Foreign News
Hundreds of pupils missing after gunmen storm school in Nigeria
Hundreds of pupils are missing after gunmen attacked a school in northwestern Nigeria in the second mass abduction within a week in the country.
Local government officials in Kaduna state confirmed the kidnappings from Kuriga school on Thursday, but did not provide figures as they were working out how many children had been abducted.
Reporting from the capital, Abuja, on Friday, Al Jazeera’s Fidelis Mbah said school authorities told the state governor that about 25 of the abducted students had been returned to their parents, but 275 remained missing.
Mbah said that about 175 of those still missing are believed to be between the ages of eight to 15.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on Friday directed security and intelligence agencies to “immediately rescue the victims and ensure that justice is served against the perpetrators of these abominable acts”, his office said.
Police did not provide figures for the abductees.
“As of this moment we have not been able to know the number of children or students that have been kidnapped,” Kaduna state Governor Uba Sani told reporters in Kuriga on Thursday. “No child will be left behind.”
Idris Maiallura, the local councillor for Kuriga, said he had been to the school and that the gunmen initially took 100 primary school pupils but later freed them while others escaped.
Parents and residents blamed the abductions on a lack of security in the area.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, condemned the attack and called on the government to do more to protect students. “Schools are supposed to be sanctuaries of learning and growth, not sites of fear and violence,” UNICEF Nigeria Director Christian Munduate said in a statement.
“This latest abduction, as any previously, is highly condemnable and part of a worrying trend of attacks on educational institutions in Nigeria, particularly in the northwest, where armed groups have intensified their campaign of violence and kidnappings,” Munduate added.
Amnesty International called on the authorities to safely rescue the students and hold the perpetrators to account. “Schools should be places of safety, and no child should have to choose between their education and their life,” the rights group said on X, as it called on the authorities to also “take measures immediately to prevent attacks on schools, to protect children’s lives and their right to education”.
“We don’t know what to do, we are all waiting to see what God can do. They are my only children I have on Earth,” Fatima Usman, whose two children were among those taken, told the Reuters news agency by telephone.
Another parent, Hassan Abdullahi, told Reuters that local vigilantes had tried to repel the gunmen, but had been overpowered. “Seventeen of the students abducted are my children. I feel very sad that the government has neglected us completely in this area,” Abdullahi said.
People gather in an area where gunmen kidnapped students in Chikun, Nigeria, on March 7, 2024 (Aljazeera)
Kidnappings for ransom are common in Africa’s most populous country, where heavily armed criminal gangs have targeted schools and colleges in the past, especially in the northwest, although such attacks have abated recently.
In 2014, the Boko Haram armed group kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village.
The last major reported abduction involving pupils in Kaduna was in July 2021, when fighters took more than 150 children in a raid. They were reunited months later with their families after they paid ransoms.
Since coming to office in May, President Bola Tinubu has made reducing insecurity one of his priorities, but the armed forces are embattled on several fronts, including a long-running battle in the northeast of the country.
Al Jazeera’s Mbah said that in recent weeks, Nigeria has seen a spate of attacks and abductions, and the military has stated that they lack the weapons to be able to confront and overpower armed groups.
Chris Kwaja, an associate professor at the Centre for Peace and Security Studies at Modibbo Adama University in northeastern Nigeria, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the frequency of abductions tells an “unfortunate story of the high level of coordination, sophistication and lethality” that defines the criminal organised groups in the country.
There is also a level of complicity within the communities affected that allows kidnappers to know how to undertake such operations, Kwaja said.
The criminal networks can provide incentives to people within communities who do not feel supported by the government and are facing “hunger, starvation, poverty and unemployment”, he added.
(Aljazeera)
At least two people have been killed when an Air Canada Express flight from Montreal struck a ground vehicle while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, according to several United States media outlets. The airport has been closed and flights diverted.
Kathryn Garcia, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said 32 of the 41 people who were injured had been released on Monday while nine remained in hospital with “serious injuries”. Those injured included passengers, crew members and the two officers on the fire truck. Both officers remained hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.
The aircraft, operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck a firefighting truck on Runway 4 about 11:40pm on Sunday (03:40 GMT on Monday) as the vehicle drove to a separate incident, the Port Authority said.
A preliminary passenger list showed 76 people on board Flight AC8646, including four crew members, Jazz Aviation said in a statement.
The CRJ-900 aircraft struck the vehicle at a speed of 39 kilometres per hour (24 miles per hour), the flight tracking website Flightradar24 said.
“The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation,” the Port Authority said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
Emergency response protocols were “immediately activated”, it said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop for all departures to LaGuardia due to the aircraft emergency with the airport closure in effect until 05:30 GMT. The probability of an extension was listed as high.
[Aljazeera]
Along Beirut’s downtown waterfront, Alaa is looking for somewhere to rest his head.
The Syrian refugee, originally from the occupied Golan Heights, is now homeless. He explained that he had already spent the day wandering around the Lebanese capital trying to find shelter.
He used to live in Dahiyeh – the southern suburbs of Beirut that have been pummelled by Israeli attacks, which have now killed MORE THAN 1,000 across Lebanon.
Now, he’s just looking for somewhere he can be safe. And in that context, Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that began on Friday, is far from his mind.
When asked if he had any plans for Eid, he replied in the negative. Instead, his focus was on getting a tent.
“I got rejected from staying in a school, then I went to sleep on the corniche,” Alaa said. “Then people from the municipality told me to come here to downtown Beirut’s waterfront.”
Alaa wasn’t able to find a tent and is sleeping in the open air for now. But others in the area have, transforming a downtown more famous for its expensive restaurants and bars into a tent city for those displaced by the fighting. Across Lebanon, more than a million people have been displaced.
