Why will no one sell arms to Nigeria?

Last month, Nigeria’s parliament gave President Goodluck Jonathan a $1 billion war chest. The money is to buy arms and equipment to help the army fight Boko Haram. Only problem: no one’s selling, at least not to Nigeria. South Africa and the USA have already said no. Since when did arms dealers develop a moral backbone? By SIMON ALLISON.

In theory, the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria should be manna from heaven for arms dealers, of both the scrupulous and unscrupulous variety. Wars always are. The Islamist militants must be buying their weapons from somewhere, while the Nigerian army is desperately trying to resupply and upgrade in order to combat the threat.
And Nigeria has given its generals a serious budget to do so. At the urging of President Goodluck Jonathan, parliament approved his request to take out a $1 billion loan for equipment and training for the security forces (this comes in addition to the military’s $6 billion annual budget).
As a solution to the problem, this isn’t necessarily the best one. As an opposition politician observed, referencing the 250-plus schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram: “The only reason the schoolgirls have remained in captivity is the sheer cluelessness and incompetence on the part of the Jonathan administration. Therefore putting more money in the hands of an incompetent and massively corrupt administration can only encourage more incompetence and corruption.”
Nonetheless, this is President Goodluck Jonathan’s plan, who seems to be putting all his eggs into one army-shaped basket. Now that army just needs to get bigger and better, and will have a billion dollars to pay for the facelift.
But will anyone take Nigeria’s money? So far, it’s not looking good.

How Oil’s Tumble Continues to Hurt Nigeria

ByJosie Cox

The Naira is being hit but it’s not alone, with the currencies of other major oil economies including Norway and Russia feeling the pain.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Here’s one oil economy that’s having a particularly rough ride.

Nigeria, which is dependent on oil and natural gas for 96% of export revenues and 80% of government revenues, has been slammed hard by a slump prices over the last weeks and on Thursday hit yet another all-time low against the dollar – a veritable kick in the teeth for the central bank after it just last week intervened by selling dollars and buying the Naira after the dollar soared above 172 naira.

The intervention initially triggered some respite, but today the dollar climbed above the previous peak, to above 173, traders said.

The Naira’s drop puts Nigeria among the worst hit of the word’s oil producers, but the ruble, Norwegian krone and Canadian dollar have all taken hits. It’s economy is also cited as one of the most promising growth stories in Africa, based in no small part on its massive oil reserves, but also its burgeoning middle class.

Ebola outbreak: MSF to start West Africa clinical trials

By Tulip MazumdarGlobal health reporter

Clinical trials to try to find an effective treatment for Ebola patients are to start in West Africa next month.

The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres, which has been helping lead the fight against the virus, says three of its treatment centres will host three separate research projects.

Meanwhile, Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lifted the state of emergency imposed in the country.

She warned "this is not because the fight against Ebola is over".

It marks the progress being made in the country, where the weekly number of new infections is falling.

In a radio address she told the nation that night curfews would be reduced, weekly markets could take place and preparations were being made for the re-opening of schools. 

Trials

One trial involves using the blood of recovered Ebola patients to treat sick people in the Guinean capital Conakry. 

Two antiviral drugs will be trialled in Guinea and an unconfirmed location.

"This is an unprecedented international partnership which represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment," said MSF spokeswoman Dr Annick Antierens.

The Ebola outbreak is thought to have infected more than 14,000 people, almost all of them in West Africa. The death toll has risen to 5,160.

The first trials are due to start next month. Initial results could be available in February 2015.

The World Health Organization announced in September that experimental treatments and vaccines for Ebola should be fast-tracked.

Two experimental vaccines, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Public Health Agency of Canada, have already been fast-tracked into safety trials.

The GSK vaccine is being tested in Mali, the UK and the US. Research on the Canadian vaccine is also under way in the US.

