Report Examines Children Forcibly Abducted, Raped, and Recruited in Nigeria!

A humanitarian crisis is taking place in Nigeria where a brutal conflict between the militant extremist group Boko Haram, Nigerian security forces, and civilian self-defense militia has been particularly affecting children.

In a report, launched yesterday by the advocacy group Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, author Janine Morna examines how children have been forcibly recruited, abducted, raped, detained, and attacked.

The conflict, which started in 2009, has killed thousands of civilians and displaced an estimated 650,000 people, primarily women and children. In an attempt to curb the increasingly violent outbursts, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency in the north of the country in May 2013. However, according to Morna, the level of violence and the scale of grave violations against children have worsened since.

Together with a number of Watchlist colleagues, Morna was part of a six-week research mission in Nigeria in the spring of this year. Documenting the violations that occurred between December 2012 and July 2014, Morna and the rest of the team conducted qualitative interviews with 156 people.

"My very first interview was with a woman whose son had lost part of his leg in an explosion, her husband had been killed when Boko Haram gunmen attacked local police barracks, her younger daughter had been abducted while at school, and her youngest son had been at school while the building was attacked," 

Morna told MediaGlobal News in an exclusive interview. "It was overwhelming to see so much suffering within the context of one family."

Since 2009 the parties involved in the conflict have subjected children to forced recruitment, killing and maiming, rape, and forced marriages. Schools are frequently attacked resulting in mass school closures and falling rates of enrollment. The abduction of 200 girls from a school in Chibok briefly made the headlines and prompted some action to make schools safer, but overall most violations against children remain poorly documented, and addressed.

When reporting on the Chibok abduction, much of the media - while highlighting the girls' forced conversion to Islam - translated the conflict into a religious war. The Watchlist report, makes it very clear that although there is a religious element to the conflict, Boko Haram does not discriminate between Muslims and Christians when they attack a town.

"We were able to document attacks on mosques as well as churches," she told MediaGlobal News. "The violence carried out by Boko Haram affects the lives of everyone in the northeast, regardless of their religion."

Schools in this region are increasingly becoming recruitment grounds for children. Both Boko Haram and the Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF), a term loosely used to describe a number of self-defense groups operating in the area, recruit children for spying and participation in hostilities. Many children are forcibly recruited through abduction, others are provided with monetary compensations, and 'volunteer' to join these groups.

"Boko Haram has a very deliberate policy targeting civilians, specifically children," Morna explained. "The heinous act of abduction is being used to embarrass the government and to destabilize the northeast."

According to respondents interviewed by Watchlist, representatives of the Civilian JFT go to different villages and local chiefs usually allow them to recruit any able bodied individual. 

Boys as young as thirteen are being selected to assist the Civilian JFT in their efforts.

Source: MediaGlobal

Rich Wannabes - Annoying Arrogance Of The Nigerian "Middle Class"!

This line of thought has been running through my mind for some time, thoughts of the distinction between the very obvious middle class, i mean the 
ones we see in the malls and cinemas holding hands, looking cool, with cute kids running around, and the bourgeoisie... the ones we hear and talk about, but never really get to see in public places. 



One can get confused trying to distinguish between these two classes, that we often assume the middle class to be the rich.

I came across the piece below that quite connects with my thoughts concerning this issue.

The write up below:
"I hate rich niggas, godammit/Cos i ain't never had a lot, dammit" J Cole.
We are middle class Nigerians- we own fairly used cars, or in bondage under a car loan scheme with one of those seemingly nice banks with monstrous entitlements,
We live in flats (apartments, yes), own a piece of land in the outskirts of town. We holiday in Ghana and Dubai; and dream of one hundred other ways of making money.

We read Times magazine, gawk at expensive wristwatches online. Our palate for music is unfussy. We will rock to Davido and spend the night with Avici.
We gossip a lot, wear nice ties and jewellery; buy expensive pieces of accessories now and then that we sing to the whole world about on Instagram- most times on credit.

