2016 in a capital city in the Sahel, a vast arid region stretching across sub-Saharan Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
It showed that jihadist groups with links to al Qaeda or Islamic State, whose largely rural insurgency has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, can also strike at the heart of power.
Overshadowed by wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan, conflict in the Sahel rarely garners global headlines, yet it is contributing to a sharp rise in migration from the region towards Europe at a time when anti-immigrant far-right parties are on the rise and some EU states are tightening their borders.
According to the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration (IOM), the route to Europe with the steepest rise in numbers this year is via West African coastal nations to Spain's Canary Islands.
IOM data shows the number of migrants arriving in Europe from Sahel countries (Burkina, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal) rose 62% to 17,300 in the first six months of 2024 from 10,700 a year earlier, a rise the U.N. and the IOM have blamed on conflict and climate change.
Fifteen diplomats and experts told Reuters the swathes of territory under jihadist control also risk becoming training grounds and launchpads for more attacks on major cities such as Bamako, or neighbouring states and Western targets, in the region or beyond.
Jihadi violence, especially the heavy toll it has taken on government troops, was a major factor in a wave of military coups since 2020 against Western-backed governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the countries at the heart of the Sahel.
The military juntas that replaced them have since swapped French and U.S. military assistance for Russians, mainly from Wagner's mercenary outfit, but have continued to lose ground.
"I don't really see the regimes in Mali, Niger and Burkina holding on forever. Eventually one of them is going to fall or one of them is going to lose a substantial amount of territory, which Burkina Faso already has," said Caleb Weiss, an editor at the Long War Journal and an expert on jihadist groups.
"Then we're dealing with a jihadi state or multiple jihadi states in the Sahel," he said.
GLOBAL TERRORISM HOTSPOT
Western powers that previously invested in trying to beat back the jihadists have very little capacity left on the ground, especially since the junta in Niger last year ordered the U.S. to leave a sprawling desert drone base in Agadez.
U.S. troops and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used drones to track jihadists and shared intelligence with allies such as the French, who launched air strikes against the militants, and West African armies.
But the Americans were booted out after they angered Niger's coup leaders by refusing to share intelligence and warning them against working with the Russians. The U.S. is still looking for a place to reposition its assets.
"Nobody else filled the gap of providing effective air surveillance or air support, so the jihadis are roaming freely in those three countries," said Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at The Soufan Center, a think-tank in New York.
A Reuters analysis of data from U.S. crisis-monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) found that the number of violent events involving jihadi groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has almost doubled since 2021.
Since the start of this year, there have been 224 attacks a month on average, up from 128 in 2021.
Insa Moussa Ba Sane, regional migration and displacement coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross, said conflict was a major factor behind the increase in migration from the West African coast, with rising numbers of women and families seen along the route.
"Conflicts are at the root of the problem, combined with the effects of climate change," he said, describing how floods and droughts are both contributing to the violence and driving an exodus from rural to urban areas.
In Burkina Faso, perhaps the worst affected of all, jihadists affiliated with al Qaeda slaughtered hundreds of civilians in a day on Aug. 24 in the town of Barsalogho, two hours from the capital Ouagadougou.
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in Sydney said Burkina Faso topped its Global Terrorism Index for the first time this year, with fatalities rising 68% to 1,907 - a quarter of all terrorism-linked deaths worldwide.
About half of Burkina Faso is now beyond government control, the U.N. has said, a factor contributing to soaring rates of displacement.
"The two, big veteran terrorist (groups) are gaining ground. The threat is spreading geographically," said Seidik Abba, president of the CIRES think-tank in Paris, referring to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
A U.N. panel of experts that monitors the two organisations' activities estimates that JNIM, the al Qaeda-aligned faction most active in the Sahel, had 5,000-6,000 fighters while 2,000-3,000 militants were linked to Islamic State.
"Their declared goal is to establish Islamic rule," said Nasr of The Soufan Center.
Jihadists use a mixture of coercion and the offer of basic services, including local courts, to install their systems of governance over rural communities that have long complained of neglect by weak, corrupt, central governments.
"Come with us. We will leave your parents, sisters and brothers alone. Come with us and we will help you, we will give you money," said a man from Mali, describing his encounters as a teenager with jihadists who attacked his village. "But you can't trust them, because they kill your friends in front of you."
The young man fled and made it to the Canary Islands last year before moving to Barcelona. He declined to be identified fearing reprisal attacks on family members still in Mali.
LAUNCHPAD SCENARIO
The jihadi groups operate in different areas, at times fighting each other, though they have also struck localised, non-aggression pacts, reports by U.N. experts say.
The groups receive some financial support, training and guidance from their respective global leaderships, but also collect taxes in areas they control and seize weapons after battles with government forces, the reports say.
European governments are divided on how to respond to the conflict. Southern European nations who receive most migrants favour keeping communication with the juntas open, while others object because of human rights and democracy concerns, nine diplomats in the region told Reuters.
One African diplomat said the EU needed to remain engaged as the issue of migration was not going to go away.
Even if Europe were to agree a shared approach, it lacks the military capacity and political relationships to help because the Sahelian countries don't want Western input, the diplomats said.
"We do not have any influence in those countries on extremist groups," said General Ron Smits, head of the Dutch Special Forces.
The other major worry for Western powers is the potential for the Sahel to become a base for global jihad, like Afghanistan or Libya in the past.
"All these violent extremist organisations do have aspirations of attacking the United States," General Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, told reporters this month.
Other officials and experts, however, say the groups have not declared any interest in carrying out attacks in Europe or the United States as yet.
Will Linder, a retired CIA officer who runs a risk consultancy, said the attacks in Bamako and Barsalogho showed that efforts by the juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso to shore up security were failing.
"The leadership of both countries really need new strategies for countering their jihadist insurgencies," he said.