The three latest trials are:

• At the Donka Ebola centre in Conakry, Guinea, led by the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), involving convalescent blood and plasma therapy - using blood from recovered patients containing antibodies that successfully fought off the virus to boost the patient's immune system
• At a site yet to be officially announced, funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by the University of Oxford, using the antiviral drug brincidofovir. It works by interfering with the virus' ability to multiply. Up to 140 consenting patients will take the tablets twice a week over a two week period, and survival rates will be compared to those before the trial
• In Gueckedou, Guinea, led by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), using the antiviral drug favipiravir.

Around 400 people participate in the first trials and they will be extended to other centres if the early results are promising. 

Prof Peter Horby, from the University of Oxford, said: "There's a great need for these trials. 

"There's both the humanitarian need, a tragedy for individuals and for communities and we need to do everything we can to offer some hope to those communities.

"But there's also scientific need, we have these products which may or may not work in patients with Ebola and the only way we can test them is during an epidemic."

Enormous task

There have been some anecdotal studies in previous outbreaks suggesting blood transfusions could benefit Ebola patients, but there is no scientifically proven evidence. This will be the first time there has been a human trial on any significant scale.

Speaking to the BBC from Conakry, lead researcher from ITM Johan van Griensven said:

"There are three important components [of this study] - the first is identifying Ebola survivors willing to donate blood. The second is the actual blood collection, and the third is the administration of the blood [to Ebola patients]."

However, organising safe blood donations in countries with decimated health systems is an enormous task.

Donating and taking blood is also extremely culturally sensitive in affected countries.

"There will be an anthropological assessment which will hopefully give us the information we need to understand a bit better how such a study would be perceived by the community" said Mr van Griensven.

"It will also give us a deeper understanding of the perspectives of people who have survived Ebola because suddenly they could have a specific role within the whole scale of treatment for other patients.

"This will be a key component to help us start implementing this study in a respectful and appropriate manner."

Dr Antierens from MSF also said community engagement was a key priority.

"Each patient who consents to be part of a trial will have the potential risks of being subjected to a new therapy clearly explained," she said.

MSF said these trials were "an exceptional measure in exceptional circumstances" as they try to bring the outbreak under control.

Cumulative deaths up to 11 November

*Figures are occasionally revised down as suspect or probable cases are found to be unrelated to Ebola. Figures for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea up to 9 November, while those for Mali, Nigeria and the US up to 11 November.

Strike complicates Sierra Leone Ebola battle Hundreds of staff claim government has yet to pay for risk allowances, putting an Ebola clinic at risk of shutdown. Last updated: 13 Nov 2014 08:11 A representative for the striking healthcare workers said allowances have not been paid since September [AFP]

More than 400 health workers at one of Sierra Leone's few Ebola treatment centres have embarked on a strike over unpaid risk allowances the government is meant to provide, officials said, although some of them returned to work later in the day. A representative for the striking healthcare workers said that about a quarter of them returned to work later on Wednesday to the only Ebola clinic in south Sierra Leone after health officials pledged to pay the allowance later this week. "We decided to allow one quarter of our workforce to return to the centre to work to support people who are admitted there," said Mohamed Mbawah. A full-scale strike would resume if the payments were not made by Friday, he said. Earlier in the day an ambulance was turned away with a patient because of the walkout.

South Africa Mulls Legalizing Rhino Horn Trade

NOV 13, 2014 09:05 AM ET // BY AFP

 VIEW RELATED GALLERY »

Armed guards look after rhinos at a park in South Africa.

JACKIE CLAUSEN/SUNDAY TIMES/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

‹›

DCI

It was a logical business decision, and profiting from the lucrative trade in rhino horn could not be further from his mind.

"And then the heartache began," he says.

Now, as South Africa faces a seventh straight yearly increase in rhino poaching, Jones is on a panel of experts studying an unusual proposal for battling the problem: legalising the trade in rhino horn.

