Nigeria

US strikes Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria

The United States carried out a strike against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria at the request of Nigeria's government, President Donald Trump and the U.S. military said on Thursday,…

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Nigeria’s Tinubu declares security emergency, orders mass recruitment of police and army

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered the army and police to recruit thousands of additional personnel to tackle worsening armed violence across the…

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Trump asks Pentagon to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria

The United States is considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel the Nigerian government to better protect Christian communities and…

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Nicki Minaj claims Christians persecuted in Nigeria at UN

Rapper Nicki Minaj threw her support behind US President Donald Trump's claims that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria, despite the West African country and international experts refuting the claims…

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Trump threatens US military action in Nigeria over treatment of Christians

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible "fast" military action in Nigeria if the West African nation fails to crack down on…

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Facebook removes 63,000 accounts in Nigeria over ‘sextortion’ scams

Meta Platforms said on Wednesday it had removed about 63,000 Facebook accounts in Nigeria that attempted to engage in financial sexual extortion scams mostly aimed at adult men in the…

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Nigeria’s new national anthem sparks criticism

Nigeria adopted a new national anthem after lawmakers passed a law that replaced the current one with a version dropped nearly a half-century ago, sparking widespread criticism about how the…

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Gunmen kidnap 227 pupils from school in Nigeria

By Garba Muhammad and Hamza Ibrahim KADUNA, Nigeria, (Reuters) - Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped more than 200 school pupils in the northern town of Kuriga on Thursday, a teacher, local…

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At least 113 killed in attacks in central Nigeria -local official

The death toll in weekend attacks in the central Nigerian state of Plateau has risen to 113, a local official said on Monday, in a region where clashes between herders…

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Niger soldiers say President Bazoum’s government has been removed

NIAMEY (Reuters) -Niger President Mohamed Bazoum has been removed from power, according to a group of soldiers who appeared on the West African nation's national television late on Wednesday, hours…

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Chinese navy makes rare foray into West Africa with Nigeria visit

BEIJING, July 3 (Reuters) - A naval fleet of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) led by the destroyer Nanning arrived in Nigeria on Sunday, in a rare visit by the…

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Bombing of herders highlights air attacks by Nigerian military

The only thing Ibrahim Muazu remembers is “hearing a noise from the sky.”“After that,” the 27-year-old Nigerian herder told Reuters, “I woke up lying in my own blood. There were…

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What to expect from Nigeria’s new president Bola Tinubu

By MacDonald Dzirutwe LAGOS, May 29 (Reuters) - Nigeria's new president Bola Tinubu faces a litany of problems, including widespread violence, double-digit inflation and industrial-scale oil theft. His victory is…

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Tinubu sworn in as Nigeria’s president

Tinubu succeeds former military leader Buhari Nigeria divided after disputed election Africa's biggest economy faces headwinds Insecurity spread under Buhari By Felix Onuah and MacDonald Dzirutwe ABUJA, May 29 (Reuters)…

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Over 50,000 Christians killed in Nigeria by Islamist extremists

Over 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since the outbreak of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in 2009, a newly-released report published by a Nigerian non-governmental organization has revealed.…

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Gunmen kidnap 80, including children, in northwest Nigeria

By Ardo Hazzad BAUCHI, Nigeria, April 8 (Reuters) - Gunmen abducted at least 80 people, mostly women and children, in Nigeria's Zamfara state, a hotspot for kidnappings for ransom by…

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Nigerian court extends old banknotes to Dec 31 amid cash shortage

By Camillus Eboh ABUJA, (Reuters) - Nigeria's Supreme Court this week ordered the central bank to extend until Dec. 31 the use of old banknotes, whose withdrawal from circulation became…

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Bola Tinubu: Who is Nigeria’s new president-elect?

