A “coming-of-age film” with “inspired” casting, this Nigerian drama is set during that country’s turbulent 1993 presidential election, said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times.

Mainly told over the course of one day, it opens with two boys aged eight and 11 (played by the brothers Godwin Egbo and Chibuike Marvelous Egbo) mucking around at home, when their father (Sopé Dìrísù, known for TV’s “Slow Horses”), whom they barely know, turns up – and to their delight, takes them on a trip to Lagos.

The film (in English, Yoruba and pidgin English) “is made in a mode that you might call Hallucinatory Realism: events and images flashing before the camera in the same rush that the boys experience them”. We get a “panorama of 1993 Lagos, but also fleeting, arresting details (ants on a cracked wall, sand-specked crabs on the beach)”. The overall effect is of a dream, and one “you want to experience again right away”.

Director Akinola Davies Jr co-wrote the script with his brother, Wale Davies, said Thomas Page on CNN. Their father died young, and so they were never able to spend the day scampering around after him in Lagos. The result is a “sad, serious and tender” film that also feels like a “devastating act of wish fulfilment”.

Yet the father here is more than just a “ghostly ideal”, said Tim Robey in The Telegraph. The way he interacts with his sons is just one of the highlights of a “magically nimble” film.

What happened

The Trump administration is sending about 200 troops to Nigeria to help train its military to fight Islamist militants, U.S. and Nigerian officials said Tuesday.

The deployment comes weeks after President Donald Trump accused Nigeria’s government of failing to protect Christians from terrorist attacks in the West African country.

Who said what

The “fresh U.S. forces” will “supplement a handful of U.S. military personnel already in Nigeria” to help local military units “identify targets for military strikes,” The Wall Street Journal said. Trump late last year threatened to send in U.S. troops “guns-a-blazing” to avenge what he called a “Christian genocide.” But in this deployment, “U.S. troops aren’t going to be involved in direct combat or operations,” Nigerian military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba told the Journal.

This “startling turn” in U.S.-Nigerian relations follows an “intense, yearslong push led by Christian activists, Republican lawmakers and American celebrities seeking U.S. intervention” in Nigeria’s “long-simmering security crisis,” The New York Times said. Nigeria rejected Trump’s claim that it has failed to protect Christians, but “U.S. military leaders who for years have complained about prickly relations with the Nigerian military say the shift has opened the door to increased intelligence sharing and military planning.”

What next?

The new U.S. forces are “expected to arrive in Nigeria over the coming weeks,” the Journal said. “Just how effective the increased U.S. involvement in Nigeria has been or will be is an open question,” the Times said. A salvo of U.S. “Tomahawk missiles fired on Dec. 25, valued at about $32 million,” landed in “overwhelmingly Muslim” northwest Nigeria, but mostly “hit empty fields and vacant militant hide-outs,” according to residents.

What happened

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. may take military action in Nigeria to stop the “killing of Christians.” He also threatened to “immediately stop all aid and assistance” to the West African country, whose population of more than 230 million is split almost evenly between Christians and Muslims. Nigerians were “baffled by Trump’s ire” and “described a mixture of confusion and fear” as they “tried to decipher” his threat, The Washington Post said.

Who said what

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing,” the U.S. “may very well go” in, “‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists,” Trump said Saturday on social media. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” Trump told reporters Sunday night that he “could be” envisioning airstrikes or ground troops to stop the killing of “record numbers of Christians in Nigeria.”

“Both Christians and Muslims are killed in Nigeria’s security crises,” said The Associated Press, and their deaths are “often determined by their locations and not due to their religion.” Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency is concentrated in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria. Trump’s claims, following similar allegations from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Christian conservatives, was based on old or misleading reports, said Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

What next?

“We don’t expect there to be U.S. military action in Nigeria,” Bwala told the Post, though the Tinubu government would welcome U.S. intelligence sharing. Still, the “once-outlandish image” of Trump “going in ‘guns-a-blazing’ into Africa’s most populous country” is “being taken seriously as Nigerian leaders watch U.S. forces move in on Venezuela,” Semafor’s Africa editor Yinka Adegoke said.

In October 1960, Nigeria won full independence from the UK, said Anny Shaw in London’s The Standard. This landmark moment sparked “a period of enormous cultural fecundity”, as artists sought to create a “visual identity” for the country – one that embraced indigenous traditions and the “buzz” of modern life, while reckoning with Nigeria’s “fraught colonial past”.

Now this cultural “renaissance” is the subject of a new exhibition at Tate Modern, which brings together some 250 pieces – including paintings, sculptures and textiles – by more than 50 artists, to examine Nigerian art pre- and post-independence. The result is a show that is sprawling but compelling, said Mark Hudson in The Independent. Other exhibitions of African art have tended to shy away from showing “the first gropings towards modernity from artists working in isolation from the international art world”, for fear of reinforcing the view that they are “folksy”, but this one lets “the work of those early explorers shine out”.

There is, unfortunately, a rather “dutiful” tone to this nine-room show, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. The work of important artists such as Ben Enwonwu (who sculpted Elizabeth II in 1957) is foregrounded, but several galleries are given over to various “schools”, as the exhibition strives to be properly “in depth”. Along the way there are “flashes of artistic magic” including Demas Nwoko’s “mysterious” paintings, and J.D. ’Okhai Ojeikere’s “astonishing” black and white 1970s photographs of women’s “intricate hairstyles”. But between them are a host of “middling” works, including too many early 20th-century pieces reflecting African artists’ new interest in naturalism. It becomes a bit wearing, like double history on a sunny afternoon.

I completely disagree, said Jackie Wullschläger in the Financial Times. The show is full of brilliant things – and “what shines throughout is a sparkling diversity of making”. A piece by Asiru Olatunde, who came from a family of blacksmiths, is a sheet of aluminium hammered into “a massive, exquisitely detailed frieze” depicting village life. We also see the Yoruba gods that Adebisi Akanji, who trained as a bricklayer in his youth, sculpted in cement, while the riders in Jimo Akolo’s “Fulani Horsemen” (1962) “gallop right against the picture plane and off to the future”.

The show’s “star piece”, however, is the series of towering wooden sculptures that Enwonwu made for the forecourt of the Daily Mirror’s London HQ in 1960. There are seven of these figures, each possessed of “traditional attenuated Igbo features” and five of them holding an open newspaper. They disappeared later that decade, and were only rediscovered in 2012, in a garage at a secondary school in east London. This is an “entrancing, enlightening exhibition” – Tate’s “most revelatory in years”.

Tate Modern, London SE1. Until 10 May

The Nigerian government has denied claims by a US senator that “mass murder” of Christians is taking place in the West African nation.

Writing on social media, Ted Cruz claimed that 50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009, with 2,000 schools and 18,000 churches destroyed by armed groups he called “Islamist”.

What has Ted Cruz claimed?

The Republican senator said there is “Christian mass murder” in the West African nation. Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called for Nigeria to be designated a country of particular concern and one with “severe violations” of religious freedom.

These claims have been “amplified” by “celebrities and commentators”, said The Associated Press, and some have even claimed there is a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria.

Bill Maher, the US comedian and TV show host, said the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram has “killed over 100,000 [Christians] since 2009”, “burned 18,000 churches” and is “literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country”. But it’s “unclear where Maher got his figures from”, said Al Jazeera.

Is there any truth to the claims?

Nigeria’s population of 220 million is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims. According to data from Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), there were 20,409 deaths from 11,862 attacks against civilians in Nigeria between January 2020 and September 2025.

Some 385 attacks were “targeted events against Christians … where Christian identity of the victim was a reported factor”, resulting in 317 deaths. But in the same period, there were 417 deaths recorded among Muslims in 196 attacks.

Ladd Serwat, ACLED’s senior Africa analyst, said that although religion has been a factor in the nation’s security crisis, Nigeria’s “large population and vast geographic differences” make it “impossible to speak of religious violence” as the motivation for all the violence.

Nigeria is, in fact, witnessing “mass killings, which are not targeted against a specific group”, said Olajumoke Ayandele, an assistant professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.

Actually, said the AP news agency, there are “varying motives” for the violence in Nigeria. As well as “religiously motivated” attacks targeting both Christians and Muslims, there are “clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling resources, communal rivalries, secessionist groups and ethnic clashes”.

What does Nigeria say?

Nigeria’s government admits it has a security problem, but it denies Cruz’s claims. “Portraying Nigeria’s security challenges as a targeted campaign against a single religious group is a gross misrepresentation of reality,” said Mohammed Idris Malagi, Nigeria’s information minister.

He said the claim “oversimplifies a complex, multifaceted security environment and plays into the hands of terrorists and criminals who seek to divide Nigerians along religious or ethnic lines”.

Sunday Dare, a special adviser to President Bola Tinubu, said that Cruz and Maher “would do well to engage with the facts before amplifying falsehoods that embolden extremists and malign an entire nation”, said Daily Post.

The Christian Association of Nigeria said the killings in the country were not targeting Christians alone. It accused foreign groups of seeking to “exploit domestic crises”, said Al Jazeera.

A "worrying trend" is unfolding, said the BBC. Young children are possibly being taken into the UK illegally, some from Nigeria's so-called "baby factories".

Last summer, British authorities identified an infant seemingly trafficked into the UK, after a woman's elaborate "fake birth story" fell apart under scrutiny.

Behind locked doors and smiling facades, this deeply unsettling industry continues to thrive.

'Dirty, profitable business'

Many "baby factories" in the West African nation operate under a veil of legitimacy, "disguised as private medical clinics, orphanages, or even social welfare homes", said Human Rights Pulse back in 2021. But inside, women and girls are being held against their will, abused and forced to give birth for this "dirty, profitable business".

After the babies are born they are "forcefully taken away" either for adoption at a price, or to be trafficked to become "prostitutes or child labourers".

A "fear of poverty" due to challenging "socio-economic conditions" in Nigeria means both men and women have become vulnerable, said Deutsche Welle last year, while "crime rates" have increased. But "not everyone blames it on poverty". Bearing children is "considered significant in many African societies" and the pressure can cause "humiliation" for infertile couples. Traffickers know this, and a high demand – for male children in particular – makes the practice "especially lucrative".

Trafficking thrives due to the "ready market" for children, said Nigerian newspaper Punch. The legal adoption process can often be "prolonged, stricter and more expensive", driving couples to "resort to illicit means".

'Slow justice'

Law enforcement agencies in Nigeria have conducted occasional raids, freeing dozens of women and children at a time from captivity.

There is "no official data" to show how many babies are bought and sold, said Al Jazeera back in 2020, but estimates are that male children are typically sold for "between 700,000 naira (£1,440) to one million naira (£2,060)", while female babies are priced "between 500,000 naira (£1,030) and 700,000 naira (£1,440)". The United Nations estimates some "750,000 to one million persons are trafficked annually in Nigeria".

There have been arrests for involvement in the trade, but a "slow Nigerian judicial system" that "frustrates many cases" is blamed for the practice continuing to fester, said Punch.

Meanwhile, work to prevent trafficking continues abroad. The UK government has "restricted adoptions from Nigeria" since 2021 due to fears of the illegal movement of children, said the BBC. One expert said "DNA testing of newborn babies and purported parents" might help.

The summer cookbook season is not as robust as the fall-winter one. Still, the number of exhilarating titles just out or imminent in the coming months is enough to make you want to blast your stove, heat be damned. 

"Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora" (out now)

Immigrants are always having to change how they cook in their adopted country, and some of the world's best, most creative dishes come from that acclimatization. Food writer Khushbu Shah knows this from personal experience, and her debut cookbook, "Amrikan", is a celebration of the ways in which Indian immigrants and their families spin new gold. Rice Krispies treats with candied fennel; saag paneer in a frittata and a lasagna; butter chicken pizza: You get the (delicious) idea. 

"Kismet: Bright, Fresh, Vegetable-Loving Recipes" (out now)

Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson, the owners of Kismet and Kismet Rotisserie in Los Angeles, revel in the stellar produce of Southern California and a flavor-influence oval that runs from the Levant and Middle East to North Africa to southern Europe. So in the pair's new cookbook, feta is marinated with garlic and coriander seeds then served with dates and shaved onions laced with rose water, and chicken thighs are roasted with paprika and grapefruit. There are chapters on labneh and tahini, and vegetables predictably play a starring role. Big flavors prevail. 

"Verdura: 10 Vegetables, 100 Italian Recipes" (out now)

There is a special corner of cooking heaven reserved for authors who offer readers the ability to do the most with the least. Discipline breeds resourcefulness, and Theo Randall conjures that welcome approach in his ode to a double-handful of vegetables. Eggplant, zucchini, asparagus, artichokes, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, beans, winter squash and potatoes: The centerpieces of so much seasonal Italian cooking, each with their own battery of complementary recipes to showcase their versatility. 

"Dolci! American Baking with an Italian Accent" (out now)

Malted tiramisu; mocha-orange whoopie pies; amaro root beer floats: The way baker Renato Poliafito considers Italian food is through an American lens. "Dolci!" is a handy compendium of familiar dishes upended and reconsidered.

"Freezer Door Cocktails: 75 Cocktails That Are Ready When You Are" (July 2)

Oh, dear, does one ever need a freezer cocktail in the dead of summer. J.M. Hirsch to the slushy rescue! A frozen espresso martini, Bloody Mary, and buttered rum. Many a classic cocktail makes an appearance in the book. The blessed trickery of Hirsch's tome is its reverse-engineering, which enables you to conjure the essence of your favorite cocktails but in a replicable frozen fashion.  

"Africali: Recipes from My Jikoni" (Aug. 13) 

Kiano Moju's debut cookbook sits at the intersection of Nigerian, Kenyan and American cooking. Moju grew up in California with a Nigerian father and a Kenyan mother. There are recipes for chapos (garlic-butter chapati), showing the influence of Indian emigration on the African continent, and peri-peri butter, a chile-kicked spread that upends the notion that peri-peri was born in Portugal. Hint: It was not. 

"Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines" (Aug. 20) 

The United States is merely one country in the Americas. But what happens to Latin American food when it's transplanted to the United States is the objective of this debut cookbook from Marisel Salazar. Born in Panama, Salazar dissects the origins of distinctly American dishes like Arkansas tamales, San Antonio migas and plantain upside down cake. She, of course, provides recipes, too.

"Dac Biet: An Extra-Special Vietnamese Cookbook" (Aug. 27)

Chef and cooking instructor Nini Nguyen is a child of both Vietnamese immigrants and of New Orleans. Of course her first cookbook is called "Dac Biet," which means "extra special" in Vietnamese. Whether from her fine dining training or from the singular way her Vietnamese heritage and New Orleanian roots intersect, Nguyen's recipes are lively, traditional and bursting with flavor and innovation. 