Lebanese are uncertain when this war will end, particularly as they have barely recovered from the conflict with Israel that ran between October 2023 and November 2024.
It makes celebrations difficult – a common theme across the countries affected by the current conflict.
In Iran, now in its third week of US-Israeli attacks – with no sign of an immediate end and an economic crisis that preceded the conflict, people are struggling to afford any of the items typically bought during the holiday season.
And it is potentially dangerous for people to shop at places like Tehran’s grand bazaar, which has been damaged by the bombing.
The religious element of Eid adds an extra sensitivity for antigovernment Iranians, some of whom now see any sign of religiosity as support for the Islamic Republic. The fact that Nowruz – the Persian New Year – falls on Friday this year means that some in the antigovernment camp will be focused on that celebration instead, and eschewing any events to mark Eid.
[Aljazeera]
King Charles has hosted a spectacular state banquet for the president and first lady of Nigeria, praising the strengths of Nigeria’s partnership with the UK.
After greeting the 160 guests in the Yoruba language, the King spoke of the “living bridge” of the Nigerian community in the UK, in a speech in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle.
Famous figures at the banquet included England rugby union captain, Maro Itoje, Olympic athlete Christine Ohuruogu and poet Sir Ben Okri, alongside senior royals including Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
There were special adaptations for Muslims, with the banquet taking place in the fasting month of Ramadan.
A prayer room was set aside in Windsor Castle and the usual lunch hosted by the King on such state visits did not take place.
It’s become a tradition to invent a cocktail for state visits – and in this case the “crimson bloom” was made from non-alcoholic ingredients, combining the Nigerian drink Zobo with English rose soda and hibiscus and ginger syrup.
There were also alcoholic drinks available for guests in St George’s Hall, including fine red and white wines, port and whisky.
The King’s speech reflected on the importance of religious tolerance, in which “people of different faiths can, do, and must live alongside one another in peace”.
He also told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu of the importance of partners such as Nigeria and the UK standing together in difficult times “when rain clouds gather”.
As well as diplomatic ties, King Charles spoke of “Afrobeats filling our concert halls and Nollywood captivating our screens”.
There was also a reflection by the King on the “painful marks” of a shared history, in a reference to colonialism.
“I do not seek to offer words that dissolve the past, for no words can,” said the King, but he hoped for a more optimistic future “worthy of those who bore the pains of the past”.
The banquet, on an elaborately decorated table filled with spring flowers, saw a meat-free menu.
It included:
- Soft boiled quail egg tartlet with watercress and kale and a basil sabayon
- Fillet of turbot, lobster mousse wrapped in spinach, beurre blanc sauce, sprouting broccoli with hollandaise sauce, fricassee of peas and broad beans, Jersey Royal potatoes
- Iced blackcurrant souffle with red fruit coulis
The two-day state visit began on Wednesday morning with a ceremonial welcome at Windsor.
In warm spring sunshine, the president and first lady – wearing traditional robes – were given the ceremonial grandeur of a royal welcome.
There was a carriage procession, bringing the Nigerian visitors into the quadrangle inside Windsor Castle, where a military band, with careful symmetry, paraded on the chequerboard lawn.
There was a gun salute, national anthems were played, guards were inspected and the Household Cavalry kicked up dust as they paraded inside the castle, in front of a viewing stand for the King and Queen and their visitors.
Official gifts were exchanged. The president and Mrs Tinubu were given hand-crafted pottery, a silver photo frame containing a picture of the King and Queen and a silver and enamel bowl.
In return, the King and Queen were given a traditional Yoruba statuette and a jewellery box featuring the faces of important Nigerian women.
President Tinubu is a Muslim and his wife is a Christian and the couple attended an interfaith event at Windsor Castle, designed to build bridges between religions.
It’s at a time of tensions within Nigeria, with a series of suspected suicide bombings this week in the north-eastern state of Borno, in which at least 23 people were killed and 108 injured in attacks blamed on hard-line Islamist militants from the Boko Haram group.
This is Nigeria’s first state visit to the UK for 37 years and such visits are a way of building relationships with international partners.
The Nigeria visit will see a strengthening of business links, including financial services. And there are personal and family connections, with more than 270,000 Nigerian-born people living in the UK.
“This state visit is about turning a historic relationship into a modern economic partnership – transforming trust into opportunity,” said Nigeria’s government spokesman Mohammed Idris.
“Nigeria’s economic reforms are unlocking the potential of Africa’s largest consumer market. The United Kingdom is a natural partner in what comes next.”
Two killed when Air Canada jet hits fire truck at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport
Bus fares increased by 12.19% from midnight today [23]
Public will not be served as Computer system failure at Department of Registration of Persons
Trump says he is postponing strikes on Iran power plants after ‘productive’ talks on ending war
Asia stocks slide as US and Iran threaten to escalate war
Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and North-western provinces and in Anuradhapura, Mannar and Vavuniya districts
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News6 days agoCIABOC questions Ex-President GR on house for CJ’s maid
-
News7 days agoSri Lankan marine scientist Asha de Vos honoured at UNGA opening
-
News7 days agoAustralian HC debunks misleading travel risk claims for Sri Lanka
-
News5 days agoBailey Bridge inaugurated at Chilaw
-
Latest News7 days agoWednesdays declared a government holiday with effect from 18th March
-
News5 days agoPay hike demand: CEB workers climb down from 40 % to 15–20%
-
News4 days agoCIABOC tells court Kapila gave Rs 60 mn to MR and Rs. 20 mn to Priyankara
-
Editorial6 days agoCouple QR-based quota with odd-even rationing