UN Peacekeeping Mission In Mali Completes Its Withdrawal

Soldiers stand at attention, as the last contingent of the German army Bundeswehr soldiers return from its peacekeeping force known as MINUSMA (Multinational Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) in Wunstorf, Germany, December 15, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo

MALI (REUTERS) - The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, is poised to complete its withdrawal from the country on Sunday, the United Nations said in a statement.

Security experts warn the area could now become the focus of a struggle in the north as rebel groups and the army seek to take areas that the U.N. has left, further destabilising Mali, where Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State also roam.

Violence in Mali has spiked since June when the military junta which took power in a 2021 coup ordered the U.N.'s decade-old peacekeeping mission to leave.

The U.N. said only a small team will stay behind to oversee the transportation of assets and disposal of U.N.-owned equipment.

"U.N. funds, agencies and programmes were in Mali well before the deployment of MINUSMA and will stay in Mali well after the withdrawal," MINUSMA chief El-Ghassum Wane said.

The peacekeeping mission in Mali was launched in 2013 following a violent insurrection by separatist rebels attempting to take control of the north of the country and a subsequent military-led coup.

Mali has since become the epicentre of a violent movement that has spread across West Africa and forced millions to flee.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams and Hugh Lawson)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.

Oldest Human-Made Wood Structure Found In Zambia

REUTERS

Along the banks of the Kalambo River in Zambia near Africa’s second-highest waterfall, archaeologists have excavated two logs of the large-fruited bushwillow tree that were notched, shaped and joined nearly half a million years ago.

These artifacts, researchers said on Sept. 20, represent the oldest-known example of humans — in this case a species that preceded our own — building wooden structures, a milestone in technological achievement that indicates that our forerunners displayed more ingenuity than previously thought.

The logs, modified using stone tools, appear to have been part of a framework for a structure, a conclusion that contradicts the notion humans at that time simply roamed the landscape hunting and gathering resources.

“The framework could have supported a walkway or platform raised above the seasonally wet surroundings. A platform could have multiple purposes including storage of firewood, tools, food and as a foundation on which to place a hut,” said archaeologist Larry Barham of the University of Liverpool in England, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

“Not only did the working of trees require considerable skill, the right tools and planning, the effort involved suggests that the makers were staying in the location for extended periods whereas we have always had a model of Stone Age people as nomadic,” Barham added.

The rarity of wood preservation at early archaeological sites — it is perishable over time — means scientists have little understanding of how early humans used it.

“While the vast majority of archaeological sites of this age preserve only the stone tools, Kalambo Falls provides us a unique insight into the wooden objects that these tools were being used to create, allowing us a much richer and more complete picture of the lives of these people,” said geographer and study coauthor Geoff Duller of Aberystwyth University in Wales.

“Wood can be shaped into a variety of forms making it an excellent construction material that is strong and durable,” Barham added.

The earliest-known Homo sapiens fossils date from roughly 300,000 years ago in Morocco. The Kalambo Falls logs were determined to be from about 476,000 years ago.

No human remains were found there, but Barham suspects the artifacts were fashioned by a species called Homo heidelbergensis known to have existed from about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago. Homo heidelbergensis possessed a large browridge and a bigger braincase and flatter face than earlier hominins — species on the human evolutionary lineage.

The overlying log at Kalambo Falls is about 1.4 meters long, with tapering ends. About 1.5 meters of the underlying log was excavated.

“The structure involves the intentional shaping of two trees to create a framework of two interlocking supports. A notch was cut into the overlying log and the underlying tree was shaped to fit through the notch. This arrangement prevents the overlying log from moving side to side, giving stability to the structure,” Barham said.

The wood, found in a waterlogged condition, was preserved by a permanent high-water table at the site. Clay sediments surrounding it provided an oxygen-free environment preventing decay.

The earliest-known wooden artifact is a plank fragment from Israel, about 780,000 years old. Wooden tools for foraging and hunting are known to date from about 400,000 years ago. A wedge-shaped wooden tool about as old as the logs was found at Kalambo Falls.

The site, about 400 meters upriver from a spectacular 235-meter high waterfall, was discovered in 1953, but its age remained unclear. The new study used a method called luminescence dating, measuring the amount of energy an object has trapped since it was buried.

“The finds from Kalambo Falls indicate that these hominins, like Homo sapiens, had the capacity to alter their surroundings, creating a built environment,” Barham said. “Use of wood in this way suggests the cognitive ability to these early humans was greater than we have believed based on stone tools alone.”

Security And Food Crises Expected To Dominate African Union Summit

A woman receives a bag of food from the government during the distribution of food items by the government to cushion the high cost of living in Abuja, Nigeria, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

BY GIULIA PARAVICINI

NAIROBI, KENYA (REUTERS) - Deepening security and food crises are likely to dominate the agenda when heads of state convene in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa this weekend, Feb. 17-19, for the annual African Union (AU) summit.

Armed conflict from West Africa's Sahel to the Horn of Africa in the east and the impacts of droughts and floods have driven ever more Africans from their homes, with the number of displaced people south of the Sahara Desert rising more than 15% over the past year, according to United Nations figures. The U.N. estimates 44 million people were displaced in 2022 up from 38.3 million people at the end of 2021.

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Bankole Adeoye is expected to try to rally support for a proposal for new financing of security operations from the United States, African Union members and the European Union, two diplomats told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Financing has been a perennial challenge for AU initiatives like its peacekeeping mission in Somalia. In 2020, the AU postponed plans to start financing security operations from a new fund until 2023 because it had received less than half of the targeted $400 million.