Nigeria's Jonathan announces re-election bid

Incumbent president declares himself candidate for next year's election, a day after school bombing killed scores. Last updated: 11 Nov 2014 20:55 Nigeria's president has formally declared that he will seek a second term of office at next year's general election, just a day after a suicide bomber killed nearly 50 people in the country's northeast. Goodluck Jonathan has been head of state of Africa's most populous nation, leading economy and top oil producer since 2010, when he took over following the death of President Umara Yar'Adua, winning elections in 2011. "I, Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, have accepted to present myself on the platform of the PDP," Jonathan told supporters of his Peoples Democratic Party at a mass rally in the capital Abuja on Tuesday. His supporters took out four-page newspaper advertisements on Monday, calling for Nigerians to "be a witness to history" and saying Jonathan's candidacy was "in response to Nigerians' demand". "Nigerians endorsed Goodluck Jonathan for continuity," the adverts ran, claiming that more than 17.8 million had so far endorsed his candidacy. But for the country's main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Jonathan's tenure has been far from a success, particularly on security and his perceived failure to tackle Boko Haram.

Boko Haram says kidnapped schoolgirls 'married off'

Text by FRANCE 24 

Latest update : 2014-11-01

In a new video on Friday, Boko Haram's leader said the 219 kidnapped schoolgirls who remain hostages of the Islamist group had converted to Islam and were married off. The group also denied Nigerian claims that a ceasefire had been agreed.

In a new video obtained by AFP, the Islamist group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, denied claims by Nigeria's government that it had agreed to a ceasefire and apparently ruled out any future talks on the release of the girls.

Shekau also said the Islamists were holding a German national, who was kidnapped in Adamawa state in northeast Nigeria in July.

Some 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the remote northeast town of Chibok in Borno state in April, sending Boko Haram – whose five-year insurgency in northern Nigeria has claimed an estimated 13,000 lives – into the international spotlight.

The new video comes after a surprise announcement by the Nigerian military and presidency on October 17 that a deal had been reached with the militants to end hostilities and return the kidnapped children.

There was immediate scepticism about both claims. Previous ceasefires have proved fruitless and there is little faith in the influence of the purported envoy to Boko Haram, Danladi Ahmadu.

Violence – and fresh kidnappings – have continued unabated since the announcement, including a triple bombing of a bus station in the northern city of Gombe on Friday that killed at least eight.

Nigeria's government maintains that talks are ongoing in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena.

"We have not made ceasefire with anyone," said Shekau, speaking in the local Hausa language and dressed in military fatigues with a black turban. Any such claims were a "lie", he added.

"We did not negotiate with anyone ... It's a lie. It's a lie. We will not negotiate. What is our business with negotiation? Allah said we should not," he said, flanked by 15 of his armed fighters.

He also said he did not know the Nigerian mediator Danladi.

Transition timetable set for Burkina Faso after crisis

Video by Jonathan WALSH

Text by FRANCE 24 

Latest update : 2014-11-06

Burkina Faso's army and leaders agreed Wednesday to a one-year political transition with elections in November 2015. However, the talks - mediated by three African presidents – crucially failed to name a new leader for the transitional government

Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan, and Senegal's President Macky Sall had travelled to Burkina Faso to press for the swift return of civilian rule, after the military appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Zida to run the country following last week's ouster of presidentBlaise Compaore.

In scenes compared to the Arab Spring, Compaore was forced to flee the country after tens of thousands took to the streets and set parliament ablaze in violent protests against efforts to extend his 27-year rule. 

Ghana's Mahama led the delegation from the West African bloc ECOWAS to help tackle the political crisis.

Mahama, the current ECOWAS chairman, promptly held talks with Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida, opposition politicians, supporters of ousted president Blaise Compaore, religious leaders and civil society groups on arrival in the capital.

Tensions running high

The talks did not start well, with opposition leaders storming out in protest over the possible involvement of Compaore loyalists in any provisional government. 

Security guards were forced to intervene as emotions ran high.

After the tense talks, Mahamas told the waiting media, "There were going to be elections next year. We believe that we should just work with that election date, which is next November. This means there will be a transitional government for one year and a new president will be elected."