By Tim Cocks Tinubu ran for outgoing president Buhari's party He won praise for improving dysfunctional Lagos Critics say he doles out plum jobs to loyalists Nigeria faces litany of…

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Tinubu ahead in Nigeria election as opposition parties reject vote

ABUJA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Nigeria's ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu was ahead in the vote count after Saturday's presidential poll, a Reuters tally of provisional results in 15 of 36 states…

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Nigerians wait to finish voting in some places as election count underway

By Tife Owolabi YENAGOA, Nigeria, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Nigerians gathered to vote on Sunday in a few parts of the country where technical and other glitches prevented a national election from…

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Nigeria election 2023: what you need to know and what’s at stake

LAGOS (Reuters) - Voters in Africa's biggest economy and most populous nation head to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president and lawmakers, in what is set to…

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Financial crime watchdog adds South Africa, Nigeria to “grey list”

PARIS/JOHANNESBURG, Feb 24 (Reuters) - International financial crime watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday said it was adding South Africa and Nigeria to its so-called "grey list"…

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Nigeria’s plan to ditch old banknotes

By MacDonald Dzirutwe LAGOS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained the government, through the central bank, from ending the legal tender status of old banknotes on…

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Nigerian senator and family on trial in UK over organ harvesting plot

A wealthy Nigerian politician and his family plotted to bring a street trader from Nigeria to Britain and pay him a few thousand pounds to donate his kidney for a…

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Nigerian flights disrupted by striking ground staff

LAGOS, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Airlines in Nigeria said on Monday flights were being disrupted after ground staff began an indefinite strike to demand higher pay. Air Peace, which has…

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Catholic priest burned to death, another shot in north Nigeria

(Reuters) - Gunmen burned a Catholic priest to death and shot and injured his colleague in northwest Nigeria on Sunday, police said, the latest violence raising concerns about security ahead…

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U.S. authorises departure of non-emergency staff from Nigeria over possible terrorist attack

LAGOS (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Tuesday authorised the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families from Nigeria due to a heightened risk of terrorist attacks…

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Kidnapped Nigerian nuns released

Four religious sisters who were kidnapped while on their way to Mass Aug. 21 have been released, according to their order. Sisters Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu and Benita…

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Gunmen in Nigeria kidnap four Catholic nuns on highway

LAGOS, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Gunmen abducted four Catholic nuns on a highway in Nigeria's oil-producing Imo state in the southeast, a local convent said on Monday, in the latest…

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Kidnapped Nigerian Catholic priest found dead, another escapes

LAGOS, July 19 (Reuters) - A Nigerian Catholic priest abducted last week was found murdered while his colleague managed to escaped from his captors in the northern state of Kaduna,…

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OPEC’s Secretary-General Barkindo dies

ABUJA, July 6 (Reuters) - OPEC's Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo has died, Mele Kyari, the chief executive of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp said on Wednesday. Barkindo, who was 63 years old, was due to…

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Catholic priest abducted in Nigeria, diocese says

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) -A Nigerian Catholic priest was abducted from his rectory in the town of Zambina in the northern state of Kaduna in the early hours of Monday, the…

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Police recover explosives following massacre in Nigerian Catholic church

Survivors of an attack by unknown assailants on a Catholic church in Nigeria lay weeping and writhing in pain at a local hospital on Monday after suffering what a doctor described as…

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Gunmen kill worshippers during Catholic church service in Nigeria – media

ABUJA (Reuters) -Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria's Ondo state during mass on Sunday, killing several people, local media reported. A doctor at a hospital in Owo, a…

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Microsoft collaborates with the Nigerian government to accelerate digital transformation in the country

In a joint announcement with the Government of Nigeria, Microsoft has detailed several projects aimed at intensifying the nation’s move to become a more digital economy.After extensive consultations with the…

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Explosion at illegal oil refining depot in Nigeria kills over 100

YENAGAO, Nigeria, April 23 (Reuters) - An explosion at an illegal oil refining depot in Nigeria's Rivers state killed over 100 people overnight, a local government official and the NGO Youths and…

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About 200 dead in attacks in northwest Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - An estimated 200 people or more have been killed in villages in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara during deadly reprisal attacks by armed bandits following…

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Nigeria working on COVID-19 vaccine