Heads of state will also be briefed on fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the security situations in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Sudan, which all experienced military takeovers in 2021 and 2022, the two diplomats said.

Bankole and a spokesperson for the Peace and Security Council did not respond to requests for comment.

Another major subject of discussion is expected to be worsening hunger in several regions, which has been driven by armed conflict and extreme weather that scientists have linked to fossil fuel-driven climate change.

Somalia is on the verge of famine after five failed rainy seasons, with hundreds of thousands of people suffering catastrophic food shortages.

In addition to leaders from the 55 AU members states, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and European Council President Charles Michel will attend the summit.

African leaders will advocate for permanent seats for the continent on the U.N. Security Council and among the G20 group of large economies, according to a draft of the summit's conclusions.

They will also adopt a series of protocols aimed at accelerating full implementation of Africa’s new free trade area, under which trading officially began in 2021.

U.S. Congress Members Seek Halt To $1 Billion Nigeria Weapons Deal

Democrat Sara Jacobs

BY DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to rescind a nearly $1 billion arms sale to Nigeria following Reuters reports on an illegal abortion program and the targeted killing of children carried out by the Nigerian military.

Democrat Sara Jacobs of California and Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey, both members of the subcommittee on Africa, also called for a review of security assistance and cooperation programs in Nigeria, including a risk assessment of civilian casualties and abuses resulting from the arms assistance.

“We write to express our concern with current U.S. policy on and military support to Nigeria,” the lawmakers said.

The United States has paired security assistance to Nigeria with training focused on compliance with international law. But the lawmakers said humanitarian workers have reported that Nigeria’s security forces “appear to have a limited understanding of humanitarian law and tools for effective engagement with local populations.”

The assistance provided by Washington so far has done little to quell the 14-year conflict between the Nigerian military and Islamist insurgents in the country’s northeast, and there are reports of weapons captured by insurgents, the Congress members added.

“Therefore, we believe continuing to move forward with the nearly $1 billion arms sale would be highly inappropriate and we urge the Administration to rescind it,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

The White House did not immediately provide a comment.

In April, the U.S. State Department approved the weapons sale and other military support to Nigeria – the largest ever offered to the country – after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had paused the deal over concerns about other rights abuses.

The request for a review is the second to come from Congress in recent months. After the Reuters stories appeared in December, U.S. Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, requested a review of U.S. security assistance and cooperation programs in Nigeria and the potential use of sanctions for alleged abuses.

“I look forward to hearing more about the (State) Department’s planned response to the serious and abhorrent allegations levied against a long-standing beneficiary of U.S. security assistance and cooperation which, if deemed credible, have done irreparable harm to a generation of Nigerian citizens and to U.S. credibility in the region,” the Idaho senator said in the letter.

The Reuters investigation found that since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion program in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls. Many had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants. Resisters were beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance, witnesses said.

Nigerian military leaders denied the program has ever existed and said Reuters reporting was part of a foreign effort to undermine the country’s fight against the insurgents.

Reuters also reported that the Nigerian Army and allied security forces have slaughtered children during their grueling 13-year war against Islamist extremists in the country’s northeast. Nigerian military leaders told Reuters the army has never targeted children for killing.

The Reuters series, “Nightmare in Nigeria,” sparked calls for the Nigerian government to investigate from the U.S. departments of state and defense, the German foreign ministry, the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Human rights experts said the army’s actions could constitute war crimes.

Amid international outcry, Nigeria’s defense ministry agreed to cooperate with an investigation by Nigeria’s Commission on Human Rights, which is underway.

(Editing by Julie Marquis)

Nigeria’s $11 Billion London Trial Will Expose Corruption, Court Hears

BY ESTELLE SHIRBON

LONDON (REUTERS) – A British lawyer representing Nigeria in a London court case in which $11 billion are at stake said on Friday the trial would reveal corruption “on an industrial scale”, not only of Nigerian officials but also of British lawyers.

The case stems from a contract for a gas project awarded by Nigeria in 2010 to a company called Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID). The gas processing facility never materialised, for reasons that are disputed.

After years of legal wrangling, a London-based arbitration tribunal said in 2017 that Nigeria had not fulfilled its side of the contract and should pay P&ID $6.6 billion in compensation. With interest, the award is now worth $11 billion.

That sum represents close to 30% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $37 billion at the end of November.

Nigeria has gone to court in London arguing that P&ID obtained the original contract through bribery and used the arbitration proceedings as a means of extorting a huge sum of money from Nigerian public coffers.

P&ID denies this and says Nigeria is trying to get out of paying what it owes.

An eight-week trial is due to start in January at the High Court in London, with witnesses appearing in person as well as remotely from Ireland and from Nigeria.

At a pre-trial review on Friday, lawyer Mark Howard, representing Nigeria, told the court that evidence of “widespread corruption and bribery on an industrial scale” would be put forward.

“Our case is it was bribery to get the contract, ongoing bribery to keep everyone on board, bribery of lawyers,” he said, alleging that two London-based British lawyers previously involved in the case had committed “serious misconduct”.

P&ID was originally established by two Irish nationals. Ownership of the firm has since passed to two Cayman Islands-based entities.

The case has become a cause celebre for the Nigerian government, with President Muhammadu Buhari denouncing it during a speech to the United Nations in 2019 as a scam designed to cheat Nigeria out of billions of dollars.

Buhari was in opposition at the time the contract was awarded.

The party then in power, the People’s Democratic Party, remains a major force in Nigerian politics and will be contesting the presidency as well as other elected offices in elections in February, while the London trial will be going on.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Mark Potter)

Nigerian Court Refuses Extradition Of Police Chief Indicted In U.S

Abba Kyari

BY CAMILLUS EBOH

ABUJA, NIGERIA (REUTERS) – A Nigerian judge on Monday rejected a request by the federal government to extradite a suspended police chief to the United States to face charges linked to fraud.