MSF calls for strategy change in Liberia's war on Ebola

 
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© AFP/File | Health workers wearing protective wquipment pictured at an Ebola treatment centre run by the non-governmental international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders, MSF) in Monrovia, Liberia, on October 27, 2014

MONROVIA (AFP) - 

Medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders called Monday for a change of strategy in the fight against Ebola in Liberia, to fund rapid response teams rather than huge isolation units.

The charity, known by its French initials MSF, said it is seeing a decline in the number of patients admitted to case management centres in Liberia for the first time since the outbreak started.

But new hotspots continue to emerge and the global response must adapt to this new phase of the epidemic, added MSF, which has around 3,300 staff across Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Burkina military leader pledges to step aside as world watches

Tue, Nov 4 2014

By Mathieu Bonkoungou and Nadoun Coulibaly

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Burkina Faso's new military ruler has pledged to hand power to a civilian transitional government, an influential tribal ruler said on Tuesday, a day before three West African leaders were due in Ouagadougou to press the army to relinquish power.

The military appointed Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida, deputy commander of the elite presidential guard, as provisional head of state on Saturday. The day before, long-time president Blaise Compaore had stepped down and with the help of France fled to neighboring Ivory Coast.

Compaore resigned as leader of the impoverished West African country on Friday following two days of mass protests sparked by his bid to extend his 27-year rule by amending the constitution. 

In the chaos that followed, the army's move to take control of the transition drew criticism from opposition politicians and international partners.

Zida said on Monday he would quickly transfer power to a consensus government in line with Burkina Faso's constitution. On Tuesday, he met with the influential king of the country's majority Mossi ethnic group, Naba Baongo II, who said Zida had pledged to step aside.

Map: The Africa without Ebola

(Anthony England / @EbolaPhone)

Ebola is a frightening, unpredictable disease. Nearly 5,000 West Africans have died from the current outbreak with more than 13,000 people thought infected.

However, so far the problem remains largely limited to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Two other countries, Nigeria and Senegal, have had cases, yet are now Ebola-free. The DR Congo had an outbreak of a different strain of Ebola that now looks like it might be contained. And while there has been one case of the disease in Mali, the patient died and no others have been confirmed at the time of writing -- though that may well change.

Despite clear geographical limits to the Ebola outbreak, many Americans seem confused. How else could you explain the recent Ebola scare that kept two children who had moved from Rwanda to New Jersey from attending school, despite the fact the East African country is Ebola-free (and further from West Africa than New Jersey is to Texas)? Or the resignation of a teacher in Kentucky due to a backlash to her traveling to Kenya? Or the significant cancellation of tourist trips to places like Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa?

Bomb blast kills dozens of school children in Nigeria

At least 47 students were killed on Monday when a bomb ripped through a school assembly in Nigeria's northeastern town of Potiskum, police said.

The attack took place at a boys' science and technical school in Yobe State, a territory that has seen numerous attacks by Boko Haram extremists.

"There was an explosion detonated by a suicide bomber," national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told AFP news agency, adding that the Islamist group was likely to blame.

Mariam Ibrahim, a teacher at the Government Science Secondary School (GSS) in Potiskum, told Reuters news agency the bomb went off as she was arriving and students were having their usual morning briefing.

Potiskum resident Aliyu Abubakar said he heard the explosion when he was dropping off his two sons at a nearby Islamic college. "One of my sons fell down, I came out, dragged him in and we drove off back home," he said.

"There are some (others) that are critically injured and I am sure the death toll will rise," another teacher said, asking to remain anonymous.

"Dastardly attack"

Hospital records showed 48 bodies and many body parts were brought to the morgue. Seventy-nine students were admitted, many with serious injuries that may require amputations, health workers said. The hospital was so overcrowded that some patients were crammed two to a bed.

The victims all appeared to be between the ages of 11 and 20, a morgue attendant said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan described the violence as a "dastardly attack".

The United States also strongly condemned the latest unrest.