We love to move in groups. Ah! Middle class Nigerians cannot live without a friend or two. Their opinions and lifestyle are tied to the apron strings of another friend who has his/hers tied to another friend and another friend and on and on. We are nothing without popular validation.
We are smart because we know what it means for hip-hop to get its first billionaire (so, what does it mean really?). We are witty because we laugh at British jokes. We are cool because we can get a seat on the last row of an international fashion show. We are cocky because we know how to put people in their places.

And most importantly we are the white flag in the middle of an unspoken war between the rich and the poor.
Imagine a Nigeria without the middle class. As suffocating as we are- exaggerated and haughty, we are the balm soothing the anger of the poor and the biting nonchalance of the rich.
The poor has no hope; the rich needs no hope. We- the middle class are defined by hope. We are hope personified.
So let the world never forget- the middle class Nigerian is god. The harbinger of peace!

So now that I have made that clear, can we move on with the issue at hand- why does the rich upset us?
It is simple: all that wealth, sometimes prefixed with "ill", like a disease makes us, yes, sick- sick to the very pit of our stomach! We work hard, middle class Nigerians bleed on their jobs; then as you take a walk home, thinking about debts and loans, you come across the headline:
"Chief Jagajaga buys an Island."
The Island is somewhere in Seychelles and it cost 13 billion naira. Jagajaga is only a commissioner in Nigeria. He is rich, his mother's sister's best-friend's daughter's cat will never have to work a day in its life!

And here you are- educated, brilliant, working round the clock and in your sleep, competent but still average. You have to listen to semi-literate people decide your future; you have to listen to them pronounce "bourgeois" wrongly. You have to read about their children- average kids (nothing close to your genius) living like kings and queens. This upsets you. It upsets you greatly. You end up working for one of them and their snooty kids who have no clue what the job is about. But you will take their orders and try to lower your abilities just so they can shine brighter than you. You need the job, you need the money to keep up with your average lifestyle.

Even in cases where the money is duly earned by these rich folks, you question life still. You wonder when it will come to you- these opportunities that you read about; the right connections, the right sentences that should follow. And it upsets you; keeps you up all night, grieving.

We envy the life of the rich. We read their biographies and spend hours pondering and taking down notes; planning our own moment.
Sometimes, the middle-class Nigerian is only a few people away from his own money-revelling instance, but he may spend the rest of his life without ever making the connection. And that is super depressing!

We don't get along with the poor. The middle-class Nigerian likes to erect a sturdy barricade between him and the poor. Why? Well, sometimes it is hard to make the distinction, and this is so unnerving for the middle-class. He shares everything with the poor- the same bus, the same open market… he deals directly with the poor- no middle men, like the rich, to help keep the distance away from him and the poor. So many times, he is left at the mercy of a poor man… who might just have a few more naira notes than he does.
Confusing, abi?
The middle class Nigerian is not distinguished by earning power oh! Ah! Not at all. The elements of middle-class existence in this part of the world is judged by how well you are able to convince everyone else that you are not poor with impeccable English as your witness and insanely expensive gadgets as your best friend, acquired through insane credit splendour!

Oh! Did you think money had anything to do with all this rant? The middle-class Nigerian is living from hand-to-mouth nah. He owes school fees, owes rent and owes the bank monies he cannot afford but has refused to bring down his collar lest he is wrongly identified as poor, as not having enough. For the fear that his neighbour will look down on him, he goes a-spending!

Don't laugh, it is the posturing of this class of people that keeps the country at peace. The rich is full of…well, wealth that they have no need for a conscience- it has been buried somewhere in the sands of Malibu; and the poor can sell theirs for a pot of porridge.
So we are left with a class of people full of dreams- too big, too close to becoming a reality to allow these extremists- the rich and the poor, get in the way.

The middle-class with all his false grandeur is the only sane one at the cocktail.
We are the bastion of conscience and (pretentious) good living! All hail the
middle-class!".
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Militants Pursue Fleeing Nigerians Across the Border to Cameroon!

