Nigeria

LAGOS, July 12 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Lagos state faces a "potential third wave" of coronovirus infections, its governor said in a statement.

He warned of fines or even imprisonment for those who break rules to contain the virus and said Lagos state would step up its vaccination campaign, following the detection of the highly infectious Delta variant in an incoming traveller.

BAUCHI, Nigeria, July 5 (Reuters) - About 150 students are missing after armed men raided a boarding school in Nigeria's Kaduna state, a parent and an administrator said on Monday, and police said they were in hot pursuit alongside military personnel.

The attack is the 10th mass school kidnapping since December in northwest Nigeria, which authorities have attributed to armed bandits seeking ransom payments.

Police said gunmen shooting wildly attacked the Bethel Baptist High School in the south of Kaduna state overnight.

LAGOS, July 3 (Xinhua) -- At least seven persons were killed in separate gunmen attacks on communities in northwestern Nigeria's Kaduna state, an official said on Saturday.

Gunmen suspected to be bandits have attacked Chikun, Kajuru and Giwa areas of Kaduna since Friday, killing civilians, said Samuel Aruwan, the state's commissioner for internal security and home affairs.

"We have lost about seven citizens," Aruwan told reporters in Kajuru area during a visit to affected communities on Saturday.

ABUJA, June 24 (Reuters) - Northeast Nigeria's conflict with Islamist insurgencies had killed nearly 350,000 people as of the end of 2020, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Thursday.

The toll, given by the U.N. agency in a new study on the war and its impact on livelihoods, is 10 times higher than previous estimates of about 35,000 based only on those killed in fighting in Nigeria since the conflict's start 12 years ago.

"The full human cost of the war is much greater," the UNDP said in a report, released with Nigeria's Ministry of Finance.

ABUJA, June 20 (NNN-Xinhua) — Nigerian police killed 14 gunmen after repelling their attempted attack on a police station in central Nigeria’s Benue state on Sunday morning, police said.

Catherine Anene, a spokesperson for Benue police, said in a statement a group of gunmen numbering about 50 launched an attack in early hours of Sunday on a police station at Katsina-Ala town of the state, in a bid to free some suspected bandits who were arrested by police on Saturday and detained in the station.

LAGOS, Jun 21 (NNN-NAN) – Nigerian troops rescued four more victims, abducted by gunmen from a secondary school last week, in the north-western state of Kebbi.

The abductees were rescued on Saturday, at the Makuku area of the state, during search and rescue operations, with one of the gunmen killed, said Onyema Nwachukwu, a spokesperson for the Nigerian army, in a statement released yesterday.

LAGOS, June 17 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a police officer and kidnapped at least 80 students and five teachers from a school in the Nigerian state of Kebbi, police, residents and a teacher said.

The attack is the third mass kidnapping in three weeks in northwest Nigeria, which have authorities have attributed to armed bandits seeking ransom payments.

Usman Aliyu, a teacher at the school, said the gunmen took more than 80 students, most of them girls.

(Reuters) --- Lagos-based entrepreneur Ogechi Egemonu was selling more than 500,000 naira ($1,219) worth of watches, shoes and handbags on Twitter per week.

Now, with the site suspended by the Nigerian government, Egemonu does not know how she will cope.

"Social media is where I eat," she told Reuters. "I depend on social media for my livelihood."

Scores of small and medium-sized businesses across Africa's most populous nation - and largest economy - are reeling from the indefinite suspension of the social media site.

(Reuters) --- President Muhammadu Buhari told young Nigerians on Thursday that they must "behave" in order to attract jobs and investment.

Buhari, speaking on Arise TV, said security was essential in order for investment in the country, where unemployment rose to 33.3% in the fourth quarter.

ABUJA, June 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Nigerian government has announced the indefinite suspension of microblogging platform, Twitter.

Africa’s most populous nation said the move was connected to “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

The move comes days after the company deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari over violation of platform rules.