Nigeria is working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a televised interview, as the country battles growing cases of the virus. Health experts say Nigeria needs…

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Nigeria destroys 1 million donated AstraZeneca vaccines with short shelf life

Nigeria destroyed more than a million doses of expired AstraZeneca vaccines in a bid to assure a wary public that they have been taken out of circulation. The destruction came…

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Nigeria plans reciprocal flights ban on four countries over Omicron

Nigeria plans to ban flights from Argentina, Britain, Canada and Saudi Arabia from this week in retaliation for being added to those countries' red lists over the detection of the…

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Up to 1 million COVID vaccines wasted in Nigeria last month

Up to one million COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used, two sources told Reuters, one of the biggest single losses of doses…

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Nigeria plans booster shots after first cases of Omicron variant

Nigeria will start vaccine booster shots from next week for COVID-19, a senior official said, after the country confirmed its first cases of the Omicron variant among two travelers who…

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UPDATED: Nigeria says found Omicron variant from October samples

ABUJA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Nigeria said on Wednesday it had confirmed its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, among them a sample from travellers who came to Nigeria…

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Nigeria unlikely to reach ‘impossible’ 40% Covid vaccine target

It will be “impossible” for Nigeria to meet its target of vaccinating 40% of its population by the end of the year because Covid is not being taken seriously, health…

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Nigeria races to find survivors as 22 die in building collapse

LAGOS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Rescuers in Nigeria on Wednesday raced to find survivors, two days after a high-rise building under construction collapsed and trapped scores of people in the…

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Nigeria to launch digital currency on Monday, central bank says

ABUJA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Nigeria will on Monday launch a digital currency, the eNaira, the central bank said, months after it barred banks and financial institutions from dealing in…

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World Championship bronze medallist Tirop found stabbed to death

(Reuters) - Kenyan distance runner Agnes Tirop, a two-times World Championship bronze medallist, was found stabbed to death at her home, Athletics Kenya said on Wednesday. The 25-year-old represented Kenya…

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Nigeria orders civil servants to show COVID-19 vaccination or negative test from December 1

Nigeria will require civil servants to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test for the disease to gain access to their offices from the beginning of December,…

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Boko Haram moves into north-central Nigeria in apparent expansion – officials

Boko Haram insurgents have taken over multiple communities in Nigeria's north-central Niger state, offering villagers money and incorporating them in their ranks to fight the government, a local government official…

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One million Nigerian children to miss school due to mass kidnappings, UNICEF says

At least one million Nigerian children could miss school this year as the new term begins amid a rise in mass school kidnappings and insecurity, the United Nations children's agency…

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Nigeria signs military cooperation agreement with Russia

Nigeria and Russia have signed a military cooperation deal providing a legal framework for the supply of equipment and the training of troops, the Nigerian embassy in Moscow said. President…

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Desperate Nigerians sell homes and land to free kidnapped children

TEGINA, Nigeria, Aug 24 (Reuters) - After armed men snatched seven of Abubakar Adam's 11 children in northwestern Nigeria, he sold his car and a parcel of land and cleaned…

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Chibok schoolgirl freed in Nigeria seven years after abduction

One abducted girl from the Nigerian town of Chibok has been freed and reunited with her parents seven years after Boko Haram militants kidnapped her and more than 200 of…

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Pandemic disruptions push millions of Nigerians into hunger

Shehu Ismaila Gbadebo has worked as a barber for two decades. The money he made at his rented stall in a bustling suburb of Nigeria's megacity, Lagos, used to be…

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Nigeria’s Lagos state faces “potential third wave” of COVID-19

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…

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Over 120 students missing after Nigeria school raid- church official

About 125 students were still missing on Wednesday but 28 others had been re-united with their families after an attack by armed men on a boarding school in Nigeria's Kaduna…

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Gunmen kidnap staff and baby from northwest Nigerian hospital

Gunmen kidnapped up to eight people, including the one-year-old child of a nurse, from a hospital's staff residential quarters in northwest Nigeria, while assailants simultaneously attacked a nearby police station,…

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