Commissioner Abba Kyari has denied involvement in what a U.S. indictment describes as an elaborate scheme to defraud a Qatari businessperson of more than $1 million, masterminded by a Nigerian celebrity fraudster known as “Hushpuppi”.

Kyari has denied any wrongdoing.

He is in prison awaiting trial on separate charges of alleged criminal conspiracy, official corruption and tampering with exhibits after his arrest by the local drug enforcement agency in February.

On Monday, High Court Judge Inyang Ekwo said Kyari could not be extradited because of that trial in Nigeria and handing him over to the United States would breach the country’s extradition law.

“By that fact, it (the extradition request) is incompetent, it is equally bereft of merit and ought to be dismissed and I make an order dismissing this case,” Ekwo said in a ruling.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General Abubakar Malami could not be reached for comment.

Kyari was one of six people indicted over the alleged fraudulent scheme last year, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.

Nigeria has long struggled to control the problem of financial scams, often perpetrated by email.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh in Abuja, additional reporting by Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Alex Richardson)

US Will Not Dictate Africa's Choices, Blinken Says

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor at the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria, South Africa, August 8, 2022. Photo by Reuters/Andrew Harnik

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (REUTERS) -- The United States will not dictate Africa's choices, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, despite having sought support from the continent's 54 countries in efforts to isolate Russia over its attacks in Ukraine .

Blinken was presenting a new strategy document for sub-Saharan Africa at the University of Pretoria in South Africa's capital, part of a continental tour that will also take him to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

His visit coincides with heightened geopolitical rivalry between the world's superpowers since Russia attacked Ukraine in February. South Africa was one of 17 African countries to abstain from the United Nations vote condemning Russia's assault.

It also comes two weeks after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a four-nation Africa tour where he berated the West for meddling in Africa's affairs.

French President Emmanuel Macron used a tour of Africa around the same time to accuse Russia of deliberately causing a global food crisis.

"Too often, African nations have been treated as instruments of other nations' progress, rather than the authors of their own," said Blinken. "They have been told to pick a side in great power contests that feel far removed from daily struggles of their people."

The strategy document stressed the threats posed by China and Russia to the United States' interest in this increasingly important region.

Africans frequently resent being a theatre for competition between China, Russia and the Western order. The Ukraine crisis has exacerbated their longstanding rivalry over Africa's natural resources, trade and security ties.

Blinken's speech acknowledging these grievances echoed a November pledge to "do things differently" in Africa, especially after former U.S. President Donald Trump's often insulting remarks about African countries.

"The United States will not dictate Africa's choices, and neither should anyone else," Blinken said.

Blinken took a swipe at Russian private military contractor Wagner, which has extended Russian influence over security affairs in some African countries such as Mali and Central African Republic. The strategy document accused Wagner of "fomenting instability" for strategic benefit.

"The United States recognizes African countries ... are afflicted by the scourges of terrorism and insecurity," he said. "But the answer to these problems is not Wagner, or any other mercenary group. The answer is working to build more effective, accountable African security forces."

The strategy paper also said China recognizes the importance of Africa in advancing its commercial interests and seeks to weaken U.S. ties with the continent. The U.S. should counter this by supporting infrastructure, Internet and climate change mitigation projects, it said.

Chris Ogunmodede, associate editor at World Politics Review, said that Blinken's visit was transparently aimed to trying to get the continent to take the West's side against Russia.

"If it's about competing with China (and Russia) in those terms, it's going to fail. It's not about what Africans want. It's all about what Washington wants. That's not a partnership."

Millions At Risk: Ukraine War Hits Africa's Most Vulnerable As Aid Costs Spike

A child walks outside makeshift shelters at the Kaxareey camp for the internally displaced people after they fled from the severe droughts, in Dollow, Gedo Region, Somalia, on 24th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Feisal Omar

BY EDWARD MACALLISTER

DAKAR, SENEGAL (REUTERS) - A small charity broke ground this year on a clinic in northern Burkina Faso to care for thousands of women and children who have fled Islamist insurgents wreaking havoc along the fringes of the Sahara.

But when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, global supply chains buckled and the cost of building materials, fuel and food spiked in West Africa. The charity's founder, Boukary Ouedraogo, was forced to make a tough decision: he halted construction of the clinic with only the foundations laid.

Similar calls are being made across sub-Saharan Africa, where aid projects are threatened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, potentially putting millions of lives at risk.

Humanitarian agencies already struggling with widespread price increases under the pandemic say the crisis in Europe has made things worse. Even the cost of life-saving therapeutic foods for malnourished children has spiked.

Compounding the problem, some donors have diverted state aid from Africa's worst-hit countries to help support more than six million refugees who have fled the fighting in Ukraine.

Denmark said in March it was halving its aid to Burkina Faso this year to accommodate Ukrainian refugees. Its budget for Burkina's neighbour Mali, also in the grips of an Islamist insurgency, has dropped 40 per cent.

Sweden has also said it plans to divert $US1 billion from its aid budget to help cover the cost of hosting Ukrainian refugees.

Ouedraogo's clinic was desperately needed in Kaya, a town of dirt streets and squat brick buildings surrounded by arid scrubland. Its population has swelled in recent years as thousands of people from surrounding villages flee militant attacks, straining the already basic health care system.

"What happened in Ukraine happened at the same time as the crisis in this country got worse," said Ouedraogo, who runs the BO Foundation in Burkina Faso.

"We hope all the donors can keep their attention," he said. "We felt what we were doing was going to reduce the number of deaths and infant mortality."