Africans living with dementia are often accused of witchcraft, with potentially devastating consequences.

Symptoms such as forgetfulness and changes in behaviour are "seen as evidence of evil", said The Guardian. People accused have been "set on fire, stoned, beaten to death and buried alive". It's often "disadvantaged and marginalised people" who are targeted – "and mostly women".

Although it is impossible to know how many such attacks occur, the UN estimated in 2020 that there were at least 20,000 victims of "harmful practices" across 60 countries between 2009 and 2019, including children. And the UN human rights commissioner "expects numbers to increase".

An 'escalating challenge'

Dementia is an "escalating challenge" in Africa, according to a study published in 2023, as the population both increases and ages.

The number of people living with dementia on the continent is hard to ascertain, as the disease often goes undiagnosed or misidentified as typical ageing. A 2017 report by Alzheimer's Disease International estimated that 2.13 million people were living with dementia in sub-Saharan Africa. Those numbers were projected to nearly double every 20 years, increasing to 3.48 million by 2030.

In 2022, The Lancet Public Health journal estimated that across southern Africa, nearly 300,000 people were living with the disease in 2019. That was projected to rise by 185% by 2050.

But the traditional system of caring for older people within families is "unravelling", said National Geographic, "even as people live longer" and the number suffering from degenerative brain diseases "swells".

"Modern life has eroded that [traditional care]," a social worker from South Africa-based organisation Dementia SA told the magazine. "With people getting more westernised, they think they're living for themselves and not for other people."

Meanwhile, many countries have a shortage of skilled medical specialists such as geriatricians, and expensive diagnostic brain scan technology is inaccessible to many. This slows down detection and prevents doctors from starting treatment early enough to make a difference. 

'Signs of witchcraft'

Despite the growing prevalence of dementia, many in Nigeria have never heard of the disease. "There's a huge knowledge gap at community level about what dementia is," Dr Temitope Farombi, a consultant neurologist and founder of the Brain Health Initiative Nigeria, told The Guardian. 

"Families are often embarrassed and lock their family members in, or out, or dump them in spiritual centres to pray for them, hoping evil spirits will be released."

Accusing someone of witchcraft is illegal in the country, punishable by up to two years in prison, but the law is "rarely enforced", according to Leo Igwe, the founder of Advocacy for Alleged Witches. "People believe the conception of a witch is seen as something that should not be accommodated or protected by the law," he told the paper. 

Limited public health services and health education "increase the prevalence of accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks", according to guidance by the African Union. Conditions such as autism, Down's syndrome, albinism and mental health issues like dementia are "routinely considered signs of witchcraft". Even some doctors reportedly believe it.

"If information and awareness about dementia is put out there," said Igwe, "it can help us drastically reduce, and end, the abuses."

Despite its recent economic woes, Nigeria still boasts Africa's highest GDP – but one of the continent's worst outcomes for pregnant women. 

This discrepancy in the inflation-battered but most populous African nation is also worsening. In 2020, about 82,000 Nigerian women died from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications, including severe haemorrhage, sepsis and unsafe abortions. That number might be "a slight improvement" on the previous year, but it's a marked increase on previous decades, said The Guardian. 

And one of the highest in the world, in fact. Nearly 20% of all global maternal deaths happen in Nigeria, said the World Health Organization in 2019. A Nigerian woman had a 1 in 22 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum/post-abortion. In most developed countries, the risk was 1 in 4,900. 

 The 'dire state' of Nigerian healthcare 

"The huge burden of maternal death in Nigeria is second to only India," said a study published in the BMC Pregnancy Childbirth journal in 2022.  

Looking at causes of maternal death at the Lagos University teaching hospital from 2007 to 2019, it revealed "an overall upward trend in maternal mortality of about 4% per annum".

One factor driving the problem, apart from the country's soaring debt and inflation crisis, is the low number of doctors. A functioning healthcare system should have one doctor for every 600 people, according to WHO guidance. In Nigeria, the ratio is one doctor for every 4,000-5,000 patients. 

The healthcare budget this year is also only 5%, while the UN suggests at least 14%. "The dire state of healthcare prompts many medical professionals to emigrate, exacerbating the problems," said The Guardian.

Another issue is access. "Most Nigerians live in areas without well-equipped medical centres or have to pay upfront for treatment," said the paper, which makes some women reluctant to seek medical help. In the "densely populated" capital, Lagos, women must contend with "unreliable" public transport and heavy traffic that doesn't move even for ambulances. 

"I understand that people are dying from lethal diseases, but pregnancy is not a disease," Moses Olusanjo, a senior consultant at the maternity ward of Lagos University hospital, told the paper. 

"The problem of maternal mortality is a reflection of how our society works," he said. Reducing it is "solely within the power" of the country's leaders. "It takes political will to say that our women will not die."

The rise of traditional birth attendants

Faced with barriers to treatment, rural Nigerian women are increasingly relying on traditional birth attendants (TBA) and prayer houses during labour, said The Guardian Nigeria – rather than the skilled professionals the WHO recommends.

Although TBAs have long provided delivery care in Nigerian communities where strong cultural and religious beliefs persist, the growing economic hardship means many women cannot afford general or federal hospitals. Others are scared of the possibility of a birth ending in a caesarean section, said the paper. They are then convinced that a TBA is the best option to avoid complications – but if problems do arise, TBAs are generally not equipped to handle them. 

At an antenatal check-up, a TBA "will not check your blood pressure, blood sugar; they won't even know if you have hypertension or diabetes in pregnancy, or if something is wrong with the baby", one doctor, Odunola Olabintan, told the paper. "They don't have that equipment."

"What we can do to encourage women to embrace hospitals is to make the services cheaper," she said. "Any serious government that wants to curtail maternal mortality and care for women would do so."

Most maternal deaths in Nigeria are preventable, according to the 2022 study. The country must "initiate, sustain and monitor useful interventions aimed at prevention".

Searches are under way in several Nigerian states following the abduction of hundreds of schoolchildren and displaced people in recent weeks. 

At least 400 people were taken from a displaced persons' camp by suspected Boko Haram fighters on 3 March, Amnesty International reported. Days later, armed "bandits" on motorbikes arrived at a primary school in Kuriga, northwest Nigeria, and "herded" around 300 students from the grounds, said Nigeria's Premium Times. A further 15 pupils were kidnapped from a boarding school in the northwestern state of Sokoto. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

The country is "once more being rocked by mass abductions", said the BBC. More than 3,600 people were kidnapped in Nigeria last year, "the most ever" recorded, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data figures cited by The Economist in January.

What did the commentators say? 

Last week's events "brought to the limelight and possibly a climax the tragic episodes of years-long reign of terror in the community", said Premium Times. "For nearly two years, men including young boys haven't been sleeping in the night in Kuriga," an unnamed resident told the news site. "We do patrols with our locally made guns and rechargeable torchlights till the dawn." 

The threat of abduction looms large across the country. In the northeast, "jihadists linked to Islamic State attack the army and villages", said The Economist. The northwest is "riddled with gangs that routinely kidnap for ransom. A decades-long conflict between mostly Muslim herders and largely Christian farmers rumbles on in the country's centre" and "separatist violence still smoulders in the south-east". 

There had been a "lull" in mass kidnappings in recent months, but now it is "déjà vu" as the 10th anniversary of the Chibok secondary school tragedy nears, said the BBC. Since the abduction of 200 pupils by Boko Haram in 2014, "criminal bandits" have "mastered the abduction game", said Premium Times.  

But unlike Boko Haram, those carrying out many of the recent attacks are not driven by a political or religious cause, said Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani in The Sunday Times. Their "primary motivation" is money. 

Authorities do not usually manage to apprehend kidnappers, but "on the rare occasions" when they do, "these criminals are often revealed to be ordinary people with families, jobs, or even university students", said Nwaubani. For some, kidnapping has become "a desperate means of survival". 

"In general, kidnap-for-ransom in Nigeria is a low-risk, high-reward business," said the BBC. It has become "a lucrative venture for people driven by economic desperation".

The country's turbulent economy "creates the conditions for kidnapping", William Linder, head of Africa-focused risk advisory firm 14 North, told the broadcaster. "Food prices have skyrocketed" and "the perception of corruption continues".

Security forces are working to pursue the attackers, but the Nigerian military "is spread thin" across "a multitude of crises", said Al Jazeera. "Local vigilante groups are not enough of a bulwark against the armed groups." 

What next?

The recent abductions "represent just a fragment of a broader and deeply troubling pattern", said Nwaubani. "Nearly everyone I know in Nigeria has a relative or friend who has been abducted." Families are "forced into dire financial straits" to save their loved ones. Many Nigerians fear they are "just a sitting duck". 

The country's "porous and insecure" borders add to its "insecurity", said the BBC. Forests in border regions have become "operational bases for the criminals". 

The West African country needs to "work with its neighbours'', Bulama Bukarti, senior conflict analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told the broadcaster. "Without transnational cooperation especially with Niger, Cameroon, Chad, including in the north-western part of Nigeria's border, these incidents will continue to repeat themselves." 

Though government spending on defence has risen, it has taken a cut in real terms against an inflation rate of 29%, said The Economist. Officials tend to "splurge on fancy weapons systems that fail to tackle the roots of the problem". Against this backdrop, these events call for a "swift re-evaluation of the subsisting national security strategies", said Nigerian daily newspaper Punch. 

Further measures such as "deploying security forces to vulnerable areas, increasing surveillance, and implementing checkpoints along known routes used by abductors can go a long way in checking the situation", Punch continued. President Bola Tinubu "must double down" and "demonstrate an iron resolve to end mass kidnappings once and for all". 

While security forces continue their searches, the communities rocked by these most recent abductions wait for news. "Combing the woodland expanses" for the missing children in Kuriga "could take weeks", said The Guardian. A local villager whose five grandchildren are among those missing said his hope for their safe return is fading. 

Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in almost 30 years, with widespread unrest and anger over soaring prices and stagnant wages.

Annual inflation is "nearing 30%" and the currency is "in freefall", said CNBC, prompting "protests across the country over the weekend" against the government's reforms.

Nigeria is Africa's largest economy but half of its population of 210 million "is younger than 18", said the Financial Times (FT). If the difficulties for working Nigerians continue then further "social unrest could follow", with the country's largest confederation of trade unions threatening a nationwide strike.

How did Nigeria get here?

Though inflation is affecting economies around the world, Nigeria's economic hardship was exacerbated by reforms brought in by President Bola Tinubu, who took office in May last year.

Nigerians have long paid "some of the cheapest petrol prices in the world" thanks to subsidies, something the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other "international pressure" encouraged the new government to scrap and replace them with a "market-based pricing mechanism", said the FT.

Tinubu scrapped the fuel subsidy immediately after becoming president to "general surprise but plaudits from the international community", the paper said. In his "attempt to embrace economic orthodoxy", he also removed the naira currency peg against the dollar.

The president argued the subsidy was a "huge drain on public finances", said the BBC, and that the money (15% of the country's budget) could be "better used elsewhere". 

However, the sudden removal of the subsidy caused fuel prices to soar, while other costs rose as companies passed on the now inflated "transportation and energy costs to the consumer". The removal of the currency peg also proved disastrous. The naira has lost 70% of its value against the dollar since Tinubu took office. It means the cost of imported goods has rocketed, and Nigeria "relies heavily on imports to meet the needs of its rapidly growing population", said CNBC.

The president has also partly blamed the legacy of the previous government for the economic catastrophe, the BBC said, having asked the "country's central bank for short-term loans to cover spending amounting to $19bn", which further fuelled inflation.

What is the government doing to fix it?

Though the IMF called for the end of the fuel subsidy, a lack of "measures to cushion the effect of shock therapy" has resulted in the turmoil in which Nigeria now finds itself, said the FT.

With inflation "fueling widespread hardship", the government is risking mass strikes as it is "yet to implement cost-of-living adjustments" it promised last October, said Alexander Onukwue on Semafor.

It has implemented some emergency measures to try to relieve some of the suffering, including "the establishment of a board charged with controlling and regulating food prices", the BBC said. It is also distributing widely from the national grain reserve, though critics have suggested the "method of food distribution" means that "much of it does not reach poor families". Poorer households additionally receive "a cash transfer of 25,000 naira ($16; £13) a month", though given inflation it is an amount that "doesn't go very far".

President Tinubu continues to argue that Nigeria will benefit economically in the long run, but there are signs that "government resolve is wobbling" on the fuel subsidy, said the FT. Petrol pump prices are still below the cost of importing petrol, pointing to what the IMF suggests is "the quiet reintroduction of 'an implicit subsidy'". The government, however, has "not publicly acknowledged the move".

"Violence and insecurity in many rural areas" are compounding the pressures, said CNBC, and there looks to be no quick solution, with inflation predicted to peak in the second quarter of 2024.

Nigeria's most prominent Christian televangelist physically and sexually abused dozens of his followers in crimes that spanned continents and went on for decades, a new investigation has alleged.

Temitope Balogun Joshua, known as TB Joshua, founded one of Nigeria's biggest churches, called the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), in 1987. But according to BBC reporting, he committed sexual crimes against his followers "on a mass scale" until his death, aged 57, in 2021. 

Allegations against him include rape, sexual assault, forced abortions and violent assaults including being whipped and tied up with chains, as well as sleep deprivation and isolation.

The background

TB Joshua was regarded as "one of the most influential pastors in African history" before his sudden death in 2021, soon after the BBC and openDemocracy began investigating the church leader. 

Joshua's global television and social media operation was "among the most successful Christian networks in the world" with viewers across many continents, said the BBC. His church lives on despite his death, now being led by his widow Evelyn and "a new team of disciples". 

Joshua was well known for his so-called "miracles", many of which were documented on his Emmanuel TV network. The channel featured footage of people "allegedly healed from HIV/Aids, cancer and paralysis" among other ailments, said openDemocracy. 

OpenDemocracy first began looking into allegations of abuse by Joshua in 2021. It found that he "weaponised homophobic teachings to promote fake cures for what he called the 'demon' of homosexuality", leading to his TV channel – which at the time had around 5.6 million subscribers – being shut down by YouTube.

The latest

More than 25 of Joshua's former followers gave testimony as part of a two-year joint investigation.

The evidence gathered by the news organisations suggests that Joshua was "abusing and raping young women from around the world several times a week for nearly 20 years", said the BBC. 

Five of the people interviewed were British women, including Rae, who was 21 in 2002 when she abandoned her graphic design degree in Brighton to travel to Lagos, Nigeria.

