Nigeria

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a Catholic religious sister Sunday morning in Imo State, southern Nigeria.

The Premium Times of Nigeria reported Friday that the Nigerian government has decided not to borrow any more money from China for railroad construction, apparently because the Nigerians are growing nervous about their $3.4 billion in debt to Chinese banks and were reluctant to add another $14.4 billion to complete several large railroad projects.

A member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Yunusa Ahmad Abubakar, alleged on Wednesday that Nigeria banned Twitter last week in part because the jihadist organization Boko Haram “have been allowed to be tweeting.”

Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) ordered all TV and radio stations in the country to “suspend the patronage of Twitter immediately” on Monday, three days after the West African nation suspended Twitter operations in the country “indefinitely.”

A person purporting to be the leader of the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) terror group alleged in an audio recording heard by Reuters on Sunday that Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram, was dead.

Twitter on Wednesday deleted a Tweet shared by the official account of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, claiming the statement — which concerned Nigeria’s 1967-1970 civil war — allegedly violated the U.S.-based company’s rules for acceptable postings.

Unidentified terrorists abducted “about 200” children from an Islamic studies school in northern Nigeria on Sunday, Sky News reported.

Thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been kidnapped and hundreds killed in the first four months of 2021, the Tablet reported Wednesday.

The Nigerian Catholic bishops have sounded the alarm against growing national insecurity as kidnappings for ransom have become an epidemic in the west African country.

Widespread rumors erupted this weekend that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau died in an Islamic State attack on his group. As of Monday, the Nigerian government has not confirmed the rumors and experts are analyzing audio, allegedly of Shekau, emerging shortly after his alleged demise.

The Nigerian Islamic terror group Boko Haram and Fulani jihadists belonging to a mainly Muslim ethnic group of Nigerian cattle herders, have expanded their territory in Nigeria in recent months with increased attacks outside of their usual strongholds, local media reported on Monday.

A Nigerian citizen is facing wire fraud charges after allegedly stealing more than $350,000 in unemployment benefits from the Washington State Employment Security Department.

Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stand up and take the reins of the country, which suffers an ongoing economic and security crisis, Vatican News reported Monday.

Armed gunmen raided a Sunday morning service last week at Haske Baptist Church in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, killing one and kidnapping at least four others, the Barnabas Fund reported Tuesday.

The Nigerian government announced on Saturday that “non-Nigerian passport holders and non-residents who visited Brazil, India or Turkey within 14 days preceding travel to Nigeria, shall be denied entry into Nigeria.” The ban is set to take effect on Tuesday

Members of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram have forcibly seized at least 50 villages near the Nigerian national capital of Abuja over the past three weeks, the governor of Nigeria’s Niger State said Monday.

More than 100 schoolgirls abducted by the Nigerian Islamic terror group Boko Haram in April 2014 remain missing, Amnesty International said on Wednesday in a statement commemorating the seventh anniversary of the kidnapping in northeastern Nigeria’s Chibok village.

Heavily armed militants attacked a prison facility in Nigeria’s southeastern city of Owerri on Monday, allowing nearly 2,000 inmates to escape.

Nigeria’s highest ranking Catholic prelate has come to the defense of the bishop of Sokoto, accused by the Buhari government of playing “partisan politics.”

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari lashed out at the Catholic bishop of Sokoto Monday for criticizing his government’s response to Islamic terrorism in the country.

A spokesman for Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) warned Friday of a “sustained campaign” of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria, which has increased in severity in recent years.

A Nigerian migrant was indicted by a French court in Roanne on Tuesday after being charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a child.

Unidentified gunmen abducted a Catholic priest in Nigeria’s Delta State this week, the Premium Times reported Thursday.

Nigerian government authorities have recently closed at least 618 schools across six northern states to protect students amid a recent string of abductions by bandits tied to the Islamic terror group Boko Haram, Nigerian newspaper This Day reported Monday.

Nigerian drug trafficking gangs have expanded in Rome after recruiting migrants from asylum centres as drug couriers.

Nigerian soldiers reportedly shot at least three people on Wednesday at a Nigerian Army handover ceremony to return 277 schoolgirls recently freed by their Jihadi kidnappers to their parents in Zamfara state.

An increasing number of states in northern Nigeria are closing their schools to protect their students from a rise in “abductions and banditry in the last two months,” the Nigerian newspaper This Day reported on Tuesday.

Time has run out for Christian pastor Bulus Yakuru, who is due to be executed by the Boko Haram Islamic terror group on Wednesday, after having been abducted in northeast Nigeria on December 24, 2020.

Nigerians can now register online to receive a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, Nigeria’s government announced Monday, though Internet access remains scarce in the country, with less than half of Nigerians able use it.

Scores of armed militants from the Islamic State terror group in West Africa (ISWAP) invaded the town of Dikwa in northeast Nigeria late Monday and attacked a military camp and a U.N. base.