Attacks by militant groups in northeast Nigeria have led thousands of people to seek refuge in Cameroon over recent days, some sleeping in schools and churches, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

Last week militant groups from Nigeria crossed the border and attacked villages on the Cameroon side, slitting the throats of three people in a Catholic church in the village of Assighassia, burning down police stations and a local cotton company, UNCHR reported.

"The UNHCR is very concerned that even once they have crossed into Cameroon, they are still being pursued by insurgents and we have already started to relocate some of the refugees to a refugee camp where they can enjoy safer conditions," said UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards.

The attacks in the past three weeks in the Gwoza area of Nigeria's Borno state pushed the number of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon to some 39,000, according to local authorities, including 19,633 who have been registered by the UNHCR.

UNHCR has begun to move 80 of the new refugees, mainly women and children, from Koza near the border to the refugee camp of Minawao, some 120 km (75 miles) from the frontier. The camp is already hosting some 6,000 Nigerian refugees who were moved from the border in 2013 and 2014.

"They told us that when their homes were attacked some days ago in Gokou, in Nigeria's Borno State, their husbands had sent them with their children to hide in the surrounding mountains," Edwards said after speaking to some of the refugee women.

"They later saw heavy smoke coming from their village, which made them fear insurgents had burnt their homes. They waited until night time and had to walk some 30 km (19 miles) to Koza. They have had no news of their husbands," he added.

The UN agency did not name the insurgents who had carried out the attacks, but the largest insurgent group in northeast Nigeria is Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement whose name means "Western education is forbidden."

Boko Haram has killed thousands since launching an uprising in 2009 to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria, and is by far the biggest threat to Nigeria's economy.
Reuters

EU approaves £140m for countries affected by Ebola virus!

The European Commission has announced the sum of €140m of funding for the countries currently affected by the Ebola virus in West Africa. These countries include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria.

According to report €38 million of the new package is specifically designed to help those governments bolster their health services (for example through reinforcing treatment centres or support for health workers), both during the crisis and in the recovery phase. It will also provide support in the areas of food security, water and sanitation, which are essential in terms of safeguarding the health of the population.

Announcing the support today during his official visit to Benin, European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, said "The ongoing Ebola crisis remains extremely concerning; not just because of its obvious impact on health services but also due to the wider challenges it brings to the region in terms of economic stability, food security, water and sanitation. Our package shows that the EU continues to be committed to a strong, coordinated international response and will do all it can to help governments in those countries affected in the areas where it is most needed."

Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, said: "The situation is going from bad to worse, despite the brave efforts of humanitarian organisations and despite early and substantial assistance provided by the international community, including the EU. We are helping make a difference on the ground, but the needs are outpacing the international community's capacity to react. We need to pool our efforts and provide adequate air transportation and medical equipment to our partners in order to fight this menace."

The total package of €140 million will be split as follows:

• €38m to strengthen healthcare systems, including in the areas of healthcare provision, food security, water and sanitation.
• €5 million towards providing mobile laboratories for the detection of the virus and training health workers (as part of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, or IcSP).
• €97.5 million will be spent in Budget Support (BS) operations to Liberia and Sierra Leone, to reinforce governments' capacity to deliver public services – in particular health care - and macro-economic stability.

This initiative was ran against the background fact that affected West African countries have seen a spiralling of Ebola cases reveals, among other things, the inadequacies of their current health systems. Contagion can be controlled with adequate measures and gear, but through active engagement of local and international partners. Any measures aimed at isolating these countries would only exacerbate the situation.

Several European specialist teams of the European Mobile Laboratory project for dangerous infectious diseases have been dispatched to Guinea and Nigeria (and one will arrive in Liberia next week), with mobile laboratories to support with viral haemorrhagic fever diagnostics, rapid analyses of samples and confirmation of cases.

The European Commission has been scaling up its response to the epidemic since March 2014 and has pledged a total of €11.9 million in humanitarian aid (including €8 million from the €38million mentioned above to strengthen healthcare systems). Humanitarian experts have been deployed in the region, monitoring the situation and liaising with partner organisations and local authorities.