Coming from a conservative Christian background, she said she turned to Joshua for help because she was gay and "didn't want to be", she told the broadcaster. She was soon recruited into the church and would spend the next 12 years as one of Joshua's so-called "disciples" inside his compound in Lagos. 

Rae told the BBC that she was sexually assaulted by Joshua and underwent further abuse by being subjected to isolation for two years. She said the abuse was so severe she attempted suicide several times.

"We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and in hell terrible things happen," she said. 

Another former disciple, Jessica Kaimu, from Namibia, recounted how she was first raped by Joshua at the age of 17. 

She was forced to undergo five abortions during her five years in the compound, in what she called "backdoor type medical treatments", which "could have killed" her and other disciples forced into the procedure.

Multiple former followers of the church alleged that disciples were subjected to forced abortions.

The reaction

The investigation, which has been turned into a three-part BBC documentary series, has been trending in Nigeria and Ghana on social media site X, where the revelations have provoked "mixed reactions", said Business Day. 

Some have defended the controversial pastor and alleged he had healed them from ailments. "I had a heart issue from Kenya and got healed when he prayed for me in 2014. Have you ever called me to testify what God did to me through him?" said one person on YouTube. 

Others, however, have expressed shock at the revelations and called for a "thorough investigation", said Africa News. 

One social media user described the documentary as a "roller coaster ride". They added: "First I was like why will they wait for him to die before they drop it knowing he can't defend himself? after the last episode, I'm just sitting here in tears. idk if it's anger, disappointment, disbelief or pain." 

The church has not responded to specific claims made by the BBC and openDemocracy, but in a statement said: "Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence. None of the allegations was ever substantiated."

The controversy over the Elgin Marbles has been reignited after Downing Street cancelled a meeting between Rishi Sunak and the Greek prime minister at the last minute.

The British and Greek governments are "embroiled in a deepening row", said the BBC, after Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek PM, told the BBC on Sunday that the artefects should be returned because having some in London and the rest in Athens was like "cutting the Mona Lisa in half". No.10 subsequently scrapped talks between Sunak and Mitsotakis that were due to take place in London today. 

The sculptures’ presence in the UK rather than their original homeland of Greece has been controversial for decades. The marbles, which date back more than 2,500 years, were removed from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who was serving as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then controlled Greece.

Pro: legality

This argument is based on the view that Lord Elgin committed an illegal act when he removed the sculptures from the Parthenon and exported them to Britain between 1802 and 1812. The Ottomans, who controlled Greece at the time, didn't have the right to allow Elgin to visit the Parthenon in the first place, it is said.

Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said in May that Lord Elgin used "illicit and inequitable means to seize and export" the Parthenon sculptures, without "real legal permission to do so, in a blatant act of serial theft".

Con: could open floodgates

Some believe that Greece's claim on the Elgin Marbles is the tip of an iceberg. If the British Museum were to return the marbles, the "floodgates might open on other restitution claims", said The Guardian as far back as 2003. Nigeria "wants the return of the Benin bronzes, looted by Britain in 1897", it added.

This argument has endured, as have warnings that museums would be diminished if these claims were answered. "If all restoration demands were met, many of the world’s greatest museums would be emptied of their trademark exhibits," said Elginism.

Pro: Britain 'can't be trusted'

Calls for the return of treasures increased after it was revealed in August that thousands of items had been stolen from the British Museum, reported Sky News. 

The Elgin Marbles have landed "at the centre of renewed calls for repatriation" amid claims the British Museum's security "cannot be trusted", noted the broadcaster.

Despina Koutsoumba, head of the Greek Association of Archaeologists, said there was shock among colleagues at how items could be stolen from such a renowned institution and then sold on eBay.

Con: safety and preservation

Some argue that, had the marbles remained in Athens, they "likely would have shared the same fate as other ancient sculptures that were destroyed and mutilated", noted Future Learn.

It traces the history of the Parthenon itself, which had sculptures "defaced and displaced" in the sixth century, before being blown up in 1687. Then, during the Grand Tour of the 19th century, European visitors "chiselled away bits and pieces of reliefs and sculptures to take home as souvenirs", while today, the ruins remain vulnerable to Athens' "destructive smog".

Pro: cultural heritage

It is argued that, as the most obvious and symbolic link that modern Athens and modern Athenians have with their ancient ancestors, the pieces represent a crucial and pivotal part of Greek cultural heritage.

"How would Britain feel," asked Future Learn, "if Stonehenge was being held by a foreign power who wouldn't return it?" How is it fair for Britain to keep its most important cultural treasures as well as the most important cultural treasures of other countries?

Con: lost audience

By remaining in the British Museum in London, the marbles serve a "far larger audience" than they would if they were sent back to Athens, said Future Learn.

Writing for The Guardian in 2002, Alan Howarth MP agreed, arguing that "the major museums have always promoted the cultures of other nations by showing and sharing them in an international and historical context".

Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president, having been tasked with reviving Africa’s largest economy, healing ethnic and religious divisions and tackling security issues.

In his inaugural address on Monday, he said: “We have endured hardships that would have made other societies crumble. Yet, we have shouldered the heavy burden to arrive at this sublime moment where the prospect of a better future merges with our improved capacity to create that future.”

Unfortunately, “at a time when the country desperately needs to rally toward a new sense of national purpose” it has a new president “of dubious legitimacy because of widespread irregularities”, wrote Howard W. French for Foreign Policy.

“What is more, in Tinubu, who is officially 70 years old but is commonly believed to be substantially older, Nigeria is getting yet another visibly aged leader of questionable stamina for a job that should not be a laurel or capstone, but rather the challenge of a lifetime for a creative and resourceful statesman at the peak of his or her capacities,” he added.

Can he revive the economy?

“Reviving the fortunes of Africa’s largest economy is a critical challenge that Tinubu must immediately tackle head on,” said CNN. Having endured two recessions in five years, Nigeria faces “unprecedented levels of inflation, high unemployment and a heavy reliance on dwindling oil revenues, which has led to an exodus of mostly young Nigerians in a brain drain crisis known locally as ‘japa,’ or escape”, the news network reported.

Of all these problems, Nigeria’s debt profile stands out “like a sore thumb”, said Professor Stephen Onyeiwu in The Conversation.

The key to reducing the country’s “unsustainable” debt burden – estimated to be more than $100 billion last year – rests on Tinubu “being able to kickstart Nigeria’s economy and improve the finances of the Nigerian state”, said Remi Adekoya, a lecturer at York University.

In this regard, the new president benefits from being seen as “very pro-business”, which should attract much-needed foreign investment, said Adekoya. “Foreign investors would see him as a welcome change from the business-sceptic former President Buhari. This could work in Nigeria’s favor,” he said on CNN.

Yet things have got off to rocky start. Tinubu’s decision to scrap a decades-long subsidy on petroleum products led to people panic-buying fuel on his first full day in power.

He has argued the subsidy, which is a huge drain on public finances, could no longer be justified and should instead be spent on infrastructure. But BBC News said it is still “seen by many Nigerians as one of the few perks they receive from the state” and the last attempt to remove it in 2012 saw nationwide protests and a policy U-turn from the government.

What about the rampant insecurity issue?

Beyond the economy, the new administration “will have to deal with rampant insecurity across almost all six of its geopolitical zones”, reported Al Jazeera.

CNN said Nigeria “has been plagued by insurgencies, banditry, and communal conflicts that pose significant threats to the nation”. These include the 13-year armed campaign by Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeast, secessionists in the southeast, gangs of bandits in the northwest and central Nigeria, and other multiple armed groups operating elsewhere in the country.

Tinubu vowed to make security “the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity or justice can prevail against insecurity and violence”. However, unlike many previous Nigerian presidents the new commander-in-chief has no military experience, so much will depend on who he appoints to deal with what CNN said “remains a paramount challenge” for his administration.

Healing divisions

Defeating insurgents may pale in comparison to uniting a divided nation. Tinubu’s task will not be helped by the fact he secured victory in February’s contested election with just 37% of the vote – the lowest of any elected Nigerian president since the handover from military to democratic rule in 1999.

Julius Abure, chair of the opposition Labour Party, described the vote as “a rape on democracy”. There were accusations of gerrymandering and widespread manipulation following a campaign that further polarised Nigeria’s long-standing ethnic and religious divisions.

As governor of Lagos from 1999 to 2007, “Tinubu showed considerable dynamism”, said French. “The organising principle of his rule was that for the city to function better, a new social compact was required,” he added.

But getting all Nigerians “to buy into a civic compact like this and delivering on the far larger and more complex stage of a struggling and fractious nation is a challenge of a different magnitude than even running giant Lagos, and because of the woeful nature of the current political system Tinubu will not start off with high levels of trust in him”.

A wealthy Nigerian senator, his wife and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking under the UK Modern Slavery Act, in a landmark case.

Ike and Beatrice Ekweremadu and Dr Obinna Obeta conspired to bring a young street trader from Lagos to Britain to harvist his kidney, a jury at the Old Bailey heard. The organ was to be given to the couple’s 25-year-old daughter, Sonia, who was found not guilty of the same charge.

Prosecutors claimed the intended donor, 21, had been “offered up to £7,000 and promised opportunities in the UK”, the BBC reported. But he “only realised what was going on when he met doctors” at the Royal Free Hospital in London, where the £80,000 private transplant was to be carried out.

The Ekweremadus were said to have pretended he was their daughter’s cousin, but were told he was a medically unsuitable match. According to the presecution, the couple then “transferred their interest to Turkey and set about finding another donor” for their daughter, “who has a serious kidney condition”, The Independent reported.

Hugh Davies KC said the Ekweremadus and Obeta, who helped find the proposed donor, had treated the intended victim and others like him as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”. Obeta, of Southwark in south London, had recently had a private kidney transplant at the Royal Free with a Nigerian donor.

Rather than asking members of their own families to donate an organ, the plotters decided it was “far better to buy one and let the medical risk go to someone you don't know”, David claimed.

An investigation was launched after the Lagos man “ran away from London and slept rough for days before walking into a police station in Staines, in Surrey, crying and in distress”, the BBC reported.

The resulting convictions mark the first of their kind under the Modern Slavery Act.

The three “conspirators” will be sentenced on 5 May and “all face up to ten years in jail”, said the Daily Mail.

Tens of millions of Nigerians will head to the polls on Saturday to elect a successor to the country’s president Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down after two terms in office.

As election day approaches, analysts are describing the vote as a key “inflection point” for the country and also potentially the African continent. Nigeria “is large enough to change the fortunes of the entire region through its own success or failure”, said Foreign Policy, so this election “is a global event – even if the world scarcely knows it”.

Who is leading in the polls?

On 25 February, voters will choose from 18 candidates in a first-round vote to succeed Buhari. A run-off will be held unless one candidate gets at least one-quarter of the votes in each of at least two-thirds of all the country’s states.

Nigerian politics has traditionally been dominated by two major parties since the end of military rule in 1999 – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its main opposition, the People’s Democratic party (PDP). But this year an outsider, Peter Obi, leads the polls as the election approaches.

Recent surveys put the 61-year-old businessman-turned-politician between 10% and 40% ahead of his main rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Bola Tinubu of the APC.

A former state governor, Obi ran for the PDP as its vice-presidential candidate in 2019 but switched to the Labour Party last year. His campaign as an outsider able to shake up Nigerian politics has been well received and his support has grown rapidly.

With speeches hailed by some as “fresh and unifying”, but criticised as “populist” by his detractors, Obi has “caught the attention of Nigeria’s young population, 60% of whom are under the age of 25”, said France 24.

A win for Obi on Saturday would herald “potentially sweeping change in Africa’s most populous nation”, said The Guardian. However, experts warn that a low turnout could mean victory for the ruling party’s candidate, Tinubu.

“The current government is in a bad situation, and the way many young people see it is that people like Abubakar and Tinubu are part of the problem,” said Dele Babalola, a Nigeria expert at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent. “Obe [sic] is 61 but he’s the youngest of the candidates [the other two being in their 70s] and a fresh face.”

Will it be fair?

Elections in Nigeria are “often tainted by ethnic and religious rhetoric”, said DW, “with past votes marred by violence and fraud”.

“All elections are important, but there really is a lot riding on this one,” said Leena Koni Hoffmann, from the Chatham House think tank in London. “It is really important that this election is credible, is free and perceived as fair.”

The election has already witnessed considerable violence. At least eight police officers have been killed in separate attacks by suspected rebels in Nigeria’s southeast in recent days. The incidents have “stoked fears about the ability of Nigeria’s security forces to protect voters at the polls this weekend”, said Al Jazeera.

Festus Okoye, from Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, said that it might not be possible to scrutinise some polling stations because of security concerns.

“The security agencies have promised that they have the capacity to secure our communities to make it possible for people to vote,” he said. “[But] for people in zones that are still in conflict, there is absolutely nothing we can do.”

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), part of the problem is the “impunity for abuses by security forces and other actors during the previous general elections in 2019”.

“There is a thick veil of violence shrouding the 2023 elections that undermines people’s fundamental right to vote,” said Anietie Ewang, a Nigerian researcher at HRW.

“It is important for the authorities to swiftly restore public confidence in their ability to hold those responsible for electoral violence accountable and ensure the safety and security of all Nigerians,” Ewang added.

How will it impact the rest of the world?

The election is “being fought against the backdrop of rampant insecurity and economic stagnation”, said the Financial Times. “Crisis-ridden Nigeria is no longer the stabilising force it once was in a region where coups, terrorism and Russian influence are proliferating.”

The country’s landmark election “will have a significant bearing not only on Nigeria’s domestic economy and security”, said CNBC, “but on its place in the global trade and diplomatic framework and on faith in democratic transitions in West Africa”.

The outcome of this election matters to the whole world, Chidi Odinkalu, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told the FT.

“No one wants to see Nigeria go up in flames,” said Odinkalu. “We have been teetering on the brink for such a long time that Nigerians have come to believe we are defying the laws of gravity. But some day, gravity will have its say.”

Yet there “are signs of hope”, said Chatham House’s Hoffmann. “Deep dissatisfaction with Nigeria’s metastasized problems seems likely to spur more young people to the polls: 84% of the 10 million new voters added to the register in 2022 were aged 34 or less; only 3% are over 65.”

One first-time voter, 26-year-old Kingsley Chima, told ABC News that the election is make or break: “Either we get things right now in Nigeria, or never.”

Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, northern Nigeria, was once seen “as an oasis of knowledge in a vast land of aridity... a symbol of enlightenment and civility”. Not any more, said Dare Babarinsa in The Guardian (Lagos). Earlier this month, Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a bright young Christian student who’d done well in her exams, wrote to fellow students on a WhatsApp group saying “I thank Jesus for my success.” From then on, “death stalked her”.

Enraged by her praise of Jesus, some Muslim fellow students accused her of making blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. Dragging her outside, they beat her to death and set fire to her body. When the suspects were arrested, a mob went on a rampage in the town, demanding their release and insisting death was the deserved punishment for blasphemy.

Even if her killers are convicted, said Abimbola Adelakun in Punch (Lagos), the real challenge lies “in confronting the world that emboldened” them. Nigeria is a supposedly secular state, yet it’s teeming with Muslim fundamentalists who justify violent deeds on religious grounds.

The extreme example is the jihadist group Boko Haram, which terrorises much of the north. But extra-judicial sectarian killings, often involving accusations of blasphemy, also occur with sickening regularity, and are all too often endorsed by religious leaders.

And all too often brushed aside by political leaders, said Ebenezer Obadare in Council on Foreign Relations (New York). Of the main party candidates running for president in next year’s election, just one has condemned the killing of Yakubu. The ex-vice president and presidential hopeful Atiku Abubakar did initially tweet his condemnation, but then deleted it, saying his account had been hacked.

This is all the result of the way the country is split, religiously and ethnically. The Igbo population in the south is mainly Christian; the Yoruba and ethnic groups in the middle about 50% Christian, 50% Muslim; the Hausa-Fulani in the north are largely Muslim. Given the political hegemony of the north, politicians are loath to provoke northern Muslims and the conservative religious establishment by highlighting blasphemy cases.

The “ideological chasm” between north and south has been the core issue threatening Nigeria’s unity since independence in 1960, said Obadare. And “the grip of conservative Islam on northern Nigeria is tightened by poverty and illiteracy”: the World Bank estimates that 87% of poor Nigerians live in the north.

What’s more, Sharia law holds sway in all 12 northern states, said Lasisi Olagunju in Nigerian Tribune (Ibadan), and under Sharia, blasphemy is a serious offence. It’s said “the quickest way to die is to be wrongly accused of blasphemy in northern Nigeria. If you’re lucky, you’ll get locked up by a Sharia court.” If not, you will meet the fate of Deborah Yakubu.

1. Tories may never recover if they lose in 2024

James Forsyth in The Times

On electoral D-day

Some Tories are beginning to suggest that it might “be better to lose the next election”, says James Forsyth in The Times. Economic forecasts are “grim” and after so long in office the party needs time in opposition “to refresh themselves”. The alternative could be “struggling on with a reduced majority”, which could lead to “five years of paralysis”. But “if the Tories lose the next election, changes to the voting system (always demanded by the Lib Dems) may see them locked out of office for a generation”. The Tories might discover, in opposition, “that its new coalition of voters doesn’t have much in common post-Brexit” and “the party could, literally, fall apart”, he adds. “The biggest worry for the Tories is how defeat could see the political playing field tilt against them for good.”

Read more

2. Nigeria’s Christians are under attack, but does the West care?

Hardeep Singh in The Spectator

On patchy support

A woman was “stoned, beaten and set on fire by a mob shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’” in Nigeria last week, but Hardeep Singh asks in The Spectator what the West is doing about it. “In the last year, more Christians have been killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world combined,” he says. Yet Joe Biden has recently removed Nigeria from a list of “countries of particular concern” regarding religious freedom. The UK government also has a “patchy” record of support for internally displaced people in Nigeria. “While the focus of the Western world rightly remains on the suffering of Ukrainians,” Singh argues, “we can ill-afford to forget the nightmarish plight of Nigeria’s persecuted Christians.”

Read more

3. Why Boris Johnson can’t escape responsibility for 126 fines

Martin Fletcher in The New Statesman

On public opinion

“There will be huge relief in Downing Street that Boris Johnson is to receive no more fines for partygate,” says Martin Fletcher for The New Statesman, “and at first sight it does appear that the ‘greased piglet’ may have wriggled out of yet another impossibly tight corner.” But Sue Gray’s final report is “expected to be published imminently and is likely to be damning”, while the “Privileges Committee will launch its investigation into whether Johnson deliberately lied to the House of Commons”. Aside from these direct threats, most dangerous for the PM could be “the court of public opinion”, he adds. “However the Met chooses to interpret the law, most ordinary people know perfectly well that he partied and lied about it while they were barred from deathbeds, funerals, weddings, births and christenings.”

Read more

4. I loved poking fun at Jordan Peterson’s Twitter tantrum, but we have no reason to feel smug

Kuba Shand-Baptiste on the i news site

On ridiculing radicals

“It’s always satisfying when someone you disagree with gets a taste of their own medicine,” says Kuba Shand-Baptiste on the i news site. And she admits she “laughed along” when Jordan Peterson was taken to task over a sexist tweet, leading him to quit the social network. But we need more than giggles. “Regardless of his absence on Twitter, his army of followers and the ideas they subscribe to are still spreading like wildfire – and not enough is being done to stop it,” she warns. “If we’re to rid ourselves of this escalating problem, solely ridiculing it and its biggest promoters is not the way to go” because “if something’s going to change, if we have any hope of preventing people from being indoctrinated, we need to intervene in more meaningful ways”.

Read more

5. RIP Wags: The Vardy-Rooney clash marks the end of an era, and not before time

Judith Woods in The Telegraph

On Wagatha Christie

“As the final whistle blew at the High Court this week on Rebekah Vardy versus Coleen Rooney there was no jubilation,” writes Judith Woods in The Telegraph. All that was left was “a sense of finality as this unedifying she-said-she-said bitchfest” brought “a cataclysmic end to the Age of the Wags”. “We can all agree” that “while perhaps technically accurate”, the term Wag is a “dated, reductive way to refer to these women, who are conspicuously successful in their own right”. Harry Kane’s wife, Katie Goodland, is a sports science graduate and Raheem Sterling’s girlfriend, Paige Milian, has a property empire and an accountancy qualification. In other words, the “high-octane, high-maintenance reign” of Wags is over.

Read more

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

To get six free issues of The Week magazine and a moleskine notebook visit theweek.co.uk/offer and enter promo code: pod25

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Old nukes

When America’s current generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles entered development, Lyndon Johnson was president and the first series of Star Trek was on TV. Now the aging nuclear delivery system is due for an overhaul, but questions are being asked about whether the US still needs its ICBMs and if updating them goes against the spirit of the country’s commitment to nuclear disarmament.

Nigeria ransoms

While the kidnapping of schoolchildren is, sadly, not uncommon in northern Nigeria, it is mostly associated with ideological attacks by Boko Haram. Now, however, it seems that other armed groups are abducting children simply for ransom - and the Nigerian government stands accused of encouraging the practice by paying up.

In search of awe

Scientists in California have published new research suggesting that experiencing awe may reduce our attachment to certain ideological convictions - and that more awe and wonder in our lives could decrease political polarisation. Their work builds on emerging research about how awe can make us happier and kinder - which may be particularly important after a year of confinement.

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped on the Global Player, Apple podcasts, SoundCloud or wherever you get you get your podcasts.

A quarter of a billion people across the African continent are likely to be infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus over the next year, a new World Health Organization report warns.

And health experts predict that while low rates of obesity and a youthful population will result in “a lower rate of transmission and viral spread” than in Europe, Africa’s death toll may reach up to 190,000.

After escaping the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, several African countries are now recording a steady increase in Covid-19 infection rates.

Although Tanzania has not reported figures for infections or deaths since 29 April, alarming reports are emerging from the country’s biggest city.

The “risk of contracting Covid-19 in Dar es Salaam is extremely high”, with evidence of “exponential growth of the epidemic” in the city and beyond, the US embassy in Tanzania said in a statement posted on Twitter earlier this week.

“Many hospitals in Dar es Salaam have been overwhelmed,” the embassy added.

Tanzania’s president has accused journalists of exaggerating the threat, but “videos of night burials have emerged on social media and triggered panic”, The Times reports. “Senior members of the cabinet are also suspected to have died after contracting the virus.”

In South Africa, the picture is very different. “A combination of mass screening, targeted testing and a draconian lockdown” have kept infections in check, says Nigeria’s Business Day newspaper.

In fact, South Africa’s tally of Covid-19 deaths so far has been “more than compensated for” by steep drops in homicides and road traffic fatalities, adds Australia’s News.com.au.

The Covid-19 death toll now stands at 238, in a country with roughly the same population as Italy and the UK - but daily deaths are creeping up and lockdown fatigue is growing. “A wave of infections at some point this year is almost inevitable,” says The Guardian. “All the state can do is delay it.”

Elsewhere on the continent, the outlook is mixed.

Botswana and Namibia have reported just one death between them. But in Nigeria, where the official death toll is 167, “scores of mysterious deaths” in the north of the country “have sparked speculation that coronavirus may be moving untracked through Africa’s most populous nation”, the Financial Times reports.

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South Africa and parts of the wider African continent have been shaken by deadly violence and xenophobic attacks, which threaten to overshadow the ongoing World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had reportedly hoped that the forum would “revive South Africa’s ailing economy and boost intra-African trade”, Reuters says, but a week of anti-immigrant violence, during which several people have been killed and hundreds of arrests been made, has “all but eclipsed those proceedings”.

The violence began last week when rioters in Pretoria and Johannesburg targeted immigrants from other African countries, “torching their shops and leading to at least 10 deaths”, The New York Times reports. “Now, angry citizens and governments across the continent are lashing out at South Africa and its businesses, denouncing what they call ‘xenophobia’.”

“Our country has been deeply traumatized ...by acts of violence and criminality,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address. “There can be no excuse for attacks on homes and businesses of foreign nationals ... [or] xenophobia.”

Why are South Africans turning on other Africans?

According to the New York Times, anti-immigrant sentiment is a “longstanding issue” in South Africa, where the “legacies of colonialism and apartheid run deep, and a political shift has not delivered meaningful change to many poor South Africans”.

As a result of this, immigrants from countries such as Nigeria, Mozambique, Somalia and Zimbabwe are “often regarded by South Africans as competitors for jobs and social services”.

South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor has admitted the existence of systemic “Afrophobia”, a resentment of other Africans living and working in the country, Reuters reports.

The slumping economy, which has left almost one-third of South Africans out of work, has increased the rate of attacks on foreigners in South Africa over recent years.

However, they spiked dramatically last Sunday when rioters in Johannesburg targeted shops owned by immigrants. Bloomberg reports that this was in response to the shooting of a South African taxi driver allegedly by a Nigerian drug dealer, although this has not been verified.

At least ten people have been killed in the flare-up of violence so far. Police have arrested at least 423 people in and around Johannesburg in connection with xenophobic disorder.

What has the response been?

Under intense scrutiny from other African leaders, Ramaphosa has been quick to condemn the violence.

Nigeria, which believes that a number of its citizens have been killed in the violence, has already reacted strongly, electing to boycott the World Economic Forum and recalling its ambassador to South Africa.

Nigerian foreign minister Geoffrey Onyeama said in a statement: “The government believes that we have to take the moral high ground on this matter.”

The president has also sent an envoy to South Africa to “express Nigeria’s displeasure over the treatment of her citizens”, he added. In response, South Africa has severed many of its diplomatic ties with Nigeria.

The response on the streets of Nigeria has been just as fierce. On Tuesday and Wednesday, South African-owned businesses in the capital Abuja and the largest city Lagos were targeted by protesters, who started fires and looted multiple properties.

The unrest has also touched the country’s elite, with two popular Nigerian musicians, Burna Boy and Tiwa Savage, announcing that they were boycotting South Africa.

It appears that much of Africa has taken the side of Nigeria on the issue, with demonstrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second city, Lubumbashi, breaking the windows of South Africa’s consulate, while Air Tanzania has suspended flights to Johannesburg because of the violence.

Furthermore, both the Zambia and Madagascar football federations announced that they will not be sending a team to play South Africa, citing security concerns.

Ramaphosa has called for calm, writing on Twitter that: “The people of our country want to live in harmony. Whatever grievance and concerns people have, we need to handle it in a democratic way.”

Nigerian voters will head to the polls tomorrow for a pivotal election that sees President Muhammadu Buhari fighting for a second term.

The vote was initially scheduled for 16 February, but just five hours before it was due to begin, the country’s Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) announced that the election had been postponed by a week, blaming the delay on “logistical reasons, including fires, bad weather, and difficulties distributing voting materials”, The Spectator reports.

With crunch time fast approaching, we look at what is at stake and who is expected to win.

Who is running?

Buhari came to power in 2015 as leader of the centre-left All Progressives Congress (APC), vowing to “root out corruption, revive the economy and defeat the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency”, the BBC reports.

Yet despite the electorate “taking him at his word”, his first term has been “marred by his prolonged absence due to illness, a weak economy, and the government’s failure to effectively tackle corruption and insecurity”, The Guardian says.

The 76-year-old leader is running for re-election against 71 other candidates, but his main challenger is Atiku Abubakar, a business tycoon and former vice president who is representing the centre-right People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The president faces an extremely tight battle against 72-year-old Abubakar, who has pledged to privatise the state oil company and float the currency to reinvigorate the flagging economy, says Johannesburg-based newspaper Business Day.

Why was the vote delayed?

The last-minute cancellation of last week’s vote “surprised the country and inconvenienced thousands of Nigerians who had travelled a long way to cast their votes”, the BBC reports. The delay also cost the the nation’s economy around $1.5bn (£1.15bn).

Although the INEC blamed logistical issues for the delay, the two main contender’s parties are blaming each other.

In a statement, the APC claimed that the PDP wanted to halt Buhari’s momentum, while Abubakar’s party has suggested that electoral commission bosses delayed the election to create “the space to perfect their rigging plans”.

Al Jazeera suggests that “given the Nigerian judiciary’s lack of independence and well-earned reputation for corruption, it is possible that the Nigerian presidency could essentially be sold to the highest bidder”.

Who will win?

The playing field seems surprisingly level.

Business Day reports that both men are Muslims from the north, which “could make that area a crucial battleground”. The Spectator notes that they also share an “electoral disadvantage in a country of mainly young people” - the average age of a Nigerian is just 18, while both candidates are in their 70s.

According to Olly Owen, a lecturer in African studies at Oxford University, both men also “appeal to two distinct tendencies among Nigerian voters - a yearning for clean government and a desire for economic opportunity”.

Given this apparently even split in likely support, some experts suggest that endorsements may swing the election. Abubakar will benefit from the support of key powerbrokers, including former army chiefs and heads of state.

However, Al Jazeera reports that images posted online showing policemen and soldiers using Buhari’s campaign sign, which “indicates an endorsement”, have gone viral. “Security forces are seen with their hands raised and showing what is known locally as ‘4 + 4’, which means a second term of four years for the incumbent,” the site says.

Victor Okhai, the presidential candidate for the minority Providence People’s Charter party, has voiced fears over the outcome, regardless of the winner.

“I envisage that the results will be seriously contested and disputed,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is because the gladiators from the two biggest parties have sworn not to give in or concede victory in case they lose. This is not healthy for the polity.”

Nigeria votes for a new president this week, with the latest polls predicting victory for opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar.

A survey from US-based firm Williams and Associates shows 64% of respondents believe the incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve to be re-elected because of his poor performance in office.

Known as “Mr Honesty,” Buhari “was elected four years ago on a wave of disgust at the perceived avarice of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration – but as he fights for a second term in Saturday’s election, his efforts to bring corruption under control are widely seen as a failure”, says The Guardian.

According to Transparency International’s latest corruption perception index published last month, Nigeria has not improved significantly since he came to power.

“The lead-up to the elections has been marked by violence,” says CNN, “prompting warnings from the UK and US governments to say they would deny visas and likely prosecute those found inciting violence during the 16 February vote”.

On Sunday, Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) confirmed two of its offices had been burned down in less than a week. The INEC did not say who was responsible for the fires, but it said it had notified the Acting Inspector General of Police on the “emerging trend of burning the electoral commissions' offices”.

Trailing in the polls, President Buhari has alleged that corrupt politicians planned to use laundered funds to buy voters during the election.

By contrast, “Buhari’s own enduring reputation as a “good man” of unimpeachable character is not matched by his main challenger, former vice-president Abubakar”, says the Guardian.

Popularly known as Atiku, he is seen as a good businessman capable of running and diversifying the economy to better utilize the country’s vast natural resource potential.

He has also successfully tapped into the youth vote with an emoji-based manifesto. Although in his seventies, in a country where the median age is 18 this has brought him to the brink of power.

A popular Nigerian police chief has warned homosexuals to flee the country or face the prosecution, according to reports.

Chief Superintendent Dolapo Badmos, spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, also called on Nigerians with evidence of homosexual activity to come forward.

The message was posted on her personal Instagram account - which is set to private but has around 125,000 followers - and cites a 2014 law signed by former president Goodluck Jonathan that criminalised same-sex marriage and public displays of affection between gay people.

“If you are homosexually inclined, Nigeria is not a place for you. There is a law (Same-Sex Prohibition Act) here that criminalises homosexual clubs, associations and organisations with penalties of up to 15 years in jail,” Badmus wrote.

“So, if you are a homosexual in nature, leave the country or face prosecution. But before you say, ‘does this matter?’ Kindly note that anything against the law of the land is criminal and all crimes will be punished accordingly no matter how small you think it is.”

She added: “Anyone convicted of entering into a same-sex marriage contract or civil union faces up to 14 years imprisonment. All LGBT candidates in Nigeria should beware.”

Her warning is the “latest reminder of the challenges facing members of the LGBT community” in Nigeria, where the anti-gay law “enjoys broad support among its citizens”, CNN reports.

A recent report by The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERs) found that around 90% of Nigerians support the continued enforcement of the 2014 law.

Badmos’ post has been liked more than 2,000 times, although not everyone is supporting her stance.

Some commenters “condemned the police for going after homosexuals and ignoring more pressing issues”, reports Nigerian newspaper The Punch.

Others accused the police of being partial, and claimed that “a cross-dresser, who now identifies as transgender, had become a celebrity but was left alone because he was rich”.

Responding to those claims, Badmus posted a message that said: “In view of my last post about homosexuals and the law banning them, some people have been mentioning one particular name (very risky though) to be one.

“Kindly be informed that if you have any evidence or exhibits that can establish the case against him/her, please don’t hesitate to bring it up for a comprehensive investigation.”

The dream of a currency union across west Africa has moved one step closer, after a competition was launched to come up with a name and logo for a single currency.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is made up of Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Burkina Faso, has been planning a single currency since 2000 but progress has been slow-going.

This month, in a bid to make trading between African countries easier, Gambia, Guinea, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria announced they would join forces to interlink their payment systems.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Director-General of West African Monetary Institute, Ngozi Egbuna, said this would move the dream of a single west African currency closer.

“We are working in conjunction with the Central Banks as co-settlement and payment institutions, not that Central Banks will bring their money, but they will only oversee the trading platforms,” she said.

For many years, West Africa has been unable to have a convergence of its monetary indices, “a core [criterion] for the establishment of a single currency in the region”, says Punch.

Egbuna said that the success of the West African linked payment system would also convince countries that were still cautions of the single currency plan of its importance in boosting intra-trade.

Now finally, after years of false-starts, an Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) commission has pledged $46,000 to find a suitable name and logo for the proposed single currency for the region.

ThisDayLive reports that “all proposals for currency name shall not be based on the name of a person, ethnic group or contain expressions directly linked with a religion, country or national institution among others.

Central Banking reports the design for the new single currency, “is expected to be delivered by 2020”.

According to a document published by the Bank of Ghana, one of the members of the Ecowas, the single currency will form one of 10 proposed programmes aimed at improving integration and growth within the region.

Violence between Muslims and Christians in central Nigeria has forced the Prince of Wales to abandon plans to visit a city in the region.

Prince Charles was supposed to be travelling to Jos later this week on the final leg of his four-day royal tour of West Africa with the Duchess of Cornwall. He is said to be “disappointed” about the cancellation of engagements that were to include a discussion on peace-building efforts.

The decision was made “upon advice from the Nigerian government and others involved in security and operational aspects of the visit”, according to a spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

A conflict between mostly Muslim nomadic cattle herders and Christian farmers over land and grazing rights in the region has triggered bloody clashes in which thousands of people have died over the past year, the London Evening Standard reports.

“As many as 169 people were killed in Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, in June after Muslim Fulani herdsmen were accused of attacking members of the Berom tribe, who are mostly Christian,” says The Daily Telegraph. At least 14 more people were reportedly killed in a gunfight on the edge of the city last month, the newspaper adds.

Prince Charles will instead spend his final day in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where he will meet local people and take part in talks about conflict resolution.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We’ve arranged an interesting and engaging programme on Thursday in Abuja, which will include showcasing alternative livelihoods focusing on poultry and Acha supergrain, water aid and a peacebuilding discussion with youth peace ambassadors.”

The Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Nigeria this morning, following visits to the Gambia and Ghana.

Marcos Rojo’s 86th-minute volley saved Argentina’s blushes and sent them into the World Cup knockout stages.

The two-time winners looked on the brink of elimination but secured their spot in the round of 16 after beating Nigeria 2-1 to finish second in group D. Table-toppers Croatia who won 2-1 against Iceland.

Argentina star Lionel Messi opened the scoring after 14 minutes but Victor Moses equalised for Nigeria with a penalty six minutes after the interval.

With four minutes left Rojo volleyed home to send the Argentina fans wild and his team into the last-16 where they will meet France on 30 June in Kazan. Croatia will face Denmark in Nizhny Novgorod on 1 July.

Rojo told the BBC: “We needed it, now the World Cup begins for us. Lionel Messi had told the guys he was going to score a goal more than ever. The goal is for my family and for this group that deserves it. Let’s go Argentina!”

Croatia’s win means they won nine points out of nine while second-placed Argentina finished on four points. Nigeria were third with three points and Iceland finished bottom with one point from three matches.

Group D results

• Argentina 1 Iceland 1
• Croatia 2 Nigeria 0
• Argentina 0 Croatia 3
• Nigeria 2 Iceland 0
• Iceland 1 Croatia 2
• Nigeria 1 Argentina 2

Group D team profiles

Argentina

• Head coach: Jorge Sampaoli
• Fifa ranking: 5
• Number of World Cup appearances: 16
• Best finish: champions in 1978 and 1986
• Player to watch: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

Argentina World Cup results

• Argentina 1 Iceland 1
• Argentina 0 Croatia 3
• Nigeria 1 Argentina 2

Argentina 23-man squad

• Goalkeepers: Willy Caballero (Chelsea), Franco Armani (River Plate), Nahuel Guzman (Tigres)
• Defenders: Gabriel Mercado (Sevilla), Federico Fazio (Roma), Nicolas Otamendi (Manchester City), Marcos Rojo (Manchester United), Nicolas Taglafico (Ajax), Javier Mascherano (Hebei Fortune), Marcos Acuna (Sporting Lisbon), Cristian Ansaldi (Torino)
• Midfielders: Ever Banega (Sevilla), Lucas Biglia (AC Milan), Angel Di Maria (Paris St-Germain), Giovani Lo Celso (Paris St-Germain), Cristian Pavon (Boca Juniors), Maximiliano Meza (Independiente), Eduardo Salvio (Benfica), Enzo Perez (River Plate)
• Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus), Paulo Dybala (Juventus), Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

Iceland

• Head coach: Heimir Hallgrimsson
• Fifa ranking: 22
• Number of World Cup appearances: none
• Best finish: 2018 is Iceland’s debut
• Player to watch: Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)

Iceland World Cup results

• Argentina 1 Iceland 1
• Nigeria 2 Iceland 0
• Iceland 1 Croatia 2

Iceland 23-man squad

• Goalkeepers: Hannes Thor Halldorsson (Randers FC), Runar Alex Runarsson (FC Nordsjælland), Frederik Schram (FC Roskilde)
• Defenders: Kari Arnason (Vikingur), Ari Freyr Skulason (Lokeren), Birkir Mar Saevarsson (Valur), Sverrir Ingi Ingason (FC Rostov), Hordur Magnusson (CSKA Moscow), Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson (Levski Sofia), Ragnar Sigurdsson (FC Rostov)
• Midfielders: Johann Berg Gudmundsson (Burnley), Birkir Bjarnason (Aston Villa), Arnor Ingvi Traustason (Malmo FF), Emil Hallfredsson (Udinese), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton), Olafur Ingi Skulason (Kardemir Karabukspor), Rurik Gislason (SV Sandhausen), Samuel Fridjonsson (Valerenga), Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff City)
• Forwards: Alfred Finnbogason (Augsburg), Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson (FC Rostov), Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (Reading), Albert Gudmundsson (PSV Eindhoven)

Croatia

• Head coach: Zlatko Dalic
• Fifa ranking: 18
• Number of World Cup appearances: four
• Best finish: third place in 1998
• Player to watch: Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

Croatia World Cup results

• Croatia 2 Nigeria 0
• Argentina 0 Croatia 3
• Iceland 1 Croatia 2

Croatia 23-man squad

• Goalkeepers: Danijel Subasic (Monaco), Lovre Kalinic (Gent), Dominik Livakovic (Dinamo Zagreb)
• Defenders: Vedran Corluka (Lokomotiv Moscow), Domagoj Vida (Besiktas), Ivan Strinic (Milan), Dejan Lovren (Liverpool), Sime Vrsaljko (Atletico Madrid), Josip Pivaric (Dynamo Kiev), Tin Jedvaj (Bayer Leverkusen), Duje Caleta-Car (Red Bull Salzburg)
• Midfielders: Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona), Mateo Kovacic (Real Madrid), Milan Badelj (Fiorentina), Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan), Filip Bradaric (Rijeka)
• Forwards: Mario Mandzukic (Juventus), Ivan Perisic (Inter Milan), Nikola Kalinic (AC Milan), Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim), Marko Pjaca (Juventus), Ante Rebic (Fiorentina)

Nigeria

• Head coach: Gernot Rohr
• Fifa ranking: 47
• Number of World Cup appearances: five
• Best finish: round of 16 in 1994, 1998 and 2014
• Player to watch: John Obi Mikel (Tianjin TEDA)

Nigeria World Cup results

• Croatia 2 Nigeria 0
• Nigeria 2 Iceland 0
• Nigeria 1 Argentina 2

Nigeria 23-man squad

• Goalkeepers: Francis Uzoho (Deportivo La Coruna), Ikechukwu Ezenwa (Enyimba), Daniel Akpeyi (Chippa United)
• Defenders: William Troost-Ekong (Bursaspor), Abdullahi Shehu (Bursaspor), Tyronne Ebuehi (Benfica), Elderson Echiejile (Cercle Brugge), Bryan Idowu (Amkar Perm), Chidozie Awaziem (Porto), Leon Balogun (Brighton), Kenneth Omeruo (Chelsea)
• Midfielders: John Obi Mikel (Tianjin Teda), Ogenyi Onazi (Trabzonspor), Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester), Oghenekaro Etebo (CD Feirense), John Ogu (Hapoel Be'er Sheva), Joel Obi (Torino, Italy)
• Forwards: Ahmed Musa (Leicester), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester), Victor Moses (Chelsea), Odion Ighalo (Changchun Yatai), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Simeon Nwankwo (Crotone)

Kenya has become the latest African country to join the continent’s burgeoning space race, after launching its first home-designed satellite from the International Space Station.

The country joins Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt and Algeria on a growing list of African countries which have renewed interest in their space programmes over the past decade.

Leading the way are Nigeria and South Africa. The latter will host the world’s biggest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will cost $790m and enable astronomers to look further into space.

Nigeria, meanwhile, plans to be the first African nation to send an astronaut to space, aiming for a space visit by 2030.

CNN says Nigeria is, in fact, aiming to create a “world-class space industry” and has launched five satellites since 2003 which have helped improve agricultural practices, collect climate data and track-down hostages taken by Boko Haram.

Space programmes in Africa have a long history dating back to the 1960s when a series of dictators ploughed vast resources into reaching the stars.

Often criticised as a waste of money, there is a belief that space programmes can form an important part of economic development by driving technological development.

Launching a satellite “has the potential to improve agriculture, guard against deforestation, improve disaster planning, and provide internet to rural communities”, says Quartz.

Yet even with the likes of Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana and Egypt all developing their own satellites, the continent still lags far behind the global space race, in which China and India have made huge strides in recent years.

One way African countries could hope to make up ground on their international rivals would be through collaboration, says CNN.

Carla Sharpe, Business Manager at SKA in South Africa, says an African Space Agency, first mooted by the African Union in 2010, is the way forward.

“The African Space Agency will be beneficial in the long term but is a little premature,” she said. “I think countries need to develop and grow their own capabilities first.”

In the longer term, she said, “collaboration will be the only the answer for us to develop forward”.

Boko Haram militants have released 91 of the 110 Nigerian schoolgirls they abducted in February, authorities said today.

Witnesses in Dapchi, in the northeastern state of Yobe, said the fighters had returned the students taken from the town’s Government Girls Science and Technical College “out of pity”, telling parents “don’t you ever put your daughters in school again”, Sky News reports. The fate of the remaining girls is unclear, although five are believed to have died.

Boko Haram translates as “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language.

Bashir Manzo, who heads a parents’ support group in Dapchi, said: “The girls have been brought back. They were brought in nine vehicles and dropped outside the school at about 8am. I have the list of the missing girls with me, so I am now heading to the school to take a roll call of the returned girls to determine if any of them is still missing.

“These girls were not accompanied by any security personnel. Their abductors brought them, dropped them outside the school and left, without talking to anyone.

“We will get to know more details from the girls about their predicament while in captivity.”

The Dapchi kidnapping, on 19 February, “brought back painful memories of a similar abduction in Chibok in April 2014, when more than 200 girls were taken”, says The Daily Telegraph.

The Nigerian government “is widely reported to have paid £2m in ransom cash for the release last year of 82 of the 276 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls”, the newspaper adds.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said last week that the government had “chosen negotiation”, rather than use military force, to secure the return of the Dapchi girls.

“We are trying to be careful. It is better to get our daughters back alive,” he said.

Yan St-Pierre, a counterterrorism specialist with the Modern Security Consulting Group in Berlin, told South African news website IOL that the Dapchi girls’ release was not without precedent.

Earlier this year, a number of Boko Haram hostages, including university lecturers, were freed.

But according to St-Pierre, the latest release was “casual enough to raise a lot of questions, especially about the payment”.

“If they did pay, the Nigerian government likely paid a premium to accelerate the release in order to avoid another Chibok,” he added.

The UK is to pay for a new wing in one of Nigeria’s largest prisons in a bid to expedite the transfer of Nigerian prisoners from Britain.

The 112-bed wing at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, in Lagos, will cost just under £700,000 and will be compliant with UN standards, according to a statement submitted to Parliament by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yesterday.

It is to be built as part of a compulsory prison transfer agreement signed between the two countries in 2014. The deal allows prisoners in Nigeria and the UK to complete their criminal sentences in their respective countries.

However, poor conditions in some overseas prisons “have created a legal barrier to returning foreigners convicted in the UK”, says Sky News.

There were 270 Nigerian prisoners in UK jails at the end of 2017, accounting just under 3% of the total of 9,349 foreign national inmates, according to the Ministry of Justice.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said that “helping Nigeria to improve its prison conditions and increase prison capacity will enable us to transfer more prisoners to Nigeria, which will in turn free up prison places in the UK”.

The Nigerian prison extension will be paid for from the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which provides development and security support to countries at risk of conflict or instability.

Britain announced a £25m deal to build a prison in Jamaica in 2015, but it “fell through following a dispute over funding”, says The Independent. Similar transfer agreements have also been made with Albania, Rwanda and Libya.

More than 100 girls have been confirmed as missing following a suspected Boko Haram attack on a school in northeastern Nigeria last week.

Armed insurgents stormed the college in the town of Dapchi last Monday, in what is believed to be the largest abduction since jihadists kidnapped 276 girls from their school in Chibok in 2014.

Following days of contradictory reports from federal agencies, Nigeria’s Information Ministry confirmed yesterday that 110 students were unaccounted for.

President Muhammadu Buhari called the kidnappings a “national disaster” and promised parents their children will be found and their attackers brought to justice, CNN reports.

“We are sorry that it happened; we share your pain,” Buhari said in a statement on Twitter. “Let me assure that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return all the missing girls.”

The president also apologised after the authorities mistakenly claimed to have rescued some of the girls last week.

Authorities say it is unclear whether they have been taken hostage by terrorists. However, The New York Times reports that witnesses “described seeing the girls in militants’ vehicles as part of what appeared to be a deliberate plan to steal them”.

The attack comes almost four years after the Chibok kidnapping sparked a global social media campaign to secure their freedom.

Some of the victims have been released as a result of government negotiations or have escaped, but more than 100 of the Chibok students are still believed to be missing.

Sophy Ijeoma was at a friend’s wedding the day before New Year’s Eve when a Facebook status posted by Chidimma Amedu caught her eye.

Amedu, a distant acquaintance with whom she had rarely interacted before, cut right to the chase:

“Am of age to and I am ready to say I do and I am wasting no time,” he wrote. “Send in your applications. The most qualified will be married on January 6, 2018. Application closes 12 midnight, December 31 2017.”

Just in case there was any doubt, he added: “Am serious about this… don’t say you did not see it on time. Good luck.”

Amedu, a furniture-maker from the Nigerian capital of Abuja, has since admitted that the status was intended to be tongue in cheek. He told the BBC that he had been set to marry his former fiancee in December, but the pair split up in March. “I had the desire to get married, I had a date in mind, but no bride,” he said.

However Ijeoma, a make-up artist from Enugu in the south-east of the country, was amused and intrigued by the blunt missive, says CNN, and typed out a quick response.

“Am interested, just DM [direct message] me...lols.”

The light-hearted conversation blossomed into a flirtation over private messaging. Two days later, Amedu made the 300-mile journey to Enugu for the couple’s first date. Considering the unusual beginning to their relationship, the location was incongruously normal - the local shopping centre.

“He is the most handsome man I've ever met and I liked him instantly,” Ijeoma told the BBC, although she admitted the initial conversation was “awkward”.

However, as the day went on the pair found that they hit it off. “I fell in love with him, especially for his courage,” Ijeoma told CNN. Ultimately, the pair decided to follow Amedu’s timeline for a wedding on 6 January.

A whirlwind of introductions to family and friends followed. "At first, her family thought I was not serious but I proved to them that I was,” Amedu said.

Seven days after the fateful status, the couple tied in the knot in a traditional Igbo ceremony planned in just four days. Later this year, they are planning to hold a church wedding.

A university in Nigeria has called in snake charmers to help rid its campus of a reptile problem, following the death of a student who was bitten by a snake earlier this month

Economics student Zainab Umar died last week, three days after suffering the bite at Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University in Katsina, north-west Nigeria

The dean of student affairs, Dr Suleiman Kankara, said charmers had been hired following the incident.

“We normally hire the snake charmers whenever we get report of presence of snakes on the campus. It is unfortunate that the lady died. We know we tried our best to prevent her death,” he told the Nigerian Daily Post.

Dr Kankara also added that against medical advice, Umar was taken away by her friends and her brother from the university clinic where she had been receiving treatment.

“Zainab was bitten by a snake on Friday evening and she was promptly treated at our health centre,” he explained.

“I spoke with her mother on phone on Saturday that she should be allowed to continue her treatment. I later checked the clinic on Saturday evening only to learn that her friends and her brother had taken her away from the clinic against medical advice.”

Snake charming is commonly practiced in south Asian countries but also in parts of Africa.

Snake charmers typically play a flute which the snake appears to respond to, often at close striking range. “Astonishingly, the snake seems reluctant to strike despite a flared hood in the case of cobras,” says the BBC.

In Nigeria, snake charmers physically handle cobras with their bare hands in street performances and sometimes involve members of their audience, adds the broadcaster.

More than 80 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram three years ago have arrived in Nigeria's capital as part of a government prisoner exchange.

After what has been described as "lengthy negotiations" by President Muhammadu Buhari, a further 82 of the 270 girls kidnapped from the northern town of Chibok in 2014 have been reunited with their families in exchange for five Boko Haram commanders. It follows the release of 21 schoolgirls last October, although the government then denied it had made a prisoner exchange or paid a ransom.

Ahmed Idris of Al Jazeera said: "A lot of people are happy. A lot of people are excited. But there is also anxiety... Everybody hopes that his or her daughter is part of the 82 who've come home now."

Boko Haram, the seven-year insurgency which seeks to create an Islamic caliphate in the north-east of Nigeria, has claimed the lives of an estimated 15,000 people and displaced more than two million.

Its kidnapping of the girls made headlines around the world.

A global Bring Back Our Girls campaign, supported by former US first lady Michelle Obama and other celebrities, has brought "tremendous pressure" on the Nigerian government to counter the extremist group, which controls large parts of the north of the country, says The Guardian.

Of the initial group abducted, 113 are still unaccounted for. Reports from survivors and defectors suggest many have been forced to marry their captors and give birth to their children, while others were strapped with explosives and used as suicide bombers.

Aisha Yesufu, of Bring Back Our Girls, said the freed girls required rehabilitation and trauma counselling.

"It's not just to bring them back home; we must ensure they get the education they are supposed to have," she said.

"It is time for them to be reunited with their families... There has to be rehabilitation. And at the end of the day, we want to have world leaders out of every one of them so they can be what the terrorists did not want them to be."

Good Friday marks the third anniversary of the kidnapping of Nigeria's Chibok schoolgirls.

The mass abduction by Islamist militant group Boko Haram shocked the world and sparked a global social media campaign using the hashtag #bringbackourgirls. Most of the girls are still missing.

What happened?

On the night of 14 April 2014, militants from Boko Haram raided the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok, in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno state, where the group has its strongest presence.

Pupils from Government Girls and neighbouring schools had been staying overnight in order to take an exam the next day. Some 276 of them were forced on to trucks and taken deep into the jungle.

Some girls managed to escape and run home, but 219 were not so lucky.

One escapee said the militants told her: "You're only coming to school for prostitution. Boko [Western education] is haram [forbidden], so what are you doing in school?"

How did the world respond?

World leaders condemned the abduction and offered to lend resources to the search operation, while the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went viral around the world.

However, the initial outcry soon died down. The rapid rise and fall of #BringBackOurGirls "has obvious parallels with #Kony2012", the "well-intentioned but ultimately ill-conceived campaign" against the use of child soldiers in Uganda which "fizzled out spectacularly", says Time.

In 2014, The Independent wrote that the dwindling attention of the international media "speaks volumes about the low priority afforded to violence against women and girls."

Oby Ezekwesili and Aisha Yesufu, who founded the campaign, wrote in Newsweek last year that the international community "initially echoed our agonizing chant - #BringBackOurGirls", but then the world seemed to quickly move on.

Where are the girls now?

In 2016, Boko Haram released three videos claiming to show some of the Chibok schoolgirls, who the group said had converted to Islam and married militants.

They also demanded the release of imprisoned fighters in exchange for the schoolgirls.

A handful of girls have escaped or been recaptured in government raids over the three years, while a deal brokered by the Red Cross last October secured the release of another 21.

However, for many, returning home was a fresh ordeal. Some former captives who had been married off to Boko Haram militants, especially those who had become pregnant, were "viewed with mistrust and suspicion" by their families and communities, The Guardian reports.

Around 195 of the Chibok schoolgirls are thought to remain in captivity. Progress has been painfully slow and Nigeria has been lambasted by campaigners and the press for failing to make headway.

Nigeria's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said this week that the fate of the girls is "a matter of conscience that concerns everyone". He also confirmed that negotiations for their release were ongoing and had "gone quite far".

Sir Mo Farah is fronting a new charity fundraising appeal for millions of people facing hunger in East Africa.

The Somali-born Olympian is urging his fellow Britons to "act now" by donating to the East Africa Food Crisis Appeal, launched yesterday by 13 UK aid agencies working together as the Disasters Emergency Committee.

The committee says that at least 16 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan urgently need food, water and medical treatment.

Father-of-four Farah says it "hurts" to see the plight of parents whose children are facing starvation.

"I was born in Somalia and it breaks my heart to hear stories of how families are suffering," says Farah, who's an ambassador for Save the Children.

The UK government will match pound for pound the first £5million donated by the public.

Which countries are affected?

A famine was declared in South Sudan last month, becoming the first UN-recognised famine in six years. Around 100,000 people in the war-torn country are already starving, but another 5.5 million – 40 per cent of the population – are in danger of joining them.

The alarm has also been raised in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia which have been hit by a severe drought.

Somalia's Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Haire, told the BBC that more than 100 people died from dehydration or hunger within 48 hours in one particularly hard-hit region.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Stephen O'Brien, has warned that "without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death".

What has caused the food crisis?

In South Sudan, the famine is the result of man-made rather than natural factors.

Since 2013 the world's newest country has been riven by bloody civil war between its various ethnic groups.

The violence has brought food production and distribution to a standstill as farmers flee their homes and transport networks are destroyed.

"Villages are deserted," Nellie Kingston, an aid coordinator at Concern Worldwide, told NPR. "People are hiding in swamps to avoid the fighting."

Meanwhile the drought in South Sudan's neighbouring countries Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya has affected crop growth, livestock and access to drinking water.

Temperatures are rising in the Horn of Africa and weather patterns are increasingly unpredictable. Many blame this on global warming.

The Financial Times says that a "lack of effective government" and an insurgency by jihadi militia al-Shabaab "have not helped".

To make a donation visit Dec.org.uk.

Nigerian officials have seized more than 2.5 tons of plastic "rice" believed to have been smuggled into the country from China.

At least one suspect has been arrested in connection with the "haul of 102 bags", the contents of which are "dangerous for human consumption," reports The Guardian.

The bags were marketed as "Best Tomato Rice" and had no date of manufacture.

According to Lagos customs chief Haruna Mamudu, it was likely to have been sold in markets during the run-up to Christmas and could have had severe health implications if it had been eaten.

"We have done a preliminary analysis of the plastic rice. After boiling, it was sticky and only God knows what would have happened if people consumed it," he said.

Prices for the popular Nigerian staple have gone through the roof because of galloping inflation. A 110lb bag now sells for around 20,000 naira (£51), more than double the price in December last year.

Local media has reported fake rice being found in several places since mid-November, with the Nigerian Bulletin posting advice on how to spot the counterfeit product.

"Get a lighter and burn a handful of rice. If it catches fire and smells like burnt plastic, you have fake rice," the paper says.

Nigeria is facing a humanitarian crisis as it struggles to cope with the fallout from Boko Haram's jihadist insurgency, according to the United Nations, which predicts that 14 million people will need aid in 2017.

Of that number, 400,000 children are in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die in the "few months ahead of us", UN humanitarian co-ordinator Peter Lundberg told a press conference in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Tuesday.

But the UN has not declared a "level three emergency", the classification for the most severe crisis, despite a warning of "famine-like conditions" from the World Food Programme.

"The humanitarian response hasn't scaled up adequately to meet a growing demand for food," says analyst Roddy Barclay in The Guardian. Ryan Cummings, of intelligence firm Signal Risk, agrees. "The scale of the humanitarian disaster in north-east Nigeria has been grossly underestimated," he warns.

Islamic fundamentalists from Boko Haram have laid waste to the north east of the country, around Borno state, since taking up arms against the federal government in 2009. BBC News says that tens of thousands have died and more than two million have been displaced, with major disruptions to farming and trade.

But a new report suggests the formation of a regional force to combat Boko Haram, with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, is gaining ground against the militants.

The New York Times refers to a study by the International Crisis Group which says the jihadists - who controlled an area the size of Belgium in north east Nigeria last year - have since suffered a string of defeats.

"We've seen a dizzying downwards spiral in the number of attacks and suicide bombings," said Hans De Marie Heungoup, one of the report's authors. But those left behind have been suffering without water, food and sanitation.

Infographic by www.statista.com for TheWeek.co.uk.

Aisha Buhari, the First Lady of Nigeria, has warned her husband she may not support him at the next election unless he shakes up his government.

Speaking to the BBC, Buhari alleged that her husband, Muhammadu, who became president last year, "does not know" most of the top officials who have been appointed.

She also claimed the government had been hijacked and that a "few people" were behind presidential appointments, giving posts to people who did not share the vision of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Muhammadu Buhari came to power following a campaign in which he promised to tackle corruption and nepotism in government. "I belong to nobody and belong to everybody," he said during his inauguration.

However, his wife told the broadcaster: "The President does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don't know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years."

She refused to identify those who she claimed had hijacked the government, but said: "You will know them if you watch television."

As to whether her husband was in charge: "That is left for the people to decide," she said.

Muhammadu Buhari has not yet decided whether he will stand in the next election in 2019, but his wife said she that unless things change, "I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before - I will never do it again".

The President reportedly sent a letter to the BBC's bureau in Abuja asking the agency not to air the interview.

Our pick of the strange stories from around the world.

Dogged devotion to his office

In a landslide victory, a nine-year-old great Pyrenees has been elected mayor of Cormorant, in the US state of Minnesota, for the third year winning. "Everybody voted for Duke, except for one vote for his girlfriend, Lassie," owner David Rick said. Duke has been mayor since 2014, when he beat local businessman Richard Sherbrook as a "write-in" candidate.

Cows get 'glow-in-the-dark' safety horns

Officials in central India are sticking glow-in-the-dark strips on the horns of cows to make them easier to see at night after a spate of accidents involving stray animals and unwary motorists. More than 300 cows and bulls have had reflective bands placed on them by traffic police in Madhya Pradesh in the past week. Officials are planning to buy permanent radium paint, as the stick-on bands are effective for only three weeks.

Nigerian charged for naming his dog Buhari

A Nigerian man has been charged with provocation and breaching the peace after naming his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari. "The man bought a dog, named it Buhari, wrote Buhari on both sides of the dog and paraded it" in front of people from the north, said a police spokesman in the southern Ogun state, where the man lives. Tensions are running high between residents of northern Nigeria, who are mostly Muslim, and people from the predominantly Christian south.

David Cameron is hosting an international summit aiming to expose and tackle corruption around the world.

It has the potential to be "genuinely game-changing", says Dr Dan Hough, the director of the Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption. "But, as with all these things, the devil will be in the detail," he writes in the New Statesman.

Others warn today's event could be overshadowed by the PM's diplomatic gaffe on Tuesday, when he said that some "fantastically corrupt" countries – namechecking Nigeria and Afghanistan in particular - would be attending.

Who is going?

Representatives from more than 40 nations will join business leaders, campaigners and a diverse range of anti-corruption experts at Lancaster House, London.

"Cameron has invited all 20 member states within the G20, including Russia, Brazil and South Africa – three countries mired in corruption allegations," says The Guardian.

There will, however, be some notable absences. Despite the recent leak of millions of documents exposing the scale of offshore tax avoidance, Panama will not be sending delegates to the summit. "The British Virgin Islands has also been left off Downing Street's invitation list," says The Independent.

As the global ramifications from the Panama Papers rumble on, the Prime Minister is coming under increasing pressure to crack down on UK-administered tax havens.

What's on the agenda?

No 10 says delegates will "commit to taking practical steps to tackle the problem and make it a genuine global priority" by signing the first ever global declaration against corruption.

As well as addressing issues of financial secrecy, one of the key proposals will be the establishment of an international anti-corruption body to assist law enforcement agencies in addressing money laundering and tax evasion.

The summit will also make a "big play" to start tackling the so-called facilitators of corruption, says Hough in the New Statesman. "The UK government is keen to force the lawyers and the accountants, the bankers and the estate agents to conduct due diligence on where money comes from."

Will anything meaningful be agreed?

There is a real danger that the summit will "turn out to be a hypocrites' ball, the dance floor crowded with kleptocrats posing as clean-up crusaders", says Roger Boyes, the diplomatic editor of The Times.

"A conversation about corruption has to be both global and local," he adds. "It has to examine and expose networks of power and business, not just in Africa but in China, south-east Asia, Russia and, yes, in the City of London and New York too."

Hough also highlights the risk that the summit will simply declare that its agreements should be implemented, but with no obligation to do so. "International summitry is a world full of communiques that soon disappear down to the second or third pages of a Google search," he says.

The Queen has been caught on camera accusing Chinese officials of being "very rude" to British ambassador Barbara Woodward during President Xi Jinping's state visit to Britain last year.

The monarch was chatting to Metropolitan Police commander Lucy D'Orsi at a garden party at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

D'Orsi was introduced as the officer in charge of security for the visit, to which the Queen replied: "Oh, bad luck."

She added: "They were very rude to the ambassador."

D'Orsi described the visit as "quite a testing time" and claimed Chinese officials had at one point "walked out" on both her and Woodward, telling them "the trip was off".

"Extraordinary," said the Queen. D'Orsi concluded: "It's very rude and very undiplomatic, I thought."

Buckingham Palace has insisted the state visit, which was part of the government's policy of courting Chinese investment, was "extremely successful". Although it would not comment on the Queen's private conversations, it said all parties had worked closely to ensure the visit had "proceeded smoothly".

According to the BBC, there has been no official reaction from the Chinese authorities, but coverage of the Queen's comments have been censored, with BBC World TV blanked out during a report on the conversation.

The footage is "unlikely to help advance the much-vaunted 'golden age' of UK-China relations that Xi's state visit was supposed to help launch", says The Guardian.

However, the newspaper points out that the Queen's comments are "less incendiary" than those once made by the Prince of Wales when describing the Communist Party's leaders as a "group of appalling old waxworks".

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister David Cameron was overheard telling the Queen that Nigeria and Afghanistan were "fantastically corrupt" as he discussed this week's anti-corruption summit in London.

"We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain," he said. "Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world."

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who was standing with Cameron and the Queen at the time, interrupted to defend Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari. "But this particular president is not corrupt," he said. "He's trying very hard."

Buhari, who was elected last year on an anti-corruption platform, said he was "shocked" by the comments, while a senior Afghan official said the characterisation was "unfair".

Boko Haram has singled out geography teachers in Nigeria as targets for assassination, according to a report by the Human Rights Watch.

Western education's principles of geography and social science contradict the teachings of group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, says the Daily Telegraph.

Boko Haram believes the Earth is flat and that rainfall is an act of God and not caused by evaporation. As a result, it ranks geography teachers in Nigeria alongside security chiefs and senior politicians as prime candidates for assassination.

"Boko Haram insurgents have shown particular distaste for certain subjects like geography and science... Teachers of these subjects are targeted," says the report.

The report is based on interviews with more than 200 teachers, students and parents and documents a number of attacks on schools. Among them is an assault on the Mafoni Government Day Secondary School in Maiduguri, the regional capital of Borno, in September, 2012, when gunmen "set their sights" on the geography teacher, Malam Anjili Mala, says the report.

"In its brutal crusade against Western-style education, Boko Haram is robbing an entire generation of children in north-east Nigeria of their education," Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch's Nigeria researcher told the Telegraph.

The report, timed to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the group's abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, also criticises the misuse of school for military purposes by government security forces. Both Boko Haram and the government have had a devastating effect on the right to education in the north-east of Nigeria, it says.

Some 952,029 school-age children have been forced to flee Boko Haram violence in Nigeria, with around 600,000 losing access to schooling, the report concludes.

David Cameron has been left red-faced after he was caught on camera describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" ahead of a major anti-corruption conference in London.

The Prime Minister was talking to the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during a reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday to mark the monarch's 90th birthday.

"We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain," he said. "Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world."

Welby interrupted to defend Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting he "is not corrupt" and "is trying very hard".

Buhari, who was elected last year on an anti-corruption platform, said he was "shocked" at the PM's comments, while a senior Afghan official said the characterisation was "unfair".

As if the momentary lapse of diplomacy was not "ample cause for chagrin", says The Independent, Buhari is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at Thursday's conference under the theme: "Why we must tackle corruption together".

It is likely to be an "awkward encounter" for Cameron following his "acutely embarrassing indiscretion", adds the newspaper.

According to research by global watchdog Transparency International, more than two-thirds of countries across the world have a serious problem with corruption within the public sector, with half of the G20 countries labelled as corrupt.

Afghanistan is ranked near the bottom of the least-corrupt rankings, at 166 out of 167 countries. Somalia, North Korea, Sudan, Angola and South Sudan are also in the lowest spots, while Nigeria is at 136.

Northern Europe tops the list, with the UK at number ten, tied with Germany and Luxembourg.

However, the report adds: "Just because a country has a clean public sector at home, doesn't mean it isn't linked to corruption elsewhere."

There is a hopeful note, however: more countries improved their corruption rankings than declined – Greece, Senegal and the UK among them. On the other hand, Australia is one of those to have seen a steady decline in recent years. Sitting at number 13, it dropped by six points, from 85 in 2012, to 79 in 2015.

Northern Europe tops the least-corrupt rankings, with the UK at number ten, tied with Germany and Luxembourg, but the report is cautious, stating that "just because a country has a clean public sector at home, doesn't mean it isn't linked to corruption elsewhere".

The ten most corrupt:

1. North Korea and Somalia (tied)

2. Afghanistan

3. Sudan

4. Angola and South Sudan (tied)

5. Iraq and Libya (tied)

6. Haiti, Guinea-Bissau and Venezuela (tied)

7. Eritrea, Syria, Turkmenistan and Yemen (tied)

8. Uzbekistan

9. Burundi, Cambodia and Zimbabwe (tied)

10. Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar (tied)

The ten least corrupt:

1. Denmark

2. Finland

3. Sweden

4. New Zealand

5. Netherlands

6. Norway

7. Switzerland

8. Singapore

9. Canada

10. Germany, Luxembourg and UK (tied)

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris – the latest in a series of killings purportedly carried out by the Islamist militants.

Analysts warn that the militants have joined forces with other Islamist groups in North Africa and the Middle East in order to build their global influence and attack more targets.

"The goal is that through these regional affiliates and through efforts to create chaos in the wider world, the organization will be able to expand, and perhaps incite a global apocalyptic war," Harleen Gambhir, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told the New York Times.

Where have IS and its affiliated groups carried out attacks?

Syria and Iraq

IS has played a prominent role in Syria's civil war and its militants have been fighting Kurdish forces across Iraq since it first declared its caliphate back in 2014. But they have been forced to retreat in recent weeks, losing miles of territory, including the Iraqi town of Sinjar.

"It is far from beaten, but IS is under pressure," reports the BBC's Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville. "And that may mean a shift in tactics. Increasingly the group will focus its attacks outside of its home territory here in the Middle East."

France

In January, three gunmen attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in Paris, leaving 16 people dead. One of the suspects claimed to be a member of IS and the group praised the killings in online propaganda. The other two men were linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The bloodshed continued last week in Paris. At least 129 people were killed and more than 350 wounded after gunmen fired indiscriminately on cafes, bars and music venues across the capital on Friday night. IS quickly claimed responsibility for the worst terrorist attack in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.

Lebanon

IS also claimed responsibility for another attack last week, this time in Lebanon. Two suicide bombers killed 43 people and injured more than 200 in a busy shopping district in the capital Beirut. The terrorist group also said it was behind a car bomb in the capital last year.

But many in Lebanon say they feel forgotten in the wake of the attacks in Paris. "When my people died, no country bothered to light up its landmarks in the colours of their flag," Elie Fares, a Lebanese doctor, wrote on his blog.

Egypt

The terrorist group's Sinai affiliate claimed responsibility for downing a Russian passenger jet earlier this month – though this has not yet been confirmed by Egyptian or Russian authorities. All 224 people on board died when the plane crashed near Sharm el-Sheik, and British intelligence officials believe it is likely the aircraft was brought down by a bomb.

The group has also claimed responsibility for a series of other attacks deadly in the Sinai this year, including several suicide bombing targeting Egyptian security forces, the beheading of a Croatian expat and an attack on an Egyptian naval vessel.

Turkey

At least 97 people died and hundreds more were injured when two explosions went off in the middle of a peace rally in the capital Ankara last month. Senior security officials said that the bombing bore the hallmarks of an IS attack, and is similar to the suicide bombing in the border town of Suruc which killed 33 people in July.

Nigeria

The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Harampledged allegiance to Islamic State earlier this year, raising fears of a "joined-up, globalised jihad". The group's worst atrocities include the massacre of an entire town , the abduction of more than 200 school girls in Chibok, as well as a series of bombings and co-ordinated shootings across the country, which have left thousands dead.

But the military insists it is winning the fight against the terrorist group. Security sources say the militants have lost significant territory in northern Nigeria. "Boko Haram seems to be disorganised now; they are gaining publicity, not ground," a government aid told the New York Times.

Libya

A group calling itself the Tripolitania Province of the Islamic State has launched a number of attacks in Libya in the last year, including an attack on a prison in Tripoli, bombings of government building and a mass shooting that killed at least eight people at a luxury hotel in January.

Yemen

A series of bombings by Islamic State have killed more than 100 people across the country this year. The most recent attacks took place in the capital Sanaa and the southern city of Aden, killing at least 25 people. The conflict in Yemen has "provided an opening for IS, which is keen to outflank al-Qaeda" in the region, according to CNN.

Saudi Arabia

IS militants claim to have carried out three separate bombings in Saudi Arabia this year, killing at least 39 people. In July, the Saudi government said it had arrested more than 400 people with suspected links to the terrorist group.

"The rise of IS presents a new challenge to Saudi Arabia with officials saying the group is more sophisticated [than Al-Qaeda] in its planning and recruitment," says the Wall Street Journal.

Kuwait

The Kuwaiti government declared war against IS after it carried out a suicide bombing at the al-Imam al-Sadeq mosque during the holy month of Ramadan, killing 27 people and wounding 220.

Afghanistan

A hard-line faction of the Taliban has allied itself with IS, prompting a number of bloody clashes against the mainstream Taliban in Afghanistan and a series of brutal sectarian killings.

Afghanistan's president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani condemned the beheadings of several Shia Muslims from the Hazara minority, saying the "heartless killing of innocent individuals, especially women and children, has no justification in any religion or creed".

Australia

The Sydney cafe siege was carried out by a gunman who had pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Man Haron Monis held dozens of people hostage at the Lindt chocolate shop and café last December. He was killed – along with two hostages – when armed police stormed the building.

Tunisia

A gunman with links to IS killed 38 people, the majority of them British holidaymakers, on a beach near Sousse in July. It was the deadliest single terrorist assault on British people since the 2005 London bombings. David Cameron said the "absolutely horrific" events had "shocked the whole of the world".

The Nigerian military says it has rescued more than 178 captives from Boko Haram camps in the north of the country, the majority of them women and children.

A Boko Haram commander was also detained and several militant camps were captured during the mission near the town of Bama, according to an army spokesperson.

President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader, was elected earlier this year after criticising his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan's response to the crisis and vowing to crush the Islamist insurgency.

Despite having the largest army in West Africa, Nigeria's military has struggled to push back the militants in recent years. Successful rescue missions carried out this year suggest it might be turning a corner, but the fight against extremism is far from over.

Is Buhari's army winning?

The Nigerian army has claimed a number of significant victories in the past few months, reclaiming several towns in the north-east previously held my militants and freeing hundreds of captives. Buhari argues that the formation of a stronger regional coalition with Cameroon, Chad and Niger will lead to the elimination of Boko Haram. However, Reuters points out that the multinational task force has been "dogged by a lack of funding and political will" and suffered numerous delays.

Despite these successes, there has been no let-up in the terrorist attacks targeting civilians, particularly suicide bombings and guns attacks on soft targets like market places, churches and schools. Troops have also been unable to locate the hundreds of schoolgirls captured in Chibok last year and abductions still occur.

The group's leadership also remains intact, which means Boko Haram "may continue to possess the acumen to replenish, regroup, and rearm both within and outside of Nigeria's borders," warned Ryan Cummings, Chief Africa Analyst for the risk management firm Red24.

What next?

Buhari has not ruled out the option of entering into peace talks with the militants. "If Boko Haram opts for negotiation the government will not be averse to it," his spokesperson told Bloomberg last month. But he added that the administration would "not be negotiating from a position of weakness, but that of strength".

Analysts also point out that the battle against the insurgents is not simply a military one. "Until factors like poverty, unemployment and lack of education can be addressed, local populations will remain vulnerable to extremist ideology," says the BBC.

Max Siollun, a Nigerian historian and author, also highlights the urgent need for the rescued women and children – many of whom have fathered children by the militants – to be given rehabilitation and support once they return to their communities. "The conflict is entering a phase where it needs to be fought not just with bombs and guns, but also by addressing the consequences of the insurgency," he writes in The Guardian.

Some of the school girls captured by Boko Haram last year have been forced to fight for the terrorist group and have been brainwashed by Islamist militants, according to other captives who have escaped.

Witnesses told BBC Panorama that some of the young girls kidnapped from Chibok last year were being used to terrorise the other captives and carry out floggings and even murders.

One of the survivors who escaped described what happened after she refused to marry one of the militants: "[The girls] came back with four men, they slit [the mens'] throats in front of us. They then said that this will happen to any girl that refuses to get married."

Another escapee said: "The ones I've seen are totally heartless. Even the men avoid them because they are scared."

But neither woman blamed the girls for what they did, saying they had been brainwashed by the militants. "It's not their fault, they were forced to do it," said one. “Anyone who sees the Chibok girls has to feel sorry for them."

Amnesty International estimates that the terrorists have captured more than 2,000 women and girls since the beginning of last year. The largest single abduction occurred when the 276 schoolgirls were taken from Chibok in April, sparking an international outcry.

Captives are subjected to rape, torture, forced marriage and religious conversion, with some being sold on as sex slaves. "The abduction and brutalisation of young women and girls seems to be part of the modus operandi of Boko Haram," Amnesty's Netsanet Belay told The Guardian.

The Nigerian military has launched an assault on the Islamists in their stronghold in the north of the country, managing to rescue hundreds of captives in recent months.

But survivors now face the "mammoth task" of coming to terms with the horrors they experienced, says the BBC's Tulip Mazumdar.

"I can't get the images out of my head," one victim told her. "I see people being slaughtered. I just pray that the nightmares don't return."

The Nigerian army says it has rescued 200 girls and 93 women from a Boko Haram stronghold in the north of the country, as part of a major ongoing operation.

It remains unclear if any of the victims are among those abducted from Chibok last year, as conflicting reports emerge from the Nigerian military.

The captives are going through a "screening process to find out where they are from", reports Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege. The Nigerian military believes some of the women may be wives of Boko Haram fighters and is "not ruling out the possibility that some are from the Chibok school", she says.

However, it has been reported that a different military spokesperson told the Associated Press that they "are not the Chibok girls". The women and girls, who were rescued from the Sambisa Forest in the northeast of the country, are currently being interviewed by police and the military.

A community leader from Chibok said he was "working hard to verify" if any of the girls were among those kidnapped from his village. "His comments reflected a distrust of the military, which has published many misstatements about the girls," says Al Jazeera.

It is estimated that the Islamist militants have captured more than 500 women and girls since they began their violent insurgency in 2009. The largest single abduction occurred when 276 schoolgirls were taken from Chibok in April last year, causing global outrage and sparking an international campaign to rescue them. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau vowed to "marry them off" or sell them as slaves.

In recent months, the Nigerian military has made significant gains against the Islamist group, taking back swathes of territory in the north. But the groups' deadly attacks continue, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. Hundreds of decomposing bodies, including those of women and children, were discovered in shallow graves after the military recaptured the city of Damasak last week.

Boko Haram's rebellion, and the military offensive against it, has killed more than 15,500 people since 2012, according to the BBC. The ability to tackle the insurgency will be the true test of newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari, who assumes power next month.

South Africa has criticised Nigeria for recalling its ambassador in the wake of a wave of xenophobic violence in the country, calling it an "unfortunate and regrettable step".

In a strongly worded statement, Pretoria said: "If this action is based on the incidents of attacks on foreign nationals in some parts of our country, it would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda."

South Africa's government spokesman, Clayson Monyela, appeared to fan the flames further when he added that his country did not blame Nigeria "for the deaths and more than nine months delay in the repatriation of the bodies of our fallen compatriots" following the collapse of a building in Lagos last year. This "particularly snarky" media statement is the latest round in an ongoing "diplomatic tit-for-tat", says Quartz.

However, Nigeria's deputy foreign minister Musiliu Obanikoro insists that Acting High Commissioner Martin Cobham and his deputy had not been recalled indefinitely. He tweeted that Cobham had merely been summoned back to Nigeria for consultation.

The xenophobic violence, which began in the port city of Durban and spread to Johannesburg, left at least seven people dead. Locals targeted homes and businesses owned by foreigners, particularly targeting migrants from other parts of Africa.

The violence has heightened "us and them" attitudes, creating bitterness and resentment among countries that hosted thousands of South African exiles during Apartheid, The Guardian reports.

Last week, Nigerian MPs put forward a motion – which was later defeated - to sever all diplomatic ties with South Africa, as mass protests took place across Nigeria.

South African businesses have also been threatened with closure unless action is taken to prevent further violence. Several multinational firms have significant interests in Nigeria, which overtook South Africa as the continent's biggest economy last year.

Muhammadu Buhari has officially been sworn in as president of Nigeria after ousting Goodluck Jonathan in elections in March.

In Nigeria's first democratic transition of power since military rule, Buhari was greeted with loud cheers from the crowd as he pledged allegiance to his country and constitution. Afterwards, the announcer declared to the audience: "Change has come to Nigeria."

In his final week in office, Jonathan offered a prayer for his successor, urging him to "build a stronger and more prosperous nation," The Guardian reports.

"He will need prayers to have the courage and wisdom to confront the huge tasks he will inherit immediately after he is sworn in," writes Nigerian journalist Sola Odunfa. His many challenges include a weakening currency, endemic corruption and the insurgency from Islamist group Boko Haram.

During the election campaign, Buhari repeatedly criticised the government's handling of the security crisis in the north of the country and vowed to take a tougher approach to dealing with the militants.

"Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror and bring back peace," he said in his first speech after winning the election. "We should spare no effort in tackling the insurgency. We have a tough and urgent job to do."

However, Goodluck Jonathan made similar promises throughout his presidency, and some have questioned whether Buhari will be able to deliver on his pledge.

Security, particularly in the North, topped the list of issues Nigerians wanted the president to address in 2015, Channel 4 News reports. Buhari received over 90 per cent of the vote in Borno state, a region which has seen the worst of Boko Haram's violence.

Many Nigerians believe the former military ruler – who himself survived an assassination attempt by the Islamist militants – is the only person capable of addressing the threat.

They feel "his military background and his disciplinarian credentials are just what the whole country needs to get to grips with the Islamist insurgency in the north," the BBC reports.

A Muslim from the north who has previously given his support to Sharia, Buhari has repeatedly been forced to deny allegations that he is a radical Islamist.

Boko Haram militants have killed more than 8,000 people since the start of 2014, and kidnapped hundreds more, including more than two hundred schoolgirls from Chibok.

Despite having the biggest army in West Africa and the largest economy on the continent, Nigeria's military has consistently failed to push back the militants. Security analysts point to a lack of investment and corruption as key reasons.

Before the elections, Buhari blamed President Goodluck Jonathan's weak military approach for the rise in the insurgency. The general also vowed to sweep out the corruption that is endemic in both politics and the military.

"He retains a rare reputation for honesty among Nigeria's politicians, both military and civilian," says the BBC.

Nigerian election: Muhammadu Buhari ousts Goodluck Jonathan

1 April

Opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari has won the Nigerian election, beating the incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan by more than 2.5 million votes in the country's first democratic transition of power since military rule.

Thousands took to the streets to celebrate his historic victory, many of them brandishing brooms – a symbol of Buhari's pledge to sweep out corruption – and chanting "change, change".

"The victory writes a new chapter in the country's often turbulent history after six military coups since independence in 1960 and 16 years of unbroken civilian rule by Jonathan's party," says South Africa's Mail and Guardian.

Jonathan telephoned Buhari shortly after the final results were announced to concede defeat and congratulate him on his win. He said he had given his "best wishes" to the president-elect and urged "those who may feel aggrieved to follow due process in seeking redress," the BBC reports.

Buhari thanked Jonathan for peacefully relinquishing power. "There had always been this fear that he might not want to concede but he will remain a hero for this move," his spokesperson added. "The tension will go down dramatically."

The close election was marred by allegations of voting irregularities, glitches in new computer equipment and sporadic violence from militant group Boko Haram. Despite this, the election has been largely praised by international observers. "I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word," said Jonathan.

"Of course in a close election there will be many voters who are not pleased with this outcome but the whole process is a sign that democracy is deepening in Nigeria," says the BBC's Will Ross.

Nigerians are beginning to believe that it is possible to remove leaders through the ballot box. "It's not about Muslim or Christian or any party. It's about politicians knowing that if you don't do the job, we can kick you out," said one voter.

The 72-year old former army general led the country's military regime in the 1980s, but now describes himself as a "converted democrat". A Muslim from the north of Nigeria, Buhari reportedly survived an assassination attempt by Boko Haram. Although he has a poor human rights record, he is widely described as "incorruptible."

Buhari faces many challenges when he assumes power in May. He will be expected to deal with the threat of Boko Haram, wipe out endemic corruption and revive an economy that is struggling with a fall in the price of oil.

"After this historic election, the former military general will know the potency of the call for change could come back to bite him," says Ross.

Nigerian election: opposition leader Buhari in the lead

March 31

Nigerian opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari holds a lead of more than 2.5 million votes, putting him ahead of incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan in an election that has been marred by allegations of voting irregularities and violence.

The final result of the closest elections since the end of military rule is still difficult to call, as counting continues in several of Jonathan's strongholds in the south.

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) said it was "unperturbed by the results of the elections so far," and vowed that results from its strongholds will "overwhelm" those from the north and give Jonathan "a clean and clear victory at the end of the day."

Some experts say it will be almost impossible for Jonathan to overcome Buhari's significant lead due to low voter turnout in some of the southern delta regions where support for the PDP has traditionally been strong, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Votes will continue to be counted across the country today, with final results expected by the end of the day. The winning candidate needs to secure a majority of the votes as well as at least 25 per cent support in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in order to avoid a run-off.

This is former military leader Buhari's fourth attempt at the Nigerian presidency. "His prospects this time have been buoyed by frustration over endemic corruption, criticism over Jonathan's handling of Boko Haram's six-year Islamist uprising and a better organised opposition," reports AFP (as quoted in the Mail Online).

The elections in Africa's largest economic power have been disrupted by outbreaks of violence by Boko Haram militants and protests by opposition supporters, as well as conflicting reports of vote rigging.

The US and the UK have issued a joint statement expressing concerns over possible "political interference" in the count, reports the BBC.

"So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process," said UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and US Secretary of State John Kerry. "But there are disturbing indications that the collation process, where the votes are finally counted, may be subject to deliberate political interference."

The majority of international observers have praised Nigeria for its handling of the elections, despite the late delivery of some election materials and technical problems with new voter identification equipment. Kayode Idowu, spokesman for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said he found "no evidence of political interference".

Counting underway in tight Nigerian election

30 March

The winner of the Nigerian election could be revealed today, following a poll marred by technical issues and violence.

Counting is under way in the presidential election, with the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, facing a significant challenge from former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. It is expected to be the closest result since the end of military rule in 1999.

Sky News's Alex Crawford has forecast victory for Buhari. He said: "Early indications are that the voting is going to [the] opposition's way and if that is the case political history will have been made here as the first democratic transfer of power." However, the Daily Telegraph insists the result is "too close to call".

Polling spilled into a second day in some parts of the country after problems with new electronic card readers. Boko Haram fighters attacked voting stations in north-east Nigeria and a governor demanded elections be cancelled in an oil-rich southern state yesterday as the count started.

Thousands of Nigerians have taken to the streets in protest over alleged voting irregularities and reports of killings of opposition campaign workers. The All Progressive Congress (APC) claims scores of its members have been killed.

The APC described the election as "a sham and a charade". It added: "Whatever trash will be announced as the result of today's election is not acceptable to us."

But the United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has praised the "determination and resilience" of Nigerian voters.