By Gregory Simpkins US President Donald Trump often makes grandiose threats and statements without carrying them out. Several weeks ago, he warned of a military response...
By Gregory Simpkins As I have stated recently, the United States, which strode the world stage as a political and economic colossus after World War II,...
By Gregory Simpkins Now that there is a peace accord signed in Gaza, attention to charges of genocide there are now giving way to examination of...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu In 1963, as African nations emerged from colonial rule, Ghana’s visionary leader Kwame Nkrumah made a bold call: the continent needed a...
By Gregory Simpkins The wave of coups in Africa’s western region, including the Sahel, offered hope that Pan-Africanism had taken hold and that neocolonial powers, notably...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, one of the central pillars of the global counterterrorism strategy became the disruption of terror...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu Last year, Chad issued a stark warning: it might withdraw from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), the regional coalition established to...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) is one of the UN’s longest-standing missions, rooted in the early...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu The Lake Chad Basin, located in the upper central region of Africa, serves as a critical transition zone with significant implications for...
By Fidel Amakye Owusu After Osama bin Laden attacked the United States in 2001, it was clear that the organization he led, al-Qaeda, was the deadliest...
By Gregory Simpkins Since the days of African independence, the continent has been bedeviled by internal and external conflicts. There have been coups like the recent...
By Gregory Simpkins I have written previously about Nigeria being the “essential nation” in Africa. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), successive U.S. Administrations have...
More militants expected to defect because of intense pressure from military
By Jenerali Ulimwengu The recent tug of war between the Nigerian government and Africa’s biggest telecommunications company – MTN, comes as an instructive development for the...
Cameroon’s army has dealt a major blow to Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists, killing around 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages in a 3-day operation. Flags belonging...
Nigeria’s former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, has been arrested for allegedly stealing billions of dollars meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram Islamist extremists...
A blast struck a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Yola on Tuesday evening, killing 32 people and wounding 80 others, both the Red Cross...
Nigeria’s security services have foiled an imminent terrorist attack and have arrested and charged 45 suspects over an alleged Boko Haram plot to attack the country’s...
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has tasked his newly sworn-in military chiefs with a difficult feat: to end a bloody 6-year Islamist insurgency in just 3 months,...
Nigeria’s army announced Thursday that it had freed 59 women and children who had been captured by the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group Boko Haram. The military raided...
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari began a two-day visit to Cameroon on Wednesday in a bid to strengthen cooperation against al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Buhari’s...
Nigerian authorities have arrested the mastermind of bombings in the central cities of Jos and Zaria this week that killed at least 69 people, the defense...
New Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met his regional counterparts in Abuja on Thursday to set up a joint military force against Boko Haram, the latest sign...
A multinational force being set up to combat Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the Lake Chad region will be operational in the coming weeks, Niger’s...
Nigerians celebrated their newly reinforced democracy Friday, dancing, singing and releasing white doves symbolizing peace at the inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari, the first candidate to beat...
A day after the Nigerian army celebrated the rescue of 200 girls and 93 women in the forest stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram Islamists, the...
Nigeria’s army has rescued 200 girls and 93 women during a military operation to wrest back the Sambisa Forest from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group, Boko...
As forces from Chad and Niger poured into the northern Nigerian town of Malam Fatori, driving out the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist Boko Haram fighters, Nigeria’s election commission...
About 82 percent of Nigerian voters have collected the cards they need to present at polling stations to take part in Saturday’s presidential elections, officials said...
Due to the tired and well-worn Western narrative of Africa – that of a continent continuously engulfed in war, poverty and disease – armed conflicts are...
Chad and Niger launched a joint army operation against Boko Haram militants in Nigeria on Sunday, military sources said, intensifying a regional push to try to...
President Idriss Deby of Chad has informed the media during a press conference that the Chad military and government has narrowed down the location of al-Qaeda-linked...
Nigeria has postponed the February 14 presidential and legislative elections by six weeks to March 28 due to security concerns, the chairman of the electoral commission...
The African Union has endorsed a West African plan to set up a regional task force of 7,500 to fight al-Qaeda-linked Islamist Boko Haram militants, a...
A contingent of soldiers from Chad has arrived in northern Cameroon where it will deploy to the Nigerian border as part of efforts to contain the...
Ghana’s President John Mahama has asked African leaders to prepare a coordinated plan to defeat al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants like the al-Shabaab in Kenya and Boko Haram...
The chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Attahiru Jega, has said that the commission is prepared and committed to ensuring that next month’s presidential...
Leaders of Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Benin on Tuesday announced plans to step up the fight against Boko Haram Islamists with an additional battalion and a...
Hundreds of al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram militants have surrendered in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon following the military’s recent victories with air and ground attacks, military authorities said...
African leaders proposed on Tuesday creating a special fund to combat Islamist militant groups growing in strength from Kenya to Nigeria. African Union states announced the...
The wife of Cameroon’s vice prime minister was kidnapped and at least three people were killed in an attack by al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram militants in Cameroon’s...
Police in Nigeria on Tuesday said they had arrested a senior Boko Haram Islamist commander known as “Chief Butcher” during a raid on an insurgent camp...
Smoke billows from Emab Plaza in Abuja. PHOTO/Reuters An explosion rocked a shopping mall in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Wednesday and police said at least 21...
Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram militants have killed hundreds of civilians in new attacks in northeastern Nigeria. Witnesses say the gunmen attacked at least three...
Africa analyst, Bronwyn Bruton, said she does not expect to hear a lot about human rights issues during the forthcoming US/Africa leaders’ summit in Washington. Bruton,...
Nigerian police said on Tuesday that protesters were free to march in the capital Abuja, after an uproar over comments by the police commissioner in which...
Heads of State and government in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) plan to meet at an extraordinary summit in the Ghanaian capital, Accra...
Africa is “taking off” with strong, steady growth but poverty is unacceptably high so that governments need to build infrastructure and institutions and educate people to...
Nigeria’s president said on Thursday he had ordered “a full-scale operation” against Boko Haram Islamist militants. Speaking on Nigeria’s Democracy Day, Goodluck Jonathan said he had...
At least 45 Nigerian security personnel are dead after gunmen believed to be Boko Haram militants attacked the town of Buni Yadi. Hundreds of gunmen on...
Nigeria’s military knows where the more than 200 girls abducted by al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram are but has ruled out using force to rescue them, the state...
The presidents of Cameroon and Chad on Friday concluded two days of meetings during which they fine-tuned plans and reiterated commitments to a declaration of war...
Nigeria has formally asked the U.N. Security Council al-Qaida sanctions committee to blacklist the Islamist militant group Boko Haram after the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls,...
Nigeria and four of its neighbors in West Africa declared war Saturday on the Islamic group Boko Haram, with the U.S., France, and the U.K. providing intelligence as...
USA has come to an agreement allowing it to share some intelligence with Nigeria to bolster the search for more than 200 girls kidnapped. The Pentagon...
A suicide blast in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has killed four people, police say. According to police, the blast happened in a street with...
West African leaders on Saturday agreed to work together to wage “total war” on Boko Haram. The leaders said the Nigerian Islamist group had become a...
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has canceled a visit to a northeastern town where Islamist militants last month seized more than 200 schoolgirls. Officials said Friday that...
A top U.S. Defense Department official on Thursday said Nigeria had been too slow to respond to the threat of Boko Haram. But the official said...
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan will on Friday visit the northeastern village from where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted a month ago by Islamist rebels from...
Nigeria could attain investment-grade status if it undertakes reforms to its power and oil sectors that would help boost economic growth and per capita income, a...
United States drones have begun to fly over Nigerian skies to generate satellite imagery and surveillance, as search for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist...
The plight of Nigeria´s kidnapped school girls has gotten worldwide attention. Now Israel has offered Nigeria help in locating 200 schoolgirls abducted last month by Islamist rebel group...
Boko Haram rebels have released a video purporting to show some of the Nigerian school girls they abducted last month. Their leader says he will free...
Thousands of Nigerians living in Ngamboru Ngala of Borno state have fled their homes to neighboring Cameroon to seek refuge, following attacks by Islamist militants, media...
Two decades ago Nigeria’s military was seen as a force for stability across West Africa. Now it struggles to keep security within its own borders as...
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Abuja, Nigeria’s president assured citizens and global onlookers that the current school girl kidnapping situation is the beginning of...
The growth of the African economy is credit to innovations, however basic humanitarian values have the potential to stabilize the growth. “Business people need to balance...
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said on Friday he believed the schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants last month in an attack that has stirred global outrage are...
The hashtag “Bring Back Our Girls” has become a global catchphrase and that’s a good thing. Nigerians and sympathizers have held up posters from Chibok to...
Nigeria defended its response to the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by the terror group Boko Haram, even as details emerged Tuesday about a second mass...
Nigerian police offered a $300,000 reward on Wednesday to anyone who can give credible information leading to the rescue of the nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by...
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped eight girls from a village near one of their strongholds in northeastern Nigeria overnight, police and residents said on Tuesday. The...
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered top security officials to do everything possible to secure the release of the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by suspected...
Nigeria says it is prepared to host the World Economic Forum on Africa in May, despite growing insecurity, as the threat posed by extreme Islamist group,...
Conflict in northeast Nigeria appears to be escalating with nearly 100 people killed and three abducted in separate attacks over the weekend. Two vehicles exploded Saturday...
The ethnic and religious profiling of the Muslims community in Nigeria is similar to the tensions that precipitated the West African country’s three year civil war...
A Muslim religious leader, who openly criticized Boko Haram, and a Christian preacher have been killed in northern Nigeria in separate attacks whom many blame on...
Fearing attacks by the al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist militant group Boko Haram over Christmas, Nigerian police said on Sunday they had ordered extra patrols, surveillance and covert...
(Reuters) – Suspected Islamist militants have stormed a college in northeastern Nigeria and shot dead around 40 male students, some of them while they slept early...
(Reuters) – The leader of militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, may have died of gunshot wounds some weeks after a clash with soldiers, the...
(Reuters) – Nigeria lifted a mobile phone blackout in the Islamist militant disturbed area of Maiduguri on Friday, saying there were signs of improving security after...
Nigeria has formally declared the Boko Haram Islamist sect and Jama’atu Ansaru, its suspected offshoot, “terrorist” groups and issued a law to ban them, a presidential...
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a “state of emergency” in three states menaced by al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group Boko Haram, saying the level of violence called for...
(Reuters) – A joint assault involving forces from Nigeria, Chad and Niger was assembled after intelligence that Islamist militants Boko Haram had moved into Baga, a...
Nigeria has formed a panel that will create an amnesty program for the al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram extremists to quell a bloody terrorist campaign of bombings and...
(Reuters) – A purported commander of Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram declared a unilateral ceasefire on Monday, raising fresh questions about possible rifts within the secretive...
(Reuters) – A purported senior member of Islamist militant group Boko Haram has distributed a letter requesting talks with the government, a day after a double...
AP – At least 11 people were killed and about 30 injured when twin car bombs hit a Protestant church in a major military establishment in...
A suicide bomber rammed an SUV loaded with explosives into a Catholic church holding Mass on Sunday in northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and...
Nigeria’s military arrested a member of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram at the home of a prominent senator, an official said late Friday, adding weight...
A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church conducting Mass in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing two people and wounding another 45 in a region under...
Soldiers manning a checkpoint in northern Nigeria shot to death two ranking members of a radical Islamist sect responsible for hundreds of killings this year alone,...
Security officials in Nigeria have discovered a bomb-making factory on Saturday in Kano, a northern city that has been plagued by the Boko-Haram Islamist insurgency. The...
Gunmen have opened fire on an evangelical church during a service in Northern Nigeria, killing at least 19 people in the latest such attack in the...
Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday dismissed as “blackmail” a call on him by the suspected leader of Islamist group Boko Haram to resign and convert...
Gunmen killed two policemen guarding a church, snatched their rifles and then opened fire on the congregation from inside and out on Sunday, killing 17 people...
Multiple clashes between security forces and suspected members of a radical Islamist sect (Boko Haram) in northern Nigeria have left four policemen, four civilians and 19...
Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan has requested and accepted the resignations of the Defence Minister, Haliru Bello and the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi. Gen. Azazi...
Nigeria troops have arrested a suspect in the Christmas Day bombings that killed at least 44 people, state television reported, as Washington put three Boko Haram...
The Nigerian Red Cross says at least 25 people have died after a radical Islamist sect launched multiple attacks in the northeastern city of Damaturu. Nigerian...
Suicide bombers belonging to the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram, killed 21 people in attacks on three churches in Nigeria during Sunday services, exacerbating religious tensions...
A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives Sunday outside a church in central Nigeria as gunmen attacked another church in the nation’s northeast, killing at least...
Two motorcycle-riding suicide bombers (suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect) drove into a convoy carrying a top police official in northeast Nigeria on...
A suicide bomber and a man armed with explosives attacked two Nigerian newspaper offices on Thursday, killing seven people and wounding at least 26. The radical...
Nigeria’s military says five suspected members of a radical Islamist sect were killed in an explosion that struck a small town in the country’s restive northeast....
Gunmen suspected of being members of a radical Islamist sect have killed at least four people, including a 6-year-old girl — in recent attacks in Nigeria’s...
A spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram has ruled out further talks with Nigeria’s government after preliminary, indirect contacts aimed at ending scores of deadly attacks....
(Reuters) – Nigeria’s government has in the last week held its first indirect peace talks with Islamist sect Boko Haram, meeting mediators to discuss a possible...
A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church Sunday in the middle of Mass, killing at least 10 people in the latest violence targeting a church...
(Reuters) – Nigerian authorities have detained five Islamist militants suspected of involvement in kidnapping two Westerners killed during a failed British-Nigerian rescue operation, security officials said...
Two bombs exploded in Nigeria’s restive north on Tuesday, killing one policeman in the city of Kaduna, hit hard by a wave of attacks claimed by...
The alleged mastermind of a radical Islamist sect’s Christmas Day church bombing fled across Nigeria after escaping police custody and hid for about a month before...
The purported spokesman for a radical Islamist sect responsible for hundreds of killings in recent weeks in Nigeria has been arrested, an official with the country’s...
(Reuters) – Suspected militants from the Boko Haram Islamist sect have killed six people in shootings in Nigeria’s remote northeastern Borno state in the past two...
Envoys of Nigeria’s president are in negotiations with elements of the Islamist insurgency behind an onslaught of attacks that has destroyed government buildings and killed hundreds...
Nigeria has arrested 200 people, mostly Chadian “mercenaries,” after last week’s attacks in the north, a police source said Thursday, as pressure mounts on the security...
Nigeria President., Goodluck Jonathan. PHOTO/File (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has fired the national chief of police and his six deputies, the presidency said on...
A coordinated attack by a radical Islamist sect in north Nigeria’s largest city killed at least 143 people, a hospital official said Saturday, representing the extremist...
Nigeria’s easygoing president Goodluck Jonathan (pictured), made a rare display of emotion when he addressed a private meeting on an arcane-sounding policy that would become one...
The protest first drew Nigerians who live hand-to-trash, scavenging through mountains of garbage to make a living. Now, long lines of cars and expensive motorcycles are...
Nigeria President., Goodluck Jonathan. PHOTO/File (Reuters) – President Goodluck Jonathan pleaded with Nigerians on Saturday to support the removal of fuel subsidies and pledged to cut...
A radical Muslim sect attacked a church worship service in Nigeria’s northeast during assaults that killed at least 15 people, authorities said Saturday, as Christians vowed...
Gunmen attacked a church in northeast Nigeria during a prayer service Thursday night, killing at least eight people and wounding others in an assault that occurred...
(Reuters) – President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Saturday in parts of Nigeria plagued by a violent Islamist insurgency, and ordered shut the...
A blast has rocked an area near a mosque in the restive north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, with witnesses reporting four deaths. In a BBC interview,...
Attackers threw homemade explosives inside an Islamic school in a predominantly Christian city where some 50 children had gathered for an Arabic class, wounding six pupils...
(Reuters) – Nigeria lacks competent leaders to tackle its security problems, a former military ruler said on Monday, following Christmas Day bomb attacks on churches by...
A look at recent major attacks in Nigeria attributed to the radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram: December 25: The sect claims responsibility for...
Fighting between a radical Muslim sect and paramilitary forces in Nigeria has killed at least 61 people over several days of violence in the nation’s northeast...
Witnesses and authorities say at least four people died in an apparent attack on a northeast Nigeria city that saw churches and businesses burned to the...
Powerful politicians helped form a radical Muslim sect responsible for hundreds of killings this year in Nigeria, authorities allege, but now may have lost control of...
Nigeria faces a shapeless, shifting threat from a radical Muslim sect that has killed more than 100 people in recent days. While the country boasts one...
By the time U.S. military forces left Somalia in 1994 after entering the lawless nation more than a year earlier to stop a famine, 44 Army...
One more staff member has died nearly two months after a car bombing hit the U.N.’s headquarters in Nigeria, bringing the death toll to 24, a...
Authorities say members of a radical Muslim sect attacked a bank in northeast Nigeria, killing one police officer and stealing an undisclosed sum of money. Borno...
Nigeria has marked 51 years of independence in a low-key ceremony, prompted by security fears that followed a series of deadly blasts across Africa’s most populous...
Nigerian officials have seized a sizable amount of explosives hidden inside a shipping container from China at one of the West African nation’s major ports, an...
Nigerian authorities are still hunting for the alleged mastermind of last month’s deadly U.N. headquarters bombing. They said Sunday that a 25 million naira ($160,000) reward...
A relative of the slain leader of a radical Muslim sect in Nigeria was shot dead Saturday, only two days after taking part in peace talks...
A former Nigerian president has urged relatives of a slain radical Muslim sect leader to halt the group’s increasingly bloody attacks against the government, meeting attendees...
ABUJA, Nigeria — Eight suspected members of a radical Muslim sect were charged Tuesday with taking part in bombings and attacks around Nigeria’s capital that killed...
Jos rocked by explosions at packed eatery in the city centre, according to witnesses.
LAGOS, Nigeria — After a Nigerian attempted to blow up a U.S. jetliner and a homegrown terror group bombed and killed at will, Nigeria has passed...
ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria detained and released several radical Muslims suspected of being terrorists in 2007 — including a man who officials now say helped organize...
A Nigerian militant group has claimed responsibility after a car loaded with explosives rammed into the United Nations' building in the capital, killing about 20, a...
KANO, Nigeria — Gunmen attacked two separate police stations across northern Nigeria, killing four police officers and two civilians in one attack while bombing a station...
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Authorities in Nigeria say a radical Muslim sect operating in the northeast has shot dead another prominent cleric from the region, the latest...
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Authorities say two suspected members of a radical Muslim sect in northeastern Nigeria shot and killed a senior prison official and a school...
President Goodluck Jonathan tasks committee to carry out negotiations with Islamist group and report back by mid-August.
