Day: June 1, 2022

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Nigerian Church Leader Says Huge Ransom Paid for His Release 

A clergyman of Nigeria’s Methodist Church has revealed the church paid a ransom of nearly a quarter-million dollars for his release. Gunmen abducted the prelate Sunday while he was traveling in Nigeria’s southeastern Abia state. The payment comes as Nigeria’s president is expected to sign a bill punishing those who pay ransoms with up to 15 years in prison.

The prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Samuel Kanu-Uche, made the announcement while briefing journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, soon after his release.

He had been received by a cheering crowd of church members and immediately held prayers at the church before the briefing.

Kanu-Uche said the church paid about $240,000 as ransom to his abductors to secure his freedom and that of the two pastors travelling with him.

Eight armed men ambushed them on their way to the airport in Abia state on Sunday, shooting sporadically at their vehicle before taking them hostage. The clergymen’s driver and one other church member escaped the assault.

Kanu-Uche said the kidnappers showed them the rotted bodies of previously kidnapped victims who could not raise ransom payments and threatened to do the same with him.

Nigerian authorities have yet to comment on his release. But officials have repeatedly objected to paying ransom for kidnap victims, saying the payments make the abductors more powerful.

Archbishop Chibuzo Opoko heads the Methodist church in Abia State. He says paying the ransom was necessary.

“They would not have released them if that was not done, it wasn’t the security that intervened,” he said. “How effective will that law be when security agencies are not doing their best? What is the law for those who kidnap and demand for ransom?”

Armed groups and criminals have kidnapped hundreds, possibly thousands of people for ransom across Nigeria over the last two years. UNICEF says the number includes at least 1,500 students abducted in northcentral and northwestern Nigeria since late 2020.

In an effort to curb the abductions, the Nigerian Senate recently approved legislation that would punish ransom payments with up to 15 years imprisonment.

The bill would also punish kidnapping with a death sentence if the abductee dies in custody.

Rights groups and families of kidnapped victims continue to protest the measure. Among them is Abdulfatai Jimoh, a spokesperson for the families of passengers kidnapped from a train in Kaduna state in late March.

“It’s an abnormal bill, abnormal in the sense that in a country where such a bill can exist should be a country that has a law in place that when anybody is kidnapped, that person must be rescued within 48 hours. Without anything like that in place there’s no way they can stop anybody from paying ransom,” he said.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has yet to say whether he will sign the bill into law.

Source: Voice of America

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Aid Agencies: Some 20 Million Could Face Starvation in East Africa

Aid agencies warn the number of people facing starvation in the Horn of Africa is expected to reach 20 million by the end of September without a stronger response to an ongoing drought.

The warning comes after the fourth rainy season in a row for the region without adequate rain. The worst drought in 40 years has killed more than seven million livestock across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

In some parts of East Africa, communities have not seen significant rainfall for the past two years.

Yusuf Guure, 67, who lives in northeastern Kenya, said he has lost 294 animals to drought.

“We have never seen such a persistent drought, a drought that has wiped out pasture and a drought that has left animals with nothing to feed,” he said, adding, “Where do you get that money to feed them and you are unemployed?”

Shashwat Saraf is the regional emergency director for East Africa with the International Rescue Committee. He said pastoral communities living in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are feeling the effects of the drought, and that millions are on the move in search of water, food and pasture.

“We are seeing anywhere between 60 to 100 percent loss of livestock, which is a mainstay for the population because they lost their only source of livelihood,” he said. “We are seeing massive displacement happening of households and people moving to urban centers or moving to other locations and to find ways to make their household food secure.”

Agencies say that since mid-2021, one-third of all livestock in Somalia has died and 3.6 million livestock have died in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Alyona Synenko, regional spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said Somalia is the most affected country of the three and decades of conflict have complicated the situation for those suffering and for aid agencies.

“The needs are extremely high and sometimes you look at people and you see people who are displaced and they lost everything,” she said. “So it’s difficult to say that people are getting the help they need because their needs are so important. We also speak about a crisis that is one of the most protracted crises in the region and there is also a level of donor fatigue, especially when there is so much competition for the humanitarian funds, so sometimes we have to make very difficult choices.”

The combination of harsh weather and rising food and fuel prices has made the humanitarian outlook worrisome for months to come.

The U.N. humanitarian office, UNOCHA, said Somalia is at risk of famine, and more than 80,000 people are experiencing extreme hunger. Officials also said Tuesday that severe acute malnutrition is on the rise across the three countries and poses an immediate threat to children’s lives.

The U.N. and aid agencies have reached 6.5 million people in the affected areas with food, water and health services. They warn more funding and food are needed to save lives in the coming months.

Source: Voice of America

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UN Peacekeeping Convoy Attacked in Mali; 1 Killed, 3 Hurt 

Suspected terrorists attacked a U.N. peacekeeping convoy in northern Mali on Wednesday, the United Nations said. A Jordanian peacekeeper was killed and three other Jordanians were wounded.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the supply convoy was under sustained fire for about an hour from attackers who used small arms and rocket launchers.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack and sent his deepest condolences to the families of the peacekeepers and the government and people of Jordan, Dujarric said.

According to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, the attack was the fifth incident in the northern Kidal region in one week, Dujarric said.

“It is a tragic reminder of the complexity of the mandate of the U.N. mission and of its peacekeepers, and the threats peacekeepers face on a daily basis,” he said.

The Security Council later released a statement condemning the attack and calling on authorities in Mali to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. The statement added that the Security Council “underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.”

Mali has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. Extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali’s northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation, but they regrouped in the desert and began attacking the Malian army and its allies. Insecurity has worsened with attacks in the northern and central regions on civilians and U.N. peacekeepers.

Mali’s military returned to Kidal, a longtime rebel stronghold in the north, in February 2020, six years after its forces retreated amid violence. U.N. peacekeepers have also been deployed in the north.

Deadliest mission

The U.N. force has said more than 250 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.’s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide.

The U.N. special representative for Mali, El Ghassim Wane, issued a statement Wednesday saying the U.N. mission remained determined to support Mali’s people and government in their quest for peace and security, Dujarric said.

In August 2020, Malian President Boubacar Ibrahim Keita, who died in January, was overthrown in a coup that included Assimi Goita, then an army colonel. Last June, Goita was sworn in as president of a transitional government after carrying out his second coup in nine months.

In mid-May, Goita’s government said security forces had thwarted a countercoup attempt that it said was supported by an unnamed Western government.

The accusations of foreign interference came as Goita’s regime has become increasingly isolated. A day earlier, the government announced that Mali was dropping out of a five-nation regional security force known as the G5. It was also sharply critical of former colonial power France, which announced in February that it was pulling its troops out of Mali.

While Mali’s junta initially agreed to an 18-month transition back to civilian rule, it failed to organize elections by the deadline in February. Last month, the government said it would need two more years in power before it could organize a vote.

Source: Voice of America