It's a similar story in Sudan. In a southern area faced with conflict and food shortages, a paediatric clinic run by Senegal-based medical charity Alima faces a $US300,000 funding gap due to an increase in costs, including fuel for the clinic's generator.

At this rate, Alima will have to shut the program down, said its director of operations, Kader Issaley.

Action Against Hunger, a charity with operations across Africa, has seen the cost of foodstuffs such as rice, oil and sugar rise 20 to 30 per cent over the past year.

This will reduce its coverage by the same amount, said Mamadou Diop, a representative from its West Africa office.

"We have to totally rethink our approach," said Diop. "We must decide, do we reduce supply or reduce the number of beneficiaries?"

The problem is not limited to Africa. The UN's World Food Programme feeds 13 million people a month in Yemen, where the economy has been wrecked by years of war, but it has reduced rations for eight million of them since January.

It may have to make further cuts, after raising only a quarter of the $US2 billion it needs for Yemen this year from international donors.

"We're taking food from the poor and feeding the hungry," said WFP representative to Yemen, Richard Ragan.

"In June we will have to make some tough decisions about possibly even going down to just feeding five million, those who are really most at risk," he said

Still, Africa's problems are unique in scope.

Conflict in Ethiopia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Sahel region have forced millions to flee their homes. Nearly half a billion people live in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.

West Africa alone faces an unprecedented food shortage that threatens nearly 40 million people, driven in part by drought and the impact of the war in Ukraine on food prices and supply.

The impact of higher costs on aid organisations varies, health specialists say.

Smaller non-profits reliant on institutional donors such as governments for yearly budgets may struggle more than a larger charity such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which raises money through public campaigns.

MSF said it did not foresee cutting back its operations due to the war in Ukraine.



But few are immune. A drop in funding that preceded the Ukraine war has forced WFP to cut rations in seven countries in West and Central Africa.

In Nigeria, the continent's most populous country, the number of people receiving emergency assistance from WFP has dropped from 1.9 million in September to 650,000.

Like Burkina Faso and Mali, northern Nigeria is also wracked by a prolonged Islamist insurgency.

Health specialists and aid workers said it was too early to assess exactly what the impact on communities will be and it could take months to see how much damage the cutbacks cause.

"Further funding shortfalls will contribute to worsening food security and nutrition in locations where food insecurity is already at emergency levels," said WFP spokesman for Western Africa, Djaounsede Madjiangar.

In Somalia, one-year-old Hassan howled in a blue plastic bucket suspended from a scale as a medical technician noted his weight: 5.6 kilograms.

It was an improvement. Hassan weighed only 5.2 kilograms when he first began receiving treatment for severe acute malnutrition at a clinic run by aid workers in the south of the country three months ago - about half what a boy his age should weigh.

His partial recovery is thanks to a sweet peanut paste called Plumpy'Nut developed by French scientists in the 1990s that has become a crucial weapon in the fight against child malnutrition.

Three small sachets a day for six weeks can be enough to bring a starving child back to full health, according to UN children's charity UNICEF.

"He used to be much worse," said the boy's mother, Hasan Habiba Mohammed Nur, patting his bony legs under an oversized T-shirt. "The Plumpy'Nut has really helped him."

UNICEF says it spends $US137 million a year on therapeutic food and the overall market is estimated to be worth up to $US400 million.

But aid agencies say it is becoming too expensive.

Over the past year, the cost of Plumpy'Nut has risen 23 per cent, including a nine per cent increase imposed since the Ukraine crisis began, Plumpy'Nut's main producer Nutriset, told Reuters.

In a letter to customers in March warning of impending price increases, it said the cost of ingredients such as palm oil, milk powder and whey, and packaging including laminate for the sachets, had risen sharply. Shipping expenses have also rocketed. In all, costs are up 39 per cent, Nutriset said.

"The war in Ukraine is indirectly impacting the price of raw materials, and prices will continue to increase even more in the weeks and months to come," Nutriset said.

The increases worry UNICEF. It predicts that prices of therapeutic foods will rise 16 per cent in the next six months because of Ukraine and pandemic disruptions. Without further funding, 600,000 more children may miss out on treatment, it said in May.

The effects are already being felt, aid workers say.

Alima's budget to buy and ship a batch of Plumpy'Nut to a project in an impoverished area in the southeast of Democratic Republic of Congo is about €175,000.

But with a rise in fuel costs and the price of Plumpy'Nut, the shipment now costs €230,000, said Hassan Bouziane, who runs logistics at Alima.





He now has to go to donors to get more cash, taking up valuable time.

"The impact on the beneficiaries will be huge," said Bouziane. "The treatment for a child of five years old is six weeks. When you lose two weeks, that is a third of their treatment."

- With KATHARINE HOURELD in Dollow, Somalia.

‘You’re On Your Own’: African Students Stuck In Ukraine Seek Refuge Or Escape Route

REUTERS

People on a motorbike drive past the Ukrainian embassy in Abuja, Nigeria February 25, 2022. Image: Reuters

When Percy Ohene-Yeboah peered down from his high-rise apartment in the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on Thursday morning, the street below was clogged with traffic. People hurried along the sidewalks, wheeling suitcases behind them.

The Ghanaian engineering student went to a window on the other side and discovered why: Russian planes were flying low above the city, trying to evade missiles that rifled through the sky – a scene resembling one of his favourite video games, Call of Duty.

As reality dawned, and with nowhere to turn, the 24-year-old, packed a bag and ran to the nearest underground train station for shelter, one of thousands of African students stranded in Ukraine during a Russian invasion, with no idea of how to escape.

“In a situation like this, you’re on your own. You’ve got to find the best way to find refuge for yourself,” he told Reuters by phone from the basement of a church where he eventually settled on Thursday night.

Cities under siege across Ukraine are home to tens of thousands of African students studying medicine, engineering and military affairs. Morocco, Nigeria and Egypt are among the top 10 countries with foreign students in Ukraine, together supplying over 16,000 students, according to the education ministry. Thousands of Indian students are also trying to flee.

What was meant to be a cheaper alternative to studying in Western Europe or the United States has turned overnight into a war zone as Russian tanks, planes and ships launch the biggest European invasion of another nation since World War Two.

With flights grounded, African governments thousands of miles away are struggling to support their students. The students Reuters spoke to said they had had no help from home.

“It’s now that the reality is really hitting me,” said Ohene-Yeboah. “I think for me it’s a bit too late for evacuation and all those things.”

STAY PUT OR RUN

Ghana’s student presence in Ukraine is big enough for it to have a local union chapter. In the days before the invasion, the union sent reports about the situation to the government in Accra.

“They confirmed that they received things like that, but we never got any real reply to any of our concerns,” said Ohene-Yeboah.

Afraid of taking the road west, and without flights or money, he will stay put for now.

Others are on the move.

When Russian bombs began to fall near the capital Kyiv, 400 km (250 miles) west of Kharkiv, on Thursday morning, a group of Kenyan medical students decided to leave. They have been in touch with officials from their government, one of them said, but they must find their own way out of Ukraine.

The five students rushed to Kyiv’s train station on Friday morning in the hope of boarding a train to the western city of Lviv. From there, they aim to go over the border into Poland from where they can return home.

A spot on board the train is not guaranteed.

“It is really, really bad. Everyone is fleeing the city,” said one of the medical students, who asked not to be named.

She and her colleagues brought nothing with them in the rush, only vital documents.

“We can’t carry luggage. Luggage will make us lag behind.”

UK says Russian forces continue to advance towards Kyiv

Britain’s defence intelligence chief said on Friday that Russian forces were continuing to advance towards Kyiv as they sought to topple Ukraine’s government.

“Russian forces continue to advance on two axis towards Kyiv. Their objective is to encircle the capital, to secure control of the population and change the regime,” Chief of Defence Intelligence Jim Hockenhull said.

“Russia continues to conduct strikes across Ukraine. Overnight Russia launched a concerted series of strikes on targets in Kyiv. Multiple Rocket Launchers have been employed in Chernihiv and Kharkiv.

“Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to offer strong resistance, focusing on the defence of key cities throughout Ukraine.”

Nigerian Oil Production And Storage Vessel Explodes

BY TIFE OWOLABI

WARRI, NIGERIA, (REUTERS) - An oil production and storage vessel exploded off the coast of Nigeria early on Wednesday with 10 crew members on board though it was unclear if there were any casualties or how much crude might have spilled into the sea.

Nigeria's Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) said on Thursday that flames had engulfed the Trinity Spirit floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel following the blast a day earlier.

Joe Sunday, an assistant boat driver, said he was in one of two speed boats out at sea on Wednesday morning to pick some crew who were due to take time off from work but could not reach the vessel because it was consumed by fire.

"We drove round to see if we could see people but we did not see anybody and the fire was still blazing," Sunday told Reuters at a port in Warri.

Tiby Tea, chairman of Maritime Union for Nigerian Ports Authority in Warri, confirmed that two boats sent out to the vessel could not find anyone.

"At this time there are no reported fatalities but we can confirm that there were 10 crewmen on board the vessel prior to the incident and we are prioritising investigations with respect to their safety and security," SEPCOL Chief Executive Ikemefuna Okafor said in a statement.

The Trinity Spirit can process up to 22,000 barrels of oil a day and store up to 2 million barrels, SEPCOL's website said.

One industry source active in Nigeria's oil sector said the vessel had about 50,000 barrels in storage but was not pumping crude from the Ukpokiti oilfield in the OML 108 block when it exploded.

The Nigerian regulator now known as the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) revoked its production licence for OML 108 in 2019. SEPCOL is the technical operator of the block though the production licence was held by consortium member Express Petroleum.

SEPCOL, which is in receivership, did not respond to requests for comment about how much crude Trinity Spirit was storing at the time of the blast.

BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig was pumping tens of thousands of barrels a day when it exploded in 2010. By the time the well was plugged 87 days later, 4 million barrels of crude had flowed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an environmental disaster.

"We got information of the fire incident yesterday and we immediately ordered our field officers to commence investigation. Investigations are still ongoing," Gbenga Komolafe, NUPRC's chief executive, told Reuters.

"It is only after when we have received the report of this investigation from our team that we will issue a comprehensive statement devoid of speculation," he said.

SEPCOL's Okafor said investigations were underway to establish the cause of the explosion while attempts to contain the situation were being made with help from local communities and U.S. oil firm Chevron (CVX.N), which has a facility nearby.

The Trinity Spirit is the primary production facility for OML 108 which covers 750 square km (290 square miles) of water off the Niger Delta, ranging from a depth of 30 metres to 213 metres, SEPCOL's website said.

Reporting by Tife Owolabi in Warri, Camillus Eboh in Abuja and Julia Payne in London; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by David Clarke and Richard Chang

Best-Selling Novel Exposes Life Of Child Slaves In Nigeria

Abi Dare. Image: Ellie Smith via The New York Times.

BY NELLIE PEYTON

DAKAR, SENEGAL(THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION) - Writer Abi Dare grew up in a part of Lagos, Nigeria where most families, including hers, had maids as young as eight years old who worked all day, were often beaten and did not go to school.

It was only as an adult that she realised these so-called "house girls" were essentially slaves.

"I did have questions growing up but they weren't questions I necessarily voiced because it was the norm. It still is happening," the 38-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from her home in London.

Dare's debut novel, "The Girl with the Louding Voice", imagines life through the eyes of one of these house girls, a 14-year-old named Adunni who dreams of going to school.

Released in February, it was critically acclaimed and made the New York Times Top 10 best-seller list within three weeks. More importantly for Dare, it has sparked conversations in Nigeria.

"I feel that maybe if we are able to humanise (Adunni) and see her as a girl that has feelings and thoughts and opinions and dreams... it might cause a bit of a reflection in our society, and cause us to maybe change," Dare said.

Despite laws against it, child labour is widespread in Nigeria and the employment of girls as domestic servants is one of the most common forms, according to the U.N. Children's Agency (UNICEF).

Countless "house girls" work for upper- and middle-class families in cities across the nation, far from their own homes in rural Nigeria or neighbouring countries such as Benin.

The practice is deeply engrained in Nigerian culture, and little data exists on the number of victims. Many girls are sent away by their parents who cannot afford to feed or school them, while others provide for their families.

Dare sometimes heard people beating their maids when she was a child. When she started researching it she found widespread reports of physical and sexual abuse of house girls in newspapers and on social media.

The scenes where her character Adunni is beaten were the hardest to write, she said, and she tried to balance them by making the protagonist funny and optimistic.

"She does go through some horrendous stuff... but I wrote that believing that I had to get the story out," said Dare.

She was worried about what Nigerians would think of the book, but drew confidence from discussions on social media where the issue has become a growing topic of debate, she said.

"I expected a bit of reluctance to accept the story, but I've seen quite the opposite."

(Reporting by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Diaspora Has Big Role As Somalia Rebuilds Economy, Global Ties - Finance Minister

A general view shows traffic along the road in Dhusamareb, administrative capital of Galmudug state, in central Somalia December 23, 2019. Picture taken December 23, 2019. REUTERS/Feisal Omar/File Photo

BY ANDREA SHALAL

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Somalia’s 2-million strong diaspora has a huge role to play as the Horn of Africa country rebuilds its economy and resets ties with major international institutions after three decades as a “failed state,” Somalia’s finance minister said.

Long saddled with $5.3 billion in debt, Somalia is in the process of inking debt forgiveness deals with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other big institutions after nearly three decades of clan warfare, famine and sporadic terror attacks by al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab.

Somali Finance Minister Abdirahman Duale Beileh, a longtime member of the diaspora himself, will finalize a debt forgiveness agreement on Monday with the African Development Bank in Abidjan, another milestone as Somalia normalizes ties with the rest of the world.

He signed the first of several such deals with the World Bank on Thursday in Washington, paving the way for Mogadishu to receive deeper and broader financial and technical support, and expects the IMF to follow suit later this month.

“It’s a historic moment,” Abdirahman told Reuters in an interview on Friday. “I’m really happy I get to participate in the renaissance, the rebirth of Somalia.”

On March 31, Somalia officials will meet with Paris Club creditors, with non-Paris Club creditors to attend as well.

He said he hoped the creditors would agree to cancel about 75% or 80% of Somalia’s debt, with the remainder to be repaid on strict and closely supervised terms over the next few years.

Those agreements will pave the way for Somalia to receive grants and concessional financing to build new water and energy infrastructure, fund education and expand fisheries and other potential sources of revenue, Abdirahman said.

But he said he is also relying on help from Somalis living in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, who contribute about $2 billion or 40% of Somalia’s gross domestic product in remittances each year, to shore up trust in the government, invest in businesses and move the country forward.

“We need a big perception change, a big cultural shift,” he said, noting that 75% of Somalis were under 30 years old and had no memory of more normal times before 1991. “It is totally a shift of paradigm, a shift of attitude.”

Educated and working in the West, he said he was counting on diasporan Somalis to change the attitudes of their clansmen back home, and support a range of reconstruction projects. Women also had a huge role in rebuilding the economy, he said.

To guide its work, Somalia is now building a database of potential donors and investors among diasporan Somalis.

Abdirahman, who also holds a U.S. passport, plans to do his own outreach during a visit to one of the biggest communities in Minneapolis in May.

“You can’t imagine the feeling of being reclassified from a failed state to a normal country,” he said. “To be classified as a normal country is a blessing for us.”

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Daniel Wallis

PM Johnson Says Coronavirus Top Priority, As First Briton Dies

A woman wearing a protective mask travels on a Jubilee Line tube train in London, Britain, February 27, 2020. Image: Hannah McKay/Reuters

BY DAVID MILLIKEN, GUY FAULCONBRIDGE

LONDON, ENGLAND (REUTERS) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said slowing the spread of the coronavirus was now his government’s top priority, shortly after news on Friday that the first Briton had died of the disease after contracting it on a cruise ship moored in Japan.

The country was right to be concerned about the virus, he said, as the number of people infected in Britain rose to 20.

“The issue of coronavirus is something that is now the government’s top priority,” he told broadcasters in his first statement on the disease, adding that he would be chairing a meeting of ministers and officials on the subject on Monday.

Mainland China - where the virus originated late last year - reported 327 new cases, the lowest since Jan. 23, taking its tally to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths.

However, the disease is now spreading across the globe, with the first case reported in Nigeria on Friday and 888 people infected in Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country.

Britain reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on Jan. 31 but there have been no deaths in the country so far. The British person who died was in Japan, where the Diamond Princess cruise ship had docked off Yokohama on Feb. 3.

The virus - which causes a disease called COVID-19 - is transmitted from person to person in droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles.

British health officials have urged the public to wash their hands to slow the spread of the disease, but have not recommended the use of face masks common in much of Asia.