This is the first Ebola virus outbreak registered in the region. Highly contagious, human to human transmission of Ebola occurs by contact with blood and body fluids.

The European Commission is also working closely with the EU Member States within the Health Security Committee to keep them informed about the latest developments and secure the synchronisation of measures. A travel advice leaflet has been endorsed by the Health Security Committee and is available in all EU languages.

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Congo Edge Nigeria in Five-Goal Thriller!

Congo pulled off a major upset by edging reigning champions, Nigeria 3-2 in their Group A clash on Saturday away in Calabar.

A brace from dangerman Bifouma Thievy and the other from Prince Oniangue powered the Diables Rouges to victory whilst Efe Ambrose and substitute Gbolahan Salami scored for the Super Eagles.

The Congolese led 2-1 at half time after coming from behind to cancel Ambrose’s opener on 13 minutes. Oniangue leveled three minutes later before Thievy finished off a one-two with Dore Ferebory and put the visitors in the lead on 40 minutes.

There was more misery for the Nigerians early in the second half when Thievy, who was a constant threat for the hosts backline was felled by Ogenyi Onazi in the vital area for a penalty. 

Thievy elected himself for the spot kick which he fired past Nigeria goalie Austin Ejide for his side’s third goal on 55 minutes.

With defeat staring at them, Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi brought on striking duo Emmanuel Emenike and Nosa Igiebor as he varied his tactics. The changes almost paid result on 82 minutes when Emenike back-heeled nicely to Igiebor, only for the Israeli-based forward to fire wide from close range.

A minute from time, Gbolahan pulled one back for the Super Eagles but it was little enough to change their fortunes.

The Nigerians next travel to Cape Town to face South Africa on Wednesday, 10 September 2014. South Africa thumped Niger 3-0 in the other Group A match on Friday in Omdurman.

Elsewhere in Ndola, Zambia were held to a barren draw by Mozambique in a Group F clash whilst Cape Verde silenced Niger 3-1 at their backyard in Niamey in the same group.

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Joan Rivers Revealed She Had A Heart Condition – Did It Cause Her Death?

News has it that Joan was fully open to the Good Morning America co-host in 1985 about her heart arrhythmias. The comedianne explained that every so often she would hear a “tha-thump” on stage that made her worry. 

When Joan Lunden asked if the condition scared her, she first remarked with a joke before getting serious. “Well, that I hear anything from my chest scares me because there’s nothing down there,” she joked. 

After a pause, she continued, “It scares the hell out of me.” Joan also revealed that going under for plastic surgery or something similar could cause the heart to “go out of kilter,” but she stressed that she’s always “very careful.” 

This interview definitely sheds some light on what may or may not have caused Joan’s untimely death. The New York City medical examiner’s office announced on September  5th that the Fashion Police co-host’s autopsy results were “inconclusive,” and that more tests needed to be run.

Before her death, Joan reportedly outlined exactly what she wanted for her funeral in her 2012 book,  I Hate Everyone…Starting with Me. In the book, she detailed that she wanted lights, cameras, action and Meryl Stree.   she wrote, according to E! “I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way.” Joan continued, ”I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents.”I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag.” 

Well, Joan may be getting her wish. Melissa wants to make it all happen and she will have a red carpet at her funeral in New York City on September 7th, at Temple Emanu-El. 

Joan’s friends and family will walk the carpet before it is buried alongside Joan.

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Truly, she is simply Irreplaceable....R.I.P Joan.

Hulk Hogan in Lagos!

American professional wrestler, actor, television personality, entrepreneur, and musician, Terry Gene Bollea, populary known as Hulk Hogan, was spotted in Lagos Island this afternoon, as he and some other popular American Wrestlers embarked on a "Wrestling for Global Peace and Unity".

The publicity attracted many traders and shoppers, as they all thronged around the truck to get a closer look at the wrestlers.

Some Photos Below: