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Maiduguri Flood: WFP, Borno Government Provide Hot Meals to Displaced Persons

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Maiduguri Flood: WFP, Borno Government Provide Hot Meals to Displaced Persons

By: Michael Mike

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has set up in Borno State providing emergency food assistance to communities affected by massive flooding that has displaced over 230,000 people in the northeast Nigeria state.

A statement on Thursday said WFP’s is working to provide hot meals to 50,000 of the worst affected children, women, and men who have lost their homes in what has been described as the worst flooding in northeast Nigeria in 30 years.
 
The devastating floods occurred as a dam near Maiduguri collapsed due to torrential rains, forcing the river water to overrun 50 percent of Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State. The State Government has issued evacuation orders to residents in the affected areas, while appealing for humanitarian support.
 

WFP’s Country Director and Representative., David Stevenson said: “Maiduguri is facing a crisis within a crisis, with conflict, record food price inflation and now floods displacing hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom were already cut off from their farms,”
 
According to the statement, WFP has established food kitchens in three camps – Teachers’ Village, Asheikh, and Yerwa – to provide meals to flood-hit people over the next two weeks. The kitchens provide nutritious cooked rice and beans to affected families. Specialized nutritious foods are also being provided to children, pregnant women and nursing mothers to cover their nutritional needs. However, additional assistance will be critical to restore stability and support recovery.
 
The statement said that WFP swiftly dispatched UN humanitarian air service (UNHAS) helicopters to conduct an interagency aerial assessment of damage in Maiduguri and its surroundings. The rapid assessment showed that the immediate needs of the affected people include food, shelter, and clean water.
 

Stevenson speaking on the intervention, added that: “What we have seen from the air is just terrible. Thousands of people are on the streets or staying with friends and relatives. The city has been hit by massive destruction to properties and livelihoods. We need urgent global support to save lives,”
 
The WFP, said in Nigeria, over 800,000 people in 29 states have been affected by floods as of September 2024, and over 550,000 hectares of cropland have been flooded. Some 32 million people in the country are already facing acute hunger, according to the March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis.
 
The statement revealed that in order to ensure continued support to flood-affected people in Maiduguri and other food insecure people in the northeast for the next six months, WFP urgently requires US$147.9 million.

Maiduguri Flood: WFP, Borno Government Provide Hot Meals to Displaced Persons

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DSS-led joint operation crushes ESN strongholds, kills top kingpins in Imo

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DSS-led joint operation crushes ESN strongholds, kills top kingpins in Imo

By: Zagazola Makama

A wave of coordinated security offensives in Imo State has barbecued the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the militant wing of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), with the killing of key kingpins and the dislodgement of notorious terrorist camps in forested parts of Njaba and Isu Local Government Areas.

Zagazola Makama understand that The offensive, which began on June 29, was spearheaded by the Department of State Services (DSS) in close collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, special forces, and local tactical units.

It was launched after the arrest and detailed confessions of two ESN commanders Uchenna Opara, popularly known as Ntanta Miri, and Ozioma Ihedoro, a.k.a OZ, both natives of Umuaka community in Njaba LGA.

Acting on actionable intelligence, the joint team raided and obliterated several terrorist enclaves, including Umuele Umuaka, Ezioha, and Ugbele Umuaka, known safe havens of the separatist group.

A fierce gun battle ensued as operatives stormed the camps. Three ESN fighters were neutralised during the confrontation, while others reportedly escaped with bullet wounds. Their bodies were later recovered along the Ugbele Umuaka axis.

What followed was a methodical clearance operation targeting the B44 camp cluster, long considered one of ESN’s strategic base networks. The camps, codenamed B44 Tangle 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9, were all successfully dislodged by the joint force.

A caterpillar operator working with the team was tragically killed in the line of duty when the group came under sudden fire while approaching the B44 main camp. He was rushed to the Federal University Teaching Hospital (FUTH), Owerri, but later confirmed dead by a medical officer on duty.

Items recovered from the operation included:
One AK-47 rifle, 15 rounds of live ammunition, pump-action shotgun, two locally made IEDs, one human skull and a Biafran flag

In addition, two suspected ESN members were arrested during the combing of nearby bush paths. The duo Emeka Ogene Sabinus of Ezi Isu in Isu LGA and Nnabuike Emmanuel of Ohofia Oduma in Aninri LGA, Enugu State were said to bear tribal incisions associated with the proscribed militia.

The collapse of the B44 cluster was significant in the counterinsurgency drive in the South-East, where pockets of armed resistance have posed growing threats to residents, security personnel, and national assets.

“The terrain is difficult, but our operatives are relentless,” a senior official close to the operation said. “We are targeting leadership figures, supply chains, and safe havens.”

Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing to apprehend fleeing fighters, with mop-up operations continuing in adjoining forest belts across Orlu, Njaba, and Isu corridors.

The Imo offensive adds to a growing list of successes by joint intelligence-led operations aimed at stabilising regions grappling with armed separatist violence, kidnappings, and the weaponisation of local grievances.

DSS-led joint operation crushes ESN strongholds, kills top kingpins in Imo

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FCT police arrest three wanted kidnappers linked to killings, mass abductions

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FCT police arrest three wanted kidnappers linked to killings, mass abductions

By: Zagazola Makama

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has arrested three most-wanted bandits and kidnappers operating across Abuja and neighbouring parts of Kaduna State.

According to a police sources, the arrests were carried out on June 29 between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., by operatives of the Scorpion Squad led by ACP Victor O. Godfrey, following actionable and digital reconstructive intelligence.

The sources told Zagazola Makama that the suspects were identified as: Abdulkadir Abubakar, a native of Mpape, FCT, Mohammed Tasiu Sani, of Rigina, Kaduna State, Suleiman Jibrin, 27, of Sabon-Gayan, Kaduna State.

The three suspects, all Fulani by tribe, have been on the command’s most-wanted list for
their roles in multiple kidnapping and banditry operations, particularly in Jere, Kajuru, the FCT and its environs.

During interrogation, the suspects confessed to abducting victims and moving them to detention camps in Kachia and Rigina forests in Kaduna State. Some victims, they admitted, were held for months, while others were killed at will.

The sources revealed that one of the suspects, Abdulkadir Abubakar, provided disturbing details of internal executions within the gang, in which some members were killed by their own leaders over mistrust and betrayal.

An operational motorcycle, popularly referred to by locals as the “Boko Haram Motorcycle,” was recovered during the raid. The suspects are currently assisting operatives in ongoing efforts to recover arms and ammunition, and to track down other gang members still at large.

FCT police arrest three wanted kidnappers linked to killings, mass abductions

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Young farm labourer shot dead while fleeing Amotekun in Osun

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Young farm labourer shot dead while fleeing Amotekun in Osun

By: Zagazola Makama

A 20-year-old farm labourer identified as Solomon (surname yet unknown) has been found dead with gunshot wounds after he was allegedly shot by a member of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, along the Ilesa/Iperindo Road in Osun State.

The incident, which occurred on June 29, followed the reported confrontation between a local security operative and a group of five farm labourers on their way to a farmland.

According to Temidayo Olowookere, the employer of the deceased, the labourers were accosted around 11:00 a.m. by an Amotekun operative, one Ajayi Ibukun, who accused them of extorting money from passersby. Two members of the group were apprehended, while the remaining three fled into the bush.

Olowookere said the detained workers were later released to him in the afternoon. However, later in the evening, when two of the three fleeing labourers returned, Solomon remained missing.

A search party was immediately organised. His body was discovered in the bush with gunshot wounds on his back, raising suspicions that he may have been shot during the initial confrontation.

His remains were evacuated to Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, where he was confirmed dead and deposited at the morgue for autopsy.

Police say efforts are currently underway to trace and apprehend the security operative allegedly involved in the shooting, while the community continues to call for justice.

Young farm labourer shot dead while fleeing Amotekun in Osun

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