Sterling weakened sharply on Friday to its lowest level since October 2019, down more than 1% on the day as investors moved their money to safe-haven assets and British shares recorded their biggest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said at the start of the day that Britain should prepare for economic damage from the virus as it disrupts business supply chains.

A finance ministry spokesman said the government was keeping a close eye on the economic impact.

“As the Governor said there has been no feed-through into economic data at this stage, but the government is actively monitoring the outbreak, and well prepared for any effect it may have on the UK economy,” he said.

Additional reporting by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison and John Stonestreet.

U.S., Jersey Sign $300 Million Abacha Loot Repatriation Deal With Nigeria

Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha

BY LIBBY GEORGE

LAGOS (REUTERS) — The United States and the British dependency of Jersey have agreed with Nigeria to repatriate more than $300 million in funds stolen by former military ruler General Sani Abacha, the three governments said.

Abacha ruled Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, from 1993 until his death in 1998. Corruption watchdog Transparency International estimates he stole as much as $5 billion of public money during that time.

He was never charged with corruption during his life and Nigeria has been fighting for years to recover the money.

Companies linked to the Abacha family have gone to court to prevent repatriation, alleging infringement of their rights to a fair trial.

The governments of Nigeria, Jersey and the United States said in a statement they had entered into an asset recovery agreement to repatriate forfeited assets to Nigeria.

The Nigerian government pegged the total amount at $321 million.

The funds were laundered through the U.S. banking system and then held in bank accounts in Jersey in the name of Doraville Properties Corporation, a British Virgin Islands company, and in the name of the son of the ex-military ruler, they said.

"This agreement has culminated in a major victory for Nigeria and other African countries as it recognizes that crime does not pay and that it is important for the international community to seek for ways to support sustainable development through the recovery and repatriation of stolen assets," Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami said.

Nigeria has been working with governments around the world in recent years on an asset recovery scheme to help repatriate its stolen funds to boost its finances.

The government did not state how much in total it believes Abacha stole. As at 2013, Nigeria had recovered about $1.3 billion of Abacha's money from various European jurisdictions, with more than a third of that from Switzerland.

The Swiss government in 2017 said it would return to Nigeria about $321 million in assets seized from Abacha's family via a deal signed with the World Bank.

Abacha's laundering operation extended to the United States and European jurisdictions such as Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg, the statement said.

His family, which has never admitted nor denied that funds were stolen, could not be reached for comment and their present whereabouts were not known.

In a separate news release, the U.S. Department of Justice said it is seeking to enforce forfeiture judgments for approximately $30 million in assets located in Britain and more than $144 million in France.

In 2014 a U.S. court forfeited the money as property involved in the illicit laundering of the proceeds of corruption arising in Nigeria during the five years when Abacha was head of state. Negotiations for repatriation commenced in 2018.

The funds would be administered by Nigeria's sovereign wealth fund and would be used to develop road infrastructure, that will boost supply chain connections and economic growth, Malami said.

Additional reporting by Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Angus MacSwan

Nigeria Creates Committee To Tackle Issues That Led To U.S. Visa Ban: Presidency

Graphic: Immigrant Visas Issued FY 2018

LAGOS (REUTERS) - The Nigerian government has created a committee to address the issues that led to a suspension of U.S. immigrant visas to its citizens, the president’s office said on Saturday.

Nigeria was among six countries, four of them in Africa, added to a visa ban announced on Friday in a presidential proclamation.

U.S. officials said the countries failed to meet U.S. security and information-sharing standards, which necessitated the new restrictions.

The U.S. government also said it will stop issuing “diversity visas” to nationals of Sudan and Tanzania.

Nigeria’s information minister told Reuters they had no warning of their inclusion on the list before it appeared in the media.


Reporting by Libby George in Lagos and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Editing by Angus MacSwan

California Governor's 'Homelessness Tour' Seeks Money, Solutions To Crisis On Streets

In this Monday, July 1, 2019 file photo, homeless people move their belongings from a street along side of Los Angeles City Hall as crews prepared to clean the area. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, file)

BY DAN WHITCOMB

SACRAMENTO (REUTERS) - California's governor began a week-long "homelessness tour" on Monday seeking $750 million to address growing numbers of people living on the streets, stopping first in a rural community to show his state's problems extend beyond the big cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom last week asked state lawmakers to create the $750 million fund as part of his 2020-21 budget and plans to petition the federal government for additional money to help California's Medicaid program improve services for the homeless.

"Homelessness isn't just a concern in our cities, it's a suburban issue and a rural issue, too. No Californian can say that homelessness is someone else's problem," Newsom, 52, said in kicking off his tour in Grass Valley, a town of about 12,000 in the Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Sacramento.

"Every corner of our state has too many people living on the streets. And the crisis puts stress on public resources, from emergency rooms to jails to public works departments. It takes an unprecedented level of partnership between local, state, and federal government," Newsom said in a prepared statement.

An estimated 130,000 people are homeless somewhere in California on any given day, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). California, home to about 39.6 million people, is the most populous state in the United States.

Newsom and other California officials have traded barbs with U.S. President Donald Trump over the issue, with Trump blaming state and local leaders for failing to solve the problem.

On a visit to San Francisco and Los Angeles in September, Trump said conditions on their streets including trash, feces, and hypodermic needles left by homeless people were hurting their prestige.

That same month HUD Secretary Ben Carson rejected requests for more federal money.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti formally asked the Trump administration for federal assistance on Monday in a letter that indicated the two sides had had productive negotiations on the matter.

Newsom, who last week called for the emergency deployment of state-owned travel trailers and tents, was joined by state and local lawmakers on a visit to two homeless shelters in Grass Valley on Monday.

The first-term governor's tour will also take him to Los Angeles County, the San Francisco Bay area and the Central Valley. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Culver City, California Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.