"Our sympathies and thoughts are with the victims and their families of these latest egregious assaults on innocent civilians by those bent on fomenting violence, extremism and insecurity in northeastern Nigeria and the region,'' US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

Soldiers chased away

Soldiers rushed to the scene of the blast, but they were chased away with stones and calls by people angry at the military's inability to halt an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Last week, suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked a religious procession of Shiite Muslims in the same city, killing 30 people.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language, has targeted schools, abducted students and killed thousands in its campaign to carve out an Islamist state.

The group has increased attacks and bombings since the government announced it had brokered aceasefire on October 17.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has denied negotiating a truce.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS, AP)

Progress on transition plan in Burkina Faso

© Issouf Sanogo, AFP | Leader of the Burkina Faso opposition, Zéphirin Diabré (pictured centre) at transition talks in the capital Ouagadougou on November 8

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2014-11-09

Burkina Faso's political parties and civil society groups were set Sunday to adopt a transition plan for the west African country after the ousting of veteran president Blaise Compaoré in late October.

Talks on forming a transition government began Saturday with the army at first declining to join, whileCompaoré accused his military and political opponents of jointly plotting his overthrow.

Opposition leader Zéphirin Diabré, who chaired the meeting, said "we are coming to the end" of the drafting procedure, amid expectations that the final version could be formally adopted on Sunday.

Around 60 representatives of political parties and civil society met in the capital Ouagadougou to hammer out a handover plan, after Compaoré fled last week following a mass uprising against his bid to revise the constitution and extend his 27-year rule.

The army, who named Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida to head the west African country, had first refused to take part in the talks. They later sent a delegation led by Zida's right-hand man, Colonel August Denise Barry, who made only a brief appearance at the discussions.

Barry told the conference that the army has no intention of holding on to power, saying that "things can no longer be like before", alluding to the country's history of military coups, according to several civilian delegates.

One participant, who requested anonymity, said the conference was seeking to convince the army to sign a joint declaration.

Earlier, Zida had told a delegation from the talks that members of Compaoré's political party should also be included in the discussions, which the other parties have so far refused to allow.

"For the purpose of reconciliation and reconstruction, one cannot exclude a party of the people," Zida said, according to one of the delegates.

The army's power grab in the landlocked west African country has attracted international condemnation and threats of sanctions from the African Union unless it hands over power within two weeks.

Bisa Williams, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, reiterated calls for a democratic transition after talks Saturday with Zida in the capital.

"We're counting on respect for the (army's) promise to put in place a democratic transition government which is led by a civilian," said Williams.

Compaoré speaks out

Washington and Paris, Burkina Faso's two main allies and donors, have been pressuring the military to quickly carry out elections.

The civilian groups have already agreed that the transition should last one year and that it should be led by a civilian before presidential and legislative elections take place by November 2015.

But there has been no agreement on the person to head the transition.

"We hope to finish the talks tonight or tomorrow (Sunday)," a delegate told AFP.

The proposals were due to be presented Monday to mediators from the United Nations, the African Union and the west African regional bloc ECOWAS.

From his exile in neighbouring Ivory Coast, Compaoré meanwhile accused the opposition of plotting a coup with the army, in an interview published Saturday.

"We knew for a long time that part of the opposition was working with the army. Their aim: to prepare a coup d'etat," Compaoré told Jeune Afrique magazine.

"They wanted me to leave. I left. History will tell us if they were right," said the 63-year-old, who first took power in a 1987 coup.

As for Zida, Compaoré said the lieutenant colonel was in a position that he would "not wish for his worst enemy".

In the ousted leader's hometown of Ziniare, only about 40 kilometres from the capital, pro-Compaoré sentiment lives on.

"He was our brother," a young bicycle seller told AFP, asking not to be named.

"We don't know what is going to happen."

The deposed president "treated his hometown like the others, without favouritism", said civil servant Ousmane Lengane.

While some residents spoke resentfully of the wealth and influence of members of the Compaoré family, the townspeople were frightened when the president resigned on October 31.

They were afraid protesters in the capital would come to destroy Ziniare